* One circumstance that attended this dispute deserves to be transmitted to posterity, as an instance of that courage, mingled with humanity, which constitutes true heroism. While the French and English were hotly engaged in one of the streets, a little child ran playfully between them, having no idea of the danger to which it was exposed: a common soldier of the enemy, perceiving the life of this poor innocent at stake, grounded his piece, advanced deliberately between the lines of fire, took up the child in his arms, conveyed it to a place of safety; then returning to his place, resumed his musket, and renewed his hostility.

Nevertheless, they repulsed the assailants in the first attack, even after the gate was burst open, and supplied the want of shot with stones and rubbish. At length the colonel and his troops were obliged to surrender, on condition that they should not be sent prisoners to France, but be ransomed, by sending thither an equal number of French prisoners from Great Britain or Ireland: that the castle should not be demolished, nor the town of Carrickfergus plundered or burned, on condition that the mayor and corporation should furnish the French troops with necessary provisions. The enemy, after this exploit, did not presume to advance farther into the country; a step which indeed they could not have taken with any regard to their own safety; for by this time a considerable body of regular troops was assembled; and the people of the country manifested a laudable spirit of loyalty and resolution, crowding in great numbers to Belfast, to offer their service against the invaders. These circumstances, to which the enemy were no strangers, and the defeat of Conflans, which they had also learned, obliged them to quit their conquest, and re-embark with some precipitation, after having laid Carrickfergus under moderate contributions.

The fate they escaped on shore they soon met with at sea. Captain John Elliot, who commanded three frigates at Kinsale, and had in the course of this war more than once already distinguished himself even in his early youth, by extraordinary acts of valour, was informed by a despatch from the duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, that three of the enemy's ships lay at anchor in the bay of Carrickfergus; and thither he immediately shaped his course in the ship AEolus, accompanied by the Pallas and Brilliant, under the command of the captains Clements and Logic. On the twenty-eighth day of February they descried the enemy, and gave chase in sight of the Isle of Man; and about nine in the morning, captain Elliot, in his own ship, engaged the Belleisle, commanded by Thurot, although considerably his superior in strength of men, number of guns, and weight of metal. In a few minutes his consorts were also engaged with the other two ships of the enemy. After a warm action, maintained with great spirit on all sides for an hour and a half, captain Elliot's lieutenant boarded the Belleisle; and, striking her colours with his own hand, the commander submitted: his example was immediately followed by the other French captains; and the English commodore, taking possession of his prizes, conveyed them into the bay of Ramsay, in the Isle of Man, that their damage might be repaired. Though the Belleisle was very leaky, and had lost her boltsprit, mizen-mast, and main-yard, in all probability the victory would not have been so easily obtained, had not the gallant Thurot fallen during the action. The victor had not even the consolation to perform the last offices to his brave enemy; for his body was thrown into the sea by his own people in the hurry of the engagement. The loss on the side of the English did not exceed forty men killed and wounded, whereas above three hundred of the enemy were slain and disabled. The service performed on this occasion was deemed so essential to the peace and commerce of Ireland, that the thanks of the house of commons in that kingdom were voted to the conquerors of Thurot, as well as to lieutenant-colonel Jennings, for his spirited behaviour at Carrickfergus; and the freedom of the city of Cork was presented in silver boxes to the captains Elliot, Clements, and Logie. The name of Thurot was become terrible to all the trading seaports of Great Britain and Ireland; and therefore the defeat and capture of his squadron were celebrated with as hearty rejoicings as the most important victory could have produced.

In the beginning of April another engagement between four frigates, still more equally matched, had a different issue, though not less honourable for the British commanders. Captain Skinner of the Biddeford, and captain Kennedy of the Flamborough, both frigates, sailed on a cruise from Lisbon; and on the fourth day of April, fell in with two large French frigates, convoy to a fleet of merchant-ships, which the English captains immediately resolved to engage. The enemy did not decline the battle, which began about half an hour after six in the evening, and raged with great fury till eleven. By this time the Flamborough had lost sight of the Biddeford; and the frigate with which captain Kennedy was engaged bore away with all the sail she could carry. He pursued her till noon the next day, when she had left him so far astern, that he lost sight of her, and returned to Lisbon with the loss of fifteen men killed and wounded, including the lieutenant of marines, and considerable damage both in her hull and rigging. In three days he was joined by the Biddeford, which had also compelled her antagonist to give way, and pursued her till she was out of sight. In about an hour after the action began, captain Skinner was killed by a cannon-ball; and the command devolved to lieutenant Knollis, son to the earl of Banbury,* who maintained the battle with great spirit, even after he way wounded, until he received a second shot in his body, which proved mortal.

* Five sons of this nobleman were remarkably distinguished in this war. The fourth and fifth were dangerously wounded at the battle of Minden; the second was hurt in the reduction of Guadaloupe; lord Wallingford, the eldest, received a shot at Carrickfergus; and the third was slain in this engagement.

Then the master, assuming the direction, continued the engagement with equal resolution till the enemy made his escape; which he the more easily accomplished, as the Biddeford was disabled in her masts and rigging.



REMARKABLE ADVENTURE OF FIVE IRISHMEN.

The bravery of five Irishmen and a boy, belonging to the crew of a ship from Waterford, deserves commemoration. The vessel, in her return from Bilboa, laden with brandy and iron, being taken by a French privateer off Ushant, about the middle of April, the captors removed the master, and all the hands but these five men and the boy, who were left to assist nine Frenchmen in navigating the vessel to France. These stout Hibernians immediately formed a plan of insurrection, and executed it with success. Four of the French mariners being below deck, three aloft among the rigging, one at the helm, and another walking the deck, Brian, who headed the enterprise, tripped up the heels of the French steersman, seized his pistol, and discharged it at him who walked the deck; but missing the mark, he knocked him down with the but-end of the piece. At the same time hallooing to his confederates below, they assailed the enemy with their own broadswords; and, soon compelling them to submit, came upon deck, and shut the hatches. Brian being now in possession of the quarter-deck, those who were aloft called for quarter, and surrendered without opposition. The Irish having thus obtained a complete victory, almost without bloodshed, and secured the prisoners, another difficulty occurred: neither Brian nor any of his associates could read or write, or knew the least principle of navigation; but supposing his course to be north, he steered at a venture, and the first land he made was the neighbourhood of Youghall, where he happily arrived with his prisoners.



THE RAMILLIES MAN OF WAR WRECKED.

The only considerable damage sustained by the navy of Great Britain, since the commencement of this year, was the loss of the Ramillies, a magnificent ship of the second rate, belonging to the squadron which admiral Boscawen commanded on the coast of France, in order to watch the motions and distress the commerce of that restless enterprising enemy. In the beginning of February, a series of stormy weather obliged the admiral to return from the bay of Quiberon to Plymouth, where he arrived with much difficulty: but the Ramillies overshot the entrance to the sound; and, being embayed near a point called the Bolthead, about four leagues higher up the channel, was dashed in pieces among the rocks, after all her anchors and cables had given way. All her officers and men, amounting to seven hundred, perished on this occasion, except one midshipman and twenty-five mariners, who had the good fortune to save themselves by leaping on the rocks as the hull was thrown forwards, and raised up by the succeeding billows. Such were the most material transactions of the year, relating to the British empire in the seas of Europe.



TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEES. HOSTILITIES RECOMMENCED.

We shall now transport the reader to the continent of North America, which, as the theatre of war, still maintained its former importance. The French emissaries from the province of Louisiana had exercised their arts of insinuation with such success among the Cherokees—a numerous and powerful nation of Indians settled on the confines of Virginia and Carolina—that they had infringed the peace with the English towards the latter end of the last year, and begun hostilities by plundering, massacring, and scalping several British subjects of the more southern provinces. Mr. Lyttleton, governor of South Carolina, having received information of these outrages, obtained the necessary aids from the assembly of the province, for maintaining a considerable body of forces, which was raised with great expedition. He marched in the beginning of October, at the head of eight hundred provincials, reinforced with three hundred regular troops, and penetrated into the heart of the country possessed by the Cherokees, who were so much intimidated by his vigour and despatch, that they sent a deputation of their chiefs to sue for peace, which was re-established by a new treaty, dictated by the English governor. They obliged themselves to renounce the French interest, to deliver up all the spies and emissaries of that nation then resident among them; to surrender to justice those of their own people who had been concerned in murdering and scalping the British subjects; and for the performance of these articles two-and-twenty of their head men were put as hostages into the hands of the governor. So little regard, however, was paid by these savages to this solemn accommodation, that Mr. Lyttleton had been returned but a few days from their country, when they attempted to surprise the English fort Prince George, near the frontiers of Carolina, by going thither in a body, on pretence of delivering up some murderers; but the commanding officer, perceiving some suspicious circumstances in their behaviour, acted with such vigilance and circumspection as entirely frustrated their design. [549] [See note 4 L, at the end of this Vol.] Thus disappointed, they wreaked their vengeance upon the English subjects trading in their country, all of whom they butchered without mercy. Not contented with this barbarous sacrifice, they made incursions on the British settlements at the Long Lanes, and the forks of the Broad River, and massacred about forty defenceless colonists, who reposed themselves in full security on the peace so lately ratified. As views of interest could not have induced them to act in this manner, and their revenge had not been inflamed by any fresh provocation, these violences must be imputed to the instigation of French incendiaries; and too plainly evinced the necessity of crowning our American conquests with the reduction of Louisiana, from whence these emissaries were undoubtedly despatched.

