e French crew was so near starvation that
only a chance meeting with a Portuguese ship kept them from killing
and eating five English prisoners. Only a battered remnant of the fleet
eventually reached home ports.

The disaster did not crush France. In May of the next spring, 1747,
a new fleet under La Jonquiere set out to retake Louisbourg. Near the
coast of Europe, however, Admirals Anson and Warren met and completely
destroyed it, taking prisoner La Jonquiere himself. This disaster
effected what was really the most important result of the war: it made
the British fleet definitely superior to the French. During the struggle
England had produced a new Drake, who attacked Spain in the spirit of
the sea-dogs of Elizabeth. Anson had gone in 1740 into the Pacific,
where he seized and plundered Spanish ships as Drake had done nearly two
centuries earlier; and in 1744, when he had been given up for lost, he
completed the great exploit of sailing round the world and bringing home
rich booty. Such feats went far to give Britain that command of the sea
on which her colonial Empire was to depend.

The issue of the war hung more on events that occurred in Europe than in
America, and France had made gains as well as suffered losses. It was
on the sea that she had sustained her chief defeats. In India she had
gained by taking the English factory at Madras; and in the Low Countries
she was still aggressive. Indeed, during the war England had been more
hostile to Spain than to France. She had not taken very seriously her
support of the colonies in their attack on Louisbourg and she had failed
them utterly in their designs on Canada. It is true that in Europe
England had grave problems to solve. Austria, with which she was allied,
desired her to fight until Frederick of Prussia should give up the
province of Silesia seized by him in 1740. In this quarrel England had
no vital interest. France had occupied the Austrian Netherlands and had
refused to hand back to Austria this territory unless she received Cape
Breton in return. Britain might have kept Cape Breton if she would have
allowed France to keep Belgium. This, in loyalty to Austria, she would
not do. Accordingly peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 on the
agreement that each side should restore to the other its conquests, not
merely in Europe but also in America and Asia. Thus it happened that the
British flag went up again at Madras while it came down at Louisbourg.

Bosto