HISTORY OF VERMONT. 32i 



the five nations, to detach theni from the Eng- 

 lish interest. Quebec was ibrtilicd, and put in- 

 to the best situation that the time v/ould admit, 

 to sustain a siege ; and all the principal posts 

 below the city, and on both sides of the river, 

 were prepared to oppose the landing of the 

 British troops. 



Walker arrived with the fleet in the mouth 

 of the river St. Lawrence, on the fourteenth of 

 August. Fearful of losing sight of his trans- 

 ports, and the wind fresh at the north west, he 

 put into Gaspe bay ; and continued there till 

 the twentieth. On the twenty second, two 

 days after he left the bay, the fleet appeared to 

 be ill great danger ; v^ithout soundings, without 

 sight of land, surrounded with a thick fog, and 

 the wind hi^h at the south east. In this situa- 

 tioji the ships ^vere brought to, with their heads 

 to the southward, in expectation of being driven 

 by the current, into the rnidst of the channel. 

 Instead of this, about midnis:ht, AuQ-ust the 

 tv/enty third, the seamen found that they were 

 driven on the north shore, among the rocks and 

 islands, and in extreme danger of being lost. 

 The men of war escaped, but eight transports 

 were wrecked on Egg Island, near the north 

 shore ; one thousand of the men perished, and 

 six or seven hundred were saved by the other 

 ships. In this distress but one of the colony 

 vessels v/as lost, and the men of that were sav- 

 ed ; the adm.iral and general were in great dan- 

 ger, but escaped by the vessel's coming to an- 

 chor. The next moniing the wind came round 

 to W. S. VV. the admiral bore d\vay for Span- 

 ish river, and the men of war and transports 



VOL. I. Q 2 



