J.S. McLennan, Louisbourg: From Its Foundation To Its Fall (Sydney: Fortress Press, 1969), Chapter 2

© Fortress Press

The declaration of the taking possession of Isle Royale stated that the selection of Louisbourg was provisional. The reports made and the plans submitted in person by St. Ovide to the King secured his approval, which was transmitted to L'Hermitte, with orders to place the fort on the point and the town behind it. This led to complaints from the latter that his plans had been modified and his views inaccurately stated by St. Ovide.

These instructions were definite ; but a discussion arose at once as to which should be made the principal place of the three settlements which were thought of. These were Louisbourg, Port Dauphin, and Port Toulouse. Each of them had many advantages, which were dealt with in many letters and memorials. Costebelle wrote to the Minister expressing his opinion, that great attention should be given to Port Toulouse, without claiming that it should be the seat of government, and asked a hearing for Meschin, Commander of the Semslack, who had revisited Louisbourg. When Meschin sought an audience with Pontchartrain he was sent on by him to Raudot the younger, who had been promoted from Quebec to the position of Intendant des Classes (Service Rolls). The Minister wrote to the latter that he would discuss the matter with him after his interview with Meschin. 

Other letters also were sent to Pontchartrain. Rouville and La Ronde, in thanking him for their appointments on this pioneer expedition, gave their views on the three ports. The latter was enthusiastic over Port Dauphin,where they could do more work for ten thousand livres than for two hundred thousand in Louisbourg. Trees twenty-eight to thirty-eight inches in diameter and seventy feet long abound ; there is an abundance of oak, and not an inch of ground which is not fit to cultivate. He concluded by saying that New England is not worth one-tenth part of Cape Breton, but that he has seen with his own eyes how flourishing is the British colony, where every year they build fifteen hundred vessels.[1] 

Costebelle repeated his first impression that they were working uselessly at 

1. These are exaggerations which-go far to justify L'Hermitte's opinion of La Ronde. Sec note, p. 16.

Louisbourg, and that Vaudreuil, St. Ovide, and Soubras agreed with him, if their thoughts corresponded to their language. L'Hermitte tried to confine his expression to a statement of the advantages of the different places, but in sending his requisitions for material and men he added an estimate that it would take eight to ten years to build the forts at Louisbourg at a cost, even without the artillery, of eight or nine hundred thousand livres. 

Bourdon, an experienced officer, whose map of Cape Breton was being used, was sent out with de Saugeon, the officer in command of the Affriquain, who was unfamiliar with these waters. Bourdon, too, submitted a memoir on this vexed and important question.[1] The advantages of Louisbourg, in his summing up the various views, were the ease of access, the excellent fishing close at hand, and, while the beaches were less in extent than at Port Dauphin, this was compensated for by the excellent sites found at various adjacent outports. The Port Dauphin beaches were less useful, as they were shut in by the high hills, the name of which has descended from the romance of Les Quatres Fils d'Aymon to Smith's Mountain. Port Dauphin was more easily fortified, the land was fertile, but the fishing grounds were several leagues from the port, and therefore required larger boats. [1] Port Toulouse was not then seriously considered, nor does the name of Bale des Espagnols often appear, notwithstanding the anonymous memoir of 1706. Its wide entrance would be difficult to fortify, and it was distant from the fishing grounds. Louisbourg, moreover, had the advantage of not freezing over, and of being less incommoded by the drift ice in the spring, although this was not dwelt on and was perhaps unknown to the pioneers. Bourdon points out in his memoir that the fisheries are the sole object of care, that the only grain they need to grow is for poultry and fodder, as their requirements of wheat would make a commerce with Canada. He thus disposes of the agricultural superiority of Port Dauphin, enforcing this view by the fact that the Acadians would not go there, as they were seeking for meadows. He also takes up various questions as to the forts ; says that L'Hermitte's are too costly, and proposes in their stead two fortifications, one on the island and one on the point, which, giving protection against a sudden attack, would, as peace is likely to last, be all that is required. He concludes that, for ease of living, every one would prefer Port Dauphin, but, for public interest, Louisbourg is comparably better. The weight of local authority was against him. It was supported by the merchants of France, while the Court was dismayed at the amount of money which Louisbourg would require. 

