all calculation. They got across to the Lake thirty long-boats, many
large flat-bottomed boats, a vast number of bateaux, and a gondola of
thirty tons, carrying them over land, or dragging them up the rapids.
The keel and floor-timbers of the _Inflexible_, a ship of three hundred
tons, which had been laid at Quebec, were taken to pieces, and carried
over to St. John's, on the Lake, where a dockyard was established, under
the superintendence of Lieutenant Schanck, an officer of extraordinary
mechanical ingenuity. Here, on the morning of the 2nd September, the
_Inflexible_ was again laid down, and by sunset, all her former parts
were put together, and a considerable quantity of additional timbers
prepared. The progress of the work was like magic. Trees growing in the
forest in the morning, would form part of the ship before night. She was
launched in twenty-eight days from laying her keel, and sailed next
evening, armed with eighteen twelve-pounders, and fully equipped for
service. Two schooners, the _Maria_, and the _Carleton_; the _Loyal
Convert_, gondola; the _Thunder_, a kind of flat-bottomed raft, carrying
twelve heavy guns and two howitzers; and twenty-four boats, armed each
with a field piece, or carriage-gun, formed, with the _Inflexible_, a
force equal to the service, where but a few days before, the British had
scarcely a boat upon the waters. No time was now lost in seeking the
enemy, and Sir Guy Carleton himself embarked with the squadron. Captain
Pringle, as commodore, sailed with Lieutenant Schanck in the
_Inflexible_. Lieutenant Dacres, with Mr. Brown and Mr. Pellew, were
appointed to the _Carleton_.

On the 11th of October, the enemy was discovered drawn up in a strong
line across the passage between Valicour, one of the numerous islands on
the lake, and the Western land; and so well concealed by the island,
that the squadron had nearly passed without observing them. They had
fifteen vessels, carrying ninety-six guns, fourteen of which were