landed, and brought her, with ninety prisoners, in triumph, to Charleston. Of the eight hundred men, who came against the infant colony, nearly three hundred were killed or captured. The loss of the provincial militia was inconsiderable. Governor Johnson, who conducted the defence of the province, acquired great reputation, by his judicious and spirited conduct; and the militia fought like men, whose honour and property were at stake. From this period till the peace of Paris, 1763, the Spaniards planned sundry expeditions, for the recovery of South Carolina and Georgia, both of which they claimed, as belonging to Florida. These were thrice retorted against St. Augustine and Florida; but in every instance, and on both sides, proved abortive, as to conquest, or settlement of boundary. They produced an immensity of individual distress, without any national benefit. The invaders, on both sides, either from interest or revenge, plundered and laid waste the settlements and property of their respective adversaries.

In the year 1745, a daring enterprise was projected against Louisburg, a strong fortress belonging to the French, on the island of Cape Breton. This was proposed by Shirley, governor of Massachusetts, and approved of by the general court of that province. Louisburg was the Dunkirk of North America. Five millions of dollars had been employed in its fortifications. It was of great importance to France, and also to England, meditating, as both did, the extension of their American possessions. Upwards of five thousand men were raised in the New England colonies, and put under the command of William Pepperell, a respectable merchant in Massachusetts. This force arrived at Canso, early in April, 1745. A British marine force, from the West Indies, commanded by commodore Warren, acted in concert with these land forces. The siege was conducted with such spirit and address, that, on the 17th of June, the fortress capitulated.*

A detail of this enterprise will give an idea of the colonial mode of carrying on wars, in their infantile period. Shirley, governor of Massachu setts, having formed an idea of the project, communicated his plan to the British ministry, with the view of obtaining a naval co-operation. Without

The reduction of Louisburg, by colonial troops, gave to European powers, enlarged ideas of the value of American pos

waiting for an answer, he proceeded to negotiate with the general court of Massachusetts. In the first instance, he requested the members to lay themselves under an oath of secrecy, previously to their receiving a proposal from him, of very great importance. They readily took the oath, and he communicated to them the plan, which he had formed for attacking Louisburg. The secret was kept for some days, till a member, who performed the family devotion, at his lodgings, inadvertently discovered it, by praying for a blessing on the attempt. At the first deliberation, the proposal was rejected; but, by the address of the governor, it was finally carried, by a majority of one voice, in the absence of several members, who were known to be against it. Circular letters were immediately despatched, to all the colonies, as far as Pennsylvania; requesting their assistance, and an embargo in their ports. Laws were passed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, for furnishing troops and stores. New York sent a supply of artillery, and the Quaker assembly of Pennsylvania furnished provisions. The person appointed to command the expedition was William Pepperell, of Kittery, colonel of a regiment of militia, a merchant of unblemished reputation, and engaging manners; and very popular. These qualities were necessary in the commander of an army of volunteers, who were to quit their domestic connexions, and engage in a hostile enterprise, which none of them knew how to conduct. Professional skill and experience were entirely out of the question. If these qualities had been indispensably necessary, the expedition must have been laid aside; for there was no person in New England, in these respects, qualified for the command. Fidelity, resolution, and popularity had to supply the place of military talents.

A plan, for the reduction of a regularly constructed fortress, was drawn by a lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics, animated indeed by ardent patriotism; but destitute of professional skill and experience. After they had embarked, the hearts of many began to fail. Some repented, that they had either concurred in, or promoted the expedition. The most thoughtful were in the greatest perplexity.

A surprise was intended; but this failed, and it became necessary to invest the city. Vaughan of New Hampshire, at the head of a detachment, marched to the north east part of the harbour in the night, where he burned the ware-houses, containing the naval stores, and staved a large quantity of wine and brandy. The smoke of this fire, being driven by the wind into the grand battery, so terrified the French, that they abandoned it, and retired to the city, after having spiked the guns, and cut the halliards of the flagstaff. The next morning, Vaughan, when returning with thirteen men, crept up the hill which overlooked the battery, and observed that the chimnies of the barracks were without smoke, and the staff without a flag. With a bottle of brandy, he hired one of his party, a Cape Cod Indian, to crawl in at

sessions. The war henceforward became more important. Great projects occupied the attention of the belligerent

an embrasure, and open the gate. He then wrote to the general these words: 66 May it please your honour to be informed, that by the grace of God, and the courage of thirteen men, I entered the royal battery, about nine o'clock; and am waiting for a reinforcement, and a flag." Before either could arrive, one of the men climbed up the staff, with a red coat in his teeth, which he fastened by a nail, to the top. This piece of triumphant vanity alarmed the city, and immediately a hundred men were despatched in boats, to retake the battery. But Vaughan, with his small party, on the naked beach, and in the face of a smart fire from the city and the boats, kept them from landing, till the reinforcement arrived. In every duty of fatigue or sanguine adventure, he was always ready; and the New Hampshire troops, animated by the same enthusiastic ardour, partook of all the labours and dangers of the siege. They were employed for fourteen nights successively, in drawing cannon from the landing place, to the camp, through a morass. Their lieutenant colonel, Messervè, being a ship carpenter, constructed sledges, on which the cannon were drawn, when it was found that their wheels were buried in the mire. The men, with straps over their shoulders, and sinking to their knees in mud, dragged after them ponderous masses, beyond the power of oxen. This labour could be done only in the night, or in a foggy day; the place being within plain view, and random shot, of the enemy's walls.

