in these solitudes, notwithstanding the once-coveted beaver has fled from their domain, and the field of their enterprise has been ominously contracted by the encroaching tide of civilization.

From this encampment a party of ninety men was sent back to the rear for provisions, which were beginning to grow scarce. Morgan with his riflemen had gone forward, and Arnold followed with the second division. For three days it rained incessantly, and every man and all the baggage were drenched with water. One night, after they had landed at a late hour and were endeavouring to take a little repose, they were suddenly roused by the freshet, which came rushing upon them in a torrent, and hardly allowed them time to escape, before the ground on which they had lain down was overflowed. In nine hours the river rose perpendicularly eight feet. Embarrassments thickened at every step. The current was everywhere rapid; the stream had spread itself over the low grounds by the increase of its waters, thereby exposing the batteaux to be perpetually entangled in the drift-wood and bushes; sometimes they were led away from the main stream into smaller branches and obliged to retrace their course, and at others delayed by portages, which became more frequent as they advanced.

At length a disaster happened, which was near putting an end to the expedition. By the turbulence of the waters seven batteaux were overset, and all their contents lost. This made such a breach upon the provisions, and threw such a gloom over the future, that the bravest among them was almost ready to despond. They were now thirty miles from the head of the Chaudière River. It was ascertained, that the provisions remaining would serve for twelve or fifteen days. A council of war was called, at which it was decided that the sick and feeble should be sent back, and the others press forward.

Arnold wrote to Colonel Greene and Colonel Enos, who were in the rear, ordering them to select such a number of their strongest men as they could supply with fifteen days' provisions, and to come on with them, leaving the others to return to Norridgewock. Enos misconstrued the order, or chose not to understand it. He retreated with his whole division, consisting of three companies, and marched back to Cambridge. *

* Colonel Enos was tried by a court-martial, after his arrival at head-quarters, and acquitted on the ground of a want of provisions. But the true state of the case was not understood, as no intelligence on the subject had been received from Arnold. The trial was hastened, because Enos's commission in the army, as first organized, would expire at the end of the year, and it was supposed he could not be tried under his new commission. He certainly disobeyed the order of his commander, nor was the plea of a deficiency of provisions admissible. The same quantity of provisions, that would be consumed by three companies in returning to the settlements on the Kennebec, would have served part of them for that purpose, and another part for fifteen days in marching to the Chaudière. He was ordered to divide his men in such a manner as to accomplish both these objects. Although acquitted by the court-martial, he either imagined, or had the sagacity to perceive, that his conduct was not satisfactory to General Washington, and soon left the army.—See Washington's Writings, Vol. III. p. 164.

After despatching this order, Arnold hastened onward with about sixty men under Captain Hanchet, intending to proceed as soon as possible to the inhabitants on the Chaudière, and send back provisions to meet the main forces. The rain changed into snow, which fell two inches deep, thus adding the sufferings of cold to those of hunger and fatigue. Ice formed on the surface of the water in which the men were obliged to wade and drag the boats. Finally the highlands were reached, which separated the eastern waters from those of the St. Lawrence. A string of small lakes, choked with logs and other obstructions, had been passed through near the sources of the Dead River, and seventeen falls had been encountered in ascending its whole distance, around which were portages. The carrying-place over the highlands was a little more than four miles. A small stream then presented itself, which conducted the boats by a very crooked course into Lake Megantic, the great fountainhead of the Chaudière River.

Here were found Lieutenants Steel and Church, who had been sent forward a second time from the Great Carrying-place with a party of men to explore and clear paths at the portages. Here also was Jakins, returned from the settlements, who made a favorable report in regard to the sentiments of the people, saying they were friendly and rejoiced at the approach of the army. Lake Megantic is thirteen miles long and three or four broad, and surrounded by high mountains. The night after entering it, the party encamped on its eastern shore, where was a large Indian wigwam, that contributed to the comfort of their quarters.

Early the next morning Arnold despatched a person to the rear of the army, with instructions to the advancing troops. He then ordered Captain Hanchet and fifty-five men to march by land along the margin of the lake, and himself embarked with Captain Oswald, and Lieutenants Steel and Church with thirteen men in five batteaux and a birch canoe, resolved to proceed as soon as possible to the French inhabitants, and send back provisions to meet the army.

In three hours they reached the northern extremity of the lake, and entered the Chaudière, which carried them along with prodigious rapidity on its tide of waters boiling and foaming over a rocky bottom. The baggage was lashed to the boats, and the danger was doubly threatening, as they had no guides. At length they fell among rapids; three of the boats were overset, dashed to pieces against the rocks, and all their contents swallowed up by the waves. Happily no lives were lost, although six men struggled for some time in the water, and were saved with difficulty. This misfortune, calamitous as it was, Arnold ascribes in his Journal to a "kind interposition of Providence"; for no sooner had the men dried their clothes and reembarked, than one of them who had gone forward cried out, "A fall ahead," which had not been discovered, and over which the whole party must have been hurried to inevitable destruction.

It is needless to say, that after this experience they were more cautious. Rapids and falls succeeded each other at short intervals. The birch canoe met the fate of the three batteaux, by running upon the rocks. Sometimes the boats were retarded in their velocity by ropes extended from the stem to the bank of the river. Two Penobscot Indians assisted them over a portage of more than half a mile in length. Through its whole extent the stream, raised by the late rains, was rough, rapid, and dangerous; but the party was fortunate in losing no lives and in advancing quickly. On the third day after leaving Lake Megantic, being the 30th of October, Arnold arrived at Sertigan, the first French settlement, four miles below the junction of the River Des Loups with the Chaudière, and seventy miles from the lake by the course of the stream.

His first care was to relieve his suffering troops, some of whom were already fainting with hunger, exhausted with fatigue, and overcome with toils and privations, to which they had never been accustomed. * He immediately sent back several Canadians and Indians with flour and cattle, who met the troops marching through the woods near the bank of the river, all their boats having been destroyed by the violence of the rapids. The whole army arrived within four or five days, emerging from the forests in small and detached parties, and greeting once more with joy unspeakable the habitations of civilized men. They were received in a friendly manner by the inhabitants, who supplied their wants with hospitable abundance, and seemed favorably inclined to the objects of the expedition, not being yet heartily reconciled to the burden of a foreign yoke, however light in