162 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 



own, and armed, like Indians, with hatchet, knife, 

 and gnn, were employed in a service of peculiar 

 hardship. Their chief theatre of action was the 

 mountainous region of Lake George, the debatable 

 ground between the hostile forts of Ticonderoga 

 and William Henry. The deepest recesses of 

 these romantic solitudes had heard the French and 

 Indian yell, and the answering shout of the hardy 

 New-England men. In summer, they passed down 

 the lake in whale boats or canoes, or threaded the 

 pathways of the woods in single file^ like the 

 savages themselves. In winter, they journeyed 

 through the swamps on snowshoes, skated along 

 the frozen surface of the lake, and bivouacked at 

 night among the snow-drifts. They intercepted 

 French messengers, encountered French scouting 

 parties, and carried off prisoners from under the 

 very walls of Ticonderoga. Their hardships and 

 adventures, their marches and countermarches, 

 their frequent skirmishes and midwinter battles, 

 had made them famous throughout America ; and 

 though it was the fashion of the day to sneer at 

 the efforts of provincial troops, the name of 

 Rogers's Rangers was never mentioned but with 

 honor. 



Their commander was a man tall and strong in 

 person, and rough in feature. He was versed 

 in all the arts of woodcraft, sagacious, prompt, and 

 resolute, yet so cautious withal that he sometimes 

 incurred the unjust charge of cowardice. His 

 mind, naturally active, was by no means uncul- 

 tivated ; and his . books and unpublished letters 