Instructions were sent out to Costebelle and Soubras that Port Dauphin should be made the principal place ; that they, the staff, and the larger part of the garrison, four companies, should be established in that place ; that St. Ovide 

1. C11 I.R. vol. i, p. iii.

should command at Louisbourg with two companies, and De Pensens, aide-major, should go to Port Toulouse. These instructions arrived in due course, but Costebelle, advised by a private letter of the decisions before they came to hand, had already taken action. In June he sent L'Hermitte to lay out the work at Port Dauphin. Rouville also went there, and again merited the praises of his superiors, by doing with his sixty men effective work in building a storehouse, bakehouse, and forge. In September they were engaged on the barracks, which were substantial, as it was proposed that they should serve afterwards as an hospital, and Costebelle, who was on the ground, hoped that these would be finished before winter. 

Port Toulouse, preferred by the Acadians, was allotted a garrison of forty men under De Pensens, and a small fort for the purpose of giving confidence to the new settlers was laid out by Couagne. The value of this place had been considered small on account of the shallow entrance of its harbour, but soundings proved that there were three channels with deep water-two of four and a half, and one of three fathoms. Meschin and his pilot went with Costebelle from Port Dauphin to Port Toulouse, by the Bras d'Or Lakes, and confirmed the information. The channels were crooked, but could be made safe by buoys, which in time of war could be removed, making the harbour tt easy to friends, inaccessible to enemies." 

Louisbourg was so neglected that Soubras urged Costebelle to send to Port Toulouse, St. Ovide and most of the Louisbourg garrison, as no work could be done at the latter place during the winter. L'Hermitte's part of this work was tentative, for he had been superseded by Beaucour, who arrived in the autumn, and he had experienced the bitterness of receiving the Minister's strictures on his slowness before the letters arrived promoting him to the post of Major at Three Rivers. Thereafter in the more settled conditions of Canada he did good work, until, returning from France on the Chameau in 1725, his long career in the public service ended in her shipwreck a few miles from Louisbourg. 

The Acadian situation was not easy ; although Vaudreuil, Costebelle, and Soubras had signed a memoir begging the Court to do the impossible by sending a vessel, nothing more was accomplished than sending some of the gear for their boats. [1] Part of it was delivered, but very few of them had come to Isle Royale. Early in the year 1715 news came to Louisbourg that Nicholson had in the autumn told the Acadians that those of them who intended leaving must go at once and not, wait until the spring. The King instructed the French ambassador to ask permission to send a ship for them, and the request having been made, time was being lost in waiting for a reply, and the action of the

1. Vol. 1, 107, October 16, 1714.

French Government was thus hampered. The solution was left to the local authorities ; they were to avail themselves of any of the three vessels which had to come out - the Semslack, the Affriquain, or the Mutine - and send one of them for the Acadians. 

Father Dominique de la Marche, who was Grand Vicar of the Bishop of Quebec, had been sent on a mission to the Acadians at Port Toulouse, where he met representatives of prosperous families of Minas who were there, the results of which he stated in a letter, September 7. In it he recounts the position and fidelity of the Acadians, and states that promises solemnly made through the missionaries as well as the envoys, La Ronde and Pensens, had not been kept, and urges that a vessel should be sent, as he fears further delay. Although Costebelle was absent at Port Dauphin, a council was held the same day, at which Soubras, St. Ovide, Villejouin, Renon, Ste. Marie, de la Perelle, officers of the garrison, met the missionary. They decided that they must have some pretext for sending a vessel, either the disavowal of the Indian hostilities against the English or replacing a missionary. They decided that de Pensens, a favourite with the Acadians, and de la Perelle, who spoke English, should go on the Mutine (Captain de Courcey), which should be provisioned for bringing back the Acadians ; but that if they could not make them come, or if opposition was offered, they should return. The Mutine started on the voyage, but, meeting heavy weather and contrary winds, returned to Louisbourg without having reached Annapolis. 

