ignorance and indiscretion of ministers
at home, or the imbecility of the oiTicors entrusted with the com-
mand of the troops. In the year 1T58, more elSciency was given
to the war by the appointment of Mr. Pitt to the ministry. General
Ai5ERcr>,0MBiE was that year appointed to command the expedition
against the French forts on Lake Champlain, and prosecuted the
enterprise with more vigor than his predecessors. He advanced as far
as Ticonderoga, and made a violent assault on the fort ; but meet-
ing Avith unexpected obstacles, he retreated without taking the place,
lu the year 1T59. General Amtieust, commander in chief of the
i^ritish fjrces in America, took command of the expedition, reached
Ticonderoga, and without much opposition captured the fort there
on the 27th of July, and before he reached Crown Point, the French
garrison had burnttheir fort;i on both sides and abandoned them.
The settlers also in the neighborhood retreated with the army, and
thus ended the French settlem>ent in the County of Addison.
The French settlers had cleared off the timber along the
shore of the lake, throe or four miles north of Chim.ney Point.
Most of it probably had been used in erecting the forts and other
buildings connected with them, and the cabins of the settlers, and
by the garrisons and families in the neighborhood. This was piob-
ably tb.e extent of the settlement, although the population was
rather thickly crowded together. The cellars and other remains of
numerous huts v\-ere found aftervrards by the English settlers, scat-
tered over the whole tract, and many of them are still seen there.
On the Stroxg farm were four, on the Vallanoe farm three