A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1746.] A PREMATURE ATTACK. 241kind was attempted. The assailants spread to rightand left,squatted behind stumps, and opened a distantand harmless fire,yellsand howlings.accompanied with unearthlyFort Massachusetts was a wooden enclosure formed,like the fort at Number Four, of beams laid oneupon another, and interlocked at the angles. Thiswooden wall seems tohave rested, not immediatelyupon the ground, but upon a foundation of stone,designated by Mr. Norton, the chaplain, as the" underpinning," — a name usually given in New Englandto foundations of the kind. At the northwestcorner was a blockhouse,^ crowned with the watchtower,the sight of which had prematurely kindledthe martial fire of the Canadians and Indians. Thiswooden structure, at the apex of the blockhouse,served as a lookout, and also supplied means ofthrowing water to extinguish fire-arrows shot uponthe roof. There were other buildings in the enclosure,especially a large log-house on the south side,which seems to have overlooked the outer wall, andwas no doubt loop-holed for musketry. On the eastside there was a well, furnished probably with one ofthose long well-sweeps universal in primitive NewEngland. The garrison, when complete, consistedof fifty-one men under Captain Ephraim Williams,1 The term " blockhouse " was loosely used, and was even sometimesapplied to an entire fort when constructed of hewn logs, andnot of palisades. The true blockhouse of the New England frontierwas a solid wooden structure about twenty feet high, with a projectingupper story and loopholes above and below.VOL. II. — 16