his government in difguft. From this expe- CHAP. dition, and the profperous fituation of affairs XXXI. at the end of the laft feafon, the higheft expecta- 1777. tions were formed a body of feven thoufand one hundred and feventy-three veteran troops, exclufive of a corps of artillery, abundantly fupplied, and led by felect and experienced officers, was fent from England; and vaft quantities of military ftores were furnished for the ufe of Canadians who fhould enter the British fervice.

employ

SEVERAL nations of favages, on the back fet- Observatlements and borders of the Weftern lakes, join- tions on the ed this army, a tranfaction which was feverely ment of cenfured in print, and in the British fenate. In favages. the declaration of independence the American congrefs made fimilar complaints, but without fufficient reafon. The employment of fubfidiary forces in any war, foreign or civil, is a practice in which all nations concur, and againft which, in general, no arguments are advanced, except fuch as arife from prejudice and party heat. The Indians had been engaged in former wars by the Americans, the French and the Englith, without exception or reproach. But in the prefent cafe, it was faid that the Americans being our brethren, and the Indians untutored and remorfelefs favages, they ought not to have been retained as the allies of Britain. From reiterated wrongs, from cruelties and injuries, which degrade thofe who practife them far more than merely following the impulfes of uncultivated nature, thefe favages were become the inveterate and implacable foes of the American colonifis. The earlieft accounts from the American fettlers were replete with narratives of wars between them and the natives, with accounts of efforts to cajole them into fubjection, and of maffacres which

LL 3

1777.

CHAP. which enfued from their endeavours to maintain XXXI, undisturbed poffeffion of their own territories The force and purfe of Great Britain had often been exerted in defending the colonifts against thefe favages; and the Americans, with wicked policy, called in, for their fubjugation, an ally more effective and dreadful than the mufket or the fword-the small-pox; with which contagion they contrived periodically to infect these ignorant people. A state of hoftility was therefore natural between the Americans and the favages, and no more was neceffary than for Great Britain to withdraw her forces from protecting the colonies, to incline them to take up arms. Their ferocity in victory was more than counterbalanced by their unfkilfulness in conflict; and perhaps was grossly exaggerated, in order to furnish popular topics of declamation, and give foundation for the accufation urged against the king in the declaration of congrefs.

IN this mode of confidering the fubject, perhaps the ufe of fuch auxiliaries might be juftified in the abftract; but in fact the Americans had no right to complain, for they first affociated the favages with them in attacking the English. None of these people were engaged in the king's fervice, till the action at the Cedars in 1776; whereas in the campaign of the preceding year, a body of Indians was brought down against his majefty's troops in New England, and the Northern provinces. The committee of Carolina, early in the fame year, fent a deputation to the Cherokees, not merely to engage them to take up arms, but alfo to invite the affaflination of an offenfive

Tucker's Tract, v. Dedication, p. vi.

XXXI.

1777.

individual. Early in 1776, an attack was alfo CHAP. made on the Ifle of Tybee by Indians, and Americans difguifed like them, who with their habit adopted their manners, and fcalped feveral mariners and a fhip's carpenter. In fact, it appears from incontrovertible evidence, that from the first moment of refolving on hoftilities, the Americans were anxious to employ the Indians on their fide; that they maintained an active intercourfe with them, by means of miffionaries, and when they found at last, that the English, having more refources, and a greater facility in making prefents, could more effectually attach the Indians to their caufe, they reluctantly gave up the attempt, and contented themselves with requiring only their friendfhip and neutrality. '

prepara

As it was Burgoyne's intereft to keep his Burregular troops as much as poffible together, the goyne's inhabitants of Canada were obliged to furnish tions. men fufficient to occupy the woods on the frontiers, prevent defertion, procure intelligence, and intercept all communication between the enemy and the malecontents in the province. They were alfo required to provide men for the completion of the fortifications at Sorel, St. John's, and Ifle aux Noix, and horfes for the carriage of provifions, artillery, and ftores, and were employed in repairing the roads which were deftroyed by thefe preparations.

HAVING Completed thefe arrangements, 16th June. Burgoyne departed from St. John's, preceded He arrives by a naval force, under commodore Lutwych, Point.

Answer to the declaration of the American congrefs, p. 108.

1

Washington's Letters, vol. ii. p. 48. 274. See alfo a very candid account of all the tranfactions between the infurgents, the British, and the favages, in Ramfay's Hiftory of the American Revolution, vol. ii, c. xviii.

at Crown

CHAP. which the enemy could not oppofe; and the XXXI. troops being landed without refiftance, were encamped at and near Crown Point.

1777

War feast.

Proclama

tion.

IN this pofition, the general gave a war feaft to the Indians, accompanied with an ex29th June. hortation to abftain from cruelty, and iffued a proclamation, fomewhat pompous and florid, but in its general tenor fufficiently moderate. It displayed the motives by which Great Britain was impelled to take up arms, defcribed in animated terms the tyranny, cruelty, and hypocrify with which, under pretence of fecuring liberty, and promoting the caufe of religion, the congrefs oppreffed the people of America. It promifed encouragement and employment to thofe who would arm in the British caufe, protection to the domeftic, induftrious, infirm, and even to the timid, provided they would remain at home, and offer no impediment to the progrefs or fupplies of the army; and engaged that payment in folid coin, at an equitable rate, fhould be made for all provifions brought to the camp. The health, difcipline, and valour of the troops were defcanted on in boaftful phrafe; the celerity and certainty of deftruction by the Indian forces, were exhibited in a figurative ftyle, analogous to their mode of oratory; and the vengeance of the ftate was denounced againft thofe who, notwithftanding the conciliatory endeavours of the general, fhould ftill continue infected with the frenzy of hoftility. "The meffengers of juftice, and of wrath," he faid, await "them in the field; and devaftation, famine, "and every concomitant horror, that a re"luctant, but indifpenfable profecution of military duty muft occafion, will bar the way to their return." As Burgoyne's force

tr

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1773.

confifted of British and German regiments, CHAP. with light troops, compofed of Indians and XXXI. Canadians, the object of this verbote proclamation was, at once to ftimulate general exertion in a caufe felt only by the British corps as a matter of national intereft, and to alarm the enemy, on account of the probable confeqences of an Indian attack, however reftrained by the general's regulations, and the promises of their chiefs.

tions of

roga.

THE Americans, fince they had obtained Fortifica poffeffion of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Crown had increafed the ftrength of the fortifications, Point and and extended the means of defence by works Ticondeon Mount Independence, which they had united to Ticonderoga by a ftrong bridge of twenty-two funk piers. Had thefe fortifications been fufficiently manned, they could long have withflood all the efforts of the British army; but general St. Clair had only three thoufand four hundred and forty-fix Americans, including nine hundred militia, badly equipped and worfe armed, for the defence of pofitions which required three times that number.

ON his arrival at Crown Point, Burgoyne 30th June. iffued orders to his army, in which he told them They are captured: that the fervices required were critical and confpicuous; occafions might occur, in which nor difficulty, nor labour, nor life, were to be regarded; but the army muft not retreat. His firft object being the capture of Ticonderoga, in a few days he had nearly furrounded the works of that fortrefs, by the German regiments under general Reidefel, and of Mount Independence with the British; while general Philips erected a battery on Sugar Loaf Hill, which in a great degree commanded both, though not nearer than fixteen hundred yards,

The