LOUISBOURG TAKEN.

The governor of Louisbourg having destroyed the grand battery, which was detached from the body of the place, and recalled his out-posts, prepared for making a vigorous defence. A very severe fire, well directed, was maintained against the besiegers and their works, from the town, the island battery, and the ships in the harbour; and divers sallies were made, though without much effect. In the meantime brigadier Wolfe, with a strong detachment, had marched round the north-east part of the harbour, and taken possession of the Lighthouse-point, where he erected several batteries against the ships and the island fortification, which last was soon silenced. On the nineteenth day of June, the Echo, a French frigate, was taken by the English cruisers, after having escaped from the harbour. From the officers on board of this ship the admiral learned that the Bizarre, another frigate, had sailed from thence on the day of the disembarkation, and the Comète had successfully followed her example. Besides the regular approaches to the town, conducted by the engineers under the immediate command and inspection of general Amherst, divers batteries were raised by the detached corps under brigadier Wolfe, who exerted himself with amazing activity, and grievously incommoded the enemy, both of the town and shipping. On the twenty-first day of July the three great ships, the Entreprenant, Capricieux, and Célèbre, were set on fire by a bomb-shell, and burned to ashes, so that none remained but the Prudent and Bienfaisant, which the admiral undertook to destroy. For this purpose, in the night between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days of the month, the boats of the squadron were in two divisions detached into the harbour, under the command of two young captains, Laforey and Balfour. They accordingly penetrated in the dark through a terrible fire of cannon and musketry, and boarded the enemy sword in hand. The Prudent, being aground, was set on fire and destroyed, but the Bienfaisant was towed out of the harbour in triumph. In the prosecution of the siege, the admiral and general co-operated with remarkable harmony; the former cheerfully assisting the latter with cannon and other implements; with detachments of marines to maintain posts on shore, with parties of seamen to act as pioneers, and concur in working the guns and mortars. The fire of the town was managed with equal skill and activity, and kept up with great perseverance; until, at length, their shipping being all taken and destroyed, the caserns ruined in two principal bastions,* forty out of fifty-two pieces of cannon dismounted, broke, or rendered unserviceable, and divers practicable breaches effected, the governor, in a letter to Mr. Amherst, proposed a capitulation on the same articles that were granted to the English at Port-Mahon.

* It may not be amiss to observe, that a cavalier, which
admiral Knowles had built at an enormous expense to the
nation, while Louisbourg remained in the hands of the
English in the last war, was, in the course of this siege,
entirely demolished by two or three shots from one of the
British batteries; so admirably had this piece of
fortification been contrived and executed, under the eye of
that profound engineer.

In answer to this proposal he was given to understand, that he and his garrison must surrender themselves prisoners of war, otherwise he might next morning expect a general assault by the shipping under admiral Boscawen. The chevalier Dru-cour, piqued at the severity of these terms, replied, that he would, rather than comply with them, stand an assault; but the commissary-general, and intendant of the colony, presented a petition from the traders and inhabitants of the place, in consequence of which he submitted. On the twenty-seventh day of July, three companies of grenadiers, commanded by major Farquhar, took possession of the western gate; and brigadier Whitmore was detached into the town, to see the garrison lay down their arms, and deliver up their colours on the esplanade, and to post the necessary guards on the stores, magazines, and ramparts. Thus, at the expense of about four hundred men killed and wounded, the English obtained possession of the important island of Cape-Breton, and the strong town of Louisbourg, in which the victors found two hundred and twenty-one pieces of cannon, with eighteen mortars, and a considerable quantity of stores and ammunition. The merchants and inhabitants were sent to France in English bottoms; but the garrison, together with the sea-officers, marines, and mariners, amounting in all to five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven prisoners, were transported to England. The loss of Louisbourg was the more severely felt by the French king, as it had been attended by the destruction of so many considerable ships and frigates. The particulars of this transaction were immediately brought to England in a vessel despatched for that purpose, with captain Amherst, brother to the commander, who was also intrusted with eleven pair of colours taken at Louisbourg; these were, by his majesty’s order, carried in pompous parade, escorted by detachments of horse and foot-guards, with kettle-drums and trumpets, from the palace of Kensington to St. Paul’s cathedral, where they were deposited as trophies, under a discharge of cannon, and other noisy expressions of triumph and exultation. Indeed, the public rejoicings for the conquest of Louisbourg were diffused through every part of the British dominions, and addresses of congratulation were presented to the king, by a great number of flourishing towns and corporations.

After the reduction of Cape-Breton, some ships were detached, with a body of troops under the command of lieutenant-colonel lord Rollo, to take possession of the island of St. John, which also lies in the gulf of St. Laurence, and by its fertility in corn and cattle, had, since the beginning of the war, supplied Quebec with considerable quantities of provisions. It was likewise the asylum to which the French neutrals of Annapolis fled for shelter from the English government; and the retreat from whence they and the Indians used to make their sudden irruptions into Nova-Scotia, where they perpetrated the most inhuman barbarities on the defenceless subjects of Great Britain. The number of inhabitants amounted to four thousand one hundred, who submitted and brought in their arms; then lord Rollo took possession of the governor’s quarters, where he found several scalps of Englishmen, whom the savages had assassinated, in consequence of the encouragement they received from their French patrons and allies, who gratified them with a certain premium for every scalp they produced. The island was stocked with above ten thousand head of black cattle, and some of the farmers raised each twelve hundred bushels of corn annually for the market of Quebec.