236 J. G. BOUEINOT 



When this event happened, there were in the harbour fourteen French men of war ; two 

 carrying Y4 guns each, four 64, one 50, three 36, one 32, one 30, and two 16, or an aggregate 

 of five hundred and sixty-two guns. Nearly three thousand men composed the crew of 

 these vessels, which, had they been managed with the same intrepidity and skill which 

 the garrison of the town displayed, Amherst and Boscawen would have found the task 

 before them much less easy of accomplishment. The governor and commandant. Chevalier 

 Drucour, had under his orders a regular force of about three thousand four hundred men, 

 besides officers, and seven hundred militia drawn from the inhabitants of the island, 

 beside a considerable band of Indians whose exact number has not been ascertained, but 

 probably exceeding three hundred in all.' In addition to these fighting forces, there was 

 in the town a population of four thousand persons, men, women and children belonging 

 to Louisbourg and adjacent harbours. Since 1749, when the island was given up to the 

 French, the French population of the island had considerably increased, and there were 

 altogether in 1758 from three to four thousand people living at Louisbourg, Port Tou- 

 louse, Spanish Harbour, St. Anne's, Mira, Ile Madame, Inganiche, and Labrador as the 

 Bras d'Or was then called. Communication had been opened with Port Toulouse, the 

 most populous and flourishing settlement outside of Louisbourg, at a very great expense, 

 by the Count de Eaymond, when goA'ernor of Cape Breton, but all the writers who refer 

 to this subject unite to condemn it as a useless expenditure, calculated to give facilities 

 to an enemy to attack Louisbourg by land and obtain possession of the heights which 

 command the town. The town was well supplied with provisions and military stores, as 

 the English found alter the capitulation. The walls were defended by two hundred and 

 eighteen cannon and seventeen mortars, and there were forty-four large cannon in reserve 

 for a time of need. 



The English naval and military forces that made their appearance off the Bay of 

 Gabarus on that June day were the most formidable in ships, men and armament that 

 have ever appeared in the eastern waters of the Dominion. The naval force was com- 

 posed of twenty-two ships of the line, sixteen frigates, a sloop or corvette, and two fire- 

 ships, which carried in the aggregate eighteen hundred guns, and was under the orders 

 of the Hon. Edward Boscawen, who hoisted his flag as admiral of the blue on the Namur, 

 a noble ship of ninety guns. The second in authority was Sir Charles Hardy, vice-admiral 

 of the white, whose pennant flew from the masthead of the Royal William, a ship of 

 eighty guns. One hundred and twenty transports carried a train of artillery and some 

 companies of colonial rangers and of carpenters — the latter under the Colonel Meserve 



' The French forces, exclusive of inhabitants and Indians, were composed as follows: 



Men. 



Twent3'-four companies of infantiy and two companies of artillery 1,200 



The Second Battalion of the Regiment of Volontaires Etrangers 600 



" " Artois 500 



" " Bourgogne 450 



" Cambise 650 



Total 3,400 



Brown (" Hist of Cape Breton ") and l'arkman (■' Montcalm and Wolfe ") ditt'er as to the number— the former 

 giving 3,400 and the latter 3,080. Murdoch ("' Hist, of Nova Scotia") agrees with Brown. The author of the 

 account of tlie siege, generally attributed to Chevalier Jolin&tone, (see App. IX to this work) places the strength of 

 the regiments at 3,740 (" Quebec Doc," iii. 485.) 



