under Argall, the red man had
seen with surprise a mere handful of white men disputing for a territory
to which neither could offer a claim; so vast as to make either occupation
or control by the adventurers ridiculous; and therefore, with good-natured
zeal, he had hastened to put an end to the quarrel, as though the white
people had only been fractious but not irreconcilable kinsmen. But as the
power of New England advanced more and more in Acadia, the first generous
desire of the red man had merged into suspicion, and finally hatred of the
peaked hat and ruff of Plymouth. In all his dealings with the Acadians,
the Indian had found only unimpeachable faith and honor; but with the
colonist of Massachusetts, there had been nothing but over-reaching and
treachery: intercourse with the first had not led to a scratch, or a
single drop of blood; while on the other hand a bounty of "one hundred
pounds was offered for each male of their tribe if over twelve years of
age, if scalped; one hundred and five pounds if taken prisoner; fifty
pounds for each _woman and child scalped_, and fifty pounds when brought
in alive."

The Abenaqui tribes therefore, first, to avenge the injuries of their
unresisting friends, the Acadians, and after to avenge their own, waged
war upon the invaders with all the severities of an aggrieved and
barbarous people. And, as I have said before, the severest cruelty
inflicted upon the Acadian colonist, was to oblige him to betray his best
friend and protector, the painted heathen, with whom he struck hands and
plighted faith. To the honor of these colonists, be it said, that although
they saw their long years' labor of dykes broken down, the sea sweeping
over their farms, the fire rolling about their homesteads, their cattle
and sheep destroyed, their effects plundered, and wanton and nameless
outrages committed by the English and Yankee soldiery, yet in no instance
did they purchase indemnity from these, by betraying a single Indian.

CHAPTER XVII.

A few more Threads of History--Acadia again lost--The Oath of
Allegiance--Settlement of Halifax--The brave Three Hundred--Massacre at
Norridgewoack--Le Pere Ralle.

During the invasion of Col. Church, the inhabitants of Grand-Pre were
exposed to such treatment as may be conceived of. The smoke from the
borders of the five rivers, overlooked by Blomidon, rose in the stilly
air, and again the sea rolled past the broken dykes, which for nearly a
cen