n, and other noisy expressions of triumph and exultation. Indeed,
the public rejoicings for the conquest of Louisbourg were diffused
through every part of the British dominions, and addresses of
congratulation were presented to the king, by a great number of
flourishing towns and corporations.

After the reduction of Cape-Breton, some ships were detached, with a
body of troops under the command of lieutenant-colonel lord Rollo, to
take possession of the island of St. John, which also lies in the gulf
of St. Laurence, and by its fertility in corn and cattle, had, since the
beginning of the war, supplied Quebec with considerable quantities of
provisions. It was likewise the asylum to which the French neutrals of
Annapolis fled for shelter from the English government; and the retreat
from whence they and the Indians used to make their sudden irruptions
into Nova-Scotia, where they perpetrated the most inhuman barbarities
on the defenceless subjects of Great Britain. The number of inhabitants
amounted to four thousand one hundred, who submitted and brought in
their arms; then lord Rollo took possession of the governor's quarters,
where he found several scalps of Englishmen, whom the savages had
assassinated, in consequence of the encouragement they received from
their French patrons and allies, who gratified them with a certain
premium for every scalp they produced. The island was stocked with above
ten thousand head of black cattle, and some of the farmers raised each
twelve hundred bushels of corn annually for the market of Quebec.

ATTEMPT UPON TICONDEROGA.

The joy and satisfaction arising from the conquest of Louisbourg and St.
John, was not a little checked by the disaster which befel the main body
of the British forces in America, under the immediate conduct of
general Abercrombie, who, as we have already observed, had proposed the
reduction of the French forts on the lakes George and Champlain, as the
chief objects of his enterprise, with a view to secure the frontier
of the British colonies, and open a passage for the future conquest of
Canada. In the beginning of July his forces, amounting to near seven
thousand regular troops, and ten thousand provincials, embarked on the
lake George, in the neighbourhood of lake Champlain, on board of nine
hundred batteaux, and one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, with
provisions, artillery, and ammunition; several pieces of cannon being
mounted on rafts to cover the