[149] It is more than probable that La Ronde Denys, who had studied the "Bastonnais" with care, first gave the idea to Costebelle.
[150] _Ponchartrain à Vaudreuil, 10 Août, 1710._ _Ponchartrain à Costebelle, même date._ These letters are in answer to the reports of Costebelle, before cited.
[151] _Costebelle à Ponchartrain, 3 Décembre, 1710._
[152] _Instruction pour Monsieur de la Ronde, Capitaine d'Infanterie des Détachements de la Marine_, 1711. "Le dit sieur de la Ronde pourroit entrer en négociation et se promettre de faire cesser toutes sortes d'hostilités du côté du Canada, supposé que les Bastonnais promissent d'en faire de même de leur côté, et qu'ils ne donassent aucun secours à l'avenir, d'hommes ni de vaisseaux, aux puissances de la vieille Angleterre et d'Ecosse."
[153] "La vieille Angleterre ne s'imaginera pas que ces diverses Provinces se réuniront, et, secouant le joug de la monarchie Anglaise, s'érigeront en démocratie."--_Mémoire sur la Nouvelle Angleterre_, 1710, 1711. (Archives de la Marine.)
[154] "Pour Baston, il faudrait la piller, ruiner ses ateliers, ses manufactures, tous ses beaux établissements, couler bas ses navires, ... ruiner les ateliers de construction de navires."--_Mémoire sur la Nouvelle Angleterre_, 1710, 1711. The writer was familiar with Boston and its neighborhood, and had certainly spent some time there. Possibly he was no other than La Ronde Denys himself, after the failure of his mission to excite the "Bastonnais" to refuse co-operation with British armaments. He enlarges with bitterness on the extent of the fisheries, foreign trade, and ship-building of New England.
[155] See Swift, _Conduct of the Allies_.
[156] Boston, devoted to fishing, shipbuilding, and foreign trade, drew most of its provisions from neighboring colonies. (Dummer, _Letter to a Noble Lord_.) The people only half believed that the Tory ministry were sincere in attacking Canada, and suspected that the sudden demand for provisions, so difficult to meet at once, was meant to furnish a pretext for throwing the blame of failure upon Massachusetts. Hutchinson, ii. 173.
[157] _Minutes of Proceedings of the Congress of Governors, June, 1711._
[158] _Walker to Burchett, Secretary of the Admiralty, 14 August, 1711._