"The eyes of all Europe are fixed on this formidable armament; they have assembled an army of 22,000 men, 1600 brought from Europe, the remainder provincial militia, with a large train of artillery and munitions of war, 22 line of battle-ships and 200 transports. Yet Admiral Holburn, who appeared off Louisburg with 22 sail of men-of-war, took it into his head that our numbers were equal to his own, and has made his way back to Halifax. They will ask him there, why did you run away? Oh! says he, a superior force venit, vedit, fugit. It is vexatious that the first squadron which France has equipped since 1703 should be shackled with orders only to keep a look out. If ever there was a certainty of firing gunpowder to the renown of the white flag, it was on the 19th August, when Holburn appeared off Louisburg." In some of his subsequent letters he appears to give a very accurate account of the siege, and some facts relative to the war not to be found in any history of that period. In speaking of the landing of Wolfe at the head of the Highlanders and the American Light Troops-- "It is the interest of the conquered not to diminish the glory of the victor, and besides it is our duty to do justice even to our mortal enemy, for which reason I confess that the English on this occasion behaved with such valor as before the event must have appeased temerity. Yet it must be allowed that at the same time the difficulty of the enterprise does them infinite honor, it saves ours; who would have forseen that they would have ventured to have climbed rocks till then rendered inaccessible, under a heavy fire from our batteries, notwithstanding their boats were every moment knocked to pieces in the surf, which drowned great numbers." In speaking of the capitulation he says: