constantly receiving for breaches of the discipline. I felt that I
could not survive the shame of being trussed up and lashed before men's
eyes, but I did also have a great mind to fight the French which kept me
along. One day came an order to prepare a list of officers and men who
were willing to go scouting and be freed from other duty, and after some
time I got my name put down, for I was thought too young, but I said I
knew the woods, had often been to Andiatirocte (or Lake George as it had
then become the fashion to call it) and they let me go. It was dangerous
work, for reports came every day of how our Rangers suffered up country
at the hands of the cruel savages from Canada, but it is impossible to
play at bowls without meeting some rubs. A party of us proceeded up
river to join Captain Rogers at Fort Edward, and we were put to camp on
an Island. This was in October of the year 1757. We found the Rangers
were rough borderers like ourselvs, mostly Hampshire men well used to
the woods and much accustomed to the Enemy. They dressed in the fashion
of those times in skin and grey duffle hunting frocks, and were well
armed. Rogers himself was a doughty man and had a reputation as a bold
Ranger leader. The men declaired that following him was sore service,
but that he most always met with great success. The Fort was garrissoned
by His Majesty's soldiers, and I did not conceive that they were much
fitted for bush-ranging, which I afterwards found to be the case, but
they would always fight well enough, though often to no good purpose,
which was not their fault so much as the headstrong leadership which
persisted in making them come to close quarters while at a disadvantage.
There were great numbers of pack horses coming and going with stores,
and many officers in gold lace and red coats were riding about directing
here and there. I can remember that I had a great interest in this
concourse of men, for up to that time I had not seen much of the world
outside of the wilderness. There was terror of the Canada indians who
had come down to our borders hunting for scalps--for these were
continually lurking near the cantanements to waylay the unwary. I had
got acquainted with a Hampshire borderer who had passed his life on the
Canada frontier, where he had fought indians and been captured by them.
I had seen much of indians and knew their silent forest habits when
hunting, so that I felt that when they were after human beings