tasket. commodore Warren. 1745. Forces were promptly raised; and William Pepperrell, esquire, of Kittery, was appointed commander of the expedition. This officer, on board the Shirley Snow, captain Rouse, with the Troops sail transports under her convoy, sailed from Nantasket on the 24th from Nau of March, and arrived at Canso on the 4th of April. Here the troops, joined by those of New Hampshire and Connecticut, amounting collectively to upwards of 4000,2 were detained three weeks, waiting for the ice, which environed the island of Cape Arrival of Breton, to be dissolved. At length commodore Warren, agreeably to orders from England, arrived at Canso in the Superbe of 60 guns, with 3 other ships of 40 guns each; and, after a consultation with the general, proceeded to cruise before Louisbourg. The general soon after sailed with the whole fleet; and on the 30th of April, coming to anchor at Chapeaurouge Bay, landed his troops. The next object was to invest the city. Lieutenant colonel Vaughan conducted the first column through the woods within sight of Louisbourg, and saluted the city with three cheers. At the head of a detachment, chiefly of the New Hampshire troops, he marched in the night to the north east part of the harbour, where they burned the ware houses, containing the naval stores, and staved a large quantity of wine and brandy. The smoke of this fire, driven by the wind into the grand battery, so terrified the French, that they abandoned it; and, spiking up the guns, retired to the city. The next morning Vaughan took possession of the deserted battery, which he bravely defended. With extreme labour and difficuty cannon were drawn, for 14 nights successively, from the landing place through a morass to the camp.3 The cannon left by the enemy were drilled, and turned with good effect on the city, within which almost every shot lodged, while several fell into the roof of the citadel. On Summon to the 7th of May, a summons was sent in to the commanding officer at Louisbourg, who refused to surrender the place. The siege was therefore still pressed with activity and vigilance by surrender. 1 Connecticut and Rhode Island consented that their colony sloops should be employed as cruisers. A small privateer ship of about 200 tons, and a snow of less burden, belonging to Newport, were hired there by Massachusetts; a new snow, captain Rouse, and a ship, captain Snelling, were taken into the service at Boston; and these, with a snow, a brig, 3 sloops, and a ship of 20 guns, purchased on the stocks, captain Tyng, the commodore, composed the whole naval force. 2 Massachusetts forces 3250 304 total 4070. The Connecticut troops were commanded by Roger Wolcott, lieutenant governor of the colony, who was the second officer in the army. Rhode Island raised 300 men; but they did not arrive until the place had surrendered. Hutchinson. 3 The men, with straps over their shoulders, and sinking to their knees in mud, performed the service which horses or oxen, on such ground, could not have done. It 1745. 1 taken. commodore Warren and his ships, and with vigorous perseverance by the land forces. The joint efforts of both were at length, by the blessing of Heaven, crowned with success. was a circumstance favourable to the assailants, that the garrison of Louisbourg had been so mutinous before the siege, that the officers could not trust the men to make a sortie, lest they should desert. The capture of a French 64 gun ship, richly laden May 18. with military stores, and having on board 560 men, destined for French ship the relief of the garrison, threw the enemy into perturbation.1 A battery, erected on the high cliff at the lighthouse, greatly annoyed their island battery. Preparations were evidently making for a general assault. Discouraged by these adverse events and menacing appearances, Duchambon, the French commander, determined to surrender; and, on the 16th of June, articles of capitulation were signed. After the surrender of the city, the Louisbourg French flag was kept flying on the ramparts; and several rich prizes were thus decoyed. Two East Indiamen and one South Sea ship, estimated at £600,000 sterling, were taken by the squadron at the mouth of the harbour. This expedition was one of the most remarkable events in the history of North America. It was hazardous in the attempt, but successful in the execution. "It displayed the enterprising spirit of New England; and, though it enabled Britain to purchase a peace, yet it excited her envy and jealousy against the colonies, by whose exertions it was acquired."2 The news of this important victory flew through the continent. Considerate and pious persons remarked, with mingled gratitude and admiration, the coincidence of numerous circumstances and events, on which the success of the undertaking essentially de 1 This French man of war, the Vigilant, was taken by captain Edward Tyng, commander of the Massachusetts frigate. Governor Shirley having directed him to procure the largest ship in his power, he had purchased this ship when on the stocks, and nearly ready for launching. It was a ship of about 400 tons, and was soon after launched at Boston. Tyng took the command of her, and was appointed commodore of the fleet. Alden's Memoir of Edward Tyng, Esq. 