In August of the following year (1716) de la Marche left Port Dauphin, where he was established, and visited Acadia, returning in September. He says that the Acadians were not to blame for not coming, and acknowledges that they were no longer in the mood to come, while Costebelle had made up his mind that they would remain where they were. The authorities wrote to the Minister that the Acadians were to take an oath that the Anglican Church was the only true one, that the Virgin was a woman like any other, that the Pretender was a bastard, and that they would be faithful to the new King ; but this fable, possibly because it was a fable, moved neither the Acadians to leave nor the Ministry to come to their aid. [1]

These are the first of many incidents which mark the care of the French officials to avoid giving offence to the English. Their attitude was defensive ; the instructions sent out to them were to avoid quarrels and not to resent aggressions. The only firm note in many years is La Ronde's letter to Nicholson, in which he states that the King intends to maintain the rights accorded to the Acadians by Queen Anne, the outcome of his preference for the 

1. " Contenant que la religion Anglicanne est la scule véritable, que la Ste. Vierge est une femme comme une autre, que le Prétendu Prince de Galles est batard, et qu'ils promettent fidélité au nouveau Roy " (C¹¹ I.R. 2., p. 90).

grand manner rather than of the instructions given to him. The garrison of Annapolis, weaker than that of Louisbourg, was powerless to prevent the Acadians removing. They were entitled to leave; the question of time had not been settled, and, had the policy of France been aggressive or a pacific one administered by strong men, the sending of ships for the Acadians could have been defended as entirely justifiable. But when we take up later in this chapter the conditions in France, the causes of many things which happened in Louisbourg will be made clear. 

The efforts of the French to prevent the Indians of Acadia from acknowledging the sovereignty of England had been successful, and they had largely moved to Antigonish, nearer Isle Royale, without making any settlement. The relations of the New Englanders with the Indians of Acadia had not been friendly. The fishermen who frequented the adjacent fishing-grounds could not dry their catch on shore, as they were driven off by the savages, although solitary Frenchmen lived among them and traded with the English vessels. The Indian hostility was bitter. The Micmacs, finding two dead bodies of their young men, jumped to the conclusion that they had been killed by the English, and in revenge pillaged nine or ten vessels. A vessel of twelve or fourteen guns which was cast away in St. George's Bay was taken and the crew ill-treated, in spite of the efforts of Father Gaulin to protect them. The cause of this outbreak was their belief that all their tribe at Minas was dying of poison administered by the English. A similar case occurred at Beaubassin, and again the crew were protected by Father Felix. Costebelle, referring to these and similar incidents, informed the Minister that pillaging was going on which they tried to prevent. Capon, storekeeper at Annapolis, was sent to Louisbourg in 1715 to complain of the action of the allies of the French. An account of this mission is found in Meschin's answer to a charge of wasting His Majesty's stores, brought against him by the purser of his own ship, who reported that, being a godfather at Louisbourg, he had fired a salute of one hundred guns and wasted powder to the value of 1600 livres. Meschin said in reply that he had proved to the Commandant and Intendant of Rochefort, where the charge was made, that this was untrue. The facts were that Sieur Capon, Commissary-General, had come from Acadia to Isle Royale representing General Neilson (Nicholson) to ask for justice from the Indians, our allies, who had captured some English vessels in the Strait of Canso and pillaged their crews. On which matter, the heads of the Colony not being able otherwise to satisfy the envoy, we had tried to content him with many civilities and feasting ("De le contenter par beaucoup de caresses et de bonne chère "). Meschin contributed to this end by a dinner on board the Semslack, given the third day of Capon's stay, to which he invited the Governor, Soubras, other officers, and the principal inhabitants to the number of forty-five. Monsieur Capon desired to drink the health of King Louis, and Meschin felt bound, as a loyal servant, to fire a salute of nine guns ; courtesy demanded an equal number when they drank to King George, then five were fired for the Admiral of France, and an uncertain number for the principal French and English general officers. The hospitable officer was forgiven for having only a general knowledge that the number of guns was less than one hundred. The Navy Board did not make him pay for these feux dejoie. [1] 

The guests of Meschin gathered from miserable quarters. The houses in which they lodged, grouped about the larger dwelling of the Governor, were built of pickets upright in the ground, a meaner type of construction than a log hut. On the other side of the little stream was a temporary battery of twelve guns, and the remainder of the cannon lay on the beach immediately for below the Governor's house. [2] The merchants who were bidden came the most part from the other side of the arm, where they had already established their simple dwellings adjacent to the beaches, where their fish were cured, and the site selected for the fortifications. We have some idea of the military officers who gathered on this occasion, for Costebelle, in a long letter to the Minister treating of various subjects, gives a description of himself and his associates.[3] He himself is fifty-four, his passions weakened by years, but his zeal great. He works from daylight till noon ; at dinner they sit long and make decently merry. This is borne out by Soubras, who says that, although Costebelle is despotic, his sociable humour contributes to keep the peace between them. Besides the difficulties of his office, Costebelle is overwhelmed by private debts, and is anxious to get to France to find means to extricate himself. St. Ovide, he says, is devout, and has all the talents of a man of the sword and of a writer, but he exaggerates. Beaucour has talents, and will find plenty of room for their exercise. Ligondez is a good officer, is never too slow, sometimes too lively. La Ronde Denys is also good, independent, energetic, fine, but will be better when age has modified his temperament and he is free from the influence of doubtful relations. Villejouin is good. Rouville, a phoenix for labours. Ste. Marie, Costebelle's brother- in-law, a Provençal, is inclined to be close.

