ACADIA CHANGES HANDS.
Reprisal1 for Deerfield.—Major Benjamin Church: his Ravages2 at Grand-Pré.—Port Royal Expedition.—Futile3 Proceedings4.—A Discreditable Affair.—French Successes in Newfoundland.—Schemes of Samuel Vetch.—A Grand Enterprise.—Nicholson's Advance.—An Infected Camp.—Ministerial Promises Broken.—A New Scheme.—Port Royal Attacked.—Acadia Conquered.
[Pg 120]When war-parties from Canada struck the English borders, reprisal was difficult against those who had provoked it. Canada was made almost inaccessible6 by a hundred leagues of pathless forest, prowled by her Indian allies, who were sure to give the alarm of an approaching foe7; while, on the other hand, the New Englanders could easily reach Acadia by their familiar element, the sea; and hence that unfortunate colony often made vicarious atonement for the sins of her northern sister. It was from French privateers and fishing-vessels8 on the Acadian seas that Massachusetts drew most of the prisoners whom she exchanged for her own people held captive in Canada.
[Pg 121]Major Benjamin Church, the noted10 Indian fighter of King Philip's War, was at Tiverton in Rhode Island when he heard of Hertel de Rouville's attack on Deerfield. Boiling with rage, he mounted his horse and rode to Boston to propose a stroke of retaliation11. Church was energetic, impetuous, and bull-headed, sixty-five years old, and grown so fat that when pushing through the woods on the trail of Indians, he kept a stout12 sergeant13 by him to hoist14 him over fallen trees. Governor Dudley approved his scheme, and appointed him to command the expedition, with the rank of colonel. Church repaired to his native Duxbury; and here, as well as in Plymouth and other neighboring settlements, the militia15 were called out, and the veteran readily persuaded a sufficient number to volunteer under him. With the Indians of Cape16 Cod17 he found more difficulty, they being, as his son observes, "a people that need much treating, especially with drink." At last, however, some of them were induced to join him. Church now returned to Boston, and begged that an attack on Port Royal might be included in his instructions,—which was refused, on the ground that a plan to that effect had been laid before the Queen, and that nothing could be done till her answer was received. The governor's enemies seized the occasion to say that he wished Port Royal to remain French, in order to make money by trading with it.
The whole force, including Indians and sailors,[Pg 122] amounted to about seven hundred men; they sailed to Matinicus in brigs and sloops19, the province galley20, and two British frigates21. From Matinicus most of the sailing-vessels were sent to Mount Desert to wait orders, while the main body rowed eastward23 in whale-boats. Touching24 at Saint-Castin's fort, where the town of Castine now stands, they killed or captured everybody they found there. Receiving false information that there was a large war-party on the west side of Passamaquoddy Bay, they hastened to the place, reached it in the night, and pushed into the woods in hope of surprising the enemy. The movement was difficult; and Church's men, being little better than a mob, disregarded his commands, and fell into disorder25. He raged and stormed; and presently, in the darkness and confusion, descrying26 a hut or cabin on the farther side of a small brook27, with a crowd gathered about it, he demanded what was the matter, and was told that there were Frenchmen inside who would not come out. "Then knock them in the head," shouted the choleric28 old man; and he was obeyed. It was said that the victims belonged to a party of Canadians captured just before, under a promise of life. Afterwards, when Church returned to Boston, there was an outcry of indignation against him for this butchery. In any case, however, he could have known nothing of the alleged29 promise of quarter.
To hunt Indians with an endless forest behind them was like chasing shadows. The Acadians[Pg 123] were surer game. Church sailed with a part of his force up the Bay of Fundy, and landed at Grand Pré,—a place destined30 to a dismal31 notoriety half a century later. The inhabitants of this and the neighboring settlements made some slight resistance, and killed a lieutenant32 named Baker33, and one soldier, after which they fled; when Church, first causing the houses to be examined, to make sure that nobody was left in them, ordered them to be set on fire. The dikes were then broken, and the tide let in upon the growing crops.[110] In spite of these harsh proceedings, he fell far short in his retaliation for the barbarities at Deerfield, since he restrained his Indians and permitted no woman or child to be hurt,—at the same time telling his prisoners that if any other New England village were treated as Deerfield had been, he would come back with a thousand Indians and leave them free to do what they pleased. With this bluster34, he left the unfortunate peasants in the extremity35 of terror, after carrying off as many of them as were needed for purposes of exchange. A small detachment was sent to Beaubassin, where it committed similar havoc36.
Church now steered37 for Port Royal, which he had been forbidden to attack. The two frigates and the[Pg 124] transports had by this time rejoined him, and in spite of Dudley's orders to make no attempt on the French fort, the British and provincial38 officers met in council to consider whether to do so. With one voice they decided39 in the negative, since they had only four hundred men available for landing, while the French garrison40 was no doubt much stronger, having had ample time to call the inhabitants to its aid. Church, therefore, after trying the virtue41 of a bombastic42 summons to surrender, and destroying a few houses, sailed back to Boston. It was a miserable43 retaliation for a barbarous outrage44; as the guilty were out of reach, the invaders45 turned their ire on the innocent.[111]
If Port Royal in French hands was a source of illicit46 gain to some persons in Boston, it was also an occasion of loss by the privateers and corsairs it sent out to prey47 on trading and fishing vessels, while at the same time it was a standing48 menace as the possible naval49 base for one of those armaments against the New England capital which were often threatened, though never carried into effect. Hence, in 1707 the New England colonists50 made, in their bungling51 way, a serious attempt to get possession of it.
Dudley's enemies raised the old cry that at heart[Pg 125] he wished Port Royal to remain French, and was only forced by popular clamor to countenance52 an attack upon it. The charge seems a malicious53 slander54. Early in March he proposed the enterprise to the General Court; and the question being referred to a committee, they reported that a thousand soldiers should be raised, vessels impressed, and her Majesty55's frigate22 "Deptford," with the province galley, employed to convoy56 them. An Act was passed accordingly.[112] Two regiments57 were soon afoot, one uniformed in red, and the other in blue; one commanded by Colonel Francis Wainwright, and the other by Colonel Winthrop Hilton. Rhode Island sent eighty more men, and New Hampshire sixty, while Connecticut would do nothing. The expedition sailed on the thirteenth of May, and included one thousand and seventy-six soldiers, with about four hundred and fifty sailors.
