Thus reckoned, his flotilla, disposed to the best advantage, could bring into action at one time, two 18's, thirteen 12's, one 9, two 6's, twelve 4's, and two 2-pounders, independent of swivels; total thirty-two guns, out of eighty-four that were mounted in fifteen vessels.

To this the British had to oppose, in three broadside vessels, nine 12's and thirteen 6's, and in twenty gunboats, twenty other brass guns, "from twenty-four to nines, some with howitzers;"[7] total forty-two guns.

In this statement the radeau and gondola have not been included, because of their unmanageableness.
Included as broadside vessels, they would raise the British armament--by three 24's, three 12's, four 9's, and a howitzer--to a total of fifty-three guns.

Actually, they could be brought into action only under exceptional circumstances, and are more properly omitted.
These minutiae are necessary for the proper appreciation of what Captain Douglas justly called "a momentous event." It was a strife of pigmies for the prize of a continent, and the leaders are entitled to full credit both for their antecedent energy and for their dispositions in the contest; not least the unhappy man who, having done so much to save his country, afterwards blasted his name by a treason unsurpassed in modern war.

Energy and audacity had so far preserved the Lake to the Americans; Arnold determined to have one more try of the chances.