Gaspé, the scene of many historic events across the years, witnessed dramatic events in September 1758.
The great French fortress of Louisbourg had surrendered to the British forces in August. An expedition was then organized and dispatched to Gaspé to destroy French settlements and shipping in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe were in command of the naval and military forces respectively.
A fascinating glimpse into the experience of this expedition is provided by the following extracts from the unpublished Journal of Captain Bell, A.D.C. to General Wolfe and by the official dispatches of Admiral Boscawen.
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The SPEC republished a part of the journal of Captain Thomas Bell, an aide-de-camp to General Wolfe, in which the writer described the raids in 1758 on French settlements on the Gaspé coast by British army and navy forces commanded by General James Wolfe and Admiral Hardy. Bell’s manuscript journal came to the attention of Canadian historians about sixty or seventy years ago and the extract in SPEC first appeared in print in 1918 as an appendix to a book on the fortress of Louisbourg which had capitulated to the British about a month before the ‘Gaspee Expedition’. However, as it was originally published, the journal had been reduced in length and some of the descriptive material which was eliminated gives a fascinating picture of what Gaspé Bay was like 220 years ago.
The first of the missing parts described the voyage of the fleet from Louisbourg to Gaspé Bay. Starting from the time that the fleet touched at the Magdalene Islands and eliminating a few words which mainly refer to the little sketches with which Bell illustrated his journal, it reads as follows:
"… the Isles Madeleine have about 20 inhabitants on them, fishermen who are chiefly employed in catching Sea Cows, that are very plenty here, we saw a good many, who for horrid ugliness vie with any other Creatures whatever, the going into Gaspé Bay is vey remarkable at the distance of 6 leagues, a rock called La Vielle off Cape found on the right hand point, on your left you see Isle Bonaventure a bluff, bold high island (la vielle is very high too) the left hand point is bold and high also as you come nearer to the Bay you perceive Bonaventure to be an island, which looked before as a very high Cape. Isle piercee also presents itself to your view with its three arches through the greatest of which Shaloupes sometimes go, the appearance is extremely singular."
(La Veille was a tall sea-stack which had been a notable feature of the entrance to Gaspé Bay until it fell into the sea on ‘a fine day in June 1840’. The most recent collapse of a Percé Rock arch was on June 17th, 1845, but it was only one of a succession of arches which had formed and fallen since the Rock was first described by Champlain in 1603).
The journal entry continues:
"3 or 4 miles up the bay is the common anchoring place of Men of War, in going up you have 40, 43, 38, 34, 32, 28 and 25 fathoms which bring you to Grand Grave, about ½ mile from the right hand shore, the Coast is high covered with sand."
The next pages of the journal consist of a sketch map of Gaspé Bay with a legend, but because Bell’s sketches were no better and no worse than his punctuation, the map is rather difficult to understand. However, one notable feature is that the place he called ‘the Penisle’ was at Gaspé Basin near the present day bridge and not, as has sometimes been inferred, Peninsula Point on the north side of the Bay. The map and legend also show that the British fleet anchored off Grande-Grève, far down the Bay from the settlement which consisted of 17 ‘huts’ scattered around the shores of the Northwest and Southwest arms. The summary report of the raid states that 15 houses, a saw mill and a smith’s forge were destroyed. Seven years later Collins map of Gaspé Bay showed a total of 11 houses and 5 store houses, all of which must have been erected since the British raid. Most of these, including Captain Phillip Dean’s house which was built about 1764 and merchants store houses built by Makenzie and Payne about 1767 and by Price and Knutron a little later were around Gaspé Basin. On the north side of the Bay there were only three structures, the house built about 1764 on Peninsula Point by Edward Mainwaring the Customs Officer and two others on the mainland behind the point, one of which was probably occupied by Richard Ascah and his family.
