English prisoners. Later on, the majority of the prisoners were sent to England while the women and the children who had been driven to the fort for protection were, at their own request, allowed to depart for Montreal.
The fall of Fort Niagara accomplished all that the English government and the colonists had hoped for. It broke the chain of defenses the French had established between the lakes and the lower Mississippi, and closely following this disaster the enemy were compelled to vacate Venango, Presqu'ile, La Bœuf, and other points, including the trading posts on the Ohio and the Kinotah. They retired to Detroit, and to the upper bank of the St. Lawrence, and the English and colonists quickly took possession of the places vacated.
It was not deemed necessary that Dave and his friends return to the vicinity of the fort the next day, and they and a party of rangers numbering eighteen encamped along the bank of the Niagara. Two of the rangers were suffering from wounds in the shoulders, and they and Dave were made as comfortable as possible, so that by the next night the young soldier felt once more like himself.
"But I never want to tumble into that river again," he said to Henry with a shudder. "I felt as if every minute was going to be my last."
