this country and the United States in dealing with the fisheries, and
instead of keeping a large fleet to patrol the coast and drive the
English from the fishing ground, he charged them a license fee of five
pistoles (about twenty-five dollars) for each vessel, thus giving them
a free hand in the business.

La Valliere's farm was probably on the island marked on the old maps,
"Isle La Valliere," and here he lived when not in other parts of the
colony on public business. He had a son called Beaubassin, who was
always ready to take a hand in any expedition that required courage and
promised danger. In 1703, this Beaubassin was the leader of a party of
French and Indians that attacked Casco and would have captured the
place but for the timely arrival of a British man-of-war.

On the 11th April, 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. This gave
all Nova Scotia, or Acadia, comprehended within its ancient boundaries,
as also the city of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, to the
Queen of Great Britain. The English claimed this to include all the
territory east of a line drawn from north of the Kennebec River to
Quebec, taking in all the south shore of the St. Lawrence, Gaspe, the
Island of St. John, and Cape Breton. The French contended that Acadia
only included the southern half of the present Province of Nova Scotia.
Views so divergent held by the contracting parties to an agreement,
could scarcely fail to produce irritation and ultimately result in war.

In 1740, the Abbe Le Loutre, Vicar-General of Acadia under the Bishop
of Quebec, and missionary to the Micmacs, came to Acadia to take charge
of his mission. It soon became apparent that the Rev. Father was more
anxious to advance the power and prestige of the King of France than he
was to minister to the spiritual elevation of the benighted Indians.