The colony had been facing dwindling provisions, a situation which was aggravated when the news of war brought the threat of British action cutting off the supply lines of Louisbourg.

In this same month Captain David Donahue of the Resolution took prisoner the chief of the Mi'kmaq people of Ile Royale Jacques Pandanuques with his family to Boston and killed him.

[2] The expedition of Mi'kmaq militia and Compagnies Franches de la Marine, led by Captain François Dupont Duvivier, arrived during the night of May 24, finding Canso weakly defended and unprepared for war.

The British commandant, Captain Patrick Heron and four companies of the 40th Regiment of Foot, realizing that he was out-manned and out-gunned swiftly capitulated, while Lieutenant George Rydall fought on with an armed sloop before surrendering a short time later after his force sustained several casualties.

The success of the raid on Canso caused great excitement and celebration in Louisbourg, bolstering the morale of the French citizenry and their native allies, while depriving Britain of a strategic base in eastern Nova Scotia.