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

1744.] DUVIVIER'S EXPEDITION FAILS. 63saysthat wlien Duquesnel directed their captains tosail for Annapolis and aid in its capture, they refused,saying that they had no orders from the court. ^Duvivier protracted the parley with Mascarene, andwaited in vain for t^^e promised succor. At lengththe truce was broken off, and the garrison, who hadprofited by it to get rest and sleep, greeted therenewal of hostilities with three cheers.Now followed three weeks of desultory attacks;but there was no assault, though Duvivier hadboasted that he had the means of making a successfulone. He waited for the ships which did not come,and kept the Acadians at work in making ladders andfire-arrows. At length, instead of aid from Louisbourg,two small vessels appeared from Boston,bringing Mascarene a reinforcement of fifty Indianrangers.This discouraged the besiegers, and towardsthe end of September they suddenly decamped andvanished. "The expedition was a failure," writesthe Habitant de Zouishourg, " though one might havebet everything on itsthat the enemy had to resist us."success, so small was the forceThis writer thinks that the seizure ofCanseau andthe attack of Annapolis were sources of dire calamityto the French. "Perhaps," he says, "the Englishwould have let us alone if we had not first insultedthem. It was the interest of the people of NewEngland to live at peace with us,and they would nodoubt have done so, if we had not taken it into our^ Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg.