Two armed vessels of the enemy were likely to cause
trouble to the British on the St. Lawrence, and Amherst was anxious to
put them out of the way before they could sink his boats. Putnam
proffered his services, declaring he could take the vessels in short
order.
"How?" asked the General, somewhat amused as well as surprised.
"With beetles and wedges, and a boat-load of men," answered "Put." And,
the story goes, he rowed out to the vessels, in the dead of night, drove
wooden wedges in behind their rudders, and left them helpless, for when
the wind came up they would not answer the helm and were driven ashore,
where their crews were easily taken by the English.
CHAPTER IX
A CAMPAIGN IN CUBA
It can not be denied that Israel Putnam was already quite a traveler;
but it must be added that he had so far traveled mainly within a
circumscribed area. Over and over again this faithful soldier had
plodded the trails and military roads, and pushed his way through the
swamps, morasses, forests, of the wilderness region of New York, which
by the end of 1761 he should have known almost as well as the woodland
pastures of his own farm.
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