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ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
lands because they could not leave them. The argument upon this 
head is not at all convincing. The earlier governors, Vetch, Caulfield, 
Philipps, Armstrong and Mascarene, repeatedly state that it was im- 
possible with the means at their command to prevent the Acadians leav- 
ing the country, if they were disposed to do so, and Governor Lawrence, 
so late as January, 1754, said that great efforts were being made by the 
French commanders to induce them to withdraw from the peninsula and 
he was unable to prevent some from going, though the greater part were 
too much attached to their lands to leave them. In view of the fact 
that so many of the Acadians who were transported to the Atlantic 
colonies in 1755 were able to traverse immense distances and to return 
to Nova Scotia, in spite of the tremendous obstacles in their way, 
it is impossible to believe that those who lived along the Annapolis 
valley and at Grand Pré, Piziquid and Chignecto could not have found 
means to leave the peninsula at almost any time prior to the expulsion 
if they had been really anxious to do so. 
Policy of the Marquis de la Jonquiere and Abbé le Loutre. 
The French governors at Quebec were very unwilling to give up 
the hope of repossessing Acadia. With this idea in mind they deter- 
mined to render the foothold of the English as insecure as they could. 
The Marquis de la Galissonniére and the Marquis de la Jonquiére 
adopted the policy of employing the savages to deter the English from 
making settlements. They found an able coadjutor in the Abbé le 
Loutre. Their policy was attended with such success that Governor 
Lawrence, upon being asked by the Lords of Trade why he did not 
proceed with the colonization of Nova Scotia, replied with some acerbity, 
“What can I do to encourage people to settle on frontier lands when 
they run the risk of having their throats cut by inveterate enemies, 
who easily effect their escape by their knowledge of every creek and 
corner?” À 
Indian atrocities at Dartmouth, Chignecto and other places 
kept the infant colony in constant alarm, and at times the hold of the 
English on the country seemed very precarious. The administrators 
of the government in Nova Scotia became more and more convinced 
that a policy of inaction would in the end prove fatal to their interest. 
Two things, it was agreed, were essential, namely, the introduction of 
English settlers in large numbers and compelling the Acadians either to 
swear unqualified allegiance to the British Crown, or, in the event of 
their refusal, to take measures for their removal from the country. 
It was felt that a supreme struggle with France was impending, 
on the issue of which depended the question of sovereignty upon the 
American continent. The general situation in Nova Scotia was by no 
