Daniel d ' Auger de Subercase Daniel d ' Auger de Subercase ( February 12 , 1661 – November 20 , 1732 ) naval officer and French governor of Newfoundland and later Acadia , born Orthez , Béarn died Cannes - Ecluse , Île - de - France . D ' Auger de Subercase was baptised a Protestant to Jean Dauger , a rich merchant and bourgeois who had purchased several noble estates , including the lay abbey of Subercase , near Asson . Daniel served about 10 years in the land forces and in 1684 was a captain in the Régiment de Bretagne before he joined the navy and sailed for Quebec . No sooner had he landed in 1687 than he set off with his contingent on a campaign against the Senecas . In 1693 he was named lieutenant - commander , garrison adjutant and adjutant general . On 1 April 1702 he succeeded Monic as governor of Plaisance , arriving at his post in 1703 during the early years of Queen Anne ' s War . He immediately attacked Ferryland where he learned from prisoners of a planned English attack on Plaisance with a fleet of thirty - three sail from St . John ' s under the command of Admiral John Graydon . He immediately set the town ' s defenses in order and discouraged the attack with the help of two French warships . During the fall of 1704 he organized a series of attacks against English outposts on Newfoundland . With a party of one hundred reinforcements from Canada and three hundred and fifty of his own men , this campaign resulted in the temporary capture of Bay Bulls and Petty Harbour in January 1705 and a failed siege of the main English settlement at St . John ' s . Unable to subdue the fort they set out to destroying settlements in Conception Bay and Trinity Bay and succeeded in destroying every colony , with the exception of Carbonear Island . The expedition took 1 , 200 prisoners , and boasted the destruction of 40 cannon , 2 , 000 shallops , and pillaged 2 , 600 livres in cash . Subercase estimated that , although St . John ' s remained intact , the total losses inflicted on the enemy was 4 million livres . Subercase made full use of the following lull in aggression to rebuild the fortifications at Plaisance , improve morale , and generally improve the living conditions of the residents . In 1705 he was made a knight of the order of Saint - Louis and became the governor of Acadia in April 1706 . He successfully led the outnumbered defense of Port Royal against two failed sieges in 1707 , leading several sallies himself and having his own horse killed below him in one skirmish . The governor of Boston was not prepared to accept defeat and on 5 Oct 1710 General Francis Nicholson ’ s fleet appeared before Port - Royal and began the Siege of Port Royal . The fleet comprised a landing force of 2 , 000 men ( 3 , 400 according to Subercase ) , made up of one regiment of English regulars and four regiments of militiamen raised by Massachusetts , Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire , and carried in 36 vessels , seven of which were warships . Subercase had fewer than 300 men to set against them . After a few days of defense , Subercase surrendered the partially ruined and under provisioned Port - Royal to the British , expressing to the English commander his hope of returning to pay him a visit the following spring . Subercase , accused of negligence by some officers and reprimanded by New France governor Vaudreuil , was summoned before a court martial at Rochefort , but rapidly acquitted . In 1711 he was offered to be sent to serve at Quebec under Vaudreuil where he could formulate a plan to retake Port Royal while continuing to be paid his salary as governor of Acadia . Subercase refused in disgust and two years later the Treaty of Utrecht was signed ending aggression between the French and English and ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to England for good , thus making Subercase the last governor of French Acadia . Subercase retired and returned to France to live on his estates in Béarn . He continued to draw a captain ’ s pension of 600 livres a year until he died on 20 Nov 1732 at Cannes . A ledger - stone marks his grave in the church of this village .