George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[183] of Nova Scotia, was to reduce that province

chap. VIII.} 1755.

according to the English interpretation of its boundaries; Johnson, from his long acquaintance with the Six Nations, was selected to enroll Mohawk warriors in British pay, and to conduct an army of provincial militia and Indians against Crown Point; Shirley proposed to win laurels by driving the French from Niagara; while the commander-in-chief himself was to recover the Ohio Valley and the Northwest.

Soon after Braddock sailed from Europe, the French also sent a fleet with reinforcements for Canada, under the veteran Dieskau. Boscawen, with English ships, pursued them, though England had avowed only the intention to resist encroachments on her territory; and when the French ambassador at London expressed some uneasiness on the occasion, he was assured that certainly the English would not begin.¹ At six o'clock, on the evening of the 7th of June, the Alcide, the Lys, and the Dauphin, that had for several days been separated from their squadron, fell in with the British fleet off Cape Race, the southernmost point of Newfoundland. Between ten and eleven in the morning of the eighth, the Alcide, under Hocquart, was within hearing of the Dunkirk, a vessel of sixty guns, commanded by Howe. ‘Are we at peace or war?’ asked Hocquart. The French affirm, that the answer to them was, ‘Peace, Peace;’ till Boscawen gave the signal to engage.² Howe, who was as brave as he was taciturn, obeyed the order promptly; and the Alcide and Lys yielded to superior force. The Dauphin, being a good sailer,