The English loss was slight.
[Footnote 733: _Instructions of Amherst to Prideaux, 17 May, 1759.
Prideaux to Haldimand, 30 June, 1759_.]
[Footnote 734: _Journal of Colonel Amherst_.]
[Footnote 735: Pouchot, II. 130. _Compare Memoires sur le Canada,
1749-1760_; _N.Y. Col. Docs._, VII. 395; and _Letter from Oswego_, in
_Boston Evening Post_, No. 1,248.]
Prideaux safely reached Niagara, and laid siege to it. It was a strong
fort, lately rebuilt in regular form by an excellent officer, Captain
Pouchot, of the battalion of Bearn, who commanded it. It stood where the
present fort stands, in the angle formed by the junction of the River
Niagara with Lake Ontario, and was held by about six hundred men, well
supplied with provisions and munitions of war.[736] Higher up the river,
a mile and a half above the cataract, there was another fort, called
Little Niagara, built of wood, and commanded by the half-breed officer,
Joncaire-Chabert, who with his brother, Joncaire-Clauzonne, and a
numerous clan of Indian relatives, had so long thwarted the efforts of
Johnson to engage the Five Nations in the English cause. But recent
English successes had had their effect. Joncaire's influence was waning,
and Johnson was now in Prideaux's camp with nine hundred Five Nation
warriors pledged to fight the French. Joncaire, finding his fort
untenable, burned it, and came with his garrison and his Indian friends
to reinforce Niagara.
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