Under This Anxiety, Knowing The
Necessity That There Was That I Should Arrive The First, I Resolved To
Embark Myself In A Shallop That We Had Brought To Be Employed In Any
Service That Might Be Necessary.
I ordered the captain to equip it, and
although but little more than 20 leagues from Port Nelson, I
Put myself on
board with 7 men, and after 48 hours of fatigue, without having been able
to take any rest because of the danger that there was to us, we found by
the breadth of Hayes river, which having recognized, at last we touched
land at a point north of the river, where we landed with an Englishman who
spoke good french, whom I wished to make accompany me in order that he
might be the witness of all that I did.
After having come to land I recognized by certain marks that my nephew,
having heard the noise of the cannon of the English ships, had come to the
place where we landed to know if his father or myself were arrived, and
that he had himself returned after having recognized that they were English
shipps. These same marks gave me also to know that he had left me further
away from those that I had given him since I had established him for
Governor in my absence. The which should inform me of his condition and the
place where he was with his men; but I did not find it to the purpose of
going as far as that place, that I had not learned truly the condition of
the English who had arrived in the country since I had departed from it. I
resolved then to embark myself afresh in the shallop to go and learn some
news. I encouraged for that purpose the 7 men who were with me, who were so
diligent that in spite of a contrary wind and tide we arrived in a very
little time at the mouth of that great and frightful river of Port Nelson,
where I had wished to see myself with such impatience that I had not
dreamed a moment of the danger to which we had exposed ourselves. That
pleasure was soon followed by another; for I saw at anchor in this same
place 2 ships, of which one had the glorious flag of His Majesty hoisted
upon his main mast, that I recognized to be the one that was commanded by
Captain Outlaw when the one in which I was passed had been separated from
the 2 others. At the same time I made the shallop approach & I perceived
the new Governor with all his men under arms upon the deck, who demanded of
us where our shallop came from, and who we were. Upon that I made myself
known, & I went on board the ship, where I learned that the one which was
alongside was an English frigate that had wintered in the Port of Nelson
with the Governor, which port they had abandoned to retire themselves for
fear of being insulted by the French & the savages; but that having been
met with by Capt Outlaw going out of the bay, he had returned, having
learned that I had thrown myself into the service of England, and that I
came into the country to re-establish there everything to the advantage of
the nation.
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