Preparing the Way

February, and already on the 27th December, 1758, Pitt said that the squadron was forward in its preparations.1 Durell was to go ahead

at the earliest moment, to get as far up the St. Lawrence as possible, and to perform the double service of preparing the way for Saunders and the transports carrying Wolfe's troops, and of preventing any succours " from passing up the river to Quebec. In other words, Durell was to block up the St. Lawrence so far as the French were concerned. Pitt's energy in directing preparations was amazing. He wrote explicit instructions to Durell; to Amherst in America to have stores and colonial troops ready for Saunders at Louisbourg when he should arrive there in April; to Wolfe and to Saunders, so that every one of the officers who were entrusted with the execution of his great scheme might know precisely what was in his mind and have the benefit of his inspiring words. Diligence was invoked all round, and he wrote to Saunders on the 20th January, 1759, that if the disposition of arms, tents, etc., ordered by him could not be made in the Downs or at Spithead without even the least delay to the sailing, then the ordnance vessels and transports were to proceed with all expedition to New York and get the necessary things

1 Wood, Logs of the Conquest of Canada.

there. Wolfe was told in secret instructions that he was "to make the most pressing instances" to Amherst and Saunders, and in the event of Quebec being captured it was left to him and Saunders to determine what ulterior operations higher up the river should be undertaken in concert with Amherst who would be advancing towards Montreal. The concluding passage in His Majesty's Secret Instruction to the Brigadier-General ran :—

"Whereas the Success of this Expedition will very much depend upon an entire Good Understanding between our Land and Sea Officers, We do hereby strictly enjoin and require you, on your part, to maintain and cultivate such a good Understanding and Agreement, and to order that the Soldiers under Your Command, shall man the ships when there shall be occasion for them, and when they can be spared from the Land Service, as the Commander in Chief of Our Squadron is instructed on His Part to entertain and cultivate the same good Understanding and Agreement and to order the Sailors and Marines, under his Command to assist Our Land Forces, and to man the Batteries when there shall be occasion for them and when they can be spared from the Sea Service; and in order to establish the strictest Union that may be, between You and the Commander-in-Chief of Our Ships, You are hereby required to communicate these Înstructions to Him as he is required to communicate those He shall receive from Us to You."

Amphibious Operations

Much controversy has been devoted to the question of the respective parts played by the army and navy in the reduction of Quebec, the "blue water school" insisting that it was a naval affair essentially, and that Wolfe's army was only a large landing-party, the military side contending that the fleet held a merely subordinate and transport position. It is a controversy, to my mind, wanting alike in dignity and worthiness. Army and navy were equally indispensable to the taking of a fortress with a mighty river on one side and a wellguarded country on the other. Quebec was the best of all examples of Pitt's genius for what Mr. Corbett happily defines as “amphibious operations," and that Pitt intended Saunders' and Wolfe's forces to dovetail and in no way regard themselves as independent, could not be more clearly established than in the terms of the Commander's secret instructions, which simply make all argument superfluous. The operations cannot be properly understood if we ignore either the letter or the spirit of those instructions.

Durell was on the other side of the Atlantic, and Holmes had left in advance with a fleet of transports, six sail of the line, and nine frigates, when Wolfe joined Saunders on the Neptune at Spithead on the 13th February. Saunders,

who the previous year had been made RearAdmiral of the White, was now advanced to Vice-Admiral of the Blue. On the 17th he put to sea with ten sail of the line and several smaller vessels, hoping to reach the rendezvous at Louisbourg by the 20th April. On 10th March he wrote to Pitt :

"As I am now detaching His Majesty's Ship Lizard to New York, to assist in forwarding the Embarcation of the Troops, and convoying them to Louisburg, it gives me this Opportunity of acquainting you, for His Majesty's Information, that I am now in the Latitude of 46° 30' No. and 11 degrees West Longitude, from the Lizard; and that I intend, to-morrow, or next Day, to send to Admiral Durell, to enforce the absolute necessity there is, for his being very early in the River St. Lawrence.

"As that part of the Squadron which winter'd in America, must be short of their Complement of Seamen, I have wrote, by the Lizard, to the Governors of New York, and Massachusetts' Bay, to desire they will raise what Men they can, for the Squadron under my Command.

"By the time of my Arrival at Louisburg, or soon after, I hope to have a full Account from Capta. Hood, who commands the Ships that are to convoy the Troops thither, of the Situation and Forwardness he is in; I shall likewise expect the same from Admiral Durell; and I beg you will assure His Majesty, that I will myself, with the Transports, be in the river, as

Weather Bound

soon as possible, in order to put my Instructions into farther Execution."1

They reached Louisbourg on the 21st April, but Saunders found that he could not get into the harbour. "There was such a crust of ice all along the shore from Scutari to St. Esprit," wrote Wolfe to Amherst, "that it was by no means safe to push in nor, indeed, possible at that time." They made for Halifax, and here, on the 30th April, they found that nothing had been heard of Holmes, and to their intense disappointment Durell was riding at anchor. The weather had been severe and Durell had been unable to make a start for the St. Lawrence. Wolfe was impatient, as was his wont, and appears to have thought that Durell had tarried unduly. He wrote to his uncle a little later to say that "the Admiral Commanderin-Chief of the fleet is a zealous, brave officer," but he had doubts as to some others. Saunders' letter sent to Pitt from the Neptune in Halifax Harbour on the 1st May does not reflect any of the irritability which characterised so large a part of Wolfe's correspondence :

"I proceeded myself for Louisburg, but on the 21st was stopt by a Body of Ice . . . nor could I, or any of my small Ships find an opening, to

1 A. & W. I., Vol. lxxxviii. See Kimball, Correspondence of William Pitt with Colonial Governors.