374 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1690-97. 



With New York, a colony separate in govern- 

 ment and widely sundered in local position, the 

 case was different. Its rulers had instigated the 

 Iroquois to attack Canada, possibly before the dec- 

 laration of war, and certainly after it ; and they 

 had no right to complain of reprisal. Yet the 

 frontier of New York was less frequently assailed, 

 because it was less exposed ; while that of New 

 England was drenched in blood, because it was 

 open to attack, because the Abenakis were conven- 

 ient instruments for attacking it, because the 

 adhesion of these tribes was necessary to the main- 

 tenance of French power in Acadia, and because 

 this adhesion could best be secured by inciting 

 them to constant hostility against the English. 

 They were not only needed as the barrier of Can- 

 ada against New England, but the French com- 

 manders hoped, by means of their tomahawks, to 

 drive the English beyond the Piscataqua, and se- 

 cure the whole of Maine to the French crown. 



Who were answerable for these offences against 

 Christianity and civilization ? First, the king ; 

 and, next, the governors and military officers who 

 were charged with executing his orders, and who 

 often executed them with needless barbarity. But 

 a far different responsibility rests on the mission- 

 ary priests, who hounded their converts on the 

 track of innocent blood. The Acadian priests are 

 not all open to this charge. Some of them are 

 even accused of being too favorable to the English ; 

 while others gave themselves to their proper work, 

 and neither abused their influence, nor perverted 



