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NOVA SCOTIA DOCUMENTS. |
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This new oath we can only accept under these conditions and on these terms.
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Je promets et jure sincèrement que jc serai fidèle à Sa Majesté le Roi George Second, et à ses successeurs. Dieu me soit en aide.
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I sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George the Second and to his successors. So help me God.
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This is the oath we can sign.
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Your Excellency is requested to consider that being situated as we were and now returning to our property, it is impossible for us to sign any other on account of the savage nations, as we have stated on several occasions to his Excellency Cornwallis. If he had travelled through our country, he would have seen for himself that it was impossible for us to sign any other than that which we have signed.
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Now, in the oath which we bind ourselves to sign, we ask your Excellency to be pleased to grant us the following articles which were granted to us by Mr. Philipps.
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1st. That we shall be exempt from taking up arms against anyone whatever, whether English, French, Savages, or people of any other nation; and that neither we nor any of our descendants shall be taken to pilot or go where we would not wish to go.
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2d. That we shall be free, we and our descendants, to withdraw whenever we shall think proper, with high head (la tête levée) and to carry away our property or to sell what we cannot carry away; and that we shall be beyond the control of the king of Great Britain.
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3rd. That we shall have the full and entire enjoyment of our religion, and as many priests catholic, apostolic, and roman as shall be thought necessary, without any oath of allegiance being required of them.
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4th. That we shall have the entire enjoyment of our property without being disturbed by anyone in the world; and that the lands occupied by the English shall be restored to those to whom they formerly belonged.
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We hope that these articles will be granted to us by your Excellency, and even ratified by the court of England, so that those who may succeed your Excellency shall not make the pretext that His Excellency Cornwallis made in saying that Mr. Philipps had no authority from the court of England for the oath which he granted us.
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