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

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

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1746.] D'ANVILLE'S DISASTERS. 159dull sailers, lagged beh<strong>in</strong>d, <strong>and</strong> the rest were forcedto shorten sail <strong>and</strong> wait for them. In the longitude<strong>of</strong> the Azores there was a dead calm, <strong>and</strong> the wholefleet lay idle for days. Then came a squall, withlightn<strong>in</strong>g. Several ships were struck. On one <strong>of</strong>them six men were killed, <strong>and</strong> on the seventy-gunship " Mars " a box <strong>of</strong> musket <strong>and</strong> cannon cartridgesblew up, killed ten men, <strong>and</strong> wounded twenty-one.store-ship which proved to be s<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g was ab<strong>and</strong>oned<strong>and</strong> burned. Then a pestilence broke out, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> some<strong>of</strong> the ships there were more sick than <strong>in</strong> health.On the fourteenth <strong>of</strong> September they neared thecoast <strong>of</strong> Nova Scotia, <strong>and</strong> were <strong>in</strong> dread <strong>of</strong> thedangerous shoals <strong>of</strong> Sable Isl<strong>and</strong>, the position <strong>of</strong>which they did not exactly know. They gropedtheir way <strong>in</strong> fogs till a fearful storm, with thunder<strong>and</strong> lightn<strong>in</strong>g, fell upon them. The journalist <strong>of</strong>the voyage, a capta<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> the regiment <strong>of</strong> Ponthieu,says, with the exaggeration common <strong>in</strong> such cases,that the waves ran as high as the masts ; <strong>and</strong> suchwas their violenceAthat a transport, dash<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>stthe ship " Amazone, " immediately went down, withall on board. The crew <strong>of</strong> the "Pr<strong>in</strong>ce d' Orange,"<strong>half</strong> bl<strong>in</strong>ded by w<strong>in</strong>d <strong>and</strong> spray, saw the great ship" Caribou, " without bowsprit or ma<strong>in</strong>-topmast, driv<strong>in</strong>gtowards them before the gale, <strong>and</strong> held theirbreath <strong>in</strong> expectation <strong>of</strong>alongside <strong>and</strong> vanished <strong>in</strong> the storm. ^the shock as she swept closeThe tempest1 Journal historique du Voyage de la Flotte comm<strong>and</strong>ee par M. leDue d'Enville.The writer was on board the "Pr<strong>in</strong>ce d'Orange,"

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