The cruelty and mischief with which the Cherokees prosecuted their renewed hostilities alarmed all the southern colonies of the English, and application was made for assistance to Mr. Amherst, the commander-in-chief of the king's forces in America. He forthwith detached twelve hundred chosen men to South Carolina, under the command of colonel Montgomery, brother to the earl of Eglinton, an officer of approved conduct and distinguished gallantry. Immediately after his arrival at Charles-Town, he advanced to Ninety-Six, and proceeded to Twelve-mile river, which he passed in the beginning of June, without opposition. He continued his route by forced marches until he arrived in the neighbourhood of the Indian town called Little Keowee, where he encamped in an advantageous situation. Having reason to believe the enemy were not yet apprized of his coming, he resolved to rush upon them in the night by surprise. With this view, leaving his tents standing with a sufficient guard for the camp and waggons, he marched through the woods towards the Cherokee town of Estatoe, at the distance of five-and-twenty miles: and in his route detached a company of light infantry to destroy the village of Little Keowee, where they were received with a smart fire; but they rushed in with their bayonets, and all the men were put to the sword. The main body proceeded straight to Estatoe, which they reached in the morning; but it had been abandoned about half an hour before their arrival. Some few of the Indians, who had not time to escape, were slain; and the town, consisting of two hundred houses, well stored with provisions, ammunition, and all the necessaries of life, was first plundered, and then reduced to ashes: some of the wretched inhabitants who concealed themselves perished in the flames. It was necessary to strike a terror into those savages by some examples of severity; and the soldiers became deaf to all the suggestions of mercy when they found in one of the Indian towns the body of an Englishman, whom they had put to the torture that very morning. Colonel Montgomery followed his blow with surprising rapidity. In the space of a few hours he destroyed Sugar-Town, which was as large as Estateo, and every village and house in the Lower Nation. The Indian villages in this part of the world were agreeably situated, generally consisting of about one hundred houses, neatly and commodiously built, and well supplied with provisions. They had in particular large magazines of corn, which were consumed in the flames. All the men that were taken suffered immediate death; but the greater part of the nation had escaped with the utmost precipitation. In many houses the beds were yet warm, and the table spread with victuals. Many loaded guns went off while the houses were burning. The savages had not time to save their most valuable effects. The soldiers found some money, three or four watches, a good quantity of wampum, clothes, and peltry. Colonel Montgomery having thus taken vengeance on the perfidious Cherokees, at the expense of five or six men killed or wounded, returned to Fort Prince George, with about forty Indian women and children whom he had made prisoners. Two of their warriors were set at liberty, and desired to inform their nation, that, though they were now in the power of the English, they might still, on their submission, enjoy the blessings of peace. As the chief called Attakullakulla, alias the Little Carpenter, who had signed the last treaty, disapproved of the proceedings of his countrymen, and had done many good offices to the English since the renovation of the war, he was now given to understand that he might come down with some other chiefs to treat of an accommodation, which would be granted to the Cherokees on his account; but that the negotiation must be begun in a few days, otherwise all the towns in the Upper Nation would be ravaged and reduced to ashes.

These intimations having produced little or no effect, colonel Montgomery resolved to make a second irruption into the middle settlements of the Cherokees, and began his march on the twenty-fourth day of June. On the twenty-seventh, captain Morrison, of the advanced party, was killed by a shot from a thicket, and the firing became so troublesome that his men gave way. The grenadiers and light infantry being detached to sustain them, continued to advance, notwithstanding the fire from the woods; until, from a rising ground, they discovered a body of the enemy. These they immediately attacked, and obliged to retire into a Swamp; which, when the rest of the troops came up, they were after a short resistance compelled to abandon: but, as the country was difficult, and the path extremely narrow, the forces suffered on their march from the fire of scattered parties who concealed themselves behind trees and bushes. At length they arrived at the town of Etchowee, which the inhabitants had forsaken after having removed every thing of value. Here, while the army encamped on a small plain, surrounded by hills, it was incommoded by volleys from the enemy, which wounded some men, and killed several horses. They were even so daring as to attack the piquet guard, which repulsed them with difficulty; but, generally speaking, their parties declined an open engagement. Colonel Montgomery, sensible that, as many horses were killed or disabled, he could not proceed farther without leaving his provisions behind, or abandoning the wounded men to the brutal revenge of a savage enemy, resolved to return; and began his retreat in the night, that he might be the less disturbed by the Indians. Accordingly, he pursued his route for two days without interruption; but afterwards sustained some straggling fires from the woods, though the parties of the enemy were put to flight as often as they appeared. In the beginning of July he arrived at Fort Prince George; this expedition having cost him about seventy men killed and wounded, including five officers.



FATE OF THE GARRISON AT FORT LOUDOUN.

In revenge for these calamities, the Cherokees assembled to a considerable number, and formed the blockade of Fort Loudoun, a small fortification near the confines of Virginia, defended by an inconsiderable garrison, ill supplied with provisions and necessaries. After having sustained a long siege, and being reduced to the utmost distress, captain Demere, the commander, held a council of war with the other officers, to deliberate upon their present situation; when it appeared that their provisions were entirely exhausted; that they had subsisted a considerable time without bread upon horse-flesh, and such supplies of pork and beans as the Indian women could introduce by stealth: that the men were so weakened with famine and fatigue, that in a little time they would not be able to do duty; that, for two nights past, considerable parties had deserted, and some thrown themselves upon the mercy of the enemy; but the garrison in general threatened to abandon their officers, and betake themselves to the woods; and that there was no prospect of relief, their communication having been long cut off from all the British settlements: for these reasons they were unanimously of opinion that it was impracticable to prolong their defence; and they should accept of an honourable capitulation; and captain Stuart should be sent to treat with the warriors and the head men of the Cherokees, about the conditions of their surrender. This officer, being accordingly despatched with full powers, obtained a capitulation of the Indians, by which the garrison was permitted to retire. The Indians desired that, when they arrived at Keowee, the Cherokee prisoners confined at that place should be released, all hostilities cease, a lasting accommodation be re-established, and a regulated trade revived. In consequence of this treaty the garrison evacuated the fort, and had marched about fifteen miles on their return to Carolina, when they were surrounded and surprised by a large body of Indians, who massacred all the officers except captain Stuart, and slew five and twenty of the soldiers: the rest were made prisoners, and distributed among the different towns and villages of the nation. Captain Stuart owed his life to the generous intercession of the Little Carpenter, who ransomed him at the price of all he could command, and conducted him safe to Holston River, where he found major Lewis advanced so far with a body of Virginians. The savages, encouraged by their success at Fort Loudoun, undertook the siege of Ninety-Six, and other small fortifications; but retired precipitately on the approach of a body of provincials.



BRITISH INTEREST ESTABLISHED ON THE OHIO.

In the meantime, the British interest and empire were firmly established on the banks of the Ohio, by the prudence and conduct of major-general Stanwix, who had passed the winter at Pittsburgh, formerly Du Quesne, and employed that time in the most effectual manner for the service of his country. He repaired the old works, established posts of communication from the Ohio to Monongahela, mounted the bastions that cover the isthmus with artillery, erected casemates, store-houses, and barracks, for a numerous garrison, and cultivated with equal diligence and success the friendship and alliance of the Indians. The happy consequences of these measures were soon apparent in the production of a considerable trade between the natives and the merchants of Pittsburgh, and in the perfect security of about four thousand settlers, who now returned to the quiet possession of the lands from whence they had been driven by the enemy on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



THE FRENCH UNDERTAKE THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC.

