from the shores of France left {218} Rochelle in 1746
for Cape Breton, under the command of M. de la Rochefoucauld, the Duke
d'Anville, an able, sensitive man, who, however, had had no naval
experience. Storm and pestilence attacked the fleet, which found a
refuge in the harbour of Chebouctou, afterwards Halifax, where the
unfortunate Admiral died from an apoplectic seizure. His successor, M.
d'Estournelle, committed suicide in a fit of despondency caused by the
responsibility thrown upon him, when men were dying by hundreds every
day on those lonely Acadian shores. The French lost between two and
three thousand men by disease or casualties, and the remnant of the
great fleet, which was to have restored the fortunes of France in
America, returned home under the command of M. de la Jonquiere without
having even attempted to capture the half-ruined fort at Annapolis.
Another fleet in 1747, under M. de St. George and the Marquis de la
Jonquiere, the latter of whom became subsequently Governor of Canada,
never reached its destination, but was defeated off Cape Finisterre by
a more powerful fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren.

The Canadian Government, of which the Marquis de Beauharnois was then
the head, had confidently expected to regain Acadia, when they heard of
the arrival of the Duke d'Anville's fleet, and immediately sent M. de
Ramesay to excite the Acadians, now very numerous--probably ten
thousand altogether--to rise in arms against the few Englishmen at Port
Royal. He had with him a considerable force of Indians and Canadians,
among the latter {219} such distinguished men as Beaujeu, Saint-Ours,
Boishebert, Lanaudiere, but the news of the disasters that had crippled
the fleet, forced him to give up his plan of attacking Annapolis, and
to withdraw to the isthmus of Chignecto, where he built a small fort at
Baie Verte. In the following year, 1747, he succeeded in surprising
and capturing Colonel Arthur Noble and a considerable force of New
England troops who had taken possession of the houses of the Acadian
French at Grand Pre, one of the most fertile and beautiful districts of
the province, afterwards still more famous in poetry and history. This
exploit, however, did not materially change the aspect of things in
Acadia, where the French Acadians had entirely disappointed the hopes
of Ramesay and his government. Had they been as active or enterprising
as their compatriots on the banks of the St. Lawrence,