32^ NATURAL AND CIVIL 



Lord Harley went so far as to say, in his ac- 

 count of this expedition, that the whole was a 

 contrivance of Bolinbroke, More, and the lord 

 chancellor Harcourt, to cheat the public out of 

 twenty thousand pounds. No public enquiry 

 seems to have been made into the matter. It 

 is more candid to assign the misfortunes of the 

 jReet to error, than to design. But when every 

 allowance is made that candor can admit, it will 

 be extremely dilTicult to believe that the British 

 minibtrj," at that time were seriously in earnest, 

 in U'ishing to carry tlieir conquests any further 

 against France.* 



The ill success attending this expedition, 

 gave to the five nations unfavorable sentiments, 

 oF the power and policy of the English colonics. 

 Emissaries were araoDG' them from the u;overnor 

 of Canada, to seduce them from the English, 

 and attach them to the French, the better man- 

 aged and more successful cause. And very se- 

 rious apprehensions v/ere entertained, that they 

 v/ere inclining to the French inteiest. The 

 eastern Indians v/ere encouraged by the failure 

 of tliC expedition, to harrass the frontiers of 

 "Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; and m.uch 

 damage ;vas done the next summer in that part 

 of the couniry. Dudley, Salstontal and Cran- 

 ston, the governors of the eastern colonies form- 

 ed a design to engage the five nations in a rup- 

 ture with the French, to afford some relief to 

 their frontiers. But neither the governor, the 

 assembly of New Yo:k, or the Indians, appear- 

 ing to favor the plan, the scheme was dropped ; 



• Smith's Hiff. New YoTlt,p. 14^. Hutchinson's Hi$t. MassachuieUS 

 'Yel. 2, p, ifc). Trumbull's TtUnt. CcnneAicut, p.4(5j. 



