New York shipbuilder. Brown agreed to launch a ship of
twenty-four guns in sixty days. The trees were standing in the forest on
March 2d the keel was laid March 7th, and on April 11th the Saratoga was
launched--forty days after the timbers were green standing trees on the
hills.

Other vessels were begun and pushed as expeditiously. And now
MacDonough's wisdom in choice of the navy yard was seen, for a British
squadron was sent to destroy his infant fleet, or at least sink
stone-boats across the exit so as to bottle it up.

But their attempts were baffled by the batteries which the far-seeing
American had placed at the river's mouth.

The American victory at Chippewa was followed by the defeat at Lundy's
Lane, and on August 25th the city of Washington was captured by the
British and its public buildings destroyed. These calamities, instead of
dampening the spirits of the army, roused the whole nation at last to
a realization of the fact that they were at war. Fresh troops and
plentiful supplies were voted, the deadwood commanders were retired, and
the real men revealed by the two campaigns were given place and power.

At the same time, Great Britain, having crushed Napoleon, was in a
position to greatly reinforce her American army, and troops seasoned in
Continental campaigns were poured into Canada.

All summer Rolf was busied bearing despatches. During the winter he
and Quonab had built a birch canoe on special lines for speed; it would
carry two men but no baggage.

With this he could make fully six miles an hour for a short time, and
average five on smooth water. In this he had crossed and recrossed
Champlain, and paddled its length, till he knew every bay and headland.
The overland way to Sackett's Harbour he had traversed several times;
the trail from Plattsburg to Covington he knew in all weathers, and had
repeatedly covered its sixty miles in less than twenty-four hours on
foot. The route he picked and followed was in later years the line
selected for the military highway between these two camps.

But the chief scene of his activities was the Canadian wilderness at the
north end of Lake Champlain. Chazy, Champlain, Odelltown, La Colle
Mill, Isle au Noix, and Richelieu River he knew intimately and had also
acquired a good deal of French in learning their country.

It was characteristic of General Wilkinson to ignore the scout who knew
and equally characteristic of his successors, Izard and Macomb, to see