France and England in N America, Part VII, Vol 1: A Half-Century of Conflict

129

"If I had not accepted the command, there would have been insuperable difficulties" (arising from provincial jealousies).—Nicholson to Sunderland, 8 July, 1709.

130

Forts Nicholson, Lydius, and Edward were not the same, but succeeded each other on the same ground.

131

Mémoire sur le Canada, Année 1709. This paper, which has been ascribed to the engineer De Léry, is printed in Collection de Manuscrits relatifs à la Nouvelle France, i. 615 (Quebec, 1883), printed from the MS. Paris Documents in the Boston State House. The writer of the Mémoire was with Ramesay's expedition. Also Ramesay à Vaudreuil, 19 Octobre, 1709, and Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709. Charlevoix says that Ramesay turned back because he believed that there were five thousand English at Wood Creek; but Ramesay himself makes their number only one thousand whites and two hundred Indians. He got his information from two Dutchmen caught just after the alarm near Pointe à la Chevelure (Crown Point). He turned back because he had failed to surprise the English, and also, it seems, because there were disagreements among his officers.

132

Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier et l'Hôpital Général de Québec, 203.

133

Dudley to Sunderland, 14 August, 1709.

134

Vetch to Sunderland, 2 August, 1709. The pay of the men was nine shillings a week, with eightpence a day for provisions; and most of them had received an enlistment bounty of £12.

135

Vetch to Sunderland, 12 August, 1709. Dudley writes with equal urgency two days later.

136

Letters of Nicholson, Dudley, and Vetch, 20 June to 24 October, 1709.

137

Joint Letter of Nicholson, Dudley, Vetch, and Moody to Sunderland, 24 October, 1709; also Joint Letter of Dudley, Vetch, and Moody to Sunderland, 25 October, 1709; Abstracts of Letters and Papers relating to the Attack of Port Royal, 1709 (Public Record Office); Address of ye Inhabitants of Boston and Parts adjacent, 1709. Moody, named above, was the British naval captain who had consented to attack Port Royal.

138

Order of Assembly, 27 October, 1709. Massachusetts had spent about £22,000 on her futile expedition of 1707, and, with New Hampshire and Rhode Island, a little more than £46,000 on that of 1709, besides continual outlay in guarding her two hundred miles of frontier,—a heavy expense for the place and time.

139

See J. R. Bartlett, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878, and Schuyler, Colonial New York, ii. 34-39. The chiefs returned to America in May on board the "Dragon." An elaborate pamphlet appeared in London, giving an account of them and their people. A set of the mezzotint portraits, which are large and well executed, is in the John Carter Brown collection at Providence. For photographic reproductions, see Winsor, Nar. and Crit. Hist., v. 107. Compare Smith, Hist. N. Y., i. 204 (1830).

140

Commission of Colonel Francis Nicholson, 18 May, 1710. Instructions to Colonel Nicholson, same date.

141

Instructions to Richard Viscount Shannon, July, 1710. A report of the scheme reached Boston. Hutchinson, ii. 164.

142

The troops, however, were actually embarked. True State of the Forces commanded by the Right Honble The Lord Viscount Shannon, as they were Embarkd the 14th of October, 1710. The total was three thousand two hundred and sixty-five officers and men. Also, Shannon to Sunderland, 16 October, 1710. The absurdity of the attempt at so late a season is obvious. Yet the fleet lay some weeks more at Portsmouth, waiting for a fair wind.

143

Archives of Massachusetts, vol. lxxi., where the original papers are preserved.

144

Nicholson and Vetch to the Secretary of State, 16 September, 1710; Hutchinson, ii. 164; Penhallow. Massachusetts sent two battalions of four hundred and fifty men each, and Connecticut one battalion of three hundred men, while New Hampshire and Rhode Island united their contingents to form a fourth battalion.

145

The contemporary English translation of this letter is printed among the papers appended to Nicholson's Journal in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, i.

