VALE UNIVERSITY L BRAB f la 3 9002 07223 5923 I- .-ll J Ji » ^i" MIHm f. ¦w af •*- I '«li|^-f^ Mr *''- •! f,J- 'r 'f - ... „ ^v 1 *j^ I ¦ J ¦ • H '* ifjj" J J J'fi'f lay >^ >r .P ^.„. t" fh* > »» •.'X " " ""1*.*'^' *,'! "; "Reading ma\eth a full man, conference a readye man, and writing an exacte man" — Bacoh Jranii'B Parftman'g amotfes. NEW LIBRARY EDITION. Vol. VII. Soiwd & CfPatLs. Sir William Pepperrell. From the painting by John Smibert. A Half Century of Conflict, II., Frontispiece. A HALE-CENTURY OF CONELICT. FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA. Part Sixth. BY FRANCIS PARKMAN. m TWO VOLUMES. Vol. IL BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1905: Copyright, 189S, Bt Fbancis Parkman. Copyright, 1897, Bt Little, Bkown, and Compant. JEnibEtgitg Press: JoBM Wilson and Son, Camekidge, U. S. A. 7 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVL 1716-1761. search ror the pacific. Page The Western Sea. — Schemes for reaching it. — Journey of Charlevoix. — The Sioux Mission. — Varenues de la V^ren- drye : his Enterprise ; his Disasters ; visits the Mandans ; his Sons; their Search for the Western Sea; their Adventures. — The Snake Indians. — A Great War-party. — The Rocky Mountains. — A Panic. — Return of the Brothers ; their Wrongs and their Fate 3 CHAPTER XVn. 1700-1750. THE CHAIN OF POSTS. Opposing Claims. — Attitude of the Rival Nations. — America a French Continent. — England a Usurper. — French Demands. — Magnanimous Proposals. — Warlike Preparation. — Niag ara. — Oswego. — Crown Point. — The Passes of the West secured 44 CHAPTER XVIIL 1744, 1745. A MAD SCHEME. War of the Austrian Succession. — The French seize Canseau and attack Annapolis. — Plan of Reprisal. — WiUiam Vaughan. — Governor Shirley : he advises an Attack on Louisbourg. — The Assembly refuses, but at last consents. — Prepara tion. — WiUiam PepperreU. — George Whitefield. — Parson VI CONTENTS. Page Moody. —The Soldiers. — The Provincial Navy. — Commo dore Warren. — Shirley as an Amateur Soldier. — The Fleet sails 59 CHAPTER XIX. 1745. LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. Seth Pomeroy. — The Voyage. — Canseau. — Unexpected Suc cors. — Delays. — Louisbourg. — The Landing. — The Grand Battery taken. — French Cannon turned on the Town. — Weakness of Duchambon. — Sufferings of the Besiegers : their Hardihood ; their Irregular Proceedings. — Joseph Sherburn. — Amateur Gunnery. — Camp Frolics. — Sectarian ZeaL — Perplexities of Pepperrell 90 CHAPTER XX. 1745. LOUISBOURG TAKEN. A Rash Resolution. — The Island Battery. — The Volunteers. — The Attack. —The Repulse. — Capture of the " Vigilant." — A Sortie. — Skirmishes. — Despondency of the French. — English Camp threatened. — Pepperrell and Warren. — War ren's Plan. — Preparation for a General Attack. — Flag of Truce. — Capitulation. — State of the Fortress. — Parson Moody. — Soldiers dissatisfied. — Disorders. — Army and Navy. — Rejoicings. — England repays Provincial Outlays . 117 CHAPTER XXI. 1745-1747. Due d'anville. Louisbourg after the Conquest. — Mutiny. — Pestilence. — Stephen Williams : his Diary. — Scheme of Conquering Canada. — Newcastle's Promises. — Alarm in Canada. — Promises broken. — Plan against Crown Point. — Startling News. — D'Anville's Fleet. — Louisbourg to be avenged. Disasters of D'Anville. — Storm. — Pestilence. — Famine. — Death of D'Anville. — Suicide of the Vice- Admiral. — Ruin ous Failure. — Return Voyage. — Defeat of La Jonquifere . 145 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XXIL 1745-1747. acadian conflicts. Page Efforts of France. — Apathy of Newcastle. — Dilemma of Aca- dians : their Character. — Danger of the Province. — Plans of Shirley. — Acadian Priests. — Political Agitators. — Noble's Expedition. — Ramesay at Beaubassin. — Noble at Grand-Pre'. — A Winter March. — Defeat and Death of Noble. — Grand-Pre reoccupied by the English. — Threats of Ramesay against the Acadians. — The British Ministry will not protect them 1 69 CHAPTER XXIIL 1740-1747. WAR AND POLITICS. Governor and Assembly. — Saratoga destroyed. — William John son. — Border Ravages. — Upper Ashuelot. — French " Mili tary Movements." — Number Four. — Niverwille's Attack. — Phineas Stevens. — The French repulsed 205 CHAPTER XXIV. 1745-1748. FORT MASSACHUSETTS. Frontier Defence. — Northiield and its Minister. — Military Criti cisms of Rev. Benjamin Doolittle. — Rigaud de Vaudreuil : his Great War-party ; he attacks Fort Massachusetts. — Sergeant Hawks and his Garrison. — A Gallant Defence. — Capitulation. — Humanity of the French. — Ravages. — Re turn to Crown Point. — Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle .... 230 APPENDIX. A. France claims aU North America except the Spanish Colonies 257 B. French Views of the Siege of Louisbourg 274 C. Shirley's Relations with the Acadians 312 INDEX 361 A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT. A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT. CHAPTER XVI. 1716-1761. SEARCH FOB THE PACIFIC. Tk» Western Sea. — Schemes tor beaching it. — Jouenet OF Charlevoix. — The Sioux Mission. — Varennes de la Verendryis : his Entekpeisb ; his Disasters ; visits the Mandans; his Sons; their Search for the Western Sea; thbik Adventures. — The Snake Indians. — A Geeat Wae-Pakty. — The Rocky Mountains. — A Panic. — Retuen of the Brothers ; thbie Wrongs and their Fate. In the disastrous last years of Louis XIV. the court gave little thought to the New World; but under the regency of the Duke of Orleans interest in American affairs revived. Plans for reaching the Mer de I'Ouest, or Pacific Ocean, were laid before the Regent in 1716. It was urged that the best hope was in sending an expedition across the continent, seeing that every attempt to find a westward passage by Hudson Bay had failed. As starting-points and bases of supply for the expedition, it was proposed to establish three posts, one on the north shore of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the river Kaministiguia, 4 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1717-1723. another at Lac des Cristineaux, now called Lake of the Woods, and the third at Lake Winnipeg, — the last being what in American phrase is called the "jumping-off place," or the point where the expedi tion was to leave behind the last trace of civilization. These posts were to cost the Crown nothing; since by a device common in such cases, those who built and maintained them were to be paid by a monopoly of the fur-trade in the adjacent countries. It was admitted, however, that the subsequent exploration must be at the charge of the government, and would require fifty good men, at three hundred francs a year each, besides equipment and supplies. All things considered, it was reckoned that an overland way to the Pacific might be found for about fifty thousand francs, or ten thousand dollars.^ The Regent approved the scheme so far as to order the preliminary step to be taken by establishing the three posts, and in this same year, Lieutenant La None, of the colony troops, began the work by build ing a stockade at the mouth of the Kaministiguia. Little more was done in furtherance of the explora tion till three years later, when the celebrated Jesuit, Charlevoix, was ordered by the Duke of Orleans to repair to America and gain all possible information concerning the Western Sea and the way to it.^ In the next year he went to the Upper Lakes, 1 Mgmoire fait et arrests par le Conseil de Marine, ZF^vrier, 1717 j M^moire du Roy, 26 Juin, 1717. 2 Charlevoix au Comte de Morville, 1 Avril, 1723. 1717-1723.] CHARLEVOIX. 5 and questioned missionaries, ofiicers, voyageurs, and Indians. The results were not satisfactory. The missionaries and the officers had nothing to tell; the voyagers and Indians knew no more than they, but invented confused and contradictory falsehoods to hide their ignorance. Charlevoix made note of every thing, and reported to the Comte de Toulouse that the Pacific probably formed the western boundary of the country of the Sioux, and that some Indians told him that they had been to its shores and found white men there different from the French. Believing that these stories were not without foundation, Charlevoix reported two plans as likely to lead to the coveted discovery. One was to ascend the Missouri, "the source of which is certainly not far from the sea, as all the Indians I have met have unanimously assured me ; " and the other was to establish a mission among the Sioux, from whom, after thoroughly learning their language, the mis sionaries could, as he thinks, gain all the desired information.^ The Regent approved the plan of the mission ; but the hostile disposition of the Sioux and the Outaga- mies prevented its execution for several years. In 1 The valuable journal of Charlevoix's western travels, written in the form of letters, was published in connection with his Bis- toire de la Nouvelle France. After his visit to the Lakes, he went to New Orleans, intending to return in the spring and continue his in quiries for the Western Sea ; but being unable to do this, he went back to France at the end of 1722. The official report of his mis sion is contained in a letter to the Comte de Toulouse, 20 January, 1723. 6 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1727. 1727 the scheme was revived, and the colonial min ister at Versailles ordered the governor of Canada to send two missionaries to the Sioux. But the mission required money, and the King would not give it. Hence the usual expedient was adopted. A com pany was formed, and invested with a monopoly of the Sioux fur-trade, on condition of building a fort, mission-house, and chapel, and keeping an armed force to guard them. It was specially provided that none but pious and virtuous persons were to be allowed to join the Company, "in order," says the document, " to attract the benediction of God upon them and their business."^ The prospects of the Company were thought good, and the governor him self was one of the shareholders. While the mission was given the most conspicuous place in the enter prise, its objects were rather secular than spiritual, — to attach the Sioux to the French interest by the double ties of religion and trade, and utilize their supposed knowledge to reach the Pacific.^ Father Guignas was made the head of the mission, and Boucher de la PerriSre the military chief. The party left Montreal in June, and, journeying to the Mississippi by way of Michilimackinac, Green Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, went up the great river to Lake Pepin, where the adventurous Nicolas Perrot had built two trading-posts more than forty 1 Trattt de la Compagnie des Sioux, 6 Juin, 1727. 2 On this scheme, Vaudreuil et B^gon au Ministre, 4 Octobre, 1723 ; Longueuil et B€gon au Ministre, 31 Octobre, 1725; Beauharnois el Dupuy au Ministre, 25 Septembre, 1727. 1728-1731.] THE SIOUX MISSION. 7 years before. Even if his time-worn tenements were stiU standing, La Perri^re had no thought of occupy ing them. On the north, or rather west, side of the lake his men found a point of land that seemed fit for their purpose, disembarked, cut down trees, and made a square stockade enclosing the necessary build ings. It was near the end of October before they were all well housed. A large band of Sioux pres ently appeared, and set up their teepees hard by. When the birthday of the governor came, the party celebrated it with a display of fireworks and vociferous shouts of Vive le Boi, Vive Charles de Beauharnois, while the Indians yelped in fright and amazement at the pyrotechnics, or stood pressing their hands upon their mouths in silent amazement. The French called their fort Fort Beauharnois, and invited the aid of Saint Michael the Archangel by naming the mission in his honor. AU went well till April, when the water rose with the spring floods and filled fort, chapel, and houses to the depth of nearly three feet, ejecting the whole party, and forcing them to encamp on higher ground till the deluge subsided.^ Worse enemies than the floods soon found them out. These were the irrepressible Outagamies, who rose against the intruding French and incited the Sioux to join them. There was no profit for the Company, and no safety for its agents. The stock holders became discouraged, and would not support the enterprise. The fort was abandoned, till in 1731 I Guignas a Beauharnois, 28 Mai^ 172S. 8 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1737. a new arrangement was made, followed by another attempt.^ For a time a prosperous trade was carried on; but, as commonly happened in such cases, the adventurers seem to have thought more of utilizing their monopoly than of fulfilling the terms on which they had received it. The wild Sioux of the plains, instead of being converted and turned into French men, proved such dangerous neighbors that, in 1737, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who then commanded the post, found himself forced to abandon it.^ The enterprise had failed in both its aims. The West- em Sea was stiU a mystery, and the Sioux were not friends, but enemies. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre recommended that they should be destroyed, — benevolent advice easy to give, and impossible to execute.' Ren6 Gaultier de Varennes, lieutenant in the regi ment of Carignan, married at Three Rivers, in 1667, the daughter of Pierre Boucher, govemor of that place; the age of the bride. Demoiselle Marie Boucher, being twelve years, six months, and eigh teen days. Varennes succeeded his father-in-law as governor of Three Rivers, with a salary of twelve hundred francs, to which he added the profits of a farm of forty acres ; and on these modest resources, reinforced by an illicit trade in furs, he made shift to 1 Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre, 25 Octobre, 1729 ; Idem, 12 Octobre, 1781. " Relation du Sieur de Saint-Pierre, 14 Octobre, 1737. ' " Cet offlcier [Saint-Pierre] a ajoute' qu'il seroit avantageux de d^truire cette naiiovL." — Memoire de Beauharnois, 1738. 1728.] VARENNES DE LA VlfiRENDRYE. 9 sustain the dignity of his ofiice. His wife became the mother of numerous offspring, among whom was Pierre, bom in 1685, — an active and hardy youth, who, like the rest of the poor but vigorous Canadian noblesse, seemed born for the forest and the fur-trade. When, however, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out, the young man crossed the sea, obtained the commission of lieutenant, and was nearly killed at the battle of Malplaquet, where he was shot through the body, received six sabre-cuts, and was left for dead on the field. He recovered, and returned to Canada, when, finding his services slighted, he again took to the woods. He had assumed the designation of La V^rendrye, and thenceforth his full name was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vdrendrye.^ In 1728, he was in command of a small post on Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior. Here an Indian chief from the river Kaministiguia told him of a certain great lake which discharged itself by a river flowing westward. The Indian further declared that he had descended this river till he reached water that ebbed and flowed, and, terrified by the strange phenomenon, had turned back, though not till he had heard of a great salt lake, bordered with many vil lages. Other Indians confirmed and improved the story. "These people," said La V^rendrye to the 1 M. Benjamin Suite has traced out the family history of the Varennes in the parish registers of Three Rivers and other trust- vrorthy sources. See Revue Canadienne, x. 781, 849, 935. 10 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1731. Jesuit Degonnor, " are great liars, but now and then they tell the truth. "^ It seemed to him likely that their stories of a western river flowing to a western sea were not totally groundless, and that the true way to the Pacific was not, as had been supposed, through the country of the Sioux, but farther north ward, through that of the Cristineaux and Assini- boins, or, in other words, through the region now called Manitoba. In this view he was sustained by his friend Degonnor, who had just retumed from the ill-starred Sioux mission. La V^rendrye, fired with the zeal of discovery, offered to search for the Western Sea if the King would give him one hundred men and supply canoes, arms, and provisions.^ But, as was usual in such cases, the King would give nothing; and though the governor, Beauharnois, did all in his power to promote the enterprise, the burden and the risk were left to the adventurer himself. La V^rendrye was authorized to find a way to the Pacific at his own expense, in consideration of a monopoly of the fur- trade in the regions north and west of Lake Superior. This vast and remote country was held by tribes who were doubtful friends of the French, and perpetual enemies of each other. The risks of the trade were as great as its possible profits, and, to reap these, vast outlays must first be made: forts must be built, 1 Relation du Pere Degonnor, J^suite, Missionnaire des Sioux, adressfe a M. le Marquis de Beauharnois. ^ Relation de Degonnor ; Beauharnois au Ministre, 1 Octobre, 1731. 1731.] LA V^RENDRYE'S ENTERPRISE. 11 manned, provisioned, and stocked with goods brought through two thousand miles of difficult and perilous wilderness. There were other dangers, more insidious, and perhaps greater. The exclusive privileges granted to La V^rendrye would inevitably rouse the intensest jealousy of the Canadian merchants, and they would spare no effort to ruin him. Intrigue and calumny would be busy in his absence. If, as was likely, his pati'on, Beauharnois, should be recalled, the new govemor might be turned against him, his privileges might be suddenly revoked, the forts he had built passed over to his rivals, and all his outlays turned to their profit, as had happened to La Salle on the recall of his patron, Frontenao. On the other hand, the country was full of the choicest furs, which the Indians had hitherto carried to the English at Hudson Bay, but which the proposed trading-posts would secure to the French. La V^rendrye's enemies pre tended that he thought of nothing but beaver-skins, and slighted the discovery which he had bound him self to undertake; but his conduct proves that he was true to his engagements, and that ambition to gain honorable distinction in the service of the King had a large place among the motives that impelled him. As his own resources were of the smallest, he took a number of associates on conditions most unfavorable to himself. Among them they raised money enough to begin the enterprise, and on the eighth of June, 1731, La V^rendrye and three of his sons, together 12 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1731,1732. with his nephew. La Jemeraye, the Jesuit Messager, and a party of Canadians, set out from Montreal. It was late in August before they reached the great portage of Lake Superior, which led across the height of land separating the waters of that lake from those flowing to Lake Winnipeg. The way was long and difficult. The men, who had perhaps been tampered with, mutinied, and refused to go farther.^ Some of them, with much ado, consented at last to proceed, and, under the lead of La Jemeraye, made their way by an intricate and broken chain of lakes and streams to Rainy Lake, where they built a fort and called it Fort St. Pierre. La V^rendrye was forced to winter with the rest of the party at the river Kaministiguia, not far from the great portage. Here pionths were lost, during which a crew of useless mutineers had to be fed and paid; and it was not till the next June that he could get them again into motion towards Lake Winnipeg. This ominous beginning was followed by a train of disasters. His associates abandoned him; the mer chants on whom he depended for supplies would not send them, and he found himself, in his own words, " destitute of everything. " His nephew, La Jemeraye, died. The Jesuit Auneau, bent on retuming to Michilimackinac, set out with La V^rendrye's eldest son and a party of twenty Canadians. A few days later, they were all found on an island in the Lake of 1 M^moire du Sieur de la Verendrye du Sujet des ^tablissements pour parvenir a la D€couverte de la Mer de I'Ouest, in Margry, vi. 585. 1740.] DISASTERS. 13 the Woods, murdered and mangled by the Sioux. > The Assiniboins and Cristineaux, mortal foes of that fierce people, offered to join the French and avenge the butchery ; but a war with the Sioux would have ruined La V^rendrye's plans of discovery, and exposed to torture and death the French traders in their country. Therefore he restrained himself and de clined the proffered aid, at the risk of incurring the contempt of those who offered it. Beauharnois twice appealed to the court to give La Vdrendrye some little aid, urging that he was at the end of his resources, and that a grant of thirty thou sand francs, or six thousand dollars, would enable him to find a way to the Pacific. All help was refused, but La Verendrye was told that he might let out his forts to other traders, and so raise means to pursue the discovery. In 1740 he went for the third time to Montreal, where, instead of aid, he found a lawsuit. "In spite," he says, "of the derangement of my affairs, the envy and jealousy of various persons impelled them to write letters to the court insinuating that I thought of nothing but making my fortune. If more than forty thousand livres of debt which I have on my shoulders are an advantage, then I can flatter myself that I am very rich. In all my misfortunes, I have the consolation of seeing that M. de Beauharnois 1 Beauharnois au Ministre, 14 Octobre, 1736 ; Relation du Massacre au Lac des Bois, en Juin, 1736; Journal de la Verendrye, joint a la lettre de M. de Beauharnois du — Octobre, 1737. 14 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1732-1740. enters into my views, recognizes the uprightness of my intentions, and does me justice in spite of opposition."^ Meanwhile, under all his difficulties, he had explored a vast region hitherto unknown, diverted a great and lucrative fur-trade from the English at Hudson Bay, and secured possession of it by six fortified posts, — Fort St. Pierre, on Rainy Lake ; Fort St. Charles, on the Lake of the Woods; Fort Maurepas, at the mouth of the river Winnipeg ; Fort Bourbon, on the eastern side of Lake Winnipeg; Fort La Reine, on the Assiniboin; Fort Dauphin, on Lake Manitoba. Besides these he built another post, called Fort Rouge, on the site of the city of Winnipeg; and, some time after, another, at the mouth of the river Poskoiac, or Saskatchewan, neither of which, however, was long occupied. These various forts were only stockade works flanked with block houses ; but the difficulty of building and maintain ing them in this remote wilderness was incalculable.* ^ M^moire du Sieur de la Virendrye au Sujet des iStablissements pour parvenir h, la D&ouverte de la Mer de I'Ouest. * M^moire en abr^g^ de la Carte qui repr&ente les Aablissements /aits par le Sieur de la Verendrye et ses Enfants (Margry, vi. 616) ; Carte des Nouvelles D&ouvertes dans I'Ouest du Canada dress€e sur les M^moires du Ml de la Verandrie et donn€e au D€p6t de la Marine par M, de la Galissonniere, 1750 ; Bellin, Remarques sur la Carte de l'Am€rique, 1755; BougainvUle, M^moire sur I'^Etat de la Nouvelle France, 1757. Most of La Verendrye's forts were standing during the Seven Vears' War, and were known collectively as Pastes de la Mer di I'Ouest. 1737,1738.] FRUITLESS DTQUIRIES. 15 He had inquired on all sides for the Pacific. The Assiniboins could teU him nothing. Nor could any information be expected from them, since their rela tives and mortal enemies, the Sioux, barred their way to the West. The Cristineaux were equally ignorant; but they supplied the place of knowledge by inven tion, and drew maps, some of which seem to have been made with no other intention than that of amus ing themselves by imposing on the inquirer. They also declared that some of their number had gone down a river called White River, or River of the West, where they found a plant that shed drops like blood, and saw serpents of prodigious size. They said further that on the lower part of this river were walled towns, where dwelt white men who had knives, hatchets, and cloth, but no firearms.^ Both Assiniboins and Cristineaux declared that there was a distant tribe on the Missouri, called Mantannes (Mandans), who knew the way to the Western Sea, and would guide him to it. Lured by this assurance, and feeling that he had sufficiently secured his position to enable him to begin his western exploration, La Verendrye left Fort La Reine in October, 1738, with twenty men, and pushed up the river Assiniboin till its rapids and shallows threat ened his bark canoes with destruction. Then, with a band of Assiniboin Indians who had joined him, he struck across the prairie for the Mandans, his 1 Journal de la V&endrye joint a la Lettre de M. da Beauharnoi» du— Octobre, nSI. 16 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1738, 1739. Indian companions hunting buffalo on the way. They approached the first Mandan village on the afternoon of the third of December, displaying a French flag and firing three volleys as a salute. The whole population poured out to see the marvellous visitors, who were conducted through the staring crowd to the lodge of the principal chief, — a capa cious structure so thronged with the naked and greasy savages that the Frenchmen were half smothered. What was worse, they lost the bag that held all their presents for the Mandans, which was snatched away in the confusion, and hidden in one of the caches, called cellars by La Verendrye, of which the place was full. The chief seemed much discomposed at this mishap, and explained it by saying that there were many rascals in the village. The loss was serious, since without the presents nothing could be done. Nor was this all; for in the "morning La Verendrye missed his interpreter, and was told that he had fallen in love with an Assiniboin girl and gone off in pursuit of her. The French were now without any means of communicating with the Mandans, from whom, however, before the disap pearance of the interpreter, they had already received a variety of questionable information, chiefly touch ing white men cased in iron who were said to live on the river below at the distance of a whole summer's journey. As they were impervious to arrows, — so the story ran, — it was necessary to shoot their horses, after which, being too heavy to run, they were easily 1739.] THE MANDANS. 17 caught. This was probably suggested by the armor of the Spaniards, who had more than once made incursions as far as the lower Missouri ; but the nar rators drew on their imagination for various additional particulars. The Mandans seem to have much declined in num bers during the century that followed this visit of La Verendrye. He says that they had six villages on or near the Missouri, of which the one seen by him was the smallest, though he thinks that it con tained a hundred and thirty houses.^ As each of these large structures held a number of families, the population must have been considerable. Yet when Prince Maximilian visited the Mandans in 1833, he found only two villages, containing jointly two hun dred and forty warriors and a total population of about a thousand souls. Without having seen the statements of La Verendrye, he speaks of the popu lation as greatly reduced by wars and the small-pox, — a disease which a few years later nearly extermi nated the tribe. 2 1 Journal de La Verendrye, 1738, 1739. This journal, which is ill- written and sometimes obscure, is printed in Brymner, Report on Canadian Archives, 1889. 2 Le Prince MaximiUen de Wied-Neuwied, Voyage dans I'lnt^rieur de I'Amerique du Nord, ii. 371, 372 (Paris, 1843). When Captains Lewis and Clark visited the Mandans in 1804, they found them in two villages, with about three hundred and fifty warriors. They report that, about forty years before, they lived in nine villages, the ruins of which the explorers saw about eighty miles below the two villages then occupied by the tribe. The Mandans had moved ap the river in consequence of the persecutions of the Sioux and TOL. II. — 2 18 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1739. La Verendrye represents the six villages as sur rounded with ditches and stockades, flanked by a sort of bastion, — defences which, he says, had noth ing savage in their construction. In later times the fortifications were of a much ruder kind, though Maximilian represents them as having pointed salients to serve as bastions. La Verendrye mentions some peculiar customs of the Mandans which answer ex actly to those described by more recent observers. He had intended to winter with the tribe; but the loss of the presents and the interpreter made it use less to stay, and, leaving two men in the village to leam the language, he began his return to Fort La Reine. "I was very ill," he writes, "but hoped to get better on the way. The reverse was the case, for it was the depth of winter. It would be impossible to suffer more than I did. It seemed that nothing but death could release us from such miseries." He reached Fort La Reine on the eleventh of February, 1739. His iron constitution seems to have been severely shaken; but he had sons worthy of their father. The two men left among the Mandans appeared at Fort La Reine in September. They reported that they had been well treated, and that their hosts had parted from them with regret. They also declared the small-pox, which had made great havoc among them. Expe dition of Lewis and Clark, i. 129 (ed. Philadelphia, 1814). These nine villages seem to have been above Cannon-ball River, a tribu tary of the Missouri. 1740.] ADVENTURES OF THE EXPLORERS. 19 that at the end of spring several Indian tribes, all well supplied with horses, had come, as was their yearly custom, to the Mandan villages to barter embroidered buffalo hides and other skins for corn and beans ; that they had encamped, to the number of two hundred lodges, on the farther side of the Missouri, and. that among them was a band said to have come from a distant country towards the sunset, where there were white men who lived in houses built of bricks and stones. The two Frenchmen crossed over to the camp of these western strangers, among whom they found a chief who spoke, or professed to speak, the language of the mysterious white men, which to the two Frenchmen was unintelligible. Fortunately, he also spoke the language of the Mandans, of which the Frenchmen had learned a little during their stay, and hence were able to gather that the white men in question had beards, and that they prayed to the Master of Life in great houses, built for the purpose, holding books, the leaves of which were like husks of Indian corn, singing together and repeating Jesus, Marie. The chief gave many other particulars, which seemed to show that he had been in contact with Spaniards, — probably those of California; for he described their houses as standing near the great lake, of which the water rises and falls and is not fit to drink. He invited the two Frenchmen to go with him tc this strange country, saying that it could be reached before winter, though a wide circuit must 20 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742. be made, to avoid a fierce and dangerous tribe called Snake Indians (Gen,s du Serpent').^ On hearing this story. La Verendrye sent his eldest son, Pierre, to pursue the discovery with two men, ordering him to hire guides among the Mandans and make his way to the Western Sea. But no guides were to be found, and in the next summer the young man retumed from his bootless errand. ^ Undaunted by this failure, Pierre set out again in the next spring, 1742, with his younger brother, the Chevalier de la Verendrye. Accompanied only by two Canadians, they left Fort La Reine on the twenty- ninth of April, and following, no doubt, the route of the Assiniboin and Mouse River, reached the chief village of the Mandans in about three weeks. Here they found themselves the welcome guests of this singularly interesting tribe, ruined by the small pox nearly half a century ago, but preserved to memory by the skilful pencil of the artist Charles Bodmer, and the brush of the painter George Catlin, both of whom saw them at a time when they were little changed in habits and manners since the visit of the brothers La Vdrendrye.^ 1 Journal du Sieur de la Verendrye, 1740, in Archives de la Marine. 2 Me'moire du Sieur de la Verendrye, joint a sa lettre du 31 Octobre, 1744. • Prince Maximilian spent the winter of 1832-33 near the Man dan villages. His artist, with the instinct of genius, seized the characteristics of the wild life before him, and rendered them with admirable vigor and truth. Catlin spent a considerable time among the Mandans soon after the visit of Prince Maximilian, and had unusual opportunities of studying them. He was an indiffer. 1742.] THE MANDAN VILLAGE. 21 Thus, though the report of the two brothers is too concise and brief, we know what they saw when they entered the central area, or public square, of the village. Around stood the Mandan lodges, looking like round flattened hillocks of earth, forty or fifty feet wide. On examination they proved to be framed of strong posts and poles, covered with a thick mat ting of intertwined willow-branches, over which was laid a bed of weU-compacted clay or earth two or three feet thick. This heavy roof was supported by strong interior posts. ^ The open place which the dwellings enclosed served for games, dances, and the ghastly religious or magical ceremonies practised by the tribe. Among the other structures was the sacred "medicine lodge," distinguished by three or four tall poles planted before it, each surmounted by an effigy looking much like a scarecrow, and meant as an offering to the spirits. If the two travellers had been less sparing of words, they would doubtless have told us that as they entered the village square the flattened earthen domes that surrounded it were thronged with squaws ent painter, a shallow observer, and a garrulous and windy writer ; yet his enthusiastic industry is beyond praise, and his pictures are invaluable as faithful reflections of aspects of Indian life which are gone forever. Beauharnois calls the Mandans Blancs Barbus, and says that they have been hitherto unknown. Beauharnois au Ministre, 14 Aoit, 1739. The name Mantannes, or Mandans, is that given them by the Assiniboins. 1 The Minnetarees and other tribes of the Missouri built their lodges in a similar way. 22 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742. and children, — for this was always the case on occa sions of public interest, — and that they were forced to undergo a merciless series of feasts in the lodges of the chiefs. Here, seated by the sunken hearth in the middle, under the large hole in the roof that served both for window and chimney, they could study at their ease the domestic economy of their entertainers. Each lodge held a gens, or family con nection, whose beds of raw buffalo hide, stretched on poles, were ranged around the circumference of the building, while by each stood a post on which hung shields, lances, bows, quivers, medicine-bags, and masks formed of the skin of a buffalo's head, with the horns attached, to be used in the magic buffalo dance. Every day had its sports to relieve the monotony of savage existence, the game of the stick and the rolling ring, the archery practice of boys, horse-racing on the neighboring prairie, and incessant games of chance; while every evening, in contrast to these gayeties, the long, dismal wail of women rose from the adjacent cemetery, where the dead of the village, sewn fast in buffalo hides, lay on scaffolds above the reach of wolves. The Mandans did not know the way to the Pacific, but they told the brothers that they expected a speedy visit from a tribe or band called Horse Indians, who could guide them thither. It is impossible to identify this people with any certainty.^ The two travellers 1 The Cheyennes have a tradition that they were the first tribe of this region to have horses. This may perhaps justify a conjeC" PARTS OF showing approximately the ii ill of Chevalier DE LA Verendrye ill T742, 1743. 1742.] A LONELY JOURNEY. 23 waited for them in vain till after midsummer, and then, as the season was too far advanced for longer delay, they hired two Mandans to conduct them to their customary haunts. They set out on horseback, their scanty baggage and their stock of presents being no doubt carried by pack-animals. Their general course was west-south west, with the Black Hills at a distance on their left, and the upper Missouri on their right. The country was a rolling prairie, well covered for the most part with grass, and watered by small alkaline streams creeping towards the Missouri with an opaque, whitish current. Except along the watercourses, there was little or no wood. "I noticed," says the Chevalier de la Verendrye, "earths of different colors, blue, green, red, or black, white as chalk, or yellowish like ochre." This was probably in the "bad lands" of the Little Missouri, where these colored earths form a conspicuous feature in the bare and barren bluffs, carved into fantastic shapes by the storms.^ For twenty days the travellers saw no human being, so scanty was the population of these plains. Game, however, was abundant. Deer sprang from the tall, reedy grass of the river bottoms; buffalo ture that the northern division of this "brave and warlike people were the Horse Indians of La Verendrye ; though an Indian tradi tion, unless backed by well-established facts, can never be accepted as substantia,! evidence. 1 A similar phenomenon occurs farther west on the face of the perpendicular bluffs that, in one place, border the valley of the river Rosebud. 24 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742. tramped by in ponderous columns, or dotted the swells of the distant prairie with their grazing thou sands; antelope approached, with the curiosity of their species, to gaze at the passing horsemen, then fled like the wind; and as they neared the broken uplands towards the Yellowstone, they saw troops of elk and flocks of mountain-sheep. Sometimes, for miles together, the dry plain was studded thick with the earthen mounds that marked the burrows of the curious marmots, called prairie-dogs, from their squeaking bark. Wolves, white and gray, howled about the camp at night, and their cousin, the coyote, seated in the dusk of evening upright on the grass, with nose turned to the sky, saluted them with a complication of yelpings, as if a score of petulant voices were pouring together from the throat of one small beast. On the eleventh of August, after a march of about three weeks, the brothers reached a hill, or group of hills, apparently west of the Little Missouri, and perhaps a part of the Powder River Range. It was here that they hoped to find the Horse Indians, but : nobody was to be seen. Arming themselves with 'patience, they built a hut, made fires to attract by the smoke any Indians roaming near, and went every day to the tops of the hills to reconnoitre. At length, on the fourteenth of September, they descried a spire of smoke on the distant prairie. One of their Mandan guides had left them and gone back to his village. The other, with one of the 1742.] THE BEAUX HOMMES. 25 Frenchmen, went towards the smoke, and found a camp of Indians, whom the journal calls Les Beaux Hommes, and who were probably Crows, or Apsaroka, a tribe remarkable for stature and symmetry, who long claimed that region as their own. They treated the visitors well, and sent for the other Frenchmen to come to their lodges, where they were received with great rejoicing. The remaining Mandan, how ever, became frightened, — for the Beaux Hommes were enemies of his tribe, — and he soon followed his companion on his solitary march homeward. The brothers remained twenty-one days in the camp of the Beaux Hommes, much perplexed for want of an interpreter. The tribes of the plains have in common a system of signs by which they communicate with each other, and it is likely that the brothers had learned it from the Sioux or Assiniboins, with whom they had been in familiar intercourse. By this or some other means they made their hosts understand that they wished to find the Horse Indians ; and the Beaux Hommes, being soothed by presents, offered some of their young men as guides. They set out on the ninth of October, following a south-southwest course.^ In two days they met a band of Indians, called by 1 Journal du Voyage fait par le Chevalier de la Verendrye en ni2. The copy before me is from the original in the Depot des Cartes de la Marine. A duplicate, in the Archives des AfEaires jfetran- gferes, is printed by Margry. It gives the above date as November 9 instead of October 9. The context shows the l^^tter to be correct; 26 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742. them the Little Foxes, and on the fifteenth and seventeenth two villages of another unrecognizable horde, named Pioya. From La Verendrye's time to our own, this name "villages " has always been given to the encampments of the wandering people of the plains. All these nomadic communities joined them, and they moved together southward, till they reached at last the lodges of the long-sought Horse Indians. They found them in the extremity of distress and terror. Their camp resounded with howls and wail- ings; and not without cause, for the Snakes, or Shoshones, — a formidable people living farther west ward, — had lately destroyed most of their tribe. The Snakes were the terror of that country. The brothers were told that the year before they had destroyed seventeen villages, killing the warriors and old women, and carrying off the young women and children as slaves. None of the Horse Indians had ever seen the Pacific; but they knew a people called Gens de I'Arc, or Bow Indians, who, as they said, had traded not far from it. To the Bow Indians, therefore, the brothers resolved to go, and by dint of gifts and promises they persuaded their hosts to show them the way. After marching southwestward for several days, they saw the distant prairie covered with the pointed buffalo-skin lodges of a great Indian camp. It was that of the Bow Indians, who may have been one of the bands of the western Sioux, — the pre dominant race in this region. Few or none of them 1742.] THE BOW INDIANS. 27 could ever have seen a white man, and we may im agine their amazement at the arrival of the strangers, who, followed by staring crowds, were conducted to the lodge of the chief. " Thus far, ' ' says La Verendrye, "we had been well received in all the villages we had passed ; but this was nothing compared with the courteous manners of the great chief of the Bow Indians, who, unlike the others, was not self- interested in the least, and who took excellent care of everytliing belonging to us." The first inquiry of the travellers was for the Pacific ; but neither the chief nor his tribesmen knew anything of it, except what they had heard from Snake prisoners taken in war. The Frenchmen were surprised at the extent of the camp, which consisted of many separate bands. The chief explained that they had been summoned from far and near for a grand war-party against that common foe of all, — the Snakes.^ In fact, the camp resounded with war- songs and war-dances. "Come with us," said their host; "we are going towards the mountains, where you can see the great water that you are looking for." At length the camp broke up. The squaws took down the lodges, and the march began over prairies 1 The enmity between the Sioux and the Snakes lasted to our own time. When the writer lived among the western Sioux, one of their chiefs organized a war-party against the Snakes, and nu merous bands came to join the expedition from a distance in some cases of three hundred miles. Quarrels broke out among them, and the scheme was ruined. 28 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742. dreary and brown with the withering touch of autumn. The spectacle was such as men still young have seen in these western lands, but which no man will see again. The vast plain swarmed with the moving multitude. The tribes of the Missouri and the Yellowstone had by this time abundance of horses, the best of which were used for war and hunting, and the others as beasts of burden. These last were equipped in a peculiar manner. Several of the long poles used to frame the teepees, or lodges, were secured by one end to each side of a rude saddle, while the other end trailed on the ground. Crossbars lashed to the poles just behind the horse kept them three or four feet apart, and formed a firm support, on which was laid, compactly folded, the buffalo-skin covering of the lodge. On this, again, sat a mother with her young family, sometimes stowed for safety in a large open wiUow basket, with the occasional addition of some domestic pet, — such as a tame raven, a puppy, or even a small bear-cub. Other horses were laden in the same manner with wooden bowls, stone hammers, and other utensils, along with stores of dried buffalo-meat packed in cases of raw hide whitened and painted. Many of the innumerable dogs — whose maimers and appearance strongly sug gested their relatives the wolves, to whom, however, they bore a mortal grudge — were equipped in a similar way, with shorter poles and lighter loads. Bands of naked boys, noisy and restless, roamed the prairie, practising their bows and arrows on any small 1742,1743.] INDIANS ON THE MARCH. 29 animal they might find. Gay young s quaws — adorned on each cheek with a spot of ochre or red clay, and arrayed in tunics of fringed buckskin embroidered with porcupine quills — were mounted on ponies, astride like men ; while lean and tattered hags — the drudges of the tribe, unkempt and hideous — scolded the lagging horses, or screeched at the disorderly dogs, with voices not unlike the yell of the great horned owl. Most of the warriors were on horse back, armed with round white shields of bull-hide, feathered lances, war-clubs, bows, and quivers filled with stone-headed arrows ; while a few of the elders, wrapped in robes of buffalo-hide, stalked along in groups with a stately air, chatting, laughing, and exchanging unseemly jokes. ^ "We continued our march," says La Verendrye, " sometimes south-southwest, and now and then north west ; our numbers constantly increasing by villages of different tribes which joined us." The variations of their course were probably due to the difficul ties of the country, which grew more rugged as they advanced, with broken hills, tracts of dingy green sage-bushes, and bright, swift streams, edged with Cottonwood and willow, hurrying northward to join the Yellowstone. At length, on the first of January, 1743, they saw what was probably the Bighorn Range 1 The above descriptive particulars are drawn from repeated observation of similar scenes at a time when the primitive condi tion of these tribes was essentially unchanged, though with the difference that the concourse of savages counted by hundreds, and not by thousands. so SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1743. of the Rocky Mountains, a hundred and twenty miles east of the Yellowstone Park. A council of all the allied bands was now called, and the Frenchmen were asked to take part in it. The questions discussed were how to dispose of the women and children, and how to attack the enemy. Having settled their plans, the chiefs begged their white friends not to abandon them ; and the younger of the two, the Chevalier, consented to join the warriors, and aid them with advice, though not with arms. The tribes of the western plains rarely go on war- parties in winter, and this great expedition must have been the result of unusual exasperation. The object was to surprise the Snakes in the security of their winter camp, and strike a deadly blow, which would have been impossible in summer. On the eighth of January the whole body stopped to encamp, choosing, no doubt, after the invariable winter custom of western Indians, a place sheltered from wind, and supplied with water and fuel. Here the squaws and children were to remain, while most of the warriors advanced against the enemy. By pegging the lower edge of the lodge-skin to the ground, and piling a ridge of stones and earth upon it to keep out the air, fastening with wooden skew ers the flap of hide that covered the entrance, and keeping a constant fitre, they could pass a winter endurable to Indians, though smoke, filth, vermin, bad air, the crowd, and the total absence of privacy, 1743.] THE SNAKE INDIANS. SI would make it a purgatory to any civilized white man. The Chevalier left his brother to watch over the baggage of the party, which was stored in the lodge of the great chief, while he himself, with his two Canadians, joined the advancing warriors. They were on horseback, marching with a certain order, and sending watchmen to reconnoitre the country from the tops of the hills. ^ Their movements were so slow that it was twelve days before they reached the foot of the mountains, which, says La Verendrye, " are for the most part well wooded, and seem very high." 2 He longed to climb their great snow- encumbered peaks, fancying that he might then see the Pacific, and never dreaming that more than eight hundred miles of mountains and forests stiU lay between him and his goal. Through the whole of the present century the vil lages of the Snakes were at a considerable distance west of the Bighorn Range, and some of them were even on the upper waters of the Pacific slope. It is likely that they were so in 1743, in which case the war-party would not have only reached the Bighorn Mountains, but have pushed farther on to within sight of the great Wind River Range. Be this as it may, their scouts reached the chief winter camp of 1 At least this was done by a band of Sioux with whom the writer once traversed a part of the country ranged by these same Snakes, who had lately destroyed an entire Sioux village. ' The Bighorn Range, below the snow line, is in the main weU timbered with pine, fir, oak, and juniper. 32 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1743. the Snakes, and found it abandoned, with lodges still standing, and many household possessions left behind. The enemy had discovered their approach, and fled. Instead of encouraging the allies, this news filled them with terror, for they feared that the Snake warriors might make a circuit to the rear, and fall upon the camp where they had left their women and children. The great chief spent all his eloquence in vain, nobody would listen to him; and with charac teristic fickleness they gave over the enterprise, and retreated in a panic. "Our advance was made in good order; but not so our retreat," says the Cheva lier's journal. " Everybody fled his own way. Our horses, though good, were very tired, and got little to eat." The Chevalier was one day riding with his friend, the great chief, when, looking behind him, he missed his two French attendants. Hastening back in alarm, he found them far in the rear, quietly feeding their horses under the shelter of a clump of trees. He had scarcely joined them when he saw a party of fifteen hostile Indians stealthily creeping forward, covered by their bull-hide shields. He and his men let them approach, and then gave them a few shots; on which they immediately ran off, fire arms being to them an astounding novelty. The three Frenchmen now tried to rejoin the great chief and his band, but the task was not easy. The prairie, bare of snow and hard as flint, showed no trace of foot or hoof ; and it was by rare good fortune that they succeeded, on the second day, not in over- 1743.] THE WARRIORS DISPERSE. 83 taking the chief, but in reaching the camp where the women and children had been left. They found them all in safety; the Snakes had not attacked them, and the panic of the warriors was needless. It was the ninth of February. They were scarcely housed when a blizzard set in, and on the night of the tenth the plains were buried in snow. The great chief had not appeared. With such of his warriors as he could persuade to follow him, he had made a wide circuit to find the trail of the lost Frenchmen, but, to his great distress, had completely failed. It was not till five days after the arrival of the Chevalier and his men that the chief reached the camp, "more dead than alive," in the words of the journal. All his hardships were forgotten when he found his white friends safe, for he had given them up for lost. "His sorrow turned to joy, and he could not give Qs attention and caresses enough." The camp broke up, and the allied bands dispersed. The great chief and his followers moved slowly through the snowdrifts towards the east-southeast, accompanied by the Frenchmen. Thus they kept on till the first of March, when the two brothers, learn ing that they were approaching the winter village of a people called Gens de la Petite Cerise, or Choke- Cherry Indians, sent one of their men, with a guide, to visit them. The man retumed in ten days, bring ing a message from the Choke-Cherry Indians, invit ing the Frenchmen to their lodges. The great chief of the Bow Indians, who seems to TOL. II. — 3 34 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1743. have regarded his young friends with mingled affec tion, respect, and wonder, was grieved at the thought of losing them, but took comfort when they promised to visit him again, provided that he would make his abode near a certain river which they pointed out. To this he readily agreed, and then, with mutual regret, they parted.^ The Frenchmen repaired to the village of the Choke-Cherry Indians, who, like the Bow Indians, were probably a band of Sioux.'^ Hard by their lodges, which stood near the Missouri, the brothers buried a plate of lead graven with the royal arms, and raised a pile of stones in honor of the gov emor of Canada. They remained at this place till April; then, mounting their horses again, followed the Missouri upward to the village of the Mandans, which they reached on the eighteenth of May. After spending a week here, they joined a party of Assiniboins, journeyed with them towards Fort La Reine, and reached it on the second of July, — to the ^ The only two tribes of this region who were a match for the Snakes were the Sioux and the Blackfeet. It is clear that the Bow Indians could not have been Blackfeet, as in that case, after the war- party broke up, they would have moved northward towards their own country, instead of east-southeast into the country of their enemies. Hence I incline to think the Bow Indians a band of Sioux, or Dakota, — a people then, as since, predominant in that country. The banks of the Missouri, in the part which La V&endrye would have reached in following an east-southeast course, were occupied by numerous bands or sub-tribes of Sioux, such as the Minneconjou, Yankton, Oncpapa, BruM, and others, friends and relatives of the Bow Indians, supposing these to have been Sioux. ' The Sioux, Cheyennes, and other prairie tribes use the small astringent wild cherry for food. The squaws pound it, itonei and all, and then dry it for winter use. 1743-1750.] JEALOUSY OF RIVALS. 35 great relief of their father, who was waiting in sus pense, having heard nothing of them for more than a year. Sixty-two years later, when the vast western regions then called Louisiana had just been ceded to the United States, Captains Lewis and Clark left the Mandan villages with thirty-two men, traced the Missouri to the mountains, penetrated the wastes beyond, and made their way to the Pacific. The first stages of that remarkable exploration were anti cipated by the brothers La Verendrye. They did not find the Pacific, but they discovered the Rocky Mountains, or at least the part of them to which the name properly belongs ; for the southern continuation of the great range had long been known to the Spaniards. Their bold adventure was achieved, not at the charge of a government, but at their own cost and that of their father, — not with a band of well- equipped men, but with only two followers. The fur-trading privilege which was to have been their compensation had proved their ruin. They were still pursued without ceasing by the jealousy of rival traders and the ire of disappointed partners "Here in Canada more than anywhere else," the Chevalier wrote, some years after his return, " envy is the passion ck la mode, and there is no escaping it. " l It was the story of La Salle repeated. Beauharnois, however, still stood by them, encouraged and defended them, and wrote in their favor to the colonial minis- 1 Le Chevalier de la Verendrye au Ministre, 30 Septembre, 1750. 36 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1746-1750. ter.i It was doubtless through his efforts that the elder La Verendrye was at last promoted to a captaincy in the colony troops. Beauharnois was succeeded in the government by the sagacious and able Galis- soni^re, and he too befriended the explorers. "It seems to me," he wrote to the minister, "that what you have been told touching the Sieur de la Verendrye, to the effect that he has been more busy with his own interests than in making discoveries, is totally false, and, moreover, that any officers employed in such work will always be compelled to give some of their attention to trade, so long as the King allows them no other means of subsistence. These discoveries are very costly, and more fatiguing and dangerous than open war. " ^ Two years later, the elder La Verendrye received the cross of the Order of St. Louis, — an honor much prized in Canada, but which he did not long enjoy ; for he died at Montreal in the following December, when on the point of again setting out for the West. His intrepid sons survived, and they were not idle. One of them, the Chevalier, had before discovered the river Saskatchewan, and ascended it as far as the forks. ^ His intention was to follow it to the moun tains, build a fort there, and thence push westward in another search for the Pacific; but a disastrous 1 La Verendrye pere au Ministre, 1 Novembre, 1746, in Margry, vi. 611. ' La Galissoniere au Ministre, 23 Octobre, 1747. • M^moire en abr€g€ des Etablissements et Decouvertes faits par le Sieur de la Verendrye et ses Enfants. 1746-1750.] RUINED HOPES. 37 event ruined all his hopes. La Galissoniere retumed to France, and the Marquis de la Jonqui^re succeeded him, with the notorious Francois Bigot as intendant. Both were greedy of money, — the one to hoard, and the other to dissipate it. Clearly there was money to be got from the fur-trade of Manitoba, for La Verendrye had made every preparation and incurred every expense. It seemed that nothing remained but to reap where he had sown. His commission to find the Pacific, with the privileges connected with it, was refused to his sons, and conferred on a stranger. La Jonqui^re wrote to the minister: "I have charged M. de Saint-Pierre with this business. He knows these countries better than any officer in all the colony." ^ On the contrary, he had never seen them. It is difficult not to believe that La JonquiSre, Bigot, and Saint-Pierre were partners in a speculation of which all three were to share the profits. The elder La Verendrye, not long before his death, had sent a large quantity of goods to his trading-forts. The brothers begged leave to return thither and save their property from destruction. They declared themselves happy to serve under the orders of Saint- Pierre, and asked for the use of only a single fort of all those which their father had built at his own cost. The answer was a flat refusal. In short, they were shamefully robbed. The Chevalier writes: "M. le Marquis de la Jonqui^re, being pushed hard, and as I thought even touched, by my representations, told I La Jonquiere au Ministre, 27 Fivrier, 1750. 38 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1750. me at last that M. de Saint-Pierre wanted nothing to do with me or my brothers." "I am a ruined man," he continues. " I am more than two thousand livres in debt, and am still only a second ensign. My elder brother's grade is no better than mine. My younger brother is only a cadet. This is the fruit of all that my father, my brothers, and I have done. My other brother, whom the Sioux murdered some years ago, was not the most unfortunate among us. We must lose all that has cost us so much, unless M. de Saint- Pierre should take juster views, and prevail on the Marquis de la Jonquidre to share them. To be thus shut out from the West is to be most crueUy robbed of a sort of inheritance which we had all the pains of acquiring, and of which others will get all the profit."! His elder brother writes in a similar strain : " We spent our youth and our property in building up establishments so advantageous to Canada ; and, after all, we were doomed to see a stranger gather the fruit we had taken such pains to plant." And he com plains that their goods left in the trading-posts were wasted, their provisions consumed, and the men in their pay used to do the work of others.* They got no redress. Saint-Pierre, backed by the govemor and the intendant, remained master of the position. The brothers sold a small piece of land, 1 Le Chevalier de la Verendrye au Ministre, 30 Septembre, 1760. ' Memoire des Services de Pierre Gautier de la Verendrye I'aisne, presents h Mg'. Roville, ministre et secretaire d'Mtai, 1750.] SAINT-PIERRE'S JOURNEY. 