“Wherefore if their Chief Governour’s Age and health, and other 317 Circumstances would have permitted him to have been Upon the Spott, and Assisted in this Service, it would I believe have been for the Advantage of it, for him to have made ’em a short Visit at least this year, And if it could have been repeated for the two or three proceeding years it would have been still more so....” SHIRLEY TO NEWCASTLE, 10TH MAY, 1746. (_Extract._) “... I think it my indispensable duty to suggest again to Your Grace my Fears that the Enemy will soon find an opportunity of snatching Accadie by some Sudden Stroke from his Majesty’s Government unless the danger is remov’d out of the Heart of it there by a Removal of the most dangerous of the french Inhabitants from thence, & transplanting English Families there in their room, which I think very practicable from hence, having lately found means of transplanting upwards, I believe, of an hundred Families from the Province to Louisbourg towards the Settlement of it, which yet I dont esteem of such Importance to be immediately done as the Settlement of Nova Scotia with faithful Subjects. “In the meanwhile ’till this can be happily effected & the Indians in those parts secur’d in the English Interest, I have propos’d to Mr. Warren that a Detachment of 100 Men should be sent from Louisbourg to reinforce the garrison at Annapolis Royal, since the late Miscarriage of 182 out of 302 of the Recruits designed for Annapolis in their Passage from England to the garrison there. Ninety-six of the Remainder of ’em, which came in here, I with difficulty have got recovered in his Majesty’s Castle William & at the Hospital in Boston, & sent a month ago to Annapolis where I hear they are safely arriv’d, and twenty more who are in a fair way of being serviceable, I shall 318 send from the Hospital within three days; But the Garrison will still be weak as Mr. Mascarene has dismiss’d most of the New England Auxiliaries, and they have not, I am informed, 220 effective private Men left besides their Artificers & Workmen: I have also recommended to Mr. Warren the frequent Sending of a Ship of War to look into the Bason of Annapolis & make the Garrison there a short Visit in order to prevent a Surprise; & by his Opinion in Concurrence with Sir Will^m Pepperrell’s, Mr. Mascarene’s & my own a Sloop has been hir’d & employ’d for about these last four Months to attend upon that garrison, & carry Intelligence between Annapolis Royal, Louisbourg & Boston concerning the State of it & the Enemy’s Motions which we conceiv’d necessary to be done for its Security, and hope your Grace will not disapprove of.