218 .1. G. BOUEINOT 



led to the capture of several ships ladeu with valuable cargoes, valued at ,.€175,000 

 sterling ; but the most important prize v^^as the frigate " Notre Dame de la Délivrance," 

 laden with cacao under which were hidden nearly two millions of Peruvian dollars, 

 besides a considerable amount of gold and silver in ingots and bars, probably four million 

 dollars altogether. Among the passengers was a distinguished scientific man, Don Antonio 

 De Ulloa, who had been associated with some members of the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 at Paris in measuring an arc of the meridian under the equator in South America. Two 

 other French frigates, the Marquis d'Antin and the Louis Érasme, which were in com- 

 pany with the Délivrance, had been captured with their rich cargoes of gold and silver 

 by some English privateers five degrees to the westward of the Island of Flores, and the 

 captain of the latter vessel, which received much damage in the action, considered it most 

 expedient to seek safety at Louisbourg, where he confidently expected to find a consider- 

 able French fleet at a time when France was at war with a maritime power. DeUlloa 

 has left us an interesting account ' of his A'oyages in South America, and of his visit to 

 Louisbourg under circumstances disheartening to men who thought they were in safety 

 until they found their vessel was a prize to two English men-of war, the Sunderland and 

 Chester. DeUHoa was treated with every consideration due to so eminent a man, and all 

 his scientific papers were carefully preserved and handed back to him on his arrival in 

 London. 



When the English colonists surveyed the state of the town they had abundant evi- 

 dence of the execution that their artillery had done in every part. " All the houses," says 

 one eye witness," " one only excepted, had some shot through them more or less ; some had 

 their roofs beat down with bombs ; as for the famous citadel and hospital, they were almost 

 demolished by bombs and shot." 



By the articles of capitulation the garrison and residents of Louisbourg were to be 

 transported to France as soon as possible on condition that none of them who were sub- 

 jects of the French king should take up arms against England or any of her allies for 

 twelve months from the date of the document. Altogether six hundred and fifty veteran 

 troops, thirteen hundred and ten militia, the crew of the Vigilante —five hundred and 

 sixty altogether — and two thousand inhabitants, as far as can be ascertained, subsequently 

 embarked for Rochefort. A discrei)ancy exists between the English and French accounts 

 as to the number of French killed during the siege. Duchambon states it to be fifty, and 

 adds that ninety-five were wounded and very many ill on account of the hardships they 

 suffered. It is generally believed that the number of killed was greater, but there are no 

 reliable data at hand. The total loss of the English, including the number of those who 

 died from dysentery and other complaints, due to exposure and severe toil on the damp 

 ground in the vicinity of the town, is given at one hundred and thirty men in all. 

 Seventy-six cannon and mortars, and a considerable quantity of provisions and munitions 

 of war fell into the hands of the English. Duchambon declares also that he had only a 

 small quantity of powder left at the time of the capitulation, and .that he had actually 

 used sixty-seven thousand kegs, but, as an historian' of the siege very truly says, " this 

 statement is incredible, for supposing that each keg contained only twenty-five pounds, 



' See App. X to this work for a reference to his work giving his impressions of Louisbourg. 



- Gibson, " Journal of the Siege." 



» Brown, " Hist, of Cape Breton," p. 234. 