The incidents of the war were much more important and decisive in the more northern parts of this great continent. The reader will remember that brigadier-general Murray was left to command the garrison of Quebec, amounting to about six thousand men; that a strong squadron of ships was stationed at Halifax, in Nova-Scotia, under the direction of lord Colville, an able and experienced officer, who had instructions to revisit Quebec in the beginning of summer, as soon as the river St. Laurence should be navigable; and that general Amherst, the commander-in-chief of the forces in America, wintered in New-York, that he might be at hand to assemble his troops in the spring, and re-commence his operations for the entire reduction of Canada. General Murray neglected no step that could be taken by the most vigilant officer for maintaining the important conquest of Quebec, and subduing all the Lower Canada; the inhabitants of which actually submitted, and took the oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain. [550] [See note 4 M, at the end of this Vol.] The garrison., however, within the walls of Quebec, suffered greatly from the excessive cold in the winter, and the want of vegetables and fresh provisions; insomuch that, before the end of April, one thousand soldiers were dead of the scurvy, and twice that number rendered unfit for service. Such was the situation of the garrison, when Mr. Murray received undoubted intelligence that the French commander, the chevalier de Levis, was employed in assembling his army, which had been cantoned in the neighbourhood of Montreal; that from the inhabitants of the country he had completed his eight battalions, regimented forty companies of the troops de Colonie, and determined to undertake the siege of Quebec, whenever the river St. Laurence should be so clear of ice that he could use his four frigates, and other vessels, by means of which he was entirely master of the river.

The brigadier, considering the city of Quebec as no other than a strong cantonment, had projected a plan of defence, by extending lines, and intrenching his troops on the heights of Abraham, which at the distance of eight hundred paces, entirely commanded the ramparts of the city, and might have been defended by a small force against a formidable army. Fascines, and every other necessary for this work, had been provided; and in the month of April the men were set at work upon the projected lines: but the earth was so hardened by the frost, that it was found impracticable to proceed. Being informed on the night of the twenty-sixth, that the enemy had landed at Point-au-Tremble, to the number of ten thousand men, with five hundred savages, he ordered all the bridges over the river Cape Rouge to be broken down, secured the landing places at Sylleri and the Foulon; and next day, marching in person with a strong detachment, and two field-pieces, took possession of an advantageous situation, and thus defeated the scheme which the French commander had laid for cutting off the posts which the English had established. These being all withdrawn, the brigadier that same afternoon marched back to Quebec, with little or no loss, although his rear was harassed by the enemy. Here he formed a resolution which hath been censured by some critics in war, as a measure that savoured more of youthful impatience and overboiling courage than of that military discretion which ought to distinguish a commander in such a delicate situation; but it is more easy to censure with an appearance of reason, than to act in such circumstances with any certainty of success. Mr. Murray, in his letter to the secretary of state, declared, that, although the enemy were greatly superior to him in number, yet, when he considered that the English forces were habituated to victory, that they were provided with a fine train of field-artillery; that, in shutting them at once within the walls, he should have risked his whole stake on the single chance of defending a wretched fortification; a chance which could not be much lessened by an action in the field, though such an action would double the chance of success: for these reasons he determined to hazard a battle; should the event prove unprosperous, he resolved to hold out the place to the last extremity; then to retreat to the Isle of Orleans, or Coudres, with the remainder of the garrison, and there wait for a reinforcement. In pursuance of these resolutions he gave the necessary orders over night; and on the twenty-eighth day of April, at half an hour after six in the morning, marched out with his little army of three thousand men, which he formed on the heights in order of battle. The right brigade, commanded by colonel Burton, consisted of the regiments of Amherst, Anstruther, Webb, and the second battalion of Royal Americans; the left, under colonel Fraser, was formed of the regiments of Kennedy, Lascelles, Town-shend, and the Highlanders. Otway's regiment, and the third battalion of Royal Americans, constituted the corps de reserve. Major Dalling's corps of light infantry covered the right flank; the left was secured by captain Huzzen's company of rangers, and one hundred volunteers, under the command of captain Donald Mac-donald; and each battalion was supplied with two field-pieces. Brigadier Murray, having reconnoitred the enemy, perceived their van had taken possession of the rising grounds about three quarters of a mile in his front; but that their army was on the march in one column. Thinking this was the critical moment to attack them before they were formed, he advanced towards them with equal order and expedition. They were soon driven from the heights, though not without a warm dispute; during which the body of their army advanced at a round pace, and formed in columns. Their van consisted of ten companies of grenadiers, two of volunteers, and four hundred savages; eight battalions, formed in four columns, with some bodies of Canadians in the intervals, constituted their main body; their rear was composed of two battalions, and some Canadians in the flanks; and two thousand Canadians formed the reserve. Their whole army amounted to upwards of twelve thousand men. Major Balling, with great gallantry, dispossessed their grenadiers of a house and windmill which they occupied, in order to cover their left flank; and in this attack the major and some of his officers were wounded: nevertheless, the light infantry pursued the fugitives to a corps which was formed to sustain them; then the pursuers halted, and dispersed along the front of the right; a circumstance which prevented that wing from taking advantage of the first impression they had made on the left of the enemy. The light infantry, being ordered to regain the flank, were, in attempting this motion, furiously charged, and thrown into disorder: then they retired to the rear in such a shattered condition, that they could never again be brought up during the whole action. Otway's regiment was instantly ordered to advance from the body of the reserve, and sustain the right wing, which the enemy twice in vain attempted to penetrate. Meanwhile the left brigade of the British forces did not remain inactive: they had dispossessed the French of two redoubts, and sustained with undaunted resolution the whole efforts of the enemy's right, until they were fairly fought down, overpowered by numbers, and reduced to a handful, notwithstanding the assistance they received from the third battalion of Royal Americans, which had been stationed with the body of the reserve, as well as from Kennedy's regiment, posted in the centre. The French attacked with great impetuosity; and at length a fresh column of the regiment de Rousillon penetrating the left wing of the British army, it gave way; the disorder was soon communicated to the right; so that after a very obstinate dispute, which lasted an hour and three quarters, brigadier Murray was obliged to quit the field, with the loss of one thousand men killed or wounded, and the greater part of his artillery. The enemy lost twice the number of men and reaped no essential advantage from their victory.



QUEBEC BESIEGED.

Mr. Murray, far from being dispirited by his defeat, no sooner retired within the walls of Quebec, than he resolved to prosecute the fortifications of the place, which had been interrupted by the severity of the winter; and the soldiers exerted themselves with incredible alacrity, not only in labouring at the works, but also in the defence of the town, before which the enemy had opened trenches on the very evening of the battle. Three ships anchored at the Foulon below their camp; and for several days they were employed in landing their cannon, mortars, and ammunition. Meanwhile they worked incessantly at their trenches before the town; and on the eleventh day of May, opened one bomb-battery, and three batteries of cannon. Brigadier Murray made the necessary dispositions to defend the place to the last extremity: he raised two cavaliers, contrived some out-works, and planted the ramparts with one hundred and thirty-two pieces of artillery, dragged thither mostly by the soldiery. Though the enemy cannonaded the place with great vivacity the first day, their fire soon slackened; and their batteries were in a manner silenced by the superior fire of the garrison: nevertheless, Quebec would in all probability have reverted to its former owners, had a French fleet from Europe got the start of an English squadron in sailing up the river.



THE ENEMIES SHIPPING DESTROYED.

Lord Colville had sailed from Halifax, with the fleet under his command, on the twenty-second day of April; but was retarded in his passage by thick fogs, contrary winds, and great shoals of ice floating down the river. Commodore Swanton, who had sailed from England with a small reinforcement, arrived about the beginning of May at the Isle of Bee, in the river St. Laurence, where, with two ships, he purposed to wait for the rest of his squadron, which had separated from him in the passage: but one of these, the Lowestoffe, commanded by captain Deane, had entered the harbour of Quebec on the ninth day of May, and communicated to the governor the joyful news that the squadron was arrived in the river. Commodore Swanton no sooner received intimation that Quebec was besieged, than he sailed up the river with all possible expedition, and on the fifteenth in the evening anchored above Point Levi. The brigadier expressing an earnest desire that the French squadron above the town might be removed, the commodore ordered captain Schomberg of the Diana, and captain Deane of the Lowestoffe, to slip their cables early next morning, and attack the enemy's fleet, consisting of two frigates, two armed ships, and a great number of smaller vessels. They were no sooner in motion than the French ships fled in the utmost disorder. One of their frigates was driven on the rocks above Cape Diamond; the other ran ashore, and was burned at Point-au-Tremble, about ten leagues above the town; and all the other vessels were taken or destroyed.

