Governor's
example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of
Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on
Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon
had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for
more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared
in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from
England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be
the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified
by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000.
The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in
height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and
three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an
island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon,
carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the
entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two
pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the
land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a
circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works
had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much
importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such
privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England
fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly
interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts
furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire,
each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months
the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the
23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore
Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his
co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without
orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial
expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless
embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The
expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from
New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with
his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after h