y dissuaded, and withheld by the influence
of our French priests, cantoned, amongst them [The letter-writer might
have here added the infamous arts and falsities by which these
emissaries of the French imposed on those bigotted deluded people, and
to that end made religion a vile tool of state. They represented to
these Acadians, that it was an inexpiable crime against their faith, to
hold any commerce with heretics, and much more so to enter into their
interests;--that there would be no pardon for them, either in the other
world, or even in this, when the French should regain, as they certainly
would, possession of a country ceded so much against the grain. In
short, they succeeded but too well in keeping up the spirit of rebellion
amongst those infatuated devotees of theirs, who remained sullen and
refractory to all the advances the English made to gain them.], who kept
them steady to our party. You may be sure our government did not fail of
constantly inculcating the expediency of this conduct to our priests;
who not only very punctually and successfully conformed to their
instructions on this head, but very often in the heat of their zeal so
much exceeded them, as to draw on themselves the animadversion of the
English government. This answered a double end, of hindering that nation
from finding those advantages in this country, by the prospect of which
it had been tempted to settle in it, and of engaging it to consider
Acadia itself, as something not material enough to think worth its
keeping, at the expence which it must occasion, and consequently induce
the English to be the readier to part with it again, on any future
treaty of peace. This too is certain, that the French themselves knew
neither the extent, nor the value of this country, till they were
sensible of the improvements the English were projecting; and the use
now so easy to discover might be made of so fine an establishment. But
to return to the Acadians: It must be confest the English had, with
respect to them, a difficult game to play. To force such a number of
families, of which too such great use might have been made, to evacuate
the country, seems at first both impolitic and inhuman. But then it must
be considered, that these people were absolutely untractable as to the
English, and thoroughly under the direction of priests in an interest
quite opposite to theirs. To have taken those priests entirely from
them, would have exasperated them yet more,