The next missing section of the times of the journal starts in the middle of Bell’s descriptions of “Gaspee” (Gaspé Bay) and continues with the beginning of some comments on the conduct of one of the naval officers. In order to have it make sense, the complete text of both the description and the comments (with some explanatory notes) are as follows:
"The Bay is a very fine, good anchoring. Ground any fleet may ride here in safety, the inward Bay formed by the sand is perhaps one of the best in the world; an excellent for a rendez for ships going to Quebeck, the water is remarkably good the property of fishing there belonged to a Mr. Revolte, who paid the King or at least the intendant a certain sum a year, there were about 300 inhabitants here when the war broke out, who finding by Captain Spry of the Equgueux’s visiting them, they would in all probability be one day carried off and their settlement destroyed, quitted it (the missing part begins here) except for about 60 of them whom we took, these poor people are Slaves to Revolte, for he contracted with them for so many quentit of fish and in return gave them a very few necessaries scarce, sufficient for life and very little money, they had not tasted any bread for a twelve month their living was wholly the fish they caught and the game they killed, the pork we found was not fit to eat the intended by Revolte for these poor wretches winter stock, 25 Shaloupes sailed for Quebeck a week before we arrived laden with fish. We burnt about 80 Shaloups, many good for nothing, the country entirely wood and a great deal of understuff scarce anywhere two feet of earth, plenty of game, birch and spruce. Partridges very large. Beavers and Martins which are plenty here, cranberrys, gooseberrys, raspberrys, and nutts are plenty, there is a balsam to be got from the spruce tree, an absolute cure for green (illegible word) and esteemed good for many other things the country is nothing but vast, hills and precepices."
The reader should consider at this point that although there were about 300 inhabitants when the war began in 1755, by the time of the raid in 1758 there were only about 60 left. Of these thirty-seven were taken on the British transports and returned to France (many of them were originally from St. Malot), while six were noted to have escaped. This leaves about a dozen and a half unaccounted for and it seems a reasonable guess that several families were allowed to stay probably those who were born in New France. Some indications are several women and children were mentioned by Bell but only one woman and one child went on the British ships and members of the Arbour family, who had been there since the settlement had been established in 1742, were still there at 1765. Whether this is what happened is an intriguing question, but even more fascinating questions might be asked about Revolte and his wife. He had been exiled from France because of illegal practices and had not always remained within the law while in New France. He is supposed to have died a few days before the raid, but according to a recently published biography, he was still alive a year or two later. On the distaff side, although Bell met a Madame Revolte in Gaspé at that time, the real Madame Revolte was confined in a nunnery in Quebec to restrain her from a romantic alliance she had made with another man.
The missing part of the journal continues with a statement on the mishandled raids on Pabos and Grande Rivière in which the population was left without food or shelter. Wolfe has been blamed for this, but although he was under orders to destroy the fishing settlements of the Gaspé Coast he clearly tried to behave as humanely as possible and later stated that he had a low opinion of waging war on civilians. The real villain of the piece was a Captain Jacobs who not only disobeyed Admiral St. Charles Hardy’s orders to stay and protect the soldiers sent in shallops to Pabos and Grande Rivière, but through his precipitous action persuaded the soldiers to disobey Wolfe’s orders to coax the inhabitants to come to Gaspé Bay.
"I forgot to put down Captain Jacob’s return (of the Kensington) on the 16th, having left the Shaloupes he was sent to protect at Sea to find their way back, Sir Charles sent him immediately out again and brought them in on the 17th (the missing part ends here). This gentleman soon after he sailed from Gaspee got to the Harbour of Pas beau and told the Land Officers that where he was, was a bad place for his ship to lay in and therefore if they did not go on shore directly and burn everything, he would not stay for them as His Majesty ship was in danger, observe this Captain Jacobs was sent purposely to protect and wit till the Land officers thought it proper to come oft the General’s instructions to them were to go on shore with the greatest circumspection and endeavour by all manner of means to assure the inhabitants of good treatment and bring them to Gaspee, which they would have done had not they been threatened being left and also if they did not burn the places Mr. Jacobs would, who hinted as if the going on shore at all was not agreeable, they immediately went, landed and found the inhabitants all fled and every thing was burnt."
