The French had the
better in these exchanges, receiving able-bodied men, and returning,
with the exception of Davis, only women and children. The heretics
were gone, and Quebec breathed freely again. Her escape had been a
narrow one; not that three thousand men, in part regular troops,
defending one of the strongest positions on the continent, and
commanded by Frontenac, could not defy the attacks of two thousand raw
fishermen and farmers, led by an ignorant civilian, but the numbers
which were a source of strength were at the same time a source of
weakness. [Footnote: The small-pox had left probably less than 2,000
effective men in the fleet when it arrived before Quebec. The number
of regular troops in Canada by the roll of 1689 was 1,418. Nothing had
since occurred to greatly diminish the number. Callieres left about
fifty in Montreal, and perhaps also a few in the neighboring forts.
The rest were in Quebec.] Nearly all the adult males of Canada were
gathered at Quebec, and there was imminent danger of starvation.
Cattle from the neighboring parishes had been hastily driven into the
town; but there was little other provision, and before Phips retreated
the pinch of famine had begun. Had he come a week earlier or stayed a
week later, the French themselves believed that Quebec would have
fallen, in the one case for want of men, and in the other for want of
food.
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