the murderous inroads of these ferocious savages. In August, 1708, a party of Indians, headed by Frenchmen, assaulted Haverhill, on the Merrimac, burnt some of the houses, slew thirty or forty of the inhabitants, among whom was Mr. Rolfe, their minister.

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO INVADE CANADA.

As the colonies could not be safe from the ravages of the French and Indians, while Canada and Nova Scotia were under the government of France, Massachusetts solicited, and the Queen granted, a large naval force to aid in the conquest of those provinces. In 1709, the New England colonies, with New York, raised about two thousand five hundred men, who were commanded by General Nicholson. This force was marched near Lake George, and there waited to hear of the arrival of the expected fleet at Boston. The fleet did not arrive, and the troops lay at Wood Creek till autumn. While encamped, they were attacked with a malignant disease, by which many died, and the remainder compelled to withdraw, and thus this expensive expedition was frustrated.

In 1711, General Nicholson procured, of the Queen, a fleet of menof-war, and transports under admiral Walker, for aiding in the conquest of Canada. This fleet arrived in Boston in June, and although not expected, the colonies made great exertion to second the expedition. The whole force, when the British and colonial troops were united, amounted to seven thousand men. General Nicholson went to Albany, intending, with additional forces, to join Admiral Walker before Quebec. The fleet sailed from Boston on the 30th of July, but met with fogs and tempestuous weather, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in which eight or nine transports, with about one thousand men, were lost by shipwreck. This put an end to the expedition, the admiral sailed to England, and the colonial troops returned. The peace of Utrecht, signed March 3, 1713, put an end to hostilities, and peace continued till 1739.

EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SPANISH WEST INDIES.

In 1740, war having been declared by Great Britain against Spain, expeditions were undertaken against the Spanish West Indies, and requisitions were made on the colonies to assist in these enterprises. Four regiments were raised from the American colonies, who were at the charge of levy money, provisions, and transports for their several quotas. Admiral Vernon, the British commander, found himself at

the head of the most formidable fleet and army ever sent to the West India Islands. The whole fleet consisted of twenty-nine ships of the line, with nearly the same number of frigates, besides fire ships, etc The number of seamen amounted to fifteen thousand, and the land forces twelve thousand. Vernon took and plundered Porto Bello, and proceeded with his fleet, and the land forces under General Wentworth, to attack Carthagena. He demolished the forts and castles in the harbor, but the attack on the town by General Wentworth, was unsuccessful. In July, the combined forces made an attempt on Cuba, but by an extraordinary sickness and mortality, they were not able to accomplish anything of importance. More than a thousand men died per day, for several days. Of nearly one thousand men from New England, not one hundred returned-of five hundred men from Massachusetts, fifty only returned.

CONQUEST OF LOUISBURG.

After the peace of Utrecht, the French built the town of Louisburg on the Island of Cape Breton, and fortified it with a rampart of stone, from thirty to thirty-six feet high, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were embrasures for one hundred and forty-eight cannon and six mortars. On an island at the entrance of the harbor, was planted a battery of thirty cannon.

At the bottom of the harbor, opposite the entrance, was the grand or royal battery of twenty-eight cannon, each of forty-two pound

so strong and impregnable as to be called the "Dunkirk of America." This place was a safe harbor and station for French shipping of all descriptions, and its reduction was of the highest importance to the New England colonies. The following account of its conquest is from Holmes' Annals:

