king settled within these boundaries. The French, on the
other hand, steadily asserted their ownership in all land
north of a line drawn from Baie Verte to Chignecto Bay.
The disputants, though openly at peace, glowered at each
other. Hardly had Cornwallis brought his colonists ashore
at Halifax, when La Galissoniere, the acting-governor of
Canada, sent Boishebert, with a detachment of twenty men,
to the river St John, to assert the French claim to that
district; and when La Galissoniere went to France as a
commissioner in the boundary dispute, his successor, La
Jonquiere, dispatched a force under the Chevalier de la
Corne to occupy the isthmus of Chignecto.

About the same time the Indians went on the war-path,
apparently at the instigation of the French. Des Herbiers,
the governor of Ile Royale, when dispatching the Abbe Le
Loutre to the savages with the usual presents, had added
blankets and a supply of powder and ball, clearly intended
to aid them should they be disposed to attack the English
settlements. Indians from the river St John joined the
Micmacs and opened hostilities by seizing an English
vessel at Canso and taking twenty prisoners. The prisoners
were liberated by Des Herbiers; but the Micmacs, their
blood up, assembled at Chignecto, near La Corne's post,
and declared war on the English. The Council at Halifax
promptly raised several companies for defence, and offered
a reward of 10 pounds for the capture of an Indian, dead
or alive. Cornwallis complained bitterly to Louisbourg
that Le Loutre was stirring up trouble; but Des Herbiers
disingenuously disclaimed all responsibility for the