I.

upwards of 160,000/; and which the French in- CHAP. tended to demolish, if they had not received fresh inftructions, in confequence of the English n having taken Cape Breton; which caufed the 1746. French to alter their measures, with the view of exchanging the one for the other: but though the English afterwards, in pursuance of the general treaty of peace, left Cape Breton in at better condition than when it was taken; yet the French acted very differently at Madrafs, where they destroyed the fortifications, and principal buildings, before they delivered it up.

COMMODORE DE LA BOURDONNA IS aimed at nothing less than the total extirpation of every English fettlement on the coaft of Choromandel, which he was in a better condition of attempting by the arrival of the Centaur, of feventy-four guns, and 700 men; with the Mars, of fifty-fix, and 420 men; and the Brilliant, of fifty guns, and 400 men; from Europe, at Pondicherry, on the 27th of September: but in this he was prevented by a ftorm, which happened on the 2d of October in the night, and blew fo violently hard, as to render the greatest part of the French fleet, then riding in the harbour of Madrafs, incapable of service: the Duc de Orleans, the Phoenix, and Lys, were. foundered; as alfo were the Advice and Mermaid prizes; the Achilles loft all her mafts, and the other fhips had the greateft difficulty in difengaging themselves from the outrageous fury of the tempeft, in which 1,200 of their men perished, with fixty of the English garrison of Madrass, who were on board the Duc de Orleans: an event fo much the more favourable at that time for the English, because the French were preparing for the reduction of Fort St David; but the storm prevented the profecution of Y 2

the

PART the schemes they had formed for the deftruction VIII. of the reft of the British fettlements in India.

COMMODORE DE LA BOURDONNA IS fent four 1746. of his difabled fhips to refit at the ifle of Bourbon, and repaired to Pondicherry, with the remainder of his squadron, leaving Monfieur de Paradis, with 500 men, in poffeffion of Madrass; who expected an attack from the Indians, because the Nabob of Arcot had received an order, from his Excellency Nizam Mulmulock, the Grand Vizier, to compel the French to evacuate the town of Madrals to the English. The Nabob, on the 17th of October, invested Madrafs with 900 men; but, on the 22d, 200 of the garrifon fallied out and furprized part of the Indian camp; while 300 more, from Pondicherry, attacked the Nabob, at St Thomé, on the 23d at night; and, being joined, the next morning, by a party from Madrafs, routed the Indians, and compelled the Nabob to retire.

THE reduction of Madrass gave the English at Fort St David, Bombay, and Bengal, an opportunity of putting themselves in a more defenfible fituation; which Governor Hynd very diligently obferved, at Fort St David, by ftrengthening the fortifications, and taking a confiderable number of the Indian militia into his pay. On the 8th of December, the greatest part of the French garrifon of Pondicherry, confifting of 1,000 regular troops, 200 trained Peons, and many others, arrived within a mile of the bound hedge of Fort St David, with a large train of artillery: but Governor Hynd detached 1,600 of his military Indians, with orders to attack the French immediately, and harrafs them, as much as poffible, all night; which they did; and, at day-break, began a regular

I.

gular engagement: the French forced their way CHAP. quite to the garden-house, when the Moors came advancing upon them, and 100 men of the r garrifon fallying out at the fame time, the 1746. French, fearing to be furrounded, retreated with great precipitation; and,, being closely pursued, loft above 200 men; among them four officers of diftinction, with all their tents, ammunition, fix camels, two mortars with their fhells, two chefts of arms, four drums, and all their provifions after which the French returned to Pondicherry, where they renewed their preparations for another attempt on Fort St David; in which they were alfo difappointed by the arrival of Commodore Griffin, with three fhips of fixty guns, one of fifty, and one of forty, to rein force the British fquadron.

PART

VIII.

1746.

An account of the intended armament for reducing the FRENCH fettlements in CANADA. The unfortunate expedition of the Duke D'ANVILLE, against the BRITISH fettlements in NORTH AMERICA. The expedition of Admiral LesTOCK against BRITANY; the fiege of PORT L'ORIENT ; and other tranfactions of the BRITISH forces, till their unfuccefsful return to ENGLAND. The naval war in the WEST INDIES; the deftruction of LIMA by an earthquake; and an account of the respective captures in EUROPE and AMERICA.

HE expulfion of the French from their poffeffions in Canada, and obT ing the fole navigation of the river of St Laurence, had been by Englishmen, for more than half a century, thought one of the principal objects

worthy

worthy of their attention, in a war with France. CHAP. The principal fettlement belonging to the II. French, in this part of America, is Quebec, a large and beautiful city, founded by Samuel Champ- 1746. lain in 1608, fituate 120 leagues diftance from the fea, on the north weft fide of the fpacious river of St Laurence, the moft navigable . river in the world, the courfe of it being 250 leagues from its iffue out of the lake of Ontario, to its difemboguing itfelf into the gulph of St Laurence this gulph is eighty-eight leagues in length; the mouth of the river is thirty leagues wide, and it is no where lefs than from four to five broad up to the Ifle of Orleans, within eight leagues of Quebec ; but above that island it narrows fo much, that before Quebec the river is not above a mile over, though it there forms a very magnificent harbour, capable of containing 100 men of war of the line; which makes Quebec extremely remarkable on account of the fingularity of its fituation, for perhaps it is the only city in the universe that can boast a fresh water harbour, of fuch dimenfions, and at fo great a distance from the fea. Quebec is fituated in feventy-four degrees of weft longitude, and forty-feven deg. thirty-five min. of north latitude; being 300 miles N. W. of Boston in New England: the buildings are large, and all of ftone; but the inhabitants are not above 7,000 : the city is an epifcopal fee, and is the refidence of the Vice Roy of Canada, who is ftiled Governor and Captain-General of New France and Louisiana, which, according to the French geography, comprehends all Canada and Florida, of which the British colonies are a part, and whofe inhabitants the French had long threatened to drive into the fea.