42 SIR ADAMS ARCHIBALD ON 



titles were significant. "Isle Royale" suggested connection with the throne, " Louis- 

 bourg " with the person, of the Grand Monarque. 



Besides the fort iself, there were outlying posts of great strength. A powerful battery, 

 on one of the low islets we have mentioned at the mouth of the harbour, commanded the 

 narrow ship-entrance between it and the shore on the right; and far up the harbour, on a 

 lofty hill facing the entrance, stood the grand battery with an armament of the heaviest 

 guns. It also commanded the ship-entrance. Thus Louisbourg, strong in itself, with two 

 immense batteries commanding the harbour's entrance, towered proudly in these northern 

 waters, and was the terror of the English colonies from the Strait of Canso to the mouth 

 of the Hudson. 



In 1.745, the fort was garrisoned by 700 regulars, and 1,000 militia, under command of 

 Duchambon, who was also the French governor of Isle Royale. 



For a century before that time. Nova Scotia had been the border-ground between the 

 English and the French on the Atlantic coast. The province was alternately British and 

 French, as the fortune of war determined. But every time that it was wrested from 

 France, the conquest was the work of the British provincials. The possession of Nova 

 Scotia by the English was to the provincials a vital point. When Nova Scotia was 

 French, the border-ground shifted to New England. The peninsula was a wedge 

 between the two powers. So long as the contest was confined to our soil. New England 

 was comparatively safe. 



The long peace between the two crowns ended in 1744. The French had taken care 

 to despatch a fast ship at once to Louisbourg to convey the news. The governor of Isle 

 Royale, the predecessor of Duchambon, had immediately equipped an expedition, under 

 Duvivier (a descendant of the famous La Tour) and made a raid on Nova Scotia. The 

 only military posts at the time in this province were Canso and Annapolis. A garrison 

 of eighty men occupied a block house at Canso, which was in no condition to sustain a 

 siege. They surrendered on the first summons. The block house was destroyed, and the 

 garrison sent to Louisbourg, prisoners of war. 



The plan of operations contemplated that Duvivier, after taking and destroying the 

 block house at Canso, should proceed with his force of 900 men (regulars and militia) to 

 Annapolis, there to combine with other parties, who were to meet him there, in an attack 

 on that place. The fort at Annapolis was in a ruinous state. The place might have been 

 taken with ease, if Duvivier had carried out his project with vigor. But a series of 

 blunders occurred. First, the priest Le Loutre came tipon the scene at Annapolis, with 

 300 savages from Cape Sable and the River St. John, on July 1st. This party spent some 

 time investing the fort, but having no siege guns, they did little damage, beyond shoot- 

 ing a soldier or two, who were fovmd straggling outside the fort. At length Le Loutre, 

 disheartened by his failure, and hearing nothing of the other parties who were to join 

 him, raised the siege and retired to Minas. Next came, in August, Duvivier with his 

 troops, and a body of Indians. They, too, failed, and retired to Minas. Last of all came 

 some ships of war from Louisbourg. Finding, on their arrival, that both the other parties 

 had come and gone, the ships contented themselves with capturing a transport or two, 

 and then retired from the scene. Nothing could have saved Annapolis, if the several 

 parties of the enemy, or any two of them, had reached the spot at the same time. 



The destruction of Canso and the attack on Annapolis seriously alarmed the people 



