were those of Little and Stoddard, were, in the latter part of April, committed to Northampton jail, where they remained until July, when Graves was released upon hollow professions of repentance, only to get himself into trouble again in December; being drummed out of the town of Westfield for loud-mouthed Toryism, and sent home to be disciplined in his own precinct. Jones was also released, joined the King's army, and suffered confiscation of his estate.

The annual town-meeting in March manifested the peculiarities of the times. It was voted, first, to take the Province law as the guide of the meeting, ignoring the regulating act. No money was appropriated for schools. The votes before noted, regarding taxes and the continued pay of the minute-men, were passed. Col. Williams, Deacon Wright, Matthew Barber, Aaron Baker, Jacob Ensign, and James D. Colt were chosen Wardens, and appointed "a committee to take care of disorderly persons."

Israel Dickinson, Josiah Wright, Wm. Francis, Col. Easton, and Capt. Goodrich were elected selectmen; and Capt. Dickinson was also made town-clerk and treasurer.

John Brown being employed on other service, Capt. Charles Goodrich was chosen delegate to the Provincial Congress to be held at Concord, March 22.

In the mean time, Rev. Mr. Allen was active in advocating Whig doctrines in King's District; speaking at Canaan, Kinderhook, Claverack, and elsewhere, to the delight of the radical patriots and the vehement displeasure of their opponents, against whom he advised the strongest measures, including a confiscation of debts due them to the Continental treasury.

With regard to his own movements, and the general state of affairs in his vicinity, he wrote to Gen. Pomeroy on the 9th as follows:

"Our militia this way, sir, are vigorously preparing for actual readiness. Adjacent towns and this town are buying arms and ammunition. As yet, there are plenty of arms to be sold at Albany; but we hear, that, by order of the Major, etc., no powder is to be sold there for the present. The spirit of liberty runs high at Albany, as you have doubtless heard by their own post to our headquarters. I have exerted myself to spread the same spirit in King's District; which has, of late, taken a surprising effect. The poor

Tories at Kinderhook are mortified and grieved, are wheeling about, and begin to take the quick-step. New-York Government begins to be alive in the glorious cause, and to act with great vigor."

Thus determined, self-sacrificing, and indefatigable, were the patriots of Pittsfield in that era of preparation for the Revolutionary struggle.

CHAPTER XII.

PITTSFIELD IN ETHAN ALLEN'S TICONDEROGA CAPTURE,

[DECEMBER-JUNE, 1775.]

John Brown in the Provincial Congress. On the Canada Committee. - Selected to go to Canada. - Perilous Journey. - Report of his Mission.- Recommends the early Capture of Ticonderoga. - Arranges it with Ethan Allen. - Connecticut plans the Capture. Connection of the two Schemes. The Commissioners visit Pittsfield. - John Brown and Col. Easton join the Party. - Its Plans modified on their Suggestion. — Col. Easton raises Men for the Expedition. Councils of War in Vermont.-Rank of the Officers fixed. - Ethan Allen. Benedict Arnold claims the Command, and is resisted.—Important Letter from Arnold. Allen captures the Fort. Easton and Brown announce the Victory to the Continental and Provincial Congresses. — Reports of Col. Allen and Capt. Mott.—The great Services of the Pittsfield Officers officially acknowledged.—Malignant Course of Arnold. — He receives Troops, captures a King's Sloop, and sets up a rival Command. - Is placed under Col. Hinman of Connecticut by the Provincial Congress, and resigns. Col. Easton appointed to fill the Vacancy. - John Brown commissioned Major. - Arnold embezzles the Pay of Capt. James Noble's Pittsfield Company.

N the 6th of December, 1774, the Provincial Congress appointed, as a committee to open a correspondence with Canada, and obtain frequent intelligence of movements there, Major Hawley, Col. Seth Pomeroy, John Brown, Sam. Adams, Dr. Warren, and Dr. Church. The selection of so many eminent men showed the magnitude which Congress attributed to the business assigned them; and the committee also recognized it by intrusting to one of its own members the difficult and dangerous task of personally sounding the disposition of the Canadians, instituting a revolutionary party among them, and organizing a

'Jour. Prov. Cong., p. 59.

system of secret communication with its leaders. John Brown's selection for this mission was due not less to his admirable diplomatic qualities, and the cool daring which in no emergency left them at fault, than to that adventurous ardor which continually led him to seek the most dashing and dangerous not necessarily the most conspicuous - fields of patriotic service.

