Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 7).djvu/124

 The failure to capture Crown Point this year brought down a scourge of Indians upon New Hampshire, particularly from the St. Francis River, between which and the Connecticut there was "a safe and easy communication by short carrying-places." But the white men found this route ere long and themselves carried destruction up the St. Francis Valley.

When in 1759, General Amherst was preparing to complete Wolfe's victory by reducing the remainder of Canada, eight hundred New Hampshire men proceeded under Colonel John Goffe to Fort Number Four. "But instead of taking the old route, to Albany, they cut a road through the woods, directly toward Crown Point. In this work they made such dispatch, as to join that part of the army which Amherst had left at Crown Point, twelve days before their embarkation." This road was built over the portage to Otter Creek. It "began at Wentworth's ferry, two miles above the fort at No. 4, and was cut 26