chartrain himself wrote to the
former on the subject. The priest declares that he read the letter to
his flock, who answered that they wished to stay in Acadia; and he adds
that the other Acadians were of the same mind, being unwilling to leave
their rich farms and risk starvation on a wild and barren island.[193]
"Nevertheless," he concludes, "we shall fulfil the intentions of his
Majesty by often holding before their eyes that religion for which they
ought to make every sacrifice." He and his brother priests kept their
word. Freedom of worship was pledged on certain conditions to the
Acadians by the Treaty of Utrecht, and no attempt was ever made to
deprive them of it; yet the continual declaration of their missionaries
that their souls were in danger under English rule was the strongest
spur to impel them to migrate.

The condition of the English in Acadia since it fell into their hands
had been a critical one. Port Royal, thenceforth called Annapolis Royal,
or simply Annapolis, had been left, as before mentioned, in charge of
Colonel Vetch, with a heterogeneous garrison of four hundred and fifty
men.[194] The Acadians of the _banlieue_--a term defined as covering a
space of three miles round the fort--had been included in the
capitulation, and had taken an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne, binding
so long as they remained in the province. Some of them worked, for the
garrison and helped to repair the fort, which was in a ruinous
condition. Meanwhile the Micmac Indians remained fiercely hostile to the
English; and in June, 1711, aided by a band of Penobscots, they
ambuscaded and killed or captured nearly seventy of them. This
completely changed the attitude of the Acadians. They broke their oath,
rose against their new masters, and with their Indian friends, invested
the fort to the number of five or six hundred. Disease, desertion, and
the ambuscade had reduced the garrison to about two hundred effective
men, and the defences of the place were still in bad condition.[195] The
assailants, on the other hand, had no better leader than the priest,
Gaulin, missionary of the Micmacs and prime mover in the rising. He
presently sailed for Placentia to beg for munitions and a commander; but
his errand failed, the siege came to nought, and the besiegers
dispersed. Vaudreuil, from whom the Acadians had begged help, was about
to send it when news of the approach of Walker's fleet forced him to
keep all his strength for his own