The enemy were so confounded and dispirited by this disaster, and the certain information that a strong English fleet was already in the river St. Laurence, that in the following night they raised the siege of Quebec, and retreated with great precipitation, leaving their provisions, implements, and artillery to governor Murray, who had intended to make a vigorous sally in the morning, and attempt to penetrate into the camp of the besiegers, which, from the information of prisoners and deserters, he conceived to be a very practicable scheme. For this purpose he had selected a body of troops, who were already under arms, when a lieutenant, whom he had sent out with a detachment to amuse the enemy, came and assured him that their trenches were abandoned. He instantly marched out of Quebec at the head of his forces, in hopes of overtaking and making an impression on their rear, that he might have ample revenge for his late discomfiture; but they had passed the river Cape Rouge before he could come up with their army: however, he took some prisoners, and a great quantity of baggage, including their tents, stores, magazines of provision and ammunition, with thirty-four pieces of battering cannon, ten field-pieces, six mortars, four petards, a great number of scaling ladders, intrenching tools, and every other implement for a siege. They retired to Jaques-Quartiere, where their ammunition began to fail, and they were abandoned by great part of the Canadians; so that they resigned all hope of succeeding against Quebec, and began to take measures for the preservation of Montreal, against which the force under general Amherst was directed. There M. Vaudreuil had fixed his head-quarters, and there he proposed to make his last stand against the efforts of the British general. He not only levied forces, collected magazines, and erected new fortifications in the island of Montreal, but he had even recourse to feigned intelligence, and other arts of delusion, to support the spirits of the Canadians and their Indian allies, which had begun to flag in consequence of their being obliged to abandon the siege of Quebec. It must be owned, he acted with all the spirit and foresight of an experienced general, determined to exert himself for the preservation of the colony, even though very little prospect of success remained. His hopes, slender as they were, depended upon the natural strength of the country, rendered almost inaccessible by woods, mountains, and morasses, which might have retarded the progress of the English, and protracted the war until a general pacification could be effected. In the meantime, major-general Amherst was diligently employed in taking measures for the execution of the plan he had projected, in order to complete the conquest of Canada. He conveyed instructions to general Murray, directing him to advance by water towards Montreal, with all the troops that could be spared from the garrison of Quebec. He detached colonel Haviland, with a body of troops from Crown-Point, to take possession of the Isle-aux-Noix, in the lake Champlain, and from thence penetrate the shortest way to the bank of the river St. Laurence; while he himself, with the main body of the army, amounting to about ten thousand men, including Indians, should proceed from the frontiers of New York, by the rivers of the Mohawks and Oneidas, to the lake Ontario, and sail down the river St. Laurence to the island of Montreal. Thus, on the supposition that all these particulars could be executed, the enemy must have been hemmed in and entirely surrounded. In pursuance of this plan, general Amherst had provided two armed sloops to cruise in the lake Ontario, under the command of captain Loring; as well as a great number of bateaux, or smaller vessels, for the transportation of the troops, artillery, ammunition, implements, and baggage. Several regiments were ordered to proceed from Albany to Oswego: and the general taking his departure from Schenectady, with the rest of the forces, in the latter end of June, arrived at the same place on the ninth day of July.



GENERAL AMHERST REDUCES THE FRENCH FORT AT THE ISLE ROYALE.

Being informed that two French vessels had appeared off Oswego, he despatched some bateaux to Niagara, with intelligence to captain Loring, who immediately set sail in quest of them; but they escaped his pursuit, though they had twice appeared in the neighbourhood of Oswego since the arrival of the general, who endeavoured to amuse them, by detaching bateaux to different parts of the lake. The army being assembled, and joined by a considerable body of Indians, under the command of sir William Johnston, the general detached colonel Haviland, with the light infantry, the grenadiers, and one battalion of highlanders, to take post at the bottom of the lake, and assist the armed vessels in finding a passage to La Galette. On the tenth day of August the army embarked on board the bateaux and whale-boats, and proceeded on the lake towards the mouth of the river St. Laurence. Understanding that one of the enemy's vessels had run aground and was disabled, and that the other lay off La Galette, he resolved to make the best of his way down the river to Swegatchie, and attack the French fort at Isle Royale, one of the most important posts on the river St. Laurence, the source of which it in a great measure commands. On the seventeenth, the row-galleys fell in with the French sloop commanded by M. de la Broquerie, who surrendered after a warm engagement. Mr. Amherst having detached some engineers to reconnoitre the coasts and islands in the neighbourhood of Isle Royale, he made a disposition for the attack of that fortress, which was accordingly invested, after he had taken possession of the islands. Some of these the enemy had abandoned with such precipitation, as to leave behind a few scalps they had taken on the Mohawk river, a number of tools and utensils, two swivels, some barrels of pitch, and a large quantity of iron. The Indians were so incensed at sight of the scalps, that they burned a chapel and all the houses of the enemy. Batteries being raised on the nearest islands, the fort was cannonaded not only by them, but likewise by the armed sloops, and a disposition was made for giving the assault, when M. Pouchart, the governor, thought proper to beat a parley, and surrender on capitulation. The general, having taken possession of the fort, found it so well situated for commanding the lake Ontario and the Mohawk river, that he resolved to maintain it with a garrison, and employed some days in repairing the fortifications.

From this place his navigation down the river St. Laurence was rendered extremely difficult and dangerous, by a great number of violent riffs or rapids, and falls; among which he lost above fourscore men, forty-six bateaux, seventeen whale-boats, one row-galley, with some artillery, stores, and ammunition. On the sixth day of September the troops were landed on the island of Montreal, without any opposition, except from some flying parties, which exchanged a few shot, and then fled with precipitation. That same day he repaired a bridge which they had broken down in their retreat; and, after a march of two leagues, formed his army on a plain before Montreal, where they lay all night on their arms. Montreal is, in point of importance, the second place in Canada, situated in an island of the river St. Laurence, at an equal distance from Quebec and the lake Ontario. Its central situation rendered it the staple of the Indian trade; yet the fortifications of it were inconsiderable, not at all adequate to the value of the place. General Amherst ordered some pieces of artillery to be brought up immediately from the landing-place at La Chine, where he had left some regiments for the security of the boats, and determined to commence the siege in form; but in the morning of the seventh he received a letter from the marquis de Vaudreuil by two officers, demanding a capitulation; which, after some letters had passed between the two generals, was granted upon as favourable terms as the French had reason to expect, considering that general Murray, with the troops from Quebec, had by this time landed on the island; and colonel Haviland, with the body under his command, had just arrived on the south side of the river, opposite to Montreal; circumstances equally favourable and surprising, if we reflect upon the different routes they pursued, through an enemy's country, where they had no intelligence of the motions of each other. Had any accident retarded the progress of general Amherst, the reduction of Montreal would have been attempted by general Murray, who embarked with his troops at Quebec on board of a great number of small vessels, under the command of captain Deane in the Diana. This gentleman, with uncommon abilities, surmounted the difficulties of an unknown, dangerous, and intricate navigation; and conducted the voyage with such success, that not a single vessel was lost in the expedition. M. de Levis, at the head of his forces, watched the motions of general Murray, who, in advancing up the river, published manifestoes among the Canadians, which produced all the effect he could desire. Almost all the parishes on the south shore, as far as the river Sorrel, submitted, and took the oath of neutrality; and lord Rolle disarmed all the inhabitants of the north shore, as far as Trois Rivieres, which, though the capital of a district, being no more than an open village, was taken without resistance. In a word, general Amherst took possession of Montreal, and thus completed the conquest of all Canada; a conquest the most important of any that ever the British arms achieved, whether we consider the safety of the English colonies in North America, now secured from invasion and encroachment; the extent and fertility of the country subdued; or the whole Indian commerce thus transferred to the traders of Great Britain. The terms of the capitulation may perhaps be thought rather too favourable, as the enemy were actually enclosed and destitute of all hope of relief: but little points like these ought always to be sacrificed to the consideration of great objects; and the finishing the conquest of a great country without bloodshed, redounds as much to the honour as it argues the humanity of general Amherst, whose conduct had been irreproachable during the whole course of the American operations. At the same time, it must be allowed he was extremely fortunate in having subordinate commanders, who perfectly corresponded with his ideas; and a body of troops whom no labours could discourage, whom no dangers could dismay. Sir William Johnston, with a power of authority and insinuation peculiar to himself, not only maintained a surprising ascendancy over the most ferocious of all the Indian tribes, but kept them within the bounds of such salutary restraint, that not one single act of inhumanity was perpetrated by them during the whole course of this expedition. The zeal and conduct of brigadier-general Gage, the undaunted spirit and enterprising genius of general Murray, the diligence and activity of colonel Haviland, happily co-operated in promoting this great event.



FRENCH SHIPS DESTROYED, &c.

