French Acadia had at all times been much exposed to attacks from the English colonies. The settlers were few in number--at this time not much over a thousand all told--and their defences were but feeble. In 1654, in accordance with secret orders sent by Cromwell, the territory had been seized by an English force from Boston under the command of Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett. Two years later it was made a province, Sir Thomas Temple being appointed governor. After remaining in the possession of the English for a period of thirteen years, it was ceded back to France by the Treaty of Breda in 1667. Five years later Frontenac arrived in Canada for the first time, and in the following year, 1673, M. de Chambly, a very capable soldier, whose services had been highly appreciated by the previous governor, M. de Courcelles, was sent to command in Acadia, and established himself at Pentagouet, a fortified post at the mouth of the river Penobscot. This was the extreme western limit of his jurisdiction even according to the French view of the matter. The New Englanders held that the true limit was the river St. Croix, the present boundary between the province of New Brunswick and the state of Maine. To the east Acadia embraced, by common consent, the southern part of what is now New Brunswick and all Nova Scotia west of the Straits of Canso. M. de Chambly had not been more than a year in his new government when an attack was made on Pentagouet by a Flemish corsair conducted by a Boston pilot or ship captain. After a brief defence he was obliged to surrender, his force being very inferior, and he himself having been wounded. The attacking party then proceeded to the only other Acadian fort, Jemseg, on the river St. John, and captured it. M. de Chambly was taken as a prisoner to Boston, but was soon set at liberty and permitted to return to France. The attack gave rise to a strong protest on the part of Frontenac, and was wholly disavowed by the Massachusetts authorities. In the year 1676, M. de Chambly was sent out again from France with a royal commission as lieutenant-governor. He did not attempt to establish himself at Pentagouet, but for a time made his headquarters at Jemseg, and not long afterwards removed to Port Royal, now Annapolis, on the northern coast of Nova Scotia, which thus became the capital of Acadia. Here he remained till about the year 1679 or 1680, when he was transferred to the governorship of Grenada in the West Indies.