The struggle in which the colonists had shown such gallantry slowly dragged to a close. Neither to Great Britain, nor to France had there been much gain in those six years of warfare: the glory belonged to the men of New England, who, in particular, realised the danger of the French Empire in the West. They had learnt by experience the peril that menaced them, and Shirley and Pepperell had done their best to remove that danger by direct attack. In England the enormous value of Cape Breton Island and Louisburg was not fully understood. George II. is traditionally reported to have said that Cape Breton was not his to return to France for it belonged to the people of Boston. This in a sense was true; it had been won by the men of New England and it would appear on the surface that it was for them to keep or restore that frowning outpost in the Atlantic. Peace, however, was most necessary at the moment, though it was only a breathing space in the colossal struggle of the eighteenth century; and it was realised that this peace could only be obtained by the cession of this fortification in exchange for our East Indian territory at Madras. The possibility of the growth of an Indian Empire never dawned upon the settlers in the West. They felt that this small speck in an Eastern land was nothing in comparison with the Dunkirk of North America. The New England colonies had done their best; they had given their men and their money to accomplish a great task. Their lack of unity had often stood in their way, but on the occasion of the capture of Louisburg the Puritan brotherhood had succeeded without the help of either Quaker or southern confederates; they had earned for themselves the respect of their contemporaries and the admiration of their descendants. Unfortunately, however, the abandonment of Louisburg "under the pressure of diplomatic necessity was in the eyes of the colonists an unscrupulous betrayal, and a manifest proof of total indifference to colonial interests. It gave a sting to the words of colonial demagogues and cut the sinews of colonial loyalty."[280] FOOTNOTES: [255] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, vol. i. p. 79. [256] _Ibid._ [257] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, i. p. 139. [258] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, i. p. 144. [259] _Ibid._ [260] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, i. p. 144. [261] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, vol. i. p. 161. [262] _Ibid._, p. 157. [263] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, vol. i. pp. 166, 167. [264] Walker, _Journal_, Introduction. [265] Swift, _Journal to Stella_, October 16, 1711. [266] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, vol. i. p. 169. [267] _Ibid._, p. 182. [268] Prowse, _History of Newfoundland_ (1896), p. 258. [269] Wrong, translator and editor of _Lettre d'un habitant de Louisburg_, p. 26. [270] Parkman, _Half a Century of Conflict_, vol. i. p. 183.