“On the 16th May, in the evening the Vanguard, commodore Swanton, and Diana Frigate, Captain Schomberg, arrived from England, and next morning, 17th May, 1760, they and the Leostaff attacked the two French Frigates that lay at anchor in the Bay, above Cape Diamond; which when they first observed, they made as if they intended to engage, but on our ships approaching nearer, they set sail up the river; but one of them ran ashore immediately, and our Frigates soon got up with theirs, and obliged them also to run aground and thereafter destroyed them. One ship however escaped out of their reach, and unluckily, the Leostaff, after all was over, ran on a rock, sunk and was entirely lost.
“That very night several deserters came into the Town, and informed that most part of the French army had marched, the Trenches being guarded by their Grenadiers only. About twelve o’clock at night, the General sent out a party who found the Trenches entirely abandoned and next morning, 18th May, 1760, we found ourselves entirely freed of very disagreeable neighbours, having left behind all their artillery, with a great part of their ammunition, Camp equipage and baggage. What made them retreat with such precipitation we could not guess; but, it seems they were seized with a panic. It appears they allowed the savages to scalp all the killed and most part of the wounded, as we found a great many scalps on the bushes.
“I have been since informed by Lieutenant McGregor, of our Regiment, who was left on the field wounded, and narrowly escaped being killed, having received two stabs of a bayonet from two French Regulars, that he saw the savages murdering the wounded and scalping them on all sides, and expected every moment to share the same fate, but was saved by a French Officer, who luckily spoke a little English.”
Thus ends Fraser’s narrative of the two sieges of Quebec. He served in the third siege, that of 1775-76, and was still alive in 1812-15 to give counsel when Quebec was again menaced by the Americans.
APPENDIX B (p. 38)
TITLE-DEED OF THE SEIGNIORY OF MURRAY BAY GRANTED TO CAPTAIN JOHN NAIRNE OF THE 78th REGIMENT, APRIL 27th, 1762
By the Honourable James Murray, Esquire, Governor of Quebec, &c.
Whereas it is a national advantage and tends to promote the cultivation of lands within the province to encourage His Majesty’s natural-born subjects settling within the same:
For these purposes, and in consideration of the faithful services rendered by John Nairne, Esquire, Captain in the 78th Regiment of Foot, unto His Majesty, I do hereby give, grant, and concede unto the said Captain John Nairne, his heirs, executors, and administrators for ever, all that extent of land lying on the north side of the river St. Lawrence from the Cap aux Oyes, limit of the parish of Eboulemens, to the south side of the river of Malbaie, and for three leagues back,