cts, coolly
setting at nought both the Treaty of Utrecht and the letter of the
Queen.[203]

Nicholson was but a short time at Annapolis, leaving the government,
during most of his term, to his deputies, Caulfield and afterwards
Doucette, both of whom roundly denounce their principal for his general
conduct; while both, in one degree or another, followed his example in
preventing so far as they could the emigration of the Acadians. Some of
them, however, got away, and twelve or fifteen families who settled at
Port Toulouse, on Isle Royale, were near perishing from cold and
hunger.[204]

From Annapolis the French agents, La Ronde Denys and Pensens, proceeded
to the settlements about Chignecto and the Basin of Mines,--the most
populous and prosperous parts of Acadia. Here they were less successful
than before. The people were doubtful and vacillating,--ready enough to
promise, but slow to perform. While declaring with perfect sincerity
their devotion to "our invincible monarch," as they called King Louis,
who had just been compelled to surrender their country, they clung
tenaciously to the abodes of their fathers. If they had wished to
emigrate, the English governor had no power to stop them. From Baye
Verte, on the isthmus, they had frequent and easy communication with
the French at Louisbourg, which the English did not and could not
interrupt. They were armed, and they far outnumbered the English
garrison; while at a word they could bring to their aid the Micmac
warriors, who had been taught to detest the English heretics as foes of
God and man. To say that they wished to leave Acadia, but were prevented
from doing so by a petty garrison at the other end of the province, so
feeble that it could hardly hold Annapolis itself, is an unjust reproach
upon a people who, though ignorant and weak of purpose, were not wanting
in physical courage. The truth is that from this time to their forced
expatriation in 1755, all the Acadians, except those of Annapolis and
its immediate neighborhood, were free to go or stay at will. Those of
the eastern parts of the province especially, who formed the greater
part of the population, were completely their own masters. This was well
known to the French authorities. The governor of Louisbourg complains of
the apathy of the Acadians.[205] Saint-Ovide declares that they do not
want to fulfil the intentions of the King and remove to Isle Royale.
Costebelle makes the same complaint; and again,