1690.] PHIPS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 2G3 



He presently captured a small vessel, commanded 

 by Granville, an officer whom Prevost had sent to 

 watch his movements. He had already captured, 

 near Tadoussac, another vessel, having on board 

 Madame Lalande and Madame Joliet, the wife and 

 the mother-in-law of the discoverer of the Missis- 

 sippi. 1 When questioned as to the condition of" 

 Quebec, they told him that it was imperfectly forti- 

 fied, that its cannon were dismounted, and that it 

 had not two hundred men to defend it. Phips was 

 greatly elated, thinking that, like Port Royal, the 

 capital of Canada would fall without a blow. The 

 statement of the two prisoners was true, for the 

 most part, when it was made ; but the energy of 

 Prevost soon wrought a change. 



Phips imagined that the Canadians would offer 

 little resistance to the Puritan invasion ; for some 

 of the Acadians had felt the influence of their New 

 England neighbors, and shown an inclination to 

 them. It was far otherwise in Canada, where 

 the English heretics were regarded with abhor- 

 rence. Whenever the invaders tried to land at the 

 settlements along the shore, they were met by a 

 rebuff. At the river Ouelle, Francheville, the 

 cure put on a cap and capote, took a musket, led 

 his parishioners to the river, and hid with them in 

 the bushes. As the English boats approached their 

 ambuscade, they gave the foremost a volley, which 

 killed nearly every man on board ; upon which 

 the rest sheared off. It was the same when the 



1 " Les Demoiselles Lalande et Joliet." The title of madame was at 

 this time restricted to married women of rank. The wives of the bour- 

 geois, and even of the lesser nobles, were called demoiselles. 



