so SIR ADAMS ARCHIBALD ON 



position of Divine Providence. The event was celebrated on the Sunday following, on 

 the spot, by a sermon, the first Protestant discourse ever heard in Isle Royale. The preacher 

 took for his text the words, " Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts 

 with praise." There is no doubt the Old Testament narrative of conquests in Canaan 

 figured largely in the sermon. 



When the city itself fell, there were no bounds to the devout enthusiasm of the victors. 

 On the occasion of a festival held shortly afterwards, a long-winded minister was called 

 upon to ask a blessing. He disappointed his auditors who knew, and dreaded, his ver- 

 bosity, by one of the pithiest of graces on record : " Lord, we have so many things to thank 

 Thee for, that time would fail us to do it fully. We leave it, therefore, for the work of 

 eternity." 



The men who undertook and carried out this enterprise, displayed great courage and 

 unflagging energy. From beginning to end, their conduct was irreproachable. No danger 

 deterred, no difficulty daunted them. They did their work with a zeal, an energy and 

 an earnestness, and in a spirit of obedience, that would have commanded admiration, 

 even had they been veteran soldiers. We would not detract in the smallest degree from 

 the credit to which the display of these great qualities entitles them, and yet we venture to 

 say that, had the expedition failed, history would have regarded the whole project as one 

 of the maddest that ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. Let us recapitulate 

 some of the incidents we have mentioned, bearing on the final result. 



First, the unexpected arrival of Commodore Warren and his fleet, after the expedition 

 had sailed for Canso. On leaving the Pisquatica, the commander of the expedition had 

 no right to expect the aid of the British fleet. He arrived at Canso in the belief that he 

 should not receive that aid, and yet if it had not been given, the "Vigilante " which reached 

 G-abarus on May 18th, would have captured or dispersed every ship in the bay, and put in 

 peril the land forces sandwiched between the bay and the fort. 



Then, again, the ice on the coast gaA^e an unexpected delay, which enabled the officers 

 to get into something like discipline a body of rustics, wholly unacquainted with military 

 movements, who had never acted together, and were, when they arrived at Canso, only a 

 mob. Nor did the delay occasion any of the inconveniences that might have been expected 

 from it. The surprise of the French, on May 1st, was as complete as if the ships had 

 arrived direct from New England. Had the intended invasion been known at Louis- 

 bourg, surely some better attempts to prevent the landing would have been made. And 

 why was it not known ? 



It is perfectly marvellous, that no Frenchman at Nerica, no soldier, habitant, or Indian 

 at Port Toulouse, should have been found to convey the intelligence to Louisbourg. And 

 the marvel is emphasised by the extraordinary incidents which attended the despatch of 

 the three spies from Fort Toulouse to Canso, and their assassination on the homeward 

 journey. Then again, the destruction by fire of the supply-ship, and the substitution in its 

 place of the " Vigilante," had a great bearing on the result. Had the supply ship arrived 

 earlier on the coast, it could have entered the harbour of Louisbourg before the ice broke 

 up in the gulf When the " Vigilante " reached the coast, and fell into the hands of the 

 English, it furnished them with the supplies which were sadly needed by the gairison, 

 and it added to the blockading force a first-class ship of war. 



