The facts above given concerning Mr. Doolittle are drawn from the excellent History of Northfield by Temple and Sheldon, and the introduction to the Particular History of the Five Years’ French and Indian War, by S. G. Drake.
[248] French writers always call him Rigaud, to distinguish him from his brother, Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, afterwards governor of Canada, who is usually mentioned as Vaudreuil.
[249] Journal de la Campagne de Rigaud de Vaudreuil en 1746 ... présenté à Monseigneur le Comte de Maurepas, Ministre et Secrétaire d’État (written by Rigaud).
[250] “Le 19, ayant fait passer l’armée en Revue qui se trouva de 700 hommes, scavoir 500 françois environ et 200 quelques sauvages.”—Journal de Rigaud.
[251] See N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 103, 132.
[252] Ibid., x. 35.
[253] These Dutch settlements on the Hoosac were made under what was called the “Hoosac Patent,” granted by Governor Dongan of New York in 1688. The settlements were not begun till nearly forty years after the grant was made. For evidence on this point I am indebted to Professor A. L. Perry, of Williams College.
[254] “Mes enfans, leur dis-je, le temps approche où il faut faire d’autre viande que le porc frais; au reste, nous la mangerons tous ensemble; ce mot les flatta dans la crainte qu’ils avoient qu’après la prise du fort nous ne nous réservâmes tous les prisonniers.”—Journal de Rigaud.
[255] The term “blockhouse” was loosely used, and was even sometimes applied to an entire fort when constructed of hewn logs, and not of palisades. The true blockhouse of the New England frontier was a solid wooden structure about twenty feet high, with a projecting upper story and loopholes above and below.
[256] See the notice of Williams in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 47. He was killed in the bloody skirmish that preceded the Battle of Lake George in 1755. “Montcalm and Wolfe,” chap. ix.