The third and last missing piece of the journal consists of a number of miscellaneous notes, among which in connection with the land expedition against Mont Louis, there is a list of place names along the north coast of the peninsula.
"Cape-Rosier, Ance au Griffin, Gd. Renard River, Ance de St. Valo, Gd. Etang, Gd. Ecloridorme, petit Valee, Grd. Valee, Lance de St. Servant (probably Gros Roches), River Madelaine, L’Ance Pleureuse and Mount Louis."
None of these had any permanent inhabitants except Mont Louis, although some fishermen were found at Grande Etang and Grande Vallee. There is a brief document on the Baie of Chaleur.
"On both sides are Indians, the chief ones are the Belliquaux and St. John’s Tribes, the chief settlement of the French is Port Daniel on the north side. The two islands Miscou and Caraquet the Indians hunt upon and sometimes stay there."
About seven years later, Collins, the deputy surveyor for the province of Quebec, noted that Port Daniel, Paspebiac and Bonaventure were places on the south shore of the peninsula where the French loaded fish for shipment. Although the fishing settlements of Gaspé Bay, Grande Rivière, Pasbeau, ‘Bay de Sauvage’ (perhaps Anse a Beau Fils?) and Bonaventure Island were destroyed by the British and expeditions were sent to the settlements at Miramichi and Mont Louis, for some reason, the other places noted were not attacked. Anticosti Island was dismissed in half a line.
"Neither inhabitants, nor any kind of harbour." Towards the end of the journal entries there is a list of names. "Andre le Grin, Jos. Caillabeth, Pierrre Arbour, A. Cheberry Richardin, Francois Arbour, A. Nick. Poussin, Normand B. Maitre Gelin B."
All the above are good pilots for Shaloupes those with: a) know the country from Gaspee to Quebec; b) can pilot ships. Probably all of those men were residents of Gaspe and when the British came and they had all been acting as pilots when needed but, except for the Arbours, very little more is known about them. Pierre and Francois Arbour appear to have been the sons of Michel Arbour and Barb Morin. The brothers or cousins were at Gaspé and Percé in 1765 and 1777 and later at Bonaventure (the surname appears in a variety of spellings but members of the family signed their name as Arbou). Members of the LeBoutiller family and several Bonaventure families can be counted among their descendants. Rather doubtfully Jos. Caillabeth, may have been Joseph Caillabé, a one time resident of Louisbourg who had been a prisoner-of-war in Boston in 1747. The name Gelin was also known in New France, but who ‘Master’ Gelinmay may have been in unknown.
The ‘Journal of the Gaspee Expedition’ ends abruptly with the terse and unexplained note: "N.B. A path from Revolte’s house to Grand Rivière." It is interesting to speculate on what route the Gaspé Bay – Grand Rivière trail may have followed through the untouched forests and hills, but it also raises the probably unanswerable question of the location of Revolte’s house. Another of General Wolfe’s aide-de-camp, Captain Hervey Smyth, was a military artist whose sketches of the Louisbourg and Quebec campaigns, including one of ‘Gaspé Bay’, were later published as etchings. The Gaspé Bay picture shows a house and a number of smaller buildings on a sandy point with the notation that the main building was ‘Wolfe’s house’. It has been presumed by some that these structures were on Peninsula point on the north side of Gaspé Bay although several geographical features are incorrect. Some sixty odd years age a local antiquarian name Richmond did some digging on Peninsula point and found remains of what has been variously called Wolfe’s house. Revolte’s house, a bake house, a French Custom house. However, this was also the spot where Edward Manwaring, the British Customs Officer built a house in 1764 on a small plot of land, 300 feet across the front and extending behind the house for 100 feet.