The soldiers were nearly all volunteers from the rural militia, and their training and discipline were such as they had acquired in the uncouth58 frolics and plentiful59 New England rum of the periodical "muster60 days." There chanced to be one officer who knew more or less of the work in hand. This was the English engineer Rednap, sent out to look after the fortifications of New York and New England. The commander-in-chief was Colonel John March, of[Pg 126] Newbury, who had popular qualities, had seen frontier service, and was personally brave, but totally unfit for his present position. Most of the officers were civilians61 from country towns,—Ipswich, Topsfield, Lynn, Salem, Dorchester, Taunton, or Weymouth.[113] In the province galley went, as secretary of the expedition, that intelligent youth, William Dudley, son of the governor.
New England has been blamed for not employing trained officers to command her levies62; but with the exception of Rednap, and possibly of Captain Samuel Vetch, there were none in the country, nor were they wanted. In their stubborn and jealous independence, the sons of the Puritans would have resented their presence. The provincial officers were, without exception, civilians. British regular officers, good, bad, or indifferent, were apt to put on airs of superiority which galled63 the democratic susceptibilities of the natives, who, rather than endure a standing military force imposed by the mother-country, preferred to suffer if they must, and fight their own battles in their own crude way. Even for irregular warfare64 they were at a disadvantage; Canadian feudalism developed good partisan65 leaders, which was rarely the case with New England democracy. Colonel John March was a tyro66 set over a crowd of ploughboys, fishermen, and mechanics, officered by tradesmen, farmers, blacksmiths, village[Pg 127] magnates, and deacons of the church,—for the characters of deacon and militia officer were often joined in one. These improvised67 soldiers commonly did well in small numbers, and very ill in large ones.
Early in June the expedition sailed into Port Royal Basin, and Lieutenant-Colonel Appleton, with three hundred and fifty men, landed on the north shore, four or five miles below the fort, marched up to the mouth of the Annapolis, and was there met by an ambushed69 body of French, who, being outnumbered, presently took to their boats and retreated to the fort. Meanwhile, March, with seven hundred and fifty men, landed on the south shore and pushed on to the meadows of Allen's River, which they were crossing in battle array when a fire blazed out upon them from a bushy hill on the farther bank, where about two hundred French lay in ambush68 under Subercase, the governor. March and his men crossed the stream, and after a skirmish that did little harm to either side, the French gave way. The English then advanced to a hill known as the Lion Rampant70, within cannon71-shot of the fort, and here began to intrench themselves, stretching their lines right and left towards the Annapolis on the one hand, and Allen's River on the other, so as to form a semicircle before the fort, where all the inhabitants had by this time taken refuge.
Soon all was confusion in the New England camp,—the consequence of March's incapacity for a large command, and the greenness and ignorance of both[Pg 128] himself and his subordinates. There were conflicting opinions, wranglings, and disputes. The men, losing all confidence in their officers, became unmanageable. "The devil was at work among us," writes one of those present. The engineer, Rednap, the only one of them who knew anything of the work in hand, began to mark out the batteries; but he soon lost temper, and declared that "it was not for him to venture his reputation with such ungovernable and undisciplined men and inconstant officers."[114] He refused to bring up the cannon, saying that it could not be done under the fire of the fort; and the naval captains were of the same opinion.
One of the chaplains, Rev72. John Barnard, being of a martial73 turn and full of zeal74, took it upon himself to make a plan of the fort; and to that end, after providing himself with pen, ink, paper, and a horse-pistol, took his seat at a convenient spot; but his task was scarcely begun when it was ended by a cannon-ball that struck the ground beside him, peppered him with gravel75, and caused his prompt retreat.[115]
French deserters reported that there were five hundred men in the fort, with forty-two heavy cannon, and that four or five hundred more were expected every day. This increased the general bewilderment of the besiegers. There was a council of war. Rednap declared that it would be useless[Pg 129] to persist; and after hot debate and contradiction, it was resolved to decamp. Three days after, there was another council, which voted to bring up the cannon and open fire, in spite of Rednap and the naval captains; but in the next evening a third council resolved again to raise the siege as hopeless. This disgusted the rank and file, who were a little soothed77 by an order to destroy the storehouse and other buildings outside the fort; and, ill led as they were, they did the work thoroughly78. "Never did men act more boldly," says the witness before quoted; "they threatened the enemy to his nose, and would have taken the fort if the officers had shown any spirit. They found it hard to bring them off. At the end we broke up with the confusion of Babel, and went about our business like fools."[116]
The baffled invaders sailed crestfallen79 to Casco Bay, and a vessel9 was sent to carry news of the miscarriage80 to Dudley, who, vexed81 and incensed82, ordered another attempt. March was in a state of helpless indecision, increased by a bad cold; but the governor would not recall him, and chose instead the lamentable83 expedient84 of sending three members of the provincial council to advise and direct him. Two of them had commissions in the militia; the third, John Leverett, was a learned bachelor of divinity, formerly85 a tutor in Harvard College, and soon after[Pg 130] its president,—capable, no doubt, of preaching Calvinistic sermons to the students, but totally unfit to command men or conduct a siege.
