[Footnote 595:  Villejouin, commandant a l’Isle St.-Jean, au Ministre, 8 Sept. 1758.]

The ardent and indomitable Wolfe had been the life of the siege.  Wherever there was need of a quick eye, a prompt decision, and a bold dash, there his lank figure was always in the front.  Yet he was only half pleased with what had been done.  The capture of Louisbourg, he thought, should be but the prelude of greater conquests; and he had hoped that the fleet and army would sail up the St. Lawrence and attack Quebec.  Impetuous and impatient by nature, and irritable with disease, he chafed at the delay that followed the capitulation, and wrote to his father a few days after it:  “We are gathering strawberries and other wild fruits of the country, with a seeming indifference about what is doing in other parts of the world.  Our army, however, on the continent wants our help.”  Growing more anxious, he sent Amherst a note to ask his intentions; and the General replied, “What I most wish to do is to go to Quebec.  I have proposed it to the Admiral, and yesterday he seemed to think it impracticable.”  On which Wolfe wrote again:  “If the Admiral will not carry us to Quebec, reinforcements should certainly be sent to the continent without losing a moment.  This damned French garrison take up our time and attention, which might be better bestowed.  The transports are ready, and a small convoy would carry a brigade to Boston or New York.  With the rest of the troops we might make an offensive and destructive war in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  I beg pardon for this freedom, but I cannot look coolly upon the bloody inroads of those hell-hounds, the Canadians; and if nothing further is to be done, I must desire leave to quit the army.”

Amherst answered that though he had meant at first to go to Quebec with the whole army, late events on the continent made it impossible; and that he now thought it best to go with five or six regiments to the aid of Abercromby.  He asked Wolfe to continue to communicate his views to him, and would not hear for a moment of his leaving the army; adding, “I know nothing that can tend more to His Majesty’s service than your assisting in it.”  Wolfe again wrote to his commander, with whom he was on terms of friendship:  “An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the Indians and ruin the French.  Blockhouses and a trembling defensive encourage the meanest scoundrels to attack us.  If you will attempt to cut up New France by the roots, I will come with pleasure to assist.”

Amherst, with such speed as his deliberate nature would permit, sailed with six regiments for Boston to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George, while Wolfe set out on an errand but little to his liking.  He had orders to proceed to Gaspe, Miramichi, and other settlements on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, destroy them, and disperse their inhabitants; a measure of needless and unpardonable rigor, which, while detesting it, he executed with characteristic thoroughness.