[256] See the notice of Williams in _Mass. Hist. Coll._, viii. 47. He was killed in the bloody skirmish that preceded the Battle of Lake George in 1755. “Montcalm and Wolfe,” chap. ix. [257] “Lord’s day and Monday ... the sickness was very distressing.... Eleven of our men were sick, and scarcely one of us in perfect health; almost every man was troubled with the griping and flux.”--Norton, _The Redeemed Captive_. [258] Rigaud erroneously makes the garrison a little larger. “La garnison se trouve de 24 hommes, entre lesquels il y avoit un ministre, 3 femmes, et 5 enfans.” The names and residence of all the men in the fort when the attack began are preserved. Hawks made his report to the provincial government under the title _“An Account of the Company in his Majesty’s Service under the command of Serg^t. John Hawks ... at Fort Massachusetts, August 20_ [31, new style], 1746.” The roll is attested on oath “Before William Williams, _Just. Pacis._” The number of men is 22, including Hawks and Norton. Each man brought his own gun. I am indebted to the kindness of Professor A. L. Perry for a copy of Hawks’s report, which is addressed to “the Honble. Spencer Phipps, Esq., Lieut. Gov^r. and Commander in Chief [and] the Hon^{ble}. his Majesty’s Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled.” [259] When I visited the place as a college student, no trace of the fort was to be seen except a hollow, which may have been the remains of a cellar, and a thriving growth of horse-radish,--a relic of the garrison garden. My friend, Dr. D. D. Slade, has given an interesting account of the spot in the _Magazine of American History_ for October, 1888. [260] “L’Ennemi me tua un abenakis et me blessa 16 hommes, tant Iroquois qu’Abenaquis, nipissings et françois.”--_Journal de Rigaud._ [261] “Je passay la nuit à conduire l’ouvrage auquel j’avois destiné le jour précédent, résolu à faire ouvrir la tranchée deux heures avant le lever du soleil, et de la pousser jusqu’au pied de la palissade, pour y placer les fascines, y appliquer l’artifice, et livrer le fort en proye à la fureur du feu.”--_Journal de Rigaud._ He mistakes in calling the log wall of the fort a palisade. [262] _Journal of Sergeant Hawks_, cited by William L. Stone, _Life and Times of Sir William Johnson_, i. 227. What seems conclusive is that the French permitted Norton to nail to a post of the fort a short account of its capture, in which it is plainly stated that the first advances were made by Rigaud. [263] One French account says that the Indians failed to meet the English party. _N. Y. Col. Docs._ x. 35.