Young William Dudley was writing meanwhile to his father how jealousies86 and quarrels were rife87 among the officers, how their conduct bred disorder and desertion among the soldiers, and how Colonel March and others behaved as if they had nothing to do but make themselves popular.[117] Many of the officers seem, in fact, to have been small politicians in search of notoriety, with an eye to votes or appointments. Captain Stuckley, of the British frigate, wrote to the governor in great discontent about the "nonsensical malice88" of Lieutenant-Colonel Appleton, and adds, "I don't see what good I can do by lying here, where I am almost murdered by mosquitoes."[118]
The three commissioners89 came at last, with a reinforcement of another frigate and a hundred recruits, which did not supply losses, as the soldiers had deserted90 by scores. In great ill-humor, the expedition sailed back to Port Royal, where it was found that reinforcements had also reached the French, including a strongly manned privateer from Martinique. The New England men landed, and there was some sharp skirmishing in an orchard91. Chaplain Barnard took part in the fray92. "A shot brushed my wig," he says, "but I was mercifully preserved.[Pg 131] We soon drove them out of the orchard, killed a few of them, desperately94 wounded the privateer captain, and after that we all embarked95 and returned to Boston as fast as we could." This summary statement is imperfect, for there was a good deal of skirmishing from the thirteenth August to the twentieth, when the invaders sailed for home. March was hooted97 as he walked Boston streets, and children ran after him crying, "Wooden sword!" There was an attempt at a court-martial; but so many officers were accused, on one ground or another, that hardly enough were left to try them, and the matter was dropped. With one remarkable98 exception, the New England militia reaped scant99 laurels100 on their various expeditions eastward; but of all their shortcomings, this was the most discreditable.[119]
Meanwhile events worthy101 of note were passing in Newfoundland. That island was divided between the two conflicting powers,—the chief station of the French being at Placentia, and that of the English at St. John. In January, 1705, Subercase, who soon[Pg 132] after became governor of Acadia, marched with four hundred and fifty soldiers, Canadians, and buccaneers, aided by a band of Indians, against St. John,—a fishing-village defended by two forts, the smaller, known as the castle, held by twelve men, and the larger, called Fort William, by forty men under Captain Moody102. The latter was attacked by the French, who were beaten off; on which they burned the unprotected houses and fishing-huts with a brutality103 equal to that of Church in Acadia, and followed up the exploit by destroying the hamlet at Ferryland and all the defenceless hovels and fish-stages along the shore towards Trinity Bay and Bonavista.[120]
Four years later, the Sieur de Saint-Ovide, a nephew of Brouillan, late governor at Port Royal, struck a more creditable blow. He set out from Placentia on the thirteenth of December, 1708, with one hundred and sixty-four men, and on the first of January approached Fort William two hours before day, found the gate leading to the covered way open, entered with a band of volunteers, rapidly crossed the ditch, planted ladders against the wall, and leaped into the fort, then, as he declares, garrisoned104 by a hundred men. His main body followed close. The English were taken unawares; their commander,[Pg 133] who showed great courage, was struck down by three shots, and after some sharp fighting the place was in the hands of the assailants. The small fort at the mouth of the harbor capitulated on the second day, and the palisaded village of the inhabitants, which, if we are to believe Saint-Ovide, contained nearly six hundred men, made little resistance. St. John became for the moment a French possession; but Costebelle, governor at Placentia, despaired of holding it, and it was abandoned in the following summer.[121]
About this time a scheme was formed for the permanent riddance of New England from war-parties by the conquest of Canada.[122] The prime mover in it was Samuel Vetch, whom we have seen as an emissary to Quebec for the exchange of prisoners, and also as one of the notables fined for illicit trade with the French. He came of a respectable Scotch105 family. His grandfather, his father, three of his uncles, and one of his brothers were Covenanting106 ministers, who had suffered some persecution107 under Charles II. He himself was destined for the ministry108; but his inclinations109 being in no way clerical, he[Pg 134] and his brother William got commissions in the army, and took an active part in the war that ended with the Peace of Ryswick.
In the next year the two brothers sailed for the Isthmus110 of Panama as captains in the band of adventurers embarked in the disastrous111 enterprise known as the Darien Scheme. William Vetch died at sea, and Samuel repaired to New York, where he married a daughter of Robert Livingston, one of the chief men of the colony, and engaged largely in the Canadian trade. From New York he went to Boston, where we find him when the War of the Spanish Succession began. During his several visits to Canada he had carefully studied the St. Lawrence and its shores, and boasted that he knew them better than the Canadians themselves.[123] He was impetuous, sanguine112, energetic, and headstrong, astute113 withal, and full of ambition. A more vigorous agent for the execution of the proposed plan of conquest could not have been desired. The General Court of Massachusetts, contrary to its instinct and its past practice, resolved, in view of the greatness of the stake, to ask this time for help from the mother-country, and Vetch sailed for England, bearing an address to the Queen, begging for an armament to aid in the reduction of Canada and Acadia. The scheme waxed broader yet in the ardent114 brain of the agent;[Pg 135] he proposed to add Newfoundland to the other conquests, and when all was done in the North, to sail to the Gulf115 of Mexico and wrest116 Pensacola from the Spaniards; by which means, he writes, "Her Majesty shall be sole empress of the vast North American continent." The idea was less visionary than it seems. Energy, helped by reasonable good luck, might easily have made it a reality, so far as concerned the possessions of France.
The court granted all that Vetch asked. On the eleventh of March he sailed for America, fully93 empowered to carry his plans into execution, and with the assurance that when Canada was conquered, he should be its governor. A squadron bearing five regiments of regular troops was promised. The colonies were to muster their forces in all haste. New York was directed to furnish eight hundred men; New Jersey117, two hundred; Pennsylvania, one hundred and fifty; and Connecticut, three hundred and fifty,—the whole to be at Albany by the middle of May, and to advance on Montreal by way of Wood Creek118 and Lake Champlain, as soon as they should hear that the squadron had reached Boston. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island were to furnish twelve hundred men, to join the regulars in attacking Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence.[124]
[Pg 136]Vetch sailed from Portsmouth in the ship "Dragon," accompanied by Colonel Francis Nicholson, late lieutenant-governor of New York, who was to take an important part in the enterprise. The squadron with the five regiments was to follow without delay. The weather was bad, and the "Dragon," beating for five weeks against headwinds, did not enter Boston harbor till the evening of the twenty-eighth of April. Vetch, chafing119 with impatience120, for every moment was precious, sent off expresses that same night to carry the Queen's letters to the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Dudley and his council met the next morning, and to them Vetch delivered the royal message, which was received, he says, "with the dutiful obedience121 becoming good subjects, and all the marks of joy and thankfulness."[125] Vetch, Nicholson, and the Massachusetts authorities quickly arranged their plans. An embargo122 was laid on the shipping123; provision was made for raising men and supplies and providing transportation. When all was in train, the two emissaries hired a sloop18 for New York, and touching by the way at Rhode Island, found it in the throes of the annual election of governor. Yet every warlike preparation was already made, and Vetch and his companion sailed at once for New Haven124 to meet Saltonstall, the newly elected governor of Connecticut.[Pg 137] Here too, all was ready, and the envoys125, well pleased, continued their voyage to New York, which they reached on the eighteenth of May. The governor, Lord Lovelace, had lately died, and Colonel Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor, acted in his place. The Assembly was in session, and being summoned to the council-chamber, the members were addressed by Vetch and Nicholson with excellent effect.
In accepting the plan of conquest, New York completely changed front. She had thus far stood neutral, leaving her neighbors to defend themselves, and carrying on an active trade with the French and their red allies. Still, it was her interest that Canada should become English, thus throwing open to her the trade of the Western tribes; and the promises of aid from England made the prospects126 of the campaign so flattering that she threw herself into the enterprise, though not without voices of protest,—for while the frontier farmers and some prominent citizens like Peter Schuyler thought that the time for action had come, the Albany traders and their allies, who fattened127 on Canadian beaver128, were still for peace at any price.[126]
With Pennsylvania and New Jersey the case was different. The one, controlled by non-combatant Quakers and safe from French war-parties, refused all aid; while the other, in less degree under the same military blight129, would give no men, though granting a slow and reluctant contribution of ￡3,000,[Pg 138] taking care to suppress on the record every indication that the money was meant for military uses. New York, on the other hand, raised her full contingent130, and Massachusetts and New Hampshire something more, being warm in the faith that their borders would be plagued with war-parties no longer.
It remained for New York to gain the help of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, to which end Abraham Schuyler went to Onondaga, well supplied with presents. The Iroquois capital was now, as it had been for years, divided between France and England. French interests were represented by the two Jesuits, Mareuil and Jacques Lamberville. The skilful131 management of Schuyler, joined to his gifts and his rum, presently won over so many to the English party, and raised such excitement in the town that Lamberville thought it best to set out for Montreal with news of what was going on. The intrepid132 Joncaire, agent of France among the Senecas, was scandalized at what he calls the Jesuit's flight, and wrote to the commandant of Fort Frontenac that its effect on the Indians was such that he, Joncaire, was in peril133 of his life.[127] Yet he stood his ground, and managed so well that he held the Senecas firm in their neutrality. Lamberville's colleague, Mareuil, whose position was still more critical, was persuaded by Schuyler that his only safety was in going with him to Albany, which he did; and on this the Onondagas, excited by rum, plundered134 and burned the Jesuit mission-house[Pg 139] and chapel135.[128] Clearly, the two priests at Onondaga were less hungry for martyrdom than their murdered brethren Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant, and Charles Garnier; but it is to be remembered that the Canadian Jesuit of the first half of the seventeenth century was before all things an apostle, and his successor of a century later was before all things a political agent.
As for the Five Nations, that once haughty136 confederacy, in spite of divisions and waverings, had conceived the idea that its true policy lay, not in siding with either of the European rivals, but in making itself important to both, and courted and caressed137 by both. While some of the warriors138 sang the war-song at the prompting of Schuyler, they had been but half-hearted in doing so; and even the Mohawks, nearest neighbors and best friends of the English, sent word to their Canadian kindred, the Caughnawagas, that they took up the hatchet139 only because they could not help it.
The attack on Canada by way of the Hudson and Lake Champlain was to have been commanded by Lord Lovelace or some officer of his choice; but as he was dead, Ingoldsby, his successor in the government of the province, jointly141 with the governors of several adjacent colonies who had met at New York, appointed Colonel Nicholson in his stead.[129] Nicholson[Pg 140] went to Albany, whence, with about fifteen hundred men, he moved up the Hudson, built a stockade142 fort opposite Saratoga, and another at the spot known as the Great Carrying Place. This latter he called Fort Nicholson,—a name which it afterwards exchanged for that of Fort Lydius, and later still for that of Fort Edward, which the town that occupies the site owns to this day.[130] Thence he cut a rough roadway through the woods to where Wood Creek, choked with beaver dams, writhed143 through flat green meadows, walled in by rock and forest. Here he built another fort, which was afterwards rebuilt and named Fort Anne. Wood Creek led to Lake Champlain, and Lake Champlain to Chambly and Montreal,—the objective points of the expedition. All was astir at the camp. Flat-boats and canoes were made, and stores brought up from Albany, till everything was ready for an advance the moment word should come that the British fleet had reached Boston. Vetch, all impatience, went thither144 to meet it, as if his presence could hasten its arrival.
Reports of Nicholson's march to Wood Creek had reached Canada, and Vaudreuil sent Ramesay, governor of Montreal, with fifteen hundred troops, Canadians, and Indians, to surprise his camp. Ramesay's fleet of canoes had reached Lake Champlain,[Pg 141] and was halfway145 to the mouth of Wood Creek, when his advance party was discovered by English scouts147, and the French commander began to fear that he should be surprised in his turn; in fact, some of his Indians were fired upon from an ambuscade. All was now doubt, perplexity, and confusion. Ramesay landed at the narrows of the lake, a little south of the place now called Crown Point. Here, in the dense148 woods, his Indians fired on some Canadians whom they took for English. This was near producing a panic. "Every tree seemed an enemy," writes an officer present. Ramesay lost himself in the woods, and could not find his army. One Deruisseau, who had gone out as a scout146, came back with the report that nine hundred Englishmen were close at hand. Seven English canoes did in fact appear, supported, as the French in their excitement imagined, by a numerous though invisible army in the forest; but being fired upon, and seeing that they were entering a hornet's nest, the English sheered off. Ramesay having at last found his army, and order being gradually restored, a council of war was held, after which the whole force fell back to Chambly, having accomplished149 nothing.[131]
[Pg 142]Great was the alarm in Canada when it became known that the enemy aimed at nothing less than the conquest of the colony. One La Plaine spread a panic at Quebec by reporting that, forty-five leagues below, he had seen eight or ten ships under sail and heard the sound of cannon. It was afterwards surmised150 that the supposed ships were points of rocks seen through the mist at low tide, and the cannon the floundering of whales at play.[132] Quebec, however, was all excitement, in expectation of attack. The people of the Lower Town took refuge on the rock above; the men of the neighboring parishes were ordered within the walls; and the women and children, with the cattle and horses, were sent to hiding-places in the forest. There had been no less consternation151 at Montreal, caused by exaggerated reports of Iroquois hostility152 and the movements of Nicholson. It was even proposed to abandon Chambly and Fort Frontenac, and concentrate all available force to defend the heart of the colony. "A most bloody153 war is imminent," wrote Vaudreuil to the minister, Ponchartrain.