Under these impressions, governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, had written to the British ministry in the autumn of the last year, soliciting assistance for the preservation of Nova Scotia, and the acquisition of Cape Breton. Early in January, before he received any answer or orders from England, he requested the members of the general court, that they would lay themselves under an oath of secrecy, to receive from him a proposal of very great importance. They readily took the oath; and he communicated to them the plan which he had formed of attacking Louisburg. The proposal was at first rejected; but it was finally carried by a majority of one voice. Circular letters were immediately dispatched to all the colonies, as far as Pennsylvania,* requesting their assistance, and an embargo on their ports. Forces were promptly raised; and William Pepperrell, Esq., of Kittery, was appointed commander of the expedition. This officer, on board the Shirley Snow, Captain Rouse, with the transports under her convoy, sailed from Nantasket on the 24th of March, and arrived at Canso on the 4th of April.† Here the troops, joined by those of New Hampshire and Connecticut, amounting collectively to upward of four thousand,‡ were detained three weeks, waiting for the ice, which environed the Island of Cape Breton, to be dissolved. At length Commodore Warren, agreeably to orders from England, arrived at Canso in the Superbe of sixty guns, with three other ships of forty guns each; and, after a consultation with the general, proceeded to cruise before Louisburg. The general soon after sailed with the whole fleet; and on the 30th of April, coming to anchor at Chapeaurouge Bay, landed his troops. The next object was to invest the city. Lieutenant Colonel Vaughan conducted the first column through the woods within sight of Louisburg, and saluted the city with three cheers. At the head of a detachment, chiefly of the New Hampshire troops, he marched in the night to the north-east part of the harbor, where they burned the warehouses, containing the naval stores, and staved a large quantity of wine and brandy. The smoke of this fire, driven by the wind into the grand battery, so terrified the French, that they abandoned it; and, spiking up the guns, retired to the city. The next morning Vaughan took possession of the deserted battery, which he bravely defended.

All excused themselves from any share in the adventure, excepting Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The assembly of Pennsylvania, though it could not be prevailed on to take part in an enterprise which appeared desperate; yet, on receiving information that Louisburg was taken, and that supplies were wanted, voted £4000 in provisions for the refreshment and support of the brave troops which had achieved the action. Franklin, Pennsylv. 94, Univ. Hist. xli, 33.

† Connecticut and Rhode Island consented that their colony sloops should be employed as crusiers. A small privateer ship of about two hundred tuns, and a snow of less burden, belonging to Newport, were hired there by Massachusetts; a new snow, Captain Rouse, and a ship, Captain Snelling, were taken into the service at Boston; and these, with a snow, a brig, three sloops, and a ship of twenty guns, purchased on the stocks, Captain Tyng, the commodore, composed the whole naval force.

The Connecticut troops were commanded by Roger Wolcott, lieutenant governor of the colony, who was the second officer in the army. Rhode Island raised three hundred men; but they did not arrive until the place had surrendered. Hutchinson.

With extreme labor and difficulty cannon were drawn, for fourteen nights successively, from the landing place through a morass to the camp.* The cannon left by the enemy were drilled, and turned with good effect on the city, within which almost every shot lodged, while several fell into the roof of the citadel On the 7th of May, a summons was sent in to the commanding officer at Louisburg, who refused to surrender the place. The siege was, therefore, still pressed with activity and vigilance by Commodore Warren and his ships, and with vigorous perseverance by the land forces. The joint efforts of both were at length, by the blessing of Heaven, crowned with success. It was a circumstance favorable to the assailants, that the garrison of Louisburg had been so mutinous before the siege, that the officers could not trust the men to make a sortie, lest they should desert. The capture of a French sixty-four gun ship, richly laden with military stores, and having on board five hundred and sixty men, destined for the relief of the garrison, threw the enemy into perturbation.† A battery, erected on the high cliff at the lighthouse, greatly annoyed their island battery. Preparations were evidently making for a general assault. Discouraged by these adverse events and menacing appearances, Duchambon, the French commander, determined to surrender; and, on the 16th of June, articles of capitulation were signed. After the surrender of the city, the French flag was kept flying on the ramparts; and several rich prizes were thus decoyed. Two East Indiamen and one South Sea Ship, estimated at £600,000 sterling, were taken by the squadron at the mouth of the harbor. This expedition was one of the most remarkable events in the history of North America. It was hazardous in the attempt, but successful in the execution. "It displayed the enterprising spirit of New England; and, though it enabled Britain to purchase a peace, yet it excited her envy and jealousy against the colonies, by whose exertions it was acquired."‡

The news of this important victory flew through the continent. Considerate and pious persons remarked, with mingled gratitude and admiration, the coinci

The men, with straps over their shoulders, and sinking to their knees in mud, performed the service which horses or oxen, on such ground, could not have done.

