Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
The New Hampshire Gazette Domestic News July 13, 1759
Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
A letter from Quebec, April 30, 1759, describes severe food shortages, soaring prices, and fear of English attack; the writer suggests the colony may need to submit to the English if peace or reinforcements do not arrive.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 99.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 0.0% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 96.03% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 99.82% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 93.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 95.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
COPY of a Letter taken in a Prize by Admiral Darell's Squadron.
Quebec, April 30, 1759.
Dear Brother in Law,
"The Letter you favour'd me with of the 16th of January, I receiv'd with the greatest Pleasure; I am charm'd you have got the better of your Sickness, and are in so fair a Way of Recovery: I hope the little Tour you have made to St. Augustine has had the desired Effect: If your Winter has proved melancholy, our's I assure you, has not been gay, we have been reduced to a Quarter of a pound of Bread, per Day, and have often had no meat at all; but the worst is our Misery encreases; Beef which all the last Winter sold for 20 to 22 Sous the pound, at present sells for 45; and the Butchers say, the small Quantity they have will sell for 3 Livres a pound: Fowls and Ducks are above any Price: Corn sells for 40 Livres: Wine 1500 Livres a Hogshead: A Cow has commonly sold for 450 Livres. In a Word, every Thing is above Price: 'Tis a most melancholy Circumstance to think what will become of us, it is my opinion if Peace does not immediately take Place or great succour sent us from France, our Colonies had much better submit to the English than continue in their present Misery. The English threaten us in every Place, Crown Point is no longer looked upon as safe, nay it appears a Resolution is taken to burn and abandon every Thing, and entrench themselves at the Pass of St. John's, as our last Hopes; we are sending to Crown Point only 2000 Men, that are compos'd of Berry's and the Queen's, the rest that compleat that Number are Canadians, this Body marches to morrow, under the command of Mons. Bourlamaque; Monf. Montcalm and Monf. Levy remain with the rest of the Troops here. We have learnt by a Prisoner taken the 6th of last Month at Carillon, that at Albany they daily expected the arrival of 6000 old British Troops, commanded by the General Officer who took Louisbourg, he has the Character of being a Man of great Experience, one whom our General must be cautious of: This Prisoner likewise reports, we shall be attacked here below, notwithstanding no Measures seem to be taken for our Defence: We have as yet no News from France, tho' a flattering Gale this 8 Days from the N. E. gave us Reason to expect it."
Quebec, April 30, 1759.
Dear Brother in Law,
"The Letter you favour'd me with of the 16th of January, I receiv'd with the greatest Pleasure; I am charm'd you have got the better of your Sickness, and are in so fair a Way of Recovery: I hope the little Tour you have made to St. Augustine has had the desired Effect: If your Winter has proved melancholy, our's I assure you, has not been gay, we have been reduced to a Quarter of a pound of Bread, per Day, and have often had no meat at all; but the worst is our Misery encreases; Beef which all the last Winter sold for 20 to 22 Sous the pound, at present sells for 45; and the Butchers say, the small Quantity they have will sell for 3 Livres a pound: Fowls and Ducks are above any Price: Corn sells for 40 Livres: Wine 1500 Livres a Hogshead: A Cow has commonly sold for 450 Livres. In a Word, every Thing is above Price: 'Tis a most melancholy Circumstance to think what will become of us, it is my opinion if Peace does not immediately take Place or great succour sent us from France, our Colonies had much better submit to the English than continue in their present Misery. The English threaten us in every Place, Crown Point is no longer looked upon as safe, nay it appears a Resolution is taken to burn and abandon every Thing, and entrench themselves at the Pass of St. John's, as our last Hopes; we are sending to Crown Point only 2000 Men, that are compos'd of Berry's and the Queen's, the rest that compleat that Number are Canadians, this Body marches to morrow, under the command of Mons. Bourlamaque; Monf. Montcalm and Monf. Levy remain with the rest of the Troops here. We have learnt by a Prisoner taken the 6th of last Month at Carillon, that at Albany they daily expected the arrival of 6000 old British Troops, commanded by the General Officer who took Louisbourg, he has the Character of being a Man of great Experience, one whom our General must be cautious of: This Prisoner likewise reports, we shall be attacked here below, notwithstanding no Measures seem to be taken for our Defence: We have as yet no News from France, tho' a flattering Gale this 8 Days from the N. E. gave us Reason to expect it."
What sub-type of article is it?
Economic
Military
What keywords are associated?
Quebec Conditions
Provision Shortage
French And Indian War
Crown Point
What entities or persons were involved?
Mons. Bourlamaque
Montcalm
Levy
Admiral Darell
Where did it happen?
Quebec
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Quebec
Event Date
April 30, 1759
Key Persons
Mons. Bourlamaque
Montcalm
Levy
Admiral Darell
Outcome
severe scarcity of provisions; beef 45 sous/lb, corn 40 livres, wine 1500 livres/hogshead; plans to send 2000 men to crown point; writer fears colonies may submit to the english.