"Il s'est elevé au rang des marins les plus célébres de la France.
"Bougainville est le premier Français qui ait fait le tour du monde. L'histoire de sa vie etonne par la variété des occupations aux quelles il s'est livre et par la multitude des évènements qui la remplissent.
"Dans ses études à l'université il manifesta de bonne heure une rapidité de conception et une finesse de tact qui le firent réussir en même tems dans les genres les plus opposés. Il se faisoit également remarquer par ses connoissances dans les langues anciennes, et par ses progrès dans les sciences exactes. Il marquoit pour les mathématiques des dispositions peu communes. Il fut reçu membre de la Société Royale de Londres pendant son court séjour dans cette capitale en caractère de sécrétaire de l'ambassade, en 1754."—Biographie Universelle, art. Bougainville.
CHAPTER VIII.
We must now return to the proceedings in the British camp. In the stern climate of Northern America the season for military action was very limited. From the breaking up of the ice on the lakes and rivers, and the melting of the forest snows, till they again hindered or forbid the movement of troops, but little interval was left for the march of an invading army. To pursue with effect the great plan of the campaign, it was necessary to take the field with the earliest signs of returning spring. General Amherst, therefore, left New York on the 28th of April, 1759, and arrived at Albany on the 3d of May: there he busied himself in assembling and organizing his army for the field, preparing boats for transporting the troops, artillery, and stores, and instructing the raw Provincial levies in the rudiments of military discipline. Before this time, he had dispatched the active partisan officer, Major Rogers, with 350 men, from Fort Edward, to feel the strength of the enemy at Ticonderoga and Crown Point: they succeeded in surprising a French working party close to the disastrous scene of the previous year's defeat, killed some men, and took several prisoners, with but little loss to themselves. The intense severity of the weather, however, made the victors pay dearly for their success: two thirds of the detachment were frost-bitten in the feet, some of them to such an extent that their more fortunate companions were obliged to carry them back to the British camp.
The whole month of May was occupied in preparation for the advance. The Provincial regiments, as fast as they arrived at head-quarters, were encamped, and instructed with all diligence. The regular troops were pushed on by the road to Fort Edward, and posted at a place fifty-six miles from Albany, while a detachment under Major West constructed a small stockaded fort between Fort Edward and the lake. On the 3d of June the near divisions of the army were ordered to take the field. That same day the general left Albany, and encamped at Port Edward on the 6th.
During this time of military inaction but of tedious toil, an alarming spirit of desertion broke out among the British troops. A large proportion of even the regulars were young and untrained men, unaccustomed to the dull restraint of discipline, and as yet almost unconscious of that professional pride which, to a certain extent, may practically supply the place of a higher principle in the soldier's mind. The Provincials were chiefly new levies, and not always very zealous recruits. The duties of the camp were harassing, the labors on the works were wearying; before them lay a dreary and dangerous march, behind them the pleasant villages and well-stored homesteads of New England. The temptation was strong, the principle of resistance weak. Appeals to patriotism, stringent orders, and moderate punishments proved ineffectual; still by twos and threes, and at length by scores, Amherst's army melted away into the neighboring forests. The last example became necessary; a general court-martial sentenced two deserters, Dunwood and Ward, to death, and they were immediately executed. Despite this terrible warning, despite all promises and threats, the vile treason still prevailed, especially among the Provincials; two other traitors, Rogers and Harris, were also apprehended, convicted, and shot.
An insidious attempt to examine the British strength, under the pretext of a flag of truce from M. de Bourlemaque, was frustrated by Amherst's vigilance; he would not suffer the French officers to enter the camp, but examined the dispatches, and returned answer while they remained at a suitable distance. The general's active care could not protect the frontier settlers from the atrocious cruelties of the French and Indians; although scouting parties were constantly moving through the forests, the subtle and ferocious enemy eluded their vigilance, and scalped men, women, and children without mercy. These outrages gave rise to the following order by Amherst, which he found means to forward to the Governor of Canada and his general:
"No scouting party, or others in the army, are to scalp women or children belonging to the enemy. They are, if possible, to take them prisoners, but not to injure them on any account, the general being determined, should the enemy continue to murder and scalp women and children, who are the subjects of the King of Great Britain, to revenge it by the death of two men of the enemy for every woman or child murdered by them."