39 their last remaining property, to appease their most pressing creditors. ^ Saint-Pierre set out for Manitoba on the fifth of June, 1750. Though he had lived more or less in the woods for thirty-six years, and though La Jonquiere had told the minister that he knew the countries to which he was bound better than anybody else, it is clear from his own journal that he was now visiting them for the first time. They did not please him. "I was told," he says, "that the way would grow harder and more dangerous as we advanced, and I found, in fact, that one must risk life and property every moment." Finding himself and his men likely to starve, he sent some of them, under an ensign named Niverville, to the Saskatchewan. They could not reach it, and nearly perished on the way. " I myself was no more fortunate, " says Saint- Pierre. " Food was so scarce that I sent some of my people into the woods among the Indians, — which did not save me from a fast so rigorous that it deranged my health and put it out of my power to do anything towards accomplishing my mission. Even if I had had strength enough, the war that broke out among the Indians would have made it impossible to proceed." NiverAdlle, after a winter of misery, tried to fulfil 1 Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, in spite of his treatment of the La V&endrye brothers, had merit as an officer. It was he who received Washington at Fort Le Boeuf in 1754. He was killed in 1755, at the battle of Lake George. See " Montcalm and Wolfe," i. 315. 40 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1751 an order which he had received from his commander. When the Indians guided the two brothers La Verendrye to the Rocky Mountains, the course they took tended so far southward that the Chevalier greatly feared it might lead to Spanish settlements ; and he gave it as his opinion that the next attempt to fimd the Pacific should be made farther towards the north. Saint-Pierre had agreed with him, and had directed Niverville to build a fort on the Saskatchewan, three hundred leagues above its mouth. Therefore, at the end of May, 1751, Niverville sent ten men in two canoes on this errand, and they ascended thq Saskatchewan to what Saint-Pierre calls the " Rods Mountain." Here they built a small stockade fori and called it Fort La Jonquiere. Niverville was to have followed them ; but he fell iU, and lay helpless at the mouth of the river in such a condition that he could not even write to his commander. Saint-Pierre set out in person from Fort La Reine for Fort La Jonquiere, over ice and snow, for it was late in November. Two Frenchmen from Niverville met him on the way, and reported that the Assiniboins had slaughtered an entire band of friendly Indians on whom Saint-Pierre had relied to guide him. On hearing this he gave up the enterprise, and retumed to Fort La Reine. Here the Indians told him idle stories about white men and a fort in some remote place towards the west; but, he observes, "nobody could reach it without encountering an infinity of tribes more savage than it is possible to imagine." 1752, 1753.] SAINT-PIERRE'S JOURNEY. 41 He spent most of the winter at Fort La Reine. Here, towards the end of February, 1752, he had with him only five men, having sent out the rest in search of food. Suddenly, as he sat in his chamber, he saw the fort full of armed Assiniboins, extremely noisy and insolent. He tried in vain to quiet them, and they presently broke into the guard-house and seized the arms. A massacre would have followed, had not Saint-Pierre, who was far from wanting courage, resorted to an expedient which has more than once proved effective on such occasions. He knocked out the heads of two barrels of gunpowder, snatched a firebrand, and told the yelping crowd that he would blow up them and himself together. At this they all rushed in fright out of the gate, while Saint-Pierre ran after them, and bolted it fast. There was great anxiety for the hunters, but they all came back in the evening, without having met the enemy. The men, however, were so terrified by the adventure that Saint-Pierre was compelled to abandon the fort, after recommending it to the care of another band of Assiniboins, who had professed great friend ship. Four days after he was gone they burned it to the ground. He soon came to the conclusion that farther dis covery was impossible, because the English of Hudson Bay had stirred up the western tribes to oppose it. Therefore he set out for the settlements, and, reach ing Quebec in the autumn of 1753, placed the journal 42 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1761. of his futile enterprise in the hands of Duquesne, the new governor.! Canada was approaching her last agony. In the death-struggle of the Seven Years' War there was no time for schemes of western discovery. The brothers La Verendrye sank into poverty and neglect. A little before the war broke out, we find the eldest at the obscure Acadian post of Beaus^jour, where he wrote to the colonial minister a statement of his ser vices, which appears to have received no attention. After the fall of Canada, the Chevalier de la Veren drye, he whose eyes first beheld the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains, perished in the wreck of the ship "Auguste," on the coast of Cape Breton, in November, 1761.* 1 Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de Saint- Pierre, charge de la Decouverte de la Mer de I'Ouest (British Museum). ^ The above narrative rests mainly on contemporary documents, official in character, of which the originals are preserved in the archives of the French Government. These papers have recently been printed by M. Pierre Margry, late custodian of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at Paris, in the sixth volume of his Decouvertes et ^tablissements des Francois dans I'Amerique Septen- trionale, — a documentary collection of great value, published at the expense of the American Government. It was M. Margry who first drew attention to the achievements of the family of La V&en drye, by an article in the Moniteur in 1852. I owe to his kindness the opportunity of using the above-mentioned documents in ad vance of publication. I obtained copies from duplicate originals of some of the principal among them from the D^pot des Cartes de la Marine, in 1872. These answer closely, with rare and trivial variations, to the same documents as printed from other sources by M. Margry. Some additional papers preserved in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies have also been used. My friends, Hon. William C. Endicott, then Secretary of War, 1761.] COLLECTION OF MAPS. 43 and Captain John 6. Bourke, Third Cavalry, U. S. A., kindly placed in my bands a valuable collection of Government maps and sur veys of the country between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains visited by the brothers La V&endrye ; and I have received from Captain Bourke, and also from Mr. E. A. Snow, formerly of the Third Cavalry, much information concerning the same region repeatedly traversed by them in peace and war. CHAPTER XVII. 1700-1750. THE CHAIN OF POSTS. Opposing Claims. — Attitude of the Rival Nations. — Amer ica A French Continent. — England a Usubpek. — French Demands. — Magnanimous Proposals. — Warlike Prepara tion. — Niagara. — Oswego. — Crown Point. — The Passes op the West Secured. We have seen that the contest between France and England in America divided itself, after the Peace of Utrecht, into three parts, — the Acadian contest ; the contest for northern New England; and last, though greatest, the contest for the West. Nothing is more striking than the difference, or rather con trast, in the conduct and methods of the rival claim ants to this wild but magnificent domain. Each was strong in its own qualities, and utterly wanting in the qualities that marked its opponent. On maps of British America in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, one sees the eastern shore, from Maine to Georgia, garnished with ten or twelve colored patches, very different in shape and size, and defined, more or less distinctly, by dividing-lines which, in some cases, are prolonged westward till 1700-1750.] BRITISH PROVINCES. 46 they touch the Mississippi, or even cross it and stretch indefinitely towards the Pacific. These patches are the British provinces, and the westward prolongation of their boundary lines represents their several claims to vast interior tracts, founded on ancient grants, but not made good by occupation, or vindicated by any exertion of power. These English communities took little thought of the region beyond the AUeghanies. Each lived a life of its own, shut within its own limits, not dream ing of a future collective greatness to which the pos session of the West would be a necessary condition. No conscious community of aims and interests held them together, nor was there any authority capable of uniting their forces and turning them to a common object. Some of the servants of the Crown had urged the necessity of joining them all under a strong central government, as the only means of making them loyal subjects and arresting the encroachments of France ; but the scheme was plainly impracticable. Each province remained in jealous isolation, busied with its own work, growing in strength, in the capa city of self-rule and the spirit of independence, and stubbornly resisting all exercise of authority from without. If the English-speaking populations flowed westward, it was in obedience to natural laws, for the King did not aid the movement, the royal gov ernors had no authority to do so, and the colonial assemblies were too much engrossed with immediate local interests. The power of these colonies was 46 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1720. that of a rising flood slowly invading and conquering, by the unconscious force of its own growing volume, unless means be found to hold it back by dams and embankments within appointed limits. In the French colonies all was different. Here the representatives of the Crown were men bred in an atmosphere of broad ambition and master ful and far-reaching enterprise. Achievement was demanded of them. They recognized the greatness of the prize, studied the strong and weak points of their rivals, and with a cautious forecast and a daring energy set themselves to the task of defeat ing them. If the English colonies were comparatively strong in numbers, their numbers could not be brought into action; while if the French forces were small, they were vigorously commanded, and always ready at a word. It was union confronting division, energy confronting apathy, military centralization opposed to industrial democracy; and, for a time, the advan tage was all on one side. The demands of the French were sufficiently com prehensive. They repented of their enforced conces sions at the Treaty of Utrecht, and in spite of that compact, maintained that, with a few local and trivial exceptions, the whole North American continent, except Mexico, was theirs of right; while their oppo nents seemed neither to understand the situation, nor see the greatness of the stakes at issue. In 1720 Father Bobd, priest of the Congregation of 1720.] FRENCH DEMANDS. 47 Missions, drew up a paper in which he sets forth the claims of France with much distinctness, beginning with the declaration that "England has usurped from France nearly everything that she possesses in America," and adding that the plenipotentiaries at Utrecht did not know what they were about when they made such concessions to the enemy; that, among other blunders, they gave Port Royal to Eng land when it belonged to France, who should " insist vigorously " on its being given back to her. He maintains that the voyages of Verrazzano and Ribaut made France owner of the whole continent, from Florida northward ; that England was an inter loper in planting colonies along the Atlantic coast, and will admit as much if she is honest, since all that country is certainly a part of New France. In this modest assumption of the point at issue, he ignores John Cabot and his son Sebastian, who discovered North America more than twenty-five years before the voyage of Verrazzano, and more than sixty years before that of Ribaut. When the English, proceeds Father Bob^, have restored Port Royal to us, which they are bound to do, though we ceded it by the treaty, a French gov emor should be at once set over it, with a commission to command as far as Cape Cod, which would include Boston. We should also fortify ourselves, "in a way to stop the English, who have long tried to seize on French America, of which they know the importance, and of which," he observes with much candor, "they 48 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1720. would make a better use than the French do.^. . . The Atlantic coast, as far as Florida, was usurped from the French, to whom it belonged then, and to whom it belongs now." England, as he thinks, is bound in honor to give back these countries to their true owner ; and it is also the part of wisdom to do so, since by grasping at too much, one often loses all. But France, out of her love of peace, will cede to England the countries along the Atlantic, from the Kennebec in New France to the Jordan ^ in Carolina, on condition that England will restore to her all that she gave up by the Treaty of Utrecht. When this is done, France, always generous, will consent to accept as boundary a line drawn from the mouth of the Kennebec, passing thence midway between Schenectady and Lake Champlain and along the ridge of the AUeghanies to the river Jordan, the country between this line and the sea to belong to England, and the rest of the continent to France. If England does not accept this generous offer, she is to be told that the King will give to the Compagnie des Indes (Law's Mississippi Company) full authority to occupy " all the countries which the English have usurped from France ; " and, pursues 1 "De mani&e qu'on puisse arreter les Anglois, qui depuis longtems tachent de s'emparer de I'Ame'rique franyoise, dont ils conoissent I'importance et dont ils feroient un meillieur usage que celuy qui les franfois en font." ' On the river Jordan, so named by Vasquez de Ayllon, see "Pioneers of France in the New Worid," 11, 39, note. It' was probably the broad river of South Carolina. 1720-1723.] FRENCH DEMANDS. 49 Father Bob^, " it is certain that the fear of having to do with so powerful a company will bring the English to our terms." The company that was thus to strike the British heart with terror was the same which aU the tonics and stimulants of the government could not save from predestined ruin. But, concludes this ingenious writer, whether England accepts our offers or not, France ought not only to take a high tone (parler avec hauteur'), but also to fortify diligently, and make good her right by force of arms.^ Three years later we have another document, this time of an official character, and stUl more radical in its demands. It admits that Port Royal and a part of the Nova Scotian peninsula, under the name of Acadia, were ceded to England by the treaty, and consents that she shall keep them, but requires her to restore the part of New France that she has wrong fully seized, — namely, the whole Atlantic coast from the Kennebec to Florida; since France never gave England this country, which is hers by the discovery of Verrazzano in 1524. Here, again, the voyages of the Cabots, in 1497 and 1498, are completely ignored. " It will be seen, " pursues this curious document, "that our kings have always preserved sovereignty over the countries between the thirtieth and the fifti eth degrees of north latitude. A time will come when 1 Second Memoire concernant les Limites des Colonies presente en 1720 par Bobe, pretre de la Congregation de la Mission (Archives Nationales). 50 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1723. they will be in a position to assert their rights, and then it will be seen that the dominions of a king of France cannot be usurped with impunity. What we demand now is that the English make immediate restitution." No doubt, the paper goes on to say, they will pretend to have prescriptive rights, because they have settled the country and built towns and cities in it; but this plea is of no avail, because all that country is a part of New France, and because England rightfully owns nothing in America except what we, the French, gave her by the Treaty of Utrecht, which is merely Port Royal and Acadia. She is bound in honor to give back aU the vast countries she has usurped; but, continues the paper, "the King loves the English nation too much, and wishes too much to do her kindness, and is too generous to exact such a restitution. Therefore, provided that England will give us back Port Royal, Acadia, and everything else that France gave her by the Treaty of Utrecht, the King will forego his rights, and grant to England the whole Atlantic coast from the thirty-second degree of latitude to the Kennebec, to the extent inland of twenty French leagues [about fifty miles], on condition that she will solemnly bind herself never to overstep these limits or encroach in the least on French ground." Thus, through the beneficence of France, England, provided that she renounced all pretension to the rest of the continent, would become the rightful owner of an attenuated strip of land reaching south- 1717-1720.] MAGNANIMOUS PROPOSALS. 51 ward from the Kennebec along the Atlantic seaboard. The document containing this magnanimous proposal was preserved in the Chateau St. Louis at Quebec till the middle of the eighteenth century, when, the boundary dispute having reached a crisis, and com missioners of the two powers having been appointed to settle it, a certified copy of the paper was sent to France for their instruction. ^ Father Bob^ had advised that France should not trust solely to the justice of her claims, but should back right with might, and build forts on the Niagara, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Alabama, as well as at other commanding points, to shut out the Eng lish from the West. Of these positions, Niagara was the most important, for the possession of it would close the access to the Upper Lakes, and stop the western tribes on their way to trade at Albany. The Five Nations and the govemor of New York were jealous of the French designs, which, however, were likely enough to succeed, through the prevail ing apathy and divisions in the British colonies. " If those not immediately concerned," writes a member of the New York council, "only stand gazing on while the wolff is murthering other parts of the flock, it will come to every one's turn at last." The warn ing was weU founded, but it was not heeded. Again : "It is the policy of the French to attack one colony at a time, and the others are so besotted as to sit still. " * 1 Demandes de la France, 1723 (Archives des Affaires :fctrangferes). 2 Colonel Heathcote to Governor Hunter, 8 July, 1715. Ibid, to Tmenshend, 12 July, 1715. 52 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1717-1720. For gaining the consent of the Five Nations to the building of a French fort at Niagara, Vaudreuil trusted chiefly to his agent among the Senecas, the bold, skilful, and indefatigable Joncaire, who was naturalized among that tribe, the strongest of the confederacy. Governor Hunter of New York sent Peter Schuyler and Philip Livingston to counteract his influence. The Five Nations, who, conscious of declining power, seemed ready at this time to be all things to all men, declared that they would prevent the French from building at Niagara, which, as they said, would "shut them up as in a prison."^ Not long before, however, they had sent a deputation to Montreal to say that the English made objection to Joncaire's presence among them, but that they were masters of their land, and hoped that the French agent would come as often as he pleased; and they begged that the new King of France would take them under his protection. ^ Accordingly, Vaudreuil sent them a present, with a message to the effect that they might plunder such English traders as should come among them.^ Yet so jealous were the Iroquois of a French fort at Niagara that they sent three Seneca chiefs to see what was going on there. The chiefs found a few Frenchmen in a small blockhouse, or loopholed store house, which they had just built near Lewiston 1 Journal of Schuyler and Livingston, 1720. * Vaudreuil au Conseil de Marine, 24 Octobre, 1717. » Vaudreuil et Begon au Conseil de Marine, 26 Octobre, 1719. 1717-1720.] OSWEGO. 53 Heights. The three Senecas requested them to demolish it and go away, which the Frenchmen refused to do ; on which the Senecas asked the Eng lish envoys, Schuyler and Livingston, to induce the governor of New York to destroy the obnoxious building. In short, the Five Nations wavered inces santly between their two European neighbors, and changed their minds every day. The skill and perse verance of the French emissaries so far prevailed at last that the Senecas consented to the building of a fort at the mouth of the Niagara, where Denonville had built one in 1687 ; and thus that important pass was made tolerably secure. Meanwhile the English of New York, or rather Burnet, their governor, were not idle. Burnet was on ill terms with his assembly, which grudged him all help in serving the province whose interests it was supposed to represent. Burnet's plan was to build a fortified trading-house at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, in the belief that the western Indians, who greatly preferred English goods and English prices, would pass Niagara and bring their furs to the new post. He got leave from the Five Nations to execute his plan, bought canoes, hired men, and built a loop- holed house of stone on the site of the present city of Oswego. As the Assembly would give no money, Burnet furnished it himself; and though the object was one of the greatest importance to the province, he was never fully repaid. ^ A smaU garrison for the 1 " I am ashamed to confess that he built the fort at his private expense, and that a balance of above £56 remains due to hii 54 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1727-1736. new post was drawn from the four independent com panies maintained in the province at the charge of the Crown. The establishment of Oswego greatly alarmed and incensed the French, and a council of war at Quebec resolved to send two thousand men against it; but Vaudreuil's successor, the Marquis de Beauharnois, learning that the court was not prepared to provoke a war, contented himself with sending a summons to the commanding officer to abandon and demolish the place within a fortnight.^ To this no attention was given ; and as Burnet had foreseen, Oswego became the great centre of Indian trade, while Niagara, in spite of its more favorable position, was comparatively sUghted by the western tribes. The chief danger rose from the obstinate prejudice of the Assembly, which, in its disputes with the Royal Govemor, would give him neither men nor money to defend the new post. The Canadian authorities, who saw in Oswego an intrusion on their domain and a constant injury and menace, could not attack it without bringing on a war, and therefore tried to persuade the Five Nations to destroy it, — an attempt which completely failed.^ estate to this very day." — Smith, History of New York, 267 (ed. 1814). 1 Memoire de Dupuy, 1728. Dupuy was intendant of Canada. The King approved the conduct of Beauharnois in not using force. D^eche du Roy, 14 Mai, 1728. ^ WTien urged by the younger Longueuil to drive off the Eng lish from Oswego, the Indians replied, " Drive them off thyself " (" Chatsez-les toi-meme "). Longueuil JiU au Ministre, 19 Octobre, 1728. Marquis Charles de Beauharnois. From the painting by Tourniferes, in the Mus^e de Grenoble. A Half Century of Conflict, II., 54. C^yright, ^Sgj. ^ Ziale/, Brozon/ & C> 1726-1731.] CROWN POINT. 55 They then established a trading-post at Toronto, in the vain hope of stopping the northern tribes on their way to the more profitable English market, and they built two armed vessels at Fort Frontenac to control the navigation of Lake Ontario. Meanwhile, in another quarter the French made an advance far more threatening to the English colonies than Oswego was to their own. They had already built a stone fort at Chambly, which covered Montreal from any English attack by way of Lake Champlain. As that lake was the great highway between the rival colonies, the importance of gaining full mastery of it was evident. It was rumored in Canada that the EngUsh meant to seize and fortify the place called Scalp Point (Pointe a la Chevelure) by the French, and Crown Point by the EngUsh, where the lake sud denly contracts to the proportions of a river, so that a few cannon would stop the passage. As early as 1726 the French made an attempt to establish themselves on the east side of the lake oppo site Crown Point, but were deterred by the opposition of Massachusetts. This eastern shore was, however, claimed not only by Massachusetts, but by her neigh bor. New Hampshire, with whom she presently fell into a dispute about the ownership, and, as a writer of the time observes, "while they were quarrelUng for the bone, the French ran away with it.''^ At length, in 1731, the French took post on the western side of the lake, and began to intrench them* 1 Mitchell, Contest in America, 22. 56 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1730, 1731. selves at Crown Point, which was within the bounds claimed by New York ; but that province, being then engrossed, not only by her chronic dispute with her govemor, but by a quarrel with her next neighbor. New Jersey, sUghted the danger from the common enemy, and left the French to work their will. It was Saint-Luc de la Corne, Lieutenant du Roy at Montreal, who pointed out the necessity of fortifying this place, ^ in order to anticipate the English, who, as he imagined, were about to do so, — a danger which was probably not imminent, since the English colonies, as a whole, could not and would not unite for such a purpose, while the individual provinces were too much absorbed in their own internal affairs and their own jealousies and disputes to make the attempt. La Corne 's suggestion found favor at court, and the gov ernor of Canada was ordered to occupy Crown Point. The Sieur de la Fresni^re was sent thither with troops and workmen, and a fort was built, and named Fort Fr^ddric . It contained a massive stone tower, mounted with cannon to command the lake, which is here but a musket-shot wide. Thus was established an ad vanced post of France, — a constant menace to New York and New England, both of which denounced it as an outrageous encroachment on British territory, but could not unite to rid themselves of it.^ 1 La Corne au Ministre, 15 Octobre, 1730. 2 On the establishment of Crown Point, Beauharnois et Hocquart au Roy, 10 Octobre, 1731 ; Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1731, 1731-1750.] FRANCE FORTIFIES THE WEST. 57 While making this bold push against their neigh bors of the South, the French did not forget the West; and towards the middle of the century they had occupied points controlling all the chief water ways between Canada and Louisiana. Niagara held the passage from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Detroit closed the entrance to Lake Huron, and Michili mackinac guarded the point where Lake Huron is joined by Lakes Michigan and Superior; while the fort called La Baye, at the head of Green Bay, stopped the way to the Mississippi by Marquette's old route of Fox River and the Wisconsin. Another route to the Mississippi was controlled by a post on the Maumee to watch the carrying-place between that river and the Wabash, and by another on the Wabash where Vincennes now stands. La Salle's route, by way of the Kankakee and the Illinois, was barred by a fort on the St. Joseph; and even if, in spite of these obstructions, an enemy should reach the Missis sippi by any of its northern affluents, the cannon of Fort Chartres would prevent him from descending it. These various western forts, except Fort Chartres and Fort Niagara, which were afterwards rebuilt, the one in stone and the other in earth, were stockades of no strength against cannon. Slight as they were, their establishment was costly ; and as the King, to whom Canada was a yearly loss, grudged every franc spent, upon it, means were contrived to make them self-supporting. Each of them was a station of the fur-trade, and the position of most of them had been 58 THE CHAIN OF POSTS. [1731-1750. determined more or less with a view to that traffic. Hence they had no slight commercial value. In some of them the Crown itself carried on trade through agents who usually secured a lion's share of the profits. Others were farmed out to merchants at a fixed sum. In others, again, the commanding officer was permitted to trade on condition of maintaining the post, paying the soldiers, and supporting a mis sionary; while in one case, at least, he was subjected to similar obligations, though not permitted to trade himself, but only to sell trading licenses to merchants. These methods of keeping up forts and garrisons were of course open to prodigious abuses, and roused end less jealousies and rivalries. France had now occupied the valley of the Missis sippi, and joined with loose and uncertain Unks her two colonies of Canada and Louisiana. But the strength of her hold on these regions of unkempt savagery bore no proportion to the vastness of her claims or the growing power of the rivals who were soon to contest them.^ I On the claim of France that all North America, except the Spanish colonies of Mexico and Florida, belonged to her, see Appendix A. CHAPTER XVIII. 1744, 1745. A MAD SCHEME. War op the Austrian Succession. — The French seize Can seau AND attack Annapolis. — Plan op Reprisal. — Wil liam Vaughan. — Governor Shirley : he advises an At tack on Louisbourg. — The Assembly refuses, but at last consents. — Preparation. — William Pepperrell. — George Whitefield. — Parson Moody —The Soldiers. — The Pro- TiNciAL Navy. — Commodore Warken. — Shirley as an Amateur Soldier. — The Fleet sails. The Pejace of Utrecht left unsettled the perilous questions 'of boundary between the rival powers in North America, and they grew more perilous every day. Yet the quarrel was not yet quite ripe; and though the French govemor, Vaudreuil, and perhaps also his successor, Beauharnois, seemed wilUng to precipitate it, the courts of London and Versailles still hesitated to appeal to the sword. Now, as before, it was a European, and not an American, quarrel that was to set the world on fire. The War of the Austrian Succession broke out in 1744. When Frederic of Prussia seized SUesia and began that bloody conflict, it meant that packs of howUng savages would again spread fire and carnage along the New England border. 60 A MAD SCHEME. [1744 News of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg some weeks before it reached Boston, and the French military govemor, Duquesnel, thought he saw an opportunity to strike an unexpected blow for the profit of France and his own great honor. One of the French inhabitants of Louisbourg has left us a short sketch of Duquesnel, whom he calls "capricious, of an uncertain temper, inclined to drink, and when in his cups neither reasonable or civil. " ' He adds that the govemor had offended nearly every officer in the garrison, and denounces him as the "chief cause of our disasters." When Duquesnel heard of the declaration of war, his first thought was to strike some blow before the English were warned. The fishing-station of Canseau was a tempting prize, being a near and an inconvenient neighbor, at the southern end of the Strait of Canseau, which separates the Acadian peninsula from the island of Cape Breton, or Isle Royale, of which Louisbourg was the place of strength. Nothing was easier than to seize Canseau, which had no defence but a wooden redoubt built by the fishermen, and occupied by about eighty Englishmen thinking no danger. Early in May, Duquesnel sent Captain Duvivier against it, with six hundred, or, as the EngUsh say, nine hundred soldiers and sailors, escorted by two small armed vessels. The English surrendered, on condition of being sent to Boston, 1 Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg contenant une Relation exacti et circonstanciee de la Prise de I'Isle Royale par les Anghit. 1744.] ANNAPOLIS. 61 and the miserable hamlet, with its wooden citadel, was burned to the ground. Thus far successful, the governor addressed him self to the capture of Annapolis, — which meant the capture of all Acadia. Duvivier was again appointed to the command. His heart was in the work, for he was a descendant of La Tour, feudal claimant of Acadia in the preceding century. Four officers and ninety regular troops were given him,^ and from three to four hundred Micmac and Malicite Indians joined him on the way. The Micmacs, under com mand, it is said, of their missionary, Le Loutre, had already tried to surprise the English fort, but had only succeeded in killing two unarmed stragglers in the adjacent garden.'^ Annapolis, from the neglect and indifference of the British ministry, was still in such a state of dilapidation that its sandy ramparts were crumbUng into the ditches, and the cows of the garrison walked over them at their pleasure. It was held by about a hundred effective men under Major Mascarene, a French Protestant whose family had been driven into exUe by the persecutions that followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Shirley, governor of Massa chusetts, sent him a smaU reinforcement of militia; but as most of these came without arms, and as 1 Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. * Mascarene to the Besiegers, 3 July, 1744. Duquesnel had written to all the missionaries " d'engager les sauvages Si faire quelque coup Important sur le fort " (Annapolis). Duquesnel a Beauharnois, 1 Juin, 1744. 62 A MAD SCHEME. [1744. Mascarene had few or none to give them, they proved of doubtful value. Duvivier and his foUowers, white and red, appeared before the fort in August, made their camp behind the ridge of a hiU that overlooked it, and marched towards the rampart; but being met by a discharge of cannon-shot, they gave up aU thoughts of an imme diate assault, began a fusiUade under cover of dark ness, and kept the garrison on the alert aU night. Duvivier had looked for help from the Acadians of the neighboring village, who were French in blood, faith, and incUnation. They would not join him openly, fearing the consequences if his attack should fail ; but they did what they could without commit ting themselves, and made a hundred and fifty scaling- ladders for the besiegers. Duvivier now returned to his first plan of an assault, which, if made with vigor, could hardly have failed. Before attempting it, he sent Mascarene a flag of truce to teU him that he hourly expected two powerful armed ships from Louisbourg, besides a reinforcement of two hundred and fifty regulars, with cannon, mortars, and other enginery of war. At the same time he proposed favorable terms of capitulation, not to take effect till the French war-ships should have appeared. Mascarene refused all terms, saying that when he saw the French ships, he would consider what to do, and meanwhUe would defend himself as he could. The expected ships were the "Ardent" and the "Caribou," then at Louisbourg. A French writer 1744.] DUVIVIER'S EXPEDITION FAILS. 63 says that when Duquesnel directed their captains to sail for Annapolis and aid in its capture, they refused, saying that they had no orders from the court. ^ Duvivier protracted the parley with Mascarene, and waited in vain for the promised succor. At length the truce was broken off, and the garrison, who had profited by it to get rest and sleep, greeted the renewal of hostiUties with three cheers. Now followed three weeks of desultory attacks; but there was no assault, though Duvivier had boasted that he had the means of making a successful one. He waited for the ships which did not come, and kept the Acadians at work in making ladders and fire-arrows. At length, instead of aid from Louis bourg, two small vessels iappeared from Boston, bringing Mascarene a reinforcement of fifty Indian rangers. This discouraged the besiegers, and towards the end of September they suddenly decamped and vanished. "The expedition was a failure," writes the Habitant de Louisbourg, " though one might have bet everything on its success, so small was the force that the enemy had to resist us." This writer thinks that the seizure of Canseau and the attack of Annapolis were sources of dire calamity to the French. "Perhaps," he says, "the English would have let us alone if we had not first insulted them. It was the interest of the people of New England to live at peace with us, and they would no doubt have done so, if we had not taken it into our 1 Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. 64 A MAD SCHEME. [1744. heads to waken them from their security. They expected that both parties would merely stand on the defensive, without taking part in this cruel war that has set Europe in a blaze." Whatever might otherwise have been the disposi tion of the " Bastonnais, " or New England people, the attacks on Canseau and Annapolis alarmed and exasperated them, and engendered in some heated brains a project of wUd audacity. This was no less than the capture of Louisbourg, reputed the strongest fortress, French or British, in North America, with the possible exception of Quebec, which owed its chief strength to nature, and not to art. Louisbourg was a standing menace to all the north- em British colonies. It was the only French naval station on the continent, and was such a haunt of privateers that it was called the American Dunkirk. It commanded the chief entrance of Canada, and threatened to ruin the fisheries, which were nearly as vital to New England as was the fur-trade to New France. The French government had spent twenty- five years in fortifying it, and the cost of its powerful defences — constructed after the system of Vauban — was reckoned at thirty million livres. This was the fortress which William Vaughan of Damariscotta advised Govemor Shirley to attack with fifteen hundred raw New England militia.^ 1 Smollett says that the proposal came from Robert Auchmuty, judge of admiralty in Massachusetts. Hutchinson, Douglas, Bel knap, and other well-informed writers ascribe the scheme to Vaughan, while PepperreU says that it originated with Colonel John Brad- 1744.] WILLIAM VAUGHAN. 65 Vaughan was bom at Portsmouth in 1703, and grad uated at Harvard College nineteen years later. His father, also a graduate of Harvard, was for a time lieutenant-govemor of New Hampshire. Soon after leaving college, the younger Vaughan — a youth of restless and impetuous activity — established a fishing- station on the island of Matinicus, off the coast of Maine, and afterwards became the owner of most of the land on both sides of the little river Damariscotta, where he built a garrison -house, or wooden fort, established a considerable settlement, and carried on an extensive trade in fish and timber. He passed for a man of abiUty and force, but was accused of a headstrong rashness, a self-confidence that hesitated at nothing, and a harebrained contempt of every obstacle in his way. Once, having fitted out a number of small vessels at Portsmouth for his fishing at Matinicus, he named a time for sailing. It was a gusty and boisterous March day, the sea was rough, and old sailors told him that such craft could not carry saU. Vaughan would not listen, but went on board and ordered his men to follow. One vessel was wrecked at the mouth of the river; the rest, after severe buffeting, came safe, with their owner, to Matinicus. Being interested in the fisheries, Vaughan was street. In the Public Record Office there is a letter from Bradstreet, written in 1753, but without address, in which he declares that he not only planned the siege, but " was the Principal Person in con ducting it," — assertions which may pass for what they are worth, Bradstreet being much given to self-assertion. vol. ii. — 5 66 A MAD SCHEME. [1744, 1745. doubly hostile to Louisbourg, — their worst enemy. He found a willing listener in the governor, William Shirley. Shirley was an English barrister who had come to Massachusetts in 1731 to practise his pro fession and seek his fortune. After filling various offices with credit, he was made govemor of the province in 1741, and had discharged his duties with both tact and talent. He was able, sanguine, and a sincere well-wisher to the province, though gnawed by an insatiable hunger for distinction. He thought himself a born strategist, and was possessed by a propensity for contriving military operations, which finally cost him dear. Vaughan, who knew some thing of Louisbourg, told him that in winter the snow-drifts were often banked so high against the rampart that it could be mounted readily, if the assail ants could but time their arrival at the right moment. This was not easy, as that rocky and tempestuous coast was often made inaccessible by fogs and surf; Shirley therefore preferred a plan of his own con triving. But nothing could be done without first persuading his Assembly to consent. On the ninth of January the General Court of Massachusetts — a convention of grave city merchants and solemn rustics from the country viUages — was astonished by a message from the governor to the effect that he had a communication to make, so critical that he wished the whole body to swear secrecy. The request was novel, but being then on good terms with Shirley, the representatives con- 1745.] SHIRLEY'S ADVICE. 67 sented, and took the oath. Then, to their amaze ment, the governor invited them to undertake forthwith the reduction of Louisbourg. The idea of an attack on that redoubtable fortress was not new. Since the autumn, proposals had been heard to peti tion the British ministry to make the attempt, under a promise that the colonies would give their best aid. But that Massachusetts should venture it alone, or with such doubtful help as her neighbors might give, at her oAyn charge and risk, though already insolvent, without the approval or consent of the ministry, and without experienced officers or trained soldiers, was a startUng suggestion to the sober-minded legislators of the General Court. They listened, however, with respect to the governor's reasons, and appointed a committee of the two houses to consider them. The committee deliberated for several days, and then made a report adverse to the plan, as was also the vote of the Court. Meanwhile, in spite of the oath, the secret had escaped. It is said that a country member, more pious than discreet, prayed so loud and fervently, at his lodgings, for light to guide him on the moment ous question, that his words were overheard, and the mystery of the closed doors was revealed. The news flew through the town, and soon spread through aU the province. After his defeat in the Assembly, Shirley returned, vexed and disappointed, to his house in Roxbury. A few days later, James Gibson, a Boston merchant, 68 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. says that he saw him "walking slowly down King Street, with his head bowed down, as if in a deep study." "He entered my counting-room," pursues the merchant, "and abruptly said, ' Gibson, do you feel like giving up the expedition to Louisbourg ? ' " Gibson replied that he wished the House would reconsider their vote. "You are the very man I want!" exclaimed the governor.^ They then drew up a petition for reconsideration, which Gibson signed, promising to get also the signatures of merchants, not only of Boston, but of Salem, Marblehead, and other towns along the coast. In this he was com pletely successful, as all New England merchants looked on Louisbourg as an arch-enemy. The petition was presented, and the question came again before the Assembly. There had been much intercourse between Boston and Louisbourg, which had largely depended on New England for pro visions. ^ The captured militiamen of Canseau, who, after some delay, had been sent to Boston, according to the terms of surrender, had used their opportu nities to the utmost, and could give Shirley much information concerning the fortress. It was reported that the garrison was mutinous, and that provisions were fallen short, so that the place could not hold out without supplies from France. These, however, could be cut off only by blockading the harbor with a stronger naval force than all the colonies together 1 Gibson, Journal of the Siege of Louisbourg. ^ Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. 1745.] THE PLAN CARRIED. 69 could supply. The Assembly had before reached the reasonable conclusion that the capture of Louisbourg was beyond the strength of Massachusetts, and that the only course was to ask the help of the mother- country. ^ The reports of mutiny, it was urged, could not be depended on; raw miUtia in the open field were no match for disciplined troops behind ramparts; the expense would be enormous, and the credit of the province, already sunk low, would collapse under it; we should f aU, and instead of sympathy, get nothing but ridicule. Such were the arguments of the oppo sition, to which there was little to answer, except that if Massachusetts waited for help from England, Louisbourg would be reinforced and the golden opportunity lost. The impetuous and irrepressible Vaughan put forth all his energy; the plan was carried by a single vote. And even this result was said to be due to the accident of a member in opposi tion faUing and breaking a leg as he was hastening to the House. The die was cast, and now doubt and hesitation vanished. All aUke set themselves to push on the work. Shirley wrote to all the colonies, as far south as Pennsylvania, to ask for co-operation. All excused themselves except Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and the whole burden fell on the four New England colonies. These, and Massachusetts above all, blazed with pious zeal; for as the enter- 1 Report of Council, 12 January, 1745. 70 A MAD SCHEME. [1745, prise was directed against Roman Catholics, it was supposed in a peculiar manner to commend itself to Heaven. There were prayers without ceasing in churches and families, and all was ardor, energy, and confidence; while the other colonies looked on with distrust, dashed with derision. When Benjamin Franklin, in Philadelphia, heard what was afoot, he wrote to his brother in Boston, " Fortified towns are hard nuts to crack, and your teeth are not accustomed to it; but some seem to think that forts are as easy taken as snuff." ^ It has been said of Franklin that while he represented some of the New England quali ties, he had no part in that enthusiasm of which our own time saw a crowning example when the cannon opened at Fort Sumter, and which pushes to its end without reckoning chances, counting costs, or heed ing the scoffs of ill-wishers. The prevailing hope and faith were, it is true, born largely of ignorance, aided by the contagious jeal of those who first broached the project; for as usual in such cases, a few individuals suppUed the initiate force of the enterprise. Vaughan the inde fatigable rode express to Portsmouth with a letter from Shirley to Benning Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire. That pompous and self-important personage admired the Massachusetts govemor, who far surpassed him in talents and acquirements, and who at the same time knew how to soothe his vanity. Wentworth was ready to do his part, but his province 1 Sparks, Works of Franklin, vii. 16. 1745.] PREPARATION. 71 had no money, and the King had ordered him to permit the issue of no more paper currency. The same prohibition had been laid upon Shirley; but he, with sagacious forecast, had persuaded his masters to relent so far as to permit the issue of £60,000 in what were called bills of credit to meet any pressing exigency of war. He told this to Wentworth, and succeeded in convincing him that his province might stretch her credit like Massachusetts, in case of similar mUitary need. New Hampshire was thus enabled to raise a regiment of five hundred men out of her scanty population, with the condition that a hundred and fifty of them should be paid and fed by Massachusetts.^ Shirley was less fortunate in Rhode Island. The govemor of that little colony called Massachusetts "our avowed enemy, always trying to defame us."^ There was a grudge between the neighbors, due partly to notorious iU- treatment by the Massachusetts Puritans of Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, and partly to one of those boundary disputes which often produced iU-blood among the colonies. The representatives of Rhode Island, forgetting past differences, voted to raise a hundred and fifty men for the expedition, till, learning that the project was neither ordered nor approved by the Home 1 Correspondence of Shirley and Wentworth, in Belknap Papers. Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, v. 2 Governor Wanton to the Agent of Rhod", Island, 20 December, 1745, in Colony Records of Rhode Island, v, 72 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. Government, they prudently reconsidered their action. They voted, however, that the colony sloop "Tartar," carrying fourteen cannon and twelve swivels, should be equipped and manned for the ser vice, and that the governor should be instructed to find and commission a captain and a lieutenant to command her.^ Connecticut promised five hundred and sixteen men and officers, on condition that Roger Wolcott, their commander, should have the second rank in the expedition. Shirley accordingly commissioned him as major-general. As Massachusetts was to supply above three thousand men, or more than three quarters of the whole force, she had a natural right to name a c ommander-in-chief . It was not easy to choose one. The colony had been at peace for twenty years, and except some grizzled Indian fighters of the last war, and some survivors of the Carthagena expedition, nobody had seen service. Few knew well what a fortress was, and nobody knew how to attack one. Courage, energy, good sense, and popularity were the best qualities to be hoped for in the leader. Popularity was indispensable, for the soldiers were all to be volunteers, and they would not enlist under a com mander whom they did not like. Shirley's choice was William PepperreU, a merchant of Kittery. Knowing that Benning Wentworth thought himself the man for the place, he made an effort to placate J Colony Records of Rhode Island, v. {February, 1745). 1745.] WILLIAM PEPPERRELL. 73 him, and wrote that he would gladly have given hiin the chief command, but for his gouty legs. Went worth took fire at the suggestion, forgot his gout, and declared himself ready to serve his country and assume the burden of command. The position was awkward, and Shirley was forced to reply, " On com municating your offer to two or three gentlemen in whose judgment I most confide, I found them clearly of opinion that any alteration of the present command would be attended with great risk, both with respect to our Assembly and the soldiers being entirely disgusted."^ The painter Smibert has left us a portrait of PepperreU, — a good bourgeois face, not without dignity, though with no suggestion of the soldier. His spacious house at Kittery Point still stands, sound and firm, though curtailed in some of its pro portions. Not far distant is another noted relic of colonial times, the not less spacious mansion built by the disappointed Wentworth at Little Harbor. I write these lines at a window of this curious old house, and before me spreads the scene famiUar to Pepperrell from childhood. Here the river Piscataqua widens to join the sea, holding in its gaping mouth the large island of Newcastle, with attendant groups of islets and island rocks, battered with the rack of ages, studded with dwarf savins, or half clad with patches of whortleberry bushes, sumach, and the shin ing wax-myrtle, green in summer, red with the touch 1 Shirley to Wentworth, 16 February, 1745. 74 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. of October. The flood tide pours strong and full around them, only to ebb away and lay bare a deso lation of rocks and stones buried in a shock of brown drenched seaweed, broad tracts of glistening mud, sand-banks black with mussel-beds, and half-sub merged meadows of eel-grass, with myriads of minute shell-fish clinging to its long lank tresses. Beyond all these Ues the main, or northern channel, more than deep enough, even when the tide is out, to float a line-of-battle-ship. On its farther bank stands the old house of the Pepperrells, wearing even now an air of dingy respectability. Looking through its small, quaint window-panes, one could see across the water the rude dwellings of fishermen along the shore of Newcastle, and the neglected earthwork called Fort William and Mary, that feebly guarded the river's mouth. In front, the Piscataqua, curving southward, widened to meet the Atlantic between rocky headlands and foaming reefs, and in dim dis tance the Isles of Shoals seemed floating on the pale gray sea. Behind the Pepperrell house was a garden, prob ably more useful than ornamental, and at the foot of it were the owner's wharves, with storehouses for sallhfish, naval stores, and imported goods for the country trade. Pepperrell was the son of a Welshman ^ who I " A native of Ravistock Parish, in Wales." Parsons, Life of Pepperrell. Mrs. Adelaide Cilley Waldron, a descendant of Pepper rell, assures me, however, that his father, the emigrant, came, not from Wales, but from Devonshire. 1746.] WILLIAM PEPPERRELL. 75 migrated in early life to the Isles of Shoals, and thence to Kittery, where, by trade, ship-building, and the fisheries, he made a fortune, most of which he left to his son William. The young Pepperrell learned what little was taught at the village school, supplemented by a private tutor, whose instructions, however, did not perfect him in English grammar. In the eyes of his self-made father, education was valuable only so far as it could make a successful trader; and on this point he had reason to be satisfied, as his son passed for many years as the chief mer chant in New England. He dealt in ships, timber, naval stores, fish, and miscellaneous goods brought from England ; and he also greatly prospered by suc cessful land purchases, becoming owner of the greater part of the growing towns of Saco and Scarborough. When scarcely twenty-one, he was made justice of the peace, on which he ordered from London what his biographer calls a law library, consisting of a law dictionary, Danvers' "Abridgment of the Common Law," the "Complete Solicitor," and several other books. In law as in war, his best qualities were good sense and good-will. About the time when he was made a justice, he was commissioned captain of militia, then major, then lieutenant-colonel, and at last colonel, commanding all the militia of Maine. The town of Kittery chose him to represent her in the General Court, Maine being then a part of Massachusetts. FinaUy, he was made a member of the Governor's CouncU, — a post which he held for 76 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. thirty-two years, during eighteen of which he was president of the board. These civil dignities served him as educators better than tutor or village school; for they brought him into close contact with the chief men of the province ; and in the Massachusetts of that time, so different from our own, the best education and breeding were found in the official class. At once a provincial magnate and the great man of a small rustic village, his manners are said to have answered to both posi tions, — certainly they were such as to make him popular. But whatever he became as a man, he learned nothing to fit him to command an army and lay siege to Louisbourg. Perhaps he felt this, and thought, with the govemor of Rhode Island, that "the attempt to reduce that prodigiously strong town was too much for New England, which had not one officer of experience, nor even an engineer. "^ Moreover, he was unwilling to leave his wife, chil dren, and business. He was of a religious turn of mind, and partial to the clergy, who, on their part, held him in high favor. One of them, the famous preacher, George Whitefield, was a guest at his house when he heard that Shirley had appointed him to command the expedition against Louisbourg. Whitefield had been the leading spirit in the recent religious fermentation called the Great Awakening, which, though it produced bitter quarrels among 1 Governor Wanton to the Agent of Rhode Island in London, 20 December, 1745. 1745.] GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 77 the ministers, besides other undesirable results, was imagined by many to make for righteousness. So thought the Rev. Thomas Prince, who mourned over the subsiding delirium of his flock as a sign of backsUding. "The heavenly shower was over," he sadly exclaims ; " from fighting the devil they must turn to fighting the French." Pepperrell, always incUned to the clergy, and now in great perplexity and doubt, asked his guest Whitefield whether or not he had better accept the command. Whitefield gave him cold comfort, told him that the enterprise was not very promising, and that if he undertook it, he must do so " with a single eye, " prepared for obloquy if he failed, and envy if he succeeded.^ Henry Sherburn, commissary of the New Hamp shire regiment, begged Whitefield to furnish a motto for the flag. The preacher, who, zealot as he was, seemed unwiUing to mix himself with so madcap a business, hesitated at first, but at length consented, and suggested the words. Nil desperandum Christo duce, which, being adopted, gave the enterprise the air of a crusade. It had, in fact, something of the character of one. The cause was imagined to be the cause of Heaven, crowned with celestial benedic tion. It had the fervent support of the ministers, not only by prayers and sermons, but, in one case, by counsels whoUy temporal. A certain pastor, much esteemed for benevolence, proposed to Pepper reU, who had at last accepted the command, a plan, 1 Parsons, Life of Pepperrell, 51. 78 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. unknown to Vauban, for confounding the devices of the enemy. He advised that two trustworthy persons should cautiously walk together along the front of the French ramparts under cover of night, one of them carrying a mallet, with which he was to hammer the ground at short intervals. The French sentinels, it seems to have been supposed, on hearing this mysterious thumping, would be so bewildered as to give no alarm. While one of the two partners was thus employed, the other was to lay his ear to the ground, which, as the adviser thought, would return a hollow sound if the artful foe had dug a mine under it; and whenever such secret danger was detected, a mark was to be set on the spot, to warn off the soldiers. ^ Equally zealous, after another fashion, was the Rev. Samuel Moody, popularly known as Father Moody, or Parson Moody, minister of York and senior chaplain of the expedition. Though about seventy years old, hg was amazingly tough and sturdy. He still lives in the traditions of York as the spiritual despot of the settlement and the uncom promising guardian of its manners and doctrine, pre dominating over it like a rough little village pope. The comparison would have kindled his burning wrath, for he abhorred the Holy Father as an embodied Antichrist. Many are the stories told of him by the descendants of those who lived under his rod, and sometimes felt its weight} for he was known ^ Belknap, Hist. New Hampshire, ii. 208. 1745.] PARSON MOODY. 79 to have corrected offending parishioners with his cane.i When some one of his flock, nettled by his strictures from the pulpit, walked in dudgeon towards the church door. Moody would shout after him, " Come back, you graceless sinner, come back ! " or if any ventured to the alehouse of a Saturday night, the strenuous pastor would go in after them, collar them, drag them out, and send them home with rous ing admonition. 2 Few dared gainsay him, by reason both of his irritable temper and of the thick-skinned insensibiUty that encased him like armor of proof. And while his pachydermatous nature made him invulnerable as a rhinoceros, he had at the same time a rough and ready humor that suppUed keen weapons for the warfare of words and made him a formidable antagonist. This commended him to the rude bor derers, who also relished the sulphurous theology of their spiritual dictator, just as they Uked the raw and fiery Uquors that would have scorched more sus ceptible stomachs. What they did not like was the pitiless length of his prayers, which sometimes kept them afoot above two hours shivering in the polar cold of the unheated meeting-house, and which were foUowed by sermons of equal endurance ; for the old man's lungs were of brass, and his nerves of ham mered iron. Some of the sufferers ventured to remon strate; but this only exasperated him, tUl one 1 Tradition told me at York by Mr. N. Marshall. * Lecture of Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted by Cabot, Memoir of Emerson, i. 10. 