respective sovereigns in fruitless memorials, the
French occupied the country in contest, and established military posts
for its defence. Against these posts this enterprise was to be
conducted.

[Sidenote: French expelled from Nova Scotia.]

On the 20th of May, the troops of Massachusetts, together with
Shirley's and Pepperel's regiments, amounting in the whole to about
three thousand men, embarked, at Boston, under the command of
lieutenant colonel Winslow. The fleet anchored about five miles from
fort Lawrence, where a reinforcement was received of three hundred
British troops and a small train of artillery. The whole army,
commanded by lieutenant colonel Monckton, immediately after landing,
marched against Beau Sejour, the principal post held by the French in
that country. At the river Mussaquack, which the French considered as
the western boundary of Nova Scotia, some slight works had been thrown
up with the intention of disputing its passage. After a short
conflict, the river was passed with the loss of only one man; and, in
five days, Beau Sejour capitulated. Other small places fell in
succession, and, in the course of the month of June, with the loss of
only three men killed, the English acquired complete possession of the
whole province of Nova Scotia.

The recovery of this province was followed by one of those distressing
measures which involve individuals in indiscriminate ruin, and
aggravate the calamities of war.

Nova Scotia having been originally settled by France, its inhabitants
were, chiefly, of that nation. In the treaty of Utrecht, it was
stipulated for the colonists that they should be permitted to hold
their lands on condition of taking the oaths of allegiance to their
new sovereign. With this condition they refused to comply, unless
permitted to qualify it with a proviso that they should not be
required to bear arms in defence of the province. Though this
qualification, to which the commanding officer of the British forces
acceded, was afterwards disallowed by the crown, yet the French
inhabitants continued to consider themselves as neutrals. Their
devotion to France, however, would not permit them to conform their
conduct to the character they had assumed. In all the contests for the
possession of their country, they were influenced by their wishes
rather than their duty; and three hundred of them were captured with
the garrison of Beau Sejour.

[Sidenote: The inhabitants transported.]