“This comes by a young gentleman, who expects to return to South Carolina in August next. By him, I send you one of each of the pamphlets I have published here. I would have them sent to Scotland as soon as may be. America is pleasanter and pleasanter every day. The door for preaching opens wider and wider. I am preparing my sermons for the press,[126] and am also writing another journal. You shall have them the first opportunity. I wrote to you last week, and sent about fifty letters, by Captain Darling. I expect Mr. Habersham hourly.” The editor of the _Christian History_ adds: “Mr. Habersham arrived soon after the writing of the above letter; and wrote, from the same place, on March 18, and stated, that Mr. Whitefield had been as far eastward as was settled by the English (which is about a hundred and fifty miles), and had preached with much success. Mr. Whitefield was to go with him to Boston the next day, to consult friends there about the affairs of the Orphan House in Georgia, which was what Mr. Habersham came there about.” Soon after this, Whitefield was in a new position. Up to the present, Cape Breton had been in the possession of the French. Besides being the key to Canada, the island was of great importance in a mercantile point of view. The soil was poor, but, in 1743, fish was exported to the amount of a million sterling. In return for this, the people received sugar and coffee, rum and molasses; part of which they used themselves, and the remainder of which they conveyed to Canada and New England, where they obtained, in exchange, fruits, vegetables, bricks, wood, and cattle. Cape Breton, also, was a formidable seminary of seamen, the French employing, in their enormous fishery, twenty thousand men, and at least a thousand sail of from two to four hundred tons each. English ships were terribly exposed to privateers and men of war issuing from the island. Possession of the place would not only cut off all communication between France and Quebec, but the harbour would likewise be a safer retreat for British vessels, than any other harbour in North America. In 1745, a plan for the invasion of Cape Breton was laid at Boston, and New England bore the expense of it. Colonel Pepperell, who has been already introduced to the reader’s notice, was entrusted with the command of an army of six thousand men, levied for the expedition; and these forces, convoyed by a squadron from Jamaica, brought the first news to Cape Breton of the danger that threatened it. The invaders had to encounter but six hundred regular troops, and eight hundred inhabitants armed in haste. Still, the success of the undertaking would have been precarious, if the soldiers on the island had fought with their accustomed spirit. It so happened, however, that, for the last six months, they had in fact, been in open rebellion. The construction and repairs of the fortifications of Louisbourg, sometimes