80 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. parishioner, more worldly wise than the rest, accom panied his modest petition for mercy with the gift of a barrel of cider, after which the parson's ministra tions were perceptibly less exhausting than before. He had an irrepressible conscience and a highly aggressive sense of duty, which made him an intoler able meddler in the affairs of other people, and which, joined to an underlying kindness of heart, made him so indiscreet in his charities that his wife and children were often driven to vain protest against the excesses of his almsgiving. The old Puritan fanaticism was rampant in him ; and when he sailed for Louisbourg, he took with him an axe, intended, as he said, to hew down the altars of Antichrist and demolish his idols. ^ Shirley's choice of a commander was perhaps the best that could have been made; for Pepperrell joined to an unusual popularity as little military incompetency as anybody else who could be had. Popularity, we have seen, was indispensable, and even company officers were appointed with an eye to it. Many of these were well-known men in rustic neighborhoods, who had raised companies in the hope of being commissioned to command them. Others were militia officers recruiting under orders of the governor. Thus, John Storer, major in the Maine 1 Moody found sympathizers in his iconoclastic zeal. Deacon John Gray of Biddef ord wrote to PepperreU : " Oh that I could be with you and dear Parson Moody in that church [at Louisbourg] to destroy the images there set up, and hear the true Gospel of our Lord and Saviour there preached ! " 1745.] THE NEW ENGLAND ARMY. 81 miUtia, raised in a single day, it is said, a company of sixty-one, the eldest being sixty years old, and the youngest sixteen. ^ They formed about a quarter of the fencible population of the town of Wells, one of the most exposed places on the border. Volunteers offered themselves readily everywhere; though the pay was meagre, especially in Maine and Massachu setts, where in the new provincial currency it was twenty-five shilUngs a month, — then equal to four teen shiUings sterling, or less than sixpence a day,^ the soldier furnishing his own clothing and bringing his own gun. A full third of the Massachusetts contingent, or more than a thousand men, are reported to have come from the hardy population of Maine, whose entire fighting force, as shown by the muster- rolls, was then but 2,855.^ Perhaps there was not one officer among them whose experience of war extended beyond a drill on muster day and the sham fight that closed the performance, when it generally happened that the rustic warriors were treated with rum at the charge of their captain, to put them in good humor, and so induce them to obey the word of command. As the three provinces contributing soldiers recog nized no common authority nearer than the King, PepperreU received three several commissions as 1 Bourne, Hist, of Wells and Kennebunk, 371. * Gibson, Journal ; Records of Rhode Island, v. Governor Wan ton of that province says, with complacency, that the pay of Rhode Island was twice that of Massachusetts. ' Parsons, Life of Pepperrell, 54. vol. II. — 6 82 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. Ueutenant-general, — one from the govemor of Mas sachusetts, and the others from the governors of Connecticut and New Hampshire; while Wolcott, commander of the Connecticut forces, was commis sioned as major-general by both the governor of his own province and that of Massachusetts. When the levies were complete, it was found that Massachusetts had contributed about 3,300 men, Connecticut 516, and New Hampshire 304 in her own pay, besides 150 paid by her wealthier neighbor. ^ Rhode Island had lost faith and disbanded her 150 men ; but afterwards raised them again, though too late to take part in the siege. Each of the four New England colonies had a little navy of its own, consisting of from one to three or four small armed vessels ; and as privateering — which was sometimes a euphemism for piracy where Frenchmen and Spaniards were concerned — was a favorite occupation, it was possible to extemporize an additional force in case of need. For a naval commander, Shirley chose Captain Edward Tyng, who had signalized himself in the past summer by capturing a French privateer of greater strength than his own.. Shirley authorized him to buy for the province the best ship he could find, equip her for fighting, and take command of her. Tyng soon found a brig to his mind, on the stocks nearly ready 1 Of the Massachusetts contingent, three hundred men were raised and maintained at the charge of the merchant James Gibson. 1745.] THE NEW ENGLAND NAVY. 83 for launching. She was rapidly fitted for her new destination, converted into a frigate, mounted with 24 guns, and named the "Massachusetts." The rest of the naval force consisted of the ship "Caesar," of 20 guns; a vessel called the "Shirley," commanded by Captain Rous, and also carrying 20 guns ; another, of the kind called a "snow," carrying 16 guns; one sloop of 12 guns, and two of 8 guns each; the " Boston Packet, " of 16 guns ; two sloops from Con necticut of 16 guns each ; a privateer hired in Rhode Island, of 20 guns; the government sloop "Tartar," of the same colony, carrying 14 carriage guns and 12 swivels; and, finally, the sloop of 14 guns which formed the navy of New Hampshire.^ It was said, with apparent reason, that one or two heavy French ships-of-war — and a number of such was expected in the spring — would outmatch the whole colonial squadron, and, after mastering it, would hold all the transports at mercy ; so that the troops on shore, having no means of return and no hope of succor, would be forced to surrender or starve. The danger was real and serious, and Shirley felt the necessity of help from a few British ships-of- war. Commodore Peter Warren was then with a smaU squadron at Antigua. Shirley sent an express boat to him with a letter stating the situation and asking his aid. Warren, who had married an American woman and who owned large tracts of land on the Mohawk, was known to be a warm friend 1 The list is given hy Williamson, ii. 227. 84 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. to the provinces. It is clear that he would gladly have complied with Shirley's request; but when he laid the question before a council of officers, they were of one mind that without orders from the Admiralty he would not be justified in supporting an attempt made without the approval of the King.^ He therefore saw no choice but to decline. Shirley, fearing that his refusal would be too discouraging, kept it secret from all but PepperreU and General Wolcott, or, as others say. Brigadier Waldo. He had written to the Duke of Newcastle in the preced ing autumn that Acadia and the fisheries were in great danger, and that ships-of-war were needed for their protection. On this, the duke had written to Warren, ordering him to sail for Boston and concert measures with Shirley "for the annoyance of the enemy, and his Majesty's service in North America." ^ Newcastle's letter reached Warren only two or three days after he had sent back his refusal of Shirley's request. Thinking himself now sufficiently author ized to give the desired aid, he made all sail for Boston with his three ships, the "Superbe," "Mer maid," and " Launceston. " On the way he met a schooner from Boston, and learned from its officers that the expedition had already sailed; on which, detaining the master as a pilot, he changed his course and made directly for Canseau, — the place of ren dezvous of the expedition, — and at the same time 1 Memoirs of the Principal Transactions of the Last War, 44. 2 Ibid., 46. Letters of Shirley (PubUc Record Office). 1745.] RAPID PREPARATION. 85 sent orders by the schooner that any king's ships that might arrive at Boston should immediately join him. Within seven weeks after Shirley issued his procla mation for volunteers, the preparations were all made, and the unique armament was afloat. Trans ports, such as they were, could be had in abundance ; for the harbors of Salem and Marblehead were full of fishing-vessels thrown out of employment by the war. These were hired and insured by the province for the security of the owners. There was a great dearth of cannon. The few that could be had were too light, the heaviest being of twenty-two-pound calibre. New York lent ten eighteen-pounders to the expedi tion. But the adventurers looked to the French for their chief supply. A detached work near Louis bourg, called the Grand, or Royal, Battery, was known to be armed vrith thirty heavy pieces; and these it was proposed to capture and turn against the town, — which, as Hutchinson remarks, was " like selling the skin of the bear before catching him." It was clear that the expedition must run for luck against risks of all kinds. Those whose hopes were highest, based them on a belief in the special and direct interposition of Providence ; others were san guine through ignorance and provincial self-conceit. As soon as the troops were embarked, Shirley wrote to the ministers of what was going on, telling them that, accidents apart, four thousand New England men would land on Cape Breton in April, and that. 86 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. even should they fail to capture Louisbourg, he would answer for it that they would lay the town in ruins, retake Canseau, do other good service to his Majesty, and then come safe home.^ On receiving this communication, the government resolved to aid the enterprise if there should yet be time, and accordingly ordered several ships-of-war to sail for Louisbourg. The sarcastic Dr. Douglas, then living at Boston, writes that the expedition had a laviryer for contriver, a merchant for general, and farmers, fishermen, and mechanics for soldiers. In fact, it had something of the character of broad farce, to which Shirley him self, with all his ability and general good sense, was a chief contributor. He wrote to the Duke of New castle that though the officers had no experience and the men no discipline, he would take care to provide against these defects, — meaning that he would give exact directions how to take Louisbourg. Accord ingly, he drew up copious instructions to that effect. These seem to have undergone a process of evolution, for several distinct drafts of them are preserved. ^ 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 24 March, 1745. The ministry was not wholly unprepared for this announcement, as Shirley had before reported to it the vote of his Assembly consenting to the expedi tion. Shirley to Newcastle, 1 February, 1745. 2 The first draft of Shirley's instructions for taking Louisbourg is in the large manuscript volume entitled Siege of Louisbourg, in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The document is called Memo for the attacking of Louisbourg this Spring by Surprise. After giving minute instructions for every movement, it goes on to say that, as the surprise may possibly faU, it will be necessary to 1745.] SHIRLEY AS A SOLDIER. 87 The complete and final one is among the Pepperrell Papers, copied entire in the neat, commercial hand of the general himself.^ It seems to assume that Providence would work a continued miracle, and on every occasion supply the expedition with weather precisely suited to its wants. "It is thought," says this singular document, "that Louisbourg may be surprised if they [the French] have no advice of your coming. To effect it you must time your arrival about nine of the clock in the evening, taking care that the fleet be far enough in the offing to prevent their being seen from the town in the daytime." He then goes on to prescribe how the troops are to land, after dark, at a place called Flat Point Cove, in four divisions, three of which are to march to the back of certain hills a mile and a half west of the town, where two of the three " are to halt and keep a pro found silence ; " the third continuing its march " under cover of the said hUls," till it comes opposite the Grand Battery, which it wUl attack at a concerted signal; whUe one of the two divisions behind the hin.q assaults the west gate, and the other moves up to support the attack. send two small mortars and twelve cannon carrying nine-pound baUs, " so as to bombard them and endeavour to make Breaches in their walls and then to Storm them." Shirley was soon to discover the absurdity of trying to breach the walls of Louisbourg with nine-pounders. I It is printed in the first volume of the Collections of the Massa chusetts Historical Society. Shirley was so well pleased with it that he sent it to the Duke of Newcastle enclosed in his letter of 1 Feb ruary, 1746 (PubUc Record Office). 88 A MAD SCHEME. [1745. While this is going on, the soldiers of the fourth division are to march with all speed along the shore tiU they come to a certain part of the town waU, which they are to scale ; then proceed " as fast as can be " to the citadel and " secure the windows of the governor's apartments." After this foUow page after page of complicated details which must have stricken the general with stupefaction. The rocks, surf, fogs, and gales of that tempestuous coast are all left out of the account; and so, too, is the nature of the country, which consists of deep marshes, rocky bills, and hollows choked with evergreen thickets. Yet a series of complex and mutuaUy dependent operations, involving long marches through this rugged and pathless region, was to be accomplished, in the darkness of one April night, by raw soldiers who knew nothing of the country. This rare speci men of amateur soldiering is redeemed in some measure by a postscript in which the govemor sets free the hands of the general, thus : " Notwithstand ing the instructions you have received from me, I must leave you to act, upon unforeseen emergencies, according to your best discretion." On the twenty-fourth of March, the fleet, consist ing of about ninety transports, escorted by the provincial cruisers, sailed from Nantasket Roads, followed by prayers and benedictions, and also by toasts drunk with cheers, in bumpers of rum punch. ^ 1 The following letter from John Payne of Boston to Colonel Robert Hale, of the Essex regiment, whUe it gives no sign of the 1745.] THE EXPEDITION SAILS. 89 prevailing reUgious feeling, Ulustrates the ardor of the New Eng land people towards their rash adventure : — Boston, Apr. 24, 1745. Sir, — I hope this will find you at Louisbourg with a Bowl of Punch a Pipe and aP — kofC — dsin your hand and whatever else you desire (I had forgot to mention a Pretty French Madammoselle). We are very Im patiently expecting to hear from you, your Friend Luke has lost several Beaver Hatts already concerning the Expedition, he is so very zealous about it that he has turned Poor Bontier out of his House for saying he believed you would not Take the Place. Damn his Blood says Luke, let him be au Englishman or a Frenchman and not pretend to be an Englishman when he is a Frenchman in his Heart. If drinking to your success would Take Cape Briton, you must be in Possession of it now, for it 's a standing Toast. I think the least thing you Military Gent" can do is to send us some arrack when you take ye Place to celebrate your Victory and not to force us to do it in Rum Punch or Luke's bad wine or sour cyder. To CoUonell Robert Hale at (or near) Louisbourg. I am indebted for a copy of this curious letter to Robert Hale Bancroft, Esq., a descendant of Colonel Hale. CHAPTER XIX. 1745. LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. Seth Pomeroy. — The Voyage. — Canseau. — Unexpected Suc cors. — Delays. — Louisbourg. — The Landing. — The Grand Battery taken. — French Cannon turned on the Town. — Weakness op Duchambon. — Sufferings op the Besieg ers : their Hardihood ; their Irregular Proceedings. — Joseph Sherburn. — Amateur Gunnery. — Camp Frolics. — Sectarian Zeal. — Perplexities of Pepperrell. On board one of the transports was Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton, and now major of Wil- lard's Massachusetts regiment. He had a turn for soldiering, and fought, ten years later, in the battle of Lake George. Again, twenty years later still, when Northampton was astir with rumors of war from Boston, he borrowed a neighbor's horse, rode a hundred miles, reached Cambridge on the morning of the battle of Bunker Hill, left his borrowed horse out of the way of harm, walked over Charlestown Neck, then swept by the fire of the ships-of-war, and reached the scene of action as the British were forming for the attack. When Israel Putnam, his comrade in the last war, saw from the rebel breastwork the old man striding, gun in hand, up the hill, he shouted, 1745.] SETH POMEROY. 91 "By God, Pomeroy, you here! A cannon-shot would waken you out of your grave ! " But Pomeroy, with other landsmen, crowded in the small and malodorous fishing-vessels that were made to serve as transports, was now in the gripe of the most unheroic of maladies. " A terrible northeast storm" had fallen upon them, and, he says, "we lay roUing in the seas, with our sails furled, among pro digious waves." "Sick, day and night," writes the miserable gunsmith, " so bad that I have not words to set it forth." ^ The gale increased and the fleet was scattered, there being, as a Massachusetts private soldier writes in his diary, " a very fierse Storm of Snow, som Rain and very Dangerous weather to be so nigh ye Shore as we was; but we escaped the Rocks, and that was all."^ On Friday, April 5, Pomeroy's vessel entered the harbor of Canseau, about fifty miles from Louisbourg. Here was the English fishing-hamlet, the seizure of which by the French had first provoked the expedi tion. The place now quietly changed hands again. Sixty-eight of the transports lay here at anchor, and the rest came dropping in from day to day, sorely buffeted, but all safe. On Sunday there was a great concourse to hear Parson Moody preach an open-air sermon from the text, " Thy people shall be wiUing 1 Diary of Major Seth Pomeroy. I owe the copy before me to the kindness of his descendant, Theodore Pomeroy, Esq. 2 Diary of a Massachusetts soldier in Captain Richardson's com pany (Papers of Dr. Belknap). 92 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. in the day of thy power," concerning which occa sion the soldier diarist observes, — " Several sorts of Busnesses was Going on, Som a Exercising, Som a Hearing Preaching." The attention of Parson Moody's listeners was, in fact, distracted by shouts of command and the awkward drill of squads of homespun soldiers on the adjacent pasture. Captain Ammi Cutter, with two companies, was ordered to remain at Canseau and defend it from farther vicissitudes ; to which end a blockhouse was also built, and mounted with eight smaU cannon. Some of the armed vessels had been set to cruise ofi Louisbourg, which they did to good purpose, and presently brought in six French prizes, with supplies for the fortress. On the other hand, they brought the ominous news that Louisbourg and the adjoining bay were so blocked with ice that landing was impossible. This was a serious misfortune, involving long delay, and perhaps ruin to the expedition, as the expected ships-of-war might arrive meanwhile from France. Indeed, they had already begun to appear. On Thursday, the eighteenth, heavy can nonading was heard far out at sea, and again on Friday "the cannon," says Pomeroy, "fired at a great rate tiU about 2 of the clock." It was the provincial cruisers attacking a French frigate, the "Renommde," of thirty-six guns. As their united force was too much for her, she kept up a running fight, outsailed them, and escaped after a chase of more than thirty hours, being, as Pomeroy quaintly 1745.] DETENTION AT CANSEAU. 93 observes, "a smart ship." She carried despatches to the govemor of Louisbourg, and being unable to deliver them, sailed back for France to report what she had seen. On Monday, the twenty-second, a clear, cold, windy day, a large ship, under British colors, sailed into the harbor, and proved to be the frigate "Eltham," escort to the annual mast fleet from New England. On orders from Commander Warren she had left her charge in waiting, and sailed for Canseau to join the expedition, bringing the unex pected and welcome news that Warren himself would soon follow. On the next day, to the delight of all, he appeared in the ship "Superbe," of sixty guns, accompanied by the " Launceston " and the " Mer maid," of forty guns each. Here was force enough to oppose any ships likely to come to the aid of Louisbourg; and Warren, after communicating with Pepperrell, sailed to blockade the port, along with the provincial cruisers, which, by order of Shirley, were placed under his command. The transports lay at Canseau nearly three weeks, waiting for the ice to break up. The time was passed in drilling the raw soldiers and forming them into divisions of four and six hundred each, according to the directions of Shirley. At length, on Friday, the twenty-seventh, they heard that Gabarus Bay was free from ice, and on the morning of the twenty- ninth, with the first fair wind, they sailed out of Canseau harbor, expecting to reach Louisbourg at 94 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. nine in the evening, as prescribed in the governor's receipt for taking Louisbourg "while the enemy were asleep."^ But a lull in the wind defeated this plan; and after sailing all day, they found themselves becalmed towards night. It was not till the next morning that they could see the town, — no very im posing spectacle, for the buildings, with a few excep tions, were small, and the massive ramparts that belted them round rose to no conspicuous height. Louisbourg stood on a tongue of land which lay between its harbor and the sea, and the end of which was prolonged eastward by reefs and shoals that partly barred the entrance to the port, leaving a navigable passage not half a mile wide. This passage was commanded by a powerful battery called the "Island Battery," being upon a small rocky island at the west side of the channel, and was also secured by another detached work caUed the "Grand," or "Royal Battery," which stood on the shore of the harbor, opposite the entrance, and more than a mile from the town. Thus a hostile squadron trying to force its way in would receive a flank fire from the one battery, and a front fire from the other. The strongest line of defence of the fortress was drawn across the base of the tongue of land from the harboi on one side to the sea on the other, — a distance of about twelve hundred yards. The ditch was eighty feet wide and from thirty to thirty-six feet deep ; and the rampart, of earth faced with masonry, was about 1 The words quoted are used by General Wolcott in his journal. mag m mm^mmb. 1745. ScaIo of Feel 2000 aooo aooo sooo < A. L anding of Jfm' England Mer, B. (MJmp of Burr's 7ieginum,b. C- " ¦' P^perreU^ " D. - " WilUaxi^ E. ' » MoaUon^ - ^- " .HoorCs G. HrstonCrT-eerLNill BtUlery. /J. SecoTizL Baiier^' . 1- Third BtUiery. J. FonrtfL,o7^Advct.nced SaUer^. References : A'. Fi^ij or Tiic4mch's Haiiery. Ii. Lufhthoiise JJaUery. v'/ MaJi^lBai(ery(Frenf?vJ. .V G7ruid,orIicyctZBc(Ueiy(Fren{^vJ. O. Bitrying Grviind.. P. King's BctstioTv,orCiia^l. Q- Bura.choij>: R. West Gate. S. SouM-Gaie. T. Jifaar^as Gaia. 1745.] DEFENCES OF LOUISBOURG. 95 sixty feet thick. The glacis sloped down to a vast marsh, which formed one of the best defences of the place. The fortress, without counting its outworks, had embrasures for one hundred and forty-eight cannon; but the number in position was much less, and is variously stated. Pomeroy says that at the end of the siege a Uttle above ninety were found, with " a great number of swivels ; " others say seventy-. six.^ In the Grand and Island batteries there were sixty heavy pieces more. Against this formidable armament the assailants had brought thirty-four cannon and mortars, of much inferior weight, to be used in bombarding the fortress, should they chance to fail of carrying it by surprise, " while the enemy were asleep." ^ Apparently they distrusted the efficacy of their siege-train, though it was far stronger than Shirley had at first thought sufficient; for they brought with them good store of baUs of forty-two pounds, to be used in French cannon of that calibre which they expected to capture, their own largest pieces being but twenty-two-pounders. According to the Habitant de Louisbourg, the gar rison consisted of five hundred and sixty regular troops, of whom several companies were Swiss, besides some thirteen or fourteen hundred militia, inhabitants partly of the town, and partly of neigh- 1 Brown, Cape Breton,. 183. Parsons, Life of Pepperrell, 103. An anonymous letter, dated Louisbourg, 4 July, 1745, says that eighty- five cannon and six mortars have been found in the town. * Memoirs of the Principal Transactions of the Last War, 40. 96 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. boring settlements.^ The regulars were in bad con dition. About the preceding Christmas they had broken into mutiny, being discontented with their rations and exasperated with getting no extra pay for work on the fortifications. The affair was so serious that though order was restored, some of the officers lost all confidence in the soldiers; and this distrust proved most unfortunate during the siege. The gov ernor, ChevaUer Duchambon, successor of Duquesnel, who had died in the autumn, was not a man to grapple with a crisis, being deficient in decision of character, if not in capacity. He expected an attack. "We were informed of the preparations from the first," says the Habitant de Louisbourg. Some Indians, who had been to Boston, carried to Canada the news of what was going on there; but it was not believed, and excited no alarm. ^ It was not so at Louisbourg, where, says the French writer just quoted, "we lost precious moments in useless deliberations and resolutions no sooner made than broken. Nothing to the purpose was done, so that we were as much taken by surprise as if the enemy had pounced upon us unawares." 1 "On fit venir cinq ou six cens MiUciens aux Habitans des environs ; ce que, avec ceux de la Ville, pouvoit former treize \ quatorze cens hommes." — Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. This writer says that three or four hundred more might have been had from Niganiche and its neighborhood, if they had been summoned in time. The number of militia just after the siege is set by Eng lish reports at 1,310. Parsons, 103. ^ Shirley to Newcastle, 17 June, 1745, citing letters captured on board a ship from Quebec, 1745.] THE LANDmG. 97 It was about the twenty-fifth of March ^ when the garrison first saw the provincial cruisers hovering off the mouth of the harbor. They continued to do so at intervals tiU daybreak of the thirtieth of April, when the whole fleet of transports appeared standing towards Flat Point, which projects into Gabarus Bay, three miles west of the town.^ On this, Duchambon sent Morpain, captain of a privateer, or "corsair," to oppose the landing. He had with him eighty men, and was to be joined by forty more, already on the watch near the supposed point of disembarkation. ^ At the same time cannon were fired and alarm bells rung in Louisbourg, to call in the miUtia of the neighborhood. PepperreU managed the critical work of landing with creditable skill. The rocks and the surf were more dangerous than the enemy. Several boats, filled with men, rowed towards Flat Point; but on a signal from the flagship "Shirley," rowed back again, Morpain flattering himself that his appearance had frightened them off. Being joined by several other boats, the united party, a hundred men in all, pulled for another landing-place called Fresh-water Cove, or Anse de la Cormorandidre, two miles farther up Gabarus Bay. Morpain and his party ran to meet them J but the boats were first in the race, and as 1 14 March, old style. =¦ Gabarus Bay, sometimes called " Chapeau Rouge " Bay, is a spacious outer harbor, immediately adjoining Louisbourg. ' Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aoiit, 1745. vol. ii. — 7 98 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. soon as the New England men got ashore, they rushed upon the French, killed six of them, captured as many more, including an officer named Boularderie, and put the rest to flight, with the loss, on their own side, of two men slightly wounded.^ Further resist ance to the landing was impossible, for a swarm of boats pushed against the rough and stony beach, the men dashing through the surf, tiU before night about two thousand were on shore.^ The rest, or about two thousand more, landed at their leisure on the next day. On the second of May Vaughan led four hundred men to the hUls near the town, and saluted it with three cheers, — ¦ somewhat to the discomposure of the French, though they described the unwelcome visitors as a disorderly crowd. Vaughan's next proceeding pleased them still less. He marched behind the hiUs, in rear of the Grand Battery, to the northeast arm of the harbor, where there were extensive magazines of naval stores. These his men set on fire, and the pitch, tar, and other combustibles made a prodigious smoke. He was retuming, in the morning, with a small party of followers behind the hills, when com ing opposite the Grand Battery, and observing it from the ridge, he saw neither flag on the flagstaff, 1 PepperreU to Shirley, 12 May, 1745. Shirley to Newcastle, 28 October, 1745. Journal of the Siege, attested by PepperreU and four other chief officers (London, 1746). ' Bigot says six thousand, or two thousand more than the whole New England force, which was constantly overestimated by the French. 1745.] THE GRAND BATTERY ABANDONED. 99 nor smoke from the barrack chimneys. One of his party was a Cape Cod Indian. Vaughan bribed him with a flask of brandy which he had in his pocket, — though, as the clerical historian takes pains to assure us, he never used it himself, — and the Indian, pretending to be drunk, or, as some say, mad, stag gered towards the battery to reconnoitre.^ All was quiet. He clambered in at an embrasure, and found the place empty. The rest of the party followed, and one of them, William Tufts, of Medford, a boy of eighteen, climbed the flagstaff, holding in his teeth his red coat, which he made fast at the top, as a sub stitute for the British flag, — a proceeding that drew upon him a volley of unsuccessful cannon-shot from the town batteries.^ Vaughan then sent this hasty note to Pepperrell: " May it please your Honour to be informed that by the grace of God and the courage of 13 men, I entered the Royal Battery about 9 o'clock, and am waiting for a reinforcement and a flag." Soon after, four boats, filled with men, approached from the town to reoccupy the battery, — no doubt in order to save the munitions and stores, and complete the destruc tion of the cannon. Vaughan and his thirteen men, standing on the open beach, under the fire of the town and the Island Battery, plied the boats with ^ Belknap, U. 2 John Langdon Sibley, in N. E. Hist, and Gen. Register, xxv. 377. The Boston Gazette of 3 June, 1771, has a notice of Tufts' recent death, with an exaggerated account of his exploit, and an appeal for aid to his destitute family. 100 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. musketry, and kept them from landing, tUl Lieu tenant-Colonel Bradstreet appeared with a rein forcement, on which the French pulled back to Louisbourg.^ The English supposed that the French in the battery, when the clouds of smoke drifted over them from the burning storehouses, thought that they were to be attacked in force, and abandoned their post in a panic. This was not the case. " A detach ment of the enemy," writes the Habitant de Louis bourg, "advanced to the neighborhood of the Royal Battery." This was Vaughan's four hundred on their way to bum the storehouses. "At once we were all seized with fright," pursues this candid writer, "and on the instant it was proposed to abandon this magnificent battery, which would have been our best defence, if one had known how to use it. Various councUs were held, in a tumultuous way. It would be hard to tell the reasons for such a strange proceeding. Not one shot had yet been fired at the battery, which the enemy could not take, except by making regular approaches, as if against the town itself, and by besieging it, so to speak, in form. Some persons remonstrated, but in vain 5 and so a battery of thirty cannon, which had cost the King immense sums, was abandoned before it was attacked." Duchambon says that soon after the English landed, * Vaughan's party seems to have consisted in all of sixteen men, three of whom took no part in this affair. 1745.] FRENCH CANNON. 101 he got a letter from Thierry, the captain in command of the Royal Battery, advising that the cannon should be spiked and the works blown up. It was then, according to the governor, that the council was called, and a unanimous vote passed to follow Thierry's advice, on the ground that the defences of the battery were in bad condition, and that the four hundred men posted there could not stand against three or four thousand. 1 The engineer, Verrier, opposed the blowing up of the works, and they were therefore left untouched. Thierry and his garrison came off in boats, after spiking the cannon in a hasty way, with out stopping to knock off the trunnions or burn the carriages. They threw their loose gunpowder into the well, but left behind a good number of cannon cartridges, two hundred and eighty large bombshells, and other ordinance stores, invaluable both to the enemy and to themselves. Brigadier Waldo was sent to occupy the battery with his regiment, and Major Seth Pomeroy, the gunsmith, with twenty soldier-mechanics, was set at drilUng out the spiked touch-holes of the cannon. There were twenty- eight forty-two-pounders, and two eighteen-pounders.^ 1 Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745. This is the gover. nor's official report. " Four hundred men," is perhaps a copyist's error, the actual number in the battery being not above two hundred. 2 Waldo to Shirley, 12 May, 1745. Some of the French writers say twenty-eight thirty-six pounders, while aU the English caU them forty-twos, — which they must have been, as the forty-two- pound shot brought from Boston fitted them. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt draws my attention to the fact that can- 102 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. Several were ready for use the next morning, and immediately opened on the town, — which, writes a soldier in his diary, " damaged the houses and made the women cry." "The enemy," says the Habitant de Louisbourg, " saluted us with our own cannon, and made a terrific fire, smashing everything within range." The English occupation of the Grand Battery may be called the decisive event of the siege. There seems no doubt that the French could have averted the disaster long enough to make it of little help to the invaders. The water-front of the battery was impregnable. The rear defences consisted of a loop- holed wall of masonry, with a ditch ten feet deep and twelve feet wide, and also a covered way and glacis, which General Wolcott describes as unfinished. In this he mistook. They were not unfinished, but had been partly demolished, with a view to reconstruc tion. The rear wall was flanked by two towers, which, says Duchambon, were demolished; but Gen eral Wolcott declares that swivels were still mounted on them,^ and he adds that "two hundred men might hold the battery against five thousand without can non." The English landed their cannon near Flat Point; and before they could be turned against the Grand Battery, they must be dragged four miles over hills and rocks, through spongy marshes and jungles non were differently rated in the French and English navies of the seventeenth century, and that a French thirty-six carried a ball as large as an English forty-two, or even a little larger. 1 Journal of Major-General Wolcott. 1745.] THE NEW ENGLAND CAMP. 103 of matted evergreens. This would have required a week or more. The alternative was an escalade, in which the undisciplined assailants would no doubt have met a bloody rebuff. Thus this Grand Battery, which, says Wolcott, "is in fact a fort," might at least have been held long enough to save the muni tions and stores, and effectually disable the cannon, which supplied the EngUsh with the only artillery they had, competent to the work before them. The hasty abandonment of this important post was not Duchambon's only blunder, but it was the worst of them aU. On the night after their landing, the New England men slept in the woods, wet or dry, with or vidthout blankets, as the case might be, and in the morning set themselves to encamping with as much order as they were capable of. A brook ran down from the hUls and entered the sea two miles or more from the town. The ground on each side, though rough, was high and dry, and here most of the regiments made their quarters, — WiUard's, Moulton's, and Moore's on the east side, and Burr's and Pepperrell's on the west. Those on the east, in some cases, saw fit to ex tend themselves towards Louisbourg as far as the edge of the intervening marsh, but were soon forced back to a safer position by the cannon-balls of the fortress, which came bowUng amongst them. This marsh was that green, flat sponge of mud and moss that stretched from this point to the glacis of Louisbourg. There was great want of tents, for material to make 104 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. them was scarce in New England. Old sails were often used instead, being stretched over poles, — per haps after the fashion of a Sioux teepee. When these could not be had, the men built huts of sods, with roofs of spruce-boughs overlapping Uke a thatch ; for at that early season, bark would not peel from the trees. The landing of guns, munitions, and stores was a formidable task, consuming many days and destroying many boats, as happened again when Amherst landed his cannon at this same place. Large flat boats, brought from Boston, were used for the purpose, and the loads were carried ashore on the heads of the men, wading through ice-cold surf to the waist, after which, having no change of clothing, they slept on the ground through the chill and foggy nights, reckless of future rheumatisms.^ A worse task was before them. The cannon were to be dragged over the marsh to Green Hill, a spur of the line of rough heights that half encircled the town and harbor. Here the first battery was to be planted ; and from this point other guns were to be dragged onward to more advanced stations, — a dis tance in all of more than two miles, thought by the French to be impassable. So, in fact, it seemed; for 1 The author of The Importance and Advantage of Cape Breton says : " When the hardships they were exposed to come to be con sidered, the behaviour of these men will hardly gain credit. They went ashore wet, had no [dry] clothes to cover them, were exposed in this condition to cold, foggy nights, and yet cheerfully under went these difficulties for the sake of executing a project they had voluntarily undertaken." 1745.] HARDIHOOD OF THE BESIEGERS. 105 at the first attempt, the wheels of the cannon sank to the hubs in mud and moss, then the carriage, and finally the piece itself slowly disappeared. Lieutenant- Colonel Meserve, of the New Hampshire regiment, a ship-builder by trade, presently overcame the diffi culty. By his direction sledges of timber were made, sixteen feet long and five feet wide ; a cannon was placed on each of these, and it was then dragged over the marsh by a team of two hundred men, har nessed with rope-traces and breast-straps, and wading to the knees. Horses or oxen would have foundered in the mire. The way had often to be changed, as the mossy surface was soon churned into a hopeless slough along the Une of march. The work could be done only at night or in thick fog, the men being completely exposed to the cannon of the town. Thirteen years after, when General Amherst besieged Louisbourg again, he dragged his cannon to the same hill over the same marsh; but having at his com mand, instead of four thousand militiamen, eleven thousand British regulars, with all appliances and means to boot, he made a road, with prodigious labor, through the mire, and protected it from the French shot by an epaulement, or lateral earthwork.^ PepperreU writes in ardent words of the cheerful ness of his men " under almost incredible hardships. " Shoes and clothing failed, till many were in tatters and many barefooted; ^ yet they toiled on with uncon- 1 See " Montcalm and Wolfe," chap. xix. ' Pepperrell to Newcastle, 28 June, 1745. 106 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. querable spirit, and vrithin four days had planted a battery of six guns on Green Hill, which was about a mile from the King's Bastion of Louisbourg. In another week they had dragged four twenty-two- pound cannon and ten coehoms — gravely called "cowhoms " by the bucolic Pomeroy — six or seven hundred yards farther, and planted them within easy range of the citadel. Two of the cannon burst, and were replaced by four more and a large mortar, which burst in its turn, and Shirley was begged to send another. Meanwhile a battery, chiefly of coehorns, had been planted on a hiUock four hundred and forty yards from the West Gate, where it greatly annoyed the French; and on the next night an advanced battery was placed just opposite the same gate, and scarcely two hundred and fifty yards from it. This West Gate, the principal gate of Louisbourg, opened upon the tract of high, firm ground that lay on the left of the besiegers, between the marsh, and the harbor, an arm of which here extended westward beyond the town, into what was caUed the Barachois, a salt pond formed by a projecting spit of sand. On the side of the Barachois farthest from the town was a hillock on which stood the house of an habitant named Martissan. Here, on the twentieth of May, a fifth battery was planted, consisting of two of the French forty-two-pounders taken in the Grand Battery, to which three others were afterwards added. Each of these heavy pieces was dragged to its desti nation by a team of three hundred men over rough 1745.] IRREGULAR OPERATIONS. 107 and rocky ground swept by the French artillery. This fifth battery, called the Northwest, or Titcomb's, proved most destructive to the fortress.^ All these operations were accomplished with the utmost ardor and energy, but with a scorn of rule and precedent that astonished and bewildered the French. The raw New England men went their own way, laughed at trenches and zigzags, and per sisted in trusting their lives to the night and the fog. Several writers say that the EngUsh engineer Bastide tried to teach them discretion ; but this could hardly be, for Bastide, whose station was Annapolis, did not reach Louisbourg till the fifth of June, when the batteries were finished, and the siege was nearly ended. A recent French writer makes the curious assertion that it was one of the ministers, or army chaplains, who took upon him the vain task of instruction in the art of war on this occasion.^ This ignorant and self-satisfied recklessness might have cost the besiegers dear if the French, instead of being perplexed and startled at the novelty of their proceedings, had taken advantage of it; but Duchambon and some of his officers, remembering the mutiny of the past winter, feared to make sorties, lest the soldiers might desert or take part with the 1 Journal of the Siege, appended to Shirley's report to Newcastle; Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745; Lettre d'un Habitant; Pomeroy, etc. ' Ferland, Cours d'Histoire du Canada, ii. 477. "L'ennemi ne nous attaquoit point dans les formes, et ne pratiquoit point aucun retranchement pour «e couvrir." — Habitant de Louisbourg. 108 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. enemy. The danger of this appears to have been small. Warren speaks with wonder in his letters of the rarity of desertions, of which there appear to have been but three during the siege, — one being that of a haU-idiot, from whom no information could be got. A bolder commander would not have stood idle while his own cannon were planted by the enemy to batter down his walls ; and whatever the risks of a sortie, the risks of not making one were greater. "Both troops and militia eagerly demanded it, and I believe it would have succeeded," writes the intend ant. Bigot. ^ The attempt was actually made more than once in a half-hearted way, — notably on the eighth of May, when the French attacked the most advanced battery, and were repulsed, with little loss on either side. The Habitant de Louisbourg says : " The enemy did not attack us with any regularity, and made no intrenchments to cover themselves." This last is not exact. Not being wholly demented, they made intrenchments, such as they were, — at least, at the advanced battery ;2 as they would otherwise have been swept out of existence, being under the concen tred fire of several French batteries, two of which were within the range of a musket-shot. The scarcity of good gunners was one of the chief difficulties of the besiegers. As privateering, and piracy also, against Frenchmen and Spaniards was a ' Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aout, 1745. 2 Diary of Joseph Sherburn, Captain at the Advanced Battery. 1745.] AMATEUR GUNNERY. 109 favorite pursuit in New England, there were men in Pepperrell's army who knew how to handle cannon ; but their number was insufficient, and the general sent a note to Warren, begging that he would lend him a few experienced gunners to teach their trade to the raw hands at the batteries. Three or four were sent, and they found apt pupils. PepperreU placed the advanced battery in charge of Captain Joseph^ Sherburn, telling him to enlist as many gunners as he could. On the next day Sherburn reported that he had found six, one of whom seems to have been sent by Warren. With these and a number of raw men he repaired to his perilous station, where "I found," he says, "a very poor intrenchment. Our best shelter from the French fire, which was very hot, was hogsheads filled with earth. " He and his men made the West Gats their chief mark; but before they could get a fair sight of it, they were forced to shoot down the fish-flakes, or stages for drying cod, that obstructed the view. Some of their party were soon killed, — Captain Pierce by a cannon-ball, Thomas Ash by a "bumb," and others by musketry. In the night they improved their defences, and mounted on them three more guns, one of eighteen-pound calibre, and the others of forty-two, — French pieces dragged from the Grand Battery, a mile and three quarters round the Barachois. 1 He signs his name Jos. Sherburn ; but in a list of the officers of the New Hampshire Regiment it appears in full as Joseph. 110 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. The cannon could be loaded only under a constant fire of musketry, which the enemy briskly returned. The French practice was excellent. A soldier who in bravado mounted the rampart and stood there for a moment was shot dead with five bullets. The men on both sides called to each other in scraps of bad French or broken English; while the French drank ironical healths to the New England men, and gave them bantering invitations to breakfast. Sherburn continues his diary. " Sunday morning. Began our fire with as much fury as possible, and the French returned it as warmly from the Citidale [cita del], West Gate, and North East Battery with Cannon, Mortars, and continual showers of musket baUs; but by 11 o'clock we had beat them all from their guns." He goes on to say that at noon his men were forced to stop firing from want of powder, that he went with his gunners to get some, and that while they were gone, somebody, said to be Mr. Vaughan, brought a supply, on which the men loaded the forty- two pounders in a bungling way, and fired them. One was dismounted, and the other burst ; a barrel and a half -barrel of powder blew up, killed two men, and injured two more. Again: "Wednesday. Hot fire on both sides, till the French were beat from all their guns. May 29th went to 2 Gun [Titcomb's] Battery to give the gunners some directions; then retumed to my own station, where I spent the rest of the day with pleasure, seeing our Shott Tumble down their walls and Flagg Staff." 1745.] RESULT OF THE FIRE. Ill The following is the intendant Bigot's account of the effect of the New England fire: "The enemy established their batteries to such effect that they soon destroyed the greater part of the town, broke the right flank of the King's Bastion, ruined the Dauphin Battery with its spur, and made a breach at the Porte Dauphine [West Gate], the neighboring wall, and the sort of redan adjacent."^ Duchambon says in addition that the cannon of the right flank of the King's Bastion could not be served, by reason of the continual fire of the enemy, which broke the embrasures to pieces ; that when he had them repaired, they were broken to pieces (demantibules') again, — and nobody could keep his ground behind the wall of the quay, which was shot through and through and completely riddled.^ The town was ploughed with cannon-balls, the streets were raked from end to end, nearly all the houses damaged, and the people driven for refuge into the stifling casemates. The results were creditable to novices in gunnery. The repeated accidents from the bursting of cannon were no doubt largely due to unskilful loading and the practice of double-shotting, to which the over- zealous artillerists are said to have often resorted.^ 1 Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aout, 1745. * Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745. * " Another forty-two pound gun burst at the Grand Battery. All the guns are in danger of going the same way, by double-shot ting them, unless under better regulation than at present." — Waldo to Pepperrell,20 May, 1745. Waldo had written four days before : " Captain Hale, of my reg iment, is dangerously hurt by the bursting of another gun. He was 112 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. It is said, in proof of the orderly conduct of the men, that not one of them was punished during all the siege; but this shows the mild and conciliating character of the general quite as much as any pecuUar merit of the soldiers. The state of things in and about the camp was compared by the caustic Dr. Douglas to "a Cambridge Commencement," which academic festival was then attended by much rough frolic and boisterous horseplay among the disorderly crowds, white and black, bond and free, who swarmed among the .booths on Cambridge Common. The careful and scrupulous Belknap, who knew many who took part in the siege, says : " Those who were on the spot have frequently, in my hearing, laughed at the recital of their own irregularities, and expressed their admiration when they reflected on the almost miraculous preservation of the army from destruc tion. " While the cannon bellowed in the front, frolic and confusion reigned at the camp, where the men raced, wrestled, pitched quoits, fired at marks, — though there was no ammunition to spare, — and ran after the French cannon-balls, which were carried to the batteries, to be returned to those who sent them. Nor were calmer recreations wanting. " Some of our men went a fishing, about 2 miles off," writes Lieu tenant Benjamin Cleaves in his diary: "caught 6 Troutts." And, on the same day, "Our men went to catch Lobsters: caught 30." In view of this our mainstay for gunnery since Captain Rhodes's misfortune " (also caused by the bursting of a cannon). Waldo to Pepperrell,l6 May, 1745. 1745.] RELIGIOUS ZEAL. 113 truant disposition, it is not surprising that the besiegers now and then lost their scalps at the hands of prowling Indians who infested the neighborhood. Yet through all these gambols ran an undertow of enthusiasm, bom in brains still fevered from the " Great Awakening. " The New England soldier, a growth of sectarian hotbeds, fancied that he was doing the work of God. The army was Israel, and the French were Canaanitish idolaters. Red-hot Calvinism, acting through generations, had modified the transplanted EngUshman ; and the descendant of the Puritans was never so well pleased as when teaching their duty to other people, whether by pen, voice, or bombshells. The ragged artiUerymen, bat tering the waUs of papistical Louisbourg, flattered themselves with the notion that they were champions of gospel truth. Barefoot and tattered, they toiled on with indomi table pluck and cheerfulness, doing the work which oxen could not do, with no comfort but their daily dram of New England rum, as they plodded through the marsh and over rocks, dragging the ponderous guns through fog and darkness. Their spirit could not save them from the effects of excessive fatigue - and exposure. They were ravaged with diarrhoea and fever, till fifteen hundred men were at one time on the sick-Ust, and at another, PepperreU reported that of the four thousand only about twenty-one hundred were fit for duty.^ Nearly all at last recov- 1 Pepperrell to Warren, 28 May, 1746. TOL. II. — 8 _ 114 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. ered, for the weather was unusually good; yet the number fit for service was absurdly small. PepperreU begged for reinforcements, but got none till the siege was ended. It was not his nature to rule with a stiff hand, — and this, perhaps, was fortunate. Order and disci pline, the sinews of an army, were out of the ques tion; and it remained to do as well as might be without them, keep men and officers in good-humor, and avoid all that could dash their ardor. For this, at least, the merchant-general was well fitted. His popularity had helped to raise the army, and perhaps it helped now to make it efficient. His position was no bed of roses. Worries, small and great, pursued him without end. He made friends of his officers, kept a bountiful table at his tent, and labored to soothe their disputes and jealousies, and satisfy their complaints. So generous were his contributions to the common cause that according to a British officer who speaks highly of his services, he gave to it, in one form or another, £10,000 out of his own pocket.^ His letter-books reveal a swarm of petty annoy ances, which may have tried his strength and patience as much as more serious cares. The soldiers com plained that they were left without clothing, shoes, or rum; and when he implored the Committee of War to send them, Osborne, the chairman, replied with explanations why it could not be done. Letters 1 Letter from an Officer of Ifarines appended to A particular Ac count of the Taking of Cape Breton (London, 1745). 1745.] THE BURDENS OF COMMAND. 115 came from wives and fathers entreating that husbands and sons who had gone to the war should be sent back. At the end of the siege a captain "humble begs leave for to go home," because he lives in a very dangerous country, and his wife and children are " in a declining way " without him. Then two entire companies raised on the frontier offered the same petition on similar grounds. Sometimes PepperreU was beset with prayers for favors and promotion; sometimes with complaints from one corps or another that an undue share of work had been imposed on it. One Morris, of Cambridge, writes a moving petition that his slave "Cuffee," who had joined the army, should be restored to him, his lawful master. One John Alford sends the general a number of copies of the Rev. Mr. Prentice's late sermon, for distribution, assuring him that "it wiU please your whole army of volunteers, as he has shown them the way to gain by their gallantry the hearts and affections of the Ladys." The end of the siege brought countless letters of congratulation, which, whether lay or clerical, never failed to remind him, in set phrases, that he was but an instrument in the hands of Providence. One of his most persistent correspondents was his son-in-law, Nathaniel Sparhawk, a thrifty merchant, with a constant eye to business, who generally began his long-winded epistles with a bulletin concerning the health of " Mother Pepperrell," and rarely ended them without charging his father-in-law with some 116 LOUISBOURG BESIEGED. [1745. commission, such as buying for him the cargo of a French prize, if he could get it cheap. Or thus : " If you would procure for me a hogshead of the best Clarett, and a hogshead of the best white wine, at a reasonable rate, it would be very grateful to me." fter pestering him with a few other commissions, he tells him that " Andrew and Bettsy [children of Pepperrell] send their proper compliments," and signs himself, with the starched flourish of provincial breeding, " With all possible Respect, Honoured Sir, Your Obedient Son and Servant."^ PepperreU was much annoyed by the conduct of the masters of the transports, of whom he wrote : " The unaccountable irregular behaviour of these fellows is the greatest fatigue I meet with; " but it may be doubted whether his son-in-law did not prove an equally efficient persecutor. 1 Sparhawk to Pepperrell, — June, 1745. This is but one of many letters from Sparhawk. CHAPTER XX. 1745, LOUISBOURG TAKEN. A Rash Resolution. — The Island Battery. — The Volun teers. — The Attack. — The Repulse. —r Capture of the " Vigilant." — A Sortie. — Skirmishes. — Despondency of the French. — English Camp threatened. — Pepperrell AND Warren. — Warren's Plan. — Preparation for a Gen eral Attack. — Flag of Truce. — Capitulation. — State OF THE Fortress. — Parson Moody. — Soldiers dissatisfied. — Disorders. — Army and Navy. — Rejoicings. — England repays Provincial Outlays. Frequent councils of war were held in solemn form at headquarters. On the seventh of May a summons to surrender was sent to Duchambon, who replied that he would answer with his cannon. Two days after, we find in the record of the council the following startling entry: "Advised unanimously that the Town of Louisbourg be attacked by storm this Night." Vaughan was a member of the board, and perhaps his impetuous rashness had turned the heads of his colleagues. To storm the fortress at that time would have been a desperate attempt for the best-trained and best-led troops. There was as yet no breach in the walls, nor the beginning of one ; and the French were so confident in the strength of their fortifications that they boasted that women alone 118 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. could defend them. Nine in ten of the men had no bayonets,^ many had no shoes, and it is said that the scaling-ladders they had brought from Boston were ten feet too short. ^ Perhaps it was unfortunate for the French that the army was more prudent than its leaders ; and another council being called on the same day, it was "Advised, That, inasmuch as there appears a great Dissatisfaction in many of the officers and Soldiers at the designed attack of the Town by Storm this Night, the said Attack be deferred for the present."^ Another plan was adopted, hardly less critical, though it found favor with the army. This was the assault of the Island Battery, which closed the entrance of the harbor to the British squadron, and kept it open to ships from France. Nobody knew precisely how to find the two landing-places of this formidable work, which were narrow gaps between rocks lashed with almost constant surf; but Vaughan would see no difficulties, and wrote to Pepperrell that if he would give him the command and leave him to manage the attack in his own way, he would engage to send the French flag to headquarters within forty-eight hours.* On the next day he seems to have thought the command assured to him, and writes from the Grand Battery that the carpenters 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 7 June, 1745. * Douglas, Summary, i. 347. * Record of the Council of War, 9 May, 1746.' * Vaughan to Pepperrell,ll May, 17i5. 1745.] THE ATTACK. 119 are at work mending whale-boats and making paddles, asking at the same time for plenty of pistols and one hundred hand-grenades, with men who know how to use them.^ The weather proved bad, and the attempt was deferred. This happened several times, till Warren grew impatient, and offered to support the attack with two hundred sailors. At length, on the twenty-third, the volunteers for the perilous enterprise mustered at the Grand Bat tery, whence the boats were to set out. Brigadier Waldo, who still commanded there, saw them with concern and anxiety, as they came dropping in, in small squads, without officers, noisy, disorderly, and, in some cases, more or less drunk. "I doubt," he told the general, "whether straggling fellows, three, four, or seven out of a company, ought to go on such a service."^ A bright moon and northern lights again put off the attack. The volunteers remained at the Grand Battery, waiting for better luck. "They seem to be impatient for action," writes Waldo. " If there were a more regular appearance, it would give me greater sattysfaction."^ On the twenty-sixth their wish for action was fully gratified. The night was still and dark, and the boats put out from the battery towards twelve o'clock, with about three hundred men on board.