A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

;1745,1746.] THE ACADIANS. 173fires. France claimed them on one side, and Englandon the other, and each demanded their adhesion,without regard to their feeUngs or their welfare.The banditti of whom Mascarene speaks were theMicmac Indians, who were completely under thecontrol of their missionary, Le Loutre, and wereused by him to terrify the inhabitants into renouncingtheir English allegiance and actively supportingthe French cause. By the Treaty of Utrecht Francehad transferred Acadia to Great Britain, and theinhabitants had afterwards taken an oath of fidelityto King George. Thus they were British subjectsbut as their oath had been accompanied by a promise,or at least a clear understanding, that they shouldnot be required to take arms against Frenchmen orIndians, they had become known as the "NeutralFrench." This name tended to perplex them, andin their ignorance and simplicity they hardly knewto which side they owed allegiance.Their illiteracywas extreme. Few of them could sign their names,and a contemporary well acquainted with themdeclares that he knew but a single Acadian whocould read and write. ^This was probably the notary,Le Blanc, whose compositions are crude and illiterate.Ignorant of books and isolated in a wild andremote corner of the world, the Acadians knew nothingof affairs, and were totally incompetent to meetthe crisis that was soon to come upon them. Inactivity and enterprise they were far behind the^ Moise des Derniers, in Le Canada Frangais, i. 118.