Annapolis, or they
might have left Acadia, with all their goods and chattels, with no
possibility of stopping them. The taking of the oath was therefore a
voluntary act.

But what was the oath? The words reported by Philipps were as follows:
"I promise and swear sincerely, on the faith of a Christian, that I will
be entirely faithful, and will truly obey his Majesty King George the
Second, whom I recognize as sovereign lord of Acadia or Nova Scotia. So
help me God." To this the Acadians affixed their crosses, or, in
exceptional cases, their names. Recently, however, evidence has appeared
that, so far at least as regards the Acadians on and near Mines Basin,
the effect of the oath was qualified by a promise on the part of
Philipps that they should not be required to take up arms against either
French or Indians,--they on their part promising never to take up arms
against the English. This statement is made by Gaudalie, cure of the
parish of Mines, and Noiville, priest at Pigiquid, or Pisiquid, now
Windsor.[226] In fact, the English never had the folly to call on the
Acadians to fight for them; and the greater part of this peace-loving
people were true to their promise not to take arms against the English,
though a considerable number of them did so, especially at the
beginning of the Seven Years' War. It was to this promise, whether kept
or broken, that they owed their name of Neutral French.

From first to last, the Acadians remained in a child-like dependence on
their spiritual and temporal guides. Not one of their number stands out
prominently from among the rest. They seem to have been totally devoid
of natural leaders, and, unhappily for themselves, left their fate in
the hands of others. Yet they were fully aware of their numerical
strength, and had repeatedly declared, in a manner that the English
officers called insolent, that they would neither leave the country nor
swear allegiance to King George. The truth probably is that those who
governed them had become convinced that this simple population, which
increased rapidly, and could always be kept French at heart, might be
made more useful to France in Acadia than out of it, and that it was
needless further to oppose the taking of an oath which would leave them
in quiet possession of their farms without making any change in their
feelings, and probably none in their actions. By force of natural
increase Acadia would in time become the seat of a large population