le capitulation, favorable to its
inhabitants, the colony being at its last gasp.

M. de Levis left two thousand men at Jacques Cartier, with orders to
retire slowly according as the English advanced from Quebec, and to
avoid an engagement with them, without losing sight of them. This
retarded their march, and put off the evil hour as long as possible.
He went with the rest of his army to Montreal. As there was no
provision in that town to be able to keep his army assembled, he was
obliged to disperse them, sending them back to their winter quarters,
where each inhabitant was obliged to board a soldier at a very low
rate, which was paid by the munitionary general.

M. de Bougainville was sent in the spring to command at Isle aux Noix,
with eleven hundred men, of which number were the Regiment of Guienne
and Berry. This island is situated in the River Chambly (Richelieu),
about eight leagues in a straight line from Montreal, and two miles
distant from Lake Champlain.

M. Bourlamarque, an officer of great knowledge in all the branches of
his profession, decided upon that position for his retreat the year
before, when he evacuated Ticonderoga, having been forced to abandon
to the English that lake. He fortified this island as well as was
possible in a sandy ground, in order to serve as a frontier on that
side of Canada, and hinder the English from coming down by the River
Richelieu into the River St. Lawrence, by which means in a very short
time they might have been in possession of Montreal and Three
Rivers,--a much easier way than by Lake Ontario, which is much longer
and full of chicares (?) by the rapids in the St. Lawrence, and
prolong their operations;--a very great advantage in a country where
there are violent frosts during seven months of the year. This island
is about twelve hundred fathoms long, and from a hundred to two
hundred broad. The entrenchments traced and conducted by M.
Bourlamarque are regular, and a proof of his superior knowledge in
fortifications. He barred the two branches of the river which formed
the island with staccados, or chains of big trees, linked to one
another at their ends by strong rings and circles of iron. This
prevented the English boats from Lake Champlain to pass the island in
the night, to reach Montreal. But for the staccados the island must
have been taken by them before they could proceed any further.

Some Iroquois, of the Five Nations, informed M. de Vaudreuil at
Montre