force in officers and soldiers did not amount to so many as seven hundred and fifty, "sick and well," and that these were "so extremely dispirited" as not to be "equal to three hundred effective men." Before the expedition returned to Port Royal, there was a mutiny which had to be quelled. March was no longer himself, and at his instance the command was transferred to Wainwright, who was next to him in rank.

Wainwright, though "much disordered in health by a great cold," tried " to keep up a good heart,” but there was nothing to inspirit him. His troops were ailing and demoralized. What with dysentery and "mighty swellings in their throats," they were, he wrote from before Port

Aug. 14.

Royal, "filled with terror at the consideration of a fatal event of the expedition, concluding that, in a short time, there would not be enough to carry off the sick." The enemy were receiving "additional strength every day." They had with diligence and skill been strengthening their fortifications, and were becoming more aggressive, so that it was now "unsafe to proceed on any service without a company of at least one hundred men." Wainwright was uneasy about his Indian auxiliaries, who were intractable and insolent. The captain of the English man-of-war attached to the expedition had been relied upon for the help of a hundred men, but he had made up his mind that it would be exposing them for no use, and had withdrawn them. "In fine,”

Wainwright writes, "most of the forces are in a distressed state, some in body and some in mind; and the longer they are kept here on the cold ground, the longer it will grow upon them, and, I fear, the further we proceed the worse the event. God help us."

Within

Aug. 20.

a week the camp was broken up. The troops were attacked while getting on board the transports, and were only too happy to effect the embarkation without much loss. The miscarriage, and all its circumstances, were deeply mortifying. A court-martial was ordered, but was never held, perhaps because too great numbers would have come under its sentence, and forgetfulness, as speedy as could be had, was better than punishment or amnesty, and better than any attempt at discrimination.

Dudley's chagrin must have been bitter. But he was not a man to increase his humiliation by avowing it. He met his enraged General Court with no expression of a discomposed mind. "Though," he said, "we have not obtained all that we desired against the enemy, yet we are to acknowledge the favor of God in preserving our forces in the expedition, and prospering them so far as the destruction of the French settlements and estates in and about Port Royal, to a great value, which must needs distress the enemy to a very great degree.”

While the expedition which thus disastrously failed was in progress, the savages were more

than ever at liberty to prosecute their devastations May along the northern frontier, and the exOctober. posed settlements at Dover, Groton, Kittery, Exeter, Kingston, Casco, York, Wells, Marlborough, Winter Harbor (Biddeford), and Berwick again suffered from their ravages.

1708. Aug. 29.

The winter was quiet. In the next summer the French were again on the` alert. Two parties, attached to one of which was Hertel de Rouville, who had led the expedition to Deerfield four years before, started from Quebec for the settlements, -one by the way of the river St. Francis, the other by Lake Champlain,-intending to meet near the English border. From cowardice or from whim, most of the Indian auxiliaries fell off, but a party not less than a hundred and fifty in number surprised the score or two of dwellings which made the town of Haverhill, on the Merrimac. Coming upon it just before daylight, they fired several houses, plundered others, and killed some thirty or forty of the inhabitants, among whom were the minister, Mr. Rolf, and Captain Wainwright, lately the commander at Port Royal. The townspeople rallied, and after an hour's fighting drove them away. Amesbury, Brookfield, and Kittery were 1709. again beset, but without much damage. May 6. Exeter, near one end of the border line, and Deerfield, near the other, were invaded anew. One of four men whom the Indians carried

June 23.

off from Exeter, they roasted to death.

Feb. 16.

From Deerfield, though they attempted it with a force of nearly two hundred men, they were this time repulsed with little loss to the conquerors. Dudley informed the General Court of the arrival of Lord Lovelace as governor of New York, and advised that he should be desired "to let loose the Maquas and dependencies"; and messengers (Wait Winthrop and John Leverett) were accordingly sent by the Court to New York to confer with him.

March 31.

The plan of attacking the French at the central point of their power, and so cutting off the source of the continually recurring miseries, was so obviously the correct one that it could not fail to be revived as often as from adverse accidents it miscarried, though, more or less, it was embarrassed all along by the sense which prevailed in Massachusetts, and was expressed by her at this time to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State, of "the criminal neutrality maintained by New York with the French Indians." The General Court sent an address to the Queen, praying for aid to an expedition, towards which they professed a desire themselves to do their utmost, for the conquest of Nova Scotia and Canada. The proposal was favorably received at Court, and operations on a larger scale were resolved upon. Colonel Vetch brought information that it was determined to send from England what was thought a sufficient naval force, and five regiments of the regular army. Twelve hundred

April 28.

men were to be enlisted and equipped by Massachusetts and Rhode Island. These united forces were to attempt Quebec, while fifteen hundred men from the colonies further south were to make a movement by land against Montreal.

May 20.

The Massachusetts troops were mustered at Boston before the end of spring. The southern contingent proceeded towards Lake Champlain, and lay encamped at Wood Creek, awaiting intelligence of the arrival at Boston of the English fleet. Month passed after month, of anxiety and expense, and the English fleet did not appear. At length, General Stanhope having lost the battle of Almanza, intelligence

Oct. 11.

came that the troops expected in Boston were wanted in Portugal, and had been sent thither; and the ministers directed a consideration of the question, whether the preparations which had been made in Massachusetts might not be serviceable against Port Royal. The plan was approved at a consultation between the New England governors. But the officers in command of the few King's ships which had come to Boston declared that their orders would not justify them in affording assistance, and they took the responsibility of sailing away at once. There was now no convoy for the troops, and, on a request from the General Court, the governor disbanded them, to put an end to the oppressive expense. The army at Wood Creek, under the command of Nicholson, lieutenant-governor of