ight to fish within sight of the Acadian coast.
This they flatly denied, saying that the New England people had fished
there time out of mind, and that if Brouillan should molest them, they
would treat it as an act of war.[3]

While the New England colonies, and especially Massachusetts and New
Hampshire, had most cause to deprecate a war, the prospect of one was
also extremely unwelcome to the people of New York. The conflict lately
closed had borne hard upon them through the attacks of the enemy, and
still more through the derangement of their industries. They were
distracted, too, with the factions rising out of the recent revolution
under Jacob Leisler. New York had been the bulwark of the colonies
farther south, who, feeling themselves safe, had given their protector
little help, and that little grudgingly, seeming to regard the war as no
concern of theirs. Three thousand and fifty-one pounds, provincial
currency, was the joint contribution of Virginia, Maryland, East Jersey,
and Connecticut to the aid of New York during five years of the late
war.[4] Massachusetts could give nothing, even if she would, her hands
being full with the defence of her own borders. Colonel Quary wrote to
the Board of Trade that New York could not bear alone the cost of
defending herself; that the other colonies were "stuffed with
commonwealth notions," and were "of a sour temper in opposition to
government," so that Parliament ought to take them in hand and compel
each to do its part in the common cause.[5] To this Lord Cornbury adds
that Rhode Island and Connecticut are even more stubborn than the rest,
hate all true subjects of the Queen, and will not give a farthing to the
war so long as they can help it.[6] Each province lived in selfish
isolation, recking little of its neighbor's woes.

New York, left to fight her own battles, was in a wretched condition
for defence. It is true that, unlike the other colonies, the King had
sent her a few soldiers, counting at this time about one hundred and
eighty, all told;[7] but they had been left so long without pay that
they were in a state of scandalous destitution. They would have been
left without rations had not three private gentlemen--Schuyler,
Livingston, and Cortlandt--advanced money for their supplies, which
seems never to have been repaid.[8] They are reported to have been
"without shirts, breeches, shoes, or stockings," and "in such a shameful
condition that the women when passing