of
accomplishing his design, and was obliged to desist. Returning to the
same bay where he had been sheltered, he landed the troops, and began
his march for Crown-Point, where he arrived on the twenty-first day of
October. Having secured a superiority on the lake, he now employed all
his attention in rearing the new fortress at Crown-Point, together
with three small outforts for its better defence; in opening roads of
communication with Ticonderoga, and the governments of Massachusetts and
New Hampshire; and in making dispositions for the winter-quarters of his
troops, so as to protect the country from the inroads of the enemy.

NIAGARA REDUCED.

During this whole summer he received not the least intelligence of Mr.
Wolfe's operations, except a few hints in some letters relating to the
exchange of prisoners, that came from the French general Montcalm, who
gave him to understand that Mr. Wolfe had landed in the neighbourhood of
Quebec, and seemed determined to undertake the siege of that city; that
he had honoured him (the French general) with several notes, sometimes
couched in a soothing strain, sometimes filled with threats; that the
French army intended to give him battle, and a few days would determine
the fate of Quebec. Though Mr. Amherst was ignorant of the proceedings
of the Quebec squadron, his communication continued open with the forces
which undertook the siege of Niagara; and he received an account of
their success before he had quitted the lines of Ticonderoga. General
Prideaux, with his body of troops, reinforced by the Indian auxiliaries
under sir William Johnston, advanced to the cataract of Niagara, without
being exposed to the least inconvenience on his march; and investing the
French fortress about the middle of July, carried on his approaches with
great vigour till the twentieth day of that month, when, visiting the
trenches, he was unfortunately slain by the bursting of a cohorn.
Mr. Amherst was no sooner informed of his disaster, than he detached
brigadier-general Gage from Ticonderoga, to assume the command of that
army. In the meantime it devolved on sir William Johnston, who happily
prosecuted the plan of his predecessor with all the success that could
have been desired. The enemy, alarmed with the apprehension of losing
a place of such importance, resolved to exert their endeavours for its
relief. They assembled a body of regular troops, amounting to twelve
hundred men, drawn from Detro