the St. Lawrence with its turbid flood. * We were most of the time in full view of the river, and had a fine opportunity to observe the people, dwellings, and agricultural operations along ihe line of the canal.
We passed the Cedars Rapids, twenty-four miles from La Chine, at about three o'clock. These rapids vary in intricacy, depth, and rapidity of current, and are nine miles long, running at the rate of nine to twelve miles an hour. In some places the rocks are covered with only a few feet of water, and the descent is at all times rather perilous. Small islands, covered with trees and shrubbery, accelerate the speed of the waters. These rapids derive their name from the village of Cedars, on the north side of the St. Lawrence, in Vaudreuil district. The sketch was made from the steam-boat, in the canal, while stopping for wood and water at St. Timothy.
The Cedars occupy quite a conspicuous place in the annals of the Northern campaign of 1775—76. Three hundred and ninety Americans, under Colonel Bedell, of the New Hampshire line, occupied a small fortress there in the spring of 1776. Early in May, Captain Foster, of the British army, with a detachment of forty regulars, one hundred Canadians, and five hundred Indians, under the celebrated Brant, or Thayendanegea, descended from the British station at the mouth of the Oswegatchie (now Ogdensburgh), and approached the fort. Bedell, under pretense of going to Montreal for re-enforcements, left the garrison in command of Major Butterfield, an officer quite as void of courage as his superior. Both have been branded by cotemporary writers as cowards, and their conduct on this occasion confirms the opinion. ** Butterfield did not even make a fair show of resistance, but quietly
* For several miles below the confluence of the two rivers the muddy water of the Ottawa and the clear stream of the St. Lawrence are seen contending for the mastery. The line of derbarkation may be traced by the color even below the St. Ann's Rapids.
** Washington, writing to General Sehuyler under date of June 10th, 1776, said, "If the accounts of Colonel Bedell and Major Butterfield's conduct be true, they have certainly acted a part deserving the most exemplary notice. I hope you will take proper measures, and have good courts appointed to bring them, and every other officer that has been or shall be guilty of misconduct, to trial, that they may be punished according to their offenses. Our misfortunes at the Cedars were occasioned, as it is said, entirely by their base and cowardly behavior, and can not be ascribed to any other cause." A late writer for one of our weekly papers, in giving a "true account of the Northern campaign," is particularly laudatory of the bravery of Colonel Bedell at St. John's and Chambly. He seems to regard all the official and other records of the events there as quite erroneous, and "sets the matter right" by quoting a letter written by Bedell to the Committee of Safety of New Hampshire. He calls the style of the letter "Caesarean," and in the free use of the pronoun I there is certainly a similarity to Caesar's Veni, Vidi, Vici. Taking the colonel's letter as verity, we must suppose that, in the capture of Forts Chambly and St. John's, Montgomery and all other officers were mere puppets in his hands. In a postscript he says, "This moment I have got possession of St. John's; and the post being obliged to set off, have not time to copy the articles of capitulation; and to-morrow shall march for Montreal, leaving a detachment to keep the fort." Other portions of his letter plainly indicate that he wished to impress those who sent him to the field with the idea that he was the master-spirit there. I should not have noticed this matter so minutely but for the disposition of a class of writers at present to make prominent the exploits of subalterns, upon ex-parte evidence, by hiding the brilliant deeds of those to whom compatriots and cotemporary historians have awarded the highest meed of praise. It is an easy, and the only, way to make a sapling conspicuous, to fell the noble trees that surround and overshadow it.
Massacre of Sherburne's Corps.—Attempt of Arnold to release the Prisoners.—Menaces of the Indians.—Letter from Sherburne
May 15, 1775 surrendered the fort and garrison as soon as Foster arrived. Meanwhile, Major Henry Sherburne was sent by Arnold from Montreal, with one hundred and forty men, to re-enforce the, garrison, but Bedell, "valuing safety more than fidelity and honor," * refused to accompany him. Sherburne arrived upon the shore of Lake St. Louis on the day of the surrender, and, having crossed the day after, left forty men as guards, and, with one hundred, proceeded toward the fort, unconscious of the disgraceful conduct of Butterfield. About five in the evening the whole force of Foster's Canadians and Indians burst from an ambuscade and fell upon the republicans. They made a brave defense for nearly an hour and a half, when the Indians, in number greatly superior, formed a girdle around them, and at a given signal rushed upon the devoted little band and disarmed them. Infuriated by the obstinate resistance of the Americans, the Indians butchered about twenty of them with knives and tomahawks, and, stripping the remainder almost naked, drove them in triumph to the fort. ** The loss of the Americans, in the action and by massacre, was fifty-eight; the enemy lost twenty-two, among whom was a brave of the Senecas.