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��Robert Rogers, the Ranger.
��head of about one hundred and eighty- men, and near the foot of it had a des- perate battle with a superior body of French and Indians. He reported on his return one hundred and fourteen of his party as killed or missing. Why he was not annihilated is a wonder. General Montcalm, in a letter dated less than a month after the encounter, says : " Our Indians would give no quarter ; they have brought back one hundred and forty-six scalps." For his intrepidity on this occasion he was presented by General Abercrombie with the commission of Major of Rangers, before alluded to.
The adroitness with which Rogers sometimes extricated himself from ex- treme peril is illustrated by his conduct on one occasion, when pursued by an overwhelming number of savages up the mountain, near the south end of Lake George, which now bears his name. Upon reaching the summit he advanced to the very verge of the precipice, on the east side, which descends 550 feet to the lake. Having here reversed his snow shoes he fled down the side opposite to that by which he had come up. Arriving soon after the Indians, upon seeing the tracks of two men, apparently, instead of one, and Rogers far below upon the ice, hastening towards Fort Edward, con- cluded that he had slid down the preci- pice aided by the Great Spirit, and that farther pursuit was vain.
Mr. Pitt proposed in the campaign of 1759 the entire conquest of Canada. Bold as was the undertaking it was sub- stantially accomplished. Ticonderoga and Crown Point were abandoned in July, Fort Niagara capitulated the same month, and Quebec was surrendered in September.
Their violation of a flag of truce in this last month now called attention to
��the St. Francis Indians, who had been for a century the terror of the New England frontiers, swooping down upon them when least expected, burning their buildings, destroying their cat- tle, mercilessly murdering their men, women, and children, or cruelly hurry- ing them away into captivity. The time had now come for returning these bloody visits. The proffering of this delicate attention was assigned by Major General Amherst to Rogers. In his order, dated September 13, he says : " You are this night to set out with the detachment, as ordered yesterday, viz., of 200 men, which you will take under your command and proceed to Misis- quey Bay, from whence you will march and attack the enemy's settlements on the south side of the river St. Law- rence in such a manner as you shall judge most effectual to disgrace the enemy, and for the success and honour of his majesty's arms.
" Take your revenge, but don't forget that tho' those villains have dastardly and promiscuously murdered the women and children of all ages, it is my orders that no women or children are killed or hurt."
In pursuance of these orders Major Rogers started the same day at evening. On the tenth day after he reached Mis- sisquoi Bay. On the twenty-third, with one hundred and forty-two Rangers, he came, without being discovered, to the environs of the village of St. Francis. The Indians had a dance the evening following his arrival and slept heavily afterwards. The next morning, half an hour before sunrise, Rogers and his men fell upon them on all sides, and in a few minutes, ere they had time to arouse themselves and seize their arms, the warriors of that village were dead, A few, attempting to escape by the
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