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Woods; that they immediately fired a Yolley from the Boats , when the Smoak was put out, & aboutten Minutes after, upwards of 1000 French and Indians appeared upon the Beech, and drew up in aLine three deep, reaching almost a Mile, and gave the Boats a Volley, some of their Shot dropingwithin 5 yards of them: That they fired about five Minutes, when the Boat gave them another Fire,three Huzza’s & row’d off, and returned to Oswego about 5 o’clock: That the three Vessels werereturned from a Cruize of about two weeks, but have made no Discoveries : And that another, andmore formidable Attack was hourly Expected.
Albany June 27. 1756.
Friday last Harkamers Son came down from Oswego , with Letters from Col. Merser, for GeneralShirley: He says, there had been a smart Skirmish at Fort Ontario; that a Body of about a thousandFrench and Indians had attacked the Fort, but were beat off by Colonel Schuyler, and those thatwere in Garrison there, after an engagement of two Hours; that Col. Schuyler lost 26. Men and theRegulars, 6.
His Majesty’s Sloop Oswego ; iOswego , July 2d, 1756. )
I have been out with Commodore Bradley on two cruises. On the first we were out twelve days,endeavoring to get to Niagara, but the wind blowing constantly from the westward, were forced toreturn, having made no discovery but what related to a further knowledge of the Lake . Last Wed-nesday, seven nights, we sailed on a second cruise, and the Sunday following, at day dawn, as wewere steering a course for Oswego , (having promised Col. Mercer to return off the harbor in fourdays,) we saw four sail of French vessels, from whom we were glad to make all the sail we could.As I make no doubt this affair will be variously represented at New York , I shall give an impartialaccount of the same, which is as follows: At half past two, A. M., we saw two sail standing towardsus from the N. W., on which we immediately made the signal for the Ontario to chase, and got allready for action, wore ship, and stood for them. At three quarters past three, we saw two more sailfrom the same quarter. At this time, one of the two vessels, w r hich proved to be the Commodore,fired two guns to leeward and hoisted a French flag at his foretop mast head, which we took for asignal for the two sternmost vessels to make sail and join, as he and the next to him directly hauledon the wind, and clewed up their main top sails. At 5 o’clock, being then about one and a halfmiles from them, we found they were all four schooners, and the two whose distance I have justmentioned, very large vessels with several guns of a side. The other two appeared as large, but ofwhat force we could not see, they being farther off On which, Capt. Lafory came on board and acouncil being called, it was thought most prudent to avoid an engagement, the enemy being farsuperior to us, and the utmost consequence our welfare was to Oswego . Our force consisted: first,the Oswego , Com. Bradley, with only 4 pounders, 1 three pounder, and 45 seamen and soldiers ;the Ontario, Capt. Lafory, with 4 four pounders, 1 three pounder, and 45 seamen and soldiers; asmall schooner not bigger than a four cord boat, under the command of Mr. Farmer, with 6 swivels,and 13 seamen and soldiers. At half past five, wore and made the best of our way to Oswego . On