THE RISE, PROGRESS, &c. OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. CHAPTER XI. Northern Department.-General Carleton fuperfeded.General Burgoyne vefted with the Command for Operations in Canada.-Ticonderoga abandoned by General St. Clair.-Affair of Fort Stanwix-Of Bennington, and various other important Movements of the two Armies, until the Convention of Saratoga.-General Burgoyne repairs to England on Parole-His Reception there.-Reflections and Observations on the Event of the Northern Campaign. FROM the time that Quebec was invested by Montgomery and Arnold, at the clofe of the year one thousand seven hundred and seventyfive, until the termination of general Burgoyne's campaign, in the autumn of one thoufand feven hundred and feventy-feven, the fucceffes, the expectations, and the disappointments from that quarter, had been continually varying. VOL. II. CHAP. XI. 1777. CHAP. XI. 1777. Sir Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, and who for a number of years had been commander in chief of all the British forces through that province, was an officer of approved fidelity, courage, and ability. He had fuccessfully refifted the ftorm carried into that country by order of congrefs; he had triumphed in the premature fall of the intrepid, but unfortunate Montgomery; he had driven back the impetuous Arnold to the verge of the lakes; he had defeated the operations of general Thomfon, in a bold and fuccefslefs attempt to furprise the British poft at Trois Rivieres: general Thomson was there made a prifoner, with all of his party who escaped the fword. This happened about the time a detachment was marched northward, under the command of general Thomas. He died of the small-pox, as related above, when moft of his army was destroyed by the fword, fickness, or flight. Though general Carleton had occafionally employed fome of the Indian allies of Great Britain, he had by his address kept back the numerous tribes of favages, near and beyond the diftant lakes. He rather chofe to hold them in expectation of being called to action, than to encourage their ferocious inclination for war, which they ever profecute in those horrid forms, that fhock humanity too much for defcription. Whether his checking the barbarity of the favages, or whether his lenity 1777. to the unfortunate Americans that had fallen CHAP. XI. into his hands, operated to his difadvantage, or whether from other political motives, is yet uncertain; however, he was fuperfeded in his military capacity, and the command given to general Burgoyne, who had re-embarked from England early in the fpring, and arrived at Quebec in the month of May, one thousand seven hundred and feventy-feven, with a large and chofen armament. General Carleton felt the affront as a brave officer, conscious of having discharged his trust with a degree of humanity on one fide, and the ftricteft fidelity to his mafter on the other. He immediately requested leave to quit the government, and repair to England. Yet he did not at once defert the service of his king: his influence was too great among the Canadians, and over all the Indian tribes, to hazard his absence at this critical conjuncture. His return to Europe was therefore poftponed: he encouraged the provincials to aid his fucceffes, and exerted himself much more than heretofore, to bring on the innumerable hordes of the wildernefs. In confequence of this, they poured down from the forefts in fuch multitudes, as to awaken apprehenfions in his own breaft of a very disagreeable nature; but he cajoled them to fome terms of restraint; acted for a time in conjunction with Burgoyne, and made his ar rangements in fuch a manner, as greatly to CHAP. XI. 1777. facilitate the operations of the fummer cam paign. General Burgoyne was a gentleman of polite manners, literary abilities, and tried bravery; but haughty in his deportment, fanguine in opinion, and an inveterate foe to America from the beginning of the conteft with Britain: this he had discovered as a member of the house of commons, as well as in the field. On his arri val in Canada he loft no time, but left a fufficient force for the protection of Quebec, and proceeded immediately across the lakes, at the head of eight or ten thousand men, including Canadians, and reached the neighbourhood of Crown Point before the laft of June. There, according to the barbarous fyftem of policy adopted by his employers, though execrated by a minority in parliament, he fummoned the numerous tribes of favages to flaughter and bloodshed. A congrefs of Indians was convened, who met on the western fide of Lake Champlain. He gave them a war-feaft, and though his delicacy might not fuffer him to comply with their ufual cuftom, and taste the goblet of gore by which they bind themselves to every ferocious deed, he made them a fpcech calculated to excite them to plunder and carnage, though it was fpecioufly covered by. fome injunctions of pity towards the aged and infirm, who might experience the wretched 1777. fate of becoming their prisoners. Yet, he fo CHAP. XI. far regarded the laws of humanity, as to advise the favages to tomahawk only fuch as were found in arms for the defence of their country, and gave fome encouragement to their bringing in prisoners alive, instead of exercising that general maffacre ufual in all their conflicts; nor would he promise a reward for the fcalps of those who were killed merely to obtain the bounty. Having thus as he fuppofed, fecured the fidelity of favages, whom no laws of civilization can bind, when in competition with their appetite for revenge and war, he published a pompous and ridiculous proclamation. In this he exhorted the inhabitants of the country, wherever he should march, immediately to fubmit to the clemency of his royal master. To quicken their obedience, he oftentatiously boasted, that "he had but to lift his arm, and "beckon by a stretch thereof," the innumerable hordes of the wilderness, who ftood ready to execute his will, and pour vengeance on any who should yet have the temerity to counteract the authority of the king of England. He concluded his proclamation with thefe memorable threats :-" I trust I shall stand acquitted "in the eyes of God and man, in denouncing "and executing the vengeance of the state against the wilful outcafts: the messengers of "juftice and of wrath await them in the field, |