Meanwhile, for weeks and months Nicholson's little army lay in the sultry valley of Wood Creek,[Pg 143] waiting those tidings of the arrival of the British squadron at Boston which were to be its signal of advance. At length a pestilence154 broke out. It is said to have been the work of the Iroquois allies, who thought that the French were menaced with ruin, and who, true to their policy of balancing one European power against the other, poisoned the waters of the creek by throwing into it, above the camp, the skins and offal of the animals they had killed in their hunting. The story may have some foundation, though it rests only on the authority of Charlevoix. No contemporary writer mentions it; and Vaudreuil says that the malady155 was caused by the long confinement156 of the English in their fort. Indeed, a crowd of men, penned up through the heats of midsummer in a palisaded camp, ill-ordered and unclean as the camps of the raw provincials157 usually were, and infested158 with pestiferous swarms159 of flies and mosquitoes, could hardly have remained in health. Whatever its cause, the disease, which seems to have been a malignant160 dysentery, made more havoc than the musket161 and the sword. A party of French who came to the spot late in the autumn, found it filled with innumerable graves.
The British squadron, with the five regiments on board, was to have reached Boston at the middle of May. On the twentieth of that month the whole contingent of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island was encamped by Boston harbor, with transports and stores, ready to embark96 for Quebec at[Pg 144] ten hours' notice.[133] When Vetch, after seeing everything in readiness at New York, returned to Boston on the third of July, he found the New England levies encamped there still, drilled diligently162 every day by officers whom he had brought from England for the purpose. "The bodies of the men," he writes to Lord Sunderland, "are in general better than in Europe, and I hope their courage will prove so too; so that nothing in human probability can prevent the success of this glorious enterprise but the too late arrival of the fleet."[134] But of the fleet there was no sign. "The government here is put to vast expense," pursues Vetch, "but they cheerfully pay it, in hopes of being freed from it forever hereafter. All that they can do now is to fast and pray for the safe and speedy arrival of the fleet, for which they have already had two public fast-days kept."
If it should not come in time, he continues, "it would be the last disappointment to her Majesty's colonies, who have so heartily163 complied with her royal order, and would render them much more miserable than if such a thing had never been undertaken." Time passed, and no ships appeared. Vetch wrote again: "I shall only presume to acquaint your Lordship how vastly uneasy all her Majesty's loyall subjects here on this continent are. Pray God[Pg 145] hasten the fleet."[135] Dudley, scarcely less impatient, wrote to the same effect. It was all in vain, and the soldiers remained in their camp, monotonously164 drilling day after day through all the summer and half the autumn. At length, on the eleventh of October, Dudley received a letter from Lord Sunderland, informing him that the promised forces had been sent to Portugal to meet an exigency165 of the European war. They were to have reached Boston, as we have seen, by the middle of May. Sunderland's notice of the change of destination was not written till the twenty-seventh of July, and was eleven weeks on its way, thus imposing166 on the colonists a heavy and needless tax in time, money, temper, and, in the case of the expedition against Montreal, health and life.[136] What was left of Nicholson's force had fallen back before Sunderland's letter came, making a scapegoat167 of the innocent Vetch, cursing him, and wishing him hanged.
In New England the disappointment and vexation were extreme; but, not to lose all the fruits of their efforts, the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island met and resolved to attack Port Royal if the captains of several British frigates then at New York and Boston would take part in the enterprise. To the disgust of the provincials, the captains, with one exception, refused,[Pg 146] on the score of the late season and the want of orders.
A tenacious168 energy has always been a characteristic of New England, and the hopes of the colonists had been raised too high to be readily abandoned. Port Royal was in their eyes a pestilent nest of privateers and pirates that preyed169 on the New England fisheries; and on the refusal of the naval commanders to join in an immediate170 attack, they offered to the court to besiege76 the place themselves next year, if they could count on the help of four frigates and five hundred soldiers, to be at Boston by the end of March.[137] The Assembly of Massachusetts requested Nicholson, who was on the point of sailing for Europe, to beg her Majesty to help them in an enterprise which would be so advantageous171 to the Crown, "and which, by the long and expensive war, we are so impoverished172 and enfeebled as not to be in a capacity to effect."[138]
Nicholson sailed in December, and Peter Schuyler soon followed. New York, having once entered on[Pg 147] the path of war, saw that she must continue in it; and to impress the Five Nations with the might and majesty of the Queen, and so dispose them to hold fast to the British cause, Schuyler took five Mohawk chiefs with him to England. One died on the voyage; the rest arrived safe, and their appearance was the sensation of the hour. They were clad, at the Queen's expense, in strange and gay attire173, invented by the costumer of one of the theatres; were lodged174 and feasted as the guests of the nation, driven about London in coaches with liveried servants, conducted to dockyards, arsenals176, and reviews, and saluted177 with cannon by ships of war. The Duke of Shrewsbury presented them to Queen Anne,—one as emperor of the Mohawks, and the other three as kings,—and the Archbishop of Canterbury solemnly gave each of them a Bible. Steele and Addison wrote essays about them, and the Dutch artist Verelst painted their portraits, which were engraved178 in mezzotint.[139] Their presence and the speech made in their name before the court seem to have had no small effect in drawing attention to the war in America and inclining the ministry towards the proposals of Nicholson. These were accepted, and he sailed for America commissioned[Pg 148] to command the enterprise against Port Royal, with Vetch as adjutant-general.[140]
Colonel Francis Nicholson had held some modest military positions, but never, it is said, seen active service. In colonial affairs he had played an important part, and in the course of his life governed, at different times, Virginia, New York, Maryland, and Carolina. He had a robust179, practical brain, capable of broad views and large schemes. One of his plans was a confederacy of the provinces to resist the French, which, to his great indignation, Virginia rejected. He had Jacobite leanings, and had been an adherent180 of James II.; but being no idealist, and little apt to let his political principles block the path of his interests, he turned his back on the fallen cause and offered his services to the Revolution. Though no pattern of domestic morals, he seems to have been officially upright, and he wished well to the colonies, saving always the dominant181 interests of England. He was bold, ambitious, vehement182, and sometimes headstrong and perverse183.
Though the English ministry had promised aid, it was long in coming. The Massachusetts Assembly had asked that the ships should be at Boston before the end of March; but it was past the middle of May before they sailed from Plymouth. Then, towards midsummer, a strange spasm184 of martial energy seems to have seized the ministry, for Viscount[Pg 149] Shannon was ordered to Boston with an additional force, commissioned to take the chief command and attack, not Port Royal, but Quebec.[141] This ill-advised change of plan seems to have been reconsidered; at least, it came to nothing.[142]
Meanwhile, the New England people waited impatiently for the retarded185 ships. No order had come from England for raising men, and the colonists resolved this time to risk nothing till assured that their labor186 and money would not be wasted. At last, not in March, but in July, the ships appeared. Then all was astir with preparation. First, the House of Representatives voted thanks to the Queen for her "royal aid." Next, it was proclaimed that no vessel should be permitted to leave the harbor "till the service is provided;" and a committee of the House proceeded to impress fourteen vessels to serve as transports. Then a vote was passed that nine hundred men be raised as the quota187 of Massachusetts, and a month's pay in advance, together with a coat worth thirty shillings, was promised to volunteers; a committee of three being at the same time appointed to provide the coats. On the next[Pg 150] day appeared a proclamation from the governor announcing the aforesaid "encouragements," calling on last year's soldiers to enlist188 again, promising189 that all should return home as soon as Port Royal was taken, and that each might keep as his own forever the Queen's musket that would be furnished him. Now came an order to colonels of militia to muster their regiments on a day named, read the proclamation at the head of each company, and if volunteers did not come forward in sufficient number, to draft as many men as might be wanted, appointing, at the same time, officers to conduct them to the rendezvous190 at Dorchester or Cambridge; and, by a stringent191 and unusual enactment192, the House ordered that they should be quartered in private houses, with or without the consent of the owners, "any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding." Sailors were impressed without ceremony to man the transports; and, finally, it was voted that a pipe of wine, twenty sheep, five pigs, and one hundred fowls193 be presented to the Honorable General Nicholson for his table during the expedition.[143] The above, with slight variation, may serve as an example of the manner in which, for several generations, men were raised in Massachusetts to serve against the French.
Autumn had begun before all was ready. Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island sent their contingents194; there was a dinner at the Green[Pg 151] Dragon Tavern195 in honor of Nicholson, Vetch, and Sir Charles Hobby, the chief officers of the expedition; and on the eighteenth of September the whole put to sea.
On the twenty-fourth the squadron sailed into the narrow entrance of Port Royal, where the tide runs like a mill-stream. One vessel was driven upon the rocks, and twenty-six men were drowned. The others got in safely, and anchored above Goat Island, in sight of the French fort. They consisted of three fourth-rates,—the "Dragon," the "Chester," and the "Falmouth;" two fifth-rates,—the "Lowestoffe" and the "Feversham;" the province galley, one bomb-ketch, twenty-four small transports, two or three hospital ships, a tender, and several sloops carrying timber to make beds for cannon and mortars196. The landing force consisted of four hundred British marines, and about fifteen hundred provincials, divided into four battalions198.[144] Its unnecessary numbers were due to the belief of Nicholson that the fort had been reinforced and strengthened.
In the afternoon of the twenty-fifth they were all on shore,—Vetch with his two battalions on the north side, and Nicholson with the other two on the south. Vetch marched to his camping-ground, on which, in the words of Nicholson's journal, "the[Pg 152] French began to fire pretty thick." On the next morning Nicholson's men moved towards the fort, hacking199 their way through the woods and crossing the marshes200 of Allen's River, while the French fired briskly with cannon from the ramparts, and small-arms from the woods, houses, and fences. They were driven back, and the English advance guard intrenched itself within four hundred yards of the works. Several days passed in landing artillery201 and stores, cannonading from the fort and shelling from the English bomb-ketch, when on the twenty-ninth, Ensign Perelle, with a drummer and a flag of truce202, came to Nicholson's tent, bringing a letter from Subercase, who begged him to receive into his camp and under his protection certain ladies of the fort who were distressed203 by the bursting of the English shells. The conduct of Perelle was irregular, as he had not given notice of his approach by beat of drum and got himself and attendants blindfolded204 before entering the camp. Therefore Nicholson detained him, sending back an officer of his own with a letter to the effect that he would receive the ladies and lodge175 them in the same house with the French ensign, "for the queen, my royal mistress, hath not sent me hither to make war against women." Subercase on his part detained the English officer, and wrote to Nicholson,—
Sir,—You have one of my officers, and I have one of yours; so that now we are equal. However, that hinders me not from believing that once you have given me your[Pg 153] word, you will keep it very exactly. On that ground I now write to tell you, sir, that to prevent the spilling of both English and French blood, I am ready to hold up both hands for a capitulation that will be honorable to both of us.[145]
Another day passed, during which the captive officers on both sides were treated with much courtesy. On the next morning, Sunday, October 1, the siege-guns, mortars, and coehorns were in position; and after some firing on both sides, Nicholson sent Colonel Tailor and Captain Abercrombie with a summons to surrender the fort. Subercase replied that he was ready to listen to proposals; the firing stopped, and within twenty-four hours the terms were settled. The garrison were to march out with the honors of war, and to be carried in English ships to Rochelle or Rochefort. The inhabitants within three miles of the fort were to be permitted to remain, if they chose to do so, unmolested, in their homes during two years, on taking an oath of allegiance and fidelity206 to the Queen.
Two hundred provincials marched to the fort gate and formed in two lines on the right and left. Nicholson advanced between the ranks, with Vetch on one hand and Hobby on the other, followed by all[Pg 154] the field-officers. Subercase came to meet them, and gave up the keys, with a few words of compliment. The French officers and men marched out with shouldered arms, drums beating, and colors flying, saluting207 the English commander as they passed; then the English troops marched in, raised the union flag, and drank the Queen's health amid a general firing of cannon from the fort and ships. Nicholson changed the name of Port Royal to Annapolis Royal; and Vetch, already commissioned as governor, took command of the new garrison, which consisted of two hundred British marines, and two hundred and fifty provincials who had offered themselves for the service.
The English officers gave a breakfast to the French ladies in the fort. Sir Charles Hobby took in Madame de Bonaventure, and the rest followed in due order of precedence; but as few of the hosts could speak French, and few of the guests could speak English, the entertainment could hardly have been a lively one.
The French officers and men in the fort when it was taken were but two hundred and fifty-eight. Some of the soldiers and many of the armed inhabitants deserted during the siege, which, no doubt, hastened the surrender; for Subercase, a veteran of more than thirty years' service, had borne fair repute as a soldier.
Port Royal had twice before been taken by New England men,—once under Major Sedgwick in 1654,[Pg 155] and again under Sir William Phips in the last war; and in each case it had been restored to France by treaty. This time England kept what she had got; and as there was no other place of strength in the province, the capture of Port Royal meant the conquest of Acadia.[146]
FOOTNOTES:
[110] Church, Entertaining Passages. "Un habitant des Mines a dit que les ennemis avaient été dans toutes les rivières, qu'il n'y restait plus que quatre habitations en entier, le restant ayant été brulé."—Expéditions faites par5 les Anglois, 1704. "Qu'ils avaient ... brulé toutes les maisons à la reserve du haut des rivières."—Labat, Invasion des Anglois, 1704.
[111] On this affair, Thomas Church, Entertaining Passages (1716). The writer was the son of Benjamin Church. Penhallow; Belknap, i. 266; Dudley to ——, 21 April, 1704; Hutchinson, ii. 132; Deplorable State of New England; Entreprise des Anglais sur l'Acadie, 1704; Expéditions faites par les Anglais de la Nouvelle Angleterre, 1704; Labat, Invasion des Anglois de Baston, 1704.
[112] Report of a Committee to consider his Excellency's Speech, 12 March, 1707. Resolve for an Expedition against Port Royal (Massachusetts Archives).
[113] Autobiography208 of Rev. John Barnard, one of the five chaplains of the expedition.
[114] A Boston Gentleman to his Friend, 13 June, 1707 (Mass. Archives).
[115] Autobiography of Rev. John Barnard.
[116] A Boston Gentleman to his Friend, 13 June (old style) , 1707. The final attack here alluded209 to took place on the night of the sixteenth of June (new style).
[117] William Dudley to Governor Dudley, 24 June, 1707.
[118] Stuckley to Dudley, 28 June, 1707.
[119] A considerable number of letters and official papers on this expedition will be found in the 51st and 71st volumes of the Massachusetts Archives. See also Hutchinson, ii. 151, and Belknap, i. 273. The curious narrative210 of the chaplain, Barnard, is in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d Series, v. 189-196. The account in the Deplorable State of New England is meant solely211 to injure Dudley. The chief French accounts are Entreprise des Anglois contre l'Acadie, 26 Juin, 1707; Subercase au Ministre, même date; Labat au Ministre, 6 Juillet, 1707; Relation appended to Dièreville, Voyage de l'Acadie. The last is extremely loose and fanciful. Subercase puts the English force at three thousand men, whereas the official returns show it to have been, soldiers and sailors, about half this number.
[120] Penhallow puts the French force at five hundred and fifty. Jeremiah Dummer, Letter to a Noble Lord concerning the late Expedition to Canada, says that the havoc committed occasioned a total loss of ￡80,000.
[121] Saint-Ovide au Ministre, 20 Janvier, 1709; Ibid., 6 Septembre, 1709; Rapport212 de Costebelle, 26 Février, 1709. Costebelle makes the French force one hundred and seventy-five.
[122] Some of the French officials in Acadia foresaw aggressive action on the part of the English in consequence of the massacre213 at Haverhill. "Le coup214 que les Canadiens viennent de faire, où Mars, plus féroce qu'en Europe, a donné carrière à sa rage, me fait appréhender une représaille."—De Goutin au Ministre, 29 Décembre, 1708.
[123] Patterson, Memoir215 of Hon. Samuel Vetch, in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, iv. Compare a paper by General James Grant Wilson in International Review, November, 1881.
[124] Instructions to Colonel Vetch, 1 March, 1709; The Earl of Sunderland to Dudley, 28 April, 1709; The Queen to Lord Lovelace, 1 March, 1709; The Earl of Sunderland to Lord Lovelace, 28 April, 1709.
[125] Journal of Vetch and Nicholson (Public Record Office). This is in the form of a letter, signed by both, and dated at New York, 29 June, 1709.
[126] Thomas Cockerill to Mr. Popple, 2 July, 1709.
[127] Joncaire in N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 838.
[128] Mareuil in N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 836, text and note. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709.
[129] "If I had not accepted the command, there would have been insuperable difficulties" (arising from provincial jealousies).—Nicholson to Sunderland, 8 July, 1709.
[130] Forts Nicholson, Lydius, and Edward were not the same, but succeeded each other on the same ground.
[131] Mémoire sur le Canada, Année 1709. This paper, which has been ascribed to the engineer De Léry, is printed in Collection de Manuscrits relatifs à la Nouvelle France, i. 615 (Quebec, 1883), printed from the MS. Paris Documents in the Boston State House. The writer of the Mémoire was with Ramesay's expedition. Also Ramesay à Vaudreuil, 19 Octobre, 1709, and Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709. Charlevoix says that Ramesay turned back because he believed that there were five thousand English at Wood Creek; but Ramesay himself makes their number only one thousand whites and two hundred Indians. He got his information from two Dutchmen caught just after the alarm near Pointe à la Chevelure (Crown Point). He turned back because he had failed to surprise the English, and also, it seems, because there were disagreements among his officers.
[132] Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier et l'H?pital Général de Québec, 203.
[133] Dudley to Sunderland, 14 August, 1709.
[134] Vetch to Sunderland, 2 August, 1709. The pay of the men was nine shillings a week, with eightpence a day for provisions; and most of them had received an enlistment216 bounty217 of ￡12.
[135] Vetch to Sunderland, 12 August, 1709. Dudley writes with equal urgency two days later.
[136] Letters of Nicholson, Dudley, and Vetch, 20 June to 24 October, 1709.
[137] Joint140 Letter of Nicholson, Dudley, Vetch, and Moody to Sunderland, 24 October, 1709; also Joint Letter of Dudley, Vetch, and Moody to Sunderland, 25 October, 1709; Abstracts of Letters and Papers relating to the Attack of Port Royal, 1709 (Public Record Office); Address of ye Inhabitants of Boston and Parts adjacent, 1709. Moody, named above, was the British naval captain who had consented to attack Port Royal.
[138] Order of Assembly, 27 October, 1709. Massachusetts had spent about ￡22,000 on her futile expedition of 1707, and, with New Hampshire and Rhode Island, a little more than ￡46,000 on that of 1709, besides continual outlay218 in guarding her two hundred miles of frontier,—a heavy expense for the place and time.
[139] See J. R. Bartlett, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878, and Schuyler, Colonial New York, ii. 34-39. The chiefs returned to America in May on board the "Dragon." An elaborate pamphlet appeared in London, giving an account of them and their people. A set of the mezzotint portraits, which are large and well executed, is in the John Carter Brown collection at Providence219. For photographic reproductions, see Winsor, Nar. and Crit. Hist., v. 107. Compare Smith, Hist. N. Y., i. 204 (1830).
