ON CAPE BEETON. 203 



Indians and Acadians who were always looking forward to the restoration of the country 

 to its former owners. It was with feelings of apprehension that the English colonists 

 saw a walled town slowly rising on the southeastern coast of Cape Breton. The accounts 

 that were brought lo them from time to time by New England vessels of the formidable 

 proportions of a fortress to which there was no parallel in America — not even in Quebec 

 from a purely engineering point of view — showed them that they had after all achicA'ed 

 but little when they had captured the relatively insignilieaut post of Port Royal. As 

 long as the|^French had control of Cape Breton and were able to maintain its fortress, 

 there was no dependence to be placed on the Acadian French, who, very reluctantly, after 

 the cession of Acadie, had been persuaded to take an oath of allegiance to the English 

 sovereign, and then there is no doubt with a reservation in some cases that they should 

 not be called upon to bear arms in the case of war against their old compatriots. The 

 Acadians, it was evident, would be restless as long as the French flag floated above the 

 citadel in the king's bastion of Louisbourg. From 1720 to 1745 the Abenakis of the east, 

 instigated by French emissaries, tomahawked the helpless English colonists that had 

 made their homes in the present state of Maine, in the vicinity of the Kennebec and the 

 Penobscot. From Annapolis to Canseau the Micmacs destroyed life and property, and 

 kept the English posts in constant fear. The French governor at Louisbourg endeavoured 

 to divert from himself the blame for the acts of his Indian allies ; but the evidence is 

 clear that the Micmacs believed that they were doing their French friends good service, 

 and assisting to restore to them their old rights in Acadie. New England took a signal 

 reA'euge at last on the cruel and treacherous Abenakis, and inflicted on them a blow from 

 which they never recovered. With them perished the dauntless and unselfish Rasle, 

 who for his fidelity to his religion and his country is a hero to the Frenchman, and for his 

 supposed hatred of the English and the protestantism of the colonists is the object of the 

 contumely of the English historian of those days of trial. A peace was then made between 

 the colonists and the Indians, but New England felt she had no efficient security for its 

 continuance while Acalian and Indian could look to the great fortress of the Cape Breton 

 coast as the representative of France on this continent, and as powerful evidence that she 

 was not yet willing to give up the contest for dominion in America. 



"We have now come to a period in the history of America and Europe when events 

 were shaping themselves for the humiliation of France and the triumph of England. 

 Despite the strong resistance of Walpole, the great peace minister, England had gone to 

 war with Spain in 1739 in response to the clamour of the commercial and middle classes 

 who were bent on breaking down entirely the trade monopoly, so long enjoyed by the 

 Spaniards in America. The treaty of Utrecht had given England a share in the infamous 

 slave trade, and was the first blow against the mercantile monopoly of Spain. It was 

 now determined to destroy her power on the Spanish Main and open her ports to the 

 commercial enterprise of Englishmen. France looked with dissatisfaction at this eflbrt of 

 England to extend her trade and influence in America. Even the great minister Fleury, 

 despite his desire to maintain peace, was forced by public opinion to prevent England 

 from appropriating to itself the entire commerce of the West Indies. " France," he said, 

 " though it has no treaty with Spain, cannot consent that the Spanish colonies should fall 

 into English hands." ' Statesmen looking at the state of Europe at this critical juncture 



' Bancroft, " Hist of the U. S.," ii. 3C0. 



