ment: for certain it is, that a few presents
well placed, proper methods of conciliation, and a very little time,
would have entirely detached the savages from our interest, and have
turned the system of annoyance of the English against the French
themselves. Some English governors indeed grew sensible of this, and
applied themselves to retrieve matters by a gentler treatment, but the
mischief was already done and irretrieveable; and our missionaries took
care to widen the breach, and to keep up their spirit of hatred and
revenge, by instilling into them the notions of jealousy, that such
overtures of friendship, on the part of the English, were no better than
so many snares laid to make them perish, by a false security, since they
could not hope to do it by open violence. One instance may serve to show
you the temper of these people: Some years ago the English officers
being assembled at the _Mines_, in order to take a solemn recognition
from them of the king of Great Britain, when a savage, a new convert,
called _Simon_, in spite of all dissuasion, went himself alone to the
English commander, and told him, that all his endeavours to get the king
of England acknowledged, would be to no purpose; that, for his part, he
should never pay any allegiance but to the king of France, and drawing a
knife, said, "This indeed is all the arms I have, and with this weapon
alone, I will stand by the king of France till death."

Yet, with all this obstinacy of sentiments, once more I dare aver, the
savages would have been easily won over and attached to the English
party, had these gone the right way about it: and I well know that the
French, who knew best the nature of the savages, much dreaded it; and
were not a little pleased to see the English take measures so contrary
to their own interest, and play the game so effectually into our hands.
In short, we took, as was natural, all the advantage of their
indiscretion and over-sight.

I come now to the Acadians, or what may more properly be called the
French Acadians. These would undoubtedly have proved very valuable
subjects to the English, and extreamly useful to them in improving a
dominion so susceptible of all manner of improvement as _Acadia_,
(Nova-Scotia) if they could have been, prevailed on to break their
former ties of allegiance to the king of France, and to have remained
quietly under the new government to which they were now transferred. But
from this they were constantl