I
enclose your Honor extracts from two letters from Annapolis Royal, which
show that the French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begun
in the spring." _Shirley to Lawrence, 6 Jan. 1755_.]
He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret session, and found them of
one mind with himself. Preparation was nearly complete, and the men
raised for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria, recognized
it as a part of a plan of the summer campaign.
The French fort of Beausejour, mounted on its hill between the marshes
of Missaguash and Tantemar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form, with
solid earthern ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of twenty-four
cannon and one mortar. The commandant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in
the colony regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering
speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful character. He owed his
place to the notorious Intendant, Bigot, who it is said, was in his debt
for disreputable service in an affair of gallantry, and who had ample
means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by defrauding the
King. Beausejour was one of those plague-spots of official corruption
which dotted the whole surface of New France. Bigot, sailing for Europe
in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his confederate: "Profit by your
place, my dear Vergor; clip and cut--you are free to do what you
please--so that you can come soon to join me in France and buy an estate
near me.
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