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

170 ACADIAN CONFLICTS. [1745, 1746.that place. He encamped at a little distance fromthe English fort, till he heard of the disasters thathad ruined the fleet, ^ and then fell back to Chignecto,on the neck of the Acadian peninsula, where hemade his quarters, with a force which, includingMicmac, Malicite, and Penobscot Indians, amounted,at one time, to about sixteen hundred men.IfFrance was bent on recovering Acadia, Shirleywas no less resolved to keep it, if he could. In hisbelief, it was the key of the British American colonies,and again and again he urged the Duke of Newcastleto protect it. But Newcastle seems scarcely to haveknown where Acadia was, being ignorant of mostthings except the art of managing the House ofCommons, and careless of all things that could nothelp his party and himself. Hence Shirley's hyperboles,though never without a basis of truth, werelost upon him. Once, it is true, he sent three hundredmen to Annapolis ;but one hundred and eightyof them died on the voyage, or lay helpless in Bostonhospitals, and the rest could better have been spared,some being recruits from English jails, and othersIrish Catholics, several of whom deserted to theFrench, with information of the state of the garrison.The defence of Acadia was left to Shirley and hisAssembly, who in time of need sent companies ofmilitia and rangers to Annapolis, and thus on severaloccasions saved it from returning to France.Shirleywas the most watchful and strenuous defender of1 Journal de Beaujeu, in Le Canada Frangais, Documents, 53.