plunder her, should she strike. Of this Captain
Nicholls entertained many apprehensions at low water, as she pitched
so much; but fortunately, as the weather became more moderate, two
English frigates which lay in the harbor, sent their boats to his
assistance, and the custom-house smack arriving, he escaped, though
very narrowly, from the threatened danger.

The Duke William soon afterwards proceeded to Cork to receive
soldiers, and sailed from thence with a fleet of transports to
Halifax, where they arrived safe, and went to besiege Louisbourg.
After landing the troops, the transports, and some of the men of war,
went into Gabarus Bay, where the admiral allowed the captains of the
former to land their men, being sickly, on a small peninsula, which
they engaged to defend from the enemy. Four or five hundred people,
therefore, immediately set to work, and cut a ditch, six feet wide and
four feet deep, quite across the peninsula, as a protection against
the Indians; they planted cannon, and also placed several swivels on
the stumps of trees cut down for the purpose. Huts were next erected,
gardens made, and the whole ground cleared and converted into pleasant
arbours, from selecting portions of the shrubs and trees.

Here the captains of the transports remained some time, during which
the sick recovered surprisingly, and cures were operated by a
remarkable expedient, called a ground-sweat. This was digging a hole
in the ground, and, being put into it naked, the earth was thrown over
the patient up to the chin, for a few minutes. At first the earth felt
cold, but it quickly brought on a gentle perspiration, which cured the
disorder.--No one person died who underwent such treatment.

On the reduction of Louisbourg, the island of St. John, in the
entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, capitulated, and the inhabitants
were to be sent to France in the English transports. They therefore
left the peninsula, which the people had entrenched, and, after much
bad weather, in which the Duke William parted her cable, and after a
tedious passage, arrived at St. John's; but not without the whole
fleet being in danger of shipwreck. A party of soldiers brought the
inhabitants down the country to the different transports, and the Duke
William, being the largest, the missionary priest, who was the
principal man there, was ordered to go with Captain Nicholls. On his
arrival, he requested permission for the other people who wished it,
to