1898.] HAYS — THE SIEGE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 1-13 



Dr. Hays read a paper entitled "A Journal Kept During 

 the Siege of Fort William Henry, August, 1757." 



A paper by Mr. K. H. Mathews was read on " The 

 Divisions of Australian Tribes." 



A JOURNAL KEPT DURING THE SIEGE OF FORT 

 WILLIAM HENRY, AUGUST, 1757. 



BY I. MINIS HATS, M. D. 



(^Read April 15, 1898.) 



One hundred and fifty years ago the French claimed all of North 

 America from the Atlantic coast range to the Rocky mountains and 

 from Mexico and the Gulf to the northernmost limit, and they had 

 planted flourishing colonies at the mouth of the St. Lawrence and 

 of the Mississippi to control these great waterways, with their 

 tributaries, to the North and West. These vast possessions, which 

 they called New France, had a white population of about 80,000 

 souls. 



The thirteen British colonies were scattered along the Atlantic 

 seaboard from Maine to Georgia, with a white population of about 

 1,160,000, who were continually extending further and further 

 inland and encroaching upon the undefined area beyond the moun- 

 tains claimed by both French and English. To maintain their 

 territorial claims by force of arms, with the aid of their numerous 

 Indian allies, and to keep in check the British colonists with their 

 vastly larger population, and to drive back those who were already 

 intruding into the broad valley of the Ohio, the French estab- 

 lished a chain of forts and trading posts from Canada to Louisiana. 

 They recognized that the fork of the Ohio and Niagara were the 

 gateways to the great West and they therefore strongly entrenched 

 themselves at these points. Lake Champlain and Lake George on the 

 direct line between Montreal and New York, controlling the gate- 

 way to the Hudson, were also important strategic points for the 

 mastery of which both French and English stubbornly contended. 

 In September, 1755, Gen. Johnson defeated the French under 

 Dieskau at the battle of Lake George, and in the following spring 



