It is not to be denied that provisions have been scarce in Boston, at
times, since the days of the Puritans, hardly now to be realized. Long
before the Revolutionary period, in 1711, during one of the wars between
France and England, Admiral Sir Hovender Walker, with a fleet of fifteen
men-of-war, and forty transports with upwards of five thousand men,
arrived in the harbor on his way to the St. Lawrence River, for the
protection of Canada. He wanted to victual his ships, and applied to Capt.
Belcher (father of Gov. Jonathan Belcher), a rich and leading man, as
being the only person who could undertake the service, and he declined it.
Next to Mr. Andrew Faneuil, and he undertook it. Provisions were scarce
and the price put up, so that a supply could not be had, and the governor
was compelled to issue an "order for searching for provisions." The men,
during the stay of the fleet, were in camp at Noddle's Island, and it is
said that a formidable number of them deserted.