LAHONTAN. 321 



j&ght Tinder a cover." Laliontan sailed from Quebec on the 28th of 

 July, in the St. Anne frigate. On the 18th of August he has put 

 into Placentia bay, in Newfoundland. While lying there an English 

 fleet appears before the place — five vessels, one of them, the aS'^. Albans, 

 carrying 66 guns and 600 men. In the fort was a force of only 50 

 men, with a scant supply of ammunition. It was supposed that the 

 English would land and get in rear of the fort, which was fully com- 

 manded from behind. Just as the boats from the fleet, fifty in num- 

 ber, carrying six or seven hundred men, were nearing the only prac- 

 ticable landing place, Lahontan and sixty Biscay an sailors suddenly 

 present themselves on the shore, when the boats draw ofi" and row to 

 another point. The Biscayans were premature in thus discovering 

 themselves, b\at Lahontan could not restrain them. The efiect on 

 the invaders, however, was that which has been described. It was 

 gathered afterwards from a French pilot that it was imagined by the 

 English officers that there was a body of fourteen or fifteen hundred 

 seamen in Placentia; and that the detachment seen at the landing 

 places was simply a decoy to an ambuscade. The next day, after 

 cannonading the fort with little effect for nearly five hours, and set- 

 ting fire to the building at Pointe Verte, the fleet set sail. On 

 October the 6th, the St. Anne proceeds on her way, accompanied by 

 a number of vessels. On the 23rd they are at anchor in the harbour 

 of St. Nazere, eight leagues from Nantes. 



On the 10th of May in the following year (1693) Lahontan is 

 again wiiting at Nantes. He has been to Versailles. The scheme 

 for the forts has been laid by M. de Pontchartrain before the king ; 

 but the project is not sanctioned. The king has sent out orders to 

 M. de Frontenac to make peace with the Iroquois on any terms. 

 Lahontan's former prayer for a " place " is however complied with. 

 He is appointed " Lieutenant du roi " for Newfoundland and 

 Acadia, with the command of a " free company " of 100 men. And 

 this is in acknowledgment, he is told, of his gallantry at Placentia 

 in the preceding August. Nevertheless, he adds, it was not he, but 

 the sixty impetuous Biscayans whom he could not restrain, that pre- 

 vented the landing of the English. " Thus how often it happens," 

 he observes, '' that such persons are preferred, who have no other 

 patrons in the world but chance." He would have chosen rather to 

 return to Canada for, says he, a solitary life is most grateful to me 



