The Great Fortress : A chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760Wood, William
History
The Great Fortress : A chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760
Wood, William
Louisbourg (N.S.) -- History -- Siege, 1745; Louisbourg (N.S.) -- History -- Siege, 1758
plunder promised them.'
While Parson Moody was preaching a great thanksgiving
sermon, and all the senior officers were among his
congregation, there was what responsible officials called
'excessive stealing in every part of the Towne.' Had this
stealing really been very 'excessive' no doubt it would
have allayed the grumbling in the camp. But, as a matter
of fact, there was so little to steal that the looters
began to suspect collusion between their leaders and the
French. Another fancied wrong exasperated the Provincials
at this critical time. A rumour ran through the camp that
Warren had forestalled Pepperrell by receiving the keys
himself. Warren was cursed, Pepperrell blamed; and a
mutinous spirit arose. Then it was suddenly discovered
that Pepperrell had put the keys in his pocket.
Meanwhile the fleet was making haul after haul. When
Pepperrell marched through the battered West Gate, at
the head of his motley army, Warren had led his squadron
into the harbour; and both commanders had saluted the
raising of the Union Jack which marked the change of
ownership. But no sooner had the sound of guns and cheering
died away than the Union Jack was lowered and the French
flag was raised again, both over the citadel of Louisbourg
and over the Island Battery. This stratagem succeeded
beyond Warren's utmost expectations. Several French
vessels were lured into Louisbourg and captured with
stores and men enough to have kept the British out for
some weeks longer. Their cargoes were worth about a
million dollars. Then, just as the naval men were wondering
whether their harvest was over or not, a fine French
frigate made for the harbour quite unsuspectingly, and
only discovered her fatal mistake too late to turn back.
By the irony of circumstances she happened to be called
Notre-Dame de la Delivrance. Among her passengers was
the distinguished man of science, Don Antonio de Ulloa,
on his way to Paris, with all the results of those
explorations in South America which he afterwards embodied
in a famous book of travel. Warren treated him with the
greatest courtesy and promised that all his collections
should be duly forwarded to the Royal Academy of Sciences.
Once this exchange of international amenities had been
ended, however, the usual systematic search began. The
visible cargo was all cocoa. But hidden underneath were
layers and layers of shining silver dollars from Peru;
and, underneath this double million, another two million
dollars' worth of ingots of silver and ingots of gold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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