CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. FORT DUMMER BUILT. CROWN POINT FORT BUILT. 



ed at Wood Creek, and designed to act 

 against Montreal, defeated all their plans, 

 and tlie army raised was consequently dis- 

 banded. The failure of these designs 

 against Canada, again left the English 

 frontiers exposed to all the horrors of In- 

 dian warfare. 



The next j'C'ar the English colonies fit- 

 ted out an expedition against the French 

 settlements at Acadia, and encouraged hy 

 their success, they now began to medi- 

 tate another attempt upon Canada. The 

 same plan of operations was adopted, 

 which on two former occasions they had 

 been unable to carry into effect. Quebec 

 was to be invested by water, and Mont- 

 real was to be at the same time assailed 

 by an army, which was to enter Canada 

 by the way of lake Champlain. The fleet 

 designed to proceed against Quebec was 

 therefore collected and equipped at Bos- 

 ton, and the army, which was to reduce 

 Montreal, was collected at Albany ; and 

 the most sanguine hopes of success pre- 

 vailed throughout the colonies. But all 

 these hopes were blasted in one fatal 

 night. The fleet sailed from Boston on 

 the30tliof July, 1711, and just as it enter- 

 ed the St. Lawrence it encountered a storm 

 in which eight of the vessels were wreck- 

 ed and more than a thousand of the men 

 perished. 



The army designed to enter Canada by 

 the way of lake Cliamplain, had advanced 

 but a short distance from Albany, when 

 they received the disheartening intelli- 

 gence of the disaster which had befallen 

 the fleet. They immediately returned ; 

 the expedition was given up and the ar- 

 my disbanded. Thus terminated the third 

 attempt at the conquest of Canada, leav- 

 ing the frontiers still exposed to the in- 

 roads of a merciless foe. A peace was, 

 however, concluded in Europe between 

 Great Britain and France about this time, 

 which put an end to the contest between 

 their colonies in America, and during the 

 next year treaties of peace were made 

 with most of the hostile Indian tribes. 

 But the peace with the Indians was of 

 short continuance. They had long been 

 jealous of the growing power of the Eng- 

 lish, and were ready to seize upon the 

 most trifling injury as a pretext for the 

 renewal of hostilities. 



From the year 1720 to 1725, a very de- 

 structive war was carried on between the 

 eastern Indians and the New England 

 provinces. The French and English were 

 at this time at peace ; but the French mis- 

 sionaries, and the governor of Canada 

 himself, were actively employed in insti- 

 gating the Indians to hostilities. In the 

 progress of this war the English made a 



successful expedition against the Indian 

 town of Norridgewok, where they slew 

 the Jesuit missionary, Rasles, and 80 In- 

 dians, and destroyed the town ; and it was 

 during this war, in the year ]7:ii4, that 

 the first civilized establishment was made, 

 within the present limits of Vermont, by 

 the erection effort Dummcr. 



To the year 1725, a long peace succeed- 

 ed, not only between France and Eng- 

 land, but also between the colonies and 

 the various Indian tribes. But the colo- 

 nies, during this time, were not inactive. 

 They were busily employed in advancing 

 their out-posts, extending their settle- 

 ments and preparing for future emergen- 

 cies. The English had establislied a 

 trading-house at Oswego in 1722. In 

 1726, the French, in order more effectu- 

 ally to secure to themselves the trade 

 with the natives, launched two vessels 

 on lake Ontario and repaired their fort at 

 Niagara. In 1731, the French came up 

 lake Champlain and established them- 

 selves in the present township of Addison 

 in Vermont, and shortly after erected a 

 fortress upon a point of land on the west 

 side of the lake and nearly opposite, which 

 they called St. Frederick, but which af- 

 terwards took the name of Crown Point. 



The country along lake Champlain, 

 where these establishments were made, 

 belonged to the Iroquois Indians, but was 

 claimed by New York and was granted in 

 16!*6 to one Dellius, a Dutch clergyman 

 at Albany. Bj' the English colonies, the 

 proceedings of the French were observed 

 with much solicitude ; yet on account of 

 the internal divisions in the province of 

 New York, no effectual measures were 

 taken to prevent them. Thus were the 

 French permitted to make their advances 

 towards the English settlements and, up- 

 on lands claimed by the English, to erect 

 a fortress, which would enable them to 

 prosecute their future expeditions against 

 the frontiers of New York and New Eng- 

 land, with facility and safety. 



In 1744, Great Britain and France were 

 once more involved in war, which soon 

 extended to their colonies and their In- 

 dian allies, when the English began to 

 experience in the depredations of the ene- 

 my, their extreme folly in permitting the 

 French to establish themselves at Crown 

 Point. Hoosic fort, at Williamstown in 

 Massachusetts, and near the south-west 

 corner of Vermont, was at this time the 

 most northern post of the English in the 

 western part of New England.* Against 

 this place an army of about 900 French 



* The site of this fort, is still pointed out between 

 the two villagesof k\ illiamstowii and ,North Adams 

 in Berkshire county, Mass. — Hall. 