Both Bell’s map and journal indicate that there were no buildings on Peninsula point and that all the ‘huttes’ of the French settlement were located further up the Bay. Unfortunately, he did not specify which one was Revolte’s although it was possibly on the ‘penisle’. In addition, since Smyth’s picture can just as easily be interpreted to be of the Southwest Arm rather than the whole Bay, Revolte’s house could have been at one of several sheltered sites, one possibility being a small point on the north side of Gaspé Basin where Felix O’Hara had a house in the 1770’s. This location is now covered with docks, a parking lot and (shortly) a main road and any evidence of early structures are probably lost forever.
Manwaring’s house was still standing on Peninsula point in the early 1780’s, although by that time Felix O’Hara was the Customs officer and his Custom house was located at Gaspé Basin. It is surprising that among all the other possibilities which have been suggested for the foundations, no one has previously proposed, the most obvious answer – the British Custom house. On the other hand no one now can do more than guess at a general location for Revolte’s (or Wolfe’s) house, while the sites of dwellings and store houses built by pioneer settlers and merchants on Gaspé Bay in the 1760’s and 1770’s could be located from old maps with some accuracy. There are no plaques marking these spots and anyone seeking either a private or public memorial to any of the early settlers will find little more than one hidden and derelict tombstone. It is a sad commentary or both civic pride and the organizations dedicated to the preservation of the local history that whole segments of Gaspé Bay’s past can thus be selectively ignored.
EXTRACT – DESPATCHES OF ADMIRAL E. BOSCAWEN, R.N.
An account of the damage done in the Gulph of St. Lawrence.
Sept. 17, 1758 – The Detachment sent upon the western shore under the command of Captain Irving, burnt & destroyed as follows. Vizt:
At the Grand Riviere Houses ……………………….....60
Shallops & Boats ……………………80
Stacks of Fish….………………..…….8
All the Stages & Nets and
a considerable Fishery
At Pas Beau Houses…………………………………..27
Shallops & Boats …………..……....…15
A sloop with fish and a
considerable Fishery
At the Bay de SauvageHouses…………………………........6
Shallops & Boats………….………..16
Brought off a man & his
family & 5 Frenchmen that
came in & surrendered &
burnt their habitations
& a sloop
At the Ile Bonaventure Houses……………………..............6
Shallops…………………..…………....7
.
Sept. 18, 1758 – The Detachment under the Command of Captain Byrd burnt & destroyed on Gaspé side:
Shallops………………………………………………………………………………...2
Do. Round the point over the Bay…………………34
Houses near Gaspé Mills…………………………...7
Sent on board the Fleet French Prisoners……… .22
The party under the command of Lieutenant Warren burnt & destroyed at Gaspé:
Houses……………………………………………….........6
Houses up the North West River…………………………...2
A Smith’s Forge at Lower Gaspé
Shallops…………………………………………………..11
Ditto brought off……………………………………..….…2
Canoes brought off……………………………………...…4
With 13 men, 1 woman & a child. Prisoners.
Sept. 23, 1758 – Major Dalling with a Detachment under his command marched to Mount Lewis and on his march surprised 6 people curing fish at Les Grand Etangs and took three of them, destroyed their fish & rendered their Shallops useless, but the others got into the woods. At Le Grand Vale he took another prisoner.
After 5 days march to Mount Lewis he burnt & destroyed at that place:
Houses……………………………………….....9
Storehouses……………………………………..7
Quintals of fish…………………………..6000
With stables, outhouses & acellar with Molasses
Schooner…………………………...........….1
Shallops…………………………..…………2
Boats…………………………………….…..2
with Fish Stages
Found there: 4 Barrels of Powder
4 Barrels of Musquet Balls
2 Cows & a calf
And brought from thence:
Cannon……………………………………………4
Swivels…………………………………………....2
Drums……………………………………………..2
Fuses……………………………………………..16
Colours…………………………………………....1 pair
He took also a sloop with Provisions on board for 7 men for a month and some of Monsieur Mackette’s effects, & took Monsieur Mackette, his wife with 22 men, 4 women & 14 children Prisoners.