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i. 4-60; where there is an authentic account of this expedition from original papers. Hutchinson, ii. c. 4. Douglass, i. 336. Belknap, N. Hamp. ii. 193-224. Adams, N. Eng. 208. Trumbull, U. S. i. c. 9. Solicitations were made for a parliamentary reimbursement, which, after much difficulty and delay, was obtained. In 1749 the money, granted by parliament for that purpose, arrived at Boston, and was conveyed to the treasury office. The sum was £183,649, 2s. 7d. 1-2. It consisted of 215 chests (3000 pieces of eight, at a medium, in each chest) of milled pieces of eight, and 100 casks of coined copper. There were 17 cart and truck loads of the silver, and about 10 truck loads of copper. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. ut supra. Brit. Emp. i. 377. Pemberton, MS. Chron. The instructions given by governor Shirley to lieutenant general Pepperrell for this expedition, are published in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i. 1-11. The plan for the reduction of a regularly constructed fortress "was drawn by a lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics." taken. 1745. pended. While the enterprise, patriotism, and firmness of the colonists were justly extolled for projecting and executing a great design, attended with hardships and danger never before paralleled in America, it was perceived that there was also no small degree of temerity in the attempt, and that its success was to be ascribed to the manifest favour of divine Providence. Yale College. First build An act was passed by the legislature of Connecticut for the more full and complete establishment of Yale College, and for enlarging its powers and privileges.1 The first attempts were made to build a town on the Patapsco, ing at Pa- which, though not very successful, prepared the way for the future and flourishing city of Baltimore.2 tapsco. Ginseng. Population of N.Jersey. Ship Mas The Jesuit Lafiteau discovered ginseng in the woods of Canada.3 The inhabitants in New Jersey, enumerated by order of government, were found to be 61,403. The number of quakers in that province was 6079.4 The ship Massachusetts, of about 400 tons, designed to carry sachusetts. 29 and 6 pounders, was launched at Boston, and the command of it given to Edward Tyng.5 Franklin Benjamin Franklin published an account of his new invented fire places. fire places. Shirley projects the 1746. THE success of the expedition to Cape Breton confirmed conquest of governor Shirley in his resolution to prosecute an extensive plan, which he had previously contemplated. This plan embraced nothing less than a conquest of all the French dominions in America. The governor, having visited Louisbourg after its Canada. 1 Pres. Clap, Hist. Yale College, 45-52. The governors of the college, who had hitherto been called Trustees, were now incorporated by the name of THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF YALE COLLEGE. The President had previously been styled Rector; a title chosen at the time when the college was founded, because the title of President was then sustained by the governor of New England. 2 Niles, Register, iii. 45-48. Twenty years after [1765] the number of houses did not exceed 50; and one brig constituted the whole shipping of the place. In 1790, the population of Baltimore amounted to 13,500 souls. 3 Edinburgh Encyclop. Art. CHINA. He was "guided by the description given of the Chinese ginseng by Jartoux in the Lettres Edifiantes." 4 Smith, N. Jersey. 489. Brit. Emp. ii. 421, 422. Whites, 56,797; blacks, 4606;=61,403 Increase in 7 years 47,369 5 Pemberton, MS. Chron. Brit. Emp. i. 364. 6 Life of Franklin, 126. This new invention gave rise to the open stoves, which were called by his name, and which were in frequent use until the recent improvement of count Rumford. surrender, and consulted with Sir Peter Warren and Sir William 1746. Pepperrell, wrote from that place, in a pressing manner, to the British ministry on the important subject. The representation had its full effect; and, in the spring of this year, a circular letter was sent from the duke of Newcastle, secretary of state, to all the governors of the American colonies as far south as Virginia, requiring them to raise as many men as they could spare, and form them into companies of 100, to be ready to unite and act according to the orders