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  Researching the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
  Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada

The Administration Of Justice At The Fortress Of Louisbourg (1713-1758)

1736
 

• C11B, Vol. 18, fols. 85-87, 362; 6 juillet 1736; ibid., fols. 325-28, 14 november 1736; ibid., fols. 357-60v., 4 août 1736; ibid., fols. 289-94, 6 novembre 1736; ibid., fols. 321-23, 11 juillet 1736; ibid., fols. 11-15, 7 november 1736; C11B, Vol. 22, fols. 128-31v., 1 novembre 1740.

Seven members of De Gannes' Company, one from Dangeac's and one Swiss deserted together from Louisbourg in a shallop. Two officers, Beaubassin and Du Vivier, with 11 men each, were sent to search for them. Beaubassin headed toward Niganiche, while Du Vivier set off for Port Toulouse. Beaubassin and his detachment followed the deserters to L'Indienne where they had abandoned their shallop and taken to land. 

After some days searching in dense woods, Beaubassin arrested two or three, while another surrendered by himself at Louisbourg. (Although the documents are contradictory about how it came to pass, it does appear that a total of four of the deserters were arrested). A second search party was sent to the area because of the fear expressed by people involved in various forms of commerce along the coast that they might be set upon by the remaining deserters and their boats taken. This second detachment searched the woods for seven or eight days without success before returning to Louisbourg. The five remaining deserters were assumed to have made it to English territory or to have succumbed to hunger and the "venomous flies" with which the woods abounded. In any event, they were never found. 

One of the four caught was sentenced to death, while two went to the galleys and one was acquitted. The soldier who was acquitted apparently returned to Louisbourg on his own. This turned out to be a fortunate move on his part since his family had bought his release from the service for 150 livres. His involvement in the desertion held up, but did not prevent, his departure from the Compagnies Franches.[Source: Margaret Fortier, Fortress Security and Military Justice at Louisbourg, 1720-45, Unpublished Report H E 14 (Fortress of Louisbourg, 1980), p. 72]