1. Ar. Nat. Marinc, C, 7, 206. 
2 Young's Map. 
3. " Pour luy deffiner ie cours de ma vie présante il eat temps que je luy dire que j'ai atteint l'aage de 54 ans, où les passions vives et turbulentes s'affoiblessent d'elle meme, il n'y a que celles de mon devoir que se soient fortfié et je nay jamais eu tant d'occasion de faire briner mon zelle par la situation où toutes choses se trouvent aujourd'hui, pour d'accuser juste a votre grandeur je lui diray que je suis vigilant à toutte sorte d'heure de point de jour jusque à midy m'occupe le plus, apres quoy je reste assa longtemps à table avec l'élitte des officiers mais il se commet rien dans nos plus riantes societtés qui tiennent de la Crapule, ni que derrange les fonctions militaires, non plus que les travaux projettés que mes orders ont précèdés, nostre honneste gallanterie ne scandalise personne et s'il y a quelque libertinage outre dans le commun du peuple, it nest toléré qu'autant qu'il miest inconu. 

"Monsieur de St. Ovide me ressamble assais avec 15 ans de moins, il prie dieu un peu plus longtemps sans adorer plus humblemant que moy sa divine providence " (C¹¹ I.R. vol. 1, p 152 1/2).

Renon also is good, and all the junior officers satisfactory, especially Couagne, who deserves promotion. These descriptions testify to his amiability, but they have to be modified from other sources. Ligondez the Major says : " Rouville's is the only company looked after, that the other Captains think it beneath their dignity to care for their men, and that Villejouin is lazy." Ste. Marie was ordered under arrest by the Minister for allowing a girl to escape from the primitive hut which served as the town prison, and severe reproofs were administered to Villejouln. 

Costebelle was overwhelmed by the condition in which they found themselves in the autumn. It was against both discipline and effective work. The Semslack and the Mutine had come out, the former with 5000 livres in money and a few stores, costing an equal amount, which were spoiled on the voyage, to meet 180,000 livres unpaid for 1714, and 450,000 livres allotted to the expenses of this year. The arrival of the Affriquain, which had their supplies, was expected with more and more eagerness, until, when her arrival became doubtful, famine seemed imminent. The provisioning of the outports was put off as late as possible, but as well as they could they worked on. The principal officers and troops were moved to Port Dauphin. The guns brought from Placentia, both English and French, were tested by the Aide-Artillerie of the garrison and the master gunner of the Semslack, and the greater part allotted to Port Dauphin, although only eighteen were taken there in this season.[1] Civil government went on also. Soubras, new to the colonies, made ordinances regulating the beaches, hospital dues, the prices of fish and the rates of wages, and the entries and clearances of vessels. These provoked remonstrances from the outfitting merchants in France as well as the inhabitants of the town. They also disturbed the Acadians, who, from what a writer calls the republican state in which they had lived, found all regulations irksome. Neither effective work could be done nor good morals preserved with the prospect of famine before the people and the officers. Costebelle had hoped to have the barracks at Port Dauphin finished by the winter, but in the late autumn Soubras found that nothing had been done for three months, as the soldiers, even under de Rouville, the most capable of all the officers, had been building

1.

