imbursements too were
made by parliament for the expenses of the expedition. It was the only
decisive advantage obtained by the English during the war.

The capture of Louisbourg, most probably, preserved Nova Scotia.
Duvivier, who had embarked for France to solicit an armament for the
conquest of that province, sailed, in July, 1745, with seven ships of
war, and a body of land forces. He was ordered to stop at Louisbourg,
and thence to proceed in the execution of his plan. Hearing, at sea,
of the fall of that place, and that a British squadron was stationed
at it, he relinquished the expedition against Nova Scotia, and
returned to Europe.

The British empire on the American continent consisted, originally, of
two feeble settlements unconnected with, and almost unknown to each
other. For a long time the southern colonies, separated from those of
New England by an immense wilderness, and by the possessions of other
European powers, had no intercourse with them, except what was
produced by the small trading vessels of the north, which occasionally
entered the rivers of the south. Neither participated in the wars or
pursuits of the other; nor were they, in any respect, actuated by
common views, or united by common interest. The conquest of the
country between Connecticut and Maryland, laid a foundation, which the
settlement of the middle colonies completed, for connecting these
disjoined members, and forming one consolidated whole, capable of
moving, and acting in concert. This gradual change, unobserved in its
commencement, had now become too perceptible to be longer overlooked;
and, henceforward, the efforts of the colonies, were in a great
measure combined, and directed to a common object.

France, as well as England, had extended her views with her
settlements; and, after the fall of Louisbourg, the governments of
both nations meditated important operations for the ensuing campaign
in America.

[Sidenote: Great plans of the belligerents.]

France contemplated, not only the recovery of Cape Breton and Nova
Scotia, but the total devastation of the sea coast, if not the entire
conquest of New England.

Britain, on her part, calculated on the reduction of Canada, and the
entire expulsion of the French from the American continent.

{1746}

Shirley repaired to Louisbourg, after its surrender, where he held a
consultation with Warren and Pepperel on the favourite subject of
future and more extensive operations agai