The French ministry had attempted to succour Montreal by equipping a considerable number of store ships, and sending them out in the spring under convoy of a frigate; but as their officers understood that the British squadron had sailed up the river St. Laurence before their arrival, they took shelter in the bay of Chaleurs, on the coast of Acadia, where they did not long remain unmolested. Captain Byron, who commanded the ships of war that were left at Louisbourg, having received intelligence of them from brigadier-general Whitmore, sailed thither with his squadron, and found them at anchor. The whole fleet consisted of one frigate, two large store-ships, and nineteen sail of smaller vessels; the greater part of which had been taken from the merchants of Great Britain; all these were destroyed, together with two batteries which had been raised for their protection. The French town, consisting of two hundred houses, was demolished, and the settlement totally ruined. All the French subjects inhabiting the territories from the bay of Funda to the banks of the river St. Laurence, and all the Indians through that tract of country, were now subdued, and subjected to the English government. In the month of December of the preceding year, the French colonists at Miramachi, Rickebuctou, and other places lying along the gulf of St. Laurence, made their submission by deputies to colonel Frye, who commanded in Fort Cumberland at Chignecto. They afterwards renewed this submission in the most formal manner, by subscribing articles, by which they obliged themselves, and the people they represented, to repair in the spring to Bay Verte, with all their effects and shipping, to be disposed of according to the direction of colonel Laurence, governor of Halifax, in Nova-Scotia. They were accompanied by two Indian chiefs of the nation of the Mickmacks, a powerful and numerous people, now become entirely dependent upon his Britannic majesty. In a word, by the conquest of Canada, the Indian fur trade, in its full extent, fell into the hands of the English. The French interest among the savage tribes, inhabiting an immense tract of country, was totally extinguished; and their American possessions shrunk within the limits of Louisiana, an infant colony on the south of the Mississippi, which the British arms may at any time easily subdue.



DEMOLITION OF LOUISBOURG.

The conquest of Canada being achieved, nothing now remained to be done in North America, except the demolition of the fortifications of Louisbourg on the island of Cape Breton; for which purpose some able engineers had been sent from England with the ships commanded by captain Byron. By means of mines artfully disposed and well constructed, the fortifications were reduced to a heap of rubbish, the glacis was levelled, and the ditches were filled. All the artillery, ammunition, and implements of war, were conveyed to Halifax; but the barracks were repaired, so as to accommodate three hundred men occasionally; the hospital, with the private houses, were left standing. The French still possessed, upon the continent of America, the fertile country lying on each side of the great river Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the gulf of Florida; but the colony was so thinly peopled, and so ill provided, that, far from being formidable, it scarcely could have subsisted, unless the British traders had been base and treacherous enough to supply it from time to time with provisions and necessaries. The same infamous commerce was carried on with divers French plantations in the West Indies; insomuch that the governors of provinces, and commanders of the squadrons stationed in those seas, made formal complaints of it to the ministry. The temptation of extraordinary profit excited the merchants not only to assist the enemies of their country, but also run all risks in eluding the vigilance of the legislature. The inhabitants of Martinique found a plentiful market of provision furnished by the British subjects at the Dutch islands of Eustatia and Curaeoa: and those that were settled on the island of Hispaniola were supplied in the same manner at the Spanish settlement of Monte-Christo.



INSURRECTION IN JAMAICA.

While the British commanders exerted themselves by sea and land with the most laudable spirit of vigilance and courage against the foreign adversaries of their country, the colonists of Jamaica ran the most imminent hazard of being extirpated by a domestic enemy. The negro slaves of that island, grown insolent in the contemplation of their own formidable numbers, or by observing the supine indolence of their masters, or stimulated by that appetite for liberty so natural to the mind of man, began, in the course of this year, to entertain thoughts of shaking off the yoke by means of a general insurrection. Assemblies were held and plans resolved for this purpose. At length they concerted a scheme for rising in arms all at once in different parts of the island, in order to massacre all the white men, and take possession of the government. They agreed that this design should be put in execution immediately after the departure of the fleet for Europe; but their plan was defeated by their ignorance and impatience. Those of the conspirators that belonged to captain Forest's estate, being impelled by the fumes of intoxication, fell suddenly upon the overseer, while he sat at supper with some friends, and butchered the whole company. Being immediately joined by some of their confederates, they attacked the neighbouring plantations, where they repeated the same barbarities; and, seizing all the arms and ammunition that fell in their way, began to grow formidable to the colony. The governor no sooner received intimation of this disturbance, than he, by proclamation, subjected the colonists to martial law. All other business was interrupted, and every man took to his arms. The regular troops, joined by the troop of militia, and a considerable number of volunteers, marched from Spanish Town to Saint Mary's, where the insurrection began, and skirmished with the insurgents; but as they declined standing any regular engagement, and trusted chiefly to bush-fighting, the governor employed against them the free blacks, commonly known by the name of the wild negroes, now peaceably settled under the protection of the government. These auxiliaries, in consideration of a price set upon the heads of the rebels, attacked them in their own way, slew them by surprise, until their strength was broken, and numbers made away with themselves in despair; so that the insurrection was supposed to be quelled about the beginning of May, but in June it broke out again with redoubled fury, and the rebels were reinforced to a very considerable number. The regular troops and the militia, joined by a body of sailors, formed a camp under the command of colonel Spragge, who sent out detachments against the negroes, a great number of whom were killed, and some taken; but the rest, instead of submitting, took shelter in the woods and mountains. The prisoners, being tried and found guilty of rebellion, were put to death by a variety of tortures. Some were hanged, some beheaded, some burned, and some fixed alive upon gibbets. One of these last lived eight days and eighteen hours, suspended under a vertical sun, without being refreshed by one drop of water, or receiving any manner of sustenance. In order to prevent such insurrections for the future, the justices assembled at the sessions of the peace established regulations, importing, that no negro-slave should be allowed to quit his plantation without a white conductor, or a ticket of leave; that every negro playing at any sort of game should be scourged through the public streets; that every publican suffering such gaming in his house should forfeit forty shillings; that every proprietor suffering his negroes to beat a drum, blow a horn, or make any other noise in his plantation, should be fined ten pounds; and every overseer allowing these irregularities should pay half that sum, to be demanded, or distrained for, by any civil or military officer; that every free negro, or mulatto, should wear a blue cross on his right shoulder, on pain of imprisonment; that no mulatto, Indian, or negro, should hawk or sell any thing, except fresh fish or milk, on pain of being scourged; that rum and punch houses should be shut up during divine service on Sundays, under the penalty of twenty shillings; and that those who had petit licenses should shut up their houses on other nights at nine o'clock.



ACTION AT SEA OFF HISPANIOLA.

Notwithstanding these examples and regulations, a body of rebellious negroes still subsisted in places that were deemed inaccessible to regular forces; and from these they made nocturnal irruptions into the nearest plantations, where they acted with all the wantonness of barbarity: so that the people of Jamaica were obliged to conduct themselves with the utmost vigilance and circumspection; while rear-admiral Holmes, who commanded at sea, took every precaution to secure the island from insult or invasion. He not only took measures for the defence of Jamaica, but also contrived and executed schemes for annoying the enemy. Having in the month of October received intelligence that five French frigates were equipped at Cape Francois, on the island of Hispaniola, in order to convoy a fleet of merchant-ships to Europe, he stationed the ships under his command in such a manner as was most likely to intercept this fleet; and his disposition was attended with success. The enemy sailed from the Cape to the number of eight sail, on the sixteenth; and next day they were chased by the king's ships the Hampshire, Lively, and Boreas; which however made small progress, as there was little wind, and that variable. In the evening the breeze freshened; and about midnight the Boreas came up with the Sirenne, commanded by commodore M'Cartie. They engaged with great vivacity for about twenty-five minutes, when the Sirenne shot a-head, and made the best of her way. The Boreas was so damaged in her rigging, that she could not close with the enemy again till next day, at two in the afternoon, when the action was renewed off the east end of Cuba, and maintained till forty minutes past four, when Mr. M'Cartie struck. In the meantime, the Hampshire and Lively gave chase to the other four French frigates, which steered to the southward with all the sail they could carry, in order to reach the west end of Tortuga, and shelter themselves in Port-au-Prince. On the eighteenth, the Lively, by the help of her oars, came up with the Valeur, at half an hour past seven in the morning; and after a hot action, which continued an hour and a half, compelled the enemy to submit. The Hampshire stood after the three others, and about four in the afternoon ran up between the duke de Choiseul and the prince Edward. These she engaged at the same time; but the first, having the advantage of the wind, made her retreat into Port-au-Paix, the other ran ashore about two leagues to leeward, and struck her colours; but at the approach of the Hampshire the enemy set her on fire, and she blew up. This was also the fate of the Fleur de Lys, which had run into Freshwater Bay, a little farther to leeward of Port-au-Prince. Thus, by the prudent disposition of admiral Holmes, and the gallantry of his three captains Norbury, Uvedale, and Maitland, two large frigates of the enemy were taken, and three destroyed. The spirit of the officers was happily supported by an uncommon exertion of courage in the men, who cheerfully engaged in the most dangerous enterprises. Immediately after the capture of the French frigates, eight of the enemy's privateers were destroyed or brought into Jamaica. Two of these, namely, the Vainqueur of ten guns, sixteen swivels, and ninety men, and the Mackau of six swivels, and fifteen men, had run into shoal water in Cumberland harbour on the island of Cuba. The boats of the Trent and Boreas, manned under the direction of the lieutenants Miller and Stuart, being rowed up to the Vainqueur, boarded and took possession under a close fire, after having surmounted many other difficulties. The Mackau was taken without any resistance; then the boats proceeded against the Guespe, of eight guns, and eighty-five men, which laid at anchor farther up in the Lagoon, but before they came up the enemy had set her on fire, and she was destroyed.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



GALLANT BEHAVIOUR OF CAPTAINS O'BRIEN AND TAYLOR.

