A combination of events had aided the success of the brave enterprise. The news of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg at least two months before it was known in Boston, and the French Governor, M. Duquesnel, immediately sent out expeditions to capture the English posts in Nova Scotia. Canseau, at the entrance of the strait of that name, was easily taken, and the garrison carried to Louisbourg, but Annapolis Royal was successfully defended by Colonel Mascarene, then governor of {215} Nova Scotia. All these events had their direct influence on the expedition which New England sent in the spring of 1745 against Louisbourg. The prisoners who had been captured at Canseau had remained until the autumn in Louisbourg, and the accounts they brought back of its condition gave Shirley and others reason to believe that if an expedition was, without loss of time, sent against it, there would be a fair chance of success. Not only did they learn that the garrison was small, but that it was discontented, and a mutiny had actually broken out on account of the soldiers not having received the usual additions to their regular pay for work on the fortifications. The ramparts were stated to be defective in more than one place, while gales and other causes had delayed the arrival of the ships which arrived every year with provisions and reinforcements. These facts gave additional confidence to Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, William Vaughan of New Hampshire, and many influential men who had already conceived the idea of striking a blow at the French which would give the English control of the whole coast from Cape Sable to the entrance of the St. Lawrence.