ood ready to
attack the English on their retreat to the Richelieu. On the whole,
Schuyler was fortunate to escape as lightly as he did. Forty of his
party were killed in a hot battle, but he made his retreat in good
order after inflicting some losses on the French (August 1, 1691).
Although Schuyler's retreat was skilfully conducted, his original
object had been far more ambitious than to save his men from
extermination. The French missed a chance to injure their foe more
seriously than they had done at Schenectady. At the same time, this
second English invasion was so far from successful that the New France
of Frontenac suffered no further attack from the side of Albany.

While Callieres and Valrennes were repulsing Peter Schuyler from
Laprairie, the French in another part of Frontenac's jurisdiction were
preparing for the offensive. The centre {147} of this activity was the
western part of Acadia--that is, the large and rugged region which is
watered by the Penobscot and the Kennebec. Here dwelt the Abnakis, a
tribe of Algonquin origin, among whom the Jesuits had established a
mission and made many converts. Throughout Acadia the French had
established friendly relations with the Indians, and as the English
settlements began to creep from New Hampshire to the mouth of the
Kennebec, the interval between the rival zones of occupation became so
narrow as to admit of raiding. Phips's capture of Port Royal had
alarmed some of the Abnakis, but most of them held fast to the French
connection and were amenable to presents. It soon proved that all they
needed was leadership, which was amply furnished by the Baron de
Saint-Castin and Father Thury.

Saint-Castin was a very energetic French trader, of noble birth, who
had established himself at Pentegoet on Penobscot Bay--a point which,
after him, is now called Castine. Father Thury was the chief of the
mission priests in the western part of Acadia, but though an
ecclesiastic he seems to have exalted patriotism above religion. That
he did his best to incite his converts against the {148} English is
beyond question. Urged on by him and Saint-Castin, the savages of the
Penobscot and the Kennebec proceeded with enthusiasm to destroy the
English settlements which lay within their reach. In the course of
successive raids which extended from 1692 to 1694 they descended upon
York, Wells, and Oyster Bay, always with the stealth and swiftness
which marked joint operations o