According to calculation the fish burnt & destroyed in the Gulph of St. Lawrence amounted to 36,000 Quintals.
At Mount Lewis……………………………….5,000
Gaspé…………………………………..……..6,000
Grand Riviere………………………………...10,000
Pas Beau………………...........................…….2,000
In a sloop…………………………...............…1,000
At Miramiche…………………………………12,000
With Stores in the Magazines of Miramiche, Pas Beau, Gaspé, & Mount Lewis to a considerable value
N.B. – A Quintal of dried cod sells at Quebec from 36 to 40 Livres
Coll. Murray who was detached to Miramichi destroyed 16,000 Quintals of fish, the Kings Magasines, & brought off some of the inhabitants, but as the water was so shoal and they had but one sloop, could not proceed higher up the River.
Sir Charles Hardy took 4 Sloops or Schooners, destroyed about 200 shallops in the Bay of Gaspé and brought off about two hundred Prisoners.
(SIGNED) E. BOSCAWEN
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More on Bell’s Journal of The Gaspé Expedition and Other Matters - 1758
By
Doris and David McDougall
SPEC – February 23, 1979
Extract from the Journal of Captain Bell. A.D.C. to General James Wolfe on the Gaspé Expedition and Other Matters
1758 – Gaspee
August 29th - … Sailed from Louisbourg Harbour For Gaspee in the “Royal William”, Sir Charles Hardy, “Bedford”; Capt. Fouke, “Vanguard”; Capt. Swanton, “Devonshire”; Captain Simcoe, “Juno” & Kennington frigates & fireship, six sail of transports having Amherst’s Anstruther’s & Bragg’s Regiments on board and an ordinance sloop with some six Pounders & 2 Howitzers and anchored at the Grande Grave in Gaspé Bay the 4th of September…
"… It was about 2 o’clock when we anchored in the Bay, the General went directly up to reconnoitre & sent me with a letter & flag of truce to Mr. Revolte, the Lord of the Seigneur. I got up to Gaspé about 5, the people imagined we were enemies & had fled into the woods, the General who got up rather before me, met with one Pierre Arbour & his wife, who submitted & rejoiced to find Quarter given them, they were sent to bring in the other Inhabitants, the General also took five more with Revolte’s Company. Who were sent also to bring the rest, we did not go on shore in order to prevent plundering & returned on board the “Juno” after having escaped drowning very narrowly. The next morning we went up again with Coll. Murray & Howe. Found about 3000 Quentil of fish in stacks in the Magazine were great numbers of nets. Hooks, fishing lines, some barrels of gunpowder, some brandy & poker. There were also a few cattle, sheep, ducks, & fowls belonging to Revolte (who had died a little before with the hearty curse of the whole place). Amherst’s Light Infantry landed and took possession of this great settlement, consisting of Revolte’s house, a good magazine, a Smith’s shop with it’s utensils, about 5 huts, the fish; 25 shaloupes, 6 canoes, & a large Shaloupe going to Quebeck. Arbour was there & said the inhabitants, spent this day without vivres & had the pleasure of consoling myself at night on the Board next to Coll. How, on the 6th next morning very early we went up the hither arm, Arbour was pilot, a very difficult channel, the shoals of sand running from both shores, so as to make it very narrow, Shaloupes only can go at high water, the tide flows 6 feet we saw in the little bar above 50 Shaloupes (they always lay them up there in winter) a mile further some people hauling a shaloupe laden with fish, on receiving a good many assurances about 5 miles farther at the upper end of the arm saw a number of people rowed towards them, but after getting about 2 mile we found the Channel ceased, two of the people came to us in a canoe, the General sent me backing to the Canoe, to assure Madame Revolte & the rest of the kind the treatment the English always give to their prisoners, she said, she & the rest only waited for the tide to carry them to the Pensile where we all returned & spent the remaining of the evening in picking cranberry’s and raspberry’s, the above arms wind a little, in some parts ¾ and 1 mile & ½ over, the marks to go up are particular hills which ‘tis not possible to lay down so as to be of any service: on the 7th at day break we went up the father arm having heard some of the people were there, ‘tis ten mile up to the Morass, the Channel the same in regard to its difficulty as to other, we took 8 men here & sent them down in the Barge (1 an Indian) then went to a sawmill just by where we found a vast number of plank, we immediately fell to work & set fire to the Moulin, plank & 3 houses which blazed very handsomely to the no small grief of the poor people we found a great many shaloupes here & there; we came back by land along the shore, which was not the pleasantest walk in the world, nothing but stones extremely slippery & every 3 yards a great tree to get over; it may be walked up both arms at low water on the left hand side, this farther arm runs in two small Channels through a marsh about 15 miles up the country the hither arm runs through a marsh also in 3 Channels the General went in the afternoon to the “R.William” & left me to take care of the people & stores, we found on our coming down to the peninsula some women & the cattle distributed among them, in the afternoon we had the pleasure of seeing Madame Revolte, who said that there were about 16 men would not come in, a party was sent today but they could not find them.
