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NOVA SCOTIA DOCUMENTS. |
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(Translated from the French.)
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ANNAPOLIS ROYAL
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March 4th 1720/21
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A committee of the council having been appointed to hear what the two persons from Minas had to say before being admitted to his Excellency, they were heard, and having nothing but the old and frivolous excuse of laying the blame on the Savages they did not obtain an audience of his Excellency. By the advice of the council the letter also which they brought was not received for the following reasons: Because the excuse which they would give to cover their wicked conduct in permitting the plundering of Mr. Alden's Sloop will never be received as a satisfaction for the insult offered to the government under which they live, because it is very well known that the Savages have never, or at least very rarely, committed any depredations upon the English except at the instigation of the French.
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Because these are not the persons requested on this occasion to attend upon his Excellency on the part of the inhabitants of Minas, and that when their deputies were requested to come and present to his excellency the reasons which caused them to allow the savages to rob Mr. Alden, instead of coming, they sent a frivolous letter by a poor man who left it in a strange manner with the deputies from this river, together with an insolent letter signed by one or two Savages, but dictated by the French.
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And especially because restitution has not been made for the losses which Mr. Alden has suffered, even to the last denier of the amount sworn to before his Excellency, and which is required to be delivered to his Excellency at the earliest opportunity as a preparatory step towards obtaining peace.
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In the last place they are expected to prepare an instrument in writing signed by the inhabitants of Mines, in which they shall acknowledge in the most unequivocal terms the enormity of their offences, with the most authentic assurances of a perfect obedience to this government for the future, so long as they shall remain in this province; and that the said instrument shall be delivered to his Excellency in Council by the deputies and Father Felix in the name of all the inhabitants of Mines.
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P.S. As it is said that some of the deputies have left this government, the inhabitants may choose suitable persons in their place.
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