=Source.=--A Letter from an Officer to his Friend, quoted in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for December, 1759.
I make no doubt but your anxiety with regard to our success in this
part of the world has been very great, both with respect to the
navigable part (as we were all strangers and new adventurers) as
also for the progress of our troops.
What the French have ever reported of this river is a mere bugbear,
as there are but few dangerous spots in it, and those very easily
discovered; a proof of their having acted a very politic part in
keeping us so long from attempting to approach one of the finest
countries and climates in the world. The river abounds with great
variety and plenty of fine fish, such as salmon, sturgeon, bass,
cod and all kinds of flat fish. At the place from which I date this
letter the water is entirely fresh, like that of the Thames, so
that we fill all our casks with it alongside the ship. Great part
of the country, from the isle Bic to Montreal (which is about 25
leagues above Quebec) is well cultivated, and sowed with wheat,
barley, peas, flax and almost every other kind of grain.
The isle of Orleans is an exceeding fine island, rising very
gradually from the water's edge each way to the middle. It has
many thousand acres of good grain now growing upon it, and the
lands are parted with good paling. It produces great plenty of
French beans, cabbage, turnips and other useful plants and roots.
This island and Coudre the French evacuated at our approach,
and left us masters both of their houses and lands; so that our
men were at liberty to pick and choose among fine green peas,
currants, gooseberries, apples, raspberries, cherries and, in
short, everything of the like kind. This country abounds also with
horned cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry; and in all the woods there
is plenty of gooseberries and raspberries uncultivated. Here are
numbers of churches, and all kinds of mills round the country.
In short, it is a second England, and I am credibly informed the
weather is very fine the greatest part of the year.
Quebec is a large city, one part very high, the other at the foot
of the eminence. The lower part, containing a large cathedral
and Bishop's palace with many other churches, we have reduced to
rubbish. Quebec, I assure you, is not that trifling poor fishing
town the French have hitherto represented it to be.
The first salutation our ships had on their approach near the town
was seven fire-ships well filled with combustibles, and their
rigging smeared with tar. These came burning down the river with
the help of a strong current, directed on the body of our fleet.
But as some such contrivance was expected by the Admiral, good
provision was made for his defence by having all the boats of
the squadron out, well manned and armed, with an officer in each
boat and fire-grapplings. The fire-ships were instantly boarded
by our men, who so fixed their grapplings and chains as to tow
them clear of every ship to shore on the isle of Orleans, where
they burned to ashes without doing the least damage. The next
annoyance was 17 fire-rafts, well supplied with gun and pistol
barrels loaded, granadoes, and combustibles of all sorts, each
of them 103 feet long, and slackly chained together, so that at
the least interruption they might surround whatever opposed their
passage. They came burning down with the current, and one would
have thought the whole river in a flame as they spread almost
from shore to shore; but these were also grappled in like manner,
and, being towed clear off all the ships, consumed with the loss
only of one boat, and I believe all the men saved. General Wolfe,
finding so great an opposition, published a placard and spread
it in the French camp; but it had no effect on the Canadians; he
therefore ordered all the habitations, barns, stables and corn on
the lands, as soon as ripe, to be totally destroyed. The sides of
the river began immediately to show a most dismal appearance of
fire and smoke; and (as the troops employed on this service were
the remains of those who escaped the massacre by the French at
Fort William Henry, where they killed and scalped every wounded
officer and common man) they spared little or nothing that came in
their way. Admiral Holmes in the _Sutherland_ passed a very strong
battery and went about twenty leagues above the town in order to
burn some frigates and other ships that were got high up the river.
The French pilots themselves were amazed at the hazards we run with
ships of so great burthen, as we were all higher up the river than
any French ships of equal burthen ever were, above the traverse
which their ships scarce ever passed.