y and allegiance to King George II. and his
successors. Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of fidelity,
though with the omission of the word "allegiance," and, as they
insisted, with a saving clause exempting them from bearing arms. The
effect of this was that they did not regard themselves as British
subjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most of them, the character
of neutrals. It was to put an end to this anomalous state of things that
the oath without reserve had been demanded of them. Their rejection of
it, reiterated in full view of the consequences, is to be ascribed
partly to a fixed belief that the English would not execute their
threats, partly to ties of race and kin, but mainly to superstition.
They feared to take part with heretics against the King of France, whose
cause, as already stated, they had been taught to regard as one with the
cause of God; they were constrained by the dread of perdition. "If the
Acadians are miserable, remember that the priests are the cause of it,"
writes the French officer Boishebert to the missionary Manach.[275]

[Footnote 275: On the oath and his history, compare a long note by Mr.
Akin in _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 263-267. Winslow in his
Journal gives an abstract of a memorial sent him by the Acadians, in
which they say that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited their
lands, from motives of religion. I have shown in a former chapter that
the priests had been the chief instruments in preventing them from
accepting the English government. Add the following:--

"Les malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvrage que le
fruit des sollicitations et des demarches des missionnaires." _Vaudreuil
au Ministre, 6 Mai, 1760_.

"Si nous avons la guerre, et si les Accadiens sont miserables, souvenez
vous que ce sont les pretres qui en sont la cause." _Boishebert a
Manach, 21 Fev. 1760_. Both these writers had encouraged the priests in
their intrigues so long as there were likely to profit the French
Government, and only blamed them after they failed to accomplished what
was expected of them.

"Nous avons six missionnaires dont l'occupation perpetuelle est de
porter les esprits au fanatisme et a la vengeance.... Je ne puis
supporter dans nos pretres ces odieuses declamations qu'ils font tous
les jours aux sauvages: 'Les Anglois sont les ennemis de Dieu, les
compagnons du Diable.'" Pichon, _Lettres et Memoires pour servir a
l'Histoire du Cap-Breto