†This French man-of-war, the Vigilant, was taken by Captain Edward Tyng, commander of the Massachusetts frigate. Governor Shirley having directed him to procure the largest ship in his power, he had purchased this ship when on the stocks, and nearly ready for launching. It was a ship of about four hundred tuns, and was soon after launched at Boston. Tyng took the command of her, and was appointed commodore of the fleet. Alden's Memoir of Edward Tyng, Esq.

Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i, 4-60; where there is an authentic account of this expedition from original papers. Hutchinson, ii, c. 4. Douglass, i, 336. Belknap, N. Hamp. ii, 193— 224. Adams, N. Eng. 208. Trumbull, U. S. i, c. 9. Solicitations were made for a parliamentary reimbursement, which, after much difficulty and delay, was obtained. In 1749 the money, granted by parliament for that purpose, arrived at Boston, and was conveyed to the treasury office. The sum was £183,649 28. 7d. 1-2. It consisted of two hundred and fifteen chests (three thousand pieces of eight, at a medium, in each chest) of milled pieces of eight, and one hundred casks of coined copper. There were seventeen cart and truck loads of the silver, and about ten truck loads of copper. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. ut supra. Brit. Emp. i, 377. Pemberton, MS. Chron. The instructions given by Governor Shirley to lieutenant general Pepperrell for this expedition, are published in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i, 1-11. The plan for the reduction of a regularly constructed fortress "was drawn by a lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics."

dence of numerous circumstances and events, on which the success of the undertaking essentially depended. While the enterprise, patriotism, and firmness of the colonists were justly extolled for projecting and executing a great design, attended with hardships and danger never before paralleled in America, it was perceived that there was also no small degree of temerity in the attempt, and that its success was to be ascribed to the manifest favor of divine Providence.

DESTRUCTION OF THE FLEET OF D'ANVILLE.

In 1746, while the New England colonies were projecting new enterprises against the French, intelligence arrived which threw the whole country into the utmost consternation. A large fleet from France, consisting of upward of forty ships of war, under the command of Duke D'Anville, bringing between three and four thousand regular troops with experienced officers, with all kinds of military stores, were sent over to the American coast. Their orders were to retake Louisburg, to destroy Boston, range along the coasts, and capture or distress the English settlements. This force was to be joined by four ships under M. Conflans, from the West Indies, and seventeen hundred French and Indians from Canada. The country was kept in great fear and anxiety for six weeks, when it was relieved by intelligence of the disabled state of the enemy. By storms, some of their ships were damaged, and they bore away for the West Indies. One was condemned and burnt; and another was forced to return to Brest, by a malignant disease among her crew. The officers were divided in their opinions, D'Anville either poisoned himself or died in an apoplectic fit. The second in command, during a delirious fever, fell on his sword. The French being disconcerted in their original plans, determined to make an attempt on Annapolis; but having sailed from Chebucto, now Halifax, they were overtaken by a violent storm, and what ships escaped destruction, returned singly to France. Such an instance of preservation, without the aid of human power, seldom occurs; and the pious people in the American colonies, ascribed their deliverence to that Being who, in ancient time, caused "the stars in their course to fight against Sisera."

POSSESSIONS OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA.

The treaty of peace, signed at Aix la Chapelle, in 1754, left the French masters of Canada and Louisiana, the large and almost unknown tract of country on the Mississippi. They knew the value of America, and had formed the plan of restraining the settlements of the English. The better to accomplish their designs, they extended