old man; and he was
obeyed. It was said that the victims belonged to a party of Canadians
captured just before, under a promise of life. Afterwards, when Church
returned to Boston, there was an outcry of indignation against him for
this butchery. In any case, however, he could have known nothing of the
alleged promise of quarter.

To hunt Indians with an endless forest behind them was like chasing
shadows. The Acadians were surer game. Church sailed with a part of his
force up the Bay of Fundy, and landed at Grand Pre,--a place destined to
a dismal notoriety half a century later. The inhabitants of this and the
neighboring settlements made some slight resistance, and killed a
lieutenant named Baker, and one soldier, after which they fled; when
Church, first causing the houses to be examined, to make sure that
nobody was left in them, ordered them to be set on fire. The dikes were
then broken, and the tide let in upon the growing crops.[110] In spite
of these harsh proceedings, he fell far short in his retaliation for the
barbarities at Deerfield, since he restrained his Indians and permitted
no woman or child to be hurt,--at the same time telling his prisoners
that if any other New England village were treated as Deerfield had
been, he would come back with a thousand Indians and leave them free to
do what they pleased. With this bluster, he left the unfortunate
peasants in the extremity of terror, after carrying off as many of them
as were needed for purposes of exchange. A small detachment was sent to
Beaubassin, where it committed similar havoc.

Church now steered for Port Royal, which he had been forbidden to
attack. The two frigates and the transports had by this time rejoined
him, and in spite of Dudley's orders to make no attempt on the French
fort, the British and provincial officers met in council to consider
whether to do so. With one voice they decided in the negative, since
they had only four hundred men available for landing, while the French
garrison was no doubt much stronger, having had ample time to call the
inhabitants to its aid. Church, therefore, after trying the virtue of a
bombastic summons to surrender, and destroying a few houses, sailed back
to Boston. It was a miserable retaliation for a barbarous outrage; as
the guilty were out of reach, the invaders turned their ire on the
innocent.[111]

If Port Royal in French hands was a source of illicit gain to some
persons in Boston, it was also an