The same activity and resolution distinguished the captains and officers belonging to the squadron commanded by sir James Douglas off the Leeward islands. In the month of September, the captains O'Brien and Taylor, of the ships Temple and Griffin, being on a joint cruise off the islands Granadas, received intelligence that the Virgin, formerly a British sloop of war, which had been taken by the enemy, then lay at anchor, together with three privateers, under protection of three forts on the island, sailed thither in order to attack them, and their enterprise was crowned with success. After a warm engagement which lasted several hours, the enemy's batteries were silenced, and indeed demolished, and the English captains took possession of the four prizes. They afterwards entered another harbour of that island, having first demolished another fort; and there they lay four days unmolested, at the expiration of which they carried off three other prizes. In their return to Antigua, they fell in with thirteen ships bound to Martinique with provisions, and took them all without resistance. About the same time eight or nine privateers were taken by the ships which commodore sir James Douglas employed in cruising round the island of Guadaloupe, so that the British commerce in those seas flourished under his care and protection.



TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST-INDIES.

In the East-Indies the British arms still continued to prosper. After the reduction of Arcot, the garrisons of Permacoil and Allumparva surrendered themselves prisoners of war in the beginning of May. The Falmouth obliged the Haarlem, a French ship from Meguy, to run ashore to the northward of Pondicherry. The important settlement of Carical was reduced by the sea and land forces commanded by rear-admiral Cornish and major Monson, and the French garrison made prisoners of war; and colonel Coote formed the blockade of Pondicherry by laud, while the harbour was beset by the English squadron.



ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE BAY OF QUIBERON.

No action of importance was in the course of this year achieved by the naval force of Great Britain in the seas of Europe. A powerful squadron still remained in the hay of Quiberon, in order to amuse and employ a body of French forces on that part of the coast, and interrupt the navigation of the enemy; though the principal aim of this armament seems to have been to watch and detain the few French ships which had run into the river Vil-laine, after the defeat of Confians; an object, the importance of which will doubtless astonish posterity. The fleet employed in this service was alternately commanded by admiral Boscawen and sir Edward Hawke, officers of distinguished abilities, whose talents might have been surely rendered subservient to much greater national advantages. All that Mr. Boscawen could do in this circumscribed scene of action was, to take possession of a small island near the river Vannes, which he caused to be cultivated, and planted with vegetables, for the use of the men infected with scorbutic disorders arising from salt provision, sea air, and want of proper exercise. In the month of September, sir Edward Hawke, who had by this time relieved Mr. Boscawen, detached the gallant lord Howe, in the Magnanime, with the ships Prince Frederick and Bedford, to reduce the little island of Dumet, about three miles in length, and two in breadth, abounding with fresh water. It was defended by a small fort, mounted with nine cannon, and manned with one company of the regiment of Bourbon, who surrendered in a very short time after the ships had begun the attack. By this small conquest a considerable expense was saved to the nation in the article of transports employed to carry water for the use of the squadron.

Admiral Rodney still maintained his former station off the coast of Havre de Grace, to observe what should pass at the mouth of the Seine. In the month of July, while he hovered in this neighbourhood, five large flat bottomed boats, laden with cannon and shot, feet sail from Harfleur in the middle of the day, with their colours flying, as if they had set the English squadron at defiance; for the walls of Havre de Grace, and even the adjacent hills, were covered with spectators, assembled to behold the issue of this adventure. Having reached the river of Caen, they stood backwards and forwards upon the shoals, intending to amuse admiral Rodney till night, and then proceed under cover of the darkness. He perceived their drift, and gave directions to his small vessels to be ready, that, as soon as day-light failed, they should make all the sail they could for the mouth of the river Orne, in order to cut off the enemy's retreat, while he himself stood with the larger ships to the steep coast of Port Bassin. The scheme succeeded to his wish. The enemy, seeing their retreat cut off, ran ashore at Port Bassin, where the admiral destroyed them, together with the small fort which had been erected for the defence of this harbour. Each of those vessels was one hundred feet in length, and capable of containing four hundred men for a short passage. What their destination was we cannot pretend to determine; but the French had provided a great number of these transports, for ten escaped into the river Orne leading to Caen; and in consequence of this disaster one hundred were unloaded, and sent up again to Rouen. This was not all the damage that the enemy sustained on this part of the coast. In the month of November, captain Curry, of the Acteon, chased a large privateer, and drove her ashore between Cape Barfleur and La Hogue, where she perished. The cutters belonging to admiral Rodney's squadron scoured the coast towards Dieppe, where a considerable fishery was carried on, and where they took or destroyed near forty vessels of considerable burden. Though the English navy suffered nothing from the French during this period, it sustained some damage from the weather. The Conqueror, a new ship of the line, was lost in the channel, on the island of St. Nicholas, but the crew and cannon were saved. The Lyme, of twenty guns, foundered in the Categat, in Norway, and fifty of the men perished; and, in the West Indies, a tender belonging to the Dublin, commanded by commodore sir James Douglas, was lost in a single wind, with a hundred chosen mariners.

Of the domestic transactions relating to the war, the most considerable was the equipment of a powerful armament destined for some secret expedition. A numerous body of forces was assembled, and a great number of transports collected at Portsmouth. Generals were nominated to the command of this enterprise. The troops were actually embarked with a great train of artillery; and the eyes of the whole nation were attentively fixed upon this armament, which could not have been prepared without incurring a prodigious expense. Notwithstanding these preparations, the whole summer was spent in idleness and inaction; and in the latter end of the season the undertaking was laid aside. The people did not fail to clamour against the inactivity of the summer, and complained that, notwithstanding the immense subsidies granted for the prosecution of the war, no stroke of importance was struck in Europe for the advantage of Great Britain; but that her treasure was lavished upon fruitless parade, or a German alliance still more pernicious. It must be owned indeed, that no new attempt was made to annoy the enemy on British principles; for the surrender of Montreal was the natural consequence of the steps which had been taken, and of the measures concerted in the course of the preceding year. It will be allowed, we apprehend, that the expense incurred by the armament at Portsmouth, and the body of troops there detained, would have been sufficient, if properly applied, to reduce the island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean, Martinique in the West Indies, or Minorca in the Mediterranean; and all these three were objects of importance. In all probability, the design of the armament was either to intimidate the French into proposals of peace; to make a diversion from the Rhine, by alarming the coast of Bretagne; or to throw over a body of troops into Flanders, to effect a junction with the hereditary prince of Brunswick, who, at the head of twenty thousand men, had made an irruption as far as the Lower Rhine, and even crossed that river; but he miscarried in the execution of his design.



ASTRONOMERS SENT TO THE EAST INDIES.

In the midst of these alarms some regard was paid to the improvements of natural knowledge. The Royal Society having made application to the king, representing that there would be a transit of Venus over the disc of the sun, on the sixth day of June; and that there was reason to hope the parallax of that planet might be more accurately determined by making proper observations of this phenomenon at the island of St. Helena, near the coast of Africa, and at Bencoolen in the East Indies, his majesty granted a sum of money to defray the expense of sending able astronomers to those two places, and ordered a ship of war to be equipped for their conveyance. Accordingly, Mr. Nevil Maskelyne and Mr. Robert Waddington were appointed to make the observations at St. Helena; and Mr. Charles Mason and Mr. Jeremiah Dixon undertook the voyage to Bencoolen, on the island of Sumatra.*

* In the beginning of April, the king granted to his grandson prince Edward Augustus, and to the heirs male of his royal highness, the dignities of duke of the kingdom of Great Britain, and of earl of the kingdom of Ireland, by the names, styles, and titles, of duke of York and Albany, and earl of Ulster.



EARTHQUAKES IN SYRIA.

