Here he maintained an unequal fight on the 11th, and
hence he escaped on the following night by boldly
slipping through the line of the British fleet. On the
13th he was overtaken by Carleton near the Island of
the Four Winds. Some of the boats struck; some
were run ashore and burned; only five escaped.
Arnold and his crews behaved with the greatest courage
throughout; but courage alone could not compensate
for want of seamanship and for inferior numbers. Some
of the Germans took part in the naval engagement of
the 11th, and one of the batteaux on which were the
Hanau artillery was sunk by the American fire. The
soldiers and sailors that manned it, however, were saved
by another boat.[1]
Presently, after this naval battle, Carleton occupied Crown Point without opposition. Scouting parties were pushed out into the neighborhood of Ticonderoga. Riedesel was so near that fortress on the 22d or 23d of October as to see it plainly from a hill. He thought it might easily be taken by the British army in Canada, were the whole of that army to be brought forward, yet he reckoned the numbers of the effective garrison decidedly too high. Sir Guy Carleton chose to think it too late to undertake further conquests that autumn. He even abandoned Crown Point and retired to the northern end of the lake.
The troops were ordered into winter quarters; the Germans along the Richelieu River and in the neighborhood of Lake St. Pierre. Riedesel's headquarters were at Trois Rivières. Pains were taken that the
- ↑ For a graphic account of the fight of October 11th, see the MS. “Tagebuch vom Capit. Pausch.”