146

In a letter to Ponchartrain, 1 October, 1710 (new style), Subercase declares that he has not a sou left, nor any credit. "I have managed to borrow enough to maintain the garrison for the last two years, and have paid what I could by selling all my furniture." Charlevoix's account of the siege has been followed by most writers, both French and English; but it is extremely incorrect. It was answered by one De Gannes, apparently an officer under Subercase, in a paper called Observations sur les Erreurs de la Relation du Siège du Port Royal … faittes sur de faux mémoires par le révérend Père Charlevoix, whom De Gannes often contradicts flatly. Thus Charlevoix puts the besieging force at thirty-four hundred men, besides officers and sailors, while De Gannes puts it at fourteen hundred; and while Charlevoix says that the garrison were famishing, his critic says that they were provisioned for three months. See the valuable notes to Shea's Charlevoix, v. 227-232.

The journal of Nicholson was published "by authority" in the Boston News Letter, November, 1710, and has been reprinted, with numerous accompanying documents, including the French and English correspondence during the siege, in the Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, i.

Vaudreuil, before the siege, sent a reinforcement to Subercase, who, by a strange infatuation, refused it. N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 853.

147

Rapport de Costebelle, 14 Octobre, 1709. Ibid., 3 Décembre, 1709.

148

"Je ne les crois pas assez aveugles pour ne point s'apercevoir qu'insensiblement ils vont subir le joug du parlement de la vieille Angleterre, mais par les cruautés que les Canadiens et sauvages exercent sur leurs terres par des courses continuelles je juge qu'ils aiment encore mieux se délivrer de l'inhumanité de semblables voisins que de conserver toute l'ancienne autorité de leur petite république."—Costebelle au Ministre, 3 Décembre, 1710. He clung tenaciously to this idea, and wrote again in 1712 that "les cruautés de nos sauvages, qui font horreur à rapporter," would always incline the New England people to peace. They had, however, an opposite effect.

149

It is more than probable that La Ronde Denys, who had studied the "Bastonnais" with care, first gave the idea to Costebelle.

150

Ponchartrain à Vaudreuil, 10 Août, 1710. Ponchartrain à Costebelle, même date. These letters are in answer to the reports of Costebelle, before cited.

151

Costebelle à Ponchartrain, 3 Décembre, 1710.

152

Instruction pour Monsieur de la Ronde, Capitaine d'Infanterie des Détachements de la Marine, 1711. "Le dit sieur de la Ronde pourroit entrer en négociation et se promettre de faire cesser toutes sortes d'hostilités du côté du Canada, supposé que les Bastonnais promissent d'en faire de même de leur côté, et qu'ils ne donassent aucun secours à l'avenir, d'hommes ni de vaisseaux, aux puissances de la vieille Angleterre et d'Ecosse."

153

"La vieille Angleterre ne s'imaginera pas que ces diverses Provinces se réuniront, et, secouant le joug de la monarchie Anglaise, s'érigeront en démocratie."—Mémoire sur la Nouvelle Angleterre, 1710, 1711. (Archives de la Marine.)

154

"Pour Baston, il faudrait la piller, ruiner ses ateliers, ses manufactures, tous ses beaux établissements, couler bas ses navires, … ruiner les ateliers de construction de navires."—Mémoire sur la Nouvelle Angleterre, 1710, 1711. The writer was familiar with Boston and its neighborhood, and had certainly spent some time there. Possibly he was no other than La Ronde Denys himself, after the failure of his mission to excite the "Bastonnais" to refuse co-operation with British armaments. He enlarges with bitterness on the extent of the fisheries, foreign trade, and ship-building of New England.

155

See Swift, Conduct of the Allies.

156

Boston, devoted to fishing, shipbuilding, and foreign trade, drew most of its provisions from neighboring colonies. (Dummer, Letter to a Noble Lord.) The people only half believed that the Tory ministry were sincere in attacking Canada, and suspected that the sudden demand for provisions, so difficult to meet at once, was meant to furnish a pretext for throwing the blame of failure upon Massachusetts. Hutchinson, ii. 173.

