the French, at the mouth of the River St. John, on ground claimed by both nations.  Captain Rous, a New England officer commanding a frigate in the Royal Navy, opened fire on the “St. Francois,” took her after a short cannonade, and carried her into Halifax, where she was condemned by the court.  Several captures of small craft, accused of illegal acts, were also made by the English.  These proceedings, being all of an overt nature, gave the officers of Louis XV. precisely what they wanted,—­an occasion for uttering loud complaints, and denouncing the English as breakers of the peace.

But the movement most alarming to the French was the English occupation of Beaubassin,—­an act perfectly lawful in itself, since, without reasonable doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, and therefore on English ground.[109] Beaubassin was a considerable settlement on the isthmus that joins the Acadian peninsula to the mainland.  Northwest of the settlement lay a wide marsh, through which ran a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles beyond which rose a hill called Beausejour.  On and near this hill were stationed the troops and Canadians sent under Boishebert and La Corne to watch the English frontier.  This French force excited disaffection among the Acadians through all the neighboring districts, and constantly helped them to emigrate.  Cornwallis therefore resolved to send an English force to the spot; and accordingly, towards the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrence landed at Beaubassin with four hundred men.  News of their approach had come before them, and Le Loutre was here with his Micmacs, mixed with some Acadians whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him.  Resolved that the people of Beaubassin should not live under English influence, he now with his own hand set fire to the parish church, while his white and red adherents burned the houses of the inhabitants, and thus compelled them to cross to the French side of the river.[110] This was the first forcible removal of the Acadians.  It was as premature as it was violent; since Lawrence, being threatened by La Corne, whose force was several times greater than his own, presently reimbarked.  In the following September he returned with seventeen small vessels and about seven hundred men, and again attempted to land on the strand of Beaubassin.  La Jonquiere says that he could only be resisted indirectly, because he was on the English side of the river.  This indirect resistance was undertaken by Le Loutre, who had thrown up a breastwork along the shore and manned it with his Indians and his painted and be-feathered Acadians.  Nevertheless the English landed, and, with some loss, drove out the defenders.  Le Loutre himself seems not to have been among them; but they kept up for a time a helter-skelter fight, encouraged by two other missionaries, Germain and Lalerne, who were near being caught by the English.[111] Lawrence quickly routed them, took possession of the cemetery, and prepared