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Leading fleet to Canada
Wolfe, the brigadier who returned to Canada in the spring of 1759 as General James Wolfe, arrived aboard the warship Neptune, the newly appointed commander of the British expedition.
He left London in command of a quarter of the British navy, an extraordinary fleet that had twenty-two ships of the line, each carrying up to eight hundred people; twenty-seven frigates; eighty transport ships; and fifty-five schooners – more than 200 ships in all.
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| James Wolfe was a frail, brave soldier who was obsessed with glory. (As portrayed by Robert Joy in Canada: A People's History) |
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They were carrying 2,000 cannon and 40,000 cannonballs as well as surgeons, ministers, prostitutes, wives and their children and livestock. There were 9,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors. The fleet stretched for one hundred miles up the St. Lawrence River, a floating city with a population larger than Quebec.
But Wolfe, chronically seasick, suffering from rheumatism and tuberculosis, had more the air of an invalid than a warrior. And, knowing something of his fellow British officers in Canada, he wasn't cheered by what awaited him. "[General James] Abercromby is a heavy man & Brig Provost the most detestable Dog on earth, by everybody's account," he wrote, "These two Principal Officers hate one another; now to serve in an army so circumstanced is no very pleasing business."
Wolfe wasn't pleased with the Canadian climate either.
In a letter to his mother, the general wrote, "The Early Season in this Country, I mean the month of April & May, are intolerably cold & disagreeable – June & July are foggy, August rainy – September has always a Tempest – October is generally a dry and fair month and the winter sets in early November." Barely one good month out of twelve.
He felt the people were no better. "These colonies are deeply tinged with the Vices & bad Qualities of their mother Country & indeed many parts of it are Peopled with those that the Law or necessity has forced upon it..."
What the country had, in Wolfe's opinion, was enormous potential.
"They have all the materials ready, Nature has refused them nothing & there will grow a People out of our little spot (England) that will fill this vast space, & divide this great Portion of the globe with the Spaniards, who are possessed of the other half." Wolfe showed prescience in his prediction, though the pie wouldn't be divided the way he envisioned.
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