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When that great exploit is at an end, I return to Louisbourg, and thence to England." Having finished the work, he wrote to Amherst: "Your orders were carried into execution. We have done a great deal of mischief, and spread the terror of His Majesty's arms through the Gulf, but have added nothing to the reputation of them."
This defiance was immediately answered by a random salvo from Louisbourg, less than a mile across the harbour.
After assembling the land and naval forces at this place, information was received that a fleet had lately arrived from France, and that Louisbourg was so powerfully defended as to render any attempt upon it hopeless. In consequence of this intelligence the enterprise was deferred until the next year; the general and admiral returned to New York in August; and the provincials were dismissed.
But the most important achievement was the conquest of Louisbourg on the isle of Cape Breton, in North America; a place of great consequence, which the French had fortified at a prodigious expense.
So in 1758 he appointed Wolfe as the junior of the three brigadier-generals under Amherst, who was to join Admiral Boscawen nicknamed 'Old Dreadnought' in a great expedition meant to take Louisbourg for good and all. Louisbourg was the greatest fortress in America.
A letter from Fraser of this character is still excellent reading; his counsels to the young soldier have added weight when we remember that the author was with Wolfe at Louisbourg and Quebec and now, nearly fifty years later, was still active in the militia forces of Canada. Malcolm Fraser to Lieut. Thomas Nairne From Murray Bay, 7th October, 1805. My Dear Godson,
The siege had left the town in so filthy a condition that the wells were infected and the water was poisoned. At the same time he begged hard for reinforcements, expecting a visit from the French and a desperate attempt to recover Louisbourg.
The best defence of Louisbourg was the craggy shore, that, for leagues on either hand, was accessible only at a few points, and even there with difficulty. All these points were vigilantly watched. There had been signs of the enemy from the first opening of spring.
During the first five years, from 1749 to 1753, the mighty rivals were as much at peace, all over their conflicting frontiers, as they ever had been in the past. But from 1754 to 1758 a great and, this time, a decisive war kept drawing continually nearer, until its strangling coils at last crushed Louisbourg to death. Three significant events marked 1749, the first of the five peaceful years.
The French governor at Louisbourg was not slow to second these efforts by keeping the Acadians supplied with arms and ammunition; and it was for this purpose that the Aigle had been sent to the settlements up the Bay of Fundy. Up the bays he now sailed, in accordance with the wish of Cazeneau.
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