157

Minutes of Proceedings of the Congress of Governors, June, 1711.

158

Walker to Burchett, Secretary of the Admiralty, 14 August, 1711.

159

Abstract of the Journal of the Governor, Council, and Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay.

160

King to Secretary St. John, 25 July, 1711.

161

The number demanded from Massachusetts was one thousand, and that raised by her was eleven hundred and sixty. Dudley to Walker, 27 July, 1711.

162

Walker prints this letter in his Journal. Colonel King writes in his own Journal: "The conquest of Canada will naturally lead the Queen into changing their present disorderly government;" and he thinks that the conviction of this made the New Englanders indifferent to the success of the expedition.

163

The above is drawn from the various lists and tables in Walker, Journal of the Canada Expedition. The armed ships that entered Boston in June were fifteen in all; but several had been detached for cruising. The number of British transports, store-ships, etc., was forty, the rest being provincial.

164

Walker, Journal; Introduction.

165

Ibid., 25.

166

Walker, Journal, 124, 125.

167

King, Journal.

168

Vetch, Journal.

169

King, Journal.

170

Compare Walker, Journal, 45, and Ibid., 127, 128. He elsewhere intimates that his first statement needed correction.

171

Report of ye Soldiers, etc., Lost. (Public Record Office.) This is a tabular statement, giving the names of the commissioned officers and the positions of their subordinates, regiment by regiment. All the French accounts of the losses are exaggerations.

172

Hill to Dudley, 25 August, 1711.

173

Vetch, Journal. His statement is confirmed by the report of the council.

174

Report of a Consultation of Sea Officers belonging to the Squadron under Command of Sir Hovenden Walker, Kt., 25 August, 1711. Signed by Walker and eight others.

175

Vetch to Walker, 26 August, 1711.

176

Walker, Journal, Introduction, 25.

177

Kalm, Travels, ii. 135.

178

Schuyler, Colonial New York, ii. 48.

179

Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Octobre, 1711.

180

Déposition de François de Marganne, Sieur de la Valterie; par devant Nous, Paul Dupuy, Ecuyer, Conseiller du Roy, etc., 19 Octobre, 1711.

181

Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier et l'Histoire de l'Hôpital Général de Quebec, 209.

182

Juchereau, Histoire de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 473-491. La Ronde Denys says that nearly one thousand men were drowned, and that about two thousand died of injuries received. La Ronde au Ministre, 30 Décembre, 1711.

183

Some exaggeration was natural enough. Colonel Lee, of the Rhode Island contingent, says that a day or two after the wreck he saw "the bodies of twelve or thirteen hundred brave men, with women and children, lying in heaps." Lee to Governor Cranston, 12 September, 1711.

184

Walker's Journal was published in 1720, with an Introduction of forty-eight pages, written in bad temper and bad taste. The Journal contains many documents, printed in full. In the Public Record Office are preserved the Journals of Hill, Vetch, and King. Copies of these, with many other papers on the same subject, from the same source, are before me. Vetch's Journal and his letter to Walker after the wreck are printed in the Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. iv.

It appears by the muster-rolls of Massachusetts that what with manning the coast-guard vessels, defending the frontier against Indians, and furnishing her contingent to the Canada expedition, more than one in five of her able-bodied men were in active service in the summer of 1711. Years passed before she recovered from the effects of her financial exhaustion.

185

Offres de la France; Demandes de l'Angleterre et Réponses de la France, in Memorials of the English and French Commissaries concerning the Limits of Acadia.

186

Mémoire du Roy à ses Plénipotentiaires, 20 Mars, 1712.

187

Précis de ce qui s'est passé pendant la Négotiation de la Paix d'Utrecht au Sujet de l'Acadie; Juillet, 1711-Mai, 1712.

188

Mémoire du Roy, 20 Avril, 1712.

189

Mémoire sur l'Isle du Cap Breton, 1709.

