THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOUEG. 43 



of New England. They were sure the attempt on Nova Scotia would be repeated the 

 following year, and they feared, with worse results. As things were, their fishery at 

 Canso, the best in the world, was gone. Louisbourg, only a few miles off, sheltered the 

 French privateers and commanded the fishery, and from it armed ships could swoop down 

 at pleasure on any part of the Atlantic coast. With Louisbourg, the only port of any im- 

 portance in these northern waters, the provincials saw nothing before them but destruction 

 to their commerce and to their settlements. They then began to turn over in their minds, 

 whether it would not he possible to get rid of their trouble by a bold stroke on Louisbourg 

 itself It is uncertain who it was that originated the idea; but to Shirley, the Massachu- 

 setts governor, is certainly due the credit, if under the circumstances (judged, not from the 

 results, but from what might reasonably have been expected to be the results) credit it be, 

 of inciting and persuading his people to undertake the hazardous adventure. He proposed 

 it first to his legislative assembly in secret session. The members stood aghast at the 

 temerity of the proposal. They rejected it with scarce a dissentient voice. But it was a 

 matter of life and death to the merchants and traders, even more than to the settlers. They 

 pressed for a reconsideration, which was granted. Finally, after long and tedious discus- 

 sion, the proposal was carried by a ma,jority of one. Once a decision was given in its 

 favour, all concvrrred in doing their best to make the project successful. 



It was proposed to raise 4,000 men for the purpose. The resolution to that effect 

 passed towards the end of January. Within two months from that date the levies were 

 completed : 4,070 men were enrolled and ready to sail. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed. 

 It was not a question merely of politics or of trade : the feeling was largely religious. 

 The savages who raided the British settlements, and massacred and scalped the inhabi- 

 tants, were, in name, Roman Catholics. The settlers gauged the creed the savages professed 

 by the outrages they practiced. The Indians were under the guidance of Roman Catholic 

 priests. In the rude logic of the provincials, they inferred that it was " like master like 

 man." Hence hatred of Romanism became in New England a living force, drawing in the 

 same line with trading interests and national hatreds. Many of the volunteers enlisted 

 from religious motives. Whitfield, the great English Evangelist, who was in Massachusetts 

 at the time, furnished a motto to be inscribed on the banner of the expedition : Nil 

 despemndum Christo dure! " Despair not with Christ for leader." The sentiment was 

 appropriate. It was the motto of a forlorn hope. Humanly speaking, success, in such an 

 expedition, was impossible. If it came at all, it must be the result of divine interposition. 

 In the eyes of the adventurers, the age of miracles was not past. They believed that in 

 so saci'ed a cause miracles might still be wrought, and when we see what a continuous 

 series of marvellous events actually did occur, we cease to wonder at the credulity of the 

 adventurers in considering themselves the special favorites of Providence. 



The volunteers were farmers and mechanics, traders and labourers. They were utterly 

 undisciplined. They had never seen anything of war, except, perhaps, a skirmish with a 

 band of savages. They were to be led by one Pepperel, a merchant, with no more ex- 

 perience of war than themselves ; and they were to set out on an expedition against the 

 strongest fort in America, defended by a garrison of regular soldiers, and having behind 

 it all the resources of the French monarchy. Such an undertaking required faith and 

 enthusiasm of no ordinary kind. 



The expedition was to sail from the mouth of the Pisquatiqua on March 24th. Besides 