9th. The General came up again & sent a party at low water (about 12 at night) who brought in next morning, except six who escaped by it being so very dark.
10th. The General gave orders for everything being burnt and on this day and the 11th was employed in executing those orders, we all returned with the General to the camp at the Grand Grave. On the 12th sailed Coll.Murray with Amherst’s & part of Bragg’s under convoy of the “Juno” to Miramichi. On the 13th Captain Irvine was detached with several small parties in Shaloupes under convoy of the Kennington to destroy Pas Beau & Grand Riviere and any other settlement to the Westward. On the 14th Major Dalling was detached to Mont Lewis about 130 miles up the river (we remained with a few of Bragg’s and Anstruther’s encampment).
17th – Sailed Sir C. Hardy, he left the “Devonshire” to take care of the transports.
23rd – Returned Major Dalling.
24th – Returned Sir C. Hardy.
25th and 26th – Embarked the troops.
27th – Sailed.
30th – Arrived at Louisbourg & went on board Admiral Boscawen with ye General.
Gaspee
The Bay is a very fine, good anchoring ground any fleet may ride herein safety, the inward Bay formed by the sand is perhaps one of the best in the world, an excellent renders for ships going to Quebeck, the water is remarkably good the property of fishing there belonged to a Mr. Revolte, who paid the King or at least the Intendant a certain sum a year, there were about 300 inhabitants here when the war broke out, who finding by Captain Spry of the “Fougeux’s” visiting them, they would in all probability be on day carried off & their settlement destroyed, quitted it. This gentleman soon after he sailed from Gaspee got to the Harbour of Pas beau & told the Land Officers that where he was, was a bad place for his ship to lay in and therefore if they did not go on shore directly & burn everything, he would not stay for them as His Majts. Ship was in danger, observe this Captain Jacobs was sent purposely to protect & wait till the Land Officers thought it proper to come off. The General’s instructions to them were to go on shore with the greatest circumspection & endeavor by all manner of means to Gaspee, which they would have done had not they been threatened being left and also that if they did not burn the places Mr. Jacobs would, who hinted as if the going on shore at all was not agreeable, they immediately went, landed & found the inhabitants all fled & everything was burnt.
Pas Beau
Is 15 leagues to the westward of Gaspee I forget who had Seignior, they burnt 27 good houses, about 17 indifferent ones, about 3500 Quintal of fish, a very good sloop laden with fish, vast quantities of nets, hooks, lines, great quantity of salt destroyed, their magazine was large and contained all their winter stock, clothes, brandy, etc. & I together with a good deal of plank and about 40 Shaloupes were all burnt & then the troops embarked, having left the miserable inhabitants in the woods destitute & deprived of everything.