The business of the council of war was conducted with all the formality of a legislative assembly. The want of discipline was visible in the camp. While some were on duty at the trenches, others were racing, wrestling, pitching quoits, firing at marks, or at birds, or running after shot from the enemy's guns, for which they received a bounty. The ground was so uneven, and the people so scattered, that the French could form no estimate of their numbers. The garrison of Louisburg had been so mutinous before the siege, that the officers could not trust the men, to make a sortie, lest they should desert.

Much has been ascribed, and much is justly due, to the activity and vigilance of commodore Warren, and the ships under his command: much is also due to the vigour and perseverance of the land forces; and the success was doubtless owing, under God, to the joint efforts of both. There was one piece of management, which greatly contributed to the surrender of the city.

The Vigilant, a French sixty-four gun ship, commanded by the marquis de la Maison Forte, and richly laden with military stores, for the relief of the garrison, was fortunately captured. This ship had been anxiously expected by the French, and it was thought, that the news of her capture, if properly communicated to them, might produce a good effect. This was accomplished in the following manner. In a skirmish on the island, with a party of French and Indians, some English prisoners had been taken by them,

powers. The recovery of Louisburg, the reduction of Nova Scotia, the total devastation of the sea coast, and even the complete conquest of New England, were contemplated by France. With this view, a powerful fleet, and army of three thousand men, under the command of duke d'Anville, sailed, in 1746, for the American coast. There was no British fleet at hand, to resist this force. The distress of the colonies was great. Their apprehensions of danger were excited to a high pitch; when Providence wrought this deliverance. The French ships were visited by such an awful sickness, that thirteen hundred of their crews died at sea. Their whole fleet was dispersed by a violent tempest. Some of the ships were lost. Those which escaped returned singly to France. The whole expedition was defeated, without the firing of a single gun. Great Britain, not less sanguine, counted on the expulsion of the French, from the continent

and used with cruelty. This circumstance was made known to the marquis, and he was requested to go on board of all the ships in the bay, where French prisoners were confined, and observe the condition in which they were kept. He did so, and was well satisfied with their fare and accommodations. He was then desired to write to the governor of the city, and inform him how well the French prisoners were treated; and to request the like favour for the English prisoners. The humane marquis readily consented, and the let ter was sent the next day, by a flag, intrusted to the care of a captain Macdonald. The bearer was carried before the governor, and his chief officers. By pretending not to understand their language, he had the advantage of listening to their discourse. By this manœuvre, he found that they had not before heard of the capture of the Vigilant, and that the news of it, under the hand of her late commander, caused great consternation. This event, with the erection of a battery on the high cliff, at the light-house, and other preparations, indicating an assault on the fortress, induced the commander to surrender. Upon entering the fortress, and viewing its strength, the plenty and variety of its means of defence, all were convinced of the impracticability of carrying it by assault. The French flag was kept flying on the ramparts, and several rich prizes were decoyed into the harbour.

The news of this important victory filled America with joy, and Europe with astonishment. The enterprising spirit of New England gave a serious alarm to those jealous fears, which had long predicted the independence of the colonies. Pepperell received the title of a baronet, and a commission in the British establishment, and was empowered to raise a regiment in America, to be in the pay of the crown. The same emolument was given to Shirley.

of America; and that Canada, with the adjacent French possessions, would soon be British provinces. Preparations were made for executing these gigantic projects; but they came to nothing. No further important transaction took place in America, till the war ended, by the peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748. By this, it was stipulated, that all conquests, made during the war, should be restored. The British colonists had the mortification to see Louisburg returned to its former owners, the French.

The treaty of Aix la Chapelle left all controversies be tween France and England, on the subject of boundaries, undecided. France continued in possession of Canada, in the north, and the Mississippi, in the south; and her settlements approximated each other, by the extension of new establishments, northerly, up the Mississippi, and southwardly, down the lakes and the Ohio. In this state of things, disputes grew so naturally out of the manner in which the country had been settled, that they could only be adjusted by the sword, or by an accommodating pacific policy, not usual among kings. The claims of each stood on such plausible grounds, as might have induced both nations to believe they were right. The European powers, having parcelled out the American territory among themselves, on the idea that the rights of the natives were of no account, could substitute no rights of their own, but such as necessarily militated with each other. As they established the position, that those who first discovered, and took possession of any heathenish country, became its rightful proprietors, the extent of the country, thus acquired by discovery and occupancy, could not be exactly ascertained; for only a small part of it could be reduced to actual occupation. Contests accordingly arose, among all the first settlers, respecting the extent of their possessions.

The English colonies, originally planted on the sea coast, advanced westwardly, and their rights were supposed to extend in that direction, across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The French, possessing Canada in the north, and the mouth of the Mississippi in the south, and