Volume I Part 9 (1/2)
[127] Joncaire in _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 838.
[128] Mareuil in _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 836, text and note. _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709._
[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] _Memoire sur le Canada, Annee 1709._ This paper, which has been ascribed to the engineer De Lery, is printed in _Collection de Ma.n.u.scrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France_, i. 615 (Quebec, 1883), printed from the MS. _Paris Doc.u.ments_ in the Boston State House. The writer of the _Memoire_ was with Ramesay's expedition. Also _Ramesay a 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 a 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'Hopital General de Quebec_, 203.
[133] _Dudley to Sunderland, 14 August, 1709._
[134] _Vetch to Sunderland, 2 August, 1709._ The pay of the men was nine s.h.i.+llings 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 a.s.sembly, 27 October, 1709._ Ma.s.sachusetts had spent about 22,000 on her futile expedition of 1707, and, with New Hamps.h.i.+re 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 Ma.s.sachusetts_, vol. lxxi., where the original papers are preserved.
[144] _Nicholson and Vetch to the Secretary of State, 16 September, 1710_; Hutchinson, ii. 164; Penhallow. Ma.s.sachusetts sent two battalions of four hundred and fifty men each, and Connecticut one battalion of three hundred men, while New Hamps.h.i.+re 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 Siege du Port Royal ... faittes sur de faux memoires par le reverend Pere 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 famis.h.i.+ng, 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 doc.u.ments, 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.
CHAPTER VIII.
1710, 1711.
WALKER'S EXPEDITION.