It is said that, despairing of any decisive stroke, he
conceived the idea of fortifying Isle-aux-Coudres, and leaving a part of
his troops there when he sailed for home, against another attempt in the
spring. The more to weaken the enemy and prepare his future conquest, he
began at the same time a course of action which for his credit one would
gladly wipe from the record; for, though far from inhuman, he threw
himself with extraordinary intensity into whatever work he had in hand,
and, to accomplish it, spared others scarcely more than he spared
himself. About the middle of August he issued a third proclamation to
the Canadians, declaring that as they had refused his offers of
protection and "had made such ungrateful returns in practising the most
unchristian barbarities against his troops on all occasions, he could no
longer refrain in justice to himself and his army from chastising them
as they deserved." The barbarities in question consisted in the frequent
scalping and mutilating of sentinels and men on outpost duty,
perpetrated no less by Canadians than by Indians. Wolfe's object was
twofold: first, to cause the militia to desert, and, secondly, to
exhaust the colony. Rangers, light infantry, and Highlanders were sent
to waste the settlements far and wide. Wherever resistance was offered,
farmhouses and villages were laid in ashes, though churches were
generally spared. St. Paul, far below Quebec, was sacked and burned, and
the settlements of the opposite shore were partially destroyed.
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