1690-97.] THE FRONTIER OF NEW ENGLAND. 371 



mand of the local seigniors, or of officers with 

 detachments of soldiers. The exposed part of the 

 French colony extended along the St. Lawrence 

 about ninety miles. The exposed frontier of New 

 England was between two and three hundred 

 miles long, and consisted of farms and hamlets, 

 loosely scattered through an almost impervious 

 forest. Mutual support was difficult or impossible. 

 A body of Indians and Canadians, approaching 

 secretly and swiftly, dividing into small bands, and 

 falling at once upon the isolated houses of an en- 

 tensive district, could commit prodigious havoc in 

 a short time, and with little danger. Even in so- 

 called villages, the houses were far apart, because, 

 except on the sea-shore, the people lived by farm- 

 ing. Such as were able to do so fenced their 

 dwellings with palisades, or built them of solid 

 timber, with loopholes, a projecting upper story 

 like a blockhouse, and sometimes a flanker at one 

 or more of the corners. In the more considerable 

 settlements, the largest of these fortified houses 

 was occupied, in time of danger, by armed men, 

 and served as a place of refuge for the neighbors. 

 The palisaded house defended by Convers at 

 Wells was of this sort, and so also was the Wood- 

 man house at Oyster Eiver. These were " garri- 

 son houses," properly so called, though the name 

 was often given to fortified dwellings occupied 

 only by the family. The French and Indian war- 

 parties commonly avoided the true garrison houses, 

 and very rarely captured them, except unawares ; 

 for their tactics were essentially Iroquois, and con- 



