ference and decided on
rather a startling programme for a time of peace. Gen. Braddock was to
march on Fort Duquesne and drive the French from the Ohio valley;
Shirley, of Massachusetts, was to lead an expedition against Niagara;
William Johnson, was to take Crown Point and secure control of Lake
Champlain; while, in Acadia, Colonel Monckton was to attack the French
position at Fort Beausejour. In every instance the English were the
aggressors but they justified their action on the ground that the
places to be attacked were on British territory. This the French as
emphatically denied. Braddock's attempt resulted in a most disastrous
failure, Shirley's expedition was abandoned, William Johnson won a
brilliant victory at Lake George and Colonel Monckton captured
Beausejour.

The course of events on the River St. John and in other parts of
Acadia harmonizes with the general situation of affairs in America at
this time.

As the period under consideration is one of which comparatively little
has been written, it may be well to make use of the information
contained in the voluminous correspondence of the French ministers and
their subordinates in America.

Early in the summer of 1749 the Count de la Galissonniere sent the
Sieur de Boishebert to the lower part of the River St. John with a
small detachment to secure the French inhabitants against the threats
of Capt. Gorham, who had been sent by the Governor of Nova Scotia to
make the inhabitants renew the oath of allegiance to the English
sovereign, which de la Galissonniere says "they ought never to have
taken." The Count expresses his views on the situation with terseness
and vigor: "The River St. John is not the only place the English wish
to invade. They claim the entire coast, from that river to Beaubassin,
and from Canso to Gaspe, in order to render themselves sovereigns of
all the territory of the Abenakis, Catholics and subjects of the king,
a nation that has never acknowledged nor wishes to acknowledge their
domination and which is the most faithful to us in Canada. If we
abandon to England this land, which comprises more than 180 leagues of
seacoast, that is to say almost as much as from Bayonne to Dunkirk, we
must renounce all communication by land from Canada with Acadia and
Isle Royal, together with the means of succoring the one and retaking
the other." The Count further argues that to renounce the territory
in dispute will deprive the Acadians of all hope of