Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/302

Vetch for the expedition to Panama under William Paterson's Darien company. They were given the rank of captain, and appointed members of the council of seven which was to govern the colony. Samuel Vetch sailed from Leith on 17 July 1698 with twelve hundred men, and landed between Portobello and Carthagena on 3 Nov. Fort St. Andrew was constructed and the settlement named ‘New Edinburgh.’ The new colony, however, met with great opposition from the other British colonies in the West Indies and North America, the Spaniards commenced hostilities, and internal disorder prevailed. After vainly struggling against these difficulties for some months, the place was evacuated on 23 June 1699, Paterson, Vetch, and others proceeding to New York. William Vetch died at sea off Port Royal, Jamaica, on his passage home.

Samuel Vetch resided at Albany, where he took part on 26 Aug. 1700 and following days in a conference between Lord Bellamont, governor of New York, whose confidence he had gained, and the Sachems of ‘the Five Nations.’ In July 1702 (about which time he removed from Albany to Boston) he attended another conference with the Indians of the Five Nations. In 1705 he was sent by Governor Dudley of Massachusetts to Quebec as one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of neutrality with M. de Vaudreuil, the French governor-general of Canada, and to arrange for the exchange of prisoners. He made it his particular business to gain all the information he could about the French colony, noting the weak points of its defence and taking soundings of some of the most difficult passages of the St. Lawrence River; he boasted that he knew the river better than the Canadians themselves.

In 1708 Vetch visited his parents in Scotland, and thence went to London and laid before the British government a plan which he had formed for the conquest of Canada and Acadia. His proposals were approved by the government, who agreed to send a powerful fleet and three thousand regular troops. He was despatched in a man-of-war with instructions to the several colonial governments to provide their respective quota of provincial troops.

Vetch arrived in Boston on 28 April 1709, and was so successful in his negotiations with the colonial governments that by June 1709 the transports and New England troops were ready at Boston, where the troops were drilled by officers brought by Vetch from England for the purpose, and were in daily waiting for the British fleet; but on 11 Oct. intelligence arrived that the promised forces had been diverted to Portugal. The expedition consequently fell through, and the colonial levies returned to their homes.

This fiasco was a bitter disappointment to Vetch and to the colonists, as their resources had been severely taxed for no purpose. A congress of governors and delegates from the several colonies held in November sent Vetch, now raised to the rank of colonel, and Colonel (afterwards Sir) Francis Nicholson [q. v.] to London to urge the government to undertake a fresh expedition. The ministry deemed the conquest of Canada too great an undertaking, but agreed to send next year an expedition against Nova Scotia. Nicholson was appointed to the chief command, and Vetch adjutant-general. They arrived on 15 July 1710 at Boston in the Falmouth, accompanied by several transports containing four hundred British marines, and on 18 Sept. sailed with fifteen hundred additional colonial troops, arriving at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, on the 24th.

Vetch landed with two battalions the next day on the north side of the river, and Nicholson, with the remainder, on the south side. On the 26th the troops entrenched themselves, and after some days' bombardment, De Subercasse, the French commander, capitulated, and the French garrison marched out. On 16 Oct. the British took possession, and Vetch was presented with the keys, in accordance with the queen's instructions, as the first governor of the fort of Annapolis Royal, as Port Royal was renamed, and of the country of Acadia and Nova Scotia, with the appointment of adjutant-general of British troops and general and commander-in-chief of colonial troops in those parts.

Vetch's garrison consisted of only two hundred marines and 250 New England volunteers. He dealt with the conquered inhabitants in a spirit of justice and kindness, and, while protecting them from the extortion of the soldiers, showed firmness and determination in maintaining his authority. An attack by a body of Indians upon an expedition sent by Vetch to procure wood fuel in the spring of 1711 was the signal for a general rising and for the blockade of Annapolis. Vetch was not discouraged. ‘I must say,’ is his observation, ‘I would not wish to survive the loss of this place while I have the honour to command it.’

While matters were in this state, news arrived of a formidable British expedition against Canada, which at once raised the blockade. The expedition consisted of seven veteran regiments and a train of engineers and