The pilots seem to have been incompetent, for on August 23d the ships got into difficulties in a fog, losing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near Egg Island, eight transports and eight hundred eighty-four men. At a council of war it was determined to abandon the enterprise, and intelligence of the resolution was sent to General Nicholson, who had left Albany with an army for the purpose of attacking Montreal, and who consequently had the mortification of being obliged to return immediately. On September 4th the fleet arrived at Spanish Bay and anchored in front of Lloyd's Cove. It is questionable if the noble harbor of Sydney has ever since presented so lively a spectacle as on this occasion.
Admiral Walker was instructed if he succeeded in taking Québec, to attack Placentia, in Newfoundland, but at a council of war it was declared impracticable to make any attempt against that place, while from the condition of the stronghold it could have been easily taken. On his return Walker was the laughing-stock of the nation. Literary squibs and pamphlets were showered upon him, and his attempts at a vindication of his conduct only rendered him the more ridiculous. He stood in the estimation of the nation in precisely the same position as Sir John Cope, the commander of the force sent to attack Prince Charles Edward Stuart on his march from the north of Scotland, in 1745, to Edinburgh, who, after having held a council of war, resolved to march in the opposite direction from that in which the enemy was to be found, and whose consummate folly or cowardice in doing so is a standing national joke.
The severe contests in which France and Britain were almost continually engaged required occasional breathing-time. Hence, notwithstanding the series of brilliant victories gained by Marlborough, the war had become unpopular, and the governmental policy had to be assimilated to the national will. France was equally desirous of peace, and no great difficulty was experienced in coming to terms. In the preparation of previous treaties, France had succeeded in making the cession to her of any portion of North American territory wrested from her a fundamental condition of agreement. Great Britain had hitherto shown a degree of pliability, in yielding to the desire of her great opponent, in this matter, which seems unaccountable, and certainly incompatible with British interests; but the representations of the New Englanders as to the impolicy of such procedure were so urgent and unanswerable that the Government had resolved that the period of vacillation was past, and that the exercise of firmness in the permanent retention of Nova Scotia was necessary. Hence, in the celebrated Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, it was provided that all Nova Scotia or Acadia should be yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her crown forever, together with Newfoundland, France retaining possession of Cape Breton.
General Nicholson, having been appointed governor of Nova Scotia in 1714, as well as commander-in-chief, Queen Anne addressed a graceful letter to him, dated June 23, 1713, in which, after alluding to her "good brother," the French King, having released from imprisonment on board his galleys such of his subjects as were detained there professing the Protestant religion, she desired to show her appreciation of his majesty's compliance with her wishes by ordering that all Frenchmen in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland who should desire to remain should be permitted to retain their property and enjoy all the privileges of British subjects; and if they chose to remove elsewhere, they were at liberty to dispose of their property by sale ere they departed.
Meanwhile the Acadians, as well as the inhabitants of Newfoundland, were pressed by the French Governor of Louisburg, M. de Costabelle, to remove to Cape Breton, which the great body of the latter did. The Acadians, however, could not appreciate the advantages to be gained in removing from the fertile meadows of the Annapolis Valley to a soil which, however excellent, required much labor to render it fit for cultivation. It appears that they sent a deputation to examine the island and report as to its adaptability for agricultural purposes, for one of their missionaries, addressing M. de Costabelle, the Governor, says that from the visits made they were satisfied there were no lands in Cape Breton suitable for the immediate maintenance of their families, since there were not meadows sufficient to nourish their cattle, from which they derived their principal support. He at the same time represents the Indians—who had been also desired to remove—as being of opinion that living as they did by the chase, the island was quite insufficient for that purpose, as well as from its narrow limits, equally unfitted for the exercise of their natural freedom.
But while declining to leave Nova Scotia, the Acadians expressed a firm determination to continue loyal to the King of France, affirming that they would never take the oath of allegiance to the crown of England, to the prejudice of what they owed to their King, their country, and their religion, and intimating their resolution, in the event of any attempt to make them swerve from their fidelity to France, or to interfere with the exercise of their religion, to leave the country and betake themselves to Cape Breton, then called the Ile Royale. And they there remained until 1755, at which time the English and New England colonists finally drove forth and dispersed them with hateful cruelty.
%CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME%
A.D. 1661-1715
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals following give volume and page.