the priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than break his oath to the English, writes:  “Many of them cannot protect themselves day or night from the severity of the cold.  Most of the children are entirely naked; and when I go into a house they are all crouched in the ashes, close to the fire.  They run off and hide themselves, without shoes, stockings, or shirts.  They are not all reduced to this extremity but nearly all are in want."[103] Mortality among them was great, and would have been greater but for rations supplied by the French Government.

[Footnote 99:  Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.]

[Footnote 100:  Bonaventure a Desherbiers, 26 Juin, 1751.]

[Footnote 101:  Prevost au Ministre, 25 Nov. 1750.]

[Footnote 102:  Bonaventure, ut supra.]

[Footnote 103:  Girard a (Bonaventure?), 27 Oct. 1753.]

During these proceedings, the English Governor, Cornwallis, seems to have justified the character of good temper given him by Horace Walpole.  His attitude towards the Acadians remained on the whole patient and conciliatory.  “My friends,” he replied to a deputation of them asking a general permission to leave the province, “I am not ignorant of the fact that every means has been used to alienate the hearts of the French subjects of His Britannic Majesty.  Great advantages have been promised you elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that your religion was in danger.  Threats even have been resorted to in order to induce you to remove to French territory.  The savages are made use of to molest you; they are to cut the throats of all who remain in their native country, attached to their own interests and faithful to the Government.  You know that certain officers and missionaries, who came from Canada last autumn, have been the cause of all our trouble during the winter.  Their conduct has been horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience.  Their aim is to embroil you with the Government.  I will not believe that they are authorized to do so by the Court of France, that being contrary to good faith and the friendship established between the two Crowns.”

What foundation there was for this amiable confidence in the Court of Versailles has been seen already.  “When you declared your desire to submit yourselves to another Government,” pursues Cornwallis, “our determination was to hinder nobody from following what he imagined to be his interest.  We know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that a subject compelled to be so against his will is not far from being an enemy.  We confess, however, that your determination to go gives us pain.  We are aware of your industry and temperance, and that you are not addicted to any vice or debauchery.  This province is your country.  You and your fathers have cultivated it; naturally you ought yourselves to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Such was the design of the King, our master.  You know that we have followed his