jesty’s predecessors, as the great part of our elders who were acquainted with these transactions are dead ; but more specially because our papers, which contained our contracts, records, etc., etc., were, by violence, taken from us some time before the unhappy catastrophe which has been the occasion of the calamities we are now under ; but we always understood the foundation thereof to be from an agreement made between Your Majesty’s Commanders in Nova Scotia and our forefathers about the year 1713, whereby they were permitted to remain in the possession of their lands, under an oath of fidelity to the British Government, with an exemption from bearing arms, and the allowance of the free exercise of our religion.
It is a matter of certainty, — and within the compass of some of our memories — that in the year 1730, General Phillips, the Governor of Nova Scotia, did, in Your Majesty’s name, confirm unto us, and all the inhabitants of the whole extent of the Bay of Minas and rivers thereunto belonging, the free and entire possession of those lands we were then possessed of ; which, by grants from the former French Government, we held to us and our heirs forever, on paying the customary quit-rents, etc., etc. And on condition that we should behave with due submission and fidelity to Your Majesty, agreeable to the oath which was then administered to us, which is as follows, viz. : « We sincerely promise and swear, by the faith of a Christian, that we shall be entirely faithful, and will truly submