ong, as a matter of course, and, it is gravely related by
his first biographer, he assisted the general at a critical moment and
in a very novel way. Two armed vessels of the enemy were likely to cause
trouble to the British on the St. Lawrence, and Amherst was anxious to
put them out of the way before they could sink his boats. Putnam
proffered his services, declaring he could take the vessels in short
order.

"How?" asked the General, somewhat amused as well as surprised.

"With beetles and wedges, and a boat-load of men," answered "Put." And,
the story goes, he rowed out to the vessels, in the dead of night, drove
wooden wedges in behind their rudders, and left them helpless, for when
the wind came up they would not answer the helm and were driven ashore,
where their crews were easily taken by the English.

CHAPTER IX

A CAMPAIGN IN CUBA

It can not be denied that Israel Putnam was already quite a traveler;
but it must be added that he had so far traveled mainly within a
circumscribed area. Over and over again this faithful soldier had
plodded the trails and military roads, and pushed his way through the
swamps, morasses, forests, of the wilderness region of New York, which
by the end of 1761 he should have known almost as well as the woodland
pastures of his own farm. But he was destined to extend his travels and
make a foreign voyage, still in the service of the King of England, whom
he had served so long and so well.

He was present at the capitulation of Montreal, one September day, 1760,
and had the pleasure of meeting the Indian chief who had taken him
prisoner two years previously. He lived near Montreal, at the Indian
village of Caughnawaga, where he received his former captive with pride,
and was highly delighted to see his old acquaintance, "whom he
entertained in his own well-built stone house with great friendship and
hospitality; while his guest did not discover less satisfaction in an
opportunity of shaking the brave savage by the hand and proffering him
protection in this reverse of his military fortunes."

Returning home at the end of the 1760 campaign, Putnam remained on his
farm all winter, and the next spring set out again for what proved an
uneventful season, with much hard work on fortifications and
entrenchments, but no fighting of account. For, so far as the mainland
of North America was concerned, the long struggle between France and
England was nearly at an end. France had bee