[Footnote 432:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 Aout, 1756.  He elsewhere makes the number somewhat greater.  That the garrison, exclusive of civilians, did not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, is shown by Shirley to Loudon, 5 Sept. 1756.  Loudon had charged Shirley with leaving Oswego weakly garrisoned; and Shirley replies by alleging that the troops there were in the number as above.  It was of course his interest to make them appear as numerous as possible.  In the printed Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated, they are put at only ten hundred and fifty.]

[Footnote 433:  Several English writers say, however, that fifteen or twenty young men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place of warriors lately killed.]

The loss on both sides is variously given.  By the most trustworthy accounts, that of the English did not reach fifty killed, and that of the French was still less.  In the forts and vessels were found above a hundred pieces of artillery, most of them swivels and other light guns, with a large quantity of powder, shot, and shell.  The victors burned the forts and the vessels on the stocks, destroyed such provisions and stores as they could not carry away, and made the place a desert.  The priest Piquet, who had joined the expedition, planted amid the ruin a tall cross, graven with the words, In hoc signo vincunt; and near it was set a pole bearing the arms of France, with the inscription, Manibus date lilia plenis.  Then the army decamped, loaded with prisoners and spoil, descended to Montreal, hung the captured flags in the churches, and sang Te Deum in honor of their triumph.

It was the greatest that the French arms had yet achieved in America.  The defeat of Braddock was an Indian victory; this last exploit was the result of bold enterprise and skilful tactics.  With its laurels came its fruits.  Hated Oswego had been laid in ashes, and the would-be assailants forced to a vain and hopeless defence.  France had conquered the undisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her communications with the West were safe.  A small garrison at Niagara and another at Frontenac would now hold those posts against any effort that the English could make this year; and the whole French force could concentrate at Ticonderoga, repel the threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizing Albany.  If the English, on the other side, had lost a great material advantage, they had lost no less in honor.  The news of the surrender was received with indignation in England and in the colonies.  Yet the behaviour of the garrison was not so discreditable as it seemed.  The position was indefensible, and they could have held out at best but a few days more.  They yielded too soon; but unless Webb had come to their aid, which was not to be expected, they must have yielded at last.