CHAPTER IV. DANGERS IN THE INTERIOR—MACHINATIONS OF THE JOHNSON FAMILY—RIVALRY OF ETHAN ALLEN AND BENEDICT ARNOLD—GOVERNMENT PERPLEXITIES ABOUT THE TICONDEROGA CAPTURE—MEASURES TO SECURE THE PRIZE—ALLEN AND ARNOLD AMBITIOUS OF FURTHER LAURELS—PROJECTS FOR THE INVASION OF CANADA—ETHAN ALLEN AND SETH WARNER HONORED BY CONGRESS—ARNOLD DISPLACED BY A COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY—HIS INDIGNATION—NEWS FROM CANADA—THE REVOLUTION TO BE EXTENDED INTO THAT PROVINCE—ENLISTMENT OF GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS—SCHUYLER AT TICONDEROGA—STATE OF AFFAIRS THERE—ELECTION FOR OFFICERS OF THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS—ETHAN ALLEN DISMOUNTED—JOINS THE ARMY AS A VOLUNTEER—PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF CANADA—GENERAL MONTGOMERY—INDIAN CHIEFS AT CAMBRIDGE—COUNCIL FIRE—PLAN FOR AN EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC—DEPARTURE OF TROOPS FROM TICONDEROGA—ARRIVAL AT ISLE AUX NOIX. We must interrupt our narrative of the siege of Boston to give an account of events in other quarters, requiring the superintending care of Washington as commander-in-chief. Letters from General Schuyler, received in the course of July, had awakened apprehensions of danger from the interior. The Johnsons were said to be stirring up the Indians in the western parts of New York to hostility, and preparing to join the British forces in Canada; so that, while the patriots were battling for their rights along the seaboard, they were menaced by a powerful combination in rear. To place this matter in a proper light, we will give a brief statement of occurrences in the upper part of New York, and on the frontiers of Canada, since the exploits of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, at Ticonderoga and on Lake Champlain. Great rivalry, as has already been noted, had arisen between these doughty leaders. Both had sent off expresses to the provincial authorities, giving an account of their recent triumphs. Allen claimed command at Ticonderoga, on the authority of the committee from the Connecticut Assembly, which had originated the enterprise. Arnold claimed it on the strength of his instructions from the Massachusetts committee of safety. He bore a commission, too, given him by that committee; whereas Allen had no other commission than that given him before the war by the committees in the Hampshire Grants, to command their Green Mountain Boys against the encroachments of New York. “Colonel Allen,” said Arnold, “is a proper man to head his own wild people, but entirely unacquainted with military service, and as I am the only person who has been legally authorized to take possession of this place, I am determined to insist on my right; * * * and shall keep it [the fort] at every hazard, until I have further orders.”[9]