These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in view of the outrageous means used to force most of them from their homes, were in a deplorable condition.  They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre, backed by Vergor and his soldiers.  The savage missionary, bad as he was, had in him an ingredient of honest fanaticism, both national and religious; though hatred of the English held a large share in it.  He would gladly, if he could, have forced the Acadians into a permanent settlement on the French side of the line, not out of love for them, but in the interest of the cause with which he had identified his own ambition.  His efforts had failed.  There was not land enough for their subsistence and that of the older settlers; and the suffering emigrants pined more and more for their deserted farms.  Thither he was resolved that they should not return.  “If you go,” he told them, “you will have neither priests nor sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches."[250] The assertion was false.  Priests and sacraments had never been denied them.  It is true that Daudin, priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifax for using insolent language to the commandant, threatening him with an insurrection of the inhabitants, and exciting them to sedition; but on his promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his parishioners.[251] Vergor sustained Le Loutre, and threatened to put in irons any of the exiles who talked of going back to the English.  Some of them bethought themselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and drew up a petition asking leave to return home.  Le Loutre told the signers that if they did not efface their marks from the paper they should have neither sacraments in this life nor heaven in the next.  He nevertheless allowed two of them to go to Quebec as deputies, writing at the same time to the Governor, that his mind might be duly prepared.  Duquesne replied:  “I think that the two rascals of deputies whom you sent me will not soon recover from the fright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I administered after my reprimand; and since I told them that they were indebted to you for not being allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have promised me to comply with your wishes."[252]

[Footnote 250:  Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 Oct. 1754, in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 229.]

[Footnote 251:  Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 226, 227, 238.]

[Footnote 252:  Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 239.]

An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the French authorities with the Acadians.  They were treated as mere tools of policy, to be used, broken, and flung away.  Yet, in using them, the sole condition of their efficiency was neglected.  The French Government, cheated of enormous sums by its own ravenous agents, grudged the cost of sending a single regiment to the Acadian border.  Thus unsupported, the Acadians remained in fear and vacillation, aiding the French but feebly, though a ceaseless annoyance and menace to the English.