Page:Letter from Quebeck, in Canada, to M. L'Maine, a French officer.pdf/6

( 6 ) natives into his moſt Chriflian majeſty's ſervice he gives me a very ſuccinct and ſatisfactory account of the ſeveral tribes of natives near Canada, that upon any emergent occaſions, we may command what numbers we ſhall have occaſion for. He gives me alſo a particular relation of the ſeveral provinces inhabited by the Engliſh on the ſea coaſts, and appears perfectly acquainted with their manners and cuſtoms. He informs me there are many of our hearty friends among them, with whom he has ſettled a correſpondence by letters, by the way of Cape-Breton, and from thence to Quebeck. The Engliſh (he fays) are our good friends; that the meaſures we have concerted, could not be ſo effctually carried on, were it not that one hundred ſail of their veſſels yearly arrive at Cape-Breton, with proviſion and other neceſſaries from Philadelphia, New York, Boſton, Rhode-Iſand, &c. which, by a moderate computation have brought this year 10,000 barrels of flour, 5000 barrels of pork and beef, 1500 tons of bread, and of butter, cheeſe, hogs, neat cattle, and poultrey, even to profuſion; ſome of which is ſent to our ſouthern plantations, and the king's commiſſioners ſupply the magazines at Cape-Breton, and ſend large quantities to our army at Quebeck, which elevates the ſpirits of our ſoldiers. We have alſo a good ſupply of powder by the way of Cape-Breton. M. Laith's ſentiments of the Englifh bordering on the ſea-coaſt is ſatisfactory: they having little or no military diſcipline among them, no arms nor ammunition, neither do they know properly how to uſe