present. Cornwallis replied that he was anxious to leave
matters in abeyance until he ascertained what could be
done in the way of fortifying Chignecto. 'If a fort is
once built there,' he explained, 'they [the Indians] will
be driven out of the peninsula or submit. He also wished
to know what reinforcements he might expect in the spring.
Until then he would 'defer making the inhabitants take
the oath of allegiance.'

Meanwhile the Acadians were not idle on their own behalf.
In October 1749 they addressed a memorial to Des Herbiers,
the governor of Ile Royale, to be transmitted to the
French king. They complained that the new governor intended
to suppress their missionaries, [Footnote: Cornwallis
had denied the jurisdiction of the bishop of Quebec, but
had intimated that he would grant a licence to any good
priest, his objection being to missionaries such as Le
Loutre, who stirred up the Indians to commit hostilities.]
and to force them to bear arms against the Indians, with
whom they had always been on friendly terms. They therefore
prayed the king to obtain concessions from Great Britain--
the maintenance of the Quebec missionaries, the exemption
from bearing arms, or an extension of a year in which
they might withdraw with their effects. [Footnote:
Canadian Archives Report, 1905, Appendix N, vol. ii, p.
298.] Two months later they sent a petition to the Marquis
de la Jonquiere, the governor of Canada, actuated, they
said, by the love of their country and their religion.
They had refused to take the oath requiring them to bear
arms against their fellow-countrymen. They had, it is