During the month of July the efforts of the Indians were directed particularly against the two armed vessels, which had not only afforded defence to the fort and brought men and supplies, but had begun to make trips up the river to a point opposite the Indian camp, from which they could pour shot into the wigwams. One night the attention of the watchful sentries was attracted by a mass of flames shooting up into the sky in the general direction of the Indian camp. Their first thought was that the village was on fire, but the mass of flame seemed to be moving and to come nearer. A huge fire-float, made of four bateaux[2] filled with fagots, birch bark, and tar, appeared on the water, drifting down to set fire to the schooners anchored opposite the fort. The vessels were anchored by two cables, and as the blazing raft approached, they slipped one cable and swung to the other side of the river while the raft floated harmlessly by, lighting up the fort and the dark shores till it burned itself down to the water’s edge. [2] _Bateau_, the French word for boat, usually applied to a flat-bottomed boat with pointed ends. The next event of the blockade came at the end of that month. On the 29th of July the garrison heard firing down the river. They waited anxiously, wondering what new disaster was to fall upon them, for similar sounds had often been followed by the arrival of a single survivor from some abandoned fort with a tale of Indian butchery. Half an hour later the sentries called to their officers to come quickly, for the whole surface of the water was covered with boats. In breathless suspense the weary garrison waited to see if the story of two months before was to be repeated and dusky forms were to appear crouching in captured English vessels; but they were reassured by the salute of an English gun. In an hour two hundred and sixty men had landed at the little wharf and been welcomed with cheers and shouts. Captain Dalyell had been sent from Niagara with companies from two regiments and with twenty of Rogers’ Rangers, commanded by Major Rogers himself, to put an end to the siege.