Meanwhile Boishebert stood guard for the governor of
Quebec at the mouth of the river St John. In the previous
year, when he had arrived there, Cornwallis had sent an
officer to protest against what he considered an
encroachment; but Boishebert had answered simply that he
was commissioned to hold the place for his royal master
without attempting a settlement until the boundary dispute
should be adjusted. Now, in July 1750, Captain Cobb of
the York, cruising in the Bay of Fundy, sighted a French
sloop near the mouth of the St John, and opened fire.
The French captain immediately lowered his boats and
landed a party of sailors, apparently with the intention
of coming to a conference. Cobb followed his example.
Presently Boishebert came forward under a flag of truce
and demanded Cobb's authority for the act of war in
territory claimed by the French. Cobb produced his
commission and handed it to Boishebert. Keeping the
document in his possession, Boishebert ordered Cobb to
bring his vessel under the stern of the French sloop,
and sent French officers to board Cobb's ship and see
the order carried out. The sailors on the York, however,
held the Frenchmen as hostages for the safe return of
their captain. After some parleying Cobb was allowed to
return to his vessel, and the Frenchmen were released.
Boishebert, however, refused to return the captain's
commission. Cobb thereupon boarded the French sloop,
seized five of the crew, and sailed away.

So the game went on. A month later the British sloop
Trial, at Baie Verte, captured a French sloop of seventy