246 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690. 



that, what with voluntary and enforced enlistment, 

 one town, that of Gloucester, was deprived of two- 

 thirds of its fencible men. 1 There was not a 

 moment of doubt as to the choice of a commander, 

 for Phips was imagined to be the very man for the 

 work. One John Walley, a respectable citizen of 

 Barnstable, was made second in command with the 

 modest rank of major; and a sufficient number of 

 ship-masters, merchants, master mechanics, and 

 substantial farmers, were commissioned as subordi- 

 nate officers. About the middle of July, the com- 

 mittee charged with the preparations reported that 

 all was ready. Still there was a long delay. The 

 vessel sent early in spring to ask aid from England 

 had not returned. Phips waited for her as long as 

 he dared, and the best of the season was over when 

 he resolved to put to sea. The rustic warriors, 

 duly formed into companies, were sent on board ; 

 and the fleet sailed from Nantasket on the ninth of 

 August. Including sailors, it carried twenty-two 

 hundred men, with provisions for four months, but 

 insufficient ammunition and no pilot for the St. 

 Lawrence. 2 



While Massachusetts was making ready to con- 

 quer Quebec by sea, the militia of the land expe- 

 dition against Montreal had mustered at Albany. 



1 Jlev. John Emerson to Wait Winthrop, 26 July, 1690. Emerson was 

 the minister of Gloucester. He begs for the release of the impressed 

 men. 



2 Mather, Life of Phips, gives an account of the outfit. Compare the 

 Humble Address of Divers of the Gentry, Merchants and others inhabiting in 

 Boston, to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Two officers of the expedi- 

 tion, Walley and Savage, have left accounts of it, as Phips would prob- 

 ably have done, had his literary acquirements been equal to the task. 



