DEMOLITION OF LOUISBOURG.

The conquest of Canada being achieved, nothing now remained to be done in North America, except the demolition of the fortifications of Louisbourg on the island of Cape Breton; for which purpose some able engineers had been sent from England with the ships commanded by captain Byron. By means of mines artfully disposed and well constructed, the fortifications were reduced to a heap of rubbish, the glacis was levelled, and the ditches were filled. All the artillery, ammunition, and implements of war, were conveyed to Halifax; but the barracks were repaired, so as to accommodate three hundred men occasionally; the hospital, with the private houses, were left standing. The French still possessed, upon the continent of America, the fertile country lying on each side of the great river Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the gulf of Florida; but the colony was so thinly peopled, and so ill provided, that, far from being formidable, it scarcely could have subsisted, unless the British traders had been base and treacherous enough to supply it from time to time with provisions and necessaries. The same infamous commerce was carried on with divers French plantations in the West Indies; insomuch that the governors of provinces, and commanders of the squadrons stationed in those seas, made formal complaints of it to the ministry. The temptation of extraordinary profit excited the merchants not only to assist the enemies of their country, but also run all risks in eluding the vigilance of the legislature. The inhabitants of Martinique found a plentiful market of provision furnished by the British subjects at the Dutch islands of Eustatia and Curaeoa: and those that were settled on the island of Hispaniola were supplied in the same manner at the Spanish settlement of Monte-Christo.