A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

;1745.] MAISONFORT'S LETTER. 125guard-boats of the squadron. The Sieur de laValliere, with a considerable party of men, tried toburn Pepperrell's storehouses, near Flat Point Cove;but ten or twelve of his followers were captured, andnearly all the rest wounded. Various other pettyencounters took place between English scoutingpartiesand roving bands of French and Indians,always ending, according to Pepperrell, in the discomfitureof the latter. To this, however, there wasat least one exception. Twenty English were waylaidand surrounded near PetitLorernbec by forty orfifty Indians, accompanied by two or three Frenchmen.Most of the English were shot down, severalescaped, and the rest surrendered on promise of lifeupon which the Indians, in cold blood, shot or spearedsome of them, and atrociously tortured others.This suggested to Warren a device wliich had twoobjects, — to prevent such outrages in future, and tomake known to the French that the ship "Vigilant,"the mainstay of their hopes, was in English hands.The treatment of the captives was told to the Marquisde la Maisonfort, late captain of the "Vigilant," nowa prisoner on board the ship he had commanded, andhe was requested to lay the factsbefore Duchambon.This he did with great readiness, in a letter containingthese words: "It is well that you should beinformed that the captains and officers ofthis squadrontreat us, not as their prisoners, but as their goodfriends, and take particular pains that my officers andcrew should want for nothing ; therefore it seems to