ans, and
buccaneers, aided by a band of Indians, against St. John,--a
fishing-village defended by two forts, the smaller, known as the castle,
held by twelve men, and the larger, called Fort William, by forty men
under Captain Moody. The latter was attacked by the French, who were
beaten off; on which they burned the unprotected houses and fishing-huts
with a brutality equal to that of Church in Acadia, and followed up the
exploit by destroying the hamlet at Ferryland and all the defenceless
hovels and fish-stages along the shore towards Trinity Bay and
Bonavista.[120]

Four years later, the Sieur de Saint-Ovide, a nephew of Brouillan, late
governor at Port Royal, struck a more creditable blow. He set out from
Placentia on the thirteenth of December, 1708, with one hundred and
sixty-four men, and on the first of January approached Fort William two
hours before day, found the gate leading to the covered way open,
entered with a band of volunteers, rapidly crossed the ditch, planted
ladders against the wall, and leaped into the fort, then, as he
declares, garrisoned by a hundred men. His main body followed close. The
English were taken unawares; their commander, who showed great courage,
was struck down by three shots, and after some sharp fighting the place
was in the hands of the assailants. The small fort at the mouth of the
harbor capitulated on the second day, and the palisaded village of the
inhabitants, which, if we are to believe Saint-Ovide, contained nearly
six hundred men, made little resistance. St. John became for the moment
a French possession; but Costebelle, governor at Placentia, despaired of
holding it, and it was abandoned in the following summer.[121]

About this time a scheme was formed for the permanent riddance of New
England from war-parties by the conquest of Canada.[122] The prime mover
in it was Samuel Vetch, whom we have seen as an emissary to Quebec for
the exchange of prisoners, and also as one of the notables fined for
illicit trade with the French. He came of a respectable Scotch family.
His grandfather, his father, three of his uncles, and one of his
brothers were Covenanting ministers, who had suffered some persecution
under Charles II. He himself was destined for the ministry; but his
inclinations being in no way clerical, he and his brother William got
commissions in the army, and took an active part in the war that ended
with the Peace of Ryswick.

In the next year the two brothers