Volume I Part 10 (2/2)
[148] ”Je ne les crois pas a.s.sez aveugles pour ne point s'apercevoir qu'insensiblement ils vont subir le joug du parlement de la vieille Angleterre, mais par les cruautes que les Canadiens et sauvages exercent sur leurs terres par des courses continuelles je juge qu'ils aiment encore mieux se delivrer de l'inhumanite de semblables voisins que de conserver toute l'ancienne autorite de leur pet.i.te republique.”--_Costebelle au Ministre, 3 Decembre, 1710._ He clung tenaciously to this idea, and wrote again in 1712 that ”les cruautes de nos sauvages, qui font horreur a 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 a Vaudreuil, 10 Aout, 1710._ _Ponchartrain a Costebelle, meme date._ These letters are in answer to the reports of Costebelle, before cited.
[151] _Costebelle a Ponchartrain, 3 Decembre, 1710._
[152] _Instruction pour Monsieur de la Ronde, Capitaine d'Infanterie des Detachements de la Marine_, 1711. ”Le dit sieur de la Ronde pourroit entrer en negociation et se promettre de faire cesser toutes sortes d'hostilites du cote du Canada, suppose que les Bastonnais promissent d'en faire de meme de leur cote, et qu'ils ne dona.s.sent aucun secours a 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 reuniront, et, secouant le joug de la monarchie Anglaise, s'erigeront en democratie.”--_Memoire 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 etabliss.e.m.e.nts, couler bas ses navires, ...
ruiner les ateliers de construction de navires.”--_Memoire 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 s.h.i.+p-building of New England.
[155] See Swift, _Conduct of the Allies_.
[156] Boston, devoted to fis.h.i.+ng, s.h.i.+pbuilding, and foreign trade, drew most of its provisions from neighboring colonies. (Dummer, _Letter to a n.o.ble 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 Ma.s.sachusetts. 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 a.s.sembly of the Province of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay._
[160] _King to Secretary St. John, 25 July, 1711._
[161] The number demanded from Ma.s.sachusetts 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 s.h.i.+ps that entered Boston in June were fifteen in all; but several had been detached for cruising.
The number of British transports, store-s.h.i.+ps, 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.
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