466 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS - 



lish fishermen, and other English subjects who had borne the 

 brunt of conflict with the ambitious and aggressive French- 

 men of North America. 



The New England colonists south of Acadia, who, by this- 

 time, were becoming sensible of their increasing vigor and 

 strength, and who, moreover, were acquiring a degree of self- 

 confidence inspired by their triumphs over the many difficulties, 

 attending their early settlements, looked upon the growth of 

 French power in the New World with bitter jealousy, inten- 

 sified as well by local conflict of interest. Not only as British 

 subjects with the usual antipathy against Frenchmen, but in 

 defence of their own colonial interests and welfare, they 

 opposed, whenever opportunity offered, the development of 

 French power and influence in Acadia or elsewhere in North 

 America. 



After the breaking out of hostilities between France and 

 England, on the accession of William and Mary to the throne, 

 Sir William Phips of Massachusetts, with a band of hardy 

 fishermen, made a successful attack on Port Royal (1690), 

 and took formal possession of all Acadia in the name of 

 King William. Phips' victory resulted in the alleged an- 

 nexation of that great province to Massachusetts. Similar 

 attempts were made upon Newfoundland, and among them 

 a desperate effort to dislodge the French from Placentia; 

 but in retaliation St. Johns was successfully besieged by a 

 French fleet. The peace of Ryswick (1697) closed hostilities, 

 leaving the French in the New World in full possession of 

 their previous claims, and Acadia was specifically restored to 

 them. Their right to Placentia and to a considerable extent 

 of the Newfoundland shores was confirmed. The indigna- 

 tion of the English colonists in America, aroused by this 

 surrender of Acadia, was very great. It readily occurred to 

 these people that the mother country attached but little- 

 value to her American possessions, or else had consented to 

 sacrifice her interests here as mere pawns on the chessboard 

 of European politics. 



The new governor of Acadia, Villabon, announced, soon 

 after the treaty of 1697, that he had received orders from his 



