In the spring of 1759 Bougainville came back with the little which was precious to those who had nothing, as Montcalm said. But the returning soldier brought word of the great fleet which England was fitting out to attack Quebec, and that fifty thousand men would constitute the army with which Canada was to be invaded. Vaudreuil could hardly count twenty thousand men to meet it, and to do this he had to reckon the militia, coureurs de bois, and Indians. If the worst came, Montcalm thought he could concentrate what force he had, and retreat by way of the Ohio to the Mississippi, and hold out in Louisiana.[1163]
NEW FORT AT PITTSBURGH.
From A set of plans and forts in America, reduced from actual surveys, 1763, published in London.
On the English side matters looked encouraging. Amherst, a sure and safe soldier, without any dash, was made commander-in-chief, and was to direct in person the advance over the old route from Lake George,[1164] while at the same time he took measures to reëstablish Oswego and reinforce Duquesne. To the latter point General Stanwix was sent, where in the course of the summer he laid out and strengthened a new fort, called after the prime minister. Fort Pitt was not, however, wholly secure till success had followed Brigadier Prideaux’s expedition to Niagara, the reduction of which was also a part of Amherst’s plans. Prideaux seated Haldimand at Oswego, and made good its communications with the Mohawk Valley. It was an open challenge to the French, and after Prideaux had proceeded to Niagara, Saint-Lac de la Corne came down with a force from the head of the St. Lawrence rapids to attack Haldimand, but the English cannon sent the French scampering to their boats, and the danger was over.
FORT NIAGARA.
From A set of plans and forts in America, reduced from actual surveys, 1763, published in London. This same plan is given in Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii, p. 868, and in Hough’s edition of Pouchot’s History of the Late War, ii. p. 153. There is another plan on a large scale, showing less of the neighboring ground, in the latter book, i. p. 161, and in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. p. 976.
A plan of Fort Niagara, 1759, is noted among the Brit. Mus. MSS., no. 15,535; and in the King’s Maps, ii. 92, are plans of the fort dated 1766, 1768, 1769, 1773, and a view of the falls in 1765.
O’Callaghan, in the Doc. Hist. of New York, ii. 793, gives a map of the Niagara River, 1759, showing the landing place of Prideaux and the path around the cataract. For the track of the Niagara portage, see O. H. Marshall’s “Niagara Frontier,” in Buffalo Hist. Soc. Publ., ii. 412-13.