There was no campaign that year. The two armies lay inside
their respective fortifications, each keeping on the defensive; and
the bold Rangers alone did active skirmishing service, as has been
related, appearing at all sorts of apparently impossible points,
swooping down upon an unwary hunting party or a sleeping sentinel,
bringing in spoil to the fort, burning transports bound for
Ticonderoga, and doing gallant irregular service which kept the
garrison and the Rangers in spirits, but did little or nothing to
effect any change in the condition of affairs.
Anxiously was news waited for from England. What was the parent
country going to do for her Western children in their hour of need
and extremity? There were rumours afloat of a massing of Indian
tribes to be let loose upon the hapless settlers along the Indian
border; and although Sir William Johnson, that able agent of
England's with the natives, was hard at work seeking to oppose and
counteract French diplomacy amongst the savage tribes, there was
yet so much disunion and misunderstanding and jealousy amongst
English commanders and governors, that matters were constantly at a
deadlock; whilst France, with her centralized authority, moved on
towards her goal unimpeded and at ease (as it seemed to the
harassed English officials), although not without her internal
troubles also.
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