in your garrison--notwithstanding
the favor and attention this Province has shown them for continuing their
services through the winter, and notwithstanding the great encouragement
given to those who would continue--have worked themselves up to such a
temper of dissatisfaction that they have long ago threatened to come off,
if not relieved."

This threat was not meaningless for the governor goes on to say
"already seventy men in one schooner and about eighty in another have
openly come off from Fort Frederick at St. John's."

The conduct of these Massachusetts rangers was a source of mortification
to Lieut. Governor Hutchinson, who speaks of "the unwarrantable
behaviour of the garrison at St. John's River, all of whom have
deserted their post except 40 men and the continuation of those forty
seems to be precarious." Steps were at once taken to enlist a fresh
detachment for service at Fort Frederick.

The conduct of the garrison was not unnatural, although from a
military point of view it was inexcusable. The men had enlisted for a
great and, as the event proved, a final struggle with France for
supremacy in North America. With the downfall of Louisbourg and Quebec
the crisis had passed. The period of their enlistment had expired,
what right had the Assembly of Massachusetts to prolong it? Why should
they remain? So they reasoned. Meanwhile garrison duty at Fort
Frederick was found to be extremely monotonous. The country was
deserted, for the few habitations that once existed in the vicinity of
the fort had been abandoned and destroyed when the French fled up the
river, and no English settlers had as yet appeared. Amidst their
privations and the loneliness of their situation the charms of their
own firesides seemed peculiarly inviting. Most probably, too, the fort
and barracks were little more than habitable in consequence of the
havoc wrought by a terrible storm on the night of the 3-4 November,
1759. This storm was the most violent that had till then been known,
and from all accounts must at least have rivalled the famous "Saxby"
gale of 1869. The tide attained a height of six feet above the
ordinary, and huge waves, driven by the storm, broke through the dykes
at the head of the Bay of Fundy, flooding the marsh lands reclaimed by
the Acadians. Much damage was done along the coast, thousands of trees
were blown down all over the country, while near the coastline the
forest was levelled as with a scythe. A considerab