      Not only the number but the calibre of the guns sent to Port Dauphin were greatly superior.

themselves huts in the woods. The scarcity of provisions was increased by the necessity of supplying the Semslack for her voyage back to France. At the end of the season the authorities, after sending back all the sick and young soldiers, two hundred and twenty in all, about half the garrison, took from the merchants of the town, the ships in the harbour, and even from private houses the provisions they could find. Laforest, the clerk who was charged with this duty, says he made many enemies by undertaking this odious task. Costebelle does not hesitate to write to the Minister that the Government plunders those whom it should protect. The condition at Louisbourg, as the declining, although the most populous place, was worst. Its inhabitants were in consternation, and had represented to Costebelle and Soubras that their port was the only one ; the captains of the French vessels also confirmed this view, and held that Louisbourg must be re-established. If, instead of drawing the good men from all the companies for Port Dauphin, St. Ovide had been given a few workmen and the two companies allotted to that place, he could have made it tenable ; as it was he had three captains, one lieutenant, two ensigns, three corporals, seventeen soldiers, five workmen, and one sick carpenter. The fishing had been good on the whole, especially at Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin. Sixty-four vessels had come out from France, which had three hundred and eight boats in all. The prediction that the vicissitudes of 1715 would tell on the industry the following year was justified by the results, for in 1716 only twenty vessels came from France. The situation was so bad that St. Ovide wrote that he feared that the pirates who infested these waters, knowing the unprotected condition of the town, might attack it after the King's ships had left. Soubras said the colony by a single repetition of this state of affairs would be ruined, that the officers were as badly off as the privates, and Laperelle was sent to Court to represent personally their desperate position. It is difficult to read the documents from which this narrative has been compiled and not to believe that the wretched state of Isle Royale was owing to incompetence and neglect on the part of the home administration. It is equally difficult to read the accounts of France in the previous score of years, while the kingly sun of the great Louis was descending behind the clouds, all of which tell of hideous poverty, of a stagnant commerce, of an almost naked peasantry suffering from severe winters, from plague and pestilence, of governmental interference which aggravated the miseries of the people, and not to wonder how the ordinary expenses were provided. for, how pensions could be allotted or gratuities given to deserving officers, or a new establishment like Louisbourg carried on. The exhaustion not only of the public treasury but of public credit was complete in the last year of Louis XIV.'s reign. The Navy Board met and made their arrangements for the season's work. The King had approved the appropriation of  410,000 £ for Isle Royale, a trifle of  10,000 £. had been asked for the Acadians, but Demarêts, the Treasurer, had not sent it. Pontchartrain put himself on record as to the importance of Isle Royale, in a passage which has been quoted. No reply was received to this letter. He asks for these funds in March, as the needs are most urgent and the time is short. At the end of the month he takes up the question of overdue bills of exchange for Canada. He brings pressure to bear on the Treasurer, through Monsieur de Nointel, to whom he suggests a lottery, or a tax on lotteries. Meantime, the usual administrative details are being carried on for the officering and provisioning of the ships and providing the cargoes. 

Funds for the navy were so low in these years that it was found impossible to equip a frigate and buy supplies without borrowing fifty to sixty thousand livres from private sources. (Pontchartrain to Desmarets, April 21, 1713, M. St. M. vol. 50.)

Lettre de M. des Maretz, ministre des finances, à M. le Comte de Pontchartrain (Versailles, 31 décembre 1713), extrait : 

" A I'Egard des fonds que vous demandez pour l'Evacuation de Plaisance, et l'Establissen^t de lisle Royale, je prendray incessamment les ordres du Roy pour destiner à cette dépense ceux que sa Majesté jugera àpropos sur les premiers deniers qui pouront estre ménagez ...." (Arch. Nat. Marine, B3, 216.)

Three weeks later he writes again, expressing surprise and pleasure that one of his Intendants had found means to pay the men who had been working on the ships for Isle Royale, and by the middle of May insists that the money be found ; otherwise, that colony will fall and England will be mistress of the cod fisheries. He is disquieted by the news from the outfitting port of Rochefort, where the long unpaid men refused to work on these ships. Later in the month the Intendant Montholon writes him that merchants will not supply goods without prompt payment. Early in June the Semslack is sent off to show the troops and settlers that the King has not forgotten them, but the evil conditions continue. Other merchants will not sell, even with special assurance of payment other workmen refuse to continue in the King's dockyards ; seamen engaged for the voyages of these ships have deserted ; there was no money to be found. His proposal, made in March, to establish a new lottery for the benefit of the colony, or to impose a tax, for the same purpose, of 3 per cent on existing lotteries, was not accepted, and the end came on the 21st of August 1715, three days before the illness of the King began, when the Minister sent orders to the Intendant of La Rochelle to have the Affriquain dismantled, as it was too late to send her to Isle Royale. Compared with the early years of other settlements, Annapolis, for example, Isle Royale was not badly off; compared with great monarchies, few of those which have survived ever found themselves more exhausted than was France at this time. 

