354 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692. 



the sloops, was seized by Indians and dragged off 

 by the hair. Then the whole body of savages ap- 

 peared swarming over the fields, so confident of 

 success that they neglected their usual tactics of 

 surprise. A French officer, who, as an old English 

 account says, was " habited like a gentleman," 

 made them an harangue : they answered with a 

 burst of yells, and then attacked the house, firing, 

 screeching, and calling on Convers and his men to 

 surrender. Others gave their attention to the two 

 sloops, which lay together in the narrow creek, 

 stranded by the ebbing tide. They fired at them 

 for a while from behind a pile of planks on the 

 shore, and threw many fire-arrows without success, 

 the men on board fighting with such cool and dex- 

 terous obstinacy that they held them all at bay, 

 and lost but one of their own number. Next, the 

 Canadians made a huge shield of planks, which 

 they fastened vertically to the back of a cart. La 

 Brognerie w T ith twenty-six men, French and In- 

 dians, got behind it, and shoved the cart towards 

 the stranded sloops. It was within fifty feej; of 

 them, when a wheel sunk in the mud, and the ma- 

 chine stuck fast. La Brognerie tried to lift the 

 wheel, and w T as shot dead. The tide began to rise. 

 A Canadian tried to escape, and was also shot. 

 The rest then broke away together, some of them, 

 as they ran, dropping under the bullets of the 

 sailors. 



The whole force now gathered for a final attack 

 on the garrison house. Their appearance was so 

 frightful, and their clamor so appalling, that one 



