Short served on HMS Prince of Orange from 1759 to 1761,[6] and he was directed to make drawings, to record the appearance of principal Quebec buildings, following its capture.

[10] Painter Dominic Serres was commissioned by Short to create paintings based on the Halifax views; those remain in the collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

[8] On February 2, 2017, the Montreal Gazette published an article about one of Short's drawings of Quebec, as part of its coverage of Black History Month.

[11] The image showed a number of distant figures, including a black boy, in fancy clothes, attending a pair of affluent civilians, inspecting damage to a church.

The article claims, Short captured “...the first image of a black person in Quebec, maybe even in Canadian history,” most likely a slave.