considerably at Putnam's hands, the French and
Indians, as may be imagined, were constantly on the watch to take their
arch enemy at a disadvantage. Not many weeks after the unsuccessful
attack upon Ticonderoga--to which allusion will presently be made--it
appeared as though the savages were about to accomplish their purpose,
for they surprised him, together with a small body of his men, on the
left bank of the Hudson, with the river between them and the fort. The
party of Indians was too strong to be successfully resisted, it was
impossible to cross the river without being shot, while below lay a
quarter-mile stretch of rapids through which a boat had never been sent
without disaster. But, with his customary promptitude, Putnam ordered
his men into their single boat, himself taking the helm, and pushed off
just as the savages came within sight of the shore. The disappointed and
infuriated Indians sent a shower of balls after the boatmen, but none
took effect; though the fugitives seemed doomed to certain death by
drowning in the foaming rapids of the river. Calmly taking the helm,
Putnam steered the boat through the roaring rapids, avoiding the
half-hidden rocks and protruding ledges, and, while the Indians looked
on in amazement, in a few seconds brought his charge into smooth water
at the foot of the falls. Throughout all this turmoil and danger, he
maintained his self-possession, his customary placidity of countenance
even; and it is said that after that the Indians looked upon him as more
than human and under the special protection of the Great Spirit.

It was the misfortune of the Provincials to become the sport of fate in
the shape of inefficient commanders from England, who led them, not only
to defeat, but to death by wholesale, in their endeavors to carry out
plans insufficiently matured and schemes which would not have received
the sanction of military experts at all. One of the most disastrous of
defeats was encountered at Ticonderoga, against which General
Abercrombie led a force of fifteen thousand men, consisting of six
thousand regulars and nine thousand Provincials. Crown Point and
Ticonderoga were still the British objectives, along with other posts of
greater or less strength, such as Louisburg, Frontenac, and Fort
Duquesne. All these last were taken before Crown Point and Ticonderoga
yielded; but it was fated that Ticonderoga, which had been seized and
fortified by the French in 1755, and which, toget