FORT FRONTENAC TAKEN AND DESTROYED BY THE ENGLISH.

In the meantime, general Abercrombie had detached lieutenant-colonel Bradstreet, with a body of three thousand men, chiefly provincials, to execute a plan which this officer had formed against Cadaraqui, or fort Frontenac, situated on the north side of the river St. Laurence, just where it takes its origin from the lake Ontario. To the side of this lake he penetrated with his detachment, and embarking in some sloops and batteaux, provided for the purpose, landed within a mile of fort Frontenac, the garrison of which, consisting of one hun dred and ten men, with a few Indians, immediately surrendered at discretion. Considering the importance of this post, which in a great measure commanded the mouth of the river St. Laurence, and served as a magazine to the more southern castles, the French general was inexcusable for leaving it in such a defenceless condition. The fortification itself was inconsiderable and ill-contrived; nevertheless, it contained sixty pieces of cannon, sixteen small mortars, with an immense quantity of merchandise and provisions, deposited for the use of the French forces detached against brigadier Forbes, their western garrisons, and Indian allies, as well as for the subsistence of the corps commanded by M. de Levi, on his enterprise against the Mohawk river. Mr. Bradstreet not only reduced the fort without bloodshed, but also made himself master of all the enemy’s shipping on the lake, amounting to nine armed vessels, some of which carried eighteen guns. Two of these Mr. Bradstreet conveyed to Oswego, whither he returned with his troops, after he had destroyed fort Frontenac, with all the artillery, stores, provisions, and merchandise, which it contained. In consequence of this exploit, the French troops to the southward were exposed to the hazard of starving; hut it is not easy to conceive the general’s reason for giving orders to abandon and destroy a fort, which, if properly strengthened and sustained, might have rendered the English masters of the lake Ontario, and grievously harassed the enemy both in their commerce and expeditions to the westward. Indeed, great part of the Indian trade centered at Frontenac, to which place the Indians annually repaired from all parts of America, some of them at the distance of a thousand miles, and here exchanged their furs for European commodities. So much did the French traders excel the English in the art of conciliating the affection of those savage tribes, that great part of them, in their yearly progress to this remote market, actually passed by the British settlement of Albany, in New York, where they might have been supplied with what articles they wanted, much cheaper than they could purchase them at Frontenac or Montreal; nay, the French traders used to furnish themselves with those very commodities from the merchants of New York, and found this traffic much more profitable than that of procuring the same articles from France, loaded with the expense of a tedious and dangerous navigation, from the sea to the source of the river St. Laurence.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760