468 AMER/CAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



their accustomed vigor. On the Newfoundland coast, within 

 the area allotted to them, where they enjoyed concurrent 

 fishing rights, they at once began to assert an absolute and 

 exclusive right, and forbade the settlement of the region by 

 English subjects. In Cape Breton, where their fishing fleet 

 of some 400 sail rendezvoused, they constructed the famous 

 fortress of Louisburg. This position was maintained with 

 a sort of desperate determination as the last barrier against 

 English advance. It was designed and considered by the 

 French Government to be absolutely impregnable. It re- 

 quired twenty-five years to build, at a cost of $5,000,000. 

 Upon its great walls were placed 200 pieces of heavy artil- 

 lery, which gave defiance to all assault. Within these 

 massive fortifications reposed a city with full complement of 

 1 ml >lic edifices, churches, parks and the homes of several thou- 

 sand fishermen, by whose persevering industry the city was 

 made prosperous. In the building of this fortress, " the 

 Dunkirk of America," upon a low sandy spot in a desolate 

 island, a mere outpost in the vast wilderness of a new coun- 

 try, one finds a glaring example of the ill-judged policy that 

 has so generally characterized French colonial operations. 

 The splendid scale upon which this great fortress was built 

 measures the earnest and extraordinary interest felt by the 

 French at that period in the northeastern fisheries. 



Louisburg was regarded by British subjects in America, 

 and especially in Massachusetts, as both an insult and a 

 menace. The aggressiveness of the French in prosecuting 

 the fisheries ; their unreasonable and exaggerated claims on 

 the Newfoundland coast, combined with the uneasiness and 

 jealousy produced by the contemplation of their position of 

 vantage and strength in Cape Breton, greatly irritated and 

 inflamed the colonists. They believed that French chicanery 

 and effrontery had accomplished what her arms had failed 

 to achieve, and it was thoroughly believed and constantly 

 asserted that there could be no lasting peace in America 

 until Gallic influence had been extirpated from the continent. 



In 1744 war again broke out between England and 

 France, and the long-cherished plan of striking a blow at 