190

Le Roy à Costebelle, 29 Septembre, 1713.

191

Recensement des Habitans de Plaisance et Iles de St. Pierre, rendus à Louisbourg avec leurs Femmes et Enfans, 5 Novembre, 1714.

192

Costebelle au Ministre, 19 Juillet, 1713.

193

Félix Pain à Costebelle, 23 Septembre, 1713.

194

Vetch was styled "General and Commander-in-chief of all his Majesty's troops in these parts, and Governor of the fort of Annapolis Royal, country of l'Accady and Nova Scotia." Hence he was the first English governor of Nova Scotia after its conquest in 1710. He was appointed a second time in 1715, Nicholson having served in the interim.

195

Narrative of Paul Mascarene, addressed to Nicholson. According to French accounts, a pestilence at Annapolis had carried off three fourths of the garrison. Gaulin à –, 5 Septembre, 1711; Cahouet au Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1711. In reality a little more than one hundred had died.

196

Passages from Vetch's letters, in Patterson, Memoir of Vetch.

197

Vetch to the Earl of Dartmouth, 22 January, 1711; Memorial of Council of War at Annapolis, 14 October, 1710.

198

Costebelle, Instruction au Capitaine de la Ronde, 1714.

199

Écrit des Habitants d'Annapolis Royale, 25 Aoust, 1714; Mémoire de La Ronde Denys, 30 Aoust, 1714.

200

In 1711, however, the missionary Félix Pain says, "The English have treated the Acadians with much humanity."—Père Félix à –, 8 Septembre, 1711.

201

This was the oath taken after the capitulation, which bound those who took it to allegiance so long as they remained in the province.

202

"As he used to curse and Damm Governor Vetch and all his friends, he is now served himself in the same manner."—Adams to Steele, 24 January, 1715.

203

For a great number of extracts from documents on this subject see a paper by Abbé Casgrain in Canada Français, i. 411-414; also the documentary supplement of the same publication.

204

La Ronde Denys au Ministre, 3 Décembre, 1715.

205

Costebelle au Ministre, 15 Janvier, 1715.

206

Governor Mascarene to the Secretary of State, 1 December, 1743. At this time there was also a blockhouse at Canseau, where a few soldiers were stationed. These were then the only British posts in the province. In May, 1727, Philipps wrote to the Lords of Trade: "Everything there [at Annapolis] is wearing the face of ruin and decay," and the ramparts are "lying level with the ground in breaches sufficiently wide for fifty men to enter abreast."

207

Philipps to Secretary Craggs, 26 September, 1720.

208

Selections from the Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 18, note.

209

"Those who are willing to remain there [in Acadia] and to be subject to the kingdom of Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exercise of their religion according to the usage of the Church of Home, as far as the laws of Great Britain do allow the same."—Treaty of Utrecht, 14th article.

210

Minutes of Council, 18 May, 1736. Governor Armstrong to the Secretary of State, 22 November, 1736.

211

Minutes of Council, 18 September, 1740, in Nova Scotia Archives.

212

Governor Mascarene to Père des Enclaves, 29 June, 1741.

213

Deputy-Governor Doucette to the Secretary of State, 5 November, 1717.

214

Governor Armstrong to the Secretary of State, 30 April, 1727.

215

Governor Philipps to Secretary Craggs, 26 September, 1720.

216

Ibid., 26 May, 1720.

217

Armstrong to the Secretary of State, 22 November, 1736. The dismissal of French priests and the substitution of others was again recommended some time after.

218

The motives for paying priests for instructing the people of a province ceded to England are given in a report of the French Marine Council. The Acadians "ne pourront jamais conserver un véritable attachement à la religion et à leur légitime souverain sans le secours d'un missionnaire" (Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, 23 Mai, 1719, in Le Canada-Français). The Intendant Bégon highly commends the efforts of the missionaries to keep the Acadians in the French interest (Bégon au Ministre, 25 Septembre, 1715), and Vaudreuil praises their zeal in the same cause (Vaudreuil au Ministre, 31 Octobre, 1717).

