me assistance should I need in crossing the lake &c--The enemy but a very small force at fort George. Their boats are on an island about 14 miles from this guarded by six companies, having artillery--I have much fear with respect to the prisoners, being obliged to send them under a small guard--I am well informed that considerable reinforcements is hourly expected at the lake under command of Sir John Johnson--This minute received Gen^l. Powels answer to my demand in these words, ‘The garrison intrusted to my charge I shall defend to the last.’ Indeed I have little hopes of putting him to the necessity of giving it up unless by the force under Colonel Johnson. I am & JOHN BROWN.” Gen^l Lincoln.[33] We now turn to the fight at Diamond Island, giving first the English version, simply remarking as a preliminary, that in the postscript of a letter addressed by Jonas Fay to General Gates, dated Bennington, September 22, 1771, is the following: “By a person just arrived from Fort George--only 30 men are at that place and 2 Gun Boats anchor’d at a distance from land and that the enemy have not more than 3 weeks provisions.”[34] Writing from Albany after his surrender, General Burgoyne says, under the date of October 27, that “On the 24th instant, the enemy, enabled by the capture of the gunboats and bateaux which they had made after the surprise of the sloop, to embark upon Lake George, attacked Diamond Island in two divisions. Captain Aubrey and two companies of the 47th regiment, had been posted at that island from the time the army passed the Hudson’s River, as a better situation for the security of the stores at the south end of Lake George than Fort George, which is on the continent, and not tenable against artillery and numbers. The enemy were repulsed by Captain Aubrey with great loss, and pursued by the gunboats under his command to the east shore, where two of their principal vessels were retaken, together with all the cannon. They had just time to set fire to the other bateaux and retreated over the mountains.”[35] This statement was based upon the report made by Lieutenant Irwine, the commander at Lake George, whose communication appears to have fallen into the hands of Gates, at the surrender of Burgoyne. Lieutenant George Irwine, of the 47th, reports thus to Lieutenant Francis Clark, aid-de-camp to General Burgoyne: “Fort George 24^{th} Sept^r. 1777. Sir