I cannot help consenting to what these
savages do, because we have our hands tied [_by the peace_],
and so can do nothing ourselves. Besides, I do not think that any
inconvenience will come of letting the Acadians mingle among them,
because if they [_the Acadians_] are captured, we shall say that they
acted of their own accord."[88] In other words, he will encourage them
to break the peace; and then, by means of a falsehood, have them
punished as felons. Many disguised Acadians did in fact join the Indian
war-parties; and their doing so was no secret to the English. "What we
call here an Indian war," wrote Hopson, successor of Cornwallis, "is no
other than a pretence for the French to commit hostilities on His
Majesty's subjects."
[Footnote 84: _Memoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Comte de
Raymond, 24 Avril, 1751_.]
[Footnote 85: _Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15
Aout, 1749_.]
[Footnote 86: _Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752_.]
[Footnote 87: _Bigot au Ministre, 1749_.]
[Footnote 88: _Depeches de la Jonquiere, 1 Mai, 1751_. See Appendix B.]
At length the Indians made peace, or pretended to do so. The chief of Le
Loutre's mission, who called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came to
Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they all affixed their
totems to a solemn treaty. In the next summer they returned with ninety
or a hundred warriors, were well entertained, presented with gifts, and
sent homeward in a schooner.
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