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

72 A MAD SCHEME. [1745.Government, they prudently reconsidered theiraction. They voted, however, that the colonysloop "Tartar," carrying fourteen cannon and twelvesmvels, should be equipped and manned for the service,and that the governor should be instructedfind and commission a captain and a lieutenant tocommand her.^Connecticut promised five hundred and sixteenmen and officers, on condition that Roger Wolcott,their commander, should have the second rank in theexpedition. Shirley accordingly commissioned himas major-general. As Massachusetts was to supplyabove three thousand men, or more than three quartersof the whole force,commander-in-chief.she had a natural right to name aIt was not easy to choose one. The colony hadbeen at peace for twenty years, and except somegrizzled Indian fighters of the last war, and somesurvivors of the Carthagena expedition, nobody hadseen service. Few knew well what a fortress was,and nobody knew how to attack one. Courage,energy, good sense, and popularity were the bestqualities to be hoped for in the leader. Popularitywas indispensable, for the soldiers were all to bevolunteers, and they would not enlisttounder a commanderwhom they did not like. Shirley's choicewas William Pepperrell, a merchant of Kittery.Knowing that Benning Wentworth thought himselfthe man for the place, he made an effort to placate1 Colony Records of Rhode Islmid, v. {February/, 1745).