THE ENEMIES SHIPPING DESTROYED.

Lord Colville had sailed from Halifax, with the fleet under his command, on the twenty-second day of April; but was retarded in his passage by thick fogs, contrary winds, and great shoals of ice floating down the river. Commodore Swanton, who had sailed from England with a small reinforcement, arrived about the beginning of May at the Isle of Bee, in the river St. Laurence, where, with two ships, he purposed to wait for the rest of his squadron, which had separated from him in the passage: but one of these, the Lowestoffe, commanded by captain Deane, had entered the harbour of Quebec on the ninth day of May, and communicated to the governor the joyful news that the squadron was arrived in the river. Commodore Swanton no sooner received intimation that Quebec was besieged, than he sailed up the river with all possible expedition, and on the fifteenth in the evening anchored above Point Levi. The brigadier expressing an earnest desire that the French squadron above the town might be removed, the commodore ordered captain Schomberg of the Diana, and captain Deane of the Lowestoffe, to slip their cables early next morning, and attack the enemy’s fleet, consisting of two frigates, two armed ships, and a great number of smaller vessels. They were no sooner in motion than the French ships fled in the utmost disorder. One of their frigates was driven on the rocks above Cape Diamond; the other ran ashore, and was burned at Point-au-Tremble, about ten leagues above the town; and all the other vessels were taken or destroyed.

The enemy were so confounded and dispirited by this disaster, and the certain information that a strong English fleet was already in the river St. Laurence, that in the following night they raised the siege of Quebec, and retreated with great precipitation, leaving their provisions, implements, and artillery to governor Murray, who had intended to make a vigorous sally in the morning, and attempt to penetrate into the camp of the besiegers, which, from the information of prisoners and deserters, he conceived to be a very practicable scheme. For this purpose he had selected a body of troops, who were already under arms, when a lieutenant, whom he had sent out with a detachment to amuse the enemy, came and assured him that their trenches were abandoned. He instantly marched out of Quebec at the head of his forces, in hopes of overtaking and making an impression on their rear, that he might have ample revenge for his late discomfiture; but they had passed the river Cape Rouge before he could come up with their army: however, he took some prisoners, and a great quantity of baggage, including their tents, stores, magazines of provision and ammunition, with thirty-four pieces of battering cannon, ten field-pieces, six mortars, four petards, a great number of scaling ladders, intrenching tools, and every other implement for a siege. They retired to Jaques-Quartiere, where their ammunition began to fail, and they were abandoned by great part of the Canadians; so that they resigned all hope of succeeding against Quebec, and began to take measures for the preservation of Montreal, against which the force under general Amherst was directed. There M. Vaudreuil had fixed his head-quarters, and there he proposed to make his last stand against the efforts of the British general. He not only levied forces, collected magazines, and erected new fortifications in the island of Montreal, but he had even recourse to feigned intelligence, and other arts of delusion, to support the spirits of the Canadians and their Indian allies, which had begun to flag in consequence of their being obliged to abandon the siege of Quebec. It must be owned, he acted with all the spirit and foresight of an experienced general, determined to exert himself for the preservation of the colony, even though very little prospect of success remained. His hopes, slender as they were, depended upon the natural strength of the country, rendered almost inaccessible by woods, mountains, and morasses, which might have retarded the progress of the English, and protracted the war until a general pacification could be effected. In the meantime, major-general Amherst was diligently employed in taking measures for the execution of the plan he had projected, in order to complete the conquest of Canada. He conveyed instructions to general Murray, directing him to advance by water towards Montreal, with all the troops that could be spared from the garrison of Quebec. He detached colonel Haviland, with a body of troops from Crown-Point, to take possession of the Isle-aux-Noix, in the lake Champlain, and from thence penetrate the shortest way to the bank of the river St. Laurence; while he himself, with the main body of the army, amounting to about ten thousand men, including Indians, should proceed from the frontiers of New York, by the rivers of the Mohawks and Oneidas, to the lake Ontario, and sail down the river St. Laurence to the island of Montreal. Thus, on the supposition that all these particulars could be executed, the enemy must have been hemmed in and entirely surrounded. In pursuance of this plan, general Amherst had provided two armed sloops to cruise in the lake Ontario, under the command of captain Loring; as well as a great number of bateaux, or smaller vessels, for the transportation of the troops, artillery, ammunition, implements, and baggage. Several regiments were ordered to proceed from Albany to Oswego: and the general taking his departure from Schenectady, with the rest of the forces, in the latter end of June, arrived at the same place on the ninth day of July.