Except the countries that were actually the scenes of war, no political revolution or disturbance disquieted the general tranquillity. Syria, indeed, felt all the horrors and wreck of a dreadful earthquake, protracted in repeated shocks, which began on the thirteenth day of October, in the neighbourhood of Tripoli. A great number of houses were overthrown at Seyde, and many people buried under the ruins. It was felt through a space of ten thousand square leagues, comprehending the mountains of Libanus and Antilibanus, with an infinite number of villages, that were reduced to heaps of rubbish. At Acra, or Ptolemais, the sea overflowed its banks, and poured into the streets, though eight feet above the level of the water. The city of Saphet was entirely destroyed, and the greatest part of its inhabitants perished. At Damascus, all the minarets were overthrown, and six thousand people lost their lives. The shocks diminished gradually till the twenty-fifth day of November, when they were renewed with redoubled havoc; the earth trembled with the most dreadful convulsions, and the greater part of Tripoli was destroyed. Balbeck was entirely ruined, and this was the fate of many other towns and castles; so that the people who escaped the ruins were obliged to sojourn in the open fields, and all Syria was threatened with the vengeance of heaven. Such a dangerous ferment arose at Constantinople, that a revolution was apprehended. Mustapha, the present emperor, had no sons; but his brother Bajazet, whose life he had spared, contrary to the maxims of Turkish policy, produced a son by one of the women with whom he was indulged in his confinement; a circumstance which aroused the jealousy of the emperor to such a degree, that he resolved to despatch his brother. The great officers of the Porte opposed this design, which was so disagreeable to the people, that an insurrection ensued. Several Turks and Armenians, taking it for granted that a revolution was at hand, bought up great quantities of grain; and a dreadful dearth was the consequence of this monopoly. The sultan assembled the troops, quieted the insurgents, ordered the engrossers of corn to be executed, and in a little time the repose of the city was reestablished.

Notwithstanding the prospect of a rupture in Italy, no new incident interrupted the tranquillity which the southern parts of Europe enjoyed. The king of Spain, howsoever solicited by the other branch of the house of Bourbon to engage in the war as its ally, refused to interpose in any other way than as a mediator between the courts of London and Versailles. He sent the conde de Fuentes, a nobleman of high rank and character, in quality of ambassador-extraordinary to the king of Great Britain, in order to offer his good offices for effecting a peace; and the conde, after having conferred with the English minister, made an excursion to Paris: but his proposal with respect to a cessation of hostilities, if in reality such a proposal was ever made, did not meet with a cordial reception. Other differences subsisting between the crowns of Great Britain and Spain, he found no difficulty in compromising. His catholic majesty persisted in the execution of a plan truly worthy of a patriot king. In the first place, he spared no pains and application to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the state of his kingdom. He remitted to his people all they owed the crown, amounting to threescore millions of reals: he demanded an exact account of his father's debts, that they might be discharged with the utmost punctuality: an order was sent to the treasury, that ten millions of reals should be annually appropriated for this purpose, until the whole should be liquidated; and to the first year's payment be added fifty millions, to be divided equally among the legal claimants. He took measures for the vigorous execution of the laws against offenders; encouraged industry; protected commerce; and felt the exquisite pleasure in being beloved as the father of his people. To give importance to his crown, and extend his influence among the powers of Europe, he equipped a powerful squadron of ships at Carthagena; and is said to have declared his intention to employ them against Algiers, should the dey refuse to release the slaves of the Spanish nation.



AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL.

Portugal still seemed agitated from the shock of the late conspiracy which was quelled in that kingdom. The pope's nuncio was not only forbid the court, but even sent under a strong guard to the frontiers; an indignity which induced the pontiff to order the Portuguese minister at Rome to evacuate the ecclesiastical dominions. In the meantime, another embarkation of Jesuits was sent from Lisbon to Civita Vecchia; yet the expulsion of these fathers did not restore the internal peace of Portugal, or put an end to the practice of plotting; for, even since their departure, some persons of rank have either been committed to close prison, or exiled from the kingdom. The Jesuits were not more fortunate in America; for in the month of October, in the foregoing year, an obstinate battle was fought between the united forces of Spain and Portugal and the Indians of Paraguay, who were under the dominion of the Jesuits: victory at length declared in favour of the two crowns; so that the vanquished were obliged to capitulate, and lay down their arms. As the court of Portugal had made remonstrances to the British ministry against the proceedings of the English squadron under admiral Boscawen, which had attacked and destroyed some French ships under the Portuguese fort in the bay of Lagos, his Britannic majesty thought proper to send the earl of Kinnoul as ambassador-extraordinary to Lisbon, where that nobleman made such excuses for the insult of the English admiral, as entirely removed all the misunderstanding between the two crowns; and could not fail of being agreeable to the Portuguese monarch, thus respected, soothed, and deprecated by a mighty nation, in the very zenith of power and prosperity. On the sixth of June, being the birthday of the king of Portugal, the marriage of his brother don Pedro with the princess of Brazil was celebrated in the chapel of the palace where the king resides, to the universal joy of the people. The nuptials were announced to the public by the discharge of cannon, and celebrated with illuminations and all kinds of rejoicing.

An accident which happened in the Mediterranean had like to have drawn the indignation of the Ottoman Porte on the knights of the order of Malta. A large Turkish ship of the line, mounted with sixty-eight brass cannon, having on board a complement of seven hundred men, besides seventy christian slaves, under the immediate command of the Turkish admiral, had, in company with two frigates, five galleys, and other smaller vessels, sailed in June from the Dardanelles; cruised along the coast of Smyrna, Scio, and Trio; and at length anchored in the channel of Stangie, where the admiral, with four hundred persons, went on shore, on the nineteenth day of September: the christian slaves, seizing this opportunity, armed themselves with knives, and fell upon the three hundred that remained with such fury and effect, that a great number of the Turks were instantly slain; many leaped overboard into the sea, where they perished; and the rest sued for mercy. The christians, having thus secured possession of the ship, hoisted sail, and bore away for Malta: which, though chased by the two frigates and a Ragusan ship, they reached by crowding all their canvas, and brought their prize safe into the harbour of Valette, amidst the acclamations of the people. The order of Malta, as a recompence for this signal act of bravery and resolution, assigned to the captors the whole property of the ship and slaves, together with all the effects on board, including a sum of money which the Turkish commander had collected by contribution, amounting to a million and a half of florins. The grand seignior was so enraged at this event, that he disgraced his admiral, and threatened to take vengeance on the order of Malta, for having detained the ship, and countenanced the capture.



PATRIOTIC SCHEMES OF THE KING OF DENMARK.

With respect to the disputes which had so long embroiled the northern parts of Europe, the neutral powers seemed as averse as ever to a participation. The king of Denmark continued to perfect those plans which he had wisely formed for increasing the wealth, and promoting the happiness of his subjects; nor did he neglect any opportunity of improving natural knowledge for the benefit of mankind in general. He employed men of ability, at his own expense, to travel into foreign countries, and to collect the most curious productions, for the advancement of natural history: he encouraged the liberal and mechanic arts at home, by munificent rewards and peculiar protection: he invited above a thousand foreigners from Germany to become his subjects, and settle in certain districts in Jutland, which had lain waste above three centuries; and they forthwith began to build villages, and cultivate the lands, in the dioceses of Wibourg, Arhous, and Ripen. Their travelling expenses from Altona to their new settlement were defrayed by the king, who moreover maintained them until the produce of the lands could afford a comfortable subsistence. He likewise bestowed upon each colonist a house, a barn, and a stable, with a certain number of horses and cattle. Finally, this generous patriot having visited these new subjects, who received him with unspeakable emotions of joy and affection, he ordered a considerable sum of money to be distributed among them as an additional mark of his favour. Such conduct in a prince cannot fail to secure the warmest returns of loyalty and attachment in his people; and the execution of such laudable schemes will endear his name to the contemplation of posterity.



MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL.

