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had kept their treaty; and he reminded them of their
promise to remain quiet upon their mats.
A great war festival was next held, at which were
present all the savages domiciliated near the
French settlements, and all the delegates of their allies who had come down to
Montreal.
In the presence of seven or eight hundred warriors, the war-song was sung, and the hatchet uplifted.
The savages of the remote west were wavering, till twenty Hurons from
Detroit took up the hatchet, and swayed all the rest by their example.
The influence of the Jesuits had never been so manifest: by their power over the natives, an alliance extending to the Chippewas constituted the defence of
Montreal.
Descending to Quebec, Vaudreuil found Abenaki volunteers assembling for his protection.
Measures for resistance had been adopted with hearty earnestness; the fortifications were strengthened; Beauport was garrisoned; and the people were resolute and confiding—even women were ready to labor for the common defence.
Men watched impatiently the approach of the fleet.
Towards the last of August, it was said that peasants
at Matanes had descried ninety or ninety-six vessels with the
English flag.
Yet September came, and still from the heights of
Cape Diamond no eye caught one sail of the expected enemy.
The English squadron, leaving Boston on the thirtieth of July, after loitering near the Bay of Gaspe,
at last began to ascend the
St. Lawrence, while
Sir Hovenden Walker puzzled himself with contriving
how he should secure his vessels during the winter at
Quebec.
Fearing ‘the ice in the river, freezing to the bottom, would bilge them, as much as if they were ’