219

Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, 3 Mai, 1718.

220

Record of Council at Annapolis, 11 and 24 October, 1726.

221

Armstrong to Saint-Ovide, 17 June, 1732.

222

The Acadians to Saint-Ovide, 6 May, 1720, in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 25. This letter was evidently written for them,—no doubt by a missionary.

223

"They can march off at their leisure, by way of the Baye Verte, with their effects, without danger of being molested by this garrison, which scarce suffices to secure the Fort."—Philipps to Secretary Craggs, 26 May, 1720.

224

The Board of Trade to Philipps, 28 December, 1720.

225

Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, Aoust, 1720. The attempt against the garrison was probably opposed by the priests, who must have seen the danger that it would rouse the ministry into sending troops to the province, which would have been disastrous to their plans.

226

Certificat de Charles de la Gaudalie, prêtre, curé missionnaire de la paroisse des Mines, et Noël-Alexandre Noiville, … curé de l'Assomption et de la Sainte Famille de Pigiguit; printed in Rameau, Une Colonie Féodale en Amérique (ed. 1889), ii. 53.

227

The preceding chapter is based largely on two collections of documents relating to Acadia,—the Nova Scotia Archives, or Selections from the Public Documents of Nova Scotia, printed in 1869 by the government of that province, and the mass of papers collected by Rev. H. R. Casgrain and printed in the documentary department of Le Canada-Français, a review published under direction of Laval University at Quebec. Abbé Casgrain, with passionate industry, has labored to gather everything in Europe or America that could tell in favor of the French and against the English. Mr. Akins, the editor of the Nova Scotia Archives, leans to the other side, so that the two collections supplement each other. Both are copious and valuable. Besides these, I have made use of various documents from the archives of Paris not to be found in either of the above-named collections.

228

In 1700, however, there was an agreement, under the treaty of Ryswick, which extended the English limits as far as the river St. George, a little west of the Penobscot.

229

See "Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century."

230

So written by himself in an autograph letter of 18 November, 1712. It is also spelled Rasle, Rasles, Ralle, and, very incorrectly, Rallé, or Rallee.

231

The above particulars are taken from an inscription on a manuscript map in the library of the Maine Historical Society, made in 1716 by Joseph Heath, one of the principal English settlers on the Kennebec, and for a time commandant of the fort at Brunswick.

232

When Colonel Westbrook and his men came to Norridgewock in 1722, they found a paper pinned to the church door, containing, among others, the following words, in the handwriting of Rale, meant as a fling at the English invaders: "It [the church] is ill built, because the English don't work well. It is not finished, although five or six Englishmen have wrought here during four years, and the Undertaker [contractor], who is a great Cheat, hath been paid in advance for to finish it." The money came from the Canadian government.

233

Myrica cerifera.

234

The site of the Indian village is still called Indian Old Point. Norridgewock is the Naurantsouak, or Narantsouak, of the French. For Rale's mission life, see two letters of his, 15 October, 1722, and 12 October, 1722, and a letter of Père La Chasse, Superior of the Missions, 29 October, 1724. These are printed in the Lettres Édifiantes, xvii. xxiii.

235

Père La Chasse, in his eulogy of Rale, says that there was not a language on the continent with which he had not some acquaintance. This is of course absurd. Besides a full knowledge of the Norridgewock Abenaki, he had more or less acquaintance with two other Algonquin languages,—the Ottawa and the Illinois,—and also with the Huron; which is enough for one man.

236

This treaty is given in full by Penhallow. It is also printed from the original draft by Mr. Frederic Kidder, in his Abenaki Indians: their Treaties of 1713 and 1717. The two impressions are substantially the same, but with verbal variations. The version of Kidder is the more complete, in giving not only the Indian totemic marks, but also the autographs in facsimile of all the English officials. Rale gives a dramatic account of the treaty, which he may have got from the Indians, and which omits their submission and their promises.