said to be strengthening the fortifications and garrison at St. John's, and preparing to launch vessels on the lake wherewith to regain command of it, and retake the captured posts. Powerful reinforcements were coming from England and elsewhere. Guy Johnson was holding councils with the fierce Cayugas and Senecas, and stirring up the Six Nations to hostility. On the other hand, Canada was full of religious and political dissensions. The late exploits of the Americans on Lake Champlain, had produced a favorable effect on the Canadians, who would flock to the patriot standard if unfurled among them by an imposing force. Now was the time to strike a blow to paralyze all hostility from this quarter; now, while Carleton's regular force was weak, and before the arrival of additional troops. Influenced by these considerations, Congress now determined to extend the Revolution into Canada, but it was an enterprise too important to be intrusted to any but discreet hands. General Schuyler, then in New York, was accordingly ordered, on the 27th June, to proceed to Ticonderoga, and, "should he find it practicable and not disagreeable to the Canadians, immediately to take possession of St. John's and Montreal, and pursue such other measures in Canada as might have a tendency to promote the peace and security of these provinces."

It behooved General Schuyler to be on the alert, lest the enterprise should be snatched from his hands. Ethan Allen and Seth Warner were at Bennington, among the

Green Mountains. Enlistments were going on, but too slow for Allen's impatience, who had his old hankering for a partisan foray. In a letter to Governor Trumbull (July 12th), he writes, "Were it not that the grand Continental Congress had totally incorporated the Green Mountain Boys into a battalion under certain regulations and command, I would forthwith advance them into Canada and invest Montreal, exclusive of any help from the colonies; though under present circumstances I would not, for my right arm, act without or contrary to order. If my fond zeal for reducing the king's fortresses and destroying or imprisoning his troops in Canada be the result of enthu siasm, I hope and expect the wisdom of the continent will treat it as such; and on the other hand, if it proceed from sound policy, that the plan will be adopted."

Schuyler arrived at Ticonderoga on the 18th of July. A letter to Washington, to whom, as commander-in-chief, he made constant reports, gives a striking picture of a frontier post in those crude days of the Revolution.

"You will expect that I should say something about this place and the troops here. Not one earthly thing for offense or defense has been done; the commanding officer has no orders; he only came to reinforce the garrison, and he expected the general. About ten last night I arrived at the landing-place, at the north end of Lake George; a post occupied by a captain and one hundred men. A sentinel,

* Force's Am. Archives, ii. 1649.

on being informed that I was in the boat, quitted his post to go and awaken the guard, consisting of three men, in which he had no success. I walked up and came to another, a sergeant's guard. Here the sentinel challenged, but suffered me to come up to him; the whole guard, like the first, in the soundest sleep. With a penknife only I could have cut off both guards, and then have set fire to the block-house, destroyed the stores, and starved the people here. At this post I had pointedly recommended vigilance and care, as all the stores from Lake George must necessarily be landed here. But I hope to get the better of this inattention. The officers and men are all good-looking people, and decent in their deportment, and I really believe will make good soldiers as soon as I can get the better of this nonchalance of theirs. Bravery, I believe, they are far from wanting."

Colonel Hinman, it will be recollected, was in temporary command at Ticonderoga, if that could be called a command where none seemed to obey. The garrison was about twelve hundred strong: the greater part Connecticut men brought by himself; some were New York troops, and some few Green Mountain Boys. Schuyler, on taking command, despatched a confidential agent into Canada, Major John Brown, an American, who resided at the Sorel River, and was popular among the Canadians. He was to collect information as to the British forces and fortifications, and to ascertain how an invasion and an attack on St. John's would be considered by the people

SCHUYLER'S GRIEVANCES.

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of the province: in the meantime, Schuyler set diligently to work to build boats and prepare for the enterprise, should it ultimately be ordered by Congress.

Schuyler was an authoritative man, and inherited from his Dutch ancestry a great love of order; he was excessively annoyed, therefore, by the confusion and negligence prevalent around him, and the difficulties and delays thereby occasioned. He chafed in spirit at the disre gard of discipline among his yeoman soldiery, and their opposition to all system and regularity. This was especially the case with the troops from Connecticut, officered generally by their own neighbors and familiar companions, and unwilling to acknowledge the authority of a commander from a different province. He poured out his complaints in a friendly letter to Washington; the latter consoled him by stating his own troubles and grievances in the camp at Cambridge, and the spirit with which he coped with them. "From my own experience," writes he (July 28), "I can easily judge of your difficulties in introducing order and discipline into troops, who have, from their infancy, imbibed ideas of the most contrary kind. It would be far beyond the compass of a letter, for me to describe the situation of things here [at Cambridge], on my arrival. Perhaps you will only be able to judge of it, from my assuring you, that mine must be a portrait at full length of what you have had in miniature. Confusion and discord reigned in every department, which, in a little time, must have ended either

We

in the separation of the army, or fatal contests with one another. The better genius of America has prevailed, and, most happily, the ministerial troops have not availed themselves of these advantages, till, I trust, the opportunity is in a great measure passed over. mend every day, and, I flatter myself, that in a little time we shall work up these raw materials into a good manufacture. I must recommend to you, what I endeavor to practice myself, patience and perseverance."

Schuyler took the friendly admonition in the spirit in which it was given. "I can easily conceive," writes he (Aug. 6th), "that my difficulties are only a faint semblance of yours. Yes, my general, I will strive to copy your bright example, and patiently and steadily persevere in that line which only can promise the wished-for reformation."

He had calculated on being joined by this time by the regiment of Green Mountain Boys which Ethan Allen and Seth Warner had undertaken to raise in the New Hampshire Grants. Unfortunately, a quarrel had arisen between those brothers in arms, which filled the Green Mountains with discord and party feuds. The election of officers took place on the 27th of July. It was made by committees from the different townships. Ethan Allen was entirely passed by, and Seth Warner nominated as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. Allen was thunderstruck at finding himself thus suddenly dismounted. His patriotism and love of adventure, how