thirteen years of age at the time, but the spirit of the
war-path was already upon him. The zealous appeals of
the major-general must have stirred him greatly, and it
may well be that this lad, with youthful frame and boyish
features, here received an impulse which often sustained
him in later years during his long career of active
loyalty on behalf of the English cause. As it happened,
Joseph was soon to be in active service. On August 8,
1755, Johnson's expedition left Albany, and a week later
arrived at the great carrying-place between the Hudson
and Lac St Sacrement, as Lake George was then called. At
this point Fort Lyman [Footnote: Afterwards named Fort
Edward.] had been built the same summer. Thence the
major-general set out, with fifteen hundred provincials
and three hundred Indians, on his journey northward. King
Hendrick, a chief of the Mohawks, led the tribesmen, and
under his direction a number of braves were being tested
for the first time. One of these--we may imagine the
boy's intense delight--was young Joseph Brant.

On reaching Lac St Sacrement Johnson made a halt and took
up a strong position on the shore. Soon reinforcements
arrived under General Phineas Lyman, his second in command.
Johnson re-named the lake. 'I have given it,' he says,
'the name of Lake George, not only in honour of His
Majesty, but to assert his undoubted dominion here.'

Meanwhile Baron Dieskau, the commander of the French
forces, having landed at South Bay, the southern extremity
of the waters of Lake Champlain, was moving down through