at the
time governor of Louisbourg, and maintained the defence for nearly
forty days. The capitulation of the fortress was hastened by the fact
that the English fleet captured the French frigate _Vigilante_, on
whose arrival the garrison had been depending for weeks. On the
afternoon of June 17th, General Pepperrell marched at the head of his
army through the West or Dauphin gate into the town, and received the
keys from the commandant, who, with his garrison drawn up in line,
received him in the King's bastion. One hundred and fifty years later
a granite column was raised on the same historic ground in honour of
this famous victory, which caused such rejoicings throughout England
and America.

By the articles of capitulation, the garrison and residents of
Louisbourg, probably two thousand persons in all, were transported to
France. The settlement of Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin had been
captured, the first before, and the other during {217} the siege. The
leader of the New England expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy, the
first distinction of the kind ever given to a colonist, while Warren
was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

If the English Government had fully understood the necessities of their
American colonies, they would have immediately followed the advice of
Governor Shirley, who was a man of statesmanlike views and bold
conception, though he possessed no capacity as a leader of military
operations, as his later career in America proved. He suggested that
an expedition should attack Montreal by the usual route of Lake
Champlain, while an English fleet ascended the St. Lawrence and
besieged Quebec. All the colonies set to work with considerable energy
to carry out this scheme, but it came to nought, in consequence of the
failure of the Duke of Newcastle, the most incapable statesman ever at
the head of imperial affairs, to redeem his promise. It was then
proposed to attack Fort Frederick at Crown Point, on the western side
of Lake Champlain, where it contracts to a narrow river, but its
progress was arrested by the startling news that the French were
sending out a fleet to take Cape Breton and Acadia, and attack Boston
and other places on the Atlantic sea-board.

France had heard with dismay of the loss of Cape Breton, which she
recognised as a key to the St. Lawrence, and made two efforts to
recover it before the war closed in 1748. One of the noblest fleets
that ever sailed