abbe. The Indians, he said, were merely allies, not French
subjects, and Le Loutre acted under the direction of the
governor of Canada. He promised also that if any Frenchman
molested the English, he should be punished, a promise
which, as subsequent events showed, he had no intention
of keeping.

In November 1749 a party of one hundred and fifty Indians
captured a company of engineers at Grand Pre, where the
English had just built a fort. Le Loutre, however, ransomed
the prisoners and sent them to Louisbourg. The Indians,
emboldened by their success, then issued a proclamation
in the name of the king of France and their Indian allies
calling upon the Acadians to arm, under pain of death
for disobedience. On learning that eleven Acadians obeyed
this summons, Cornwallis sent Captain Goreham of the
Rangers to arrest them. The rebels, however, made good
their escape, thanks to the Indians; and Goreham could
only make prisoners of some of their children, whom he
brought before the governor. The children declared that
their parents had not been free agents, and produced in
evidence one of the threatening orders of the Indians.
In any case, of course, the children were in no way
responsible, and were therefore sent home; and the governor
described Goreham as 'no officer at all.'

When spring came Cornwallis took steps to stop the
incursions of the savages and at the same time to check
the emigration of the Acadians. He sent detachments to
build and occupy fortified posts at Grand Pre, at Pisiquid,