xiv INTRODUCTION 



killed or took prisoners one hundred and twenty 

 men. 



The following year he repeated his first feat 

 of arms by attacking and capturing an enemy's 

 vessel in a single boat. 



Of his campaigns in Newfoundland, which 

 he almost entirely cleared of the English, I will 

 say nothing, nor of the three expeditions in 

 Louisiana preceding his death at Havana 

 of yellow fever. If you would know more of 

 this man, you will find in M. Pierre Heinrich's 

 work, ' La Louisiane sous la Campagnie des 

 Indes/ a resume of the services rendered to 

 France by d'Iberville and his ten brothers, 

 grandsons of a Dieppe hotel-keeper who became 

 the progenitor of heroes, an examination of 

 which reveals the prodigies accomplished by 

 our American colonists. One's eyes become 

 moist with tears of gratitude on reading how 

 all the children of one family successively 

 sacrificed their health or gave their blood for 

 the honour of the Motherland ! 



No, our country has never lacked courageous 

 and adventurous mariners ! For every little- 

 known feat of arms I could relate, there are 

 hundreds of others which should live in our 

 memories, for they stand as France's glorious 

 patrimony. 



