164 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [17G0. 



On the twelfth of September, 1760, Rogers, then 

 at the height of his reputation, received orders 

 from Sir Jeffrey Amherst to ascend the lakes with 

 a detachment of rangers, and take possession, in 

 the name of his Britannic Majesty, of Detroit, 

 Michillimackinac, and other western posts included 

 in the late capitulation. He left Montreal, on the 

 following day, with two hundred rangers, in fifteen 

 whale boats. Stemming the surges of La Chine 

 and the Cedars, they left behind them the straggling 

 hamlet which bore the latter name, and formed at 

 that day the western limit of Canadian settlement.^ 

 They gained Lake Ontario, skirted its northern 

 shore, amid rough and boisterous weather, and 

 crossing at its western extremity, reached Fort 

 Niagara on the first of October. Carrying their 



and his Concise Account of North America, a small volume containing much 

 valuable information. Both appeared in London in 1765. To these may 

 be added a curious drama, called Ponteach, or the Savages of A7ne7-ica, which 

 appears to have been written, in part, at least, by him. It is very rare, 

 and besides the copy in my possession, I know of but one other, which 

 may be found in the library of the British Museum. For an account of 

 this curious production, see Appendix, B. An engraved full-length por- 

 trait of Rogers was published in London in 1776. He is represented as a 

 tall, strong man, dressed in the costume of a ranger, with a powder-horn 

 slung at his side, a gun resting in the hollow of his arm, and a coun- 

 tenance by no means prepossessing. Behind him, at a little distance, 

 stand his Indian followers. 



The steep mountain called Rogers' Slide, near the northern end of 

 Lake George, derives its name from the tradition that, during the French 

 war, being pursued by a party of Indians, he slid on snowshoes down its 

 precipitous front, for more than a thousand feet, to the frozen lake below. 

 On beholding the achievement, the Indians, as well they might, believed 

 him under the protection of the Great Spirit, and gave over the chase. 

 The story seems unfounded ; yet it was not far from this mountain that 

 the rangers fought one of their most desperate winter battles, against a 

 force of many times their number. 



1 Henry, Travels and Adventures, 9. 