which they should afterward receive. The plan was, that a squadron of ships of war, under the command of rear admiral Warren, and a body of land forces under lieutenant general St. Clair, should be sent from England against Canada; that the troops raised in New England should join the British fleet and army at Louisbourg, and proceed up the river St. Lawrence; that those of New York and the other colonies at the southward should be collected at Albany, and march against Crown Point and Montreal. His majesty did not determine the number of men to be raised in any of the colonies; but, in his instructions to the colonial governors, expressed a hope that they would amount in the whole to at least 5000.1 The colonies, pleased with the measure, readily furnished their quotas of men; but neither the general, nor any orders, arrived from England during the whole summer. In this time of suspense Warren and Pepperrell arriving at Boston, governor Shirley consulted with them and other gentlemen on the affair of the Canada expedition; and it was judged, the season was so far advanced, that a fleet could hardly be expected from England. On the presumption, however, that a sufficient body of the troops, destined for that expedition, might be assembled at Albany, it was thought prudent to employ them in an attempt against the French fort at Crown Point. This plan was adopted; and governor Clinton, of New York, solicited and engaged the friendly assistance of the Six Nations. While preparations were making for this newly projected enterprise, accounts were received that a body of French and Indians at Minas threatened Annapolis, and that the Acadians would probably revolt. In the apprehension that without some powerful succour Nova Scotia would be lost, orders were issued for the troops of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, to embark for that place, 1 The colonies voted to raise men in very unequal proportions: 1736. miles nearer the sea, on an island, which Oglethorpe called Cumberland, was raised a battery, commanding the entrance into Jekyl Sound, through which all ships of force must pass to reach Frederica. To keep small garrisons in these forts, and to help the trustees to defray the expenses of such public works, £10,000 were granted by the parliament of Great Britain.1 Spaniards take um brage. French defeated in a saks. The Spaniards, taking umbrage at these fortifications of the English, sent from Havana a commissioner, who, in a conference with Oglethorpe, demanded that he and his people should immediately evacuate the territories to the southward of St. Helena Sound, as belonging to the king of Spain. Oglethorpe having endeavoured in vain to convince the commissioner of the erroneousness of this claim, and the conference breaking up without any agreement, he embarked, with all possible expedition, for England.2 The Chickasaws had for a long time obstinately opposed the battle with progress of the French up the river Mississippi, and were now the Chicka- the chief obstacle that prevented a regular communication between Louisiana and Canada. A detachment of 200 French and 400 Indians was therefore sent from Canada down the Mississippi, to meet a party from New Orleans, to extirpate that hostile and troublesome nation. The party from the southward not coming up at the time appointed, the Canadians, confident of success, began the war by attacking the Chickasaw towns. Three hundred Chicksaw warriors instantly assembling, gave French battle in the field, and completely defeated them. Above 40 Frenchmen and 8 of their allied Indians were killed on the spot, and the rest taken prisoners. The captives, after being kept several days almost perishing with hunger in the wilderness, were tied to the stake, tortured, and burnt to death.3 Trade of Maryland the Maryland employed above 130 sail of ships in its trade. The & Virginia; net product of tobacco, exported from that colony and Virginia, amounted to £210,000; and the annual gain of the mother Pennsylva- country from that trade was above £500,000.4 The entrances at the port of Philadelphia, this year, were 211; and the clearances, 215.5 The entrances at the port of New York were 211, and the clearances, 222.6 nia; N. York. 1 During the two first years of Georgia, the parliament granted upward of £36,000 toward its settlement. 2 Hewatt, ii. 47, 48. 3 Hewatt, ii. 49, 50. See Charlevoix, Nouv. France, ii. 501. Anderson [iii. 215.] says, the French had assembled 2500 white men on Mobile river, on which they built a fort, with an intent to invade Carolina; but the advice of peace between the French and us, obliged them to dissemble that design, and our Chickasaws proved too hard in the end for their Indian allies. 4 Univ. Hist. xl. 474. 5 Ibid. 30. Brit. Emp. ii. 473. 6 Brit. Emp. ii. 395. From March 1735 to 1736. |