shed to live in peace. Naturally they were loyal to their
mother country and devout members of their mother church. But
France--sunny France--with all her marvellous resources and splendid
opportunities, proved an unworthy mother. And what has been the
result? A colonial empire shrunken almost to insignificance. And even
if her colonial empire were today what it was in the days of Louis
XIV, the colonies would be as empty cradles for which there are no
children. The progress and development of the Acadians of the maritime
provinces and of the French Canadians of the Dominion tell what France
might have been if her people had been true to high ideals.

The colony of New France was never supported as it should have been.
While New England was making rapid progress and the tide of
immigration set strongly in that direction, Canada was left to take
care of itself. After the days of Frontenac the governors of Quebec
were haunted by the fear of encroachments on their territory on the
part of the people to the south. It became their policy to employ the
Indians and Acadians as buttresses against the inflowing tide of the
Anglo-Saxons. The Acadians would fain have lived in peace but, alas
the trend of events left little room for neutrality.

The Maliseets of the St. John were naturally disposed to resent the
intrusion of the whites on their hunting grounds, and the French
encouraged this sentiment as regards any advance made by the English.
In the year 1735, Francis Germaine, "chief of Ockpaque," with one of
his captains came to Annapolis Royal to complain of the conduct of
some English surveyors, whom they seem to have regarded as trespassers
on their lands. For some reason they missed seeing the governor, but
he wrote them a very friendly letter, assuring them of his favor and
protection. This, however, did not satisfy the Indians, for a few
months afterwards they interfered with the loading of a vessel that
had been sent to St. John for limestone by the ordnance storekeeper
at Annapolis and robbed the sailors of their clothes and provisions,
claiming that the lands and quarries belonged to them. Not long
afterwards the Governor of Nova Scotia addressed a letter to "The
Reverend Father Danilou, priest of St. John's River," complaining that
a party of Maliseets under Thoma, their chief, had surprised, Stephen
Jones, an English trader, as he lay sleeping aboard his vessel at
Piziquid [Windsor, N. S.] and robbed him of goods to