"I have the highest sense of this testimony of your zeal for the public welfare and your esteem for me. I should be much wanting in my duty if I did not embrace this opportunity of returning my thanks for the late pious, learned and eloquent charge from the Bench, and I doubt not, gentlemen, but your vigilance and fidelity in the service of your country will have its desired effect.
"While I have the power to sit in the chair, be assured the authority of Government shall be ready to support the law, for the law, gentlemen, is the firm and solid basis of civil society, the guardian of liberty, the protection of the innocent, the terror of the guilty, and the scourge of the wicked.
"Charles Lawrence."
Governor Lawrence in his letter of 12th January, 1755, says, "I am now preparing to build three batteries of 10 guns each in front of the town, and contemplate finishing them in good time. These batteries were erected along the line of the shore. The middle or King's battery stood where the Queen's wharf now is, there was another at the present Ordnance Yard, another near the site of Fairbanks wharf, and a fourth at the present Lumber Yard, which latter still remains."
The batteries along the front of the town were completed during the summer of 1755, and a plan of them sent to England in June of that year. They were twelve feet in height above high water mark, two hundred and forty feet in length, and sixty-five in breadth. The parapet raised on these was seven feet high, and the materials consisted of logs and timber framed and filled up with gravel, stones, earth and sand. The material consisted of 9500 logs of 25 feet, 1280 tons of square timber and 25,000 tons weight of gravel and earth, the whole expense about £5,300. The work was commenced in January, 1755, and completed late in the summer. 20 guns were mounted on these three batteries in July of that year—the other batteries were afterwards added.
An attempt was made this year to involve the Government in a dispute with the Indian tribes. Paul Laurant, an Indian Chief of the Mic-Mac tribe, appeared before the Council on 12th February, 1755, and informed them that he and another Indian Chief named Algamud, had set out from Beausejour for Halifax in order to treat of peace, but that the Chief had fallen sick at Cobequid and had intrusted him with the proposals. They demanded the whole eastern section of the Province, from Cobequid to Canso, to be set apart for them as feeding and hunting grounds. Being asked what security he could give that the Indians would keep the peace, he said he could say nothing to that, being only desired to bring in the terms. The Council dismissed him with a promise of an answer in writing. An answer in writing was drawn up and signed by the Governor on 13th February, 1755, which expressed a willingness on the part of the Governor and Council to allow them such lands as would be sufficient for their purposes. It mentioned the perfidious breaches of all former treaties on the part of the Indians, and where their conduct was complained of that the Tribes themselves had disallowed all authority on the part of their Chiefs to make such treaties, and that the Governor and Council demanded a full attendance of Chiefs before them, with full power to treat, before any further proceedings could be taken.
On the 3rd and 4th July, the Council was engaged with the French Deputies, again on 14th, 15th and 28th same month.
The defence of the settlement was the next subject of deliberation and the protection from the incursions of the French along the Bay of Fundy and from Louisburg, both nations being at the time arrayed against each other in open warfare.
On the 18th February, 1755, Mrs. Green, wife of Hon. Benj. Green, and her family, Captain Horatio Gates and Mrs. Gates, with Captain Hale and their servants and baggage, were received on board Captain Rogers' sloop for Boston. Captain Gates had been one of the Aides-de-Camp of Governor Cornwallis, he was afterwards a General in the American Revolutionary Army.[34]
The loss of the Mars, a 70 gun ship, occurred off the harbour in May, 1755. It was in an easterly gale and supposed to be the fault of the pilot. Guns and crew were all saved. The Mars rock at the western entrance of the bay marks the spot. The guns and stores were brought to Halifax. Admiral Holborn's letter announcing the loss of the ship bears date the 28th May, off Halifax Harbour.