rear of Bougainville’s position, where lay the French naval force, consisting of three armed vessels and several gunboats.  The cannon were turned upon the principal ship; a shot cut her cable, and a strong west wind drove her ashore into the hands of her enemies.  The other vessels and gunboats made all sail for St. John, but stranded in a bend of the river, where the rangers, swimming out with their tomahawks, boarded and took one of them, and the rest soon surrendered.  It was a fatal blow to Bougainville, whose communications with St. John were now cut off.  In accordance with instructions from Vaudreuil, he abandoned the island on the night of the twenty-seventh of August, and, making his way with infinite difficulty through the dark forest, joined Roquemaure at St. John, twelve miles below.  Haviland followed, the rangers leading the way.  Bougainville and Roquemaure fell back, abandoned St. John and Chambly, and joined Bourlamaque on the banks of the St. Lawrence, where the united force at first outnumbered that of Haviland, though fast melted away by discouragement and desertion.  Haviland opened communication with Murray, and they both looked daily for the arrival of Amherst, whose approach was rumored by prisoners and deserters.[845]

[Footnote 843:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 29 Aout, 1760.]

[Footnote 844:  A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition against Canada, 1760.  Compare Mante, 340, Knox, II. 392, and Rogers, 188.  Chevalier Johnstone, who was with Bougainville, says “about four thousand,” which Vaudreuil multiplies to twelve thousand.]

[Footnote 845:  Rogers, Journals.  Diary of a Sergeant in the Army of Haviland.  Johnstone, Campaign of 1760.  Bigot au Ministre, 29 Aout, 1760.]

The army of Amherst had gathered at Oswego in July.  On the tenth of August it was all afloat on Lake Ontario, to the number of ten thousand one hundred and forty-two men, besides about seven hundred Indians under Sir William Johnson.[846]Before the fifteenth the whole had reached La Presentation, otherwise called Oswegatchie or La Galette, the seat of Father Piquet’s mission.  Near by was a French armed brig, the “Ottawa,” with ten cannon and a hundred men, threatening destruction to Amherst’s bateaux and whaleboats.  Five gunboats attacked and captured her.  Then the army advanced again, and were presently joined by two armed vessels of their own which had lingered behind, bewildered among the channels of the Thousand Islands.

[Footnote 846:  A List of the Forces employed in the Expedition against Canada.  Compare Mante, 301, and Knox, II. 403.]