Chased by the French and vengeful Indians, and short on rations, Rogers and his men returned to Crown Point via the Connecticut River valley.

General Jeffery Amherst, the victor at Ticonderoga, had little news of the situation before Quebec, and he required accurate intelligence before deciding whether a move of his army along Lake Champlain was warranted.

Although this party successfully travelled the route in both directions, the time taken meant that their news was effectively useless to Amherst due to the lateness of the season.

Amherst sent a second party, consisting of two officers from the 17th Regiment and a handful of Stockbridge Indians, on a route from the northern end of Lake Champlain toward Quebec via the primarily Abenaki village of St. Francis.

In addition to dispatches for Wolfe, this party, led by Captain Quinton Kennedy, had, as a sort of cover for their movements, instructions to make offers of friendship to the Abenakis in exchange for their non-participation in the hostilities between the British and French.

In addition to the Abenakis who arrived after Father Rale's War, members of other tribes that had been driven from New England in earlier conflicts lived there, as did white settlers that had either by choice or by capture adopted native ways.

On August 24 Kennedy's party was surrounded and captured by the Abenakis; despite attempts at bribery and negotiation, they were turned over to General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm in Quebec.

This heightened anger and resentment among the British, and Amherst, apparently upset over the Abenaki behaviour, decided to send Robert Rogers on a retaliatory mission.

Amherst's orders to Rogers on September 13 included the following: "Remember the barbarities that have been committed by the enemy's Indian scoundrels on every occasion, where they had an opportunity of showing their infamous cruelties on the King's subjects, which they have done without mercy.

Rogers reached the head of Missisquoi Bay early on September 23, where the boats and supplies for the return trip were concealed and left with two Indians as guards.

The next day, a larger party of scouts, coincidentally led by Oliver de la Durantaye, who had battled Rogers in 1758, discovered the boats.

He also concluded that the force might be targeting St. Francis in retaliation for Kennedy's capture, and stationed several hundred men near the site where the boats were hidden to set up an ambush in the event of Rogers' return.

McMullen and his men made the overland trek to Crown Point (more than 100 miles (160 km) over difficult terrain) in nine days, arriving on October 3.

On October 3 Vaudreuil wrote to Bourlamaque that he had called on the Abenakis and some local militia to set up an ambush on the Yamaska River, the route Kennedy had used on his expedition.

By the time Rogers and his company saw the smoke from the fires of St. Francis late on October 3, his force had been reduced to 142 men, and their rations had been completely exhausted.

According to Abenaki oral tradition, a strange native identifying himself as a Mahican (as the Stockbridge Indians were also known) entered the village and circulated warnings that it was about to be attacked.

"[12] Rogers interrogated some of the captives, and learned that large companies of French and Indians were within easy marching distance,[13] including a force of about 400 that were expected to arrive the next day.

After a brief council, Rogers and his men agreed that the only reasonable means of retreat was to Number Four, a straight-line distance of about 200 miles (320 km) through uncharted wilderness.

Roger's force, burdened by supplies and prisoners, made fairly good progress, covering the 70 miles (110 km) from St. Francis to Lake Memphremagog in about eight days.

[15] At St. Francis, some of the prisoners "fell a victim to the fury of the Indian women, notwithstanding the efforts the Canadians could make to save them", suggesting that they were not subjected to ritual torture or killing.

The journals of the later stages of the expedition provide only a fragmented picture of what occurred to those of Rogers' force that eluded the pursuit, as men subjected to exhaustion, exposure, and starvation are unlikely to make good reporters.

The journal kept by Rogers was relatively terse concerning the trek to the Connecticut River, with "many days tedious march over steep rocky mountains or thro' wet dirty swamps, with the terrible attendants of fatigue and hunger".

One widely reported account of cannibalism was recounted to historian Thomas Mante by Lieutenant George Campbell, in which his party of men came upon scalped remains trapped in logs on a small river, "devouring part of them raw" because they were too impatient to wait for a fire.

[18] Robert Kirkwood, in a relatively unadorned account, tells how Rogers killed one of their prisoners, an Indian woman, butchered the remains, and divided them among his men.

Leaving most of his emaciated company behind with promises to return with supplies in ten days, he and three men descended the Connecticut River on rafts, reaching Number Four on October 31, where he was reportedly barely able to walk.

The account, delivered by a French officer under a truce flag, included mention that women and children had been slain, an observation Amherst discounted.

Many of the village's residents who were not present at the time of the raid continued to serve with the French forces in the war, settling in other native communities along the Saint Lawrence.