The third tract touches particularly the present expedition: The Deplorable State of New England, by reason of a covetous and treacherous Governor and pusillanimous Counsellors, ... to which is added an account of the shameful miscarriage of the late expedition against Port Royal. London, 1708. (Harv. Coll. library, 10396.80; and Carter-Brown, iii. no. 115.) This tract was reprinted in Boston in 1720. The North Amer. Rev. (iii. 305) says that this pamphlet was thought to have been written by the Rev. John Higginson, of Salem, at the age of ninety-two; but the “A. H.” of the preface is probably Alexander Holmes. (Sabin, v. 19,639.) Palfrey (iv. 304, etc.) thinks that its smartness and pedantry indicate rather Cotton Mather or John Wise (Brinley, i., no. 285) as the author.
[921] Stevens, Bibliotheca Geog., no. 887; Field, Indian Bibliog., no. 428; Brinley, i. no. 83; Sabin, v. 20,128. The Boston Public Library has a Rouen edition of 1708. The Carter-Brown (iii. 109, 137) has both editions, as has Mr. Barlow (Rough List, nos. 784, 789, 790). The full title of the Rouen edition is: Relation du voyage du Port Royal de l’Acadie ou de la Nouvelle France, dans laquelle on voit un détail des divers mouvements de la mer dans une traversée de long cours; la description du Païs, les occupations des François qui y sont établis, les manières des différentes nations sauvages, leurs superstitions et leurs chasses, avec une dissertation exacte sur le Castor. Ensuite de la relation, on y a ajouté le détail d’un combat donné entre les François et les Acadiens contre les Anglois.
[922] Jeremiah Dummer’s memorial, Sept. 10, 1709, setting forth that the French possessions on the river of Canada do of right belong to the Crown of Great Britain. (Mass. Hist. Coll., xxi. 231.)
[923] Carter-Brown, iii. no. 823.
[924] Cf. Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y., v. 72; N. E. H. and Gen. Reg., 1870, p. 129, etc.
[925] Palfrey, iv. 275, quotes Sunderland’s instructions to Dudley from the British Colonial Papers. The proclamation which the British agents issued on their arrival, with Dudley’s approval, is in the Mass. Archives. Vetch had as early as 1701 been engaged in traffic up the St. Lawrence. Cf. Journal of the voyage of the sloop Mary from Quebec, 1701, with introduction and notes by E. B. O’Callaghan, Albany, 1866. Through this and other adventures he had acquired a knowledge of the river; and in pursuance of such traffic he had gained some enmity, and had at one time been fined £200 for trading with the French. It was in 1706 that William Rouse, Samuel Vetch, John Borland, and others were arrested on this charge. (Mass. Hist. Coll., xviii. 240.)
[926] Hutchinson, ii. 161; Barry, Mass., ii. 98, and references; Charlevoix (Shea’s), v. 222.
[927] Bearing an address to the queen, asking for assistance in another attempt the next year. (Mass. Archives, xx. 119, 124.)
[928] Some documents relative to the equipment are given in the N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1876, p. 196. Dudley (July 31, 1710) notified the New Hampshire assembly of the provisions to be made for the expedition. N. H. Prov. Papers, iii. p. 435.
[929] The Rev. George Patterson, D. D., of New Glasgow, N. S., contributed in 1885 to the Eastern Chronicle, published in that town, a series of papers on “Samuel Vetch, first English governor of Nova Scotia.” Cf. also J. G. Wilson on “Samuel Vetch, governor of Acadia” in International Review, xi. 462; and The Scot in British North America (Toronto, 1880), i. p. 288. There is also in the Nova Scotia Historical Collections, vol. iv., a memoir of Samuel Vetch by Dr. Patterson, including papers of his administration in Nova Scotia, 1710-13, with Paul Mascarene’s narrative of events at Annapolis, Oct., 1710 to Sept., 1711, dated at Boston, Nov. 6, 1713; as also a “journal of a voyage designed to Quebeck from Boston, July, 1711,” in Sir Hovenden Walker’s expedition. (See the following chapter.)