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

[299] origin, that had ever been assembled in Amer-

chap. XIII.} 1758

ica, struck their tents at daybreak, and in nine hundred small boats and one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, with artillery mounted on rafts, embarked on Lake George; the fleet, bright with banners, and cheered by martial music, moved in procession down the beautiful lake, beaming with hope and pride, though with no witness but the wilderness. They passed over the broader expanse of waters to the first narrows; they came where the mountains, then mantled with forests, step down to the water's edge; and in the richest hues of evening light, they halted at Sabbath-day Point. Long afterwards, Stark remembered, that on that night Howe, reclining in his tent on a bear-skin, and bent on winning a hero's name, questioned him closely as to the position of Ticonderoga and the fittest mode of conducting the attack.

On the promontory, where the lake, through an outlet or river less than four miles long, falling in that distance about one hundred and fifty-seven feet, enters Champlain, the French had placed Fort Carillon, having that lake on its east, and on the south and southwest the bay formed by the junction. On the north, wet meadows obstructed access; so that the only approach by land was from the northwest. On that side, about a half-mile in front of the fort, Montcalm marked out his lines, which began near the meadows and followed the sinuosities of the ground till they approached the outlet. This the road from Lake George to Ticonderoga crossed twice by bridges, between which the path was as a cord to the large arc made by the course of the water. Near the bridge at the lower falls, less than two miles from the fort, the French had built saw-mills, on ground which