[Footnote 727:  Journal of Colonel Amherst (brother of General Amherst). Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759.  Amherst to Prideaux, 28 July, 1759.  Amherst to Pitt, 27 July, 1759.  Mante, 213.  Knox, I., 397-403. Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, 19 Juin, 1759.]

He now set about repairing the damaged works and making ready to advance on Crown Point; when on the first of August his scouts told him that the enemy had abandoned this place also, and retreated northward down the lake.[728] Well pleased, he took possession of the deserted fort, and, in the animation of success, thought for a moment of keeping the promise he had given to Pitt “to make an irruption into Canada with the utmost vigor and despatch."[729] Wolfe, his brother in arms and his friend, was battling with the impossible under the rocks of Quebec, and every motive, public and private, impelled Amherst to push to his relief, not counting costs, or balancing risks too nicely.  He was ready enough to spur on others, for he wrote to Gage:  “We must all be alert and active day and night; if we all do our parts the French must fall;"[730] but, far from doing his, he set the army to building a new fort at Crown Point, telling them that it would “give plenty, peace, and quiet to His Majesty’s subjects for ages to come."[731] Then he began three small additional forts, as outworks to the first, sent two parties to explore the sources of the Hudson; one party to explore Otter Creek; another to explore South Bay, which was already well known; another to make a road across what is now the State of Vermont, from Crown Point to Charlestown, or “Number Four,” on the Connecticut; and another to widen and improve the old French road between Crown Point and Ticonderoga.  His industry was untiring; a great deal of useful work was done:  but the essential task of making a diversion to aid the army of Wolfe was needlessly postponed.

[Footnote 728:  Amherst to Pitt, 5 Aug. 1759.]

[Footnote 729:  Ibid., 19 June, 1759.]

[Footnote 730:  Amherst to Gage, 1 Aug. 1759.]

[Footnote 731:  General Orders, 13 Aug. 1759.]

It is true that some delay was inevitable.  The French had four armed vessels on the lake, and this made it necessary to provide an equal or superior force to protect the troops on their way to Isle-aux-Noix.  Captain Loring, the English naval commander, was therefore ordered to build a brigantine; and, this being thought insufficient, he was directed to add a kind of floating battery, moved by sweeps.  Three weeks later, in consequence of farther information concerning the force of the French vessels, Amherst ordered an armed sloop to be put on the stocks; and this involved a long delay.  The saw-mill at Ticonderoga was to furnish planks for the intended navy; but, being overtasked in sawing timber for the new works at Crown Point, it was continually breaking down.  Hence much time was lost, and autumn was well advanced before Loring could launch his vessels.[732]