* These were to be » Vaughan to PepperreU, 12 May, 1745. « Waldo to Pepperrell, 23 May, 1745. ' Ibid., 26 May, 1745. * " There is scarce three hundred men on this atact [attack], so 120 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. joined by a hundred or a hundred and fifty more from Gorham's regiment, then stationed at Light house Point. The commander was not Vaughan, but one Brooks, — the choice of the men themselves, as were also his subordinates.^ They moved slowly, the boats being propelled, not by oars, but by paddles, which, if skilfully used, would make no noise. The wind presently rose ; and when they found a landing- place, the surf was lashing the rocks with even more than usual fury. There was room for but three boats at once between the breakers on each hand. They pushed in, and the men scrambled ashore with what speed they might. The Island Battery was a strong work, walled in on all sides, garrisoned by a hundred and eighty men, and armed with thirty cannon, seven swivels, and two mortars. ^ It was now a little after mid night. Captain d'Aillebout, the commandant, was on the watch, pacing the battery platform; but he seems to have seen nothing unusual till about a hun dred and fifty men had got on shore, when they had there will be a sufficient number of Whail boats." — Wcddo to Pep- perrell,26 May, 10^ p. m. 1 The list of a company of forty-two " subscribers to go volun tarily upon an attack against the Island Battery " is preserved. It includes a negro called " Ruben." The captain, chosen by the men, was Daniel Bacon. The fact that neither this name nor that of Brooks, the chief commander, is to be found in the list of commis sioned officers of Pepperrell's little army (see Parsons, Life of Pep perrell, Appendix) suggests the conclusion that the " subscribers " were permitted to choose officers from their own ranks. This Us^ however, is not quite complete. ^ Journal of the 5ie^e, appended to Shirley's report. 1745.] THE ATTACK. 121 the folly to announce their presence by three cheers. Then, in the words of General Wolcott, the battery "blazed with cannon, swivels, and small-arms." The crowd of boats, dimly visible through the darkness, as they lay just off the landing, waiting their turn to go in, were at once the target for volleys of grape- shot, langrage-shot, and musket-balls, of which the men on shore had also their share. These succeeded, however, in planting twelve scaling-ladders against the wall.^ It is said that some of them climbed into the place, and the improbable story is told that Brooks, their commander, was hauling down the French flag when a Swiss grenadier cut him down with a cutlass.2 Many of the boats were shattered or sunk, whUe those in the rear, seeing the state of things, appear to have sheered off. The affair was soon reduced to an exchange of shots between the garrison and the men who had landed, and who, standing on the open ground without the walls, were not whoUy invisible, while the French, behind their ramparts, were completely hidden. "The fire of the EngUsh," says Bigot, "was extremely obstinate, but without effect, as they could not see to take aim." They kept it up till daybreak, or about two hours and a half ; and then, seeing themselves at the mercy 1 Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745. Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aout, 1745. 2 The exploit of the boy William Tufts in climbing the French flagstaff and hanging his red coat at the top as a substitute for the British flag, has also been said to have taken place on this oocasioa It was, as before mentioned, at the Grand Battery. 122 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. of the French, surrendered to the number of one hundred and nineteen, including the wounded, three or more of whom died almost immediately. By the most trustworthy accounts the English loss in killed, drowned, and captured was one hundred and eighty- nine; or, in the words of Pepperrell, "nearly half our party. "^ Disorder, precipitation, and weak leadership ruined what hopes the attempt ever had. As this was the only French success during the siege, Duchambon makes the most of it. He reports that the battery was attacked by a thousand men, supported by eight hundred more, who were afraid to show themselves; and, farther, that there were thirty-five boats, all of which were destroyed or sunk, 2 — though he afterwards says that two of them got away with thirty men, being aU that were left of the thousand. Bigot, more moderate, puts the num ber of assailants at five hundred, of whom he says that all perished, except the one hundred and nine teen who were captured.^ At daybreak Louisbourg rang with shouts of triumph. It was plain that a disorderly militia could not capture the Island Battery. Yet captured or silenced it must be ; and orders were given to plant a 1 Douglas makes it a little less. "We lost in this mad froUc sixty men kiUed and drowned, and one hundred and sixteen prison ers." — Summary, i. 353. " " Toutes les barques f urent brisees ou couWes & fond ; le feu fut continuel depuis environ minult jusqu'k trois heures du matin." ¦—Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745, • Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aoiit, 1745, 1745.] THE "VIGILANT" CAPTURED. 123 battery against it at Lighthouse Point, on the eastern side of the harbor's mouth, at the distance of a short half-mile. The neighboring shore was rocky and almost inaccessible. Cannon and mortars were car ried in boats to the nearest landing-place, hauled up a steep cliff, and dragged a mile and a quarter to the chosen spot, where they were planted under the orders of Colonel Gridley, who thirty years after directed the earthworks on Bunker Hill. The new battery soon opened fire with deadly effect. The French, much encouraged by their late suc cess, were plunged again into despondency by a dis aster which had happened a week before the affair of the Island Battery, but did not come to their knowl edge till some time after. On the nineteenth of May a fierce cannonade was heard from the harbor, and a large French ship-of-war was seen hotly engaged with several vessels of the squadron. She was the "Vigilant," carrying 64 guns and 560 men, and commanded by the Marquis de la Maisonfort. She had come from France with munitions and stores, when on approaching Louisbourg she met one of the English cruisers, — some say the "Mermaid," of 40 guns, and others the "Shirley," of 20. Being no match for her, the British or provincial frigate kept up a running fight and led her towards the English fleet. The " Vigilant " soon found herself beset by several other vessels, and after a gallant resistance and tiie loss of eighty men, struck her colors. Noth ing could be more timely for the New England army, 124 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. whose ammunition and provisions had sunk perilously low. The French prize now supplied their needs, and drew from the Habitant de Louisbourg the mourn ful comment, " We were victims devoted to appease the wrath of Heaven, which turned our own arms into weapons for our enemies." Nor was this the last time when the defenders of Louisbourg suppUed the instruments of their own destruction; for ten cannon were presently unearthed at low tide from the flats near the careening wharf in the northeast arm of the harbor, where they had been hidden by the French some time before. Most of them proved sound; and being mounted at Light house Point, they were turned against their late owners at the Island Battery. When Gorham's regiment first took post at Light house Point, Duchambon thought the movement so threatening that he forgot his former doubts, and ordered a sortie against it, under the Sieur de Beaubassin. Beaubassin landed, with a hundred men, at a place called Lorembec, and advanced to surprise the English detachment; but was discovered by an outpost of forty men, who attacked and routed his party. ^ Being then joined by eighty Indians, Beaubassin had several other skirmishes with English scouting-parties, till, pushed by superior numbers, and their leader severely wounded, his men regained Louisbourg by sea, escaping with difficulty from the 1 Journal of the Siege, appended to Shirley's report. Pomeroy, Journal. 1745.] MAISONFORT'S LETTER. 125 guard-boats of the squadron. The Sieur de la Valli^re, with a considerable party of men, tried to burn Pepperrell's storehouses, near Flat Point Cove ; but ten or twelve of his followers were captured, and nearly all the rest wounded. Various other petty encounters took place between English scouting- parties and roving bands of French and Indians, always ending, according to PepperreU, in the dis comfiture of the latter. To this, however, there was at least one exception. Twenty English were way laid and surrounded near Petit Lorembec by forty or fifty Indians, accompanied by two or three French men. Most of the English were shot down, several escaped, and the rest surrendered on promise of life ; upon which the Indians, in cold blood, shot or speared some of them, and atrociously tortured others. This suggested to Warren a device which had two objects, — to prevent such outrages in future, and to make known to the French that the ship " Vigilant, " the mainstay of their hopes, was in English hands. The treatment of the captives was told to the Marquis de la Maisonfort, late captain of the "Vigilant," now a prisoner on board the ship he had commanded, and he was requested to lay the facts before Duchambon. This he did with great readiness, in a letter contain ing these words: "It is well that you should be informed that the captains and officers of this squad ron treat us, not as their prisoners, but as their good friends, and take particular pains that my officers and crew should want for nothing ; therefore it seems to 126 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. me just to treat them in like manner, and to punish those who do otherwise and offer any insult to the prisoners who may fall into your hands." Captain M'Donald, of the marines, carried this letter to Duchambon under a flag-of-truce. Though familiar with the French language, he spoke to the governor through an interpreter, so that the French officers present, who hitherto had only known that a large ship had been taken, expressed to each other without reserve their discouragement and dismay when they learned that the prize was no other than the "Vigilant." Duchambon replied to La Maison- fort's letter that the Indians alone were answerable for the cruelties in question, and that he would forbid such conduct for the future.^ The besiegers were now threatened by a new danger. We have seen that in the last summer the Sieur Duvivier had attacked AnnapoUs. Undaunted by ill-luck, he had gone to France to beg for help to attack it again; two thousand men were promised him, and in anticipation of their arrival the govemor of Canada sent a body of French and Indians, under the noted partisan Marin, to meet and co-operate with them. Marin was ordered to wait at Les Mines till he heard of the arrival of the troops from France ; but he grew impatient, and resolved to attack Annapolis without them. Accordingly, he laid siege to it with the six or seven hundred whites and 1 De la Maisonfort a Duchambon, 18 Juin (new style), 1745. Du chambon a De la Maisonfort, 19 Juin (new style), 1745. 1745.] WARREN AND PEPPERRELL. 127 Indians of his party, aided by the so-called Acadian neutrals. Mascarene, the governor, kept them at bay till the twenty-fourth of May, when, to his sur prise, they all disappeared. Duchambon had sent them an order to make aU haste to the aid of Louis bourg. As the report of this reached the besiegers, multiplying Marin's force fourfold, they expected to be attacked by numbers more than equal to those of their own effective men. This wrought a wholesome reform. Order was established in the camp, which was now fenced with paUsades and watched by sen tinels and scouting-parties. Another tribulation fell upon the general. Shirley had enjoined it upon him to keep in perfect harmony with the naval commander, and the injunction was in accord with Pepperrell's conciliating temper. Warren was no less earnest than he for the success of the enterprise, lent him ammunition in time of need, and offered every aid in his power, while Pepperrell in letters to Shirley and Newcastle praised his col league without stint. But in habits and character the two men differed widely. Warren was in the prime of Ufe, and the ardor of youth still burned in him. He was impatient at the slow movement of the siege. Prisoners told him of a squadron expected from Brest, of which the "Vigilant" was the fore runner; and he feared that even if it could not defeat him, it might elude the blockade, and with the help of the continual fogs, get into Louisbourg in spite of him, thus making its capture impossible. Therefore 128 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. he called a council of his captains on board his flag ship, the "Superbe," and proposed a plan for taking the place without further delay. On the same day he laid it before PepperreU. It was to the effect that all the King's ships and provincial cruisers should enter the harbor, after taking on board sixteen hun dred of Pepperrell's men, and attack the town from the water side, while what was left of the army should assault it by land.^ To accept the proposal would have been to pass over the command to Warren, only about twenty-one hundred of the New England men being fit for service at the time, while of these the general informs Warren that "six hundred are gone in quest of two bodies of French and Indians, who, we are informed, are gathering, one to the east ward, and the other to the westward. "^ To this Warren replies, with some appearance of pique, " I am very sorry that no one plan of mine, though approved by all my captains, has been so for tunate as to meet your approbation or have any weight with you." And to show his title to con sideration, he gives an extract from a letter written to him by Shirley, in wMch that inveterate flatterer hints his regret that, by reason of other employments, Warren could not take command of the whole expe dition, — " which I doubt not, " says the governor, * Report of a Consultation of Officers on board his Majesty's ship " Superbe,'' enclosed in a letter of Warren to PepperreU, 24 May, 1745. ' Pepperrell to Warren, 28 May, 1745. 1745.] EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH FIRE. 129 "would be a most happy event for his Majesty's service."^ Pepperrell kept his temper under this thrust, and wrote to the commodore with invincible courtesy: " Am extremely sorry the fogs prevent me from the pleasure of waiting on you on board your ship," add ing that six hundred men should be furnished from the army and the transports to man the "Vigilant," which was now the most powerful ship in the squad ron. In short, he showed every disposition to meet Warren halfway. But the commodore was begin ning to feel some doubts as to the expediency of the bold action he had proposed, and informed Pepperrell that his pUots thought it impossible to go into the harbor until the Island Battery was silenced. In fact, there was danger that if the ships got in while that battery was still aUve and active, they would never get out again, but be kept there as in a trap, under the fire from the town ramparts. Gridley's artiUery at Lighthouse Point had been doing its best, dropping bombshells with such pre cision into the Island Battery that the French soldiers were sometimes seen running into the sea to escape the explosions. Many of the Island guns were dis mounted, and the place was fast becoming untenable. At the same time the English batteries on the land side were pushing their work of destruction with relentless industry, and walls and bastions crumbled under their fire. The French labored with energy 1 Warren to Pepperrell,29 May, 1745. 130 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. under cover of night to repair the mischief; closed the shattered West Gate with a wall of stone and earth twenty feet thick, made an epaulement to pro tect what was left of the formidable Circular Battery, — all but three of whose sixteen guns had been dis mounted, — stopped the throat of the Dauphin's Bastion with a barricade of stone, and built a cava lier, or raised battery, on the King's Bastion, — where, however, the English fire soon ruined it. Against that near and peculiarly dangerous neighbor, the advanced battery, or, as they called it, the Batterie de Francosur, they planted three heavy cannon to take it in flank. " These, " says Duchambon, " produced a marvellous effect, dismounted one of the cannon of the Bastonnais, and damaged all their embrasures, — which," concludes the governor, "did not prevent them from keeping up a constant fire; and they repaired by night the mischief we did them by day."i Pepperrell and Warren at length came to an under standing as to a joint attack by land and water. The Island Battery was by this time crippled, and the town batteries that commanded the interior of the harbor were nearly destroyed. It was agreed that Warren, whose squadron was now increased by recent arrivals to eleven ships, besides the provincial cruisers, should enter the harbor with the fio^t fair wind, cannonade the town and attack it in boats, whUe Pepperrell stormed it from the land sida ^ Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1745. 1745.] CAPITULATION. 131 Warren was to hoist a Dutch flag under his pennant, at his main-top-gallant mast-head, as a signal that he was about to sail in ; and Pepperrell was to answer by three columns of smoke, marching at the same time towards the walls with drums beating and colors flying.^ The French saw with dismay a large quantity of fascines carried to the foot of the glacis, ready to fill the ditch, and their scouts came in with reports that more than a thousand scaling-ladders were lying behind the ridge of the nearest hill. Toil, loss of sleep, and the stifling air of the casemates, in which they were forced to take refuge, had sapped the strength of the besieged. The town was a ruin; only one house was untouched by shot or sheU. "We could have borne all this," writes the intendant Bigot; "but the scarcity of powder, the loss of the * VigUant, ' the presence of the squadron, and the absence of any news from Marin, who had been ordered to join us with his Canadians and Indians, spread terror among troops and inhabitants. The townspeople said that they did not want to be put to the sword, and were not strong enough to resist a general assault. "^ On the fifteenth of June they brought a petition to Duchambon, begging him to capitulate.^ On that day Captain Sherburn, at the advanced 1 Warren to Pepperrell, 11 June, 1745. PepperreU to Warren- 13 June, 1745. 2 Bigot au Ministre, 1 Aout, 1745. « Duchambon au Ministre, 2 Septembre, 1746, 132 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. battery, wrote in his diary: "By 12 o'clock we had got all our platforms laid, embrazures mended, guns in order, shot in place, cartridges ready, dined, gun ners quartered, matches lighted to return their last favours, when we heard their drums beat a parley-. and soon appeared a flag of truce, which I received midway between our battery and their walls, con ducted the officer to Green HUl, and deUvered him to Colonel Richman [Richmond]." La Perelle, the French officer, delivered a note from Duchambon, directed to both PepperreU and Warren, and asking for a suspension of arms to enable him to draw up proposals for capitulation.^ Warren chanced to be on shore when the note came ; and the two commanders answered jointly that it had come in good time, as they had just resolved on a general attack, and that they would give the gov ernor tiU eight o'clock of the next morning to make his proposals.^ They came in due time, but were of such a nature that PepperreU refused to listen to them, and sent back Bonaventure, the officer who brought them, with counter-proposals. These were the terms which Duchambon had rejected on the seventh of May, with added conditions; as, among others, that no officer, soldier, or inhabitant of Louisbourg should bear arms against the King of England or any of his aUies for the space of a year. Duchambon stipulated, 1 Duchambon a Pepperrell et Warren, 26 Juin (new style), 1745. * Warren and Pepperrell to Duchambon, 15 June, 1745. 1745.] SURRENDER. 133 as the condition of his acceptance, that his troops should march out of the fortress with their arms and colors.^ To this both the English commanders consented, Warren observing to Pepperrell " the uncertainty of our affairs, that depend so much on wind and weather, makes it necessary not to stickle at trifles. " ^ The articles were signed on both sides, and on the seventeenth the ships sailed peacefully into the harbor, whUe PepperreU with a part of his ragged army entered the south gate of the town. " Never was a place more mal'd [mauled] with cannon and shells," he writes to Shirley; "neither have I red in History of any troops behaving with greater courage. We gave them about nine thousand cannon-balls and six hundred bombs. "^ Thus this unique military per formance ended in complete and astonishing success. According to English accounts, the French had lost about three hundred men during the siege ; but their real loss seems to have been not much above a third of that number. On the side of the besiegers, the deaths from all causes were only a hundred and thirty, about thirty of which were from disease. The French used their muskets to good purpose ; but their mortar practice was bad, and close as was the advanced battery to their walls, they often failed to hit it, while the ground on both sides of it looked 1 Duchambon a Warren et PepperreU, 27 Juin (new style), 1745. * Pepperrell to Warren, 16 June, 1745. Warren to Pepperrell, 16 June, 1745. 8 Pepperrell to Shirley, 18 June (old style), 1745. Ibid., 4 July, 1745. 134 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. like a ploughed field, from the bursting of their shells. Their surrender was largely determined by want of ammunition, as, according to one account, the French had but thirty-seven barrels of gunpowder left,^ — in which particular the besiegers fared little better. ^ The New England men had been full of confidence in the result of the proposed assault, and a French writer says that the timely capitulation saved Louis bourg from a terrible catastrophe;^ yet, iU-armed and disorderly as the besiegers were, it may be doubted whether the quiet ending of the siege was not as fortunate for them as for their foes. The discouragement of the French was increased by greatly exaggerated ideas of the force of the " Baston nais." The Habitant de Louisbourg places the land- force alone at eight or nine thousand men, and Duchambon reports to the minister D'Argenson that he was attacked in all by thirteen thousand. His mortifying position was a sharp temptation to exag gerate ; but his conduct can only be explained by a belief that the force of his enemy was far greater than it was in fact. Warren thought that the proposed assault would succeed, and wrote to Pepperrell that he hoped they ^ Habitant de Louisbourg. ^ Pepperrell more than once complains of a total want of both powder and balls. Warren writes to him on May 29 : " It is very lucky that we could spare you some powder ; I am told you had not a grain left." ' " C'est par une protection visible de la Providence que nous avons prevenu une joumee qui nous auroit ^t^ si funeste." — Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. 1745.] PARSON MOODY. 135 would "soon keep a good house together, and give the Ladys of Louisbourg a Gallant BaU."J During his visit to the camp on the day when the flag of truce came out, he made a speech to the New Eng land soldiers, exhorting them to behave like true EngUshmen; at which they cheered lustily. Making a visit to the Grand Battery on the same day, he won high favor with the regiment stationed there by the gift of a hogshead of rum to drink his health. Whether Warren's "gallant ball" ever took place in Louisbourg does not clearly appear. PepperreU, on his part, celebrated the victory by a dinner to the commodore and his officers. As the redoubtable Parson Moody was the general's chaplain and the oldest man in the army, he expected to ask a blessing at the board, and was, in fact, invited to do so, — to the great concern of those who knew his habitual prolixity, and dreaded its effect on the guests. At the same time, not one of them dared rasp his irri table temper by any suggestion of brevity; and hence they came in terror to the feast, expecting an invo cation of a good half-hour, ended by open revolt of the hungry Britons; when, to their surprise and relief. Moody said: "Good Lord, we have so much to thank thee for, that time will be too short, and we must leave it for eternity. Bless our food and fel lowship upon this joyful occasion, for the sake of Christ our Lord, Amen. " And with that he sat down.* 1 Warren to PepperreU,10 June, 1745. ^ Collections of Mass. Hist. Society, i. 49. 136 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. It is said that he had been seen in the French church hewing at the altar and images with the axe that he had brought for that purpose; and perhaps this iconoclastic performance had eased the high pressure of his zeal.^ Amazing as their triumph was, PepperreU's soldiers were not satisfied with the capitulation, and one of them utters his disapproval in his diary thus : " Sab bath Day, ye 16'" June. They came to Termes for us to enter ye Sitty to morrow, and Poore Termes they Bee too." The occasion of discontent was the security of property assured to the inhabitants, "by which means," says that dull chronicler, Niles, "the poor Eoldiers lost all their hopes and just demerit [desert] of plunder promised them." In the meagreness of their pay they thought themselves entitled to the plunder of Louisbourg, which they imagined to be a seat of wealth and luxury. Nathaniel Sparhawk, Pepperrell's thrifty son-in-law, shared this Ulusion, and begged the general to get for him (at a low price) a handsome service of silver plate. When the volunteers exchanged their wet and dreary camp for what they expected to be the comfortable quarters of the town, they were disgusted to see the houses stiU occupied by the owners, and to find themselves forced to stand guard at the doors, to protect them.^ 1 A descendant of Moody, at the village of York, told me that he was found in the church busy in the work of demolition. 3 " Thursday, ye 21''- Ye French keep possession yet, and we 1745.] DISORDERS. 18T "A great Noys and hubbub a mongst ye Solders a bout ye Plunder; Som Cursing, som a Swarein," writes one of the disgusted victors. They were not, and perhaps could not be, long kept in order; and when, in accordance with the capitulation, the inhabitants had been sent on board vessels for transportation to France, discipline gave way, and General Wolcott records that, while Moody was preaching on a Sunday in the garrison-chapel, there was "excessive stealing in every part of the town." Little, however, was left to steal. But if the army found but meagre gleanings, the navy reaped a rich harvest. French ships, instead of being barred out of the harbor, were now lured to enter it. The French flag was kept flying over the town, and in this way prizes were entrapped to the estimated value of a million sterling, half of which went to the Crown, and the rest to the British officers and crews, the army getting no share what ever. Now rose the vexed question of the relative part borne by the colonies and the Crown, the army and the navy, in the capture of Louisbourg; and here it may be weU to observe the impressions of a French witness of the siege. "It was an enter prise less of the English nation and its King than of the inhabitants of New England alone. This singular people have their own laws and adminis- are forsed to stand at their Dores to gard them." — Diary of a Sol dier, anonymous. 138 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. tration, and their governor plays the sovereign. Ad miral [Commodore] Warren had no authority over the troops sent by the Governor of Boston, and he was only a spectator. . . . Nobody would have said that their sea and land forces were of the same nation and under the same prince. No nation but the English is capable of such eccentricities (bi- zarreries), — which, nevertheless, are a part of the precious liberty of which they show themselves so jealous. " ^ The French writer is correct when he says that the land and sea forces were under separate com mands, and it is equally true that but for the con ciliating temper of Pepperrell, harmony could not have been preserved between the two chiefs; but when he calls Warren a mere spectator, he does glar ing injustice to that gallant officer, whose activity and that of his captains was incessant, and whose services were invaluable. They maintained, with slight lapses, an almost impossible blockade, without which the siege must have failed. Two or three small vessels got into the harbor ; but the capture of the "Vigilant," more than any other event of the siege, discouraged the French and prepared them for surrender. Several English writers speak of Warren and the navy as the captors of Louisbourg, and all New England writers give the chief honor to Pepperrell and the army. Neither army nor navy would have 1 Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg. 1745.] ARMY AND NAVY. 139 been successful without the other. Warren and his officers, in a council of war, had determined that so long as the Island Battery and the water batteries of the town remained in an efficient state, the ships could not enter the harbor; and Warren had per- sonaUy expressed the same opinion. ^ He did not mean to enter till all the batteries which had made the attempt impracticable, including the Circular Battery, which was the most formidable of all, had been silenced or crippled by the army, and by the army alone. The whole work of the siege fell upon the land forces ; and though it had been proposed to send a body of marines on shore, this was not done.^ Three or four gunners, " to put your men in the way of loading cannon,"^ was Warren's contribution to the operations of the siege ; though the fear of attack 1 Report of Consultation on board the " Superbe," 7 June, 1745. " Commodore Warren did say publickly that before the Circular Battery was reduced he would not venture in here with three times ye sea force he had with him, and, through divine assistance, we tore that [battery] and this city almost to pieces." — PepperreU to Shirley, 4 July, 1745. 2 Warren had no men to spare. He says: "If it should be thought necessary to join your troops with any men from our ships, it should only be done for some sudden attack that may be exe cuted in one day or night." — Warren to Pepperrell, 11 May, 1745. No such occasion arose. s Ibid., 13 May, 1745. On the nineteenth of May, 1746, Warren made a parting speech to the New England men at Louisbourg, in which he tells them that it was they who conquered the country, and expresses the hope that should the French try to recover it, " the same Spirit that induced you to make this Conquest will prompt you to protect it." See the speech in Beamish-Murdoch, ii 100- 102. 140 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. by the ships, jointly with the land force, no doubt has tened the surrender. Beauharnois, governor of Can ada, ascribes the defeat to the extreme activity with which the New England men pushed their attacks. The Habitant de Louisbourg says that each of the two commanders was eager that the keys of the fortress should be delivered to him, and not to his colleague ; that before the surrender, Warren sent an officer to persuade the French that it would be for their advantage to make their submission to him rather than to Pepperrell ; and that it was in fact so made. Wolcott, on the other hand, with the best means of learning the truth, says in his diary that PepperreU received the keys at the South Gate. The report that it was the British commodore, and not their own general, to whom Louisbourg sur rendered, made a prodigious stir among the inhabit ants of New England, who had the touchiness common to small and ambitious peoples ; and as they had begun the enterprise and borne most of its burdens and dangers, they thought themselves en titled to the chief credit of it. PepperreU was blamed as lukewarm for the honor of his country because he did not demand the keys and reject the capitulation if they were refused. After all this ebullition it appeared that the keys were in his hands, for when, soon after the siege, Shirley came to Louisbourg, Pepperrell formally presented them to him, in pres ence of the soldiers. Warren no doubt thought that he had a right to 1745.] NEWS OF THE VICTORY. 141 precedence, as being an officer of the King in regular standing, while Pepperrell was but a civilian, clothed with temporary rank by the appointment of a pro vincial governor. Warren was an impetuous sailor accustomed to command, and Pepperrell was a mer chant accustomed to manage and persuade. The difference appears in their correspondence during the siege. Warren is sometimes brusque and almost peremptory; Pepperrell is forbearing and consider ate to the last degree. He liked Warren, and, to the last, continued to praise him highly in letters to Shirley and other provincial governors;^ while Warren, on occasion of Shirley's arrival at Louis bourg, made a speech highly complimentary to both the general and his soldiers. The news that Louisbourg was taken, reached Boston at one o'clock in the morning of the third of July by a vessel sent express. A din of bells and cannon proclaimed it to the slumbering townsmen, and before the sun rose, the streets were filled with shouting crowds. At night every window shone with lamps, and the town was ablaze with fireworks and bonfires. The next Thursday was appointed a day of general thanksgiving for a victory believed to be the direct work of Providence. New York and Philadelphia also hailed the great news with illumi nations, ringing of bells, and firing of cannon. 1 See extracts in Parsons, 105, 106. The Habitant de Louisbourg extols Warren, but is not partial to PepperreU, whom he calls, in correctly, " the son of a Boston shoemaker." 142 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [174& In England the tidings were received with aston ishment and a joy that was dashed with reflections on the strength and mettle of colonists supposed already to aspire to independence. PepperreU was made a baronet, and Warren an admiral. The mer chant soldier was commissioned colonel in the British army; a regiment was given him, to be raised in America and maintained by the King, while a similar recognition was granted to the lawyer Shirley.^ A question vital to Massachusetts worried her in the midst of her triumph. She had been bankrupt for many years, and of the large volume of her out standing obligations, a part was not worth eight pence in the pound. Added to her load of debt, she had spent £183, 649 sterling on the Louisbourg expe dition. That which Smollett calls " the most impor tant achievement of the war " would never have taken place but for her, and Old England, and not New, was to reap the profit; for Louisbourg, conquered by arms, was to be restored by diplomacy. If the money she had spent for the mother-country were not repaid, her ruin was certain. William BoUan, English by birth and a son-in-law of Shirley, was sent out to urge the just claim of the province, and 1 To Rous, captain of a provincial cruiser, whom Warren had commended for conduct and courage, was given the command of a ship in the royal navy. " Tell your Council and Assembly, in his Majesty's name,'' writes Newcastle to Shirley, " that their conduct will always entitle them, in a particular manner, to his royal favor and protection." — New castle to Shirley, 10 August, 1745. 1745.] PROVINCIAL OUTLAYS REPAID. 143 after long and vigorous solicitation, he succeeded. The full amount, in sterling value, was paid to Mas sachusetts, and the expenditures of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were also reimbursed.^ The people of Boston saw twenty-seven of those long unwieldy trucks which many elders of the place still remember as used in their youth, rumbling up King Street to the treasury, loaded with two hundred and seventeen chests of Spanish dollars, and a hundred barrels of copper coin. A pound sterling was worth eleven pounds of the old-tenor currency of Massachusetts, and thirty shillings of the new- tenor. Those beneficent trucks carried enough to buy in at a stroke nine-tenths of the old-tenor notes of the province, — nominally worth above two mil- Uons. A stringent tax, laid on by the Assembly, paid the remaining tenth, and Massachusetts was restored to financial health.^ 1 £183,649 to Massachusetts ; £16,355 to New Hampshire ; £28,863 to Connecticut ; £6,332 to Rhode Island. 2 Palfrey, New England, v. 101-109 ; Shirley, Report to the Board of Trade. Bollan to Secretary Willard, in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soe, i. 53 ; Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., ii. 391-395. Letters of Bollan in Mas sachusetts Archives. It was through the exertions of the much-abused Thomas Hutch inson, Speaker of the Assembly and historian of Massachusetts, that the money was used for the laudable purpose of extinguishing the old debt. Shirley did his utmost to support BoUan in his efforts to obtain compensation, and after highly praising the zeal and loyalty of the people of his province, he writes to Newcastle : " Justice, as well as the affection which I bear to 'em, constrains me to beseech your Grace to recommend their Case to his Majesty's paternal Care & 144 LOUISBOURG TAKEN. [1745. Tenderness in the Strongest manner." — Shirley to Newcastle, 6 No vember, 1745. The English documents on the siege of Louisbourg are many and voluminous. The Pepperrell Papers and the Belknap Papers, both in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, afford a vast number of contemporary letters and documents on the subject. The large volume entitled Siege of Louisbourg, in the same reposi tory, contains many more, including a number of autograph diaries of soldiers and others. To these are to be added the journals of General Wolcott, James Gibson, Benjamin Cleaves, Seth Pomeroy, and several others, in print or manuscript, among which is espe cially to be noted the journal appended to Shirley's Letter to the Duke of Newcastle of October 28, 1745, and bearing the names of Pep perreU, Brigadier Waldo, Colonel Moore, and Lieutenant-Colonels Lothrop and Gridley, who attest its accuracy. Many papers have also been drawn from the Public Record Office of London. Accounts of this affair have hitherto rested, with but sUght exceptions, on English sources alone. The archives of France have furnished useful material to the foregoing narrative, notably the long report of the governor, Duchambon, to the minister of war, and the letter of the intendant, Bigot, to the same personage, within about six weeks after the surrender. But the most curious French evidence respecting the siege is the Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg contenant une Relation exacte if circonstanciee de la Prise de I'Isle-Royale par les> Anglois. A Quibec, chez Guillaume le Sincere, a I'Image de la Verite, 1745. This little work, of eighty-one printed pages, is extremely rare. I could study it only by having a literatim transcript made from the copy in the Bibliothfeque Nationale, as it was not in the British Museum. It bears the signature B. L. N., and is dated a ... cc 28 Aoiit, 1745. The imprint of Qu^ec, etc., is certainly a mask, the book having no doubt been printed in France. It severely criticises Duchambon, and makes him mainly answerable for the disaster. For French views of the siege of Louisbourg, see Appendix B. CHAPTER XXI. 1745-1747. DUG D'ANVILLE. LoITISBOITSG after THE CONQUEST. — MUTINY. — PESTILENCE. — Stephen Williams : his Diary. — Scheme of conquering Canada. — Newcastle's Promises. — Alarm in Canada. — Promises broken. — Plan against Crown Point. — Start ling News. — D'Anville's Fleet. — Louisbourg to be avenged. — Disasters op D'Anville. — Storm. — Pestilencb. — Famine. — Death of D'Anville. — Suicide of the Vice- Admiral. — Ruinous Failure. — Return Voyage. — Defeat OP La Jonqui±re. The troops and inhabitants of Louisbourg were all embarked for France, and the town was at last in full possession of the victors. The serious-minded among them — and there were few who did not bear the stamp of hereditary Puritanism — now saw a fresh proof that they were the pecuUar care of an approv ing Providence. While they were in camp the weather had been favorable ; but they were scarcely housed when a cold, persistent rain poured down in floods that would have drenched their flimsy tents and turned their huts of turf into mud-heaps, robbing the sick of every hope of recovery. Even now they got little comfort from the shattered tenements of vol. ii. — 10 146 DUG D'ANVILLE. [1745. Louisbourg. The siege had left the town in so filthy a condition that the wells were infected and the water was poisoned. The soldiers clamored for discharge, having enlisted to serve only till the end of the expedition; and Shirley insisted that faith must be kept with them, or no more would enlist.^ Pepperrell, much to the dissatisfaction of Warren, sent home about seven hundred men, some of whom were on the sick list, while the rest had families in distress and danger on the exposed frontier. At the same time he begged hard for reinforcements, expecting a visit from the French and a desperate attempt to recover Louis bourg. He and Warren governed the place jointly, under martial law, and they both passed half their time in holding courts-martial; for disorder reigned among the disgusted militia, and no less among the crowd of hungry speculators, who flocked like vul tures to the conquered town to buy the cargoes of captured ships, or seek for other prey. The Massa chusetts soldiers, whose pay was the smallest, and who had counted on being at their homes by the end of July, were the most turbulent; but all alike were on the brink of mutiny. Excited by their ring leaders, they one day marched in a body to the parade and threw down their arms, but probably soon picked them up again, as in most cases the guns were hunting-pieces belonging to those who carried them. Pepperrell begged Shirley to come to ' Shirley to Newcastle, 27 September, 1745. 1745.] MUTINOUS MILITIA 147 Louisbourg and bring the mutineers back to duty. Accordingly, on the sixteenth of August he arrived in a ship-of-war, accompanied by Mrs. Shirley and Mrs. Warren, wife of the commodore. The soldiers duly fell into Une to receive him. As it was not his habit to hide his own merits, he teUs the Duke of Newcastle that nobody but he could have quieted the malcontents, — which is probably true, as nobody else had power to raise their pay. He made them a speech, promised them forty shillings in Massachu setts new-tenor currency a month, instead of twenty- five, and ended with ordering for each man half a pint of rum to drink the King's health. Though potations so generous might be thought to promise effects not wholly sedative, the mutineers were brought to reason, and some even consented to remain in garrison till the next June.^ SmaU reinforcements came from New England to hold the place tiU the arrival of troops from Gibraltar, promised by the ministry. The two regiments raised in the colonies, and commanded by Shirley and Pepperrell, were also intended to form a part of the garrison; but difficulty was found in filling the ranks, because, says Shirley, some commissions have been given to Englishmen, and men will not enlist here except under American officers. Nothing could be more dismal than the condition of Louisbourg, as reflected in the diaries of soldiers and others who spent there the winter that followed 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 4 December, 1745. 148 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1745, its capture. Among these diaries is that of the worthy Benjamin Crafts, private in Hale's Essex regiment, who to the entry of each day adds a pious invocation, sincere in its way, no doubt, though hackneyed, and sometimes in strange company. Thus, after noting down Shirley's gift of half a pint of rum to every man to drink the King's health, he adds immediately: "The Lord Look upon us and enable us to trust in him & may he prepare us for his holy Day." On "September ye 1, being Sabath," we find the foUovring record: "I am much out of order. This forenoon heard Mr. Stephen Williams preach from ye 18 Luke 9 verse in the afternoon from ye 8 of Ecles : 8 verse : Blessed be the Lord that has given us to enjoy another Sabath and opertunity to hear his Word Dispensed." On the next day, " being Monday," he continues, "Last night I was taken very Bad: the Lord be pleased to strengthen my inner man that I may put my whole Trust in him. May we all be prepared for his holy will. Red part of plunder, 9 small tooth combs." Crafts died in the spring, of the prevaiUng distemper, after doing good service in the commissary department of his regiment. Stephen Williams, the preacher whose sermons had comforted Crafts in his trouble, was a son of Rev. John Williams, captured by the Indians at Deerfield in 1704, and was now minister of Long Meadow, Massachusetts. He had joined the anti-papal crusade as one of its chaplains, and passed for a man of abil- 1745.] STEPHEN WILLIAMS. 149 ity, — a point on which those who read his diary will probably have doubts. The lot of the army chap lains was of the hardest. A pestilence had faUen upon Louisbourg, and turned the fortress into a hospital. "After we got into the town," says the sarcastic Dr. Douglas, whose pleasure it is to put everything in its worst light, " a sordid indolence or sloth, for want of discipline, induced putrid fevers and dysenteries, which at length in August became contagious, and the people died like rotten sheep." From fourteen to twenty-seven were buried every day in the cemetery behind the town, outside the Maurepas Gate, by the old lime-kiln on Rochefort Point ; and the forgotten bones of above five hundred New England men lie there to this day under the coarse, neglected grass. The chaplain's diary is Uttle but a dismal record of sickness, death, sermons, funerals, and prayers with the dying ten times a day. " Prayed at Hospital ; — Prayed at Citadel ; — Preached at Grand Batery ; — Visited Capt. [illegible], very sick; — One of Capt. 's company dy*. — Am but poorly myself, but able to keep about." Now and then there is a momentary change of note, as when he writes: "July 29"'. One of ye Captains of ye men of war caind a soldier who struck ye capt. again. A great tumult. Swords were drawn; no life lost, but great uneasiness is caused." Or when he sets down the "say" of some Briton, apparently a naval officer, "that he had tho't ye New England men were Cowards — but now he tho't yt if they had a pick 150 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1745,1746. axe & spade, they w'd dig ye way to Hell & storm it."i Williams was sorely smitten vdth homesickness, but he sturdily kept his post, in spite of grievous yearnings for family and flock. The pestilence slowly abated, till at length the burying-parties that passed the Maurepas Gate counted only three or four a day. At the end of January five hundred and sixty-one men had died, eleven hundred were on the sick list, and about one thousand fit for duty.^ The promised regiments from Gibraltar had not come. Could the French have struck then, Louisbourg might have changed hands again. The Gibraltar regiments had arrived so late upon that rude coast that they turned southward to the milder shores of Virginia, spent the winter there, and did not appear at Louisbourg till April. They brought with them a commission for Warren as governor of the fortress. He made a speech of thanks to the New England garrison, now reduced to less than nineteen hundred men, sick and weU, and they sailed at last for home, Louisbourg being now thought safe from any attempt of France. To the zealous and energetic Shirley the capture of the fortress was but a beginning of greater triumphs. Scarcely had the New England miUtia 1 The autograph diary of Rev. Stephen WiUiams is in my pos session. The handwriting is detestable. " On May 10, 1746, Shirley writes to Newcastle that eight hundred and ninety men had died during the winter. The sufferings of the garrison from cold were extreme. 1745,1746.] SHIRLEY'S SCHEMES. 151 sailed from Boston on their desperate venture, when he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle that should the expedition succeed, all New England would be on fire to attack Canada, and the other colonies would take part with them, if ordered to do so by the ministry.^ And, some months later, after Louisbourg was taken, he urged the policy of striking while the iron was hot, and invading Canada at once. The colonists, he said, were ready, and it would be easier to raise ten thousand men for such an attack than one thou sand to Ue idle in garrison at Louisbourg or anywhere else. France and England, he thinks, cannot live on the same continent. If we were rid of the French, he continues, England would soon contiol America, which would make her first among the nations ; and he ventures what now seems the modest prediction that in one or two centuries the British colonies would rival France in population. Even now, he is sure that they would raise twenty thousand men to capture Canada, if the King required it of them, and Warren would be an acceptable commander for the naval part of the expedition; "but," concludes the govemor, "I wiU take no step vidthout orders from his Majesty. "2 The Duke of Newcastle was now at the head of the Government. Smollett and Horace Walpole have made his absurdities famiUar, in anecdotes which, true or not, do no injustice to his character; 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 4 April, 1746. « Ibid., 29 October, 1745. 152 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. yet he had talents that were great in their way, though their way was a mean one. They were talents, not of the statesman, but of the political manager, and their object was to win office and keep it. Newcastle, whatever his motives, listened to the counsels of Shirley, and directed him to consult with Warren as to the proposed attack on Canada. At the same time he sent a circular letter to the govern ors of the provinces from New England to North Carolina, directing them, should the invasion be ordered, to call upon their assembUes for as many men as they would grant. ^ Shirley's views were cordially supported by Warren, and the levies were made accordingly, though not in proportion to the strength of the several colonies; for those south of New York felt little interest in the plan. Shirley was told to "dispose Massachusetts to do its part;" but neither he nor his province needed prompting. Taking his cue from the Roman senator, he ex claimed to his Assembly, " Delenda est Canada ; " and the Assembly responded by voting to raise thirty- five hundred men, and offering a bounty equivalent to ,£4 sterling to each volunteer, besides a blanket for every one, and a bed for every two. New Hamp shire contributed five hundred men, Rhode Island three hundred, Connecticut one thousand. New York sixteen hundred. New Jersey five hundred, Maryland three hundred, and Virginia one hundred. The 1 Newcastle to the Provincial Governors, 14 March, 1746 ; Shirley to Newcastle, 31 May, 1746 ; Proclamation of Shirley, 2 June, 1746. 1746.] ALARM IN CANADA. 153 Pennsylvania Assembly, controlled by Quaker non- combatants, would give no soldiers ; but, by a popu lar movement, the province furnished four hundred men, without the help of its representatives.^ As usual in the English attempts against Canada, the campaign was to be a double one. The main body of troops, composed of British regulars and New England miUtia, was to sail up the St. Lawrence and attack Quebec, while the levies of New York and the provinces farther south, aided, it was hoped, by the warriors of the Iroquois, were to advance on Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. Newcastle promised eight battaUons of British troops under Lieutenant-General Saint-Clair. They were to meet the New England men at Louisbourg, and all were then to sail together for Quebec, under the escort of a squadron commanded by Warren. Shirley also was to go to Louisbourg, and arrange the plan of the campaign with the general and the admiral. Thus, without loss of time, the captured fortress was to be made a base of operations against its late owners. Canada was wild with alarm at reports of English preparation. There were about fifty English prisoners in barracks at Quebec, and every device was tried to get information from them ; but being chiefly rustics caught on the frontiers by Indian war-parties, they had little news to give, and often refused to give 1 Hutchinson, ii. 381, note. Compare Memoirs of the Principal Transactions of the Last War. 154 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. even this. One of them, who had been taken long before and gained over by the French,^ was used as an agent to extract information from his countrymen, and was called "notre homme de confiance." At the same time the prisoners were freely supplied with writing materials, and their letters to their friends being then opened, it appeared that they were all in expectation of speedy deliverance.^ In July a report came from Acadia that from forty to fifty thousand men were to attack Canada ; and on the first of August a prisoner lately taken at Saratoga declared that there were thirty-two war-ships at Boston ready to sail against Quebec, and that thir teen thousand men were to march at once from Albany against Montreal. "If all these stories are true," writes the Canadian journalist, "all the Eng lish on this continent must be in arms." Preparations for defence were pushed with feverish energy. Fireships were made ready at Quebec, and fire-rafts at Isle-aux-Coudres ; provisions were gath ered, and ammunition was distributed ; reconnoitring parties were sent to watch the gulf and the river; and bands of Canadians and Indians lately sent to Acadia were ordered to hasten back. Thanks to the Duke of Newcastle, all these alarms were needless. The Massachusetts levies were ready 1 "Un ancien prisonnier afflde que I'on a mis dans nos interests." * Extrait en forme de Journal de ce qui s'est passe dans la Colonic depuis . . . le 1 Decembre, 1745, jusqu'au 9 Novembre, 1746, signi Beauharnois et Hocquart, 1746,1747.] BROKEN PROMISES. 155 within six weeks, and Shirley, eager and impatient, waited in vain for the squadron from England and the promised eight battaUons of regulars. They did not come ; and in August he wrote to Newcastle that it would now be impossible to reach Quebec before October, which would be too late.^ The eight bat talions had been sent to Portsmouth for embarkation, ordered on board the transports, then ordered ashore again, and finally sent on an abortive expedition against the coast of France. There were those who thought that this had been their destination from the first, and that the proposed attack on Canada was only a pretence to deceive the enemy. It was not tUl the next spring that Newcastle tried to explain the miscarriage to Shirley. He wrote that the troops had been detained by head-winds till General Saint- Clair and Admiral Lestock thought it too late; to which he added that the demands of the European war made the Canadian expedition impracticable, and that Shirley was to stand on the defensive and attempt no further conquests. As for the provincial soldiers, who this time were in the pay of the Crown, he says that they were "very expensive," and orders the governor to get rid of them "as cheap as pos sible." ^ Thus, not for the first time, the hopes of the colonies were brought to nought by the failure of the British ministers to keep their promises. When, in the autumn of 1746, Shirley said that for 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 22 August, 1746. ' Newcastle to Shirley, 30 May, 1747. 156 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. the present Canada was to be let alone, he bethought him of a less decisive conquest, and proposed to employ the provincial troops for an attack on Crown Point, which formed a halfway station between Albany and Montreal, and was the constant rendez vous of war-parties against New York, New Hamp shire, and Massachusetts, whose discords and jealousies had prevented them from combining to attack it. The Dutch of Albany, too, had strong commercial reasons for not coming to blows with the Canadians. Of late, however, Massachusetts and New York had suffered so much from this inconvenient neighbor that it was possible co unite them against it; and as CUnton, govemor of New York, was scarcely less earnest to get possession of Crown Point than was Shirley himself, a plan of operations was soon settled. By the middle of October fifteen hundred Massachu setts troops were on their way to join the New York levies, and then advance upon the obnoxious post.^ Even this modest enterprise was destined to fail. Astounding tidings reached New England, and startled her Uke a thunder-clap from dreams of con quest. It was reported that a great French fleet and army were on their way to retake Louisbourg, recon quer Acadia, burn Boston, and lay waste the other seaboard towns. The Massachusetts troops marching for Crown Point were recalled, and the country militia were mustered in arms. In a few days the narrow, crooked streeis of the Puritan capital were 1 Memoirs of the Principal Transactions of the Last War. 1746.] D'ANVILLE'S FLEET. 157 crowded with more than eight thousand armed rustics from the farms and villages of Middlesex, Essex, Norfolk, and Worcester, and Connecticut promised six thousand more as soon as the hostile fleet should appear. The defences of Castle William were en larged and strengthened, and cannon were planted on the islands at the mouth of the harbor; hulks were sunk in the channel, and a boom was laid across it under the guns of the castle. ^ The alarm was compared to that which filled England on the approach of the Spanish Armada. ^ Canada heard the news of the coming armament with an exultation that was dashed with misgiving as weeks and months passed and the fleet did not appear. At length in September a vessel put in to an Acadian harbor with the report that she had met the ships in mid-ocean, and that they counted a hun dred and fifty sail. Some weeks later the governor and intendant of Canada wrote that on the fourteenth of October they received a letter from Chibucto with " the agreeable news " that the Due d'Anville and his fleet had arrived there about three weeks before. Had they known more, they would have rejoiced less. That her great American fortress should have been snatched from her by a despised militia was more 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 29 September, 1746. Shirley says that though the French may bombard the town, he does not think they could make a landing, as he shall have fifteen thousand good men within call to oppose them. 2 Hutchmson, ii. 382. 158 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. than France could bear; and in the midst of a bur densome war she made a crowning effort to retrieve her honor and pay the debt with usury. It was computed that nearly half the French navy was gathered at Brest under command of the Due d'Anville. By one account his force consisted of eleven ships-of-the-line, twenty frigates, and thirty- four transports and fireships, or sixty-five in all. Another Ust gives a total of sixty-six, of which ten were ships-of-the-line, twenty-two were frigates and fireships, and thirty-four were transports.^ These last carried the regiment of Ponthieu, with other veteran troops, to the number in all of three thou sand one hundred and fifty. The fleet was to be joined at Chibucto, now Halifax, by four heavy ships- of-war lately sent to the West Indies under M. de Conflans. From Brest D'Anville sailed for some reason to Rochelle, and here the ships were kept so long by head-winds that it was the twentieth of June before they could put to sea. From the first the omens were sinister. The admiral was beset with questions as to the destination of the fleet, which was knovra to him alone; and when, for the sake of peace, he told it to his officers, their discontent redoubled. The Bay of Biscay was rough and boisterous, and spars, sails, and bowsprits were carried away. After they had been a week at sea, some of the ships, being 1 This list is in the journal of a captured French officer called by Shirley M. Rebateau. 1746.] D'ANVILLE'S DISASTERS. 