Massachusetts had not waited for the return of Phipps before taking in hand the more serious matter of the expedition against Quebec. It was hoped, as has already been mentioned, that some assistance would come from the Mother Country in time for a union of forces; but, should that hope be disappointed, New England had determined to proceed with the enterprise alone. The ease with which Acadia had been reduced to submission seemed to be a presage of success in the larger undertaking; and if Phipps could return with a respectable show of booty from so small an establishment as that of Port Royal, what might not be expected if so acquisitive a commander could get a chance at Quebec. Then there was the religious aspect of the case. The Puritan commonwealth would not dishonour God by doubting that they were the people, or that the Catholics of Canada were idolaters. With all the sound doctrine and scriptural worship on one side, and all the deadly error and superstitious practice on the other, how could Providence hesitate which cause to support? At the same time prayer was not considered superfluous, nor was it allowed to flag. "The wheel," as Cotton Mather expressed it, "was kept in continual motion"; and as they prayed they worked, these sturdy Roundheads of the New World. Till well past midsummer Boston harbour was alive with preparation. The chief difficulty was to finance the enterprise. Previous Indian wars had exhausted the colony, and the treasury was well-nigh empty. The only thing to do was to pledge the public credit and raise a loan, which it was hoped might be liquidated, in great part, if not in whole, by the plunder of the enemy. Thirty vessels altogether were requisitioned for the expedition. Most were of small capacity; the largest was a West India trader named the _Six Friends_, carrying forty-four guns, and the second largest the _John and Thomas_, carrying twenty-six guns. The rest had little or no armament. Three vessels appear to have been contributed by the province of New York, one of which was a frigate of twenty-four guns, and the two others vessels of smaller size carrying eight and four guns respectively. The supply of ammunition was decidedly short; but it was hoped, almost up to the last moment, that some contribution in the way of warlike stores, if not in ships and men, would arrive from England. That hope was destined to be frustrated. It was the year when William III was carrying on his campaign in Ireland, while Queen Mary and her Privy Council were trying to control domestic disaffection. It was the terrible year of Beachy Head, when the combined English and Dutch fleets, under Torrington and Evertsen, were defeated by the French under Tourville, and when the buoys at the mouth of the Thames were taken up to prevent the ships of the enemy from appearing before London. It is perhaps not much to be wondered at that, in a time of so much stress and perplexity, an appeal from a trans-Atlantic colony for