Louisbourg: A Focus of Conflict 

H E 13

By

Peter Bower

March 1970

Fortress of Louisbourg

PREFACE

This report is the revised version of the manuscript submitted to the Louisbourg Restoration Project in March, 1970. The availability of additional primary and secondary sources at the Public Archives of Canada has, I trust, contributed some new dimensions to this revision and to the clarification of some difficult issues and problems faced by the author. Nevertheless. the reports remain similar in substance and intent. I should point out, that the March, 1970, manuscript contains some lesser episodes, perhaps suitable for the interpretation Section, which will not be found in this report. These omissions were simply amplification of details; for example, concerning the daily life of the Louisbourg garrison.

The object of this report is to describe the first occupation of the fortress and to place Louisbourg within the British imperial context of the mid-eighteenth century. It should be noted that the termination point of this manuscript does not coincide neatly with what might be described as a water-shed in history. The period under investigation in this report is in some senses a prologue to the events of the Seven Years' War. For this reason. the device of an epilogue has been used to indicate the direction events were to take after the War of Austrian Succession as well as to draw together some of the themes developed in the manuscript.

In this revised report, 1 have continued my practise of retaining the original orthography and morphology so far as was possible. This approach, apart from presenting the vitality of expression to be found in various documents, should be of value to the interpretation Section. All translations, except where otherwise noted, are mine. All dates in the text are given in new style, whereas the citations provide the dates given on the documents, save for the beginning of the new year, which is given as January 1, rather than March 25.

I repeat my expressions of gratitude stated in the Foreword to the March, 1970 report, and wish the staff of the Project good luck and fortune for the future.

Peter John Bower 
Ottawa March, 1970.