On September 1, 1715, Louis XIV. died. It is not a necessary part of this narrative to recount the disposition he made for the Regency during the minority of his great- grandson. Parliament was summoned at once ; Orleans triumphed over the legitimized princes and the will of the King, and was made Regent with the power to nominate the Council of the Regency, to whose hands was committed the conduct of affairs. The dissoluteness of Philip Duke of Orléans, the extravagance, the gracefulness of the art of his epoch, Law's marvellous achievements, his stupendous breakdown, are the things which stand out in the popular conception of the Regent's history. They are just elements in that conception, but it is equally true that the Regent is perhaps the most conspicuous instance of modern times of one in a splendid position whose moral corruption made impotent, except for evil, a great capacity for affairs. 

France saw with relief the ending of the epoch of Louis XIV. Her people gladly welcomed the declaration of the Regent that he intended to follow the plans of the Duke of Burgundy, that upright and intelligent grandson of the late King, the docile pupil of F6nelon, whose advent to the throne, until his premature death, had been regarded as the promise of better things. Louis XIV.'s boast that " L'Etat c'est moi " had been as nearly realized as possible, but it had worked out, in the view of the Regent's supporters, into there being in administrative affairs an absolute ruler in each department into which the business of the State was divided. The remedy proposed for this was the institution of Councils. The " Seven Councils " proposed by the Duke of Burgundy were established by the Regent. They gave a great subdivision of labour, and a firmer grasp of administration than under the previous system. In the division of affairs under Louis XV. a more logical view was taken by the recognition of the internal affairs of the kingdom as worthy a department, and by the institution, as an afterthought, of a Conseil de Commerce. One historian of the Regency speaks disparagingly of the composition of the Councils, but La Cour-Gayet,[1] the historian of the French Navy in the reign of Louis XV., who begins a chapter, " Banqueroute financière, banqueroute morale, banqueroute politique, c'est sous les auspices de cette triple faillite nationale que s'ouvrit le règne de I'arrière petit-fils de Louis le Grand," and therefore may fairly be assumed to have no predisposition to apologise for the acts of the Regent, says of the Navy Board that it would have been difficult to find eleven better names than those the Regent selected. His only criticism is that Duguay-Trouin was not a member. At the head of the Council was the Comte de Toulouse, one of the 

1. La Cour-Gayet, La Marine militaire de la France sous Louis XV, Paris, 1902.

 legitimized sons of the King, Admiral of France, owing his place to his origin, but who, nevertheless, had distinguished himself in command of the French fleet in battle with those of England and Holland at Velez Malaga. D'Estrées was President, and he too had shared in the same battle. St. Simon praises him as honourable, upright, and understanding the Navy. Tessé, Coëtlogon, d'Asfeild, and Champigny were officers of merit and brilliant services. Renau was a naval engineer of resource whose invention of the bomb ketch marked a distinct advance in naval warfare, De Vauvré an Intendant of the Navy of more than excellent reputation, Ferraud a lawyer. Bonrepaus, a collaborator of Colbert and predecessor of Raudot as Intendant des Classes, had always had a reputation as an unequalled administrator. Pontchartrain was dismissed, although to secure this result his position was promised to his son Maurepas, then a boy of fifteen. A more systematic way of carrying on the affairs of the department was instituted. The regulation for the colonial correspondence was business-like. Instructions were sent out that each letter should deal with one matter only ; [1] subordinate officers were to be no longer permitted to write to the Council as they had to the Minister ; military officers would report to the Governor, civil officers to the Intendant or Commissaire-Ordonnateur, on their private affairs ; officials could write to members of the Board, but should address it only if they were giving information of malversation. 

The documents concerning Isle Royale bear out the views of La Cour-Gayet. Careful agenda for the meetings of the Board were now prepared, business was disposed of promptly, although precedent seemed slavishly followed, marginal notes indicated the reference of many questions to the best-informed officials, such as Raudot and Verville, when he was in France, and all items of importance were brought to the personal notice of the Regent, who gave immediate decisions. Whatever may have been his vices, or the soundness of his views, he attended to the business of Isle Royale.

1. This was ignored at Louisbourg.