CHAPTER VI. 



1760. 



THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN 

 POSTS. 



The war was over. The plains around Montreal 

 were dotted with the white tents of three victorious 

 armies, and the work of conquest was complete. 

 Canada, with all her dependencies, had yielded to 

 the British crown ; but it still remained to carry 

 into full effect the terms of the surrender, and take 

 possession of those western outposts, where the 

 lilies of France had not as yet descended from the 

 flagstaff. The execution of this task, neither an 

 easy nor a safe one, was assigned to a provincial 

 officer, Major Eobert Rogers. 



Rogers was a native of New Hampshire. He 

 commanded a body of provincial rangers, and stood 

 in high repute as a partisan officer. Putnam and 

 Stark were his associates ; and it was in this wood- 

 land warfare that the former achieved many of 

 those startling adventures and hair-breadth escapes 

 which have made his name familiar at every New- 

 England fireside. Rogers's Rangers, half hunters, 



half woodsmen, trained in a discipline of their 



11 



