e inhabitants of
Pemaquid destroyed the works rather than man them, advancing the
unique argument that since the people were not strong enough to
defend them they were a source of weakness rather than strength!

That the inhabitants of this coast were not lacking in spirit is
shown, however, by an incident of the War of 1812, which may be
told here. The enemy’s cruisers kept the whole coast in alarm
because of their frequent depredations against defenceless points.
One day one of these cruisers hove to in New Harbor and a barge
fully manned put out for shore. A small militia force had been
stationed by the Americans at old Fort Frederick and this force was
hastily summoned. The English barge drew near. It was hailed by
an old fisherman who warned the British officer not to attempt a
landing.

“If a gun is fired the whole town will be destroyed,” replied the
Britisher.

Not a single gun, but a number of them, answered this threat. The
rocks of the shore bristled with fowling pieces and ducking-guns
and all manner of fire-arms. The barge drifted helplessly to sea,
its occupants badly wounded, and the master of the war-ship, after
taking his helpless men on board, sailed away to Halifax.

Old Fort Frederick, in 1814, saw the beginning of the historic
combat between the vessels _Boxer_ and the _Enterprise_, in which
the _Enterprise_, U. S. A., commanded by Lieutenant Burrows, was
victorious.




FORT NIAGARA

AT MOUTH OF NIAGARA RIVER--NEW YORK


The main building of old Fort Niagara, “The Castle,” is probably
the oldest piece of masonry in the State of New York, having been
constructed by the French in 1726. The stone-work of the barracks,
a structure 134 by 24 feet with walls only eight feet in height,
goes back to 1757, and in this year was, also, built the magazine.
The bake-house, replacing a former one on the same site, was put up
by the British in 1762 and the two stone block-houses by them in
1771 and 1773.

In the two hundred and eighty-eight and a half acres of the
government reservation here one 