159 dull sailers, lagged behind, and the rest were forced to shorten sail and wait for them. In the longitude of the Azores there was a dead calm, and the whole fleet lay idle for days. Then came a squall, with Ughtning. Several ships were struck. On one of them six men were killed, and on the seventy-gun ship " Mars " a box of musket and cannon cartridges blew up, killed ten men, and wounded twenty-one. A store-ship which proved to be sinking was abandoned and burned. Then a pestilence broke out, and in some of the ships there were more sick than in health. On the fourteenth of September they neared the coast of Nova Scotia, and were in dread of the dangerous shoals of Sable Island, the position of which they did not exactly know. They groped their way in fogs till a fearful storm, with thunder and lightning, fell upon them. The journaUst of the voyage, a captain in the regiment of Ponthieu, says, with the exaggeration common in such cases, that the waves ran as high as the masts ; and such was their violence that a transport, dashing against the ship "Amazone," immediately went down, with all on board. The crew of the "Prince d'Orange," half bUnded by wind and spray, saw the great ship " Caribou, " without bowsprit or main-topmast, driv ing towards them before the gale, and held their breath in expectation of the shock as she swept close alongside and vanished in the storm. ^ The tempest 1 Journal historique du Voyage de la Flotte commandee par M. le Due d'Enville. The writer was on board the "Prince d'Orange,* 160 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. raged all night, and the fleet became so scattered that there was no more danger of collision. In the morning the journalist could see but five sail ; but as the day advanced the rest began to reappear, and at three o'clock he counted thirty-one from the deck of the "Prince d'Orange." The gale was subsiding, but its effects were seen in hencoops, casks, and chests floating on the surges and telling the fate of one or more of the fleet. The "Argonaut" was roUing helpless, without masts or rudder; the "Caribou" had thrown overboard all the starboard guns of her upper deck; and the vice-admiral's ship, the "Trident," was in scarcely better condition. On the twenty-third they were wrapped in thick fog and lay flring guns, ringing bells, and beating drums to prevent collisions. When the weather cleared, they looked in vain for the admiral's ship, the "Northumberland." ^ She was not lost, however, but with two other ships was far ahead of the fleet and near Chibucto, though in great perplexity, hav ing no pilot who knew the coast. She soon after had the good fortune to capture a small English vessel with a man on board well acquainted with Chibucto harbor. D'Anville offered him his liberty and a hundred louis if he would pilot the ship in. To this he agreed ; but when he rejoined his fellow-prisoners and describes what he saw (Archives du S^minaire de Quftec; printed in Le Canada Fran^ais). ^ The "Northumberland" was an English prize captured by Captains Serier and Conflans in 1744. 1746.] THE FLEET AT CHIBUCTO. 161 they called him a traitor to his country, on which he retracted his promise. D'Anville was sorely per plexed ; but Duperrier, captain of the " Northumber land," less considerate of the prisoner's feelings, told him that unless he kept his word he should be thrown into the sea, with a pair of cannon-balls made fast to his feet. At this his scruples gave way, and before night the "Northumberland" was safe in Chibucto Bay. D'Anville had hoped to find here the four ships of Conflans, which were to have met him from the West Indies at this, the appointed rendezvous; but he saw only a solitary transport of his own fleet. Hills covered with forests stood lonely and savage round what is now the harbor of Halifax. Conflans and his four ships had arrived early in the month, and finding nobody, though it was nearly three months since D'Anville left Rochelle, he cruised among the fogs for a while, and then sailed for France a few days before the admiral's arrival. D'Anville was ignorant of the fate of his fleet; but he knew that the two ships which had reached Chibucto with him were full of sick men, that their provisions were nearly spent, and that there was every reason to beUeve such of the fleet as the storm might have spared to be in no better case. An officer of the expedition describes D'Anville as a man "made to command and worthy to be loved," and says that he had borne the disasters of the voyage with the utmost fortitude and serenity. ^ Yet sus- 1 Journal historique du Voyage. TOL. II. — 11 162 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. pense and distress wrought fatally upon him, and at two o'clock in the morning of the twenty-seventh he died, — of apoplexy, by the best accounts ; though it was whispered among the crews that he had ended his troubles by poison.^ At six o'clock in the afternoon of the same day D'Estournel, the vice-admiral, with such ships as remained with him, entered the harbor and learned what had happened. He saw with dismay that he was doomed to bear the burden of command over a ruined enterprise and a shattered fleet. The long voyage had consumed the provisions, and in some of the ships the crews were starving. The pestilence grew worse, and men were dying in numbers every day. On the twenty-eighth, D'AnviUe was buried without ceremony on a smaU island in the harbor. The officers met in council, and the papers of the dead commander were examined. Among them was a letter from the King in which he urged the recap ture of Louisbourg as the first object of the expedi tion; but this was thought impracticable, and the council resolved to turn against Annapolis all the force that was left. It is said that D'Estournel opposed the attempt, insisting that it was hopeless, and that there was no alternative but to return to France. The debate was long and hot, and the decision was against him.^ The council dissolved, 1 Declaration ofH. Kannan and D. Deas, 23 October, 1746. Depo sition of Joseph Foster, 24 October, 1746, sworn to before Jacob Wen dell, J. P. These were prisoners in the ships at Chibucto. ' This is said by all the writers except the author of the Journal 1746.] DEATH OF THE VICE-ADMIRAL. 163 and he was seen to enter his cabin in evident distress and agitation. An unusual sound was presently heard, followed by groans. His door was fastened by two bolts, put on the evening before by his order. It was burst open, and the unfortunate commander was found Ij^ng in a pool of blood, transfixed with his own sword. Enraged and mortified, he had thrown himself upon it in a fit of desperation. The surgeon drew out the blade, but it was only on the urgent persuasion of two Jesuits that the dying man would permit the wound to be dressed. He then ordered all the captains to the side of his berth, and said, " Gentlemen, I beg pardon of God and the King for what I have done, and I protest to the King that my only object was to prevent my enemies from say ing that I had not executed his orders;" and he named M. de la Jonquiere to command in his place. In fact. La Jonquifere's rank entitled him to do so. He was afterwards well known as governor of Canada, and was reputed a brave and able sea-officer. La Jonquiere remained at Cliibucto till late in October. Messengers were sent to the Acadian settlements to ask for provisions, of which there was desperate need ; and as payment was promised in good metal, and not in paper, the Acadians brought in a considerable supply. The men were encamped on shore, yet the pestilence continued its ravages. Two historique, who merely states that the council decided to attack Annapolis, and to detach some soldiers to the aid of Quebec. Thin last vote was reconsidered. 164 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. EngUsh prisoners were told that between twenty- three and twenty-four hundred men had been buried by sea or land since the fleet left France ; and another declares that eleven hundred and thirty-five burials took place while he was at Chibucto. ^ The survivors used the clothing of the dead as gifts to the neighbor ing Indians, who in consequence were attacked with such virulence by the disease that of the band at Cape Sable three fourths are said to have perished. The English, meanwhile, learned something of the condition of their enemies. Towards the end of September Captain Sylvanus Cobb, in a sloop from Boston, boldly entered Chibucto Harbor, took note of the ships lying there, and, though pursued, ran out to sea and carried the results of his observations to Louisbourg. 2 A more thorough reconnoissance was afterwards made by a vessel from Louisbourg bring ing French prisoners for exchange under a flag of truce; and it soon became evident that the British colonies had now nothing to fear. La Jonquiere still clung to the hope of a successful stroke at Annapolis, tiU in October an Acadian brought him the report that the garrison of that place had received a reinforcement of twelve hundred men. The reinforcement consisted in reality of three small companies of militia sent from Boston by Shirley. La Jonquiere caUed a secret council, and 1 Declaration of Kannan and Deas. Deposition of Joseph Foster. * Report of Captain Cobb, in Shirley to Newcastle, 13 October, 1746. 1746.J A LAST EFFORT. 165 the result seems to have been adverse to any further attempt. The journaUst reports that only a thousand men were left in flghting condition, and that even of these some were dying every day. La Jonquiere, however, would not yet despair. The troops were re-embarked; five hospital ships were devoted to the sick; the "Parfait," a fifty-gun ship no longer serviceable, was burned, as were several smaller vessels, and on the fourth of October what was left of the fleet sailed out of Chibucto Harbor and steered for Annapolis, piloted by Aca dians. The flag of truce from Louisbourg was com pelled for a time to bear them company, and Joseph Foster of Beverly, an exchanged prisoner on board of her. deposed that as the fleet held its way, he saw " a great number of dead persons " dropped into the sea every day. Ill-luck still pursued the French. A storm off Cape Sable dispersed the ships, two of which some days later made their way to Annapolis Basin in expectation of finding some of their com panions there. They found instead the British fifty- gun ship "Chester" and the Massachusetts frigate " Shirley " anchored before the fort, on which the two Frenchmen retired as they had come; and so ended the last aggressive movement on the part of the great armament. The journalist reports that on the night of the twenty-seventh there was a council of officers on board the "Northumberland," at which it was re solved that no choice was left but to return to France 166 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746. with the ships that still kept together. On the fourth of November there was another storm, and when it subsided, the "Prince d'Orange" found herself with but nine companions, all of which were transports. These had on board eleven companies of soldiers, of whom their senior officer reports that only ninety-one were in health. The pestilence made such ravages among the crews that four or five corpses were thrown into the sea every day, and there was fear that the vessels would be left helpless in mid-ocean for want of sailors to work them.^ At last, on the seventh of December, after narrowly escaping an English squadron, they reached Port Louis in Brittany, where several ships of the fleet had arrived before them. Among these was the frigate "La Palme." "Yesterday," says the jour nalist, "I supped with M. Destrahoudal, who com mands this frigate; and he told me things which from anybody else would have been incredible. This is his story, exactly as I had it from him." And he goes on to the following effect. After the storm of the fourteenth of September, provisions being almost spent, it was thought that there was no hope for " La Palme " and her crew but in giving up the enterprise and making all sail at once for home, since France now had no port of refuge on the western continent nearer than Quebec. Rations were reduced to three ounces of biscuit and three of salt meat a day ; and after a time half of this 1 Journal historique. 1746.] THE STORY OF "LA PALME." 167 pittance was cut off. There was diligent hunting for rats in the hold ; and when this game faUed, the crew, crazed with famine, demanded of their captain that five EngUsh prisoners who were on board should be butchered to appease the frenzy of their hunger. The captain consulted his officers, and they were of opinion that if he did not give his consent, the crew would work their will without it. The ship's butcher was accordingly ordered to bind one of the prisoners, carry him to the bottom of the hold, put him to death, and distribute his flesh to the men in portions of three ounces each. The captain, walking the deck in great agitation all night, found a pretext for deferring the deed tUl morning, when a watchman sent aloft at daylight cried, "A sail!" The provi dential stranger was a Portuguese ship; and as Portugal was neutral in the war, she let the frigate approach to within hailing distance. The Portuguese captain soon came alongside in a boat, " accompanied, " in the words of the narrator, "by five sheep." These were eagerly welcomed by the starving crew as agreeable substitutes for the five Englishmen ; and, being forthwith slaughtered, were parcelled out among the men, who would not wait till the flesh was cooked, but devoured it raw. Provisions enough were obtained from the Portuguese to keep the frigate's company alive till they reached Port Louis. There are no sufficient means of judging how far 1 Relation du Voyage de Retour de M. Destrahoudal apris la Tern- pete du 14 Septembre, in Journal historique. 168 DUC D'ANVILLE. [1746,1747. the disasters of D'AnvUle's fleet were due to a neglect of sanitary precautions or to deflcient sea manship. Certain it is that there were many in self- righteous New England who would have held it impious to doubt that God had summoned the pesti lence and the storm to fight the battles of his modern Israel. Undaunted by disastrous failure, the French court equipped another fleet, not equal to that of D'AnviUe, yet still formidable, and placed it under La Jonquiere, for the conquest of Acadia and Louisbourg. La Jonquiere sailed from Rochelle on the tenth of May, 1747, and on the fourteenth was met by an English fleet stronger than his own and commanded by Admirals Anson and Warren. A fight ensued, in which, after brave resistance, the French were totally defeated. Six ships-of-war, including the flag-ship, were captured, with a host of prisoners, among whom was La Jonquiere himself.^ 1 Relation du Combat rendu le 14 Mai (new style), par I'Escadre du Roy commandee par M. de la Jonquiere, in Le Canada Franfais, Sup plement de Documents inedits, 33. Newcastle to Shirley, 30 May, 1747. CHAPTER XXn. 1745-1747. ACADIAN CONFLICTS. Efforts of France. — Apathy of Newcastle. — Dilemma of Acadians : their Character. — Danger op the Province. — Plans of Shirley. — Acadian Priests. — Political Agi tators. — Noble's Expedition. — Ramesay at Beaubassin. — Noble at Grand Prje;. — A Winter March. — Defeat and Death of Noble. — Grand PRf; reoccupied by the Eng lish. — Threats of Ramesay against the Acadians. — The British Ministry will not protect them. Since the capture of Louisbourg, France had held constantly in view, as an object of prime importance, the recovery of her lost colony-of Acadia. This was one of the chief aims of D'Anville's expedition, and of that of La Jonquiere in the next year. And to make assurance still more sure, a large body of Cana dians, under M. de Ramesay, had been sent to Acadia to co-operate with D'Anville's force; but the greater part of them had been recalled to aid in defending Quebec against the expected attack of the English. They retumed when the news came that D'Anville was at Chibucto, and Ramesay, with a part of his command, advanced upon Port Royal, or Annapolis, in order to support the fleet in its promised attack on 170 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1745, 1746. that place. He encamped at a little distance from the English fort, till he heard of the disasters that had ruined the fleet, ^ and then fell back to Chignecto, on the neck of the Acadian peninsula, where he made his quarters, with a force which, including Micmac, Malicite, and Penobscot Indians, amounted, at one time, to about sixteen hundred men. If France was bent on recovering Acadia, Shirley was no less resolved to keep it, if he could. In his belief, it was the key of the British American colonies, and again and again he urged the Duke of Newcastle to protect it. But Newcastle seems scarcely to have known where Acadia was, being ignorant of most things except the art of managing the House of Commons, and careless of all things that could not help his party and himself. Hence Shirley's hyper boles, though never without a basis of truth, were lost upon him. Once, it is true, 'he sent three hun dred men to Annapolis ; but one hundred and eighty of them died on the voyage, or lay helpless in Boston hospitals, and the rest could better have been spared, some being recruits from EngUsh jails, and others Irish Catholics, several of whom deserted to the French, with information of the state of the garrison. The defence of Acadia was left to Shirley and his Assembly, who in time of need sent companies of militia and rangers to Annapolis, and thus on several occasions saved it from returning to France. Shirley was the most watchful and strenuous defender of 1 Journal de Beaujeu, in Le Canada Franfais, Documents, 53. 1745, 1746.] ACADIAN DILEMMA. 171 British interests on the continent; and in the present crisis British and colonial interests were one. He held that if Acadia were lost, the peace and safety of aU the other colonies would be in peril ; and in spite of the immense efforts made by the French court to recover it, he felt that the chief danger of the province was not from without, but from within. "If a thousand French troops should land in Nova Scotia," he writes to Newcastle, "all the people would rise to join them, besides all the Indians."^ So, too, thought the French officials in America. The govemor and intendant of Canada wrote to the colonial minister : " The inhabitants, with few excep tions, wish to retum under the French dominion, and will not hesitate to take up arms as soon as they see themselves free to do so; that is, as soon as we become masters of Port Royal, or they have powder and other munitions of war, and are backed by troops for their protection against the resentment of the English. "2 Up to this time, however, though they had aided Duvivier in his attack on Annapolis so far as was possible without seeming to do so, they had not openly taken arms, and their refusal to fight for the besiegers is one among several causes to which Mascarene ascribes the success of his defence. While the greater part remained attached to France, some leaned to the English, who bought their pro duce and paid them in ready coin. Money was rare 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 29 October, 1745. ' Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre, 12 Septembre, 1746. 172 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1745,1746. with the Acadians, who loved it, and were so addicted to hoarding it that the French authorities were led to speculate as to what might be the object of these careful savings. ^ Though the Acadians loved France, they were not always ready to sacrifice their interests to her. They would not supply Ramesay's force with provisions in exchange for his promissory notes, but demanded hard cash.^ This he had not to give, and was near being compelled to abandon his position in conse quence. At the same time, in consideration of specie payment, the inhabitants brought in fuel for the English garrison at Louisbourg, and worked at repairing the rotten chevaux de frise of Annapolis.* Mascarene, commandant at that place, being of French descent, was disposed at first to sympathize with the Acadians and treat them with a lenity that to the members of his council seemed neither fitting nor prudent. He wrote to Shirley : " The French inhabitants are certainly in a very perilous situation, those who pretend to be their friends and old masters having let loose a parcel of banditti to plunder them ; whilst, on the other hand, they see themselves threat ened with ruin if they fail in their allegiance to the British Government."* This unhappy people were in fact between two ^ Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre, 12 Septembre, 1745. 2 Ibid. ' Admiral Knowles a 1746. Mascarene in Le Canada Fran. fals. Documents, 82. ' Mascarene, in Le Canada, Francois, Documents, 81. 1745,1746.] THE ACADIANS. 173 fires. France claimed them on one side, and Eng land on the other, and each demanded their adhesion, without regard to their feeUngs or their welfare. The banditti of whom Mascarene speaks were the Micmac Indians, who were completely under the control of their missionary, Le Loutre, and were used by him to terrify the inhabitants into renoun cing their EngUsh allegiance and actively supporting the French cause. By the Treaty of Utrecht France had transferred Acadia to Great Britain, and the inhabitants had afterwards taken an oath of fidelity to King George. Thus they were British subjects ; but as their oath had been accompanied by a promise, or at least a clear understanding, that they should not be required to take arms against Frenchmen or Indians, they had become known as the "Neutral French." This name tended to perplex them, and in their ignorance and simplicity they hardly knew to which side they owed allegiance. Their illiteracy was extreme. Few of them could sign their names, and a contemporary well acquainted with them declares that he knew but a single Acadian who could read and write. ^ This was probably the notary, Le Blanc, whose compositions are crude and illiter ate. Ignorant of books and isolated in a wild and remote corner of the world, the Acadians knew noth ing of affairs, and were totally incompetent to meet the crisis that was soon to come upon them. In activity and enterprise they were far behind the 1 Moise des Derniers, in Le Canada Frangais, i. 118. 174 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1746. Canadians, who looked on them as inferiors. Their pleasures were those of the humblest and simplest peasants; they were contented with their lot, and asked only to be let alone. Their intercourse was unceremonious to such a point that they never ad dressed each other, or, it is said, even strangers, as monsieur. They had the social equality which can exist only in the humblest conditions of society, and presented the phenomenon of a primitive little de mocracy, hatched under the wing of an absolute monarchy. Each was as good as his neighbor; they had no natural leaders, nor any to advise or guide them, except the missionary priest, who in every case was expected by his superiors to influence them in the interest of France, and who, in fact, con stantly did so. While one observer represents them as living in a state of primeval innocence, another describes both men and women as extremely foul of speech; from which he draws inferences unfavorable to their domestic morals, ' which, nevertheless, were commendable. As is usual with a well-fed and un ambitious peasantry, they were very prolific, and are said to have doubled their number every sixteen years. In 1748 they counted in the peninsula of Nova Scotia between twelve and thirteen thousand souls.2 The English rule had been of the Ughtest, — so Ught that it could scarcely be felt; and this was 1 Journal de Franguet, Part II. ' Description de I'Acadie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et le Nombrf des Habitants, 1748. 1745,1747.] THE ACADIANS. 175 not surprising, since the only instruments for enfor cing it over a population whoUy French were some two hundred disorderly soldiers in the crumbling Uttle fort of AnnapoUs; and the province was left, perforce, to take care of itself. The appearance of D'Anville's fleet caused great excitement among the Acadians, who thought that they were about to pass again under the Crown of France. Fifty of them went on board the French ships at Chibucto to pilot them to the attack of AnnapoUs, and to their dismay found that no attack was to be made. When Ramesay, with his Canadians and Indians, took post at Chignecto and built a fort at Baye Verte, on the neck of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, the English power in that part of the colony seemed at an end. The inhabitants cut off all com munication with Annapolis, and detained the officers whom Mascarene sent for intelligence. From the first outbreak of the war it was evident that the French built their hopes of recovering Acadia largely on a rising of the Acadians against the English rule, and that they spared no efforts to excite such a rising. Early in 1745 a violent and cruel precaution against this danger was suggested. WiUiam Shirreff, provincial secretary, gave it as his opinion that the Acadians ought to be removed, being a standing menace to the colony.^ This is the first proposal of such a nature that I find. Some months later, Shirley writes that, on a false report 1 Shirreff to K. Gould, agent of Philips' s Regiment, March, 1745. 176 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1745-1747 of the capture of Annapolis by the French, the Acadians sang Te Deum, and that every sign indicates that there will be an attempt in the spring to capture Annapolis, with their help. ^ Again, Shirley informs Newcastle that the French will get possession of Acadia unless the most dangerous of the inhabitants are removed, and English settlers put in their place.^ He adds that there are not two hundred and twenty soldiers at Annapolis to defend the province against the whole body of Acadians and Indians, and he teUs the minister that unless the expedition against Canada should end in the conquest of that country, the removal of some of the Acadians will be a necessity. He means those of Chignecto, who were kept in a threatening attitude by the presence of Ramesay and his Canadians, and who, as he thinks, had forfeited their lands by treasonable conduct. Shirley beUeves that famUies from New England might be induced to take their place, and that these, if settled under suitable regulations, would form a military frontier to the province of Nova Scotia "strong enough to keep the Canadians out," and hold the Acadians to their allegiance.* The Duke of Bedford thinks the plan a good one, but objects to the expense.* Com modore Knowles, then govemor of Louisbourg, who, being threatened with consumption and convinced that the climate was kiUing him, vented his feeUngs 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 14 December, 1745. 2 Ibid., 10 May, 1746. ' Ibid., 8 July, 1747. « Bedford to Newcastle, 11 September, 1747. 1745-1747.] SHIRLEY AND THE ACADIANS. 177 in strictures against everything and everybody, was of opinion that the Acadians, having broken their neutrality, ought to be expelled at once, and expresses the amiable hope that should his Majesty adopt this plan, he will charge him with executing it.^ Shirley's energetic nature incUned him to trench ant measures, and he had nothing of modern humani- tarianism; but he was not inhuman, and he shrank from the cruelty of forcing whole communities into exile. While Knowles and others called for whole sale expatriation, he still held that it was possible to turn the greater part of the Acadians into safe sub jects of the British Crown ;2 and to this end he advised the planting of a fortified town where Halifax now stands, and securing by forts and gar risons the neck of the Acadian peninsula, where the population was most numerous and most disaffected. The garrisons, he thought, would not only impose respect, but would furnish the Acadians with what they wanted most, — ready markets for their produce, 1 Knowles to Newcastle, 8 November, 1746. 2 Shirley says that the indiscriminate removal of the Acadians would be " unjust" and "too rigorous." Knowles had proposed to put Catholic Jacobites from the Scotch Highlands into their place. Shirley thinks this inexpedient, but believes that Protestants from Germany and Ulster might safely be trusted. The best plan of all, in his opinion, is that of "treating the Acadians as subjects, con fining their punishment to the most guilty and dangerous among 'em, and keeping the rest in the country and endeavoring to make them useful members of society under his Majesty's Government." Shirley to Newcastle, 21 November, 1746. If the Newcastle Govern ment had vigorously carried his recommendations into effect, the removal of the Acadians in 1755 would not have taken place. TOL II. — 12 178 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1746, 1747. — and thus bind them to the British by strong ties of interest. Newcastle thought the plan good, but wrote that its execution must be deferred to a future day. Three years later it was partly carried into effect by the foundation of Halifax; but at that time the disaffection of the Acadians had so increased, and the hope of regaining the province for France had risen so high, that this partial and tardy as sertion of British authority only spurred the French agents to. redoubled efforts to draw the inhabitants from the allegiance they had sworn to the Crown of England. Shirley had also other plans in view for turning the Acadians into good British subjects. He pro posed, as a measure of prime necessity, to exclude French priests from the province. The free exercise of their religion had been insured to the inhabitants by the Treaty of Utrecht, and on this point the Eng lish authorities had given no just cause of complaint. A priest had occasionally been warned, suspended, or removed; but without a single exception, so far as appears, this was in consequence of conduct which tended to excite disaffection, and which would have incurred equal or greater penalties in the case of a layman.^ The sentence was directed, not against 1 There was afterwards sharp correspondence between Shirley and the governor of Canada touching the Acadian priests. Thus, Shirley writes : " I can't avoid now. Sir, expressing great surprise at the other parts of your letter, whereby you take upon you to call Mr. Mascarene to account for expelling the missionary from Minas for being guilty of such treasonable practices within His 1745-1747.] SHIRLEY'S PLANS. 179 the priest, but against the political agitator. Shirley's plan of excluding French priests from the province would not have violated the provisions of the treaty, provided that the inhabitants were suppUed with other priests, not French subjects, and therefore not politically dangerous; but though such a measure was several times proposed by the provincial authori ties, the exasperating apathy of the Newcastle Gov ernment gave no hope that it could be accompUshed. The influences most dangerous to British rule did not proceed from love of France or sympathy of race, but from the power of religion over a simple and ignorant people, trained in profound love and awe of their Church and its ministers, who were used by the representatives of Louis XV. as agents to alien ate the Acadians from England. The most strenuous of these clerical agitators was Abb^ Le Loutre, missionary to the Micmacs, and after 1753 vicar-general of Acadia. He was a fiery and enterprising zealot, inclined by temperament to methods of violence, detesting the English, and re strained neither by pity nor scruple from using threats of damnation and the Micmac tomahawk to Majesty's government as merited a much severer Punishment." Shirley a Galissoniere., 9 Mai, 1749. Shirley writes to Newcastle that the Acadians " are greatly under the influence of their priests, who continually receive their direc tions from the Bishop of Quebec, and are the instruments by which the governor of Canada makes all his attempts for the reduction of the province to the French Crown." Shirley to Newcastle, 20 October, 1747. He proceeds to give facts in proof of his assertioa Compare " Montcalm and Wolfe," i. 110, 111, 275, note. 180 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1745-1747. frighten the Acadians into doing his bidding. The worst charge against him, that of exciting the Indians of his mission to murder Captain Howe, an English officer, has not been proved ; but it would not have been brought against him by his own countrymen if his character and past conduct had gained him their esteem. The other Acadian priests were far from sharing Le Loutre's violence; but their influence was always directed to alienating the inhabitants from their allegiance to King George. Hence Shirley regarded the conversion of the Acadians to Protestantism as a political measure of the first importance, and pro posed the establishment of schools in the province to that end. Thus far his recommendations are per fectly legitimate; but when he adds that rewards ought to be given to Acadians who renounce their faith, few will venture to defend him. Newcastle would trouble himself with none of his schemes, and Acadia was left to drift with the tide, as before. " I shall finish my troubleing your Grace upon the affairs of Nova Scotia with this letter," writes the persevering Shirley. And he proceeds to ask, "as a proper Scheme for better securing the Subjection of the French inhabitants and Indians there," that the govemor and Council at Annapolis have special authority and direction from the King to arrest and examine such Acadians as shall be "most obnoxious and dangerous to his Majesty's Government;" and if found guilty of treasonable 1746,1747.] DANGER OF THE PROVINCE 181 correspondence with the enemy, to dispose of them and their estates in such manner as his Majesty shall order, at the same time promising indemnity to the rest for past offences, upon their taking or renewing the oath of allegiance.^ To this it does not appear that Newcastle made any answer except to direct Shirley, eight or nine months later, to tell the Acadians that, so long as they were peaceable subjects, they should be protected in property and religion. ^ Thus left to struggle unaided with a most difficult problem, entirely out side of his functions as governor of Massachusetts, Shirley did what he could. The most pressing danger, as he thought, rose from the presence of Ramesay and his Canadians at Chignecto; for that officer spared no pains to induce the Acadians to join him in another attempt against Annapolis, telling them that if they did not drive out the English, the English would drive them out. He was now at Mines, trying to raise the inhabitants in arms for France. Shirley thought it necessary to counteract him, and force him and his Canadians back to the isthmus whence they had come; but as the ministry would give no soldiers, he was compelled to draw them from New England. The defence of Acadia 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 15 August, 1746. " Newcastle to Shirley, 30 May, 1747. Shirley had some time before directed Mascarene to tell the Acadians that while they behave peaceably and do not correspond with the enemy, their property will be safe, but that such as turn traitors will be treated accordingly. Shirley to Mascarene, 16 September, 1746. 182 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1746,1747. was the business of the home government, and not of the colonies; but as they were deeply interested in the preservation of the endangered province, Massachusetts gave five hundred men in response to Shirley's call, and Rhode Island and New Hampshire added, between them, as many more. Less than half of these levies reached Acadia. It was the stormy season. The Rhode Island vessels were wrecked near Martha's Vineyard. A New Hamp shire transport sloop was intercepted by a French armed vessel, and ran back to Portsmouth. Four hundred and seventy men from Massachusetts, under Colonel Arthur Noble, were all who reached Annapolis, whence they sailed for Mines, accompanied by a few soldiers of the garrison. Storms, drifting ice, and the furious tides of the Bay of Fundy made their progress so difficult and uncertain that Noble resolved to finish the journey by land ; and on the fourth of December he disembarked near the place now caUed French Cross, at the foot of the North Mountain, — a lofty barrier of rock and forest extending along the southern shore of the Bay of Fundy. Without a path and without guides, the party climbed the snow-encumbered heights and toiled towards their destination, each man carrying provisions for four teen days in his haversack. After sleeping eight nights without shelter among the snowdrifts, they reached the Acadian village of Grand Pr^, the chief settlement of the district of Mines. Ramesay and his Canadians were gone. On learning the approach 1746, 1747.] NOBLE AT GRAND PR^. 183 of an EngUsh force, he had tried to persuade the Acadians that they were to be driven from their homes, and that their only hope was in joining with him to meet force by force; but they trusted Shirley's recent assurance of protection, and replied that they would not break their oath of fidelity to King George. On this, Ramesay retreated to his old station at Chignecto, and Noble and his men occupied Grand Pr6 without opposition. The viUage consisted of small, low wooden houses, scattered at intervals for the distance of a mUe and a half, and therefore ill fitted for defence. The Eng lish had the frame of a blockhouse, or, as some say, of two blockhouses, ready to be set up on their arrival ; but as the ground was hard frozen, it was difficult to make a foundation, and the frames were therefore stored in outbuildings of the village, with the iatention of raising them in the spring. The vessels which had brought them, together with stores, ammunition, five small cannon, and a good supply of snow-shoes, had just arrived at the landing-place, — and here, with incredible fatuity, were aUowed to remain, vrith most of their indispensable contents stiU on board. The men, meanwhile, were quartered in the Acadian houses. Noble's position was critical, but he was assured that he could not be reached from Chignecto in such a bitter season ; and this he was too ready to believe, though he himself had just made a march, which, if Qot so long, was quite as arduous. Yet he did not 184 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747 neglect every precaution, but kept out scouting- parties to range the surrounding country, while the rest of his men took their ease in the Acadian houses, living on the provisions of the villagers, for which payment was afterwards made. Some of the inhab itants, who had openly favored Ramesay and his followers, fled to the woods, in fear of the conse quences; but the greater part remained quietly in the village. At the head of the Bay of Fundy its waters form a fork, consisting of Chignecto Bay on the one hand, and Mines Basin on the other. At the head of Chignecto Bay was the Acadian settlement of Chi gnecto, or Beaubassin, in the houses of which Ramesay had quartered his Canadians. Here the neck of the Acadian peninsula is at its narrowest, the distance across to Baye Verte, where Ramesay had built a fort, being little more than twelve miles. Thus he con trolled the isthmus, — from which, however. Noble hoped to dislodge him in the spring. In the afternoon of the eighth of January an Acadian who had been sent to Mines by the mis sionary Germain, came to Beaubassin with the news that two hundred and twenty English were at Grand Pr^, and that more were expected.^ Ramesay in stantly formed a plan of extraordinary hardihood, and resolved, by a rapid march and a night attack, to surprise the new-comers. His party was greatly * Beaujeu, Journal de la Campagne du Detachement de Canada d VAcadie, in Le Canada Frangais, ii. Documents, 16. 1747.] A BOLD ENTERPRISE. 185 reduced by disease, and to recruit it he wrote to La Corne, R^coUet missionary at Miramichi, to join him with his Indians ; writing at the same time to Mail- lard, former colleague of Le Loutre at the mission of Shubenacadie, and to Girard, priest of Cobequid, to muster Indians, collect provisions, and gather infor mation concerning the English. Meanwhile his Canadians busied themselves with making snow-shoes and dog-sledges for the march. Ramesay could not command the expedition in person, as an accident to one of his knees had dis abled him from marching. This was less to be regretted, in view of the quality of his officers, for he had with him the flower of the warlike Canadian noblesse, — Coulon de VUliers, who, seven years later, defeated Washington at Fort Necessity; Beaujeu, the future hero of the Monongahela, in appearance a carpet knight, in reality a bold and determiaed warrior; the Chevalier de la Corne, a model of bodily and mental hardihood; Saint-Pierre, Lanaudifere, Saint-Ours, DesUgneris, Courtemanche, Repentigny, Boishdbert, Gasp6, Colombidre, Marin, Lusignan, — all adepts in the warfare of surprise and sudden onslaught in which the Canadians excelled. Coulon de ViUiers commanded in Ramesay's place ; and on the twenty-first of January he and the other officers led their men across the isthmus from Beau bassin to Baye Verte, where they all encamped in the woods, and where they were joined by a party of Indians and some Acadians from Beaubassin and Isle 186 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. St. Jean.^ Provisions, ammunition, and other requi sites were distributed, and at noon of the twenty- third they broke up their camp, marched three leagues, and bivouacked towards evening. On the next morning they marched again at daybreak. There was sharp cold, with a storm of snow, — not the large, moist, lazy flakes that fall peacefuUy and harmlessly, but those small crystalUne particles that drive spitefuUy before the wind, and prick the cheek like needles. It was the kind of snow-storm called in Canada la poudrerie. They had hoped to make a long day's march ; but feet and faces were freezing, and they were forced to stop, at noon, under such shel ter as the thick woods of pine, spruce, and fir could supply. In the morning they marched again, following the border of the sea, their dog-teams dragging provi sions and baggage over the broken ice of creeks and inlets, which they sometimes avoided by hewing paths through the forest. After a day of extreme fatigue they stopped at the small bay where the town of Wal lace now stands. Beaujeu says : " While we were dig ging out the snow to make our huts, there came two Acadians with letters from MM. Maillard and Girard." The two priests sent a mixture of good and evil news. On one hand the English were more numerous than had been reported ; on the other, they had not set up the blockhouses they had brought with them. Some Acadians of the neighboring settlement joined the party at this camp, as also did a few Indians. 1 Mattcarene to Shirley, 8 February, 1746 (1747, new style). 1747.] A WINTER MARCH. 187 On the next morning, January 27, the adven- turei'S stopped at the vUlage of Tatmagouche, where they were again joined by a number of Acadians. After mending their broken sledges they resumed their march, and at five in the afternoon reached a place called Bacouel, at the beginning of the portage that led some twenty-five miles across the country to Cobequid, now Truro, at the head of Mines Basin. Here they were met by Girard, priest of Cobequid, from whom Coulon exacted a promise to meet him again at that village in two days. Girard gave the promise unwillingly, fearing, says Beaujeu, to em- broU himself with the English authorities. He reported that the force at Grand Prd counted at least four hundred and fifty, or, as some said, more than five hundred. This startUng news ran through the camp ; but the men were not daunted. " The more there are," they said, "the more we shall kill." The party spent the twenty-eighth in mending their damaged sledges, and in the aftemoon they were joined by more Acadians and Indians. Thus rein forced, they marched again, and towards evening reached a vUlage on the outskirts of Cobequid. Here the missionary Maillard joined them, — to the great satisfaction of Coulon, who reUed on him and his brother priest Girard to procure supplies of pro visions. Maillard promised to go himself to Grand Prd with the Indians of his mission. The party rested for a day, and set out again on the first of February, stopped at Maillard's house in 188 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. Cobequid for the provisions he had collected for them, and then pushed on towards the river Shu benacadie, which runs from the south into Cobequid Bay, the head of Mines Basin. When they reached the river they found it impassable from floating ice, which forced them to seek a passage at some distance above. Coulon was resolved, however, that at any risk a detachment should cross at once, to stop the roads to Grand Prd, and prevent the EngUsh from being warned of his approach; for though the Aca dians inclined to the French, and were eager to serve them when the risk was not too great, there were some of them who, from interest or fear, were ready to make favor with the English by carrying them intelligence. Boish^bert, with ten Canadians, put out from shore in a canoe, and were near perishing among the drifting ice ; but they gained the farther shore at last, and guarded every path to Grand Pr^. The main body filed on snow-shoes up the east bank of the Shubenacadie, where the forests were choked with snow and encumbered with fallen trees, over which the sledges were to be dragged, to their great detriment. On this day, the third, they made five leagues ; on the next only two, which brought them within half a league of Le Loutre's Micmac mission. Not far from this place the river was easily passable on the ice, and they continued their march westward across the country to the river Kennetcook by ways so difficult that their Indian guide lost the path, and for a time led them astray. On the seventh, 1747.} A WINTER MARCH. 189 Boish^bert and his party rejoined them, and brought a reinforcement of sixteen Indians, whom the Aca dians had furnished with arms. Provisions were failing, till on the eighth, as they approached the village of Pisiquid, now Windsor, the Acadians, with great zeal, brought them a supply. They told them, too, that the English at Grand Pr^ were perfectly secure, suspecting no danger. On the ninth, in spite of a cold, dry storm of snow, they reached the west branch of the river Avon. It was but seven French leagues to Grand Prd, which they hoped to reach before night ; but fatigue com pelled them to rest till the tenth. At noon of that day, the storm still continuing, they marched again, though they could hardly see their way for the driv ing snow. They soon came to a small stream, along the frozen surface of which they drew up in order, and, by command of Coulon, Beaujeu divided them all into ten parties, for simultaneous attacks on as many houses occupied by the English. Then, marching slowly, lest they should arrive too soon, they reached the river Gaspereau, which enters Mines Basin at Grand Pr^. They were now but half a league from their destination. Here they stopped an hour in the storm, shivering and half frozen, wait ing for nightfall. When it grew dark they moved again, and soon came to a number of houses on the river-bank. Each of the ten parties took possession of one of these, making great fires to warm them selves and dry their guns. 190 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. It chanced that in the house where Coulon and his band sought shelter, a wedding-feast was going on. The guests were much startled at this sudden irrup tion of armed men ; but to the Canadians and their chief the festival was a stroke of amazing good luck, for most of the guests were inhabitants of Grand Pr^, who knew perfectly the houses occupied by the Eng lish, and could tell with precision where the officers were quartered. This was a point of extreme impor tance. The English were distributed among twenty- four houses, scattered, as before mentioned, for the distance of a mile and a half.^ The assailants were too few to attack all these houses at once; but if those where the chief officers lodged could be sur prised and captured with their inmates, the rest could make little resistance. Hence it was that Coulon had divided his followers into ten parties, each with one or more chosen officers ; these officers were now called together at the house of the inter rupted festivity, and the late guests having given full information as to the position of the English quarters and the military quality of their inmates, a special object of attack was assigned to the officer of each party, with Acadian guides to conduct him to it. The principal party, consisting of fifty, or, as another account says, of seventy-five men, was led by Coulon himself, with Beaujeu, DesUgneris, Mercier, L^ry, and Lusignan as his officers. This 1 Goldthwait to Shirley, 2 March, 1746 (1747). Captain Benjamin Goldthwait was second in command of the English detachment. 1747.] PLAN OF ATTACK. 191 party was to attack a stone house near the middle of the village, where the main guard was stationed, — a building somewhat larger than the rest, and the only one at all suited for defence. The second party, of forty men, commanded by La Come, with Rigauville, Lagny, and Villemont, was to attack a neighboring house, the quarters of Colonel Noble, his brother. Ensign Noble, and several other officers. The re maining parties, of twenty-five men each according to Beaujeu, or twenty-eight according to La Corne, were to make a dash, as nearly as possible at the same time, at other houses which it was thought most important to secure. All had Acadian guides, whose services in that capacity were invaluable; though Beaujeu complains that they were of no use in the attack. He says that the united force was about three hundred men, while the English Captain Goldthwait puts it, including Acadians and Indians, at from five to six hundred. That of the English was a little above five hundred in all. Every arrange ment being made, and his part assigned to each officer, the whole body was drawn up in the storm, and the chaplain pronounced a general absolution. Then each of the ten parties, guided by one or more Acadians, took the path for its destination, every man on snow-shoes, with the lock of his gun well sheltered under his capote. The largest party, under Coulon, was, as we have seen, to attack the stone house in the middle of the village ; but their guide went astray, and about 192 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. three in the morning they approached a small wooden house not far from their true object. A guard was posted here, as at all the EngUsh quarters. The night was dark and the snow was still falling, as it had done without ceasing for the past thirty hours. The English sentinel descried through the darkness and the storm what seemed the shadows of an advan cing crowd of men. He cried, "Who goes there?" and then shouted, " To arms ! " A door was flung open, and the guard appeared in the entrance. But at that moment the moving shadows vanished from before the eyes of the sentinel. The French, one and all, had thrown themselves flat in the soft, light snow, and nothing was to be seen or heard. The English thought it a false alarm, and the house was quiet again. Then Coulon and his men rose and dashed forward. Again, in a loud and startled voice, the sentinel shouted, " To arms ! " A great light, as of a blazing fire, shone through the open doorway, and men were seen within in hurried move ment. Coulon, who was in the front, said to Beaujeu, who was close at his side, that the house was not the one they were to attack. Beaujeu re plied that it was no time to change, and Coulon dashed forward again. Beaujeu aimed at the senti nel and shot him dead. There was the flash and report of muskets from the house, and Coulon dropped in the snow, severely wounded. The young cadet, Lusignan, was hit in the shoulder ; but he still pushed on, when a second shot shattered his thigh. 1747.] DEATH OF NOBLE. 193 "Friends," cried the gallant youth, as he fell by the side of his commander, " don't let two dead men dis courage you." The Canadians, powdered from head to foot with snow, burst into the house. Within ten minutes, all resistance was overpowered. Of twenty- four EngUshmen, twenty-one were killed, and three made prisoners.^ Meanwhile, La Corne, with his party of forty men, had attacked the house where were quartered Colonel Noble and his brother, with Captain Howe and several other officers. Noble had lately transferred the main guard to the stone house, but had not yet removed thither himself, and the guard in the house which he occupied was small. The French burst the door with axes, and rushed in. Colonel Noble, startled from sleep, sprang from his bed, receiving two musket-balls in the body as he did so. He seems to have had pistols, for he retumed the fire several times. His servant, who was in the house, testified that the French called to the colonel through a window and promised him quarter if he would sur render; but that he refused, on which they fired again, and a bullet, striking his forehead, killed him instantly. His brother. Ensign Noble, was also shot down, fightiag in his shirt. Lieutenants Pickering and Lechmere lay in bed dangerously ill, and were killed there. Lieutenant Jones, after, as the narrator says, "ridding himself of some of the enemy," tried to break through the rest and escape, but was run 1 Beaujeu, Journal. VOL. IL — 13 194 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. through the heart with a bayonet. Captain Howe was severely wounded and made prisoner. Coulon and Lusignan, disabled by their wounds, were carried back to the houses on the Gaspereau, where the French surgeon had remained. Coulon's party, now commanded by Beaujeu, having met and joined the smaller party under Lotbini^re, proceeded to the aid of others who might need their help ; for while they heard a great noise of musketry from far and near, and could discern bodies of men in motion here and there, they could not see whether these were friends or foes, or discern Which side fortune favored. They presently met the party of Marin, composed of twenty-five Indians, who had just been repulsed with loss from the house which they had attacked. By this time there was a gleam of daylight, and as they plodded wearily over the snowdrifts, they no longer groped in darkness. The two parties of Colombi^re and Boishebert soon joined them, with the agreeable news that each had captured a house ; and the united force now proceeded to make a successful attack on two buildings where the English had stored the frames of their blockhouses. Here the assailants captured ten prisoners. It was now broad day, but they could not see through the falling snow whether the enterprise, as a whole, had prospered or failed. Therefore Beaujeu sent Marin to find La Come, who, in the absence of Coulon, held the chief com mand. Marin was gone two hours. At length he retiirned, and reported that the English in the houses 1747.] AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK. 195 which had not been attacked, together with such others as had not been killed or captured, had drawn together at the stone house in the middle of the village, that La Corne was blockading them there, and that he ordered Beaujeu and his party to join him at once. When Beaujeu reached the place he found La Corne posted at the house where Noble had been killed, and which was within easy musket- shot of the stone house occupied by the English, against whom a spattering fire was kept up by the French from the cover of neighboring buildings. Those in the stone house returned the fire; but no great harm was done on either side, till the English, now commanded by Captain Goldthwait, attempted to recapture the house where La Corne and his party were posted. Two companies made a sally; but they had among them only eighteen pairs of snow-shoes, the rest having been left on board the two vessels which had brought the stores of the detachment from Annapolis, and which now lay moored hard by, in the power of the enemy, at or near the mouth of the Gaspereau. Hence the sallying party floundered helpless among the drifts, plunging so deep in the dry snow that they could not use their guns and could scarcely move, while bullets showered upon them from La Come's men in the house, and others hovering about them on snow-shoes. The attempt was hopeless, and after some loss the two companies fell back. The firing continued, as before, till noon, or, according to Beaujeu, till three in the afternoon, 196 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. when a French officer, carrying a flag of truce, came out of La Come's house. The occasion of the over ture was this. Captain Howe, who, as before mentioned, had been badly wounded at the capture of this house, was still there, a prisoner, without surgical aid, the French surgeon being at the houses on the Gaspereau, in charge of Coulon and other wounded men. " Though, " says Beaujeu, " M. Howe was a firm man, he begged the Chevalier La Come not to let him bleed to death for want of aid, but permit him to send for an Eng lish surgeon." To this La Come, after consulting with his officers, consented, and Marin went to the English with a white flag and a note from Howe explaining the situation. The surgeon was sent, and Howe's wound was dressed, Marin remaining as a hostage. A suspension of arms took place till the surgeon's retum; after which it was prolonged till nine o'clock of the next morning, at the instance, according to French accounts, of the English, and, according to EngUsh accounts, of the French. In either case, the truce was welcome to both sides. The English, who were in the stone house to the number of nearly three hundred and fifty, crowded to suffocation, had five small cannon, two of which were four-pounders, and three were swivels; but these were probably not in position, as it does not appear that any use was made of them. There was no ammunition except what the men had in their powder-horns and bullet-pouches, the main stock 1747.] CAPITULATION. 197 having been left, with other necessaries, on board the schooner and sloop now in the hands of the French. It was found, on examination, that they had ammu nition for eight shots each, and provisions for one day. Water was only to be had by bringing it from a neighboring brook. As there were snow-shoes for only about one man in twenty, sorties were out of the question; and the house was commanded by high ground on three sides. Though their number was still considerable, their position was growing desperate. Thus it happened that when the truce expired, Goldthwait, the English commander, with another officer, who seems to have been Captain Preble, came with a white flag to the house where La Corne was posted, and proposed terms of capitulation, Howe, who spoke French, acting as interpreter. La Corne made proposals on his side, and as neither party was anxious to continue the fray, they soon came to an understanding. It was agreed that within forty-eight hours the EngUsh should march for AnnapoUs with the honors of war; that the prisoners taken by the French should remain in their hands ; that the Indians, who had been the only plunderers, should keep the plunder they had taken; that the English sick and wounded should be left, tiU their recovery, at the neighboring settlement of Rivifere-aux-Canards, pro tected by a French guard, and that the English engaged in the affair at Grand Pre should not bear arms during the next six months within the district 198 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. about the head of the Bay of Fundy, including Chignecto, Grand Pr^, and the neighboring settie- ments. Captain Howe was released on parole, with the condition that he should send back in exchange one Lacroix, a French prisoner at Boston, — "which," says La Corne, "he faithfully did." Thus ended one of the most gallant exploits in French-Canadian annals. As respects the losses on each side, the French and English accounts are irre concilable; nor are the statements of either party consistent with themselves. Mascarene reports to Shirley that seventy English were killed, and above sixty captured; though he afterwards reduces these numbers, having, as he says, received farther infor mation. On the French side he says that four officers and about forty men were killed, and that many wounded were carried off in carts during the fight. Beaujeu, on the other hand, sets the English loss at one hundred and thirty killed, fifteen wounded, and fifty captured ; and the French loss at seven killed and fifteen wounded. As for the numbers engaged, the statements are scarcely less divergent. It seems clear, however, that when Coulon began his march from Baye Verte, his party consisted of about three hundred Canadians and Indians, without reckoning some Acadians who had joined him from Beaubassin and Isle St. Jean. Others joined him on the way to Grand Pr^, counting a hundred and fifty according to Shirley, — which appears to be much too large an 1747.] THE RETURN. 