THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOUEG. 47 



this point raked the streets, which were on the same line with the battery and the 

 west gate. 



Meanwhile the fleet could do nothing. It was anchored off" the harbour. The island 

 battery effectually blocked the ship-entrance. It became necessary, therefore, if the ships 

 were to take any part in the siege, that this battery should be silenced and an attempt was 

 accordingly made to take it by assault. On the evening of May 2Yth, 400 men, who had 

 volunteered for the purpose, led by a Captain Brooks, an officer of their own choice, 

 embarked at White Point, in thirty-five boats, and stole quietly round in the direction of 

 the islet on which the battery was placed. But the sea was rough, the night dark and 

 foggy, and many of the boats perished in the surf that beat from the Atlantic on the 

 islet belt. Some of the men were drowned, and all had their firearms soaked with 

 water. Those who landed and attempted to scale the battery, were driven back by the 

 garrison, which consisted of 200 men. Sixty of the provincials were killed, and IIG made 

 prisoners. It was a serious reverse, the only one, indeed, which the invaders met with 

 during the siege. But they were not discouraged, and immediately set about other means 

 of accomplishing their object — the silencing of the island battery, so as to enable the fleet 

 to enter the harbour. 



We have already noticed the high land, on the right of the entrance of the harbour, 

 which rises abruptly from the water. On the summit was placed a lighthouse, and the 

 hill itself had long been known as Lighthouse Point. Before the attempt made on the 

 island battery by water, it was contemplated to establish a battery on this point. From 

 this elevation, guns of sufficient power could soon render the island battery untenable. 

 But how were the besiegers to get heavy guns to the spot ? They would have to be 

 dragged from the camp for miles, through the forest, over ground strewn with huge rocks, 

 interspersed with morasses almost impassable. This must be done by the labour of men, 

 for, of horses or cattle, even if they could have been used, there were none to be had. It 

 was an appalling task, but the failure of the attack by sea seemed to render it inevitable. 

 At this moment, just at the time when guns were so necessary, and the difficulty of getting 

 them to the spot almost insuperable, a most fortunate discovery was made. A number of 

 large cannon were noticed under water at a place called the careening ground, in close 

 vicinity to Lighthouse Point. They had been there for ten years, sunk in a hurry, and 

 never fished up, though well known to be there by all the French governors of the 

 period. No time was lost in raising them to the surface, and making them ready for use. 

 They were dragged to the site of the proposed battery and duly mounted. In a few days 

 they were playing on the island battery below, doing effective work. By and by, some 

 larger guns and a mortar procured from the camp were, with infinite difficulty, added to 

 the armament. Then the new battery began to make fearful hovoc with its plunging shot 

 on the island fort, dismounting the guns and driving away the gunners. In a few days 

 the island battery was as good as silenced. 



We have already mentioned that the French government were in the habit of sending 

 every spring from Brest, a ship with supplies for Louisbourg. The ship generally left 

 in time to reach the Cape Breton coast early in the spring. This year, the vessel destined 

 for that service took fire and burnt to the water's edge, just as she was about to be loaded. 

 There was no other transport in the harbour of Brest available for the service. But the 

 " Vigilante," an eighty-gun ship of war, was on the stocks, nearly ready to launch. She 



