340 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90. 



the Indian manner, and they rarely or never prac- 

 tised cannibalism. 



Some of the French were as lawless as their In- 

 dian friends. Nothing is more strange than the 

 incongruous mixture of the forms of feudalism with 

 the independence of the Acadian woods. Vast 

 grants of land were made to various persons, some 

 of whom are charged with using them for no other 

 purpose than roaming over their domains with In- 

 dian women. The only settled agricultural popu- 

 lation was at Port Eoyal, Beaubassin, and the 

 Basin of Minas. The rest were fishermen, fur 

 traders, or rovers of the forest. Eepeated orders 

 came from the court to open a communication with 

 Quebec, and even to establish a line of military 

 posts through the intervening wilderness, but the 

 distance and the natural difficulties of the country 

 proved insurmountable obstacles. If communica- 

 tion with Quebec was difficult, that with Boston 

 was easy ; and thus Acadia became largely depen- 

 dent on its New England neighbors, who, says an 

 Acadian officer, " are mostly fugitives from Eng- 

 land, guilty of the death of their late king, and 

 accused of conspiracy against their present sover- 

 eign ; others of them are pirates, and they are all 

 united in a sort of independent republic." 1 Their 

 relations with the Acadians were of a mixed sort. 

 They continually encroached on Acadian fishing 

 grounds, and we hear at one time of a hundred of 

 their vessels thus engaged. This was not all. The 

 interlopers often landed and traded with the Indians 



1 Me'moire du Sieur Bergicr, 1685. 



