ij4 The Winning of the West 



town itself was composed mainly of the dwellings 

 of the French hdbitans; some of them were mere 

 hovels, others pretty log cottages, all swarming with 

 black-eyed children ; while the stoutly-made, swarthy 

 men, at once lazy and excitable, strolled about the 

 streets in their picturesque and bright-colored blan 

 ket suits. There were also a few houses of loyalist 

 refugees; implacable tories, stalwart men, revenge 

 ful, and goaded by the memory of many wrongs 

 done and many suffered, who proved the worst 

 enemies of their American kinsfolk. The few big 

 roomy buildings, which served as storehouses and 

 residences for the merchants, were built not only 

 for the storage of goods and peltries, but also as 

 strongholds in case of attack. The heads of the 

 mercantile houses were generally Englishmen; but 

 the hardy men who traversed the woods for months 

 and for seasons, to procure furs from the Indians, 

 were for the most part French. The sailors, both 

 English and French, who manned the vessels on 

 the lakes formed another class. The rough earth 

 works and stockades of the fort were guarded by a 

 few light guns. Within, the red-coated regulars 

 held sway, their bright uniforms varied here and 

 there by the dingy hunting-shirt, leggings and fur 

 cap of some tory ranger or French partisan leader. 

 Indians lounged about the fort, the stores, and the 

 houses, begging, or gazing stolidly at the troops 

 as they drilled, at the creaking carts from the out 

 lying farms as they plied through the streets, at 

 the driving to and fro from pasture of the horses 



