The army consisted of seven veteran regiments, who had served under the duke of Marlborough; one regiment of marines; and two regiments of provincials; amounting, in the whole, to six thousand five hundred men; a force equal to that which afterwards reduced Quebec, when in a much better state of defence. This armament sailed from Boston on the 30th of July. Their sanguine hopes were all blasted in one fatal night. On the 23d of August, in the river St. Lawrence, the weather being thick and dark, eight transports were wrecked on Egg Island, near the north shore, and one thousand persons perished. The next day the fleet put back, and was eight days beating down the river against an easterly wind, which, in two, would have carried it to Quebec. After holding a fruitless consultation respecting an attempt on Placentia, the expedition was abandoned; and the squadron sailed for England. Loud complaints were made, and heavy charges reciprocated, on this occasion. The ignorance of the pilots, the obstinacy of the admiral, the detention of the fleet at Boston, its late arrival there, the want of seasonable orders, and the secret intentions of the ministry, were all subjects of bitter altercation; but no regular inquiry was ever made into the causes of the miscarriage.
The plan of this campaign embraced also an attack on Montreal. Four thousand men raised in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, and commanded by colonel Nicholson, marched against that place by the way of Albany and lake Champlain. The failure of the expedition against Quebec enabling the governor of Canada to turn his whole force towards the lakes, Nicholson was under the necessity of making a precipitate retreat.
Peace.
No other event of importance took place during this war, which was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht. By the 12th article of this treaty, France ceded to England "all Nova Scotia or Acadié, with its ancient boundaries, as also the city of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, and all other things in those parts which depend on the said lands." This territory, which had been comprehended in the grant made to the Plymouth company, was, with the consent of that company, afterwards granted by James as King of Scotland, under the name of Nova Scotia, to sir William Alexander.
Affairs of New York.
In New York, the Leislerian and anti-Leislerian parties continued to persecute each other. To this calamity was added, in the year 1702, the still heavier affliction of a malignant fever, imported in a vessel from the West Indies, which, in almost every instance, proved mortal. A similar disease raged, about the same time, in several other sea port towns; and was probably the same which has since produced such fatal effects under the name of the yellow fever.
In the same year, lord Cornbury, a needy and profligate nobleman, was appointed governor of the province. He embraced the anti-Leislerian party, that being then the strongest. On meeting the assembly, he urged the necessity of providing money for the public exigencies; and, as he had arranged himself with the ruling party, the vote of supply was liberal.
It was soon perceived that the confidence in the governor was misplaced. Considerable sums levied for objects of great interest, were applied to his private use. The system adopted in New York, for collecting and keeping public money, was calculated to favour this peculation. The colony having no treasurer, its revenue came into the hands of the receiver general for the crown, whence it was drawn by a warrant from the governor. Contests soon arose, between his lordship and the legislature, on the subject of money; the house requiring a statement of disbursements, and the appointment of a treasurer, to be controlled by them. At length, in 1706, an act was passed raising three thousand pounds for fortifications, and directing the money to be placed in the hands of a person named by the legislature. The assent of the governor to this act was not given till the succeeding year, and was then accompanied with a message stating, that he had it in command from the Queen "to permit the general assembly to name their own treasurer when they raised extraordinary supplies for particular uses and which are no part of the standing and constant revenue."
The continual demands of the governor for money, his misapplication of it, his extortion in the form of fees, and his haughty tyrannical conduct increased the irritation subsisting between him and the legislature. At length, the Queen yielded to the complaints of both New York and New Jersey, and consented to recall him.
During these altercations, some spirited resolutions were entered into by the assembly; one of which claims particular notice. It is in these words: "Resolved, that the imposing and levying of any monies upon her majesty's subjects in this colony, under any pretence or colour whatsoever, without their consent in general assembly, is a grievance, and violation of the people's property."