Then, when the failure of the fleet became apparent,
he retired to Beaubassin at the head of Chignecto Bay,
and proceeded to fortify the neck of the peninsula,
building a fort at Baie Verte on the eastern shore. He
was joined by a considerable band of Malecites and Micmacs
under the Abbe Le Loutre; and emissaries were sent out
among the Acadians as far as Minas to persuade them to
take up arms on the side of the French.
William Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, who
exercised supervision over the affairs of Nova Scotia,
seeing in this a real menace to British power in the
colony, raised a thousand New Englanders and dispatched
them to Annapolis. Of these only four hundred and seventy,
under Colonel Arthur Noble of Massachusetts, arrived at
their destination. Most of the vessels carrying the others
were wrecked by storms; one was driven back by a French
warship. In December, however, Noble's New Englanders,
with a few soldiers from the Annapolis garrison, set out
to rid Acadia of the Canadians; and after much hardship
and toil finally reached the village of Grand Pre in the
district of Minas.
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