Immediately upon receiving his appointment, he returned to Pittsfield, resigned his seat in the Provincial Congress, made preparation for his journey, and, as soon as the pamphlets and papers intended for use in Canada reached him, set out for Albany. There he learned that Lakes George and Champlain were impassable; but after waiting a fortnight, although their condition was not improved, he set out, accompanied by two experienced guides, and, after fourteen days of "inconceivable hardships," reached St. John's-on-the-Sorel.

The perils as well as the hardships of this journey were extreme. Lake Champlain, swollen by an extraordinary freshet, flooded a great portion of the country for a space of twenty miles on cach side, and especially towards Canada. The rivers and streams were lost in the overflow, and the guides missed their accustomed landmarks; and, still worse, the broadened surface, partly open, was in part covered with dangerous ice, a field of which, miles in extent, breaking loose, caught the frail craft of our daring voyagers, and drove them against an island, where they remained, frozen in, two days, and "were then glad to foot it on shore.” 1

1

At Montreal, Mr. Brown was cordially welcomed by the Committee of Correspondence, already organized, and obtained from them and from other sources a thorough comprehension of Canadian character and politics, and also of the movements of the military; all which he communicated to the Committee at Boston, together with an outline of Gov. Carleton and his policy, drawn with striking truthfulness in a few rapid sentences.

At Montreal, he met a delegation of the Quebec Committee, and consequently did not visit that city; but he travelled through a considerable portion of the interior, in order to disseminate patriotic sentiments, and personally observe the disposition of the people.

The guides who ad crossed the lakes with Mr. Brown were

1 Letter to Adams and Warren, Mass. Ar., vol. cxciii. p. 40.

from "the New-Hampshire Grants,” 1 — one of them an old hunter familiar with the St. François Indians and their language; the other had once been a captive among the Caughnawagas. These men he sent to those tribes respectively, and obtained positive evidence (hostilities having then not commenced) that the royal commanders were intriguing to bring the savages upon the colonists. They also obtained from the chiefs assurances of neutrality, which, although they were afterwards violated, were probably as sincere as an Indian's pledges ever are.

Mr. Brown reported that there was no prospect that Canada would send a delegate to the Continental Congress, and gave no hope of any uprising there, independent of the presence of a colonial army. The rivalry of races, and the character of the Canadian French, whom the British Government were assiduously courting, forbade both.

But he closed his letter of March 292 with these words:

"One thing I must mention as a profound secret. The Fort at Ticonderoga must be seized as soon as possible, should hostilities be committed by the king's troops. The people on New-Hampshire Grants have engaged to do this business, and, in my opinion, are the most proper persons for the job. This will effectually curb this Province, and all the troops which may be sent here.”

This was the whole gist of the plans which resulted in the capture of Ticonderoga; and it was undoubtedly written after consultation with Ethan Allen, who had lands on Grand Isle, and upon Shelburne Point, now Colchester and Burlington, which juts into Lake Champlain directly across the route pursued by the Canadian envoy. Allen, a cousin of the Pittsfield minister, was probably known to Brown, and, as the commander of the Green-Mountain Boys, was clearly the only person competent, in their behalf, to undertake the very serious "job" of surprising the great fortress of the lakes.

As Mr. Brown was writing the postscript to this letter, the messenger was impatiently waiting to be gone with it; and it reached Boston, at the latest, by the middle of April.

1 Vermont.

2 This letter, of which I have made free use in the foregoing pages, was addressed to "Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren, of the Committee of Correspondence, Boston." It is preserved in the Mass. Ar., vol. exciii. pp. 40–44.

8 This postscript announced Gov. Carleton's prohibition of the export of wheat from the St. Lawrence.