The English privateersmen arrived in the St Lawrence in July and took up their headquarters at Tadoussac.  Already they had captured several Basque fishing or trading vessels.  At Tadoussac they learned that at Cap Tourmente, thirty miles below Quebec, there was a small farm from which the garrison of Quebec drew supplies; and, as a first effort to ‘root out’ the French, David Kirke decided to loot and destroy this supply-post.  A number of his crew went in a fishing-boat, took the place by surprise, captured its guard, plundered it, and killed the cattle.  When his men returned from the raid, Kirke dispatched six of his Basque prisoners, with a woman and a little girl, to Quebec.  By one of them he sent a letter to Champlain, demanding the surrender of the place in most polite terms.  ‘By surrendering courteously,’ he wrote, ’you may be assured of all kind of contentment, both for your persons and your property, which, on the faith I have in Paradise, I will preserve as I would mine own, without the least portion in the world being diminished.’

Champlain replied to Kirke’s demand with equal courtesy, but bluntly refused to surrender.  In his letter to the English captain he said that the fort was still provided with grain, maize, beans, and pease, which his soldiers loved as well as the finest corn in the world, and that by surrendering the fort in so good a condition, he should be unworthy to appear before his sovereign, and should deserve chastisement before God and men.  As a matter of fact this was untrue, for the French at Quebec were starving and incapable of resistance.  A single well-directed broadside would have brought Champlain’s ramshackle fort tumbling about his ears.  His bold front, however, served its purpose for the time being; Kirke decided to postpone the attack on Quebec and to turn his attention to Roquemont’s fleet.  He burned the captured vessels and plundered and destroyed the trading-post at Tadoussac, and then sailed seaward in search of the rich prize.

Kirke had three ships; the French had eighteen.  Numerically Kirke was outclassed, but he knew that the enemy’s fleet was composed chiefly of small, weakly armed vessels.  Learning that Roquemont was in the vicinity of Gaspe Bay, he steered thither under a favouring west wind.  And as the Abigail rounded Gaspe Point the English captain saw the waters in the distance thickly dotted with sail.  Dare he attack?  Three to eighteen!  It was hazarding much; and yet victory would bring its reward.  Kirke was a cautious commander; and, desiring if possible to gain his end without loss, he summoned the French captain to surrender.  In answer Roquemont boldly hoisted sail and beat out into the open.  But despite this defiant attitude Roquemont must have feared the result of a battle.  Many of his ships could give no assistance; even his largest were in no condition to fight.  Most of the cannon were in the holds of the transports, and only a few of small calibre were mounted.  His vessels, too,