Led by governor of Acadia Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, the French garrison at Port-Royal easily withstood both attempts, assisted by Acadian militia and the Wabanaki Confederacy outside the fort.

The second siege began August 22, and was never able to establish secure camps, owing to spirited defensive sorties organized by Subercase.

Subercase, concerned that the British might return the following year, strengthened the fortifications at Port-Royal and incited attacks on New England merchant shipping.

[13] When Daniel d'Auger de Subercase became governor of Acadia in 1706, he went on the offensive, encouraging Indian raids against the English New England Colonies.

The privateers were highly effective; the English fishing fleet on the Grand Banks was reduced by 80 percent between 1702 and 1707, and some New England coastal communities were raided.

[15] Some of these merchants, notably Samuel Vetch, were closely associated with governor of Massachusetts Joseph Dudley, and by 1706 outrage began growing in the colonial assembly over the matter.

[16] In March 1707 he revived an idea he had first developed in 1702 that called for New England troops to launch an expedition supported by Royal Navy elements that were locally available.

Colonial popular opinion was divided on the need for the expedition: some ministers argued in its favour from the pulpit, while Cotton Mather "Pray'd God not to carry his people hence.

[5][19] Recruiting was difficult in Massachusetts due to the lack of enthusiasm for the endeavour, and authorities were forced to draft men to fill the ranks.

[20] The authorities in Connecticut was also asked to contribute to the expedition, but declined, citing bad feeling over the return of Port-Royal by treaty after its capture in 1690.

Just hours before the British arrival, he had also welcomed about 100 Abenaki Indians led by the young Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin.

[28] Dudley issued orders to March that the fleet should stay put, with all men remaining aboard under penalty of death, while his council considered the next step.

Dudley eventually sent reinforcements and a three-man commission (including two colonels and John Leverett, a lawyer with no military experience) to oversee affairs, and ordered the expedition to make a second attack.

[29] This defeat apparently had a significant effect on the invaders' morale; Wainwright wrote that his camp was "surrounded with enemies and judging it unsafe to proceed on any service without a company of at least one hundred men.

[38] None of this helped save Port-Royal from the next attack, since France failed to send any significant support, while the British mobilized larger and better-organized forces.

[39][40] This prompted the colonists to mobilize in the expectation that troops would arrive from England; their efforts were aborted when the promised military support failed to materialize.

Vetch and Francis Nicholson returned to England in its aftermath, and again secured promises of military support for an attempt on Port-Royal in 1710.