[140] Commission of Colonel Francis Nicholson, 18 May, 1710. Instructions to Colonel Nicholson, same date.
[141] Instructions to Richard Viscount Shannon, July, 1710. A report of the scheme reached Boston. Hutchinson, ii. 164.
[142] The troops, however, were actually embarked. True State of the Forces commanded by the Right Honble The Lord Viscount Shannon, as they were Embarkd the 14th of October, 1710. The total was three thousand two hundred and sixty-five officers and men. Also, Shannon to Sunderland, 16 October, 1710. The absurdity220 of the attempt at so late a season is obvious. Yet the fleet lay some weeks more at Portsmouth, waiting for a fair wind.
[143] Archives of Massachusetts, vol. lxxi., where the original papers are preserved.
[144] Nicholson and Vetch to the Secretary of State, 16 September, 1710; Hutchinson, ii. 164; Penhallow. Massachusetts sent two battalions of four hundred and fifty men each, and Connecticut one battalion197 of three hundred men, while New Hampshire and Rhode Island united their contingents to form a fourth battalion.
[145] The contemporary English translation of this letter is printed among the papers appended to Nicholson's Journal in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, i.
[146] In a letter to Ponchartrain, 1 October, 1710 (new style), Subercase declares that he has not a sou left, nor any credit. "I have managed to borrow enough to maintain the garrison for the last two years, and have paid what I could by selling all my furniture." Charlevoix's account of the siege has been followed by most writers, both French and English; but it is extremely incorrect. It was answered by one De Gannes, apparently221 an officer under Subercase, in a paper called Observations sur les Erreurs de la Relation du Siège du Port Royal ... faittes sur de faux mémoires par le révérend Père Charlevoix, whom De Gannes often contradicts flatly. Thus Charlevoix puts the besieging222 force at thirty-four hundred men, besides officers and sailors, while De Gannes puts it at fourteen hundred; and while Charlevoix says that the garrison were famishing, his critic says that they were provisioned for three months. See the valuable notes to Shea's Charlevoix, v. 227-232.
The journal of Nicholson was published "by authority" in the Boston News Letter, November, 1710, and has been reprinted, with numerous accompanying documents, including the French and English correspondence during the siege, in the Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, i.
Vaudreuil, before the siege, sent a reinforcement to Subercase, who, by a strange infatuation, refused it. N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 853.
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reprisal
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| n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠 | |
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ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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proceedings
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par
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inaccessible
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foe
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vessels
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vessel
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noted
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retaliation
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sergeant
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hoist
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militia
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cape
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cod
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sloop
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sloops
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galley
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frigate
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eastward
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touching
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disorder
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descrying
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brook
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choleric
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lieutenant
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havoc
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steered
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outrage
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invaders
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illicit
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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50
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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51
bungling
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| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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52
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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53
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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54
slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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55
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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56
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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57
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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58
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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59
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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60
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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61
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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62
levies
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| （部队）征兵( levy的名词复数 )； 募捐； 被征募的军队 | |
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63
galled
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| v.使…擦痛( gall的过去式和过去分词 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱 | |
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64
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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65
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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66
tyro
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| n.初学者；生手 | |
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67
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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68
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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69
ambushed
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| v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着 | |
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70
rampant
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| adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的 | |
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71
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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72
rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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73
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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74
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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75
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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76
besiege
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| vt.包围，围攻，拥在...周围 | |
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77
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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78
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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79
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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80
miscarriage
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| n.失败，未达到预期的结果；流产 | |
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81
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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82
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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83
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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84
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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85
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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86
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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87
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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88
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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89
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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90
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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91
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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92
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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93
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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94
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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95
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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96
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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97
hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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99
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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100
laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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101
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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102
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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103
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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104
garrisoned
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| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
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105
scotch
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|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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106
covenanting
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|
| v.立约，立誓( covenant的现在分词 ) | |
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107
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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108
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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109
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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110
isthmus
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| n.地峡 | |
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111
disastrous
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|
| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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112
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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113
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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114
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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115
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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116
wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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117
jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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118
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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119
chafing
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| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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120
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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121
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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122
embargo
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| n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商） | |
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123
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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124
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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125
envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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126
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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127
fattened
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| v.喂肥( fatten的过去式和过去分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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128
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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129
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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130
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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131
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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132
intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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133
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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134
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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136
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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137
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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138
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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139
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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140
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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141
jointly
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| ad.联合地，共同地 | |
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142
stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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143
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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144
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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145
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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146
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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147
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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148
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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149
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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150
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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151
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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152
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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153
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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154
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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155
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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156
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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157
provincials
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| n.首都以外的人，地区居民( provincial的名词复数 ) | |
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158
infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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159
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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160
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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161
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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162
diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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163
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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164
monotonously
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| adv.单调地，无变化地 | |
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165
exigency
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| n.紧急；迫切需要 | |
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166
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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167
scapegoat
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| n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊 | |
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168
tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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169
preyed
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| v.掠食( prey的过去式和过去分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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170
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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171
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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172
impoverished
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|
| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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173
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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174
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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175
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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176
arsenals
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| n.兵工厂，军火库( arsenal的名词复数 )；任何事物的集成 | |
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177
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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178
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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179
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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180
adherent
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| n.信徒，追随者，拥护者 | |
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181
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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182
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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183
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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184
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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185
retarded
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| a.智力迟钝的，智力发育迟缓的 | |
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186
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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187
quota
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| n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额 | |
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188
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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189
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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190
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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191
stringent
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| adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的 | |
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192
enactment
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| n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过 | |
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193
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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194
contingents
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| （志趣相投、尤指来自同一地方的）一组与会者( contingent的名词复数 )； 代表团； （军队的）分遣队； 小分队 | |
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195
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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196
mortars
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| n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵 | |
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197
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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198
battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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199
hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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200
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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201
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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202
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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203
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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204
blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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205
defers
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| v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的第三人称单数 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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206
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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207
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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208
autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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209
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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210
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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211
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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212
rapport
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| n.和睦，意见一致 | |
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213
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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214
coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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215
memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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216
enlistment
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| n.应征入伍，获得，取得 | |
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217
bounty
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| n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与 | |
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218
outlay
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| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
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219
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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220
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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221
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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222
besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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