1691-92.] A RADICAL CURE. 295 



as destructive as the Iroquois. This was an 

 army of caterpillars, which set at naught the 

 maledictions of the clergy, and made great havoc 

 among the crops. It is recorded that along 

 with the caterpillars came an unprecedented 

 multitude of squirrels, which, being industriously 

 trapped or shot, proved a great help to many 

 families. 



Alarm followed alarm. It was reported that 

 Phips was bent on revenge for his late discomfiture, 

 that great armaments were afoot, and that a mighty 

 host of " Bostonnais " was preparing another de- 

 scent. A«;am and a^ain Frontenac beo-ored that 

 one bold blow should be struck to end these perils 

 and make King Louis master of the continent, by 

 despatching a fleet to seize New York. If this 

 were done, he said, it would be easy to take Boston 

 and the " rebels and old republican leaven of Crom- 

 well " who harbored there ; then burn the place, 

 and utterly destroy it. 1 Villebon, governor of 

 Acadia, was of the same mind. " No town," he 

 told the minister, " could be burned more easily. 

 Most of the houses are covered with shingles, and 

 the streets are very narrow." 2 But the king could 

 not spare a squadron equal to the attempt ; and 

 Frontenac was told that he must wait. The troops 

 sent him did not supply his losses. 3 Money came 

 every summer in sums which now seem small, but 

 were far from being so in the eyes of the king, 



1 Frontenac in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 496, 506. 



2 Villebon in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 507. 



3 The returns show 1,313 regulars in 1691, and 1,120 in 1692. 



