nd inferior in nautical qualities--speed, handiness, and
seaworthiness--to the galleys, which probably were keeled. The latter
certainly carried sails, and may have been capable of beating to
windward. Arnold preferred them, and stopped the building of gondolas.
"The galleys," he wrote, "are quick moving, which will give us a
great advantage in the open lake." The complements of the galleys were
eighty men, of the gondolas forty-five; from which, and from their
batteries, it may be inferred that the latter were between one third
and one half the size of the former. The armaments of the two were
alike in character, but those of the gondolas much lighter. American
accounts agree with Captain Douglas's report of one galley captured
by the British. In the bows, an 18 and a 12-pounder; in the stern, two
9's; in broadside, from four to six 6's. There is in this a somewhat
droll reminder of the disputed merits of bow, stern, and broadside
fire, in a modern iron-clad; and the practical conclusion is much the
same. The gondolas had one 12-pounder and two 6's. All the vessels of
both parties carried a number of swivel guns.

Amid the many difficulties which lack of resources imposed upon all
American undertakings, Arnold succeeded in getting afloat with three
schooners, a sloop, and five gondolas, on the 20th of August. He
cruised at the upper end of Champlain till the 1st of September, when
he moved rapidly north, and on the 3d anchored in the lower narrows,
twenty-five miles above St. John's, stretching his line from shore
to shore. Scouts had kept him informed of the progress of the British
naval preparations, so that he knew that there was no immediate
danger; while an advanced position, maintained with a bold front,
would certainly prevent reconnoissances by water, and possibly might
impose somewhat upon the enemy. The latter, however, erected batteries
on each side of the anchorage, compelling Arnold to fall back to the
broader lake. He then had soundings taken about Valcour Island, and
between it and the western shore; that being the position in which he
intended to make a stand. He retired thither on the 23rd of September.

The British on their side had contended with no less obstacles than
their adversaries, though of a somewhat different character. To get
carpenters and materials to build, and seamen to man, were the
chief difficulties of the Americans, the necessities of the seaboard
conceding but partially the demand