ed to Crown Point through the woods, "despite the savages;"
a phrase which concludes this singular aquatic contest with a quaint
touch of local colour.

In three days of fighting and retreating the Americans had lost one
schooner, two galleys, and seven gondolas,--in all, ten vessels out of
fifteen. The killed and wounded amounted to over eighty, twenty odd
of whom were in Arnold's galley. The original force, numbering seven
hundred, had been decimated. Considering its raw material and the
recency of its organisation, words can scarcely exaggerate the
heroism of the resistance, which undoubtedly depended chiefly upon the
personal military qualities of the leader. The British loss in killed
and wounded did not exceed forty.

The little American navy on Champlain was wiped out; but never had any
force, big or small, lived to better purpose or died more gloriously,
for it had saved the Lake for that year. Whatever deductions may be
made for blunders, and for circumstances of every character which made
the British campaign of 1777 abortive and disastrous, thus leading
directly to the American alliance with France in 1778, the delay, with
all that it involved, was obtained by the Lake campaign of 1776. On
October 15th, two days after Arnold's final defeat, Carleton dated
a letter to Douglas from before Crown Point, whence the American
garrison was withdrawn. A week later Riedesel arrived, and wrote that,
"were our whole army here it would be an easy matter to drive the
enemy from their entrenchments," at Ticonderoga, and--as has been
quoted already--four weeks sooner would have insured its fall. It is
but a coincidence that just four weeks had been required to set up the
_Inflexible_ at St. John's; but it typifies the whole story. Save for
Arnold's flotilla, the two British schooners would have settled the
business. "Upon the whole, Sir," wrote Douglas in his final letter
from Quebec before sailing for England, "I scruple not to say, that
had not General Carleton authorized me to take the extraordinary
measure of sending up the _Inflexible_ from Quebec, things could
not this year have been brought to so glorious a conclusion on Lake
Champlain." Douglas further showed the importance attached to this
success by men of that day, by sending a special message to the
British ambassador at Madrid, "presuming that the early knowledge of
this great event in the southern parts of Europe may be of advantage
to His Majesty's service."