Due d'Anville's Descent

As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)

Told by unattributed — the collector names no informant · collected by Samuel Adams Drake · 1884 · Boston and eastern Massachusetts

1746. "TTAVING regard, possibly, to the maxim that a dauger J — L escaped is a danger no longer, the historians have in general treated the descent of Admiral d'Anville with easy- indifference. Yet the startling fact remains that so long as his fleet rode the seas in safety, the fate of New Eng- land trembled in the balance. We beg the reader's consideration of the story from this point of view. The taking of Louis- burg in 1745, a piece of audacity at Avhich France first stood aghast, and then went into a towering rage over it, came near being the prelude to a struggle involving nothing less than the destinies of England's American colonies. By opening new and alluring vistas of conquest to British statesmen, it set them upon fresh schemes for the conquest of Canada which they were secretly preparing to put in execution. In fact, by this mettled achievement, New England had driven the entering wedge into the very heart OLD SOUTH CHURCH, 1872. 72 NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. of the French colonial empire. England was now gathering her strength to force it home. On the other hand, it so incensed the French Court, then fresh from its brilliant victories in the Low Countries, that orders were given for the immediate equipping, at Brest, of a formi- dable land and sea armament, which it was meant should not only recover what had been lost, but carry the war energetically to the enemy's own doors. To guarantee the security of your possessions by recalling your enemy to the defence of his own, is a military maxim so old that the Cabinet of Yersailles could not be safely assumed to be ignorant of it. This double-shotted idea promised results highly important to the colonial schemes, as well as to the waning prestige, of France. So also did it give good promise of success ; for at Paris, thanks to British parsimony,*it was well known that the British Ameri- can seaports were no Louisburgs. Since, therefore, to ravage the jSTew England sea-coast was a thing perfectly feasible to do, Count Maurepas resolved to do it. And he meant to do it effectually. The preparations at Brest being quickly known in London, the two ancient gladiators began once more to strip for the approach- ing combat. Pursuing its own plans, the English Ministry was at the same time collecting ships, men, and materials of war at Ports- mouth, for the invasion of Canada. Orders were sent out to the Colonies to hasten the raising of troops for the same pur- pose. Then, the destination of the French fleet not being quite clear, the Ministry sent a squadron to blockade it in Brest ; but the French Admiral, eluding the vigilance of the British cruisers, slipped out and got to sea notwithstanding. Such was the situ- ation in the midsummer of 1746. The fleet now on the sea numbered eleven ships of the line and twenty frigates, carrying 814 guns and 7000 sailors, to which were joined thirty-four transports having on board five battalions of the veteran troops of France. The fleet was com- manded by M. de la Rochefoucauld, Due d'Anville, a man of illustrious descent, in the jDrime of life, to whom the fortunes of DUG D'aNVILLE's DESCENT. 73 the expedition had been committed with fullest confidence in his ability to execute his orders to the letter. Those orders were to retake Louisburg and dismantle its fortifications, recapture Annap- olis and garrison it, and then to burn and destroy Boston, and lay waste with fire and sword the whole coast as far as Florida. Boston, the place where the plans for capturing Louisburg had originated, the brain and heart of the English Colonies, the centre of English aggression, the perpetual menace to French dominion in Canada, was to be especially distinguished by the vengeance of the Cabinet of Versailles. Boston was to be destroyed. Indeed, her defenceless condition invited an attack. Her only fortress had been stripped of its cannon to enable Pepperell to batter down Louisburg. There was no British squadron to defend it, and there was not a single British sol- dier in the whole province. All these circumstances being appreciated, it is impossible to exaggerate the consternation with whicli the certain intelligence of the escape of D'Anville was received at Boston. People stood aghast. Tlie danger was indeed imminent. He might at any moment be expected to announce his arrival upon the coas"t with his cannon. England, says Hutchinson, was not more alarmed with the Spanish Armada, than were Boston and the other :N'orth American seaports by the hourly expectation of this truly formidable flotilla. Brave man that he was. Governor Shirley prepared to meet the emergency with such means as he had. But there was not a moment to lose. He instantly called out a levy e?i masse. The scenes preceding the Louisburg expe- dition were repeated on a larger scale. Couriers spurred in every direction bearing the summons to arms, and everywhere the brave yeomanry responded with eager promptitude to the call. At night the hills blazed with bonfires. By day the roads swarmed with armed men hastening toward Boston. The Com- mon became a camp. All business except that of repelling the invader was at an end, and nothing else was talked of. In this activity the people a little recovered from the panic into which they had at first been thrown. 74 NEW-EXGLAXD LEGENDS. "While the people were awaiting in feverish anxiety further news of the fleet, a fisherman came in from sea, who said that he had been brought to on the 'Noysl Scotia coast by four heavy ships of war. They required him to pilot them into Chebucto, which was the designated rendezvous for D'Anville's fleet. While lying to under the guns of one of these ships, he read on her stern the name " Le Terrible." Then, a fog having suddenly shut them in, he had succeeded in making good his escape, and had steered directly for Boston with the news. But the splendid fleet of D'Anville was destined to encounter a series of disasters hardly paralleled in the naval annals of France. An…

Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)