George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[259] the heart, teaching affection for nature. As yet, not

chap. XI.} 1757.

a hamlet rose on its margin; not a straggler had thatched a log-hut in its neighborhood; only at its head, near the centre of a wider opening between its mountains, Fort William Henry stood on its bank, almost on a level with the lake. Lofty hills overhung and commanded the wild scene, but heavy artillery had not as yet accompanied war-parties into the wilderness.

Some of the Six Nations preserved their neutrality, but the Oneidas danced the war-dance with Vaudreuil. ‘We will try the hatchet of our father on the English, to see if it cuts well,’ said the Senecas of Niagara; and when Johnson complained of depredations on his cattle, ‘You begin crying quite early,’ they answered; ‘you will soon see other things.’¹

‘The English have built a fort on the lands of Onontio,’ spoke Vaudreuil, governor of New France, to a congress at Montreal of the warriors of three and-thirty nations, who had come together, some from the rivers of Maine and Acadia, some from the wilderness of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. ‘I am ordered,’ he continued, ‘to destroy it. Go, witness what I shall do, that, when you return to your mats, you may recount what you have seen.’ They took his belt of wampum, and answered,—‘Father, we are come to do your will.’ Day after day, at Montreal, Montcalm nursed their enthusiasm by singing the war-song with the several tribes. They clung to him with affection, and would march to battle only with him. They rallied at Fort St. John, on the