126 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 



for five miles through the woods. This success was 

 soon followed by the surrender of the fort. 



In the mean time, Sir Jeffrey Amherst had 

 crossed Lake George, and appeared before Ticon- 

 deroga ; upon which the French blew up their 

 works, and retired down Lake Champlain to Crown 

 Point. Retreating from this position also, on the 

 approach of the English army, they collected all 

 their forces, amounting to little more than three 

 thousand men, at Isle Aux Noix, where they 

 intrenched themselves, and prepared to resist the 

 farther progress of the invaders. The lateness of 

 the season prevented Amherst from carrying out the 

 plan of advancing into Canada, and compelled him 

 to go into winter-quarters at Crown Point. The 

 same cause had withheld Prideaux's army from 

 descending the St. Lawrence. 



While the outposts of Canada were thus success- 

 fully attacked, a blow was struck at a more vital 

 part. Early in June, General Wolfe sailed up the 

 St. Lawrence with a force of eight thousand men, 

 and formed his camp immediately below Quebec, 

 on the Island of Orleans.^ From thence he could 

 discern, at a single glance, how arduous was the 

 task before him. Piles of lofty cliffs rose with 

 sheer ascent on the northern border of the river ; 

 and from their summits the boasted citadel of Can- 

 ada looked down in proud security, with its churches 

 and convents of stone, its ramparts, bastions, and 

 batteries ; while over them all, from the brink of 



1 Mante, Hist. Late War, 238. 



