M. de la Tour listened to these details with extreme indignation, and felt an increased anxiety to depart without delay.  The preparations were, therefore, soon concluded, and they waited only for a favorable wind, to convey them from the fort of St. John’s.

CHAPTER X.

My fear hath catch’d your fondness—­

* * * * *

                     Speak, is’t so? 

If it be so, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, foreswear’t:  howe’er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

SHAKSPEARE.

Arthur Stanhope’s protracted stay at St. John’s, occasioned much discontent and repining among the crew of his vessel.  Many of them became weary of their inactive life, and impatient to be restored to the friends and occupations they had left; while the laxity of the French soldiers,—­the open celebration of popish ceremonies,—­the very appearance of the priest,—­excited the indignation of the more rigid and reflecting.  The daily exhortations of Mad. de la Tour’s chaplain were not calculated to allay these irritated feelings.  One of the most austere of the Scotch dissenters, Mr. Broadhead, had been induced, by religious zeal, to follow the fortunes of his patron, Sir William Alexander, who, in 1621, received a grant of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, and established the first permanent settlement in that country.  It had, till then, been alternately claimed and neglected, both by French and English; and he was, a few years after, induced to relinquish his grant to La Tour, whose title was confirmed by a patent from the king of England.

La Tour, in forming this settlement, was influenced principally by motives of interest; his colony was composed of adventurers from different nations, and it seemed a matter of indifference to him, to what master he owed allegiance.  By the well-known treaty of St. Germain’s, Acadia was ceded to the crown of France, on which it alone depended, till finally conquered by the English, when, at a much later period, its improvement and importance rendered it more worthy of serious contest.  The policy of the French government, while it remained under their jurisdiction, induced them to attempt the conversion of the native tribes, as a means of advancing their own interest, and retarding the influence of the English colonies.  For this purpose, they sent out Catholic missionaries, at an early period, to the different settlements; and Jesuits were particularly employed, as the address and subtlety which always distinguished that order of priests peculiarly fitted them for the difficult task of christianizing the idolatrous savages.  Their power was slowly progressive; but, in time, they acquired an ascendancy, which was extended to the minutest of the secular, as well as spiritual concerns of the province.