thought fit hereby to Signifie Our Will and Pleasure to
you that you permit and allow such of them as have any
lands or Tenements in the Places under your Government
in Acadie and Newfoundland, that have been or are to be
yielded to Us by Vertue of the late Treaty of Peace, and
are Willing to Continue our Subjects to retain and Enjoy
their said Lands and Tenements without any Lett or
Molestation as fully and freely as other our Subjects do
or may possess their Lands and Estates or to sell the
same if they shall rather Chuse to remove elsewhere--And
for so doing this shall be your Warrant, And so we bid
you fare well. Given at our Court at Kensington the 23rd
day of June 1713 in the Twelfth Year of our Reign.'--Public
Archives, Canada. Nova Scotia A, vol. iv, p. 97.] The
status of the Acadians under the treaty, reinforced by
this warrant, seems to be sufficiently clear. If they
wished to become British subjects, which of course implied
taking the oath of allegiance, they were to enjoy all
the privileges of citizenship, not accorded at that time
to Catholics in Great Britain, as well as the free exercise
of their religion. But if they preferred to remove to
another country within a year, they were to have that
liberty.

The French authorities were not slow to take advantage
of this part of the treaty. In order to hold her position
in the New World and assert her authority, France had
transferred the garrison which she had formerly maintained
at Placentia, Newfoundland, to Cape Breton. This island
she had renamed Ile Royale, and here she was shortly to