Grand Riviere
Is 12 leagues to the Westward of Gaspee. A Mr. Bellfeuille, Lord of Seignory, the Troops who landed here proceeded in the same manner with those at Pas Beau, by the most scandalous timidity of Captain Jacobs who made the signal twice to come off before they had been on shore 3 hours which was not a quarter time enough to burn every thing: Bellfeuille’s House was situated upon a little island in the River, had 8 rooms on a floor vast quantities of things packed up in bureaus and chests to send in safety to Quebeck, the people fled leaving the victuals on the fire, about 60 houses were burnt, many good ones & all the goods in them about 80 shaloupes; there were sheep, oxen, fowls, etc. both at this place and Pas Beau: the magazine was very large and contained a considerable quantity of brandy and salt: 200 chests of warm dresses, valuable in this country, 60 casks of molasses whose worth an American need not be told & numbers of other things that they took no account of, 8000 Quintal of fish & nets, lines, hooks without number, all the above valuable things were destroyed.
There needs no great discernment to perceive the bad consequences of Captain Jacobs’ presuming to stint the Land Officers in time (indeed if they had behaved properly they would not have heeded him, but let him have gone, as they might reasonably have supposed to the General would have taken care of their being fetched back) for had they gone on shore agreeable to the General’s intentions & stayed 2 or 3 days without destroying anything and sent the French men (they carried on purpose) into the woods to assure their countrymen of the good treatment they would meet with & that they might keep anything they chose, the consequences would have been totally different, they would have been happy and the troops benefitted, but as it was, what could these unhappy people hope for when they saw their all in flames with the least ceremony, surely they could not expect anything gentle at our hand – not that they deserved better, but for our own honour we ought to have proceeded differently.
The General when the “Kennington” came back, finding how matters had gone on, out of compassion to the inhabitants, sent a shaloupe to Bellfeuille with French men in to tell him that he was sorry his officers were obliged to act in the manner they did, far from their own inclinations or his intentions, but as he thought he & all the inhabitants must perish in the winter having no subsistence & thinking it too late to march to Quebeck he sent that Shaloupe was at his service & the men in her had their Liberty – an offer worthy of the General – we sailed, no answer having come. The Seamen at both places, showed their accustomed rage for plundering in a very shameful manner, they got so drunk that a shaloupe full of our soldiers owed their lives to a Frenchman who managed the boat.
The fish which was destroyed amounted to a very considerable value at Quebeck ‘twas 30 shillings a Quintal at Martinique - £ 3 & 3.10 – ships from Europe came to fish and load here every year before war. These settlements were the most flourishing they had for a while (the Government supplies & supports all settlements at first) – the people had not the leisure to cultivate the earth, there were only some turnips & cabbages – they were supplied with everything from Quebeck of late, before the war from Europe – they had not seen corn for 16 months. Begaut (Bigot) the Intendant not suffering any to be carried to ye out settlements.
23rd. I have said Major Dalling came back to Gaspee with his party from Mt. Louis where they arrived the 19th. They belonged to a Mr. Maillette (who was taken) who gave the King £ 3000 for it, only 3 shaloupes were there, all his fish had been sent to Quebec except 2000 Quintal, there was but little in the magazine Maillett offered £ 3500 ransom for the place: while the Major was there, a sloop appeared off the place, he made use of the usual signal to call her in. She stood in and was taken, she had on board wine & provisions for the settlement, having delivered which, she was to get intelligence of our squadron, there was on board a good jolie fille enough Mademoiselle Le Bruys going to Grand Riviere & a Reverend Pere going to Miramichi – he found by them that Mons. Chaufort (Du Chaffault) was getting under way from the Kamaruska’s the 17th Sept. with the “Dragon”, “Bellequeux” & 4 other 64 Gun ships with two frigates & 3 or 4 Merchantmen, was to go through the straights of Bell Isle & so to Brest.
The march to Mt. Louis was extremely bad, all the way along the sea shore upon sharp stones & rock; they were obliged to wait for the Tides going out at 2 places & only sutt into the wood a league the whole march they returned to Gaspee in the sloop and Shaloupes…. Thus ended our proceedings."