In the plan of St. John harbor made by Colonel Robert Morse of the Royal Engineers in 1784, there is an outline of Fort Frederick very nearly identical as regards situation and general form with the sketch of Fort Menagoueche (or "Fort de la Riviere de St. Jean") made in October, 1700, by the Sieur de Villieu.[43] We have further proof of an interesting nature that the situation and general plan of the new fort was identical with the old French fort in one of the letters of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in which he tells us that about the time Fort Frederick was nearing completion a French Canadian, kept there as a prisoner, made his escape, and on his return to Canada described the new fort as exactly the same size as the old but much stronger, the terraces being at least ten feet in thickness, and upon the terraces were palisades ten feet high in the form of "chevaux de frise." The Frenchman had counted 18 cannons mounted of a calibre of 18L., and the English had told him they expected to mount in all 30 cannons of 20L. and of 18L. [43] The plan of Villieu appears in Dr. Ganong's Historic Sites in New Brunswick, p. 279. On the 11th November Colonel Monckton sent Major Scott to Petitcodiac with the Light Infantry and Rangers in quest of a French privateer that had been at the St. John river and which, with one of her prizes, was said to have taken shelter there. He was directed to seize the vessels and bring them off, together with any of the Acadian inhabitants he could find, and to burn and destroy all the houses, barns, cattle, grain, etc. On his return he was to send Captain Dank's company to Fort Cumberland. Major Scott certainly acted with promptitude, for barely a week had expired when he returned to St. John with the privateer schooner and prize sloop, which he had found in two different creeks up the Petitcodiac river. The parties sent out by the Major destroyed upwards of 150 houses and barns, much grain and a good many cattle. They captured 30 prisoners, including women and children. The Acadian seem to have made some resistance, however, and a Lieutenant McCormack and three men of Captain McCurdy's Company and two men of the Light Infantry were captured by them.