162 BEADSTREET'S ARMY ON THE LAKES. [1764. 



relieved from this command, the burden and 

 fatigues of which I begin to feel my strength 

 very unequal to." 



Gage knew better than to relieve him, and Bou- 

 quet was forced to resign himself to another year 

 of bush-iighting. The plan of the summer's cam- 

 paign had been settled ; and he was to be the most 

 important, if not the most conspicuous, actor in it. 

 It had been resolved to march two armies from 

 different points into the heart of the Indian coun- 

 try. The first, under Bouquet, was to advance 

 from Fort Pitt into the midst of the Delaware and 

 Shawanoe settlements of the valley of the Ohio. 

 The other, under Colonel Bradstreet, was to pass 

 up the lakes, and force the tribes of Detroit, and 

 the regions beyond, to unconditional submission. 



The name of Bradstreet was already well known 

 in America. At a dark and ill-omened period of 

 the French war, he had crossed Lake Ontario with 

 a force of three thousand provincials, and captured 

 Fort Frontenac, a formidable stronghold of the 

 French, commanding the outlet of the lake. He 

 had distinguished himself, moreover, by his gallant 

 conduct in a skirmish with the French and Indians 

 on the River Oswego. These exploits had gained 

 for him a reputation beyond his merits. He was a 

 man of more activity than judgment, self-willed, 

 vain, and eager for notoriety ; qualities which 

 became sufficiently apparent before the end of 

 the campaign.^ 



1 In the correspondence of General Wolfe, recently published in TaWs 

 Magazine, this distinguished officer speaks in high terms of Bradstreet's 



