the governor of Louisbourg, who had received the
intelligence of these events some weeks before the alert
Bostonians, at once decided to win credit by striking
the first blow. He was much disliked in Louisbourg. He
drank hard, cursed his subordinates when in his cups,
and set the whole place by the ears. Moreover, many of
those under him wished to avoid giving the British
Americans any provocation, in the hope that the war might
be confined to Europe. But none dared to refuse a legal
and positive order. So in May his expedition left for
Canso, where there was a little home-made British fort
on the strait between Cape Breton and the mainland of
Nova Scotia. The eighty fishermen in Canso surrendered
to du Vivier, the French commander, who sent them on to
Boston, after burning their fort to the ground. Elated
by this somewhat absurd success, and strengthened by
nearly a hundred regulars and four hundred Indians, who
raised his total force to at least a thousand men, du
Vivier next proceeded against Annapolis on the west side
of Nova Scotia. But Mascarene, the British commander
there, stood fast on his defence, though his men were
few and his means small. The Acadian French in the vicinity
were afraid to join du Vivier openly. The siege dragged
on. The British received a slight reinforcement. The
French did not. And in September du Vivier suddenly
retired without attempting an assault.

The burning of Canso and the attack on Annapolis stirred
up the wrath of New England. A wild enthusiast, William
Vaughan, urged Governor Shirley of Massachusetts to make