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NOVA SCOTIA DOCUMENTS. |
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port and Subsistence of several hundred of the inhabitants will depend.
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This weighty reason, together with the Consideration of the great Service rendered these Settlements thro’ the Acadians, by the late Governor last year, urge me to repeat my Applications that you may please to give such orders on this Occasion; that the Government may not incur an Expence in supporting the indigent inhabitants, and that no delay may be made in the progress of those Settlements which are so much the Object of the public regard, and the attention of His Majesty's Ministry; and I shall expect the less difficulty on this occasion, as the Secretary for Military Affairs assur'd me some time since, from you, that the Acadians should be ready to receive my orders at half an hour's warning.
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I have the honour, &c.,
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JONATHAN BELCHER.
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To Colonel Forster,
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Commanding His Majesty’s Troops in Nova Scotia.
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Extract of Letter from Lords of Trade to Govr. Belcher.
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WIIITEHALL, June 23d; 1761.
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The number of Acadians which you state to have been collected together in different parts of the Province, and their hostile disposition, appears to Us to be a very untoward circumstance in the prescnt state of the Province, but as it does hot properly belong to our department to give directions upon a matter of this nature, We must refer you to His Majesty's Secretary of State, to whom We have transmitted Copies of such of your letters, and the papers received with them, as relate to this subject.
Abenaki Indians, on the River St. John, about the year 1745, from which place he was in the habit of visiting Beaubassin, to co-operate with Le Loutre in his operations against the British. For several years he was the authorized agent of the Quebec Government, and transmitted to the Governors of Canada intelligence of all movements in Acadia. Dispatches from Quebec were frequently addressed to him, and military officers were ordered to communicate with him. He assisted De Ramezay in his plans for the attack on the garrison of Minas in 1747, and the same year he proposed to the Governor of Canada a plan for an attack on the fort of Annapolis Royal, then, as he represented it, in a ruinous condition. In 1757 he removed to Miramichi,whence he frequently visited Quebec to obtain supplies for his Indians and refugee Acadians. After the fall of Quebec. he appears to have yielded to the force of circumstances, and espoused the cause of the conquerors. In September, 1761, a
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