The Dutch, as usual, persevered in prosecuting every branch of commerce, without being diverted to less profitable schemes of state-policy by the insinuations of France, or the remonstrances of Great Britain. The violation of the peace by their subjects in Bengal was no sooner known at the court of London, than orders were sent to general Yorke, the English ambassador at the Hague, to demand an explanation. He accordingly presented a memorial to the states-general, signifying that their high mightinesses must doubtless be greatly astonished to hear, by the public papers, of the irregularities committed by their subjects in the East Indies; but that they would be much more amazed on perusing the piece annexed to his memorial, containing a minute account, specified with the strictest regard to truth, of the irregular conduct observed by the Dutch towards the British subjects in the river Bengal, at a time when the factors and traders of Holland enjoyed all the sweets of peace and all the advantages of unmolested commerce: at a time when his Britannic majesty, from his great regard to their high mightinesses, carefully avoided giving the least umbrage to the subjects of the United Provinces. He observed that the king his sovereign was deeply affected by these outrageous doings and mischievous designs of the Dutch in the East Indies, whose aim was to destroy the British settlements in that country; an aim that would have been accomplished, had not the king's victorious arms brought them to reason, and obliged them to sue for an accommodation. He told them his majesty would willingly believe their high mightinesses had given no order for proceeding to such extremities, and that the directors of their India company had no share in the transaction: nevertheless, he (the ambassador) was ordered to demand signal satisfaction, in the name of the king his master; that all who should be found to have shared in the offence, so manifestly tending to the destruction of the English settlements in that country, should be exemplarily punished; and that their high mightinesses should confirm the stipulations agreed upon immediately after the action by the directors of the respective companies, in consideration of which agreement the Dutch ships were restored, after their commanders acknowledged their fault, in owning themselves the aggressors. To this remonstrance the states-general replied, that nothing of what was laid to the charge of their subjects had yet reached their knowledge: but they requested his Britannic majesty to suspend his judgment until he should be made perfectly acquainted with the grounds of those disputes; and they promised he should have reason to be satisfied with the exemplary punishment that would be inflicted upon all who should be found concerned in violating the peace between the two nations. *

* In the month of March, the states of Holland and West Friesland having, after warm debates, agreed to the proposed match between the princess Caroline, sister to the prince of Orange, and the prince of Nassau Weilbourg, the nuptials were solemnized at the Hague with great magnificence.



STATE OF THE POWERS AT WAR.

The war in Germany still raged with unrelenting fury, and the mutual rancour of the contending parties seemed to derive fresh force from their mutual disappointments; at least the house of Austria seemed still implacable, and obstinately bent upon terminating the war with the destruction of the Prussian monarch. Her allies, however, seemed less actuated by the spirit of revenge. The French king had sustained so much damage and disgrace in the course of the war, that his resources failed, and his finances fell into disorder; he could no longer afford the subsidies he had promised to different powers; while his subjects clamoured aloud at the burden of impositions, the ruin of trade, and the repeated dishonour entailed upon the arms of France. The czarina's zeal for the alliance was evidently cooled by the irregular and defective payments of the subsidies she had stipulated. Perhaps she was disappointed in her hope of conquest, and chagrined to see her armies retire from Germany at the approach of every winter; and the British ministry did not fail to exert all their influence to detach her from the confederacy in which she had embarked. Sweden still languished in an effectual parade of hostilities against the house of Bran-denburgh; but the French interest began to lose ground in the diet of that kingdom. The king of Prussia, howsoever exhausted in the article of men, betrayed no symptom of apprehension, and made no advance towards a pacification with his adversaries. He had employed the winter in recruiting his armies by every expedient his fertile genius could devise; in levying contributions to reinforce the vast subsidy he received from England, in filling magazines, and making every preparation for a vigorous campaign. In Westphalia, the same foresight and activity were exerted by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who in the beginning of summer found himself at the head of a very numerous army, paid by Great Britain, and strengthened by two-and-twenty thousand national troops.



DEATH OF THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE-CASSEL.

No alteration in the terms of this alliance was produced by the death of William, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who breathed his last, in an advanced age, on the twenty-eighth day of January, at Rintelen upon the Weser. He was succeeded in the landgraviate by his son Frederick, whose consort, the princess Mary, daughter to the king of Great Britain, now, in quality of governess of her children, assumed the regency and administration of the county of Hanau-Muntzenberg, by virtue of the settlement made in the lifetime of her father-in-law, and confirmed by her husband. She had for some years been separated from him, and resided with his father, at whose decease she retired with her children to the city of Zell. The present landgrave, who lived at Magdebourg as vice-governor under the kin g of Prussia, no sooner learned the news of his father's death, than he sent an intimation of it to that prince and the king of Great Britain; declaring, at the same time, that he would scrupulously adhere to the engagements of his predecessor.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



OFFERS MADE BY THE NEUTRAL POWERS, &c.

The advances towards a peace, which had been made in the preceding year by the kings of England and Prussia, in their declaration published at the Hague by prince Louis of Brunswick, seemed to infuse in the neutral powers a good opinion of their moderation. We have already seen that the king of Spain offered his best offices in quality of mediator. When a congress was proposed, the states-general made an offer of Breda, as a place proper for the negotiation. The king of Great Britain, by the mouth of his ambassador, thanked their high mightinesses for the sincere desire they expressed to put an end to the ravages of war, which had extended desolation over the face of Europe: he readily closed with their gracious offer; and in consequence of his high regard and invariable friendship for their high mightinesses, wished earnestly that it might be acceptable to the other powers at war. The French king expressed his sentiments nearly to the same purpose. His ambassador declared, that his most christian majesty was highly sensible of the offer they had made of Breda for holding the congress; that, in order to give a fresh proof of his sincere desire to increase the good harmony that subsisted between him and the states-general, he accepted their offer with pleasure; butas he could take no step without the concurrence of his high allies, he was obliged to wait for their answer, which could not fail to be favourable, if nothing remained to be settled but the place for holding the congress. King Stanislaus having written a letter to his Britannic majesty, offering the city of Nancy for the same purpose, he received a civil answer, expressing the king of England's sense of his obliging offer, which however he declined, as a place not conveniently situated for all the powers interested in the great works of pacification. Civilities of the same nature likewise passed between the sovereign of Nancy and the king of Prussia. As the proposals for an accommodation made by the king of England and his allies might have left an unfavourable impression of their adversaries had they been altogether declined, the court of Vienna was prevailed upon to concur with her allies in a declaration professing their desire of peace; which declaration was delivered, on the third day of April, by the Austrian minister residing at the Hague, to his serene highness prince Louis of Brunswick; and a paper of the same nature was also delivered to him separately by the French and Russian ministers. [558] [See note 4 N, at the end of this Vol.] These professions, however, did not interrupt the operations of the campaign.



SKIRMISHES IN WESTPHALIA.

Though the French army under the mareschal duke de Broglio remained in cantonment in the neighbourhood of Friedberg, and prince Ferdinand had retired from Corsdorff to Marburg, where in the beginning of January he established his head-quarters, nevertheless the winter was by no means inactive. As far back as the twenty-fifth day of December, the duke de Broglio, having called in his detachments, attempted to surprise the allied army by a forced march to Kleinlinnes; but finding them prepared to give him a warm reception, nothing but a cannonade ensued, and he retreated to his former quarters. On the twenty-ninth, colonel Luckner, at the head of the Hanoverian hunters, fell in with a detachment of the enemy, consisting of four hundred men, under the command of count Muret. These he attacked with such vigour, that the count was made prisoner, and all his party either killed or taken, except two-and-twenty, who escaped. On the third day of January, the marquis de Vogue attacked the town of Herborn, which he carried, and took a small detachment of the allies who were posted there. At the same time the marquis Dauvet made himself master of Dillembourg, the garrison of the allied troops being obliged to retire into the castle, where they were closely besieged. Prince Ferdinand no sooner understood their situation, than he began his march with a strong detachment for their relief, on the seventh day of the month, when he attacked and totally defeated the besiegers, took seven hundred prisoners, including forty officers, with seven pair of colours, and two pieces of cannon. On that very day, the Highlanders, under major Keith, supported by the hussars of Luckner, who commanded the whole detachment, attacked the village of Ryebach, where Beaufremont's regiment of dragoons was posted on the side of Dillembourg, and routed them with great slaughter. The greater part of the regiment was killed, and many prisoners were taken, together with two hundred horses, and all their baggage. The Highlanders distinguished themselves on this occasion by their intrepidity, which was the more remarkable, as they were no other than raw recruits, just arrived from their own country, and altogether unacquainted with discipline. On the eighth day of January, M. de St. Germain advanced on the left of the allies with the grenadiers of the French army, supported by eight battalions, and a body of dragoons; but he was encountered by the duke of Holstein, at the head of a strong detachment, in the neighbourhood of Ersdorff, who, by dint of a furious cannonade, obliged him to retreat with precipitation. After this attempt the French parties disappeared, and their army retired into winter-quarters, in and about Franckfort on the Maine; while prince Ferdinand quartered the allies at Cassel, Paderborn, Munster, and Osnabruck; this last place being allotted to the British troops, as being the nearest to Embden, where the reinforcements from Britain were to be landed. In the beginning of February, the hereditary prince of Brunswick, with the detachment of the allied army under his command, began his march from Chemnitz in Saxony for Westphalia, where he safely arrived, after having assisted at a long conference in Hamelen, with his father the reigning duke, his uncle prince Ferdinand, and some principal members of the regency of Hanover.