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immediate cause of Eddy's discomfiture was the arrival of a reinforcement at Fort Cumberland under Major Batt and Captain Studholme by means of which the besiegers were driven from their camp in the utmost confusion.

We come now to consider the circumstances under which Fort Howe was built.

On the 11th October, 1777, Lt. Governor Arbuthnot wrote the Secretary of State, Lord George Germaine, that in consequence of the frequent attacks of the Machias people on the settlements on the River St. John, he had requested Brigadier General Massey to establish a fortified post at the mouth of that river with a garrison of fifty men; this with the aid of a frigate would secure the inhabitants from further molestation, and prevent the Americans from occupying the post, an object they had long coveted. Accordingly in the latter part of November, Gilfred Studholme, now advanced to the rank of Brigade Major, was sent by General Massey to St. John with a detachment of fifty picked men, a frame block house, and four six-pounders. The garrison came under convoy of a sloop of war, which remained in the harbor for their protection till the following spring. Studholme at first contemplated the advisability of restoring Fort Frederick, which had been burned by the rebels the year before, but deemed it better to erect a new fortification on the commanding site since known as Fort Howe. Some idea of the nature of this fortification may be formed by a glance at the illustration, the original of which is a sketch made in 1781 by Capt. Benjamin Marston from the deck of his vessel Brittania, then lying at anchor in the harbor; it is believed to be the only representation of old Fort Howe extant. Colonel Robert Morse thus describes Fort Howe in 1784.