199 estimate. The English, by their own showing, num bered five hundred, or five hundred and twenty -five. Of eleven houses attacked, ten were surprised and carried, with the help of the darkness and storm and the skilful management of the assailants. "No sooner was the capitulation signed," says Beaujeu, "than we became in appearance the best of friends." La Corne directed military honors to be rendered to the remains of the brothers Noble ; and in all points the Canadians, both officers and men, treated the English with kindness and courtesy. "The EngUsh commandant," again says Beaujeu, " invited us all to dine with him and his officers, so that we might have the pleasure of making acquaint ance over a bowl of punch." The repast being served after such a fashion as circumstances permitted, victors and vanquished sat down together; when, says Beaujeu, " we received on the part of our hosts many compUments on our polite manners and our skill in making war." And the compUments were well deserved. At eight o'clock on the morning of the fourteenth of February the English filed out of the stone house, and with arms shouldered, drums beating, and colors flying, marched between two ranks of the French, and took the road for Annapolis. The English sick and wounded were sent to the settlement of Rivi^re- aux-Canards, where, protected by a French guard and attended by an English surgeon, they were to remain till able to reach the British fort. 200 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. La Corne called a council of war, and in view of the scarcity of food and other reasons it was resolved to return to Beaubassin. Many of the French had fallen ill. Some of the sick and wounded were left at Grand Pr^, others at Cobequid, and the Acadians were required to supply means of carr3dng the rest. Coulon's party left Grand Pre on the twenty-third of February, and on the eighth of March reached Beaubassin. 1 Ramesay did not fail to use the success at Grand Prd to influence the minds of the Acadians. He sent a circular letter to the inhabitants of the various districts, and especiaUy to those of Mines, in which 1 The dates are of the new style, which the French had adopted, while the English still clung to the old style. By far the best account of this French victory at Mines is that of Beaujeu, in his Journal de la Campagne du Detachement de Canada a I'Acadie et aux Mines en 1746-47. It is preserved in the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies, and is printed in the documentary supplement of Le Canada Frangais, Vol. II. It supplies the means of correcting many errors and much confusion in some recent ac counts of the affair. The report of ChevaUer de la Corne, also printed in Le Canada Frangais, though much shorter, is necessary to a clear understanding of the matter. Letters of Lusignan fils to the minister Maurepas, 10 October, 1747, of Bishop Pontbriand (to Maurepas'?), 10 July, 1747, and of Lusignan pfere to Maurepas, 10 October, 1747, give some additional incidents. The principal document on the English side is the report of Captain Benjamin Goldthwait, who succeeded Noble in command. A copy of the original, in the Public Record Office, is before me. The substance of it is correctly given in The Boston Post Boy of 2 March, 1747, and in N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. x. 108. Various letters from Mascarene and Shirley (Public Record Office) contain accounts derived from returned officers and soldiers. The Notice of Colonel Arthur Noble, by WilUam Goold {Collections Maine Historical Soe, 1881), may also be consulted. 1747.] THE ACADIANS THREATENED. 201 he told them that their countrj' had been reconquered by the arms of the King of France, to whom he com manded them to be faithful subjects, holding no inter course with the English under any pretence whatever, on pain of the severest punishment. "If," he con cludes, " we have withdrawn our soldiers from among you, it is for reasons known to us alone, and with a view to your advantage." ^ Unfortunately for the effect of this message, Shirley had no sooner heard of the disaster at Grand Prd than he sent a body of Massachusetts soldiers to reoc cupy the place. 2 This they did in April. The Aca dians thus found themselves, as usual, between two dangers ; and unable to see which horn of the dilemma was the worse, they tried to avoid both by conciliat ing French and English alike, and assuring each of their devoted attachment. They sent a pathetic letter to Ramesay, telling him that their hearts were always French, and begging him at the same time to remem ber that they were a poor, helpless people, burdened with large famiUes, and in danger of expulsion and ruin if they offended their masters, the English. ^ 1 Ramesay aux Deputes et Habitants des Mines, 31 Mars, 1747. At the end is written " A true copy, with the misspellings ; signed W. Shirley." ^ Shirley to Newcastle, 24 August, 1747. ^ "Ainsis Monsieur nous vous prions de regarder notre bon Coeur et en meme Temps notre Impuissance pauvre Peuple chargez la plus part de families nombreuse point de Becours sil falois evacuer a quoy nous sommes menacez tons les jours qui nous tien dans une Crainte perpetuelle en nous voyant a, la proximitet de nos maitre depuis un sy grand nombre dannes " (printed literatim), — Deputes des Mines a Ramesay, 24 Mai, 1747. 202 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. They wrote at the same time to Mascarene at Annapolis, sending him, to explain the situation, a copy of Ramesay's threatening letter to them ; ^ beg ging him to consider that they could not without danger dispense with answering it ; at the same time they protested their entire fidelity to King George.^ Ramesay, not satisfied with the results of his first letter, wrote again to the Acadians, ordering them, in the name of the governor-general of New France, to take up arms against the EngUsh, and enclosing for their instruction an extract from a letter of the French govemor. " These, " says Ramesay, "are his words : ' We consider ourself as master of Beaubassin and Mines, since we have driven off the English. Therefore there is no difficulty in forcing the Aca dians to take arms for us ; to which end we declare to them that they are discharged from the oath that they formerly took to the English, by which they are bound no longer, as has been decided by the authori ties of Canada and Monseigneur our Bishop. ' " ^ 1 This probably explains the bad spelling of the letter, the copy before me having been made from the Acadian transcript sent to Mascarene, and now in the Public Record Office. 2 Les Habitants a I'honorable gouvemeur au for d'anapolisse royal [sic], Mai (?), 1747. On the 27th of June the inhabitants of Cobequid wrote again to Mascarene : " Monsieur nous prenons la Liberte de vous recrire celle icy pour vous assurer de nos tres humble Respect et d'un entiere Sou-mission a vos Ordres " {literatim). 8 "Nous nous regardons aujourdhuy Maistre de Beaubassin et des Mines puisque nous en avons Chass^ les Anglois ; ainsi il ny a auoune difficult^ de forcer les Accadiens k prendre les armes pour nous, et de les y Contraindre ; leur declarons ^ cgt eff^t qu'ils sont 1747.] RAMESAY AND THE ACADIANS, 203 " In view of the above, " continues Ramesay, " we order all the inhabitants of Memeramcook to come to this place [Beaubassin] as soon as they see the signal- fires lighted, or discover the approach of the enemy; and this on pain of death, confiscation of all their goods, burning of their houses, and the punishment due to rebels against the King."i The position of the Acadians was deplorable. By the Treaty of Utrecht, France had transferred them to the British Crown ; yet French officers denounced them as rebels and threatened them with death if they did not fight at their bidding against England ; and English officers threatened them with expulsion from the country if they broke their oath of allegiance to King George. It was the duty of the British ministry to occupy the province with a force suffi cient to protect the inhabitants against French terror ism, and leave no doubt that the King of England was master of Acadia in fact as well as in name. This alone could have averted the danger of Acadian revolt, and the harsh measures to which it afterwards decharg^ [sic] du Serment pret^, cy devant, a 1' Anglois, auquel ils ne sont plus oblige [sic] comme il y a et^ decide par nos puissances de Canada et de Monseigneur notre Bvesque " {literatim). 1 Ramesay aux Habitants de Chignecto, etc., 25 Mai, 1747. A few months later, the deputies of Riviere-aux-Canards wrote to Shirley, thanking him for kindness which they said was unde served, promising to do their duty thenceforth, but begging him to excuse them from giving up persons who had acted " contraire aux Interests de leur devoire," representing the difficulty of their position, and protesting " une Soumission parfaite et en touts Re spects." The letter is signed by four deputies, of whom one writes his name, and three sign with crosses. 204 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1747. gave rise. The ministry sent no aid, but left to Shirley and Massachusetts the task of keeping the province for King George. Shirley and Massachu setts did what they could; but they could not do all that the emergency demanded. Shirley courageously spoke his mind to the min istry, on whose favor he was dependent. "The fluctuating state of the inhabitants of Acadia," he wrote to Newcastle, "seems, my lord, naturally to arise from their finding a want of due protection from his Majesty's Government. "^ 1 Shirley to Newcastle, 29 April, 1747. On Shirley's relations with the Acadians, see Appendix C. CHAPTER XXIII. 1740-1747. WAR AND POLITICS. Governor and Assembly. — Saratoga destroyed. — William Johnson. — Border Ravages. — Upper Ashuelot. — French " Military Movements." — Number Four. — Nivebville's Attack. — Phineas Stevens. — The French repulsed. From the East we turn to the West, for the prov ince of New York passed for the West at that day. Here a vital question was what would be the attitude of the Five Nations of the Iroquois towards the rival European colonies, their neighbors. The Treaty of Utrecht called them British subjects. What the word "subjects" meant, they themselves hardly knew. The EngUsh told them that it meant chil dren; the French that it meant dogs and slaves. Events had tamed the fierce confederates; and now, though, like all savages, unstable as children, they leaned in their soberer moments to a position of neu trality between their European neighbors, watching with jealous eyes against the encroachments of both. The French would gladly have enlisted them and their tomahawks in the war; but seeing little hope of this, were generally content if they could prevent 206 WAR AND POLITICS. [1740-1747. them from siding with the EngUsh, who on their part regarded them as their Indians, and were satis fied with nothing less than active alliance. When Shirley's plan for the invasion of Canada was afoot, CUnton, governor of New York, with much ado succeeded in convening the deputies of the confederacy at Albany, and by dint of speeches and presents induced them to sing the war-song and take up the hatchet for England. The Iroquois were disgusted when the scheme came to nought, their warlike ardor cooled, and they conceived a low opinion of English prowess. The condition of New York as respects mUitary efficiency was deplorable. She was divided against herself, and, as usual in such cases, party passion was stronger than the demands of war. The prov ince was in the midst of one of those disputes with the representative of the Crown, which, in one degree or another, crippled or paralyzed the miUtary activity of nearly all the British colonies. Twenty years or more earUer, when Massachusetts was at blows with the Indians on her borders, she suffered from the same disorders ; but her govemor and Assembly were of one mind as to urging on the war, and quarrelled only on the questions in what way and under what command it should be waged. But in New York there was a strong party that opposed the war, being interested in the contraband trade long carried on with Canada. Clinton, the governor, had, too, an enemy in the person of the chief justice, James de 1745-1747.] CLINTON'S DIFFICULTIES. 207 Lancey, with whom he had had an after-dinner dis pute, ending in a threat on the part of De Lancey that he would make the governor's seat uncomfort able. To marked abiUties, better education, and more knowledge of the world than was often found in the provinces, ready wit, and conspicuous social position, the chief justice joined a restless ambition and the arts of a demagogue. He made good his threat, headed the opposition to the governor, and proved his most formidable antag onist. If either Clinton or Shirley had had the in dependent authority of a Canadian governor, the conduct of the war would have been widely different. Clinton was hampered at every turn. The Assembly held him at advantage ; for it was they, and not the King, who paid his salary, and they could withhold or retrench it when he displeased them. The people sympathized with their representatives and backed them in opposition, — at least, when not under the stress of imminent danger. A body of provincials, in the pay of the King, had been mustered at Albany for the proposed Canada expedition; and after that plan was abandoned, CUnton wished to use them for protecting the north ern frontier and capturing that standing menace to the province. Crown Point. The Assembly, bent on crossing him at any price, refused to provide for transporting supplies farther than Albany. As the furnishing of provisions and transportation depended on that body, they could stop the movement of troops 208 WAR AND POLITICS. [1745-1747. and defeat the governor's military plans at their pleasure. In vain he told them, "If you deny me the necessary supplies, all my endeavors must become fruitless ; I must wash my own hands, and leave at your doors the blood of the innocent people. "^ He urged upon them the necessity of building forts on the two carrying-places between the Hudson and Lakes George and Champlain, thus blocking the path of war-parties from Canada. They would do nothing, insisting that the neighboring colonies, to whom the forts would also be useful, ought to help in building them ; and when it was found that these colonies were ready to do their part, the Assembly still refused. Passionate opposition to the royal gov emor seemed to blind them to the interests of the province. Nor was the fault all on their side; for the governor, though he generally showed more self- control and moderation than could have been expected, sometimes lost temper and betrayed scorn for his opponents, many of whom were but the instruments of leaders urged by personal animosities and small but intense ambitions. They accused him of treating them with contempt, and of embezzling public money ; while he retorted by charging them with encroaching on the royal prerogative and treating the represen tative of the King with indecency. Under such con ditions an efficient conduct of the war was out of the question. ^ Extract from the Governor's Message, in Smith, History of New York, u. 124 (1830). 1745-1747.] SARATOGA. 209 Once, when the frontier was seriously threatened, Clinton, as commander-in-chief, called out the militia to defend it; but they refused to obey, on the ground that no Act of the Assembly required them to do so.^ CUnton sent home bitter complaints to Newcastle and the Lords of Trade. " They [the Assembly] are selfish, jealous of the power of the Crown, and of such levelling principles that they are constantly attacking its prerogative. ... I find that neither dissolutions nor fair means can produce from them such Effects as will tend to a publick good or their own preservation. They wUl neither act for them selves nor assist their neighbors. . . . Few but hire lings have a seat in the Assembly, who protract time for the sake of their wages, at a great expence to the Province, without contributing anything material for its welfare, credit, or safety." And he declares that unless Parliament takes them in hand he can do noth ing for the service of the King or the good of the province,^ for they want to usurp the whole adminis tration, both civil and military.^ At Saratoga there was a small settlement of Dutch farmers, with a stockade fort for their protection. 1 Clinton to the Lords of Trade, 10 November, 1747. 2 Ibid., 30 November, 1745. * Remarks on the Representation of the Assembly of New York, May, 1747, in N. Y. Col. Docs,, vi. 366. On the disputes of the governor and Assembly see also Smith, History of New York, ii. (1830), and Stone, Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, i. N. Y. Colonial Documents, vi., contains many papers on the subject, chiefly ou the governor's side. VOL. IL — 14 210 WAR AND POLITICS. [1745-1747. This was the farthest outpost of the colony, and the only defence of Albany in the direction of Canada. It was occupied by a sergeant, a corporal, and ten soldiers, who testified before a court of in quiry that it was in such condition that in rainy weather neither they nor their ammunition could be kept dry. As neither the Assembly nor the mer chants of Albany would make it tenable, the gar rison was withdrawn before winter by order of the governor.' Scarcely was this done when five hundred French and Indians, under the partisan Marin, surprised the settiement in the night of the twenty-eighth of November, burned fort, houses, mills, and stables, killed thirty persons, and carried off about a hundred prisoners. 2 Albany was left uncovered, and the Assembly voted £150 in provincial currency to rebuild the ruined fort. A feeble palisade work was accordingly set up, but it was neglected like its pre decessor. Colonel Peter Schuyler was stationed there with his regiment in 1747, but was forced to abandon his post for want of supplies. Clinton then directed Colonel Roberts, commanding at Albany, to examine 1 Examinations at a Court of Inquiry at Albany, 11 December, 1745, in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 374. ^ The best account of this affair is in the journal of a French officer in Schuyler, Colonial New York, ii. 115. The dates, being in new style, differ by eleven days from those of the English accounts. The Dutch hamlet of Saratoga, surprised by Marin, was near the mouth of the Fish Kill, on the west side of the Hud son. There was also a small fort on the east side, a little below the mouth of the Batten KUl. 1745-1747.] WILLIAM JOHNSON. 211 the fort, and if he found it indefensible, to burn it, — which he did, much to the astonishment of a French war-party, who visited the place soon after, and found nothing but ashes.' The burning of Saratoga, first by the French and then by its own masters, made a deep impression on the Five Nations, and a few years later they taunted their white neighbors with these shortcomings in no measured terms. "You burned your own fort at Seraghtoga and ran away from it, which was a shame and a scandal to you." ^ Uninitiated as they were in party politics and faction quarrels, they could see nothing in this and other military lapses but proof of a want of martial spirit, if not of cowardice. Hence the difficulty of gaining their active alliance against the French was redoubled. Fortunately for the prov ince, the adverse influence was in some measure counteracted by the character and conduct of one man. Up to this time the French had far surpassed the rival nation in the possession of men ready and able to deal vrith the Indians and mould them to their will. Eminent among such was Joncaire, French emissary among the Senecas in western New York, who, with admirable skill, held back that powerful member of the Iroquois league from siding with the English. But now, among the Mohawks of eastern New York, Joncaire found his match in the person of William Johnson, a vigorous and intelli- 1 Schuyler, Colonial New York, ii. 121. * Report of a Council with the Indians at Albany, 28 June, 1754. 212 WAR AND POLITICS. [1746-1748 gent young Irishman, nephew of Admiral Warren, and his agent in the management of his estates on the Mohawk. Johnson soon became intimate with his Indian neighbors, spoke their language, joined in their games and dances, sometimes borrowed their dress and their paint, and whooped, yelped, and stamped like one of themselves. A white man thus plapng the Indian usually gains nothing in the esteem of those he imitates; but, as before in the case of the redoubtable Count Frontenac, Johnson's adoption of their ways increased their Uking for him and did not diminish their respect. The Mohawks adopted him into their tribe and made him a war- chief. Clinton saw his value; and as the Albany commissioners hitherto charged with Indian affairs had proved wholly inefficient, he transferred their functions to Johnson; whence arose more heart burnings. The favor of the governor cost the new functionary the support of the Assembly, who refused the indispensable presents to the Indians, and thus vastly increased the difficulty of his task. Yet the Five Nations promised to take up the hatchet against the French, and their orator said, in a conference at Albany, "Should any French priests now dare to come among us, we know no use for them but to roast them."' Johnson's present difficulties, how ever, sprang more from Dutch and English traders than from French priests, and he begs that an Act 1 Answer of the Six [Five] Nations to His Excellency the Governor at Albany, 23 August, 1746. 1746-1748.] USELESS BARBARITIES. 233 may be passed against the selling of liquor to the Indians, " as it is impossible to do anything with them while there is such a plenty to be had all round the neighborhood, being forever drunk." And he com plains especially of one Clement, who sells liquor within twenty yards of Johnson's house, and imme diately gets from the Indians all the bounty money they receive for scalps, " which leaves them as poor as ratts," and therefore refractory and unmanageable. Johnson says further : " There is another grand vil lain, George Clock, who lives by Conajoharie Castle, and robs the Indians of all their cloaths, etc." The chiefs complained, "upon which I wrote him twice to give over that custom of selling liquor to the Indians ; the answer was he gave the bearer, I might hang myself."' Indian affairs, it will be seen, were no better regulated then than now. Meanwhile the French Indians were ravaging the frontiers and burning farmhouses to within sight of Albany. The Assembly offered rewards for the scalps of the marauders, but were slow in sending money to pay them, — to the great discontent of the Mohawks, who, however, at Johnson's instigation, sent out various war-parties, two of which, accom panied by a few whites, made raids as far as the island of Montreal, and somewhat checked the incursions of the mission Indians by giving them work near home. The check was but momentary. Heathen Indians from the West joined the Canadian converts, and the 1 Johnson to Clinton, 7 May, 1747. 214 WAR AND POLITICS. [1746. frontiers of New York and New England, from the Mohawk to beyond the Kennebec, were stung through all their length by innumerable nocturnal surprises and petty attacks. The details of this murderous though ineffective partisan war would fill volumes, if they were worth recording. One or two examples will show the nature of all. In the valley of the little river Ashuelot, a New Hampshire affluent of the Connecticut, was a rude border-settlement which later years transformed into a town noted in rural New England for kindly hospi tality, culture without pretence, and good-breeding without conventionality.' In 1746 the place was in all the rawness and ugliness of a backwoods hamlet. The rough fields, lately won from the virgin forest, showed here and there, among the stumps, a few log- cabins, roofed with slabs of pine, spruce, or hemlock. Near by was a wooden fort, made, no doubt, after the common frontier pattern, of a stockade fence ten or twelve feet high, enclosing cabins to shelter the settlers in case of alarm, and furnished at the corners with what were called flankers, which were boxes of thick plank large enough to hold two or more men, raised above the ground on posts, and pierced with loopholes, so that each face of the stockade could be swept by a flank fire. One comer of this fort at • Keene, originally called Upper Ashuelot. On the same stream, a few miles below, was a similar settlement, called Lower Ashuelot, — the germ of the present Swanzey. This, too, suffered greatly from Indian attacks. 1746.] ATTACK AT ASHUELOT. 215 Ashuelot was, however, guarded by a solid block house, or, as it was commonly called, a "mount." On the twenty -third of April a band of sixty, or, by another account, a hundred Indians, approached the settlement before daybreak, and hid in the neigh boring thickets to cut off the men in the fort as they came out to their morning work. One of the men, Ephraim Dorman, chanced to go out earlier than the rest. The Indians did not fire on him, but, not to give an alarm, tried to capture or kill him without noise. Several of them suddenly showed themselves, on which he threw down his gun in pretended sub mission. One of them came up to him with hatchet raised ; but the nimble and sturdy borderer suddenly struck him vnth. his fist a blow in the head that knocked him flat, then snatched up his own gun, and, as some say, the blanket of the half-stunned savage also, sprang off, reached the fort unhurt, and gave the alarm. Some of the families of the place were Uving in the fort ; but the bolder or more care less still remained in their farmhouses, and if noth ing were done for their relief, their fate was sealed. Therefore the men sallied in a body, and a sharp fight ensued, giving the frightened settlers time to take refuge within the stockade. It was not too soon, for the work of havoc had already begun. Six houses and a barn were on fire, and twenty-three cattle had been kiUed. The Indians fought fiercely, killed John BuUard, and captured Nathan Blake, but at last retreated; and after they were gone, the 216 WAR AND POLITICS. [1746. charred remains of several of them were found among the ruins of one of the burned cabins, where they had probably been thrown to prevent their being scalped. Before Dorman had given the alarm, an old woman, Mrs. McKenney, went from the fort to milk her cow in a neighboring barn. As she was returning, with her full milk-pail, a naked Indian was seen to spring from a clump of bushes, plunge a long knife into her back, and dart away without stopping to take the gray scalp of his victim. She tried feebly to reach the fort; but from age, corpulence, and a mortal wound she moved but slowly, and when a few steps from the gate, fell and died. Ten days after, a party of Indians hid themselves at night by this same fort, and sent one of their num ber to gain admission under pretence of friendship, intending, no doubt, to rush in when the gate should be opened ; but the man on guard detected the trick, and instead of opening the gate, fired through it, mortally wounding the Indian, on which his confed erates made off. Again, at the same place. Deacon Josiah Foster, who had taken refuge in the fort, ventured out on a July morning to drive his cows to pasture. A gunshot was heard; and the men who went out to learn the cause, found the deacon lying in the wood-road, dead and scalped. An ambushed Indian had killed him and vanished. Such petty attacks were without number. There is a French paper, called a record of " mili tary movements," which gives a list of war-partifts 1746.] PROVINCIAL DISPUTES. 217 sent from Montreal against the English border between the twenty-ninth of March, 1746, and the twenty-first of June in the same year. They number thirty-five distinct bands, nearly all composed of mission Indians living in or near the settled parts of Canada, — Abenakis, Iroquois of the Lake of Two Mountains and of Sault St. Louis (Caughnawaga), Algonquins of the Ottawa, and others, in parties rarely of more than thirty, and often of no more than six, yet enough for waylaying travellers or kilUng women in kitchens or cow-sheds, and solitary laborers in the fields. This record is accompanied by a list of wild Western Indians who came down to Montreal in the summer of 1746 to share in these "miUtary movements. " ' No part of the country suffered more than the western borders of Massachusetts and New Hamp shire, and here were seen too plainly the evUs of the prevailing want of concert among the British colonies. Massachusetts claimed extensive tracts north of her present northern boundary, and in the belief that her claim would hold good, had built a small wooden fort, called Fort Dummer, on the Connecticut, for the protection of settlers. New Hampshire disputed the title, and the question, being referred to the Crown, was decided in her favor. On this, Massa chusetts withdrew the garrison of Fort Dummer and 1 Extrait sur les differents Mouvements Militaires qui se sont faits a Montreal a I'occasion de la Guerre, 1745, 1746. There is a transla tion io N. X- Cot Docs. 218 WAR AND POLITICS. [1740-1746. left New Hampshire to defend her ovm. This the Assembly of that province refused to do, on the ground that the fort was fifty miles from any settle ment made by New Hampshire people, and was there fore useless to them, though of great value to Massachusetts as a cover to Northfield and other of her settlements lower down the Connecticut, to protect ' which was no business of New Hampshire. But some years before, in 1740, three brothers, Samuel, David, and Stephen Famsworth, natives of Groton, Massachusetts, had begun a new settlement on the Connecticut about forty-five miles north of the Massachusetts Une and on ground which was soon to be assigned to New Hampshire. They were followed by five or six others. They acted on the belief that their settlement was within the jurisdic tion of Massachusetts, and that she could and would protect them. The place was one of extreme ex posure, not only from its isolation, far from help, but because it was on the banks of a wild and lonely river, the customary highway of war-parties on their descent from Canada. Number Four — for so the new settlement was called, because it was the fourth in a range of townships recently marked out along the Connecticut, but, with one or two exceptions, wholly unoccupied as yet — was a rude little outpost of civilization, buried in forests that spread unbroken to the banks of the St. Lawrence, while its nearest 1 Journal of the Assembly of New Hampshire, quoted in Saunder- son. History of Charlestown, N. H., 20. 1743.] FORT AT NUMBER FOUR. 219 English neighbor was nearly thirty miles away. As may be supposed, it grew slowly, and in 1744 it had but nine or ten families. In the preceding year, when war seemed imminent, and it was clear that neither Massachusetts nor New Hampshire would lend a helping hand, the settlers of Number Four, seeing that their only resource was in themselves, called a meeting to consider the situation and deter mine what should be done. The meeting was held at the house, or log-cabin, of John Spafford, Jr., and being duly called to order, the following resolutions were adopted: that a fort be built at the charge of the proprietors of the said township of Number Four ; that John Hastings, John Spafford, and John Avery be a committee to direct the building; that each car penter be allowed nine shilUngs, old tenor, a day, each laborer seven shillings, and each pair of oxen three shillings and sixpence ; that the proprietors of the township be taxed in the sum of three hundred pounds, old tenor, for building the fort; that John Spafford, Phineas Stevens, and John Hastings be assessors to assess the same, and Samuel Fams worth collector to collect it.' And to the end that their fort should be a good and creditable one, they are said to have engaged the services of John Stoddard, accounted the foremost man of western Massachusetts, Superintendent of Defence, Colonel of MiUtia, Judge of Probate, Chief Justice 1 Extracts from the Town Record, in Sauuderson, History oj Charlestown, N. H. {Number Four), 17, 18. 220 WAR AND POLITICS [1743-1748. of the Court of Common Pleas, a reputed authority in the construction of backwoods fortifications, and the admired owner of the only gold watch in Northampton. Timber was abundant and could be had for the asking ; for the frontiersman usually regarded a tree less as a valuable possession than as a natural enemy, to be got rid of by fair means or foul. The only cost was the labor. The fort rose rapidly. It was a square enclosing about three quarters of an acre, each side measuring a hundred and eighty feet. The wall was not of palisades, as was more usual, but of squared logs laid one upon another, and interlocked at the corners after the fashion of a log-cabin. Within were several houses, which had been built close together, for mutual protection, before the fort was begun, and which belonged to Stevens, Spafford, and other settlers. Apparently they were small log- cabins; for they were valued at only from eight to thirty-five pounds each, in old tenor currency wofully attenuated by depreciation; and these sums being paid to the owners out of the three hundred pounds collected for building the fort, the cabins became public property. Either they were built in a straight line, or they were moved to form one, for when the fort was finished, they all backed against the outer wall, so that their low roofs served to fire from. The usual flankers completed the work, and the settlers of Number Four were so well pleased with it that they proudly declared their fort a better one than 1746.] ATTACKS AT NUMBER FOUR. 221 Fort Dummer, its nearest neighbor, which had been built by pubUc authority at the charge of the province. But a fort must have a garrison, and the ten or twelve men of Number Four would hardly be a suffi cient one. Sooner or later an attack was certain; for the place was a backwoods Castle Dangerous, lying in the path of war-parties from Canada, whether coming down the Connecticut from Lake Memphre- magog, or up Otter Creek from Lake Champlain, then over the moimtains to Black River, and so down that stream, which would bring them directly to Number Four. New Hampshire would do noth ing for them, and their only hope was in Massachu setts, of which most of them were natives, and which had good reasons for helping them to hold their ground, as a cover to its own settlements below. The govemor and Assembly of Massachusetts did, in fact, send small parties of armed men from time to time to defend the endangered outpost, and the suc cor was timely ; for though, during the first year of the war. Number Four was left in peace, yet from the nineteenth of April to the nineteenth of June, 1746, it was attacked by Indians five times, with some loss of scalps, and more of cattle, horses, and hogs. On the last occasion there was a hot fight in the woods, ending in the retreat of the Indians, said to have numbered a hundred and fifty, into a swamp, leaving behind them guns, blankets, hatchets, spears, and other things, valued at forty pounds, old tenor, 222 WAR AND POLITICS. [1747, — which, says the chronicle, " was reckoned a great booty for such beggarly enemies." ' But Massachusetts grew tired of defending lands that had been adjudged to New Hampshire, and as the season drew towards an end, Number Four was left again to its own keeping. The settlers saw no choice but to abandon a place which they were too few to defend, and accordingly withdrew to the older settlements, after burying such of their effects as would bear it, and leaving others to their fate. Six men, a dog, and a cat remained to keep the fort. Towards midwinter the human part of the garrison also withdrew, and the two uncongenial quadrupeds were left alone. When the authorities of Massachusetts saw that a place so useful to bear the brunt of attack was left to certain destruction, they repented of their late withdrawal, and sent Captain Phineas Stevens, with thirty men, to reoccupy it. Stevens, a native of Sudbury, Massachusetts, one of the earliest settlers of Number Four, and one of its chief proprietors, was a bold, intelligent, and determined man, well fitted for the work before him. He and his band reached the fort on the twenty-seventh of March, 1747, and their arrival gave peculiar pleasure to its tenants, the dog and cat, the former of whom met them with lively demonstrations of joy. The pair 1 Saunderson, History of Charlestown, N. H. 29. Doolittle, Nar rative of Mischief done by the Indian Enemy, — a contemporarv chronicle 1747.] A GREAT WAR-PARTY. 223 had apparently lived in harmony, and found means of subsistence, as they are reported to have been in tolerable condition. Stevens had brought with him a number of other dogs, — animals found useful for detecting the pres ence of Indians and tracking them to their lurking- places. A week or more after the arrival of the party, these canine allies showed great uneasiness and barked without ceasing ; on which Stevens ordered a strict watch to be kept, and great precaution to be used in opening the gate of the fort. It was time, for the surrounding forest concealed what the New England chroniclers call an "army," commanded by General Debeline. It scarcely need be said that Canada had no General Debeline, and that no such name is to be found in Canadian annals. The "army" was a large war-party of both French and Indians, and a French record shows that its com mander was Boucher de Niverville, ensign in the colony troops.' The behavior of the dogs was as yet the only sign of danger, when, about nine o'clock on the morning of the seventh of April, one of Stevens's men took it upon him to go out and find what was amiss. Ac companied by two or three of the dogs, he advanced, gun in hand, into the clearing, peering at every stump, lest an Indian should lurk behind it. When about twenty rods from the gate, he saw a large log, * Extrait en forme de Journal de ce qui s'est passe d'interessant dans la Colonic a I'occasion des Mouvements de Guerre, etc., 1746, 1747. 224 WAR AND POLITICS. [1747. or trunk of a fallen tree, not far before him, and approached it cautiously, setting on the dogs, or, as Stevens whimsically phrases it, "saying Ghoboy !" to them. They ran forward barking, on which several heads appeared above the log, and several guns were fired at liim. He was slightly wounded, but escaped to the fort. Then, all around, the air rang with war-whoops, and a storm of buUets flew from the tangle of bushes that edged the clearing, and rapped spitefully, but harmlessly, against the wooden wall. At a little distance on the windward side was a log- house, to which, with adjacent fences, the assailants presently set fire, in the hope that, as the wind was strong, the flames would catch the fort. When Stevens saw what they were doing, he set himself to thwart them ; and while some of his men kept them at bay with their guns, the rest fell to work digging a number of short trenches under the wall, on the side towards the fire. As each trench was six or seven feet deep, a man could stand in it outside the wall, sheltered from bullets, and dash buckets of water, passed to him from within, against the scorch ing timbers. Eleven such trenches were dug, and eleven men were stationed in them, so that the whole exposed front of the wall was kept wet.' Thus, 1 " Those who were not employed in firing at the enemy were employed in digging trenches under the bottom of the fort. We dug no less than eleven of them, so deep that a man could go and stand upright on the outside and not endanger himself; so that when these trenches were finished, we could wet all the outside of the fort, which we did, and kept it wet all night. We drew some 1747.] DEFENCE OF NUMBER FOUR. 225 though clouds of smoke drifted over the fort, and burning cinders showered upon it, no harm was done, and the enemy was forced to other devices. They found a wagon, which they protected from water and bullets by a shield of planks, — for there was a saw-mill hard by, — and loaded it with dry fagots, thinking to set them on fire and push the blazing machine against a dry part of the fort wall ; but the task proved too dangerous, "for," says Stevens, "instead of performing what they threatened and seemed to be immediately going to undertake, they caUed to us and desired a cessation of arms till sun rise the next morning, which was granted, at which time they said they would come to a parley." In fact, the French commander, with about sixty of his men, came in the morning with a flag of truce, which he stuck in the ground at a musket-shot from the fort, and, in the words of Stevens, "said, if we would send three men to him, he would send as many to us." Stevens agreed to this, on which two French men and an Indian came to the fort, and three soldiers went out in return. The two Frenchmen demanded, on the part of their commander, that the garrison should surrender, under a promise of life, and be carried prisoners to Quebec ; and they farther required that Stevens should give his answer to the French officer in person. hundreds of barrels of water ; and to undergo all this hard service there were but thirty men." — Stevens to Colonel W. Williams, April, 1747. VOL. II. — 15 , 226 WAR AND POLITICS. [1747. Wisely or unwisely, Stevens went out at the gate, and was at once joined by Niverville, attended, no doubt, by an interpreter. " Upon meeting the Mon sieur," says the English captain, "he did not wait for me to give him an answer, " but said, in a manner sufficiently peremptory, that he had seven hundred men with him, and that if his terms were refused, he would storm the fort, "run over it," burn it to the ground, and if resistance were offered, put all in it to the sword; adding that he would have it or die, and that Stevens might fight or not as he pleased, for it was all one to him. His terms being refused, he said, as Stevens reports, " Well, go back to your fort and see if your men dare fight any more, and give me an answer quickly; for my men want to be fighting." Stevens now acted as if he had been the moderator of a town-meeting. "I went into the fort and called the men together, and informed them what the general said, and then put it to vote whether they would fight or resign ; and they voted to a man to stand it out, and also declared that they would fight as long as they had life." * Answer was made accordingly, but Niverville 's promise to storm the fort and " run over it " was not kept. Stevens says that his enemies had not the courage to do this, or even to bring up their " fortifi cation," meaning their fire-wagon with its shield of planks. In fact, an open assault upon a fortified place was a thing unknown in this border warfare, 1 Stevens to Colonel William Williams, April, 1747. 1747.] DEFENCE OF NUMBER FOUR. 227 whether waged by Indians alone, or by French and Indians together. The assailants only raised the war-whoop again, and fired, as before, from behind stumps, logs, and bushes. This amusement they kept up from two o'clock till night, when they grew bolder, approached nearer, and shot flights of fire- arrows into the fort, which, water being abun dant, were harmless as their buUets. At daylight they gave over this exercise, called out, "Good- morning ! " to the garrison, and asked for a sus pension of arms for two hours. This being agreed to, another flag of truce presently appeared, carried by two Indians, who planted it in the ground within a stone's throw of the fort, and asked that two men should be sent out to confer with them. This was done, and the men soon came back with a proposal that Stevens should sell provisions to his besiegers, under a promise on their part that they would give him no farther trouble. He answered that he would not sell them provisions for money, but would exchange them for prisoners, and give five bushels of Indian corn for every hostage placed in his hands as security for the release of an English cap tive in Canada. To this their only answer was fir ing a few shots against the fort, after which they all disappeared, and were seen no more. The gar rison had scarcely eaten or slept for three days. " I believe men were never known to hold out with better resolution," writes Stevens; and "though there were some thousands of guns shot at us, we 228 WAR AND POLITICS. [1747. had but two men slightly wounded, John Brown and Joseph Ely."' Niverville and his party, disappointed and hungry, now made a tour among the scattered farms and ham lets of the country below, which, incapable of resisting such an inroad, were abandoned at their approach. Thus they took an easy revenge for their rebuff at Number Four, and in a march of thirty or forty leagues, burned five small deserted forts or stockaded houses, " three meeting-houses, several fine barns, about one hundred dwellings, mostly of two stories, furnished even to chests of drawers, and killed five to six hun dred sheep and hogs, and about thirty homed cattle. This devastation is well worth a few prisoners or scalps. " ^ It is curious to find such exploits mentioned with complacency, as evidence of prowess. The successful defence of the most exposed place on the frontier was welcome news throughout New England, and Commodore Charles Knowles, who was then at Boston, sent Stevens a silver-hilted sword in recognition of his conduct. The settlers of Number Four, who soon returned to their backwoods home, were so well pleased vrith this compliment to one of their fellows that they gave to the settlement the baptismal name of the Commodore, and the town that has succeeded the hamlet of Number Four is Charlestown to this day.^ 1 Stevens to Colonel W. Williams, April, 1747. 2 N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 97. ' Just after the withdrawal of the French and Indians, Stevens wrote two letters giving an account of the affair, one to Governor 1747.] ACCOUNTS OF THE CONFLICT. 229 Shirley, and the other to Colonel William WilUams, who seems to have been his immediate military superior. At most points they are substantially the same; but that to Williams contains some passages not found in the other. The letter to Shirley is printed in Saunderson, History of Charlestown, N. H., 34-37, and that to Williams in Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, iv. 109-113. Stevens also kept a diary, which was long in possession of his descendants. One of these, Mr. B. F. Stevens, kindly made a search for it, at my request, and learned that it had been unfortu nately destroyed by fire, in 1856. Doolittle, in his Narrative of Mischief, and Hoyt, in his Antiquarian Researches, give other ac counts. The French notices of the affair are few and short, as usual in cases of failure. For the principal one, see N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 97. It is here said that Stevens asked for a parley, in order to capitulate; but all the English accounts say that the French made the first advances. CHAPTER XXIV. 1745-1748. FORT MASSACHUSETTS. Frontier Defence. — Northfield and its Minister. — Min. TARY Criticisms op Rev. Benjamin Doolittle. — Rigaud DE Vaudreuil : his Great War-Party ; he attacks Fort Massachusetts. — Sergeant Hawks and his Garri son. — A Gallant Defence. — Capitulation. — Humanity OF the French. — Ravages. — Return to Crown Point. — Peace op Aix-la-Chapelle. Since the last war, the settlements of Massachusetts had pushed westward and begun to invade the beauti ful region of mountains and valleys that now forms Berkshire. ViUages, or rudiments of villages, had grown up on the Housatonic, and an establishment had been attempted at Pontoosuc, now Pittsfield, on the extreme western limits of the province. The position of these new settlements was critical, for the enemy could reach them with little difficulty by way of Lake Champlain and Wood Creek. The Massa chusetts government was not unmindful of them, and when war again broke out, three wooden forts were built for their protection, forming a line of defence westward from Northfield on the northern frontier of the province. One of these forts was in 1745, 1746.] NORTHFIELD. 231 the present town of Heath, and was called Fort Shirley; another, named Fort Pelham, was in the present town of Rowe ; while the third, Fort Massa chusetts, was farther westward, in what is now the town of Adams, then known as East Hoosac. Two hundred men from the militia were taken into pay to hold these posts and patrol the intervening forests. Other defensive works were made here and there, sometimes by the votes of town meetings, and some times by individuals, at their own cost. These works consisted of a fence of palisades enclosing a farm house, or sometimes of a blockhouse of timber or heavy planks. Thus, at Northfield, Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, a veteran of sixty who had served at Louisbourg, built a " mount, " or blockhouse, on the knoll behind his house, and carried a stockade from it to enclose the dwelling, shed, and bam, the whole at the cost of thirty-six pounds, one shilling, and sixpence, in Massachusetts currency,' which the town repaid him, his fortifications being of public utiUty as a place of refuge for families in case of attack. Northfield was a place notoriously danger ous, and military methods were in vogue there in season and out of season. Thus, by a vote of the town, the people were called to the Sunday sermon by beat of drum, and Eleazer Holton was elected to sound the caU in consideration of one pound and ten 1 Temple and Sheldon, History of Northfield, 237, give the items from the original account. This is one of the best of the innumer able town histories of New England. 232 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1745, 1746. shillings a year, the drum being hired of Ensign Field, its fortunate possessor, for the farther sum of three shillings. This was in the earlier days of Northfield. In 1734 the Sunday drum-beat was stopped, and the worshippers were summoned by the less obstreperous method of "hanging out a flagg," for the faithful discharge of which function Daniel Wright received in 1744 one pound and five shilUngs.' The various fortifications, public and private, were garrisoned, sometimes by the owner and his neighbors, sometimes by men in pay of the Provincial Assembly. As was to be expected from a legislative body under taking warlike operations, the work of defence was but indifferently conducted. John Stoddard, the village magnate of Northampton, was charged, among the rest of his multifarious employments, with the locating and construction of forts ; Captain Ephraim WilUams was assigned to the general command on the western frontier, with headquarters at Fort Shirley and afteiTvards at Fort Massachusetts ; and Major Israel Williams, of Hatfield, was made commissary. At Northfield dwelt the Rev. Benjamin Doolittle, minister, apothecary, physician, and surgeon of the village; for he had studied medicine no less than theology. His parishioners thought that his cure of bodies encroached on his cure of souls, and requested him to confine his attention to his spiritual charge; to which he replied that he could not afford it, his 1 Temple and Sheldon, History of Northfield, 218. 1745,1746.] REV. BENJAMIN DOOLITTLE. 233 salary as minister being seventy-five pounds in irre deemable Massachusetts paper, while his medical and surgical practice brought him full four hundred a year. He offered to comply with the vrishes of his flock if they would add that amount to his salary, — which they were not prepared to do, and the minister continued his heterogeneous labors as before. As the position of his house on the village street seems to have been regarded as strategic, the town voted to fortify it with a blockhouse and a stockade, for the benefit both of the occupant and of all the villagers. This was accordingly done, at the cost of eighteen pounds, seven shillings, and sixpence for the blockhouse, and a farther charge for the stockade ; and thenceforth Mr. Doolittle could write his ser mons and mix his doses in peace. To his other call ings he added that of historiographer. When, after a ministry of thirty-six years, the thrifty pastor was busied one day with hammer and nails in mending the fence of his yard, he suddenly dropped dead from a stroke of heart-disease, — to the grief of all North- field; and his papers being searched, a record was found in his handwriting of the inroads of the enemy that had happened in his time on or near the Massa chusetts border. Being rightly thought worthy of publication, it was printed at Boston in a dingy pamphlet, now extremely rare, and much prized by antiquarians.' 1 A short Narrative of Mischief done by the French and Indian Enemy, on the Western Frontiers of the Province of the Massachusetts 234 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. Appended to it are the remarks of the author on the conduct of the war. He complains that plans are changed so often that none of them take effect; that terms of enlistment are so short that the com missary can hardly serve out provisions to the men before their time is expired; that neither bread, meat, shoes, nor blankets are kept on hand for an emergency, so that the enemy escape while the soldiers are getting ready to pursue them ; that the pay of a drafted man is so small that twice as much would not hire a laborer to take care of his farm in his absence ; and that untried and unfit persons are commissioned as officers : in all of which strictures there is no doubt much truth. Mr. Doolittle's rueful narrative treats mainly of miscellaneous murders and scalpings, interesting only to the sufferers and their friends; but he also chronicles briefly a formidable inroad that still holds a place in New England history. It may be remembered that Shirley had devised a plan for capturing Fort Frdd^ric, or Crown Point, Bay ; from the Beginning of the French War, proclaimed by the King of France, March 15th, 1743-4 ; and by the King of Great Britain, March 2Qth, 1744, to August 2nd, 1748. Drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Doolittle, of Northfield, in the County of Hampshire ; and found among his Manu scripts after his Death. And at the Desire of some is now Published, with some small Additions to render it more perfect. Boston ; Printed and sold by S. Kneeland, in Queen Street. MDCCL. The facts above given concerning Mr. Doolittle are drawn from the excellent History of Northfield by Temple and Sheldon, and the introduction to the Particular History of the Five Years' French and Indian War, by S. G. Drake. 1746.] RIGAUD DE VAUDREUIL. 235 built by the French at the narrows of Lake Cham plain, and commanding ready access for war-parties to New York and New England. The approach of D'Anville's fleet had defeated the plan; but rumors of it had reached Canada, and ex cited great alarm. Large bodies of men were ordered to Lake Champlain to protect the threatened fort. The two brothers De Muy were already on the lake with a numerous party of Canadians and Indians, both Christian and heathen, and Rigaud de Vaudreuil. town-major of Three Rivers, was ordered to follow with a still larger force, repel any English attack, or, if none should be made, take the offensive and strike a blow at the English frontier. On the third of August, Rigaud ' left Montreal vrith a fleet of canoes carrying what he calls his army, and on the twelfth he encamped on the east side of the lake, at the mouth of Otter Creek. There was rain, thunder, and a violent wind all night; but the storm ceased at daybreak, and, embarking again, they soon saw the octagonal stone tower of Fort Fr^d^ric. The party set up their tents and wigwams near the fort, and on the morning of the sixteenth the elder De Muy arrived with a reinforcement of sixty French men and a band of Indians. They had just returned from an incursion towards Albany, and reported that all was quiet in those parts, and that Fort Fr^d^ric 1 French writers always call him Rigaud, to distinguish him from his brother, Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, afterwards governor of Canada, who is usua,lly mentioned as Vaudreuil. 236 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. was in no danger. Now, to their great satisfaction, Rigaud and his band saw themselves free to take the offensive. The question was, where to strike. The Indians held council after council, made speech after speech, and agreed on nothing. Rigaud gave them a wampum-belt, and told them that he meant to attack Corlaer, — that is, Schenectady; at which they seemed well pleased, and sang war-songs all night. In the morning they changed their minds, and begged him to call the whole army to a council for debating the question. It appeared that some of them, espe cially the Iroquois converts of Caughnawaga, disap proved of attacking Schenectady, because some of their Mohawk relatives were always making visits there, and might be inadvertently killed by the wild western Indians of Rigaud's party. Now all was doubt again, for as Indians are unstable as water, it was no easy task to hold them to any plan of action. The Abenakis proposed a solution of the difficult}'. They knew the New England border well, for many of them had Uved upon it before the war, on terms of friendly intercourse with the settlers. They now drew upon the floor of the council-room a rough map of the country, on which was seen a certain river, and on its upper waters a fort which they recom mended as a proper object of attack. The river was that eastern tributary of the Hudson which the French called the Kask^kouk^, the Dutch the Schaticook, and the EngUsh the Hoosac. The fort was Fort Massachusetts, the most westerly of the 1746.] RIGAUD'S WAR-PARTY. 237 three posts lately built to guard the frontier. " My father," said the Abenaki spokesman to Rigaud, "it wiU be easy to take this fort, and make great havoc on the lands of the English. Deign to listen to your children and follow our advice."' One Cade- naret, an Abenaki chief, had been killed near Fort Massachusetts in the last spring, and his tribesmen were keen to revenge him. Seeing his Indians pleased with the proposal to march for the Hoosac, Rigaud gladly accepted it ; on which whoops, yelps, and war-songs filled the air. Hardly, however, was the party on its way when the Indians changed their minds again, and wanted to attack Saratoga; but Rigaud told them that they had made their choice and must abide by it, to which they assented, and gave him no farther trouble. On the twentieth of August they all embarked and paddled southward, passed the lonely promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was afterwards built, and held their course till the lake dwindled to a mere canal creeping through the weedy marsh then called the Drowned Lands. Here, nine summers later, passed the flotilla of Baron Dieskau, bound to defeat and ruin by the shores of Lake George. Rigaud stopped at a place known as East Bay, at the mouth of a stream that joins Wood Creek, just north of the present town of Whitehall. Here he left the younger 1 Journal de la Campagne de Rigaud de Vaudreuil en 1746 . . . presente a Monseigneur le Comte de Maurepas, Ministre et Secretaire d'Etat (written by Rigaud). 238 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. De Muy, with thirty men, to guard the canoes. The rest of the party, guided by a brother of the slain Cadenaret, filed southward on foot along the base of Skene Mountain, that overlooks Whitehall. They counted about seven hundred men, of whom five hundred were French, and a little above two hundred were Indians.' Some other French reports put the whole number at eleven hundred, or even twelve hundred, 2 while several English accounts make it eight hundred or nine hundred. The Frenchmen of the party included both regulars and Canadians, with six regular officers and ten cadets, eighteen militia officers, two chaplains, — one for the whites and one for the Indians, — and a surgeon. ^ After a march of four days, they encamped on the twenty-sixth by a stream which ran into the Hudson, and was no doubt the Batten Kill, known to the French as la riviere de Saratogue. Being nearly opposite Saratoga, where there was then a garrison, they changed their course, on the twenty-seventh, from south to southeast, the better to avoid scouting- parties, which might discover their trail and defeat their plan of surprise. Early on the next day they reached the Hoosac, far above its mouth; and now their march was easier, "for," says Rigaud, "we got out of the woods and followed a large road that led 1 " Le 19, ayant fait passer I'arm^e en Revue qui se trouva de 700 hommes, soavoir 500 franfois environ et 200 quelques sauvages." ^ Journal de Rigaud. " See N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 103, 132. 3 Ibid., X. 35. 1746.] MARCH OF RIGAUD. 239 up the river." In fact, there seem to have been two roads, one on each side of the Hoosac; for the French were formed into two brigades, one of which, under the Sieur de la Valterie, filed along the right bank of the stream, and the other, under the Sieur de Sabrevois, along the left; while the Indians marched on the front, flanks, and rear. They passed deserted houses and farms belonging to Dutch settlers from the Hudson ; for the Hoosac, in this part of its course, was in the province of New York.' They did not stop to burn bams and houses, but they killed poultry, hogs, a cow, and a horse, to supply themselves with meat. Before night they had passed the New York line, and they made their camp in or near the valley where WiUiamstown and Williams College now stand. Here they were joined by the Sieurs Beaubassin and La Force, who had gone for ward, with eight Indians, to reconnoitre. Beaubassin had watched Fort Massachusetts from a distance, and had seen a man go up into the watch-tower, but could discover no other sign of alarm. Apparently, the fugitive Dutch farmers had not taken pains to warn the English garrison of the coming danger, for there was a coolness between the neighbors. Before breaking up camp in the morning, Rigaud 1 These Dutch settlements on the Hoosac were made under what was caUed the " Hoosac Patent," granted by Governor Don gan of New York in 1688. The settlements were not begun till nearly forty years after the grant was made. For evidence on this point I am indebted to Professor A. L. Perry, of Williams College. 240 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746, called the Indian chiefs together and said to them : "My children, the time is near when we must get other meat than fresh pork, and we will all eat it together." "Meat," in Indian parlance, meant pris oners; and as these were valuable by reason of the ransoms paid for them, and as the Indians had sus pected that the French meant to keep them all, they were well pleased with this figurative assurance of Rigaud that they should have their share.' The chaplain said mass, and the party marched in a brisk rain up the WilUamstown valley, till after advancing about ten miles they encamped again. Fort Massachusetts was only three or four miles distant. Rigaud held a talk with the Abenaki chiefs who had acted as guides, and it was agreed that the party should stop in the woods near the fort, make scaling-ladders, battering-rams to burst the gates, and other things needful for a grand assault, to take place before daylight ; but their plan came to nought through the impetuosity of the young Indians and Canadians, who were so excited at the first glimpse of the watch-tower of the fort that they dashed forward, as Rigaud says, "like lions." Hence one might fairly expect to see the fort assaulted at once ; but by the maxims of forest war this would have been reprehensible rashness, and nothing of the 1 " Mes enfans, leur dis-je, le temps approche oh il f aut faire d'autre viande que le pore frais ; au reste, nous la mangerons tous ensemble ; ce mot les flatta dans la crainte qu'ils avoient qu'apres la prise dufort nous ne nous reservames tous les prisoimiers." — Journal de Rigaud. 1746.] A PREMATURE ATTACK. 241 kind was attempted. The assailants spread to right and left, squatted behind stumps, and opened a dis tant and harmless fire, accompanied with unearthly yells and bowlings. Fort Massachusetts was a wooden enclosure formed, like the fort at Number Four, of beams laid one upon another, and interlocked at the angles. This wooden wall seems to have rested, not immediately upon the ground, but upon a foundation of stone, designated by Mr. Norton, the chaplain, as the " underpinning," — a name usually given in New Eng land to foundations of the kind. At the northwest comer was a blockhouse,' crowned with the watch- tower, the sight of which had prematurely kindled the martial fire of the Canadians and Indians. This wooden structure, at the apex of the blockhouse, served as a lookout, and also supplied means of throwing water to extinguish fire-arrows shot upon the roof. There were other buildings in the enclos ure, especially a large log-house on the south side, which seems to have overlooked the outer wall, and was no doubt loop-holed for musketry. On the east side there was a well, furnished probably with one of those long well-sweeps universal in primitive New England. The garrison, when complete, consisted of fifty-one men under Captain Ephraim William^, 1 The term " blockhouse " was loosely used, and was even some times appUed to an entire fort when constructed of hewn logs, and not of palisades. The true blockhouse of the New England frontier was a soUd wooden structure about twenty feet high, with a pro> jecting upper story and loopholes above and below. VOL. II. — 16 242 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. who has left his name to WiUiamstown and WiUiams College, of the latter of which he was the founder. He was bom at Newton, near Boston; was a man vigorous in body and mind; better acquainted with the world than most of his countrymen, having fol lowed the seas in his youth, and visited England, Spain, and Holland ; frank and agreeable in manners, well fitted for such a command, and respected and loved by his men.' When the proposed invasion of Canada was preparing, he and some of his men went to take part in it, and had not yet retumed. The fort was left in charge of a sergeant, John Hawks, of Deerfield, with men too few for the extent of the works, and a supply of ammunition nearly exhausted. Canada being then put on the defensive, the fron tier forts were thought safe for a time. On the Saturday before Rigaud's arrival. Hawks had sent Thomas Williams, the surgeon, brother of the absent captain, to Deerfield, with a detachment of fourteen men, to get a supply of powder and lead. This detachment reduced the entire force, including Hawks himself and Norton, the chaplain, to twenty- two men, half of whom were disabled with dysen tery, from which few of the rest were wholly free.^ 1 See the notice of Williams in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 47. He was killed in the bloody skirmish that preceded the Battle of Lake George in 1755. " Montcalm and Wolfe," chap. ix. " " Lord's day and Monday ... the sickness was very distress ing. . . . Eleven of our men were sick, and scarcely one of us in perfect health; almost every man was troubled with the griping and flux." — Norton, The Redeemed Captive. 1746.] SITE OF THE FORT. 243 There were also in the fort three women and five children.' The site of Fort Massachusetts is now a meadow by the banks of the Hoosac. Then it was a rough clearing, encumbered with the stumps and refuse of the primeval forest, whose living hosts stood grimly around it, and spread, untouched by the axe, up the sides of the neighboring Saddleback Mountain. The position of the fort was bad, being commanded by high ground, from which, as the chaplain tells us, " the enemy could shoot over the north side into the middle of the parade, " — for which serious defect, John Stoddard, of Northampton, legist, capitaUst, colonel of militia, and " Superintendent of Defence, " was probably answerable. These frontier forts were, however, often placed on low ground with a view to an abundant supply of water, fire being the most dreaded enemy in Indian warfare.^ 1 Rigaud erroneously makes the garrison a little larger. " La garnison se trouve de 24 hommes, entre lesquels il y avoit un ministre, 3 femmes, et 5 enfans.'' The names and residence of all the men in the fort when the attack began are preserved. Hawks made his report to the provincial government under the title " An Account of the Company in his Majesty's Service under the command of Sergi John Hawks . . . at Fort Massachusetts, August 20 [31, new style], 1746." The roll is attested on oath " Before WiUiam WilUams, Just. Pads." The number of men is 22, including Hawks and Norton. Each man brought his own gun. 1 am indebted to the kindness of Professor A. L. Perry for a copy of Hawks's report, which is addressed to " the Honble. Spencer Phipps, Esq., Lieut. Gov' and Commander in Chief [and] the HonM« his Majesty's Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled." ^ When I visited the place as a college student, no trace of the fort was to be seen except a hollow, which may have been the 244 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. Sergeant Hawks, the provisional commander, was, according to tradition, a tall man with sunburnt features, erect, spare, very sinewy and strong, and of a bold and resolute temper. He had need to be so, for counting every man in the fort, lay and clerical, sick and well, he was beset by more than thirty times his own number; or, counting only his effective men, by more than sixty times, — and this at the lowest report of the attacking force. As there was nothing but a log fence between him and his enemy, it was clear that they could hew or burn a way through it, or climb over it with no surprising effort of valor. Rigaud, as we have seen, had planned a general assault under cover of night, but had been thwarted by the precipitancy of the young Indians and Canadians. These now showed no inclination to depart from the cautious maxims of forest warfare. They made a terrific noise, but when they came within gunshot of the fort, it was by darting from stump to stump with a quick zigzag movement that made them more difficult to hit than birds on the wing. The best moment for a shot was when they reached a stump, and stopped for an instant to duck and hide behind it. By seizing this fleeting oppor tunity. Hawks himself put a bullet into the breast of an Abenaki chief from St. Francis, — " which ended remains of a cellar, and a thriving growth of horse-radish, — a reUc of the garrison garden. My friend. Dr. D. D. Slade, has given an interesting account of the spot in the Magazine of American His tory for October, 1888. 1746.] RIGAUD WOUNDED. 245 his days," says the chaplain. In view of the nimble- ness of the assailants, a charge of buckshot was found more to the purpose than a bullet. Besides the slain Abenaki, Rigaud reports sixteen Indians and French men wounded,' — which, under the circumstances, was good execution for ten farmers and a minister; for Chaplain Norton loaded and fired with the rest. Rigaud himself was one of the wounded, having been hit in the arm and sent to the rear, as he stood giving orders on the rocky hill about forty rods from the fort. Probably it was a chance shot, since, though rifles were invented long before, they were not yet in general use, and the yeoman garrison were armed with nothing but their own smooth-bore hunt ing-pieces, not to be trusted at long range. The supply of ammunition had sunk so low that Hawks was forced to give the discouraging order not to fire except when necessary to keep the enemy in check, or when the chance of hitting him should be un usually good. Such of the sick men as were strong enough aided the defence by casting bullets and buckshot. The outrageous noise lasted till towards nine in the evening, when the assailants greeted the fort with a general war-whoop, and repeated it three or four times ; then a line of sentinels was placed around it to prevent messengers from carrying the alarm to Albany or Deerfield. The evening was dark and 1 " L'Ennemi me tua un abenakis et me blessa 16 hommes, tant Iroquois qu'Abenaquis, nipissings et fran9ois." — Journal de Rigaud. 246 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746, cloudy. The lights of a camp could be seen by the river towards the southeast, and those of another near the swamp towards the west. There was a sound of axes, as if the enemy were making scaling- ladders for a night assault; but it was found that they were cutting fagots to bum the wall. Hawks ordered every tub and bucket to be filled with water, in preparation for the crisis. Two men, John Aldrich and Jonathan Bridgman, had been wounded, thus farther reducing the strength of the defenders. The chaplain says : " Of those that were in health, some were ordered to keep the watch, and some lay down and endeavored to get some rest, lying down in our clothes with our arms by us. . . . We got little or no rest ; the enemy frequently raised us by their hideous outcries, as though they were about to at tack us. The latter part of the night I kept the watch. " Rigaud spent the night in preparing for a decisive attack, "being resolved to open trenches two hours before sunrise, and push them to the foot of the palisade, so as to place fagots against it, set them on fire, and deliver the fort a prey to the fury of the flames."' It began to rain, and he determined to wait till morning. That the commander of seven 1 " Je passay la nuit a conduire I'ouvrage auquel j'avois destin^ le jour pr^cfedent, rfesolu a faire ouvrir la tranch^e deux heures avant le lever du soleil, et de la pousser jusqu'au pied de la palissade, pour y placer les fascines, y appliquer I'artifice, et livrer le fort en proye ^ la f ureur du feu." — Journal de Rigaud. He mis takes in calling the log wall of the fort a palisade. 1746.] A PARLEY. 247 hundred French and Indians should resort to such elaborate devices to subdue a sergeant, seven miUtia- men, and a minister, — for this was now the effective strength of the besieged, — was no small compliment to the spirit of the defence. The firing was renewed in the morning, but there was no attempt to open trenches by daylight. Two men were sent up into the watch-tower, and about eleven o'clock one of them, Thomas Knowlton, was shot through the head. The number of effectives was thus reduced to eight, including the chaplain. Up to this time the French and EngUsh witnesses are in tolerable accord; but now there is conflict of evidence. Rigaud says that when he was about to carry his plan of attack into execution, he saw a white flag hung out, and sent the elder De Muy, with Montigny and D'Auteuil, to hear what the English commandant — whose humble rank he no where mentions — had to say. On the other hand, Norton, the chaplain, says that about noon the French "desired to parley," and that "we agreed to it. " He says farther that the sergeant, with himself and one or two others, met Rigaud outside the gate, and that the French commander promised "good quarter" to the besieged if they would surrender, with the alternative of an assault if they would not. This account is sustained by Hawks, who says that at twelve o'clock an Indian came forward with a flag of truce, and that he, Hawks, with two or three others, went to meet Rigaud, who theu offeree! honof- 248 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. able terms of capitulation.' The sergeant promised an answer within two hours ; and going back to the fort with his companions, examined their means of defence. He found that they had left but three or four pounds of gunpowder, and about as much lead. Hawks called a council of his effective men. Norton prayed for divine aid and guidance, and then they fell to considering the situation. " Had we all been in health, or had there been only those eight of us that were in health, I believe every man would will ingly have stood it out to the last. For my part, I should," writes the manful chaplain. But besides the sick and wounded, there were three women and five children, who, if the fort were taken by assault, would no doubt be butchered by the Indians, but who might be saved by a capitulation. Hawks there fore resolved to make the best terms he could. He had defended his post against prodigious odds for twenty-eight hours. Rigaud promised that all in the fort should be treated with humanity as prisoners of war, and exchanged at the first opportunity. He also promised that none of them should be given to the In dians, though he had lately assured his savage alUes that they should have their share of the prisoners. At three o'clock the principal French officers were admitted into the fort, and the French flag was raised * Journal of Sergeant Hawks, cited by William L. Stone, Life and Times of Sir WiUiam Johnson, i. 227. What seems conclusive is that the French permitted Norton to nail to a post of the fort a short account of its capture, in which it is plainly stated that the first advances were made by Rigaud. 1746.] CAPITULATION. 249 over it. The Indians and Canadians were excluded; on which some of the Indians pulled out several of the stones that formed the foundation of the wall, crawled through, opened the gate, and let in the whole crew. They raised a yell when they saw the blood of Thomas Knowlton trickling from the watch- tower where he had been shot, then rushed up to where the corpse lay, brought it down, scalped it, and cut off the head and arms. The fort was then plundered, set on fire, and burned to the ground. The prisoners were led to the French camp; and here the chaplain was presently accosted by one Doty, Rigaud's interpreter, who begged him to per suade some of the prisoners to go with the Indians. Norton replied that it had been agreed that they should all remain with the French ; and that to give up any of them to the Indians would be a breach of the capitulation. Doty then appealed to the men themselves, who all insisted on being left with the French, according to the terms stipulated. Some of them, however, were given to the Indians, who, after Rigaud's promise to them, could have been pacified in no other way. His fault was in making a stipula tion that he could not keep. Hawks and Norton, with all the women and children, remained in the French camp. Hearing that men were expected from Deerfield to take the places of the sick, Rigaud sent sixty Indians to cut them off. They lay in wait for the English reinforcement, which consisted of nineteen men, gave 250 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746, them a close fire, shot down fifteen of them, and captured the rest.' This or another party of Rigaud's Indians pushed as far as Deerfield and tried to way lay the farmers as they went to their work on a Monday morning. The Indians hid in a growth of alder-bushes along the edge of a meadow where men were making hay, accompanied by some children. One Ebenezer Hawks, shooting partridges, came so near the ambushed warriors that they could not resist the temptation of kUling and scalping him. This alarmed the haymakers and the children, who ran for their lives towards a mill on a brook that entered Deerfield River, fiercely pursued by about fifty Indians, who caught and scalped a boy named Amsden. Three men, AUen, Sadler, and Gillet, got under the bank of the river and fired on the pursuers. AUen and Gillet were soon killed, but Sadler escaped unhurt to an island. Three children of Alien—; Eunice, Samuel, and Caleb — were also chased by the Indians, who knocked down Eunice with a toma hawk, but were in too much haste to stop and scalp her, and she lived to a good old age. Her brother Samuel was caught and dragged off, but Caleb ran into a field of tall maize, and escaped. The firing was heard in the village, and a few armed men, under Lieutenant Clesson, hastened to the rescue; but when they reached the spot the Indians were gone, carrying the boy Samuel Allen 1 One French account says that the Indians failed to meet the English party. N. Y. Col. Docs. x. 35. 1746.] THE PRISONERS. 251 with them, and leaving two of their own number dead. Clesson, with such men as he had, followed their trail up Deerfield River, but could not overtake the light-footed savages. Meanwhile, the prisoners at Fort Massachusetts spent the first night, well guarded, in the French and Indian camps. In the morning, Norton, accom panied by a Frenchman and several Indians, was per mitted to nail to one of the charred posts of the fort a note to tell what had happened to him and his companions.' The victors then marched back as they had come, along the Hoosac road. They moved slowly, encumbered as they were by the sick and wounded. Rigaud gave the Indians presents, to induce them to treat their prisoners with humanity. Norton was in charge of De Muy, and after walking four miles sat down with him to rest in WiUiamstown valley. There was a yell from the Indians in the rear. "I trembled," writes Norton, "thinking they had murdered some of our people, but was filled vrith admiration when I saw all our prisoners come up with us, and John Aldrich carried on the back of his Indian master." Aldrich had been shot in the foot, and could not walk. "We set out again, and 1 The note was as follows : " August 20 [31, new style], 1746. These are to inform you that yesterday, about 9 of the clock, we were besieged by, as they say, seven hundred French and Indians. They have wounded two men and killed one Knowlton. The Gen. eral de Vaudreuil desired capitulations, and we were so distressed that we complied with his terms. We are the French's prisoners, and have it under the general's hand that every man, woman, and child shall be exchanged for French prisoners," 252 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. had gone but a little way before we came up with Josiah Reed." Reed was extremely ill, and could go no farther. Norton thought that the Indians would kill him, instead of which one of them carried him on his back. They were said to have killed him soon after, but there is good reason to think that he died of disease. "I saw John Perry's wife," pursues the chaplain; "she complained that she was almost ready to give out." The Indians threatened her, but Hawks spoke in her behalf to Rigaud, who remonstrated with them, and they afterwards treated her well. The vrife of another soldier, John Smead, was near her time, and had lingered behind. The French showed her great kindness. " Some of them made a seat for her to sit upon, and brought her to the camp, where, about ten o'clock, she was gra ciously delivered of a daughter, and was remarkably well. . . . Friday: this morning I baptized John Smead's child. He called its name Gapitivity." The French made a litter of poles, spread over it a deer skin and a bear-skin, on which they placed the mother and child, and so carried them forward. Three days after, there was a heavy rain, and the mother was completely drenched, but suffered no harm, though "Miriam, the wife of Moses Scott, hereby catched a grievous cold." John Perry was relieved of his pack, so that he might help his wife and carry her when her strength failed. Several horses were found at the farms along the way, and the sick Benjamin Simons and the wounded John 1746.] RAVAGES. 253 Aldrich were allowed to use two of them. Rarely, indeed, in these dismal border-raids were prisoners treated so humanely; and the credit seems chiefly due to the efforts of Rigaud and his officers. The hardships of the march were shared by the victors, some of whom were sorely wounded; and four Indians died within a few days. " I divided my army between the two sides of the Kask^kouk^ " (Hoosac), says Rigaud, "and ordered them to do what I had not permitted to be done before we reached Fort Massachusetts. Every house was set on fire, and numbers of domestic animals of all sorts were killed. French and Indians vied with each other in pillage, and I made them enter the [valleys of all the] little streams that flow into the Kask^kouk^ and lay waste everything there. . . . Wherever we went we made the same havoc, laid waste both sides of the river, through twelve leagues of fertile country, burned houses, barns, stables, and even a meeting-house, — in all, above two hundred establishments, — killed all the cattle, and ruined all the crops. Such, Monseigneur, was the damage I did our enemies during the eight or nine days I was in their country."' As the Dutch settlers had escaped, there was no resistance. The French and their alUes left the Hoosac at the point where they had reached it, and retraced their steps northward through the forest, where there was an old Indian trail. Recrossing the Batten Kill, or 1 Journal de Rigaud. 254 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1746. "River of Saratoga," and some branches of Wood Creek, they reached the place where they had left their canoes, and foun(I them safe. Rigaud says: "I gave leave to the Indians, at their request, to con tinue their fighting and ravaging, in smaU parties, towards Albany, Schenectady, Deerfield, Saratoga, or wherever they pleased, and I even gave them a few officers and cadets to lead them." These smaU ventures were more or less successfiU, and produced, in due time, a good return of scalps. The main body, now afloat again, sailed and paddled northward till they reached Crown Point. Rigaud rejoiced at finding a haven of refuge, for his wounded arm was greatly inflamed : " and it was time I should reach a place of repose." He and his men encamped by the fort and remained there for some time. An epidemic, apparently like that at Fort Massachusetts, had broken out among them, and great numbers were seriously iU. Norton was lodged in a French house on the east side of the lake, at what is now called Chimney Point; and one day his guardian, De Muy, either thinking to impress him with the strength of the place, or with an amusing confidence in the minister's incapacity for making inconvenient miUtary observa tions, invited him to visit the fort. He accepted the invitation, crossed over vrith the courteous officer, and reports the ramparts to have been twenty feet thick, about twenty feet high, and mounted with above twenty cannon. The octagonal tower which 1746-1748.] THE FORT REBUILT. 256 overlooked the ramparts, and answered in some sort to the donjon of a feudal castle, was a bomb-proof structure in vaulted masonry, of the slaty black limestone of the neighborhood, three stories in height, and armed with nine or ten cannon, besides a great number of patereroes, — a kind of pivot-gun much like a swivel.' In due time the prisoners reached Montreal, whence they were sent to Quebec ; and in the course of the next year those who remained alive were ex changed and retumed to New England.^ Mrs. Smead and her infant daughter " Captivity " died in Canada, and, by a singular fatality, her husband had scarcely returned home when he was waylaid and killed by Indians. Fort Massachusetts was soon rebuilt by the province, and held its own thenceforth till the war was over. Sergeant Hawks became a lieutenant-colonel, and took a creditable part in the last French war. For two years after the incursion of Rigaud the New England borders were scourged with partisan warfare, bloody, monotonous, and futile, with no event that needs recording, and no result beyond a momentary check to the progress of settlement. At length, in July, 1748, news came that the chief con- 1 Kalm also describes the fort and its tower. Little trace of either now remains. Amherst demolished them in 1759, when he built the larger fort, of which the ruins still stand on the higher ground behind the site of its predecessor. * Of the twenty-two men in the fort when attacked, one, Knowl ton, was killed by a bullet ; one. Reed, died just after the surrender ; ten died in Canada, and ten returned home. Report of Sergeant Hawks. 256 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1748. tending powers in Europe had come to terms of agreement, and in the next October the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed. Both nations were tired of the weary and barren conflict, with its enormous cost and its vast entail of debt. It was agreed that conquests should be mutually restored. The chief conquest of England was Louisbourg, with the island of Cape Breton, — • won for her by the farmers and fishermen of New England. When the preliminaries of peace were under discussion, Louis XV. had demanded the restitution of tiie lost fortress; and George II. is said to have replied that it was not his to give, having been captured by the people of Boston.' But his sense of justice was forced to yield to diplomatic necessity, for Louisbourg was the indis pensable price of peace. To the indignation of the northern provinces, it was restored to its former own ers. "The British ministers," says Smollett, "gave up the important island of Cape Breton in exchange for a petty factory in the East Indies " (Madras), and the King deigned to send two EngUsh noblemen to the French court as security for the bargain. Peace returned to the tormented borders ; the settle ments advanced again, and the colonists found a short breathing space against the great conclusive struggle of the Seven Years' War. I N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 147. APPENDIX. A. CHAPTER XVII. ENGLAND HAS NO RIGHTFUL TITLES TO NORTH AMERICA, EXCEPT THOSE WHICH MAY BE GRANTED HER BY FRANCE. Second Mem,oire concernant les limites des Colonies pre sents en 1720, par Bobe pretre de la congregation de la Mission, a Versailles. Archives Nationales. {Extracts, printed literatim.) " L'ann^e Dernier 1719 je presente un Memoire Concer nant les pretensions reciproques de la grande bretagne et de la fiance par Eaport aux Colonies des deux Nations dans L'Amerique, et au Eeglement des limites des dites Colonies. " Je ne repete pas ce que j'ay dit dans ce memoire, je piie seulement que Ton pese bien tout ce que j'y dis pour Aneantir les pretensions des Anglois, et pour les Convain- cre, s'ils veuUent gtre de bonne foy, qu'elles sont des plus mal fondees, tres Exorbitantes, et m§mes injustes, qu'ayant usurpe sur La france presque tout ce qu'ils possedent en Amerique, ils deveroient luy rendre au lieu de luy de- mander, et qu'ils deveroient estimer Comme un tres grand avantage pour Eux, la Compensation que j'y propose pour finir cette affaire, laqu'elle, sans cette Compensation, renai- VOL. II. — 17 258 APPENDIX. tra toujours jusqu'a ce qu'enfin la france soit rentrde en paisible possession de tout ce qui luy appartient legitime- ment, et dont on ne L'a depoiiiUee que par la force et La malheureuse Conjoncture des tems, qui sans doute tot ou tard luy seront plus favorables. " II Est surprenant que les Anglois entendus Comme ils sont par Raporfc a leurs Interests, ne fassent pas attention qu'il Leurs est infiniment plus Avantageux de s'assurer, par un traits raisonnable, la tranquille et perpetuelle possession des payis ou ils etoient etablis avant la paix D'utrecht, que de vouloir profiter des Conjonctures pour oster aux franQois des payis qu'ils ne Cederont jamais de bon Coeur, et dont ils se rempareront quand ils trouveront I'occasion favorable pour Cela, se persuadant qu'il leur sera alors permis de reprendre par force, ce que par force on leurs k pris, et ce qu'ils ont et^ oblig^ de Ceder a Utrecht; et meme de reprendre au moins une partie des payis que I'angleterre a usurpez sur la france, qui ne les a jamais cedez par aucun traits que je scache. . . . " Jean Verazan par ordre de fran^ois 1" fit La decouverte de tous les payis et Costes qui sont Entre le 33'. et le 47? Degre de latitude, et y fit deux voyages dont le dernier fut en 1523 et par ordre et au nom du dit Roy francois 1" il prit possession de toute cette Coste et de tous ces payis, bien long tems avant que les Anglois y Eussent Etd. " L'an 1562 Les francois s'^tablirent dans La Caroline. Champlain a La fin de la relation de ses voyages fait un chapitre exprez Dans lequel il prouve. " 1°. Que La france a pris possession de toutes les Costes et payis depuis la floride inclusivement jusqu'au fleuve S? Laurent inclusivem?, avant tout autre prince chretien. 2°. Que nos roys ont eu, dez le Commancement des decouvertes des lieutenans generaux Dans ces payis et Costes. APPENDIX. 269 3*. Que Les franqois les ont habitez avant les Anglois. 4°. Que Les pretensions des Anglois sont Mal fondees. " La Lecture De ce chapitre fait voir que Champlain prouve invinciblement tous ces chefs, et de maniere que les Anglois n'ont rien de bon a y repondre, de sorte que s'ils veuUent Itre de bonne foy, ils doivent Convenir que tous ces payis appartiennent Ldgitimement k la france qu'ils s'en sont emparez et qu'ils les Eetiennent Contre toute justice. . . . " II Est A Eemarquer que quoyque par le traits de S? germain l'angleterre dut restituer tout ce qu'elle Avoit ocoup^ dans la Nouvelle france, et par Consequent toute la Coste depuis baston jusqu'a la virginie inclusivement (car alors les Anglois ne s'etoient pas encore emparez de la Caroline) laqu'elle Coste est Certainement partie de la Nouvelle france, les Anglois ne I'ont pas Cependant res- tituee et la gardent encore a present Contre la teneur du traite de S! Germain, quoy que la france ne L'ait point Cedee a L'angleterre ni par le dit traite ni par Aucun Autre que je scache. " Cecy Merite La plus serieuse attention de la france, et qu'elle fasse Entendre serieusement aux Anglois que par le traite de S! germain ils se sont obligez de luy rendre toutte cette Coste, qui incontestablement est partie de la Nouvelle france, Comme je L'ay prouve cy devant et encore plus au long dans mon If memoire et Comme le prouvent Verazan, Champlain, Denis, et toutes les plus ancienes Cartes de I'amerique septentrionale. ... " Or Le Commun Consentement de toute I'Europe est de depeindre la Nouvelle france S'etendant au moins au 35? et 36f degrez de latitude Ainsy qu'il appert par les mappe- mondes imprim^es en Espagne, Italie, hollande, flandres, alle- magne Et Angleterre m§rae, Sinon depuis que les Anglois se sont Emparez des Costes de la Nouvelle france, ou est 260 APPENDIX. L'Acadie, Etechemains L'almouchicois, et la grande riviere de S! I'aurens, ou ils ont impost a leur fantaisie des Noms de nouvelle Angleterre, Ecosse, et autres, mais il est mal aise de pouvoir Effacer une chose qui est Connue De toute la Chretientee D'ou je Conclus, " 1°. Quavant L'Usurpation faite par les Anglois, toute Cette Coste jusqu'au 35? Degre s'appelloit Nouvelle france, laquelle Comprenoit outre plusieurs autres provinces, I'Etechemains, L'almouchicois, et L'acadie. . . . " Les Anglois Doivent remettre k La france le Port Royal, et La france doit insister vigoureusement sur cette restitution, et ordonner aux frangois de Port Royal, Des Mines, et de Beaubassin, et autres lieux De reconaitre sa Majeste tres Chretiene pour leur Souverain, et leur deffen- dre d'obeir a aucun autre; de plus Commander a tous ces lieux et payis, et a toute la partie Septentrionale de la Peninsule, ainsi qu'aux payis des Almouchicois et des Etechemains [Jfame, JVew Hampshire, and Massachu- setts'\, de Reconaitre le gouvemeur de I'isle Royale pour leur Gouvemeur. " II Est mgme apropos De Comprendre Dans le Brevet de gouvemeur de L'isle Royale tous ces payis jusqu'au Cap Cod. . . . " Que La france ne doit point souffrir que les Anglois s'etablissent Dans les payis qu'elle n'a pas Cedez. " Qu'elle Doit incessament s'en remettre en possession, y Envoyer quantite D'habitans, et s'y fortifier de maniere qu'on puisse Arreter les Anglois que depuis long tems tachent de s'emparer de I'amerique francoise dont ils Co- naissent L'importance, et dont ils feroient un meilleur usage que celuy que les francois en font. . . . " Si les Anglois disent que les payis qui sont entre les rivieres de quinibequi [Kennebec'] et de S'." Croix font partie de la Nouvelle Angleterre. APPENDIX. 261 Jb leues Repons " 1°. Qu'ils scavent bien le Contraire, que Ces payis ont toujours fait partie de la Nouvelle france, que Les francois les ont toujours possedez et habitez, que Mons' De S? Cas- tin gentilhomme francois a toujours eu, et a encore son habitation entre la Riviere de Quinibequi et celle de Pen- tagoet [^Penobscot] (que mgme depuis les usurpations des anglois et leurs etablissements, dans leur Pretendue Nou velle Angleterre) les francois ont toujours pretendu que la Nouvelle france s'etend qusqu'au Cap Cod et qu'il en est fait mention dans toutes les patentes de gouverneurs francois. " 2° Que De L'aveu mSme des Anglois, la Nouvelle An gleterre a une tres petite Etendue du Coste de L'est, il est facile de le prouver par eux mSmes. " J'ay Lu une description de la Nouvelle Angleterre et des autres Colonies Angloises, Composee par un Anglois, traduite en francois, imprimee a Paris en 1674 par Loilis Billaine, voicy les propres termes de Cet autheur Aaiglois, La Nouvelle Angleterre est au Septentrion de Marylande, au raport du Capitaine Smith, elle a prez de 26 Lieues de Coste de mer. " Ainsi selon les Anglois qui sont de Bonne foy, la Nou velle Angleterre, qui n'a que prez de 26 lieues de Coste de mer, ne scauroit s'etendre jusqu'e a La Riviere de Quine- bequi. C'est tout au plus si elle s'etend jusqu'a deux ou trois lieues a l'est De Baston. " II Semble meme que les Anglois ont basti Baston, et en ont fait une ville Considerable a I'extremete de leur pre tendue Nouvelle Angleterre. " 1° Pour §tre a portee et en Etat de s'emparer sur les francois de tout ce qui est a L'est de Baston. 262 APPENDIX. " 2° Pour Stre en Etat d'Empecher les francois de s'eta- blir sur toute Cette Coste jusqu k La Karoline inclusive ment, laquelle Coste etant de Notoriete publique de la Nouvelle france, a ete usurpez sur La france a qui elle appartenoit alors, et luy appartient Encore, ne L'ayant jamais cedee. C'est ce que je vais prouver. " Apres Avoir Invinciblement Convaincu les Anglois que tout ce qui est a L'est de quinibequi a Toujours appartenu et appartient encore a La france, excepts L'Acadie selon ses Ancienes limites, qu'elle a Cedde par force a L'Angleterre par La paix d'utrecht. " II faut Que Presentement je prouve que toute La Coste depuis la Riviere quinibequi jusqu' a La Caroline inclu sivement appartient par toutes sortes de droits a La france. Sur qui les Anglois L'ont usurped, voicy une partie de mes preuves. " Les francois ont decouvert tous ces payis Avant les Anglois, et en ont pris possession avant Eux. Les Roys de france ont nomme ces payis Caroline et Nouvelle france avant que les Anglois leurs eussent donne des Noms d leur mode pour faire oublier les Noms que les francois Leurs avoient imposez. Et que ces payis Appartenoient a La france. " Les Roys de france ont Donn^ des lettres patentes k leurs sujets pour posseder et habiter ces payis, avant que Jacques If et Charles If Roys d' Angleterre en eussent donne a Leurs sujets. " Pour Convaincre les Anglois de ces verities il faut Lire avec attention ce qu'en ont Ecrit Jean verazan, Champlain, Laet, Denis, " Les traitez faits Entre La france et L'Angleterre, et Le memoire que j'ay presente L'annee Dernier 1719. " On y Trouvera tant de Choses, lesquelles il seroit trop long de Copier icy, qui prouvent que ces payis ont toujours APPENDIX. 26B appartenu de droit a La france, et que les Anglois s'en sont emparez par force, que La france ne les a jamais Cedez k l'angleterre par aucun traitd, que je scache. " Et Partant que La france Conserve toujours son droit sur tous ces payis, et qu'elle a droit de les redemander k r Angleterre. Comme elle les redemande presentement, ou Bien un Equivalent. " L'Equivalent que la france demande et dont elle veut bien se Contenter, C'est la restitution de tout ce qu'elle a Ced^e par force k L'Angleterre par Le traite D'utrecht. " II Est De I'honeur et de I'interest de I'angleterre d'ac- corder a la france cette Equivalent. " 1° Parceque n'y ayant point D'honeur k profiter des Malheurs D'un Roy pour Luy faire Ceder par force les payis qui luy appartiennent, il est de I'honeur de L'An gleterre de rendre a la france, ce qu'elle a etd Contrainte de luy ceder, et qu'eUe ne possede qu'a ce mauvais tiltre. " 2° II est aussi Contre la justice et I'honeur de l'angle terre de posseder sans aucun Tiltre, et Contre toute justice les payis qui sont depuis la Riviere de quinibequi jusqu'a la Caroline inclusivement. " 3° II N'est pas moins de I'honeur et de I'interest de I'angleterre de profiter du moyen que la france veut bien luy presenter, pour sassurer a perpetuite toute Cette Coste, et pour la posseder justem? par la Cession que la france en fera, et de tous ses droits sur ces payis moyennant L'Equi valent propose. " 4° Parceque L'Angleterre doit Craindre que la france, dont eUe ne Doit mepriser ni le Ressentiment ni la puis sance, ne trouve une Conjoncture favorable pour faire valoir ses pretensions et ses droits, et pour Rentrer en possession de tout ce que L'Angleterre Luy a usurp^e, et de tout ce qu'elle l'a oblig^ par force de luy Ceder. " 5° Quand on veut trop avoir, souvent on n'a Rien, et 264 APPENDIX. meme on perd ce que L'on Avoit. II est done de la sagessn Et de I'interest de I'Angleterre de ne pas pousser trop loin ses demandes, et de Convenir avec La france de sorte qu'elle puisse posseder Avec justice et tranquillement des payis que la france Aura toujours droit de reprendre jusqu'a ce qu'elle en ait fait une Cession libre et volontaire, et qu'il paroisse que L'Angleterre En faveur de Cette Cession luy ait donn^ un Equivalent. " La france s'offre done pour vivre en paix avec I'Angle terre de luy Ceder tous ses droits sur toute la Coste qui est entre la riviere de quinibequi dans la Nouvelle france jusqu'a la Riviere Jourdain, dans la Caroline, de sorte que ces deux rivieres servent de limites aux francois et aux Anglois. " La france Demande pour Equivalent de la Cession de tant de payis, si grands, si beaux, et si a sa biensceance que I'Angleterre luy rende Et restitue tout ce qu'elle luy a cede par le traits Dutrecht. " Si La france ne pent pas engager L'Angleterre k conve nir de Cet Equivalent, Elle pouroit (mais Ce ne doit gtre qu'a L'extremite) Ceder Encore a I'Angleterre la Caroline francoise, C'est a dire, ce qui est au sud de la Riviere Jour dain, Ou bien Ce qui est Entre la Riviere quinibequi, et Celle de Pentagoet. Ou bien leur offrir une somme D'argent. " II Semble que L'Angleterre doive estimer Comme un grand Avantage pour Elle, que La france veuille bien Con venir de Cet Equivalent, qui Assure Aux Anglois et leur rend legitime La possession de Cette grande etendue de Costes qu'ils ont usurpez sur La france, qui ne les a ja mais Cedez, qui ne les Cedera jamais, et sur lesqu'elles elle Conservera toujours ses legitimes droit et pretensions, jusqu'a ce qu'eUe les ait C^de^s a L'angleterre moyennant un Equivalent raisonnable tel qu'est la Restitution de tout ce que La France luy a Ced^ par force a Utrecht. APPENDIX. 265 Limites. " Supose^ L'acceptation de Cet Equivalent par L'une et I'autre Nation. " La france toujours genereuse Consentira pour vivre en paix avec les Anglois, qu'une ligne tiree depuis I'embou- chure de la Riviere de quinibequi, ou bien, depuis I'em- bouchure de la Riviere de Pentagoet, qui ira tout droit passer a egale distance entre Corlard [^Schenectady] et les lacs de Champlain et du Saint Sacrement, et joindre la ligne par laqu'elle le sieur de L'isle geographe termine les terres Angloises, jusqu'a la Riviere Jourdain, ou bien jusqu'a La Caroline inclusivem^. La france dis-je Consen tira que cette ligne serve De borne et limites aux terres des deux Nations, de sorte que tous les payis et terres qui sont entre Cette ligne et la mer appartiendront a L'Angleterre, et que tout ce qui sera au dela de cette ligne appartiendra a La france. " Dans Le fond il est avantageux a la france de faire incessament regler les limites, tant pour Empecher les An glois d'empieter toujours de plus en plus sous pretexte de limites Non reglees, que parcequ'il est assur^ que si le droit de la france est bien soutenu le reglement lui sera Avanta geux, aussi bien que I'equivalent que j'ay propose. " Mais il pouroit arriver que les Anglois qui ont demand^ le Reglement des limites, voyant qu'il ne doit pas leur etre favorable s'il est fait selon la justice, pourroient bien eux memes I'eloigner, afin de pouvoir toujours empieter sur les francois sous pretexte de limites non reglees, et de se mettre toujours en possession des payis Appartenans a la france. " En ce Cas et aussi au Cas que les Anglois ne veullent pas restituer a la france leur Nouvelle Angleterre et autres payis jusqu'a la Caroline inclusivement qu'ils luy out usur« 266 APPENDIX. pez, ou bien leur rendre L'Acadie &° pour I'equivalent Dont j'ay parle. " 1° II faut que la france mette incessament quantity d'ha bitans dans le payis qui est entre la riviere de quinibequi et Celle de S" Croix, lequel payis qui selon les Anglois N'est point en Litige, ni partie de la pretendue Nouvelle Ecosse, m§me, selon I'etenduii imaginaire que luy d donn^e leur Roy Jacques If qui ne la fait Commancer qu'a La riviere S'° Croix, et Celle de quinibequi N'ayant jamais ete Cede ni par le traite D'utrecht ni par Aucun autre que je scache, et ce payis Ayant toujours appartenu a La france, et ete par elle possedez et habite, Mf de Sf Castin gentilhomme francois ayant son habitation entre la riviere de Pentagoet et Celle de quinibequi comme je l'ay Deja dit. " 2° On peut mSme faire entendre a L'Angleterre que Le Roy donnera Ce payis a la Compagnie des Indes qui scaura bien le deffendre et le faire valoir. " Que Le Roy donnera aussi a la Compagnie des Indes la Caroline francoise, Comme depandance et province de la louisiane, a Condition qu'elle y mettera des habitans, et y fera b§,tir de bons forts, et une bonne CitadeUe pour soutenir et deffendre ce beau payis Contre les Anglois. " II Est Certain que si le Roy fait entendre serieusement qu'il est resolu de donner a la Compagnie des Indes non seulement La Caroline francoise, et le payis qui est entre les Rivieres de quinibequi et de S'* Croix, mais aussi de luy Ceder et abandonner tous ses droits sur tous les payis que les Anglois ont usurpez sur la france. " II Est Certain Dis je, que les Anglois, Crainte D' A voir affaire avec une Compagnie si puissante, se resoudront au Reglement des limites, tel que je l'ay propose, et k rendre a la france toute la Nouvelle Ecosse ou Acadie selon ses Ancienes limites, Enfin tout ce que la france leur k Cedez a Utrecht, moyennant une somme D' Argent, ou bien L'equiva* lent que j'ay Aussi propose. APPENDIX. 267 " Je finis Ce memoire en priant de faire une tres serieuse attention aux Exorbitantes pretensions des Anglois et a tout ce qu'ils ont fait Et font encore pour se rendre maitres de la pesche la Molue, et de L'Amerique francoise. " En Effet il est tres important que quand on traitera du reglement des limites, La france attaque les Anglois au lieu d'etre sur La defensive, C'est a dire, qu'elle doit demander aux Anglois tout ce qu'ils ont usurpez sur Elle, et le de mander vigoureusement. " C'est peut etre le meilleur moyen de les mettre a la Raison, il est m§me apropos qu'elle les presse de finir Cette affaire, Dont sans doute La Conclusion luy sera Avantageuse, si on luy rend justice." II. DEMANDES DE LA PRANCE (1723). Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres. {Literatim.) " Pour tous les Raisons deduites cy devant La france demande a Langleterre. " 1° Qu'Elle laisse jouir Tranquillement la france de Tous les pays qui sont a L'Est de la riviere Quinibequi ou de Celle de S? Georges excepte de la senile ville de Port Royal avec sa banlieiie et de L'accadie selon ses anciennes Limites, C'Est a dire La partie Meridionale de la Peninsule depuis le Cap fourchu jusqua Camseau Exclusivement, Que la france a cedee par la traite d'Utrecht, Tout le reste qui est a L'Est de Quinibequi [Kennebec], appartenant a La France en tout souverainete depuis L'an 1524. Laquelle ne la jamais cede ny par le Traitte d'Utrecht ny par aucun autre traitte. 268 APPENDIX. " 2° Que les Anglois Laissent Vivre Tranquillement sous la domination du Roy les nations Sauvages qui sont dans Les payis a L'Est de Quinibequi et qu'ils Ninquietent point les Missionnaires qui demeureront Ches les d. Nations Ny les frangois qui Iront Ches EUes. " 3° Que Les Anglois restituent a la france ce qu'ils ont occupe a L'Est de Quinibequi et qu'ils ne Trouvent pas mauvais que les frangois prennent detruisent ou gardent les forts Postes et habitations, que les Anglois ont Etablis, ou Etabliront dans tous les Pays a L'Est de Quinibiqui, ou de la Rivierre S' Georges Car quand meme il ne Seroist pas sure que Ces d. Pays appartiennent a La France, U suffit qu'ils sont Conteste pour rendre injuste et Violente L'occu- pation qu'En feroient les Anglois avant que la Contestation fut finie. " 4° Que Les Anglois restituent tout ce qu'ils Occupent dans la Nouvelle france depuis Le 30° degre jusqua Quini bequi ou jusqua La Rivierre S' georges Comme EUe y est obligee par Le traitte de S' germain En Laye En 1632. La france ne luy ayant jamais cede par aucun Traitte aucune partie de toute La NouveUe france, sinon La ViUe de Port Royal avec sa Banlieiie et lacadie selon ses anciennes Limittes. " Si les Anglois disent que la France ne s'est point opposee aux occupations qu'ils ont fait dans la Nouvelle france " Je Leur repons que la france sy est toujours opposee et qu'elle s'Est Toujours Maintenue dans la souverainete de toute la Nouvelle france, soit en donnant tout ses Pays enconcession, soit en y envoyant des gouverneurs generaux, soit en Nommant Vice Roys de la Nouvelle france Les plus grands Seigneurs du Royaume, Tels Ont este M. Le Comte de Soissons, M. Le Prince de Conde, M. de Montmorency, M. Le Due de Vantadour, M. Le Cardinal de Richelieu etc. APPENDIX. 269 qui des les premiers tems ont este successivement Viceroys de la Nouvelle france et Terres Circonvoisines, par la Lec ture de leurs patentes On verra que Nos Roys se sont Tou jours Conserve la Souverainete des pays qui sont Entre le 30' et Le 601 degre, et qu'ils Nont jamais Gonsenty que les Anglois y fissent aucun Etablissement et que sy-ils y en ont fait ga este Malgre la france, que avoit trop d'affaires en Europe pour pouvoir les Empecher, Se reservant Toujours ses droits et la Volonte de les faire Valoir quand Elle en Trouveroit une occasion favorable, ce qui pourroit bien ar river un jour, alors on Verroit que L'on ne s'Erapare pas Impunement et par Violence, des Domaines d'un Roy de france et qu'il est asses puissant pour se remettre en poces- sion Tost ou tard de ce qu'on a Usurps sur luy, C'est a quoy les Anglois deveroient faire attention, et ce qui devroit les obliger de ne pas mepriser Ny maltraitter La France Comme lis font. " La france s'Est encore opposee aux Usurpations des Anglois Les ayant oblige par le traitte de S^ Germain En 1632, de restituer a la france Tout ce qu'ils avoient jus- qual'ors occupe dans la Nouvelle france, Ils Nont pas cepen dant Encore fait cette restitution, Mais on leur demande presentement qu'ils la fassent incessammant N'Etant pas juste qu'ils retiennent plus Longtems ce qui ne leur appar tient pas, et qu'ils ont promis solennellement de restituer a la france. " Mais disent Les Anglois Nous sommes Etablis dans La Nouvelle france depuis la Caroline Inclusivement jusqua Quinibequi depuis 1586, jusqua presant 1723. Nous y avons mis quantitee d'habitans et bastis plusieurs grandes vUles. Navons Nous pas prescrit Contre La france par une sy Longue procession." 270 APPENDIX. Eeponse. " Non paroe que La france sy est Toujours opposee par les Lettres pattentes qu'Elle a donnees aux Concesionnaires Generaux, aux Lieutenants generaux et aux Viceroys de la Nouvelle france. " Non parce que La france obligea en 1632, par Le traitte de Sf Germain, Langleterre de luy restituer tous les lieux occupes dans la Nouvelle france par les Anglois, Et que le traitte de Breda en 1667, celuy de Neutralite en 1686, et celuy d'Utrecht en 1713, ne disent rien d'ou on puisse In- ferer que la france ait cede a Langleterre aucune partie de la Nouvelle france, sinon la province de la Cadie se lon ses anciennes Limittes, et la seule ville de Port Royal avec ses dependances ou Banlieiie. Je dis encore que Cette longue possession des anglois, ces Villes baties et ce grand Nombre d'habitans mis par eux dans ces pays Naneantissent point le droit de la france pour les redemander. . . . " II y avoit Environ 160 ans que les franqois avoient aban- donne les postes qu'ils avoient alors sur la Coste du Bresil les Portuguais sy Etablirent aussitost y Mirent quantite d'habitans et y batirent de grandes Villes. lis ne Croyoient pas cependant que pour cela la france fut dechiie de ses droits de propriete et de souverainete sur ces pays aban- donnes par Elle depuis 160 ans, puisqua Utrecht en 1713 Le Roy de Portugal demanda au Roy qu'il luy abandonnat ses droits sur ces pays, ce qui Le Roy fit en Consideration du Portugal. " Les Anglois possedoient depuis longues annees La Ja- maique yavoient quantite d'habitans, de forts et de riches Villes, persuades cependant que les droits de I'Espagne subsisteroient Tant quelle Ny auroit pas renonce en leur faveur. Ils demanderent a Utrecht Cette renonciation au Roy d'Espagne et il la leur accorda. APPENDIX. 271 " Si les Anglois avoient demande a la france une Cession de tous ces droits sur les pays occupes par Eux dans la Nou velle france II y a apparance que le Roy leur auroit fait cession a des Conditions raisonnables. Ils nont pas deman des cette cession, ou sy ils lont demandee, elle ne leur a pas este accordee les droits de la france subsistent done Tou jours et EUe pretend presentement que les Anglois qui en usent sy mal avec Elle, luy restituent Tout ce quelle a usurpe dans la Nouvelle france depuis le 30f jusquau 50= degre." " Mais disent les Anglois Commant pouvoir restituer un sy vaste pays ou nous avons une Infinite d'habitans et un tres grand nombre de belles et riches villes? Une Telle restitution N'Est pas practicable." Response. " Javoue qu'il est bien difficile de sy resoudre m§me aux personnes qui font profession d'aimer L'Equite et La Justice. " Mais Le Roy aime trop la nation Angloise, a trop de Consideration pour Elle, desire trop luy faire plaisir, et est trop genereux pour exiger d'Elle une Telle restitution Vou- lant luy donner Un Exemple de la moderation dont il sou- haite que Langleterre use a son Egard. " II se desistera Volontiers de tou.^ ces droits et consen tira que Toute la Coste jusqua 20 Lieues dans I'Enfonce- ment des Terres Depuis le 32°. degre jusqua la Rivierre de Quinibequi demeure en toute propriete et souverainete a perpetuite a Langleterre a condition quelle Sobligera par un traitte solennel et decisif de ne jamais passer ces limites. Que la france ne sera jamais Inquiete par Langleterre dans la Jouissance en propriete et souverainete de Ce qui est au 272 APPENDIX. dela de ces 20 lieues dans lenfoncement des terres et de Tous les pays qui sont a L'Est de la rivierre de Quinibequi, qui de Ce Coste la servira de Limites aux deux Nations, et que Langleterre rendra a la france Le port Royal et la Cadie avec leurs dependances, Enfin Tout ce que la france luy a Cede par le traite d'Utrecht sans en rien Excepter. " Cet offre du Roy doit estre agreable a Langleterre et luy faire plaisir, parceque sy elle I'accepte elle possedera a juste Titre cette grande partie de la Nouvelle france, qu'Elle possedera Toujours injustement sy Elle Naccepte pas un offre sy raisonnable que Luy fait Le Roy qui sans cette acceptation Ne renoncera jamais a ses droits de sou verainete sur une sy grande et sy belle partie de la Nou velle France, droits que les anglois doivent Craindre qu'il Ne fasse Valoir Tost ou tard. Car si puissante que soit Langleterre, Ils ne doivent pas croire que la france ne luy cede rien en puissance ny en quoy que ce soit, et qu'on ne la meprise et maltraitte pas Impunement. " Sy Les Anglois ont quelques autres titres et quelques autres raysons a alleguer en leur faveur, sy on me veut faire L'honneur de me les Communiquer, Je mofi"re d'y repondre d'une maniere a les obliger d' avouer qu'ils ont tort, sils sont de bonne foy et si ils aiment La justice et la paix. Addition. " On vient de me faire voire une carte de la nouvelle france presents au Roy par les Anglois sur la quelle est trace par une ligne tout ce qu'ils pretendent en vertu du traitte d'Utrecht. " lis y etendent sy loin leurs pretentions dans Les terres, qu'il y a tout lieu de Croire que cette Ligne na pas ete tracee, Ny Cette carte presentee par ordre et au scCi du Sage et judicieux ministre dangleterre, mais par quelqu'Un APPENDIX. 273 que donne a penser qu'il veut brotliller L'angleterre avec La france. " Ce qui donne encore plus de lieu a avoir de luy cette pensee C'est que le traitte d'Utrecht ayant determine les Limites des deux Nations pour la pesche, par desairs de vent, quoyque par toutes les nations les airs de vent se tracent en Ligne droite, il les a trace en Ceintre a L'Est de Lisle de Sable, en quoy il semble avoir Intention de se mocquer de la france et de L'lrriter. " La prise d'un vaisseau francois dans Le passage de Camceau, La Construction d'un fort a Canceau, Le nom d'albanie donne a la partye de la Nouvelle France qui est entre quinibequi et la ville de Port Royal pays qui n'a point este Cede par le traitte d'Utrecht, Les forts Construits, et Les Concessions donnees, Les Nations sauvages, et Les missionnaires maltraites dans ce pays appartenant a la france, ou du moins pretendu et Conteste par Elle. " Tout cela pourroit bien Venir de quelque Anglois qui voudroit broiiiUer les deux Nations. C'est aux Anglois pacifiques a le punir et a la france a sopposer a de telles entreprises jusqu ce que les Limites soient reglees d'Une Maniere Equitable. " Collationne et figure sur une Copie de Memoire ou notte en papier non Signee ni dattee estant au Secretariat du Chateau S' Louis de Quebec ou elle est restee Par Le Notaire Royal en la prevoste de Quebec y resident sous- signe ce jourdhuy Vingt cinq Juillet mil sept cent cinquante. Du Laukent. "Fran9ois Bigot, Conseiller du Roy en ses Conseils, Intendant de justice, Police, finances et de la marine en la Nouvelle france. " Certifions a tousqu'U appartiendra que M' Dulaurent qui a signe la Collation de L'autre part Est notaire Royal en la prevoste de Quebec Et que foy doit Estre ajoutee VOL. II. — 18 274 APPENDIX. a sa signature En la d' qualite; En temoin de quoy nous avons signee et fait Contresigner ces presentes par nStre secretaire et a Icelles fait apposer le Cachet de nos armes, fait en notre hotel a Quebec Le p" Aoust, mil sept cent Cinquante. Bigot Par monseigneur Cachet) Deschenaux." Endorsed. " Envoy^ par M? Bigot Intend', du Canada avec sa lettre au M'.» de Puyzieulx du IV. aoust 1750. No 26, 1723." B. CHAPTERS XIX., XX., XXI. THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOURG AS DESCRIBED BY FRENCH WITNESSES. Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg contenant une Rela tion exacte et circonstanciee de la Prise de I'Isle Royale par les Anglois. A Quebec, chez Guillaume le Sincere, a I'Image de la Verite. MDCCXLV. \JExtraits.] [Literatim^ " . . . Le mauvais succfes dont cette entreprise {against Annapolis) a ete suivie, est envisage, avec raison, comme la cause de notre perte. Les Anglois ne nous auroient peut-gtre point inquietes, si nous n'eussions ete les premi ers a les insulter. Notre qualite d'aggresseurs nous a ete funeste ; je I'ai oiii center k plus d'un ennemi, & je n'y vois que trop d'apparence. Les habitans de la nouvelle Angle terre etoient interresses k vivre en paix avec nous. lis APPENDIX. 275 I'eussent sans doute fait, si nous ne nous etions point avises mal k propos de les tirer de cette securite ou ils etoient k notre egard. lis comptoient que de part & d'autre, on ne piendroit aucun parti dans cette cruelle guerre qui a mis I'Europe en feu, et que nous nous tiendrions comme eux sur la seule defensive. La prudence le dictoit; mais elle n'est pas toujours la regie des actions des hommes: nous I'avons plus eprouve que qui que ce soit. . . . "... L'expedition de I'Acadie manquee, quoiqu'il y eut tout a parier qu'il reuissiroit par le peu de forces que les ennemis avoient pour nous resister, leur fit faire de serieuses reflexions sur notre crainte, ou notre faiblesse. Selon tous les apparences, ils en conclurent qu'ils devoient profiter d'une aussi favorable circonstance, puisque dfes-lors ils tra- vaillerent avec ardeur a I'armement qui leur etait neces- saire. lis ne firent pas comme nous: ils se pr§terent un secours mutuel: on arma dans tous leurs Ports, depuis I'Acadie jusqu'au bas de la Cote : on depgcha en Angleterre, & on envoya, dit on, jusqu'a la Jama'ique afin d'en tirer tous les secours qu'il seroit possible. Cette entreprise fut concertee avec prudence, et l'on travailla tout I'hiver pour §tre pr§t au premier beau tems. " Les preparatifs n'en pouvaient @tre si secrets, qu'il n'en transpirSt quelque chose. Nous en avions ete informes d^s les premiers instans, & assez a tems pour en pouvoir donner avis a la Cour. . , . " Nous eumes tout I'hiver a nous, c'etait plus qu'il n'en falloit pour nous mettre en etat de defense ; mais la terreur s'etoit emparee des esprits : on tenait des conseils, dont le resultat n'avoit rien que de bizarre et de puerile ; cependant le tems s'ecoulait, nous perdions de precieux momens en de liberations inutiles, & en resolutions presque aussit6t de- truites que prises. Quelques ouvrages demandoient qu'on les parachev§,t: il en falloit renforcer quelques-uns, aug- 276 APPENDIX. menter quelques autres, pourvoir a des postes, visiter touj ceux de I'Isle, voir oil la descente etoit plus facile, faire le denombrement des personnes en etat de porter les armes, assigner k chacun son poste ; enfin se donner tous les soins et les mouvemens ordinaires en pareil cas ; rien de tout cela ne se faisoit ; de sorte que nous avons ete surpris, comme si l'ennemi fut venu fondre sur nous a I'improviste. Nous aurions eu m§me assez de tems pour nous precautionner mieux qu'on ne l'a fait, depuis le jour ou nous vimes pa- roitre les premiers Na vires qui nous ont bloques; car ils n'y sont venues que les uns aprfes les autres, ainsi que je le dirai dans la suite. La negligence & la deraison avoient conjure la perte de notre malheureuse Isle. . . . " Ce fut le quatorze [Mars], que nous vimes les premiers Navires ennemis; ils n'etoient encore que deux, & nous les primes d'abord pour des Vaisseaux Fran5ois; mais nous fumes bien t5t detrompes par leur mancBUvre. Le nombre en augmentoit de jour a autre, il en arriva jusqu'4 la fin de Mai. lis croiserent long-tems, sans rien tenter. Le rendez vous general etoit devant notre Isle, oil Us arrivoient de tous cotez ; car on avoit arme a I'Acadie, Plaisance, Baston, & dans toute I'Amerique Anglaise. Les secours d'Europe ne vinrent qu'en Juin. Cetoit moins ujie entreprise formee par la Nation ou par le Roi, que par les seuls habitans de la nouvelle Angleterre. Ces peuples singuliers ont des Lois & une Police qui leur sont particuliferes, & leur Gou vemeur tranche du Souverain. Cela est si vrai, que, quoi qu'il y eut guerre dedaree entre les deux Couronnes, il nous la dedara lui de son chef & en son nom, comme s'il avoit fallu qu'il eut autorise son maitre. Sa declaration portoit, qu'il nous dedaroit la guerre pour lui, & pour tous ses amis & allies; il entendoit parier apparemment des Sauvages qui leur sont soumis, qu'on appelle Indiens, & que l'on distingue des Sauvages qui obeissent a la France. APPENDIX. 277 On verra que I'Amiral Warren n'avoit rien a commander aux troupes envoyees par le Gouvemeur de Baston, & que cet Amiral n'a ete que Spectateur, quoique ce soit k lui que nous nous soyons rendus. II nous en avoit fait soUiciter. Ce qui marque bien I'independance qu'il y avoit entre I'ar- mee de terre & celle de mer que l'on nous a toujours dis- tinguees comme si elles eussent ete de difierentes Nations. Quelle Monarchic s'est jamais gouvernee de la sorte ? " La plus grande partie des B§,timens de transport etant arrives dans le commencement de Mai, nous les apperfumes le onze en ordre de bataille, au nombre de quatre-vingt seize venant du c5te de Canceaux & dirigeant leur route vers la Pointe plate de la Baye de Gabarus. Nous ne doutames plus qu'ils n'y fissent leur descente. C'est alors qu'on vit la necessite des precautions que nous aurions du prendre. On y envoya a la hSte un detachement de cent hommes, tires de la garnison & des Milices, sous le commandement du sieur Morpain, Capitaine de Port. Mais que pouvait un aussi faible corps, contre la multitude que les ennemis debarquoient ! Cela n'aboutit qu'a faire tuer une partie des n5tres. Le sieur Morpain trouva deja pres de deux miUes hommes debarques ; il en tua quelques-uns & se retira. " L'Ennemi s'empare de toute la campagne, & un detache ment s'avance jusques aupr^s de la batterie Royale. Pour le coup, la frayeur nous saisit tous; on park des I'instant d'abandonner cette magnifique batterie, qui auroit ete notre plus grande defense, si l'on eut s^u en faire usage. On tint tumultuairement divers Conseils la-dessus. II seroit bien difficile de dire les raisons qui portoient a un aussi etrange procede; si ce n'est une terreur panique, que ne nous a plus quitte de tout le Siege. II n'y avoit pas eu encore un seul coup de fusil tire sur cette batterie, que les en nemis ne pouvoient prendre qu'en faisant leurs approches comme pour la Ville, & I'assiegeant, pour ainsi dire, dans 278 APPENDIX. les regies. On en a dit sourdement une raison sur laquelle je ne suis point en etat de decider ; je I'ai pourtant entendu assurer par une personne qui etait dans la batterie; mais mon poste etant en Ville, il y avoit long-tems que je n'etois alie a la batterie Royale : C'est que ce qui determina k un abandon si criminel, est qu'U y avoit deux brgches qui n'avoient point ete reparees. Si cela est, le crime est encore plus grand, parce que nous avions eu plus de loisir qu'il n'en falloit, pour mettre ordre a tout. " Quoiqu'il en soit, la resolution fut prise de renoncer a ce puissant boulevard, malgre les representations de quelques gens sages, qui gemissoient de voir commettre une si lourde faute. lis ne purent se faire ecouter. Inutilement remon- trferent-ils que ce seroit temoigner notre foiblesse aux enne mis, qui ne manqueroient point de profiter d'une aussi grande etourderie, & qui tourneroient cette m§me batterie contre nous; que pour faire bonne contenance & ne point rechauffer le courage a l'ennemi, en lui donnant d^s le pre mier jour, une si grande esperance de reussir, il falloit se maintenir dans ce poste important le plus que l'on pourroit : qu'il etoit evident qu'on s'y conserveroit plus de quinze jours, & que ce delai pouvoit §tre employe a retirer tous les canons dans la Ville. On repondit que le Conseil I'avoit resolu autrement ; ainsi done par ordre du Conseil, on aban- donna le 13 sans avoir essuye le moindre feu, une batterie de trente pieces de canon, qui avoit coate au Roi des sommes immenses. Cet abandon se fit avec tant de precipitation, qu'on ne se donna pas le temps d'encloiier les canons de la maniere que cela se pratique; aussi les ennemis s'en ser- virent-ils des le lendemain. Cependant on se flatoit du con traire; je fus sur le point de gager qu'ils ne tarderoient guferes i, nous en battre. On etoit si peu a soi, qu'avant de se retirer de la batterie, le feu prit a un baril de poudre, qui pensa faire sauter plusieurs personnes, & brula la robe APPENDIX. 279 d'un Religieux Recolet. Ce n'etoit pas de ce moment que I'imprudence caracterisoit nos actions, il y avoit long-tems qu'elle s'etoit refugiee parmi nous. " Ce que j'avois prevu arriva. Des le quatorze les enne mis nous saluerent avec nos propres Canons, dont ils firent un feu epouvantable. Nous leur repondimes de dessus les murs; mais nous ne pouvions leur rendre le mal qu'ils nous faisoient, rasant nos maisons, & foudroyant tout ce qui etoit k leur portee. " Tandis que les Anglois nous chaufibient de la batterie Royale, ils etablissoient une Plate-forme de Mortiers sur la hauteur de Rabasse proche le Barachois du c6te de I'Ouest, qui tirerent le seize jour ou a commence le bombardement. lis avoient des Mortiers dans toutes les batteries qu'ils eieverent. Les bombes nous ont beaucoup incommode. . . . " Les ennemis paroissoient avoir envie de pousser vigou reusement le Sifege. lis etablirent une batterie aupr^s de la Plaine de Brissonnet, qui commenga a tirer le dix-sept, & travaillerent encore a une autre, pour battre directement la Porte Dauphine, entre les maisons du nomme la Roche & Lescenne, Canonier. lis ne s'en tinrent point k ces bat teries, quoiqu' elles nous battissent en br§che ; mais ils en dresserent de nouveUes pour soutenir les premieres. La Plaine marecageuse du bord de la Mer a la Pointe blanche, les incommodoit fort, & emp§choit qu'ils ne poussassent leurs travaux comme ils I'auroient souhaite: pour y reme- dier, ils pratiquerent divers boyaux, afin de couper cette Plaine; etant venus a bout de la dessecher, ils y firent deux batteries qui ne tirerent que quelques jours apres, II y en avoit une au dessus de I'habitation de Martissance, composee de sept pifeces de canon, prises en partie de la Batterie Royale & de la Pointe plate ou s'etait fait le debarquement. On la destinoit k miner le Bastion Dau phin ; ces deux demi^res batteries ont presque rase la Porte Dauphine. 280 APPENDIX. " Le dix-huit nous vimes paroitre un Navire, avec PaviUon Frangais, qui cherchoit a donner dans le Port. II fut re- connu pour §tre effectivement de notre Nation, & afin de favoriser son entree, nous fimes un feu continuel sur la Bat terie Royale. Les Ajiglais ne pouvant resister a la vivacite de notre feu, qui ne discontinuoit point, ne purent emplcher ce Navire d'entrer, qu'il leur eut ete facile sans cela de couler a fond. Ce petit refraichissement nous fit plaisir ; c'etoit un Navire Basque : il nous en etoit venu un autre dans le courant d'Avril. " Nous n'eumes pas le m§me bonheur pour un Navire de Granville, qui se presenta aussi pour entrer, quelques jours apres; mais qui ayant ete poursuivi, fut contraient de s'echouer, & se battit long-tems. Celui qui le commandoit, nomme Daguenet, etoit un brave homme, lequel ne se rendit qu'k la dernifere extrgmite, & apres avoir ete accabie par le nombre. II avoit transporte tous les Canons d'un mgme c6te, & en fit un feu si terrible, que les ennemis n'eurent pas bon marche de lui. II fallut armer presque toutes leurs Chaloupes pour le prendre. Nous avons S5U de ce Capitaine, qu'il avoit rencontre le Vigilant, & que c'etoit de ce malheureux Vaisseau, qu'il avoit apris que l'isle Royale etoit bloquee. Cette circonstance importe au recit que je vais faire. " Vous gtes persuades, en France, que la prise de ce Vaisseau de guerre a occasionne la notre, cela est vraie en quelque sorte, mais nous eussions pu nous soutenir sans lui si nous n'avions pas entasse fautes sur fautes, ainsi que vous avez du vous en apergevoir jusqu'k present. II est vrai que, graces a nos imprudences, lors que ce puissant secours nous arrivoit, nous commencions k §tre sans esperance. S'il fut entre, comme il le pouvoit, nous serious encore dans nos biens, & les Anglais eussent ete forces de se retirer. " Le Vigilant parut le vingt-huit ou le vingt-neuf de APPENDIX. 281 Mai, k environ une lieue et demie de distance de Santarge [sic]. Le vent etait pour lors Nord-Est, & par consequent bon pour entrer. II laissoit la Flotte Anglaise k deux lieues & demi sous le vent. Rien ne pouvoit done I'empScher d'entrer ; & c'est par la plus grande de toutes les f atalites qu'il est devenu la proye de nos Vainqueurs. Temoins de sa manoeuvre, il n'etoit personne de nous qui ne donn§,t des maledictions a une manoeuvre si mal concertee & si imyjrudente. " Le Vaisseau, commands par M. de la Maisonfort, au lieu de suivre sa route, ou d'envoyer sa chaloupe k terre pour prendre langue, ainsi que le requeroit la prudence, s'amusa k poursuivre un Corsaire monte en Senault qu'il rencontra malheureusement sous la terre. Ce Corsaire, que commandoit un nomme Brousse (Rous) manoeuvre d'une autre maniere que le Vaisseau Franfais. II se battit toujours en retraite, forgant de voiles et afctirant son en nemi vers I'Escadre Angloise; ce qui lui reussit; car le Vigilant se trouva tellement engage, qu'il ne lui fut plus possible de se sauver, quand on eut vu le danger. Deux Fregates I'attaquerent d'abord; M. de la Maisonfort leur repondit par un feu tres vif, qui en mit bien-t6t une hors de combat; eUe fut demS,tee de son grand mat, desemparee de toutes les manoeuvres, et contrainte de se retirer. Mais il vint cinq autres Fregates qui chaufferent le Vigilant de toutes parts; le combat que nous voyons k decouvert, dura depuis cinq heures du soir jusqu' k, dix. Enfin il fallut ceder k la force, & se rendre. Les ennemis ont beaucoup perdu dans ce combat, «& le commandant Frangais eut quatre-vingts hommes tues ou blesses; le Vaisseau n'a ete que fort peu endommage. " On doit dire, k la gloire de M. de la Maisonfort, qu'il a fait preuve d'une extreme valeur dans ce combat; mais il auroit mieux valu qu'il eut- suivi sa destination ; c'fetoit 282 APPENDIX. tout ce que les intergts du Roi exigeoient. Le Ministre ne I'envoyoit pas pour donner la chasse k aucun Vaisseau en nemi; charge de munitions de guerre & de bouche, son Vaisseau etoit uniquement destine k ravitailler notre mal heureuse Place, qui n'auroit jamais ete en efi'et emportee, si nous eussions pii recevoir un si grand secours; mais nous etions des victimes devouees k la colere du Ciel, qui a voulu faire servir contre nous jusqu'k nos propres forces. Nous avons sgu des Anglais, depuis notre reddition, qu'ils commengoient k manquer de munitions de guerre, & que la poudre etoit encore plus rare dans leur armee que parmi nous. lis avoient mSme tenu quelques Conseils pour lever le Siege. La poudre trouvee dans le Vigilant fit bient6t evanouir cette idee; nous nous appergumes que leur feu avoit depuis beaucoup augmente. " Je sgai que le Commandant de cet infortune Vaisseau dira, pour se justifier, qu'il etoit important pour lui d'en- lever le Corsaire, afin de se regler sur les nouvelles qu'il en auroit appris. Mais cela ne I'excuse point; il sgavoit que Louisbourg etoit bloque, e'en etoit assez; qu'avoit-il besoin d'en sgavoir davantage? S'il craignoit que les Anglais n'eussent ete maitres de la Place, il etoit aise de s'en instruire, en envoyant son canot ou sa chaloupe, & sacrifiant quelques hommes pour sa surete; la batterie Royale ne devoit point I'inquieter, nous en aurions agi comme avec le Navire Basque, dont nous facilitames I'entree par un feu excessif. La perte d'un secours si considerable ralentit le courage de ceux qui avoient le plus conserve de fermete; il n'etoit pas difficile de juger que nous serious contraints d'implorer la ciemence des Anglais, & plusieurs personnes furent d'avis qu'il falloit d6s-lors de mander k capituler. Nous avons cependant tenu un inois au-delJi; c'est plus qu'on n'auroit pu exiger dans I'abbate' ment oil venoit de nous jetter un si triste spectacle. APPENDIX. 283 " L'Ennemi s'occupa k nous canoner & k nous bombarder toute le reste du mois, sans faire des progr^s bien sensibles, & qui lui pussent donner de I'espoir. Comme il ne nous attaquoit point dans les formes; qu'il n'avoit pratique aucuns retranchemens pour se couvrir, il n'osoit s'aprocher de trop pr^s; tous nos coups portoient; au lieu que la plupart des siens etoient perdus: aussi ne tirons-nous que lorsque nous le jugions necessaire. II tiroit, lui, plus de cinq k six cens coups de canon par jour, contre nous vingt; k la verite, le peu de poudre que nous avions, obligeoit k n'en user que sobrement. La mousqueterie etoit peu d'usage. " J'ai oublie de dire que, d^s les premiers jours du siege, les ennemis nous avoient fait sommer de nous rendre ; mais nous repondimes selon ce que le devoir nous prescrivoit; I'Officier, depute pour nous en faire la proposition, voyant que nous rejettions ses offres, proposa de faire sortir les Dames, avec assurance qu'elles ne seroient point insultees, et qu'on les feroit garder dans les maisons qui subsistoient encore en petit nombre; car l'ennemi, en debarquant, avoit presque tout brflie ou detruit dans la campagne. Nous re- mergi&mes cet officier, parceque nos femmes & nos enfans etoient surement dans les logemens que nous leur avions faits. On avoit mis sur les casemates de longues pieces de bois, placees en biais, qui, en amortissant le coup de la bombe, la rejettent, & empgchent I'effet de son poids. C'est la dessous que nous les avions enterres. " Au commencement de Juin les Assiegeans parurent re prendre une nouvelle vigueur; n'etant pas contens du peu de succ^s qu'ils avoient eu jusques-la, ils s'attacherent k d'autres entreprises, & voulurent essayer de nous attaquer par le cote de la mer. Pour reussir, ils tenterent de nous surprendre la batterie de I'entree : un Detachement d'envi- Ton cinq cens hommes s'y etant transporte pendant la nuit 284 APPENDIX. du six au sept, fut tailie en pieces par le sieur Daillebout, Capitaine de Compagnie, qui y commandoit, & qui tira sur eux k mitraille ; plus de trois cens resterent sur la place, & il n'y eut de sauves que ceux qui demandoient quartier, les blesses furent transferes dans nos hSpitaux. Nous fimes en cette occasion cent dix-neuf prisonniers, & n'efimes que trois hommes de tues ou blesses; mais nous perdimes un Canonier, qui fut fort regrette. . . . " Pour sur croit d'infortune, il arrive aux Anglois le 15 une Escadre de six Vaisseaux de guerre, venant de Londres. Ces Vaisseaux croiserent devant la VUle, avec les Fregattes sans tirer un seul coup. Mais nous avons sgu depuis que, si nous eussions tarder k capituler, tous les Vaisseaux se se roient embosses, et nous auroient fait essuyer le feu le plus vif. Leurs dispositions n'ont point ete ignoree, je rappor- terai I'ordre qu'ils devoient tenir. " Les ennemis ne s'etoient encore point avises de tirer k boulets rouges; ils le firent le dix-huit & le dix-neuf, avec un succes qui auroit ete plus grand, sans le prompt secours qui y fut apporte. Le feu prit k trois ou quatre maisons, mais on I'eut bient6t eteint. La promptitude en ces sortes d'occasions, est la seul ressource que l'on puisse avoir. " L'Arrivee de I'Escadre etoit, sans doute, I'objet de ce nouveau salut de la part de I' Armee de terre ; son General qui vouloit avoir l'honneur de notre conqugte, etant bien aise de nous forcer k nous soumettre avant que I'Escadre se fut mise en devoir de nous y contraindre. " L'Amiral de son c6te songeoit k se procurer l'honneur de nous reduire'. Un Officier vint pour cet effet, le vingt-un, nous proposer de sa part, que si nous avions a nous rendre, il seroit plus convenable de le faire k lui, qui auroit des egards que nous ne trouverions peut §tre pas dans le Commandant de terre. Tout cela marquoit peu d'intelligence entre les deux Generaux, & verifie asses la remarque que j'ai ci-devant APPENDIX. 285 faite : on n'eut jamais dit en efi'et que ces troupes fussent de la meme Nation & sous I'obeissance du mgme Prince. Les -Anglais sont les seuls peuples capables de ces bizarreries, qui font cependant partie de cette precieuse liberte dont ils se montrent si jaloux. " Nous repondimes k I'Officier, par qui I'Amiral Warren nous avoit fait donner cet avis, que nous n'avions point de reponse a lui faire, & que quand nous en serious a cette ex- tremite, nous verrions le parti qu'il conviendroit d'embras- ser. Cette fanfaronade eut fait rire quiconque auroit ete temoin de notre embarras en particulier; U ne pouvoit gtre plus grand: cet Officier dut s'en appergevoir, malgre la bonne contenance que nous affections. II est difficile que le visage ne deceie les mouvements du coeur. Les Conseils etoient plus f requens que jamais, mais non plus salutaires ; on s'assembloit sans trop sqavoir pourquoi, aussi ne sqavoit- on que resoudre. J'ai souvent ri de ces assembiees, ou il ne se passoit rien que de ridicule, & qui n'annongat le trouble & I'indecision. Le soin de notre defense n'etoit plus ce qui occupoit. Si les -Anglois eussent sgu profiter de notre epouvante il y auroit eu longtems qu'ils nous auroient em- portes, I'epee en main. Mais il faut convenir a leur louange, qu'ils avoient autant de peur que nous. Cela m'a plusieurs fois rappelie la fable du Lievre & des Grenouilles. " Le but de nos frequens Conseils etoit de dresser des articles de capitulation. On y employa jusqu'au vingt sept, que le sieur Lopinot, Officier, sortit pour les porter au Com mandant de terre. L'on se flatoit de les lui faire mieux gou- ter qu'k I'Amiral. Mais ils etoient si extraordinaires, que malgre I'envie que ce General avoit de nous voir rendre a lui, il se donna a peine la patience de les ecouter. Je me souviens que nous demandions par un article, cinq pieces de canon, & deux mortiers de fonte. De pareilles propositions ne quadroient gueres avec notre situation. 286 APPENDIX. " Afin de reussir d'un c6te ou d'autre, on envoya proposer les mgmes conditions k I'Amiral. Cette negociation avoit ete confiee au sieur Bonaventure, Capitaine de Compagnie, qui s'intrigua beaucoup aupres de M. Warren, & qui, quoique la plupart de nos articles fussent rejettez, en obtint pour tant d'asses honorables. On arrgta done la Capitulation telle que les nouvelles publiques l'ont raportee. Elle nous fut annoncee par deux coups de canon tires a bord de I'Ami ral, ainsi qu'on en avoit donne I'ordre au Sieur Bonaventure. A cette nouvelle, nous reprimes un peu de tranquillite; car nous avions sujet d'apprehender le sort le plus triste. Nous craignons a tout moment, que les ennemis, sortant de leur aveuglement, ne se prdsentassent pour nous enlever d'assaut. Tout les y convioit; il y avoit deux breches de la longueur d'environ cinquante pieds chacune, l'une a la porte Dau phine, & l'autre a I'Eperon, qui est vis-k-vis. lis nous ont dit depuis que la resolution en avoit ete prise, & I'execution renvoyee au lendemain. Les Navires devoient les favoriser, & s'embosser de la maniere suivante. " Quatre Vaisseaux & quatre Fregattes etoient destines pour le bastion Dauphin : un egal nombre de Vaisseaux & de Fregattes, parmi lesquels etoit le Vigilant, devoit at taquer la piece de la Grave: & trois autres Vaisseaux & autant de Fregattes avoient ordre de s'attacher k I'Isle de I'entree. Nous n'eussions jamais pfi repondre au feu de tous ces Vaisseaux & defendre en mgme tems nos brgches; de fa9on qu'il auroit fallu succomber, quelques efforts que nous eussions pu. faire, & nous voir reduits k recourir a la ciemence d'un vainqueur, de la generosite duquel il y avoit a se defier. L'Armee de terre n'etoit composee que de gens ramasses, sans subordination ni discipline, qui nous auroit fait eprouver tout ce que I'insolence & la rage ont de plus furieux. La capitulation n'a point empSche qu'ils ne nous ayent bien fait du mal. APPENDIX. 287 " C'est done par une protection visible de la Providence, que nous avons prevenu une joumee qui nous auroit ete si funeste. Ce qui nous y a le plus determine, est le peu de poudre qui nous restoit : je puis assurer que nous n'en avi ons pas pour faire trois decharges. C'est ici le point cri tique & sur lequel on cherche le plus k en imposer au public mal instruit : on voudroit lui persuader qu'il nous en restoi ', encore vingt milliers. Faussete insigne! Je n'ai aucuno inter§t a deguiser la verite; on doit d'autant plus m'en croire, que je ne pretends pas par-la justifier entierement nos Officiers. S'ils n'ont pas capituie trop t5t ils avoient commis assez d'autres fautes, pour ne les pas laver du bl§,me qu'ils ont encouru. II est constant que nous n'avions plus que trent-sept barils de poudre, k cent livres chacun ; voUa ce qui est veritable, & non pas tout ce qu'on raconte de contraire. Nous n'en trouvions mgme d'abord que trente- cinq; mais les recherches qu'on fit nous en procurerent deux autres, caches apparemment par les Canoniers, qu'on sgait gtre partout accoutumes a ce larcin." n. "Lettre de Monsieur Du Chambon au Ministre, A Rochefort, le 2 Septembre, 1745. " Archives de la Marine. " Monseigneur, " J'ai l'honneur de vous rendre compte de I'attaque et red dition de Louisbourg, ainsy que vous me I'avez ordonne par votre lettre du 20 de ce mois. " Nous eumes connaissance d'un battiment le quatorze mars dernier parmy les glaces qui etaient detachees du golfe; ce battiment parut ^ 3 ou 4 lieues devant le port 288 APPENDIX. et drivait vers la partie du sud-ouest, et il nous disparut I'apr^s-midi. " Le 19 du d. nous vimes encore en dehors les glaces un senaux qui couroit le long de la banquise qui etait etendue depuis Escartary jusques au St Esprit, plusieurs chasseurs et soldats, hivernant dans le bois, m'informferent qu'ils avaient vu, les uns deux battiments qui avoient vire de bord a Menadou, et d'autres qu'ils avoient entendu du canon du c6te du St Esprit, ce qui fit que j'ordoimai aux habitans des ports de l'isle, qui etaient a portee de la viUe, de se renger aux signaux qui leur seroient faits. " Je fis en outre rassembler les habitans de la ville et port de Louisbourg, je formal de ceux de la ville quatre compagnies, et je donnai ordre a ceux du port de se renger a la batterie Royale, et k celle de I'isle de I'entree, au signaux que je leur fit donner. " Le 9 avril nous aperQumes a I'edaircy de la brume, et parmi les glaces vers la Pointe Blanche, quatre battimens, le premier ayant tire quelques coups de canon, I'islot lui repondit d'un coup, et le battiment l'ayant rendu sur le champ, cela nous confirma dans I'idee que c'etoient des Frangois qui cherchoient a forcer les glaces pour entrer dans le port. D'ailleurs ils profitoient des edaircis pour s'y en- fourner vers le port, et cela nous assuroit pour ainsi dire, que ce n'etoit pas des corsaires, mais bien des Frangois. " Etant dans le doute si c'etoit des basttiments Frangois ou Anglois, j'envoyai ordre a Monsieur Benoit, officier com mandant au port Toulouse, de dettacher quelqu'un de confi ance a Canceau, pour apprendre s'il y avoit des basttiments, et si on y travailloit, ou s'il y avoit apparance de quelque entreprise sur I'isle Royale. " Monsieur Benoit dettacha le nomme Jacob Coste, habi tant, avec un soldat de la garnison et un Sauvage, pour faire quelques prisonniers au dit lieu. Ces trois envoyes mirent APPENDIX. 289 pied k terre a la Grande Terre du coste de Canceau; ik eurent le bonheur de faire quatre prisonniers anglois; et revenant avec eux, les prisonniers se rendirent maitres de nos trois Frangois, un soir qu'ils etaient endormis, et nous n'avons pu apprendre aucune nouveUe ni des envoyes ni de I'ennemy, " Je fus informe, le 22, par deux hommes, venus par terre du port de Toulouse, qu'on entendait tirer du canon a Canceau, et qu'ils travailloient au retablissement de cette isle, et un troisifeme arrive le soir, m'assura avoir ete temoin d'un grand combat sur le navire St-JSsprit, qu'U avoit vu venir du large trois vaisseaux sur quatre qui etoient pour lors a cette coste, et que le feu ayant commence apres la Jonction de ces bastimens, il avoit dure bien avant dans la nuit, ce qui nous engageoit k nous flatter que nous avions des vaisseaux sur la coste. " Le 30 du d. nous vimes sept vaisseaux parmy les glaces, dont il y avoit quatre vaisseaux, deux corvettes et un bri- gantin, et Us se sont tenus ce jour vers les isles a Dion, sans pavilion, ni flamme. " Ces battiments continuferent a se faire voir pendant quelques jours, depuis la Pointe Blanche jusques a Port de Noue, sous pavUlon blanc, et les glaces s'etant ecartees de la coste, nous appergumes, le 7 mai, un navire qui faisait route pour le port ; il y entra heureusement ; ce navire ve noit de St Jean de Luz, .commande par le Sieur Janson Dufoure; U nous apprit qu'il avoit ete poursuivi la veille par trois vaisseaux, qu'une fregatte de 24 canons I'avoit joint, et qu'il s'estoit sauve, aprfes un combat de trois voiees de canon et de mousquetterie. "Le 8 ^ la pointe du jour, nous eumes connaissance de tous les vaisseaux au vent du port dans la partie du sud- ouest, ce qui nous occasionna une alerte, les signaux ayant ete faits, les habitans de Lorembec et de la Baleine, qui TOL. II. — 19 290 APPENDIX. etoient les plus proohes de la viUe, s'y rangerent aux postes qui leur etoient destines, ainsi que les habitans de la ville et du port, le m§me jour ces vaisseaux prirent a notre vue deux caboteurs frettes par le Roy et qui venoient du port de Toulouse charges de bois de corde pour le chauffage des troupes et des corps de garde, ils prirent aussy une chaloupe qui venoit des Isles Madame chargee de gibier. " Comme nous doutions toujours si ces vaisseaux etoient anglois ou frangois jusqu'a ce jour, les glaces emplchant I'entree du port depuis qu'ils avoient paru ensemble, j'avois eu la precaution d'arr§ter, conjointement avec monsieur Bi got, deux battiments pour les faire partir en cas de neces site pour la France, pour porter les nouvelles a Sa Grandeur de la situation ou se trouvoit la colonie, et sitot que nous fumes confirmes par le prise de ces caboteurs que c'etoit des vaisseaux anglois et qu'U y en avoit d'autres a Canceau, au rapport des equipages qui s'etoient sauves, nous fimes par tir a la faveur de la brume et de la nuit obscure du 10 mai, La Societe, capitaine Subtil, avec nos lettres pour Monsei gneur, pour lui apprendre I'etat de la colonie avec les circon- stances de vaisseaux qui bloquerent le port ; quand a l'autre bttiment qui avoit ete frette, nous avons ete oblige de la faire couler, apres la descente faite par I'ennemy, etant impossible de la faire sortir. " Les vaisseaux ennemis qui etoient au devant du port, se servant de la chaloupe qu'ils avoient prise chargee de gibier pour descendre et mettre pied a terre a Gabarrus, a notre vue, je fis partir, le 9, un detachement de 20 soldats sous le commandement du sieur de Lavalli^re pour aller par terre £l Gabarrus, et un autre de 39 hommes d'habitans, sous le commandement du sieur Daccarrette dans un charroye pour s'emparer de cette chaloupe, mais ces deux detachements ne purent joindre cette chaloupe; celui de terre y resta deux jours et ne rentra en vUle que le onze du soir, et celui du APPENDIX. 291 sieur Daccarrette rentra le 12 au matin, ayant ete oblige d'abandonner le charroye a fourche oil il avoit ete k la sortie de Gabarrus. " Le 11, a trois ou quatre heures du matin, nous eumes connoissance de dessus les remparts de la ville, d'environ 100 voUes qui parurent du cote de fourche, derrifere les isles a Dion, les vents etant de la partie de nord-ouest, ces battiments s'approchoient k vue d'oeil, je ne doute pas que ce ne fussent des bastiments de transport, je fis tirer les signaux qui avoient ete ordonnes, plusieurs habitans et particuliers n'ont pu s'y rendre, et entr'autres ceux des havres eloignes, la campagne etant investie de I'ennemy, et m§me plusieurs ont ete faits prisonniers voulant se rendre en vUle. " Je fis aussy commander un detachement pour s'opposer a la descente de I'ennemy, et ce detachement au nombre de 80 hommes et 30 soldats, le surplus habitans, partit sous le commandement de Monsieur Morpain et du Sieur Mesi- lac, il se transporta au-dessous de la Pointe Blanche, S, I'endroit oil I'ennemy avoit commence a faire sa descente, U le fit rembarquer dans les voitures, mais pendant le temps qu'U etoit en cet endroit a repousser I'ennemy, celui-cy fit faire une autre descente plus considerable de troupes de debarquement a I'anse de la Cormorandiere, entre la Pointe- Plate et Gabarrus. "II s'y transporta avec ses troupes, sit6t qu'U en eut connoissance, mais I'ennemy avoit mis pied k terre et s'etoit empare des lieux les plus propres qu'il jugea pour sa defense, cela n'empScha pas ce detachement d'aller I'attaquer, mais I'ennemy etant beaucoup plus superieur en nombre, U fut contraint de se retirer dans le bois ; nous avons eu a cette occasion 4 ou 5 soldats tues ou faits prisonniers, ainsy que 4 ou 5 habitans ou particuliers du nombre desquels fut Monsieur Laboularderie ; nous eumes encore 3 ou 4 blesses qui rentrerent en vUle. 292 APPENDIX. " Depuis la retraite de ce detachement I'ennemy acheva son debarquement au nombre de 4 a 500 hommes, ainsy que des planches et autres materiaux, au rapport de ceux du detachement qui rentrerent les derniers en ville. " L'ennemy ayant avance dans la campagne, se fit voir en grand nombre, mais sans ordre, a la portee du canon de la pointe Dauphine et du bastion du Roy. " Les montagnes qui commandent cette porte etoient couvertes de monde : a deux heures apres-midi les canons, qui etoient sur la Barbette, tirerent sur plusieurs pelotons qui paroissoient defiler du cote du fond de la baye, nous nous apergumes aussy qu'ils defiloient en quantite le long du bois vers la batterie royale, je fis fermer les portes et je fis pourvoir sur le champ a la surete de la ville et placer environ 1100 hommes qui s'y sont trouves pour la defendre. " Sur le soir, monsieur Thiery, capitaine de compagnie qui commandoit k la batterie royale, m'ecrivit une lettre par laqueUe il me marquoit le mauvois etat de son poste, que cela pourroit donner de grande facilites a I'ennemy s'il s'en emparoit, qu'il croyoit pour le bien du service qu'U seroit a propos de travailler a le faire sauter apr^s avoir encloue les canons. " Je fis a cette occasion assembler le conseil de guerre, monsieur Verrier, ingenieur en chef, ayant aussi ete appele, fit son rapport que cette batterie avoit ses epaulements du coste de la terre demolis des l'annee derniere, que les chemins converts n'etoient pas palissades, et qu'il etoit hors d'etat de resister a une attaque par terre de trois a quatre mUle homme avec 400 hommes qu'il y avoit dedans pour la defense. " Sur ce rapport le conseil de guerre decida unanimement qu'il convenoit pour la surete de la ville, manquant de monde pour la defendre, de I'abandonner aprfes en avoir encloue les canons et enleve le plus de munitions de guerre et de bouche qu'on pourroit. APPENDIX. 293 " Je ne dois pas oublier de vous informer que le mSme conseil de guerre vouloit faire sauter cette batterie; mais que monsieur Verrier, s'y etant oppose fortement, on la laissa subsister. " J'envoyai I'ordre en consequence k monsieur Thiery pour abandonner la dite batterie, apres qu'il auroit encloue les canons, et enleve le plus de munitions de guerre et de bouche qu'il pourroit; cet officier travailla le soir a faire endouer tous les canons ; il fit transporter partie des vivres et des munitions et se retira a la vUle avec sa troupe vers minuit. " La dite batterie n'ayant pas ete entierement evacuee ce soir, je fis partir le lendemain les Sieurs St. Etienne, lieutenant, et Souvigny, enseigne, avec une vingtaine d'hommes pour parachever la dite evacuation, ce qu'ils firent a I'exception de tous les boulets de canon et bombes qui y sont restes, n'ayant pas pu les emporter. " Ayant juge necessaire conjointement avec monsieur Bigot de faire couler tous les bastiments qui etoient armes dans le port, pour empecher I'ennemy de s'en emparer, je commandai, le 12, le sieur Verger, enseigne, avec 6 soldats et des matelots pour faire couler ceux qui etoient vis-a-vis la viUe, et le sieur Bellemont, enseigne, avec la m8me operation au fond de la baye, et retirer I'huile de la tour de la lanterne, ce qu'ils execut^rent. " Le 13, je fis sortir toutes les compagnies de milice avec des haches et des engins pour demolir les maisons qui etoient a la porte Dauphine jusqu'au Barruchois, et pour enlever le bois en ville pour le chauffage de la garnison, n'en ayant pas, et pour faire bruler toutes celles qu'on ne pourroit pas demolir, afin d'erapgcher I'ennemy de s'y loger. " Je fis soutenir ces travaiUeurs par 80 soldats Francois et Suisses commande par monsieur Deganne, capitaine, et Rasser, of&cier Suisse. 294 APPENDIX, " Comme ils finissaient et qu'ils etoient au moment de se retirer en ville, il parut au Barrachois et dans les vallons des hauteurs plusieurs pelotons de I'armee ennemie, il y eut mSme quelques coups de fusils de tires par ceux qui etoient les plus pr^s; nous n'eumes personne de tue ni de blesse, et nos gens virent tomber deux hommes de I'ennemy. " L'ennemy s'est empare de la batterie Royale, le 13, et le lendemain il tira sur la ville plusieurs coups de canon de deux qu'il avoit desencloue, " Le mSme jour l'ennemy commenga aussi a nous tirer plusieurs bombes de 12 pouches, pesant 180 1. et de 9 ponces d'une batterie de quatre mortiers qu'ils avoient estably sur la hauteur derriere les plaines, vis-a-vis le bastion du Roy. " Cette batterie de mortiers n'a pas cesse de tirer de dis tance en distance, ainsi que douze mortiers a grenades royales que l'ennemy y avoit places, et deux autres canons qu'ils ont desencloues a la batterie royale, mais ce feu n'a fait aucun progrfes jusqu'au 18, et n'a tue ni blesse personne. " Le 16, je fis partir un expres en chaloupe pour porter une lettre a monsieur Marin, officier de Canada, qui com mandoit un detachement de Canadiens et des Sauvages a I'Acadie, avec ordre de partir pour se rendre en toute diligence k Louisbourg, avec son detachement; c'etoit une course de 20 k 25 jours au plus, s'il avoit ete aux mines, ainsi que l'on m'avoit assure ; mais ce detachement 6toit parti pour le port Royal lorsque I'exprfes y arriva. "Cet expres fut oblige d'y aller: U lui remit la lettre dont U etoit charge, il tint conseil, plusieurs de son party ne voulurent pas le suivre, mais lui s'etant mis en chemin avec ceux de bonne volonte qui voulurent le suivre, il eut toutes les peines imaginables, a ce qu'on m'a assure, de trouver des voitures dans toute I'Acadie, propres pour son transport. APPENDIX. 295 " lis s'y embarqu&rent environ 3 a 400 dans un bateau de 25 tonneaux et dans environ une centaine de canots. Comme ils etoient dans la bale k doubler une pointe, ils furent attaques par un bateau corsaire de 14 canons et autant de pierriers; cet officier soutint I'attaque avec vigueur, et dans le temps qu'il etoit au moment d'aborder le corsaire pour I'enlever, un autre corsaire de la m§me force vint au secours de son camarade, ce qui obligea le dit Sieur Marin d'abandonner la partie et de faire cote. " Cette rencontre lui a fait perdre plusieurs jours et il n'a pu se rendre sur les terres de I'Isle Royale qu'au commence ment de juillet, apres que Louisbourg a ete rendu; si ce detachement s'etoit rendu quinze ou vingt jours avant la reddition de la ville, je suis plus que persuade que I'ennemy auroit ete contraint de lever le siege de terre, par la terreur qu'il avoit de ce detachement qu'il pensoit §tre au nombre de plus de 2500. " Je dois aussi informer Sa Grandeur que ce detachement a tue et pris, comme il se retiroit du passage de Fronsac, pour aUer a I'Acadie, apres notre depart, treize hommes d'un corsaire anglois qui etoit a leur passage pour les em pecher de passer, ces hommes ayant ete avec leurs canots pour faire de I'eau, Us sont tombes entre les mains de ceux de ce detachement. " Le 18, messieurs les generaux anglois me somm^rent de rendre la ville, forteresses et terres en dependant, avec I'ar- tillerie, les armes et les munitions de guerre qui en depen dent sous I'obeissance de la Grande Bretagne, en consequence de quoy, promettoient de traiter humainemeut tous les su jets du Roy mon maitre qui y etoient dedans, que leurs biens leur seroient assures, et qu'ils auraient la liberte de se transporter avec leurs effets dans quelque partie de la domina tion du Roy de France, en Europe, qu'ils jugeroit a propos. " Je repondis sur le champ a cette sommation que le Roy 296 APPENDIX. mon maitre m'ayant confie la defense de la place, je ne pouvois qu'apres la plus rigoureuse attaque ecouter une semblable proposition, et que je n'avois d'autre reponse k faire k cette demande que par les bouches des canons, " L'ennemy commenga k etablir, le 19, une batterie de sept pieces de canon dans les plaines et derriere un petit etang, vis-a-vis la face du bastion du Roy, laquelle batterie n'a pas cesse de tirer des boulets de 12, 18 et 24 depuis ce jour jusqu'a la reddition de la place, sur le casernes, le mur du bastion du Roy et sur la ville; cette batterie etoit, Mon seigneur, la plus dangereuse de l'ennemy pour detruire le monde ; tous les boulets enfiloient toutes les rues jusqu'k la porte Maurepas et au mur crenele ; personne ne pouvoit rester dans la ville, soit dans les maisons ou dans les rues. " Aussy pour eteindre le feu de l'ennemy, je fis etablir deux pieces de canon de 18 sur le cavalier du dit Bastion du Roy : on fit pour cet effet deux coffres en planches qu'on remplit de fascines et de terres qui formoient deux embra sures par le moyen desquelles les canonniers et ceux qui servirent ces canons etoient a I'abry du feu de I'ennemy. " Je fis aussy percer en m§me temps deux embrasures au mur du parapet de la face droite du dit bastion; on y mit deux autre canons de 24. " Ces quatre canons ont ete si bien servis que le feu de I'ennemy de la dite batterie de la plaine a ete eteint, puis- qu'ils ne tiroient lors de la reddition de la place qu'un canon, et qu'ils ont eu les autres demontes a la dite bat terie, ainsy que ceux de nos gens qui ont ete voir cette bat terie, apres la reddition de la place, m'en ont rendu compte. " Le matin du 20, je fis assembler messieurs les capitaines des compagnies pour prendre un party s'il convenoit de faire des sorties sur l'ennemy. II fut resolu que la vUle etoit en tierement denuee de monde, qu'il etoit prejudiciable d'en faire, qu'^ peine on pourroit garder les remparts avec les 1300 APPENDIX. 297 hommes qu'U y avoit dans la ville y compris les deux cent de la batterie royale. " Je fis masquer la porte Dauphine en pierre de tailie, fascines et terre de I'epaisseur d'environ dix-huit pieds, ainsi que les deux corps de garde qui sont joints. Sans cet ouvrage I'ennemy auroit pu entrer en ville des le lendemain qu'il auroit tire de la batterie de Francoeur; cette porte n'etoit pas plus forte que celle d'une porte cochere, les murs de la dite porte et des corps de garde n'avoient que trois pieds ou environ d'epaisseur. La dite porte n'etoit pas non plus flanquee et n'avoit pour toute defense que quelques creneaux aux corps de garde, desquels on ne pouvoit plus se serrir sitot qu'on etoit oblige de garnir les dits corps de garde de pierres, de terre. " J'ordonnai qu'on fit des embrasures de gazon et de terre, n'ayant pas le temps d'en faire de pierre, aux quatre canons qui etoient sur la batterie du bastion Dauphin, sur le corps de garde des soldats, joignant la porte du dit bastion, afin d'emp§cher I'ennemy en ses travaux sur les hauteurs qui etoient devant la dite porte; lesquelles embrasures furent faites. " Tous les flancs des bastions de la ville furent aussy garnis des canons des corsaires et autres qui se sont trouves en ville. " L'ennemy ayant calfeutre une goelette qui etoit echouee au fond de la baye depuis l'annee derniere, il l'a remj)lit de bois, goudron et autres matieres combustibles, et a la faveur d'une nuit obscure et d'un vent frais du nord-nord-est qu'il fit le 24, il nous I'envoya en brulot sur la ville. " Tout le monde passoit toutes les nuits sur les remparts, nous attendions de pied ferme l'ennemy, plustQt que des artifices de cette nature, et ce brulot ayant ete s'ediouer au dehors de la ville vis-a-vis du terrain du S' Ste Marie ne fit pas I'effet que l'ennemy s'attendoit. 298 APPENDIX. "L'ennemy s'etant empare de la hauteur de Francceui qui est a la queue du glacis de la porte Dauphine, U a commence k ouvrir des boyaux et former deux batteries malgre le feu continuel de nos canons de la barbette et du bastion Dauphin et du flanc droit du bastion du Roy et de la mousqueterie, et ces deux batteries n'ont point cesse de tirer depuis le 29 jusqu'a la reddition de la place des boulets de 18, 24, 36 et 42, pour battre en br^che la porte Dauphine et la flanc droit du bastion du Roy, " L'ennemy, faisant plusieurs mouvements au fond de la baye et a la hauteur de la Lanterne, monsieur Valle, lieu tenant de la Compagnie des Canonniers, vint m'avertir que l'ennemy pourroit faire ces mouvements a I'occasion de plusieurs canons de dix-huit et de vingt-quatre qui avoient ete mis au carenage pour servir de corps de garde depuis environ dix ans. Que parmy ces canons il y en avoit plusi eurs en etat de servir, qu'il avoit informe les Gouverneurs de cy-devant plusieurs fois que l'ennemy pourroit les trans porter a la tour, etablir une batterie pour battre I'isle de I'entree et les vaisseaux qui voudroient entrer. " Sur un avis aussy important, et l'ennemy ayant abore paviUon k la tour de la Lanterne, je fis faire un detachement de cinq cent jeunes gens du pays et autres de la mUice et des flibustiers, sous les ordres du Sieur de Beaubassin, pour aller voir si cela etoit vrai, tacher de suprendre I'ennemy ou emp§cher de faire leurs travaux en cet endroit. " Ce detachement partit en trois chaloupes le 27 may avec chacun douze jours de vivres et les munitions de guerre necessaires qui leur furent foumies des magasins du Roy ; il mit pied a terre au grand Lorembec. " Le lendemain, faisant son approche k la tour, il fut decouvert par I'ennemy qui etoit au nombre d'environ 300. " lis se tirerent quelques voiees de mousqueterye, et se separ^rent, ce detachement ne voyant pas son avantage et APPENDIX. 299 plusieurs ayant ISche le pied, il fut contraint de se retirer dans le bois, pour bruler s'il lui etoit possible les magasins qu'il y avoit, on I'avoit assure que cela etoit aise, que l'ennemy dormoit avec securite en cet endroit. " Koller qui etoit second du dit Sieur de Beaubassin, venant de St. Pierre par terre, quelques jours auparavant, avait ete dans une des barraques du dit camp et avoit em- porte une chaudi5re sans etre decouvert, ce detachement, dis-je, etoit a un demi quart de lieue a I'habitation du dit KoUer, il avoit envoye des decouvreurs en attendant la nuit, mais ils eurent le malheur d§tre decouverts par une douzaine d' Anglois qui se trouv^rent aux environs, ce qui fit que I'ennemy detacha un party considerable qui fut pour les attaquer. Le sieur de Beaubassin fut encore oblige de se retirer aprfes quelques coups tires de part et d'autre: l'ennemy, depuis lors cherchoit partout ce detachement, et plusieurs de ceux-ci ayant ete obliges de jeter leurs vivres pour se sauver, ils etoient sans vivres pour passer leur douze jours, et plusieurs qui etoient des havres voisins I'avoient abandonne et s'etoient retires chez eux; il se trouvoit par consequent sans vivres et trop faibles pour resister a I'ennemy. " II fut done oblige d'aller au petit Lorembec pour prendre des chaloupes afin de rentrer dans la ville ; il se trouva en ce havre environ 40 Sauvages de la colonie qui avoient detruit, il y avoit deux ou trois jours, 18 a 20 Anglois qu'ils avoient trouves qui pillaient ce havre. " Comme ils etaient a m§me d'embarquer dans les cha loupes, il leur tomba un detachement de 2 a 300 Anglois. Les Sauvages se joignferent a ce detachement et ces deux corps faisaient environ 120 hommes qui tinrent pied ferme k l'ennemy. " Le feu commenga de part et d'autre vers les deux heures et dura pendant plus de quatre, les .Anglois avoient mSme 300 APPENDIX, ete repousses deux fois et ils auroient ete defaits si dfes le commencement de Taction, ceux-ci n'avoient pas envoye avertir de leurs gens qui etoient k la batterie royale et a la tour et s'il ne leur etoit pas venu k I'entree de la nuit un party considerable qui commenga a vouloir I'entourer. " Notre detachement voyant qu'il n'y avoit pas moyen de resister et manquant de munitions, plusieurs ayant tire jus qu'a leur dernier coup, il se retira dans les bois, I'ennemy, superieur comme il etoit, les poursuivit une partie de la nuit, notre detachement fut contraint de se retirer a Mire et de passer la riviere, " Nous avons eu en cette occasion deux hommes de tues et environ 20 de blesses ou prisonniers. Monsieur de Beau bassin fut du nombre des blesses, il regut une balle au gras de la jambre et aprfes une heure et demie de combat, ne pouvant resister a sa blessure, il se retira. Le sieur Koller continua le combat jusqu'a la fin. " Le dit sieur de Beaubassin, s'etant rendu en ville quel ques jours aprfes sixieme dans une pirogue, m'informa de ce qui s'etoit passe a I'occasion de son detachement, que le surplus etoit refugie a Mire oil il I'avait laisse sous la con- duite de Koller, qu'il lui manquoit des vivres et des muni tions de guerre ainsy qu'aux Sauvages. " Sur ce rapport je fis partir une chaloupe avec 20 quarts de farine et autres vivres et des munitions, tant pour ce detachement, celui de monsieur Marin que j'attendois tous les jours, que pour les Sauvages. " On trouva Koller avec ses gens, monsieur Marin n'y etoit pas et les Sauvages s'etoient retires k leur village. " Koller rentra en ville le 14 juin en chaloupe avec ceux de son detachement et les quelques autres qu'il trouva a Mire, il eut bien de la peine k passer la nuit parmy b§,ti- ments de l'ennemy qui croisoient depuis Gabarrus jusqu'4 Escatary. APPENDIX. 301 "Nous avons appris depuis la reddition de la place, par des personnes de probite, que l'ennemy avoit eu au moins 160 homme de tues, et 90 de blesses au choc du petit Lorembec. " Les canons de la porte Dauphin et ceux du flanc droit du Bastion du Roy, ne joignant pas bien la batterie que l'en nemy avoit fait sur les hauteurs de Francoeur a la porte Dau phine, on perga trois embr§,sures a la courtine de la grave pour battre a revers la batterie de I'ennemy de la hauteur de Francoeur. Ces trois embrasures ou. on avoit place du canon de 36 furent ouvertes les 30 mai, et firent un effet merveilleux ; le premier jour on leur demonta un de leurs canons, et leurs embrS.sures furent toutes labourees, cela n'empScha pas le feu continuel de I'ennemy, et quant a la batterie ce que nous defaisions le jour, ils le refaisoit la nuit. " Le mSme jour, sur les trois heurs, nous eiimes connois sance d'un gros vaisseau qui donnoit chasse a un senau et ensuite qui se battoit avec le dit senau et une fregatte k en- riron 4 lieues du fort vers le sud-est, en m§me tems trois Vaisseaux ennemis, qui etoient en passe vers le Cap Noir et la pointe Blanche, courrurent dessus; le gros vaisseau aprSs s'etre battu longtems prit la chasse sans doute quand il eut connoissance des trois qui courroient sur lui, et nous avons entendu tirer du canon jusque vers les 9 ^ 10 heures du soir, nous avons appris depuis que ce vaisseau etoit le Vigilant. " J'ordonnai qu'on tir§,t de la poudriere du Bastion Dau phin les poudres qui y etoient et les fis transporter sous la poterne de la courtine qui est entre le Bastion du Roy et celui de la Reine. " Comme I'ennemy avait coupe par les boulets de la bat terie de Francoeur, les chaines du pont levi de la porte Dau phine, j'ordonnay aussy de couper le pont de la dite porte. " Le canon de l'ennemy de la batterie de Francoeur qui 302 APPENDIX. battoit le flanc droit du bastion du Roy, faisant beaucoup de progrfes et entr'autres aux embrasures, je fis commencer a faire percer le mur de la face du bastion Dauphin de deux embrasures, pour y mettre deux canons, cet ouvrage malgre la mousqueterie que l'ennemy tiroit toujours, fut mis en etat et notre canon a tire et fut servi autant qu'on pouvoit desirer sur celui de I'eunemy. " L'ennemy a aussi etably une batterie de cinq canons sur les hauteurs des Mortissans et a commence k tirer le 2 juin des boulets de 36 et 42, en breche sur le bastion Dauphin et sur I'eperon. La guerite a ete jetee k bas, et une partie de I'angle saillant, le mSme jour. Cette batterie a debouie I'eperon de la porte Dauphine en ses embrasures, lesqueUes ont ete racommodees plusieurs fois, autant bien qu'on pouvoit, k pierre sfeche, avec des pierres de tailie et des sacs de terre. " Le mgme jour I'escadre ennemye s'augmenta par I'ar- rivee d'un vaisseaux d'environ 40 k 50 canons, et nous vismes aussy, parmy cette escadre, un vaisseau desempare, qu'on nous a dit depuis §tre celui que nous avions vu se battre le 30 may. " Le 5 l'ennemy a envoye vers les deux heures du matin de la batterie royale, un brulot qui s'est echoue k la calle Frederic ou il a briiie sur une goelette, il n'a pas fait d'autre mal, quoiqu'il fut charge de matiferes combustibles et de bombes qui firent leur effet; toutes les batteries de l'ennemy ne cessferent point de tirer, pendant ce temps nos gens etoient comme de coutume tout le long des remparts et du quay, k essuyer ce feu avec intrepidite, " La nuit du 6 au 7 nous eumes une alarme generale de l'isle de I'entree; l'ennemy, voulant enlever cette batterie, s'embarqua au nombre de 1000 sur 36 barques, 800 autres venant derriere devoient les soutenir. La nuit etoit trfes obscure et faisoit une petite brume. " Ces premiers furent mettre pied a terre, les uns k la APPENDIX, 303 Pointe k Peletier, les autres vis-k-vis le corps des casernes, et le surplus au debarquement de la dite isle ; I'ennemy en debarquant commenga k crier hourrah par trois fois; ils attacherent m§me environ 12 echelles aux embrasures afin de les escalader, mais Monsieur D'Aillebout, qui com mandoit k cette batterie, les regut k merveille ; le canon et la mousqueterie de ceux de I'isle fut servi au mieux, toutes les barques, furent toutes brisees ou coulees k fond ; le feu fut continuel depuis environ minuit jusqu'k trois heures du matin. " Le dit S D'Ailleboust ainsy que les S" Duchambon, son Lieutenant, et Eurry de la Perrelle, son enseigne, etoient les premiers a monter sur les embrasures et faire feu sur les ennemis pour montrer a leurs soldats 1' exemple, et aux autres qui etoient avec eux a la dite batterie, " Les soldats firent m§me plusieurs fois descendre leurs officiers des embrasures, leur alieguant qu'ils ne devoient point ainsi s'exposer, qu'ils n'avoient qu'k les commander et qu'ils en viendroient a bout ; a la fin I'ennemy fut contraint de demander quartier. Les huit cents qui devoient soutenir les premiers n'oserent pas s'approcher et s'en furent : on fit 119 prisonniers, plusieurs blesses sont morts la mSme jour- nee, et I'ennemy a eu plus de 250 de tues, noyes ou de blesses, ne s'etant sauves, au rapport de nos prisonniers qui etoient k la batterie royale, que dans deux barges qui pouvoient contenir environ 30 hommes, parmy lesquels il y avoit plusieurs de blesses. " L'ennemy pouvant attaquer la ville avec des barges par le quay, j'ordonnay une estacade de m§,ts qui prenoit depuis I'eperon du bastion Dauphin jusques k la piece de grave, et cette estacade a ete parachevee le 11 juin. L'en nemy qui s'etoit apergu de cet ouvrage, n'a pas cesse de tirer des canons de ses batteries, sur les travaUlauts, mais inutUement. 304 APPENDIX, " Les ennemis ayant toujours continue leurs travaux k la tour de la Lanterne, malgre le feu continuel de bombes et de canons de la batterie de I'isle de L'entree, il fut decide qu'il etoit necessaire de blinder les casernes et la boulangerie de la dite isle, et le bois manquant pour cet ouvrage le magasin du Sieur Dacarrette fut demoli pour cela. " Le feu continuel des batteries de I'ennemy ayant de- moly les embrasures du flanc droit du bastion du Roy, ou nous avions six canons de dix-huit et de vingt-quatre qui tiroient continuellement, et ces canons ne pouvant pas etre servis, j'ordonnay qu'on fit aussy des contremerlons et des embrasures en bois, k quoi on y travailla avec toute la dili gence possible, et ces embrasures etant parachevees le 19 juin, le canon tira toujours; mais ces mSmes embrasures n'ont pas laisse d'etre demantibuiees aussy par le canon de I'ennemy. " Depuis que la batterie de martissan a ete etablie, elle n'a pas cesse de tirer en breche sur la porte Dauphin et sur reperon. L'eperon a ete tout demantibule et racom- modee plusieurs fois, ainsy que je I'ai dit ci-devant; les embrasures qui battent le long du quay ont aussy ete demanteiees, par cette batterie et celle de Francoeur, et personne ne pouvoit rester derriere le mur du quay qui a ete tout cribie, les boulets de 24, 36 et 42 le pergant d'ontre en outre. " Le 18, messieurs les generaux anglois m'envoyerent un officier avec pavilion, portant une lettre de monsieur Warren chef de I'escadre et une autre de Monsieur de la Maisonfort, capitaine de vaisseau. Par la premiere ce general se plaignait des cruautes que nos Francois et Sau vages avoient exercees sur ceux de sa nation, et que si, a l'a venir, pareille chose arrivoit, il ne pourroit pas emplcher ses gens d'en agir de meme. APPENDIX. 306 "Monsieur de la Maisonfort m'apprenoit sa prise, le 30 mai, et qu'il avoit tout lieu d'etre satisfait du traitement qu'on lui faisoit, ainsy qu'a ses officiers et matelots, et de punir severement, etc. " Je repondis a celle de monsieur Warren qu'il n'y avoit point de Frangois parmy les Sauvages qui avoient use ainsi qu'il disoit de cruaute, comme de fait il n'y en avoit pas, qu'U devoit §tre persuade que je negligeray rien pour arrSter le cours des cruautes des Sauvages autant qu'il me seroit possible de communiquer avec eux, etc. "A celle de monsieur de la Maisonfort, que je ferai defendre aux Sauvages, lorsque je pourrai avoir communi cation avec eux, d'en user mieux [sic] par la suite, qu'il n'y avoit aucun des Fran5ois avec eux lorsqu'ils ont use de cruautes, etc., et I'officier porteur de ces lettres partit sur le champ. " Le 21, la batterie que les ennemis ont etablie a la tour de la Lanterne de 7 canons et un mortier a commence a tirer sur celle de I'isle de L'entree avec des boulets de 18 et un mortier de 12 pouces, pesant 180 I. et le feu de la dite batterie n'a pas cesse de tirer jusqu'k la reddition de la place, malgre le feu continuel de celle de l'isle. " Les batteries de I'ennemy faisant un progrfes conside rable, malgre notre feu des canons du bastion du Roy, bastion Dauphin, de la pifece de la grave, et de la mous queterie k la breche de la porte Dauphine et aux corps de garde joignants, j'ordonnai k Monsieur Verrier, ingenieur, de faire un retranchement dans le bastion Dauphin pour defendre I'assaut que l'ennemy pourrait donner par la breche, Cet ouvrage qui prenoit depuis le quay jusqu'au parapet de la face du bastion Dauphin, fut mis en etat le 24 aprfes bien des travaux de nuit. " II se fit le mSme jour une jonction de 4 vaisseaux, dont deux de 60, un de 50 et l'autre de 40 canons, avec ceux qui VOL. u. — 20 306 APPENDIX. bloquoient le port. Ces vaisseaux sitot qu'ils eurent tire les signaux de reconnaissance s'assemblerent et apr&s s'§tre paries, Us furent vers la baye de Gabarrus. " Le lendemain les vaisseaux ennemis au nombre de 13 mouillerent en ligne vers la Pointe Blanche a environ 2 lieues du port de Louisbourg. L'ennemy fit faire en m§me temps et le lendemain trois piles de bois pour des signaux sur les hauteurs qui sont k I'ouest du port de Louisbourg. " Je ne puis pas m'emp&cher d'informer Sa Grandeur et de lui dire avec verite que toutes les batteries de l'en nemy soit de mortier ou de canon n'ont pas cesse de tirer depuis les jours qu'ils les ont etablis, de m§me que la mousqueterie, sans discontinuer, de la batterie de Fran coeur; que toutes les maisons de la ville ont toutes ete ecrasees, cribiees et mises hors d'etat d'gtre logees; que le flanc du bastion du Roy a ete tout demoli, ainsy que les embrasures en bois qu'on y avoit remplacees; qu'ils ont fait breche a la porte Dauphine, le corps de garde joignant, et qu'il etoit praticable au moyen des fascines qu'ils avoient transporte pendant deux jours a la batterie de Francoeur; que I'eperon joignant le corps de garde de I'officier de la porte Dauphine etoit tout demanteie, ainsi que les embrasures du quai, malgre le feu continuel de tous les canons, mortiers et mousqueterie que nous tirions de la ville et qui etoient servis avec toute la vigueur et I'activite qu'on pouvoit esperer en pareille occasion. " La preuve en est assez evidente, Monseigneur, puisque de 67 milliers de poudre que nous avions au commencement du sifege, il nous n'en restoit, le 27 juin, que 47 barils en ville, laquelle quantite m'etoit absolument necessaire pour pouvoir capituler; nous avons aussi tire toutes les bombes de 12 pouces que nous avions et presque toutes ceUes de 9 pouces. " Je dois rendre justice a tous les officiers de la garnison, APPENDIX. 807 aux soldats et aux habitans qui ont defendu la place, ils ont tous en general supporte la fatigue de ce sifege avec une in trepidite sans egale, pendant les 116 [ ?] jours qu'il a dure. " Passant toutes les nuits au chemin convert de la porte Dauphine, depuis que I'ennemy avoit commence k battre en breche cet endroit, k soutenir les travaillants qui Stoient les decombres sur les remparts aux portes qui leur etoient des- tinees, sans se reposer aucune nuit et pour le jour n'ayant pas un seul endroit pour sommeiller sans courir risque d'etre emporte par les canons de l'ennemy qui commandoient toute la ville. " Aussy tout le monde etoit fatigue de travail et d'insom- nie, et de 1300 que nous etions au commencement du sifege, 50 ont ete tues, 95 blesses hors d'etat de rendre service, plusieurs etoient tombes malades par la fatigue, aussy les remparts qui n'etoient au commencement du sifege garnis que de 6 k 6 pieds, se trouvoient presque tous degarnis le 26 de juin lorsque les habitans de la ville me present^rent leur requite tendant k ce que les forces de l'ennemy soit de terre et de mer, augmentant tous les jours, sans qu'ils nous parvint aucun secours ni apparence d'en avoir d'assez fort pour forcer I'ennemy, il me plut capituler avec les generaux afin de leur conserver le peu qu'U leur restoit. " Cette requgte, Monseigneur, me toucha jusqu'au plus vif de mon §,me. D'un cote je voyois une place telle que Louisbourg et qui a coute bien des sommes au Roi, au mo ment d'etre enlevee par la force de l'ennemy qui avoit une breche assez practicable pour cela et des vaisseaux en ligne qui s'installoient depuis deux jours. " D'autre c5te, il me paroissoit un nombre d'habitans, tous charges de families, au moment de perir, perdre par conse quent le fruit de leurs travaux depuis le commencement de I'etablissement de la colonie. " Dans une conjoncture aussy delicate, je fis rendre compte 308 APPENDIX. k monsieur Verrier, ingenieur en chef, de I'etat des forti fications de la Place, et a monsieur de Ste Marie, capitaine charge de I'artillerie, de celui des munitions de guerre ; I'un et l'autre me firent leur rapport, je fis tenir conseil de guerre qui dedda unanimement que vu les forces de I'ennemj et retat de la Place il convenoit de capituler. " J'ecrivis une lettre k le sortie du Conseil k messieurs les generaux anglois, je leur demanday une suspension d'armes, pour le temps qu'il me seroit convenable pour leur faire des articles de capitulation aux conditions desquelles je leur remettrois la Place. " Monsieur de Laperelle, fils, qui etoit porteur de cette lettre, me rapporta le mgme soir leur reponse par laquelle ils me donnoient le temps jusques au lendemain a huit heures du matin, et que si pendant ce temps, je me deter- minois k me rendre prisonnier de guerre, je pouvois compter que je serois traite avec toute la generosite possible. " Je ne m'attendois pas k une telle reponse, aussy le lende main 27, je leur envoyai par Monsieur de Bonnaventure les articles de capitulation avec une seconde lettre, par laquelle je leur mandai que les conditions faites la veille etoient trop dures, que je ne pouvois les accepter et que c'etoit k ceux que je faisois par mes propositions que je consentirois k leur remettre la place [sic]. " Messieurs les generaux ne voulurent pas repondre par apostille k ces propositions, mais ils me renvoyferent leur reponse separee par le dit Sieur de Bonnaventure; cette reponse m'accordoit partie des articles que j'avois de mandes, mais ceux qui m'etoient le plus sensible et glorieux, qui etoient ceux de sortir de la Place, avec les honneurs de la guerre, avec arme et bagage, tambour battant et dra- peaux deployes, ne s'y trouvoient pas inseres, aussy je leur ecrivis sur le champ deux lettres, l'une au chef d'escadre et I'autre au general de terre, que je ne pouvois consentir APPENDIX. 309 k laisser sortir les troupes de la place sans ces articles qui etoient des honneurs di_i ). itir " . •ll4''.« ( d-l Lfi)4aLI.IMI4 - h3 iLi*M- .1.'. ¦P'A-i'S'.-jwBvS* , •"""' ' ',' 's.. /iM iV3i. '^Vt *^*SiKiw ...1.1 1,^^^-./ ^ W IJpi L ill'."* H*'!-*- "1 ' * *** '*''¦*¦ ' vJll 1 1^ yaVrVH^ jn.- , ...It 4 .J !i 1 .. _ t- 1 " '¦'1.1 ' 1.1 d, J I, V* H "l Jl « I jV . t, « i .. 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