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Michigan CHAPTER Nine Final Success of the English
He proceeded up the Mohawk and down the Onondaga to the dismantled fort of Oswego. He was accom^ panied by a few Indians of the Oneida tribe. On the 22d of August the whole army embarked on whale-boats and bateaux, and four days later made a lodge* ment without resistance within a few hundred yards
of the fort. De Noyau was the commandant, and his garrison consisted of only about one hundred regular troops. With such a force resistance against an army of upwards of three thousand was useless, and without firing a gun the fort was surrendered. The French troops were taken prisoners, and with them nine vessels, forming the entire French naval fleet of Lake Ontario. The fort was well equipped with arms and munitions of war, beside an enormous quantity of provisions, naval stores and supplies of every description, for the western posts. The fort and its guns were destroyed. The English carried off as much of the provisions and supplies as could be handled and burned the rest, as well as most of the vessels of the fleet. The Oneidas were liberally rewarded with the plunder.
The fall of Fort Frontenac was a stunning blow to the French. New France was cut in two. The west was now entirely at the mercy of the English who had also complete command of Lake Ontario. No attention need henceforth be paid to Fort Niagara, for it was helpless. Fort Duquesne was at that very moment in the last throes of dissolution, and so was falling to pieces French domination and authority in the west.
Michigan
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