ould
remove either to Isle Royale or to Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward's
Island. Hence no means were spared to prevent them from becoming British
subjects, if only in name; even the Micmacs were enlisted in the good
work, and induced to threaten them with their enmity if they should fail
in allegiance to King Louis. Philipps feared that the Acadians would
rise in arms if he insisted on the harsh requirements of his
proclamation; in which case his position would have been difficult, as
they now outnumbered his garrison about five to one. Therefore he
extended indefinitely the term of four months, that he had fixed for
their final choice, and continued to urge and persuade, without gaining
a step towards the desired result. In vain he begged for aid from the
British authorities. They would do nothing for him, but merely observed
that while the French officers and priests had such influence over the
Acadians, they would never be good subjects, and so had better be put
out of the country.[224] This was easier said than done; for at this
very time there were signs that the Acadians and the Micmacs would unite
to put out the English garrison.[225]

Philipps was succeeded by a deputy-governor, Lieutenant-Colonel
Armstrong,--a person of ardent impulses and unstable disposition. He
applied himself with great zeal and apparent confidence to accomplishing
the task in which his principal had failed. In fact, he succeeded in
1726 in persuading the inhabitants about Annapolis to take the oath,
with a proviso that they should not be called upon for military service;
but the main body of the Acadians stiffly refused. In the next year he
sent Ensign Wroth to Mines, Chignecto, and neighboring settlements to
renew the attempt on occasion of the accession of George II. The envoy's
instructions left much to his discretion or his indiscretion, and he
came back with the signatures, or crosses, of the inhabitants attached
to an oath so clogged with conditions that it left them free to return
to their French allegiance whenever they chose.

Philipps now came back to Acadia to resume his difficult task. And here
a surprise meets us. He reported a complete success. The Acadians, as he
declared, swore allegiance without reserve to King George; but he does
not tell us how they were brought to do so. Compulsion was out of the
question. They could have cut to pieces any part of the paltry English
garrison that might venture outside the ditches of