MISCELLANEOUS. 1141 



balls shot from the French guns. Badly sheltered, and exhausted by 

 toil in mud and water, and by exposure in a cold and foggy climate, 

 fifteen hundred became sick and unfit for duty. Still the siege was 

 conducted with surpassing energy, with some skill, and courage seldom 

 equalled. Nine thousand cannon-balls and six hundred bombs were 

 discharged by the assailants. The French commander submitted on 

 the forty-ninth day of the investment. The victors entered the 

 "Dunkirk of the western world" amazed at their own achievement. 



A single day's delay in the surrender might have resulted in discom- 

 fiture and defeat, and in extensive mortal sickness, since, within a few 

 hours of the capitulation, a storm of rain set in, which, in the ten days 

 it continued, flooded the camp-ground and beat down the huts which 

 the colonists abandoned for quarters within the walls. 



Pepperell and his companions were the most fortunate of men. Even 

 after the fall of the city, the French flag (which was kept flying as a 

 decoy) lured within their grasp ships with cargoes of merchandise 

 worth more than a million of dollars. The exploit was commended in 

 the highest and loftiest terms. Even thirty years afterwards, Mr. Hart- 

 ley* said, in the House of Commons, that the colonists "took Louis- 

 bourg from the French single-handed, without any European assist- 

 ance as mettled an enterprise as any in our history an everlasting 

 memorial to the zeal, courage, and perseverance of the troops of New 

 England, "f 



These are the mere outlines of the accounts of this extraordinary 

 affair.J Several of our books of history contain full details; but the 

 correspondence of Shirley, Pepperell, and Warren, which is preserved 

 in the Collections of the Historical Society of Massachusetts, as well as 

 the letters and narratives of subordinate actors, should be read in 

 connexion. 



A century has elapsed. With the present condition of Cape Breton 

 in view, we almost imagine that we hold in our hands books of fiction 

 rather than the records of the real, when we read, as we do in Smol- 

 let, that the conquest of Louisbourg was "the most important achieve- 

 ment of the war of 1744;" in the Universal History, that " New England 



* He was one of the British commissioners of peace in 1783. 



f Horace Walpole calls Sir Peter Warren "the conqueror of Cape Breton, " and says 

 that he was ' ' richer than Anson, and absurd as Vernon. " Walpole also quotes a remark 

 of Marshal Belleisle, who, when he was told of the taking of Cape Breton, said, "he 

 could believe that, because the ministry had no hand in it." Walpole adds: "We 

 are making bonfires for Cape Breton, and thundering over Genoa, while our army in 

 Flanders is running away and dropping to pieces by detachments taken prisoners 

 every day. " 



J April 4, 1748, a committee of the House of Commons came to the following resolu- 

 tion: "Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that it is just and reasonable 

 that the several provinces and colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, 

 Connecticut, and Rhode Island be reimbursed the expenses they have been at in 

 taking and securing to the crown of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its 

 dependencies. " 



Mr. Burke remarks on this resolution that "these expenses were immense for such 

 colonies; they were above 200,000 sterling money first raised and advanced on 

 1 heir public credit. " 



William Bollan, collector of the customs for Salem and Marblehead, who married 

 a daughter of Governor Shirley, was sent to England to solicit the reimbursement 

 of these expenses. He obtained the sum of 183,649 sterling, after a difficult and 

 toilsome agency of three years. 



He returned to Boston in 1748, with six hundred and fifty-three thousand ounces 

 of silver and ten tons of copper. This money was landed on Long Wharf, placed in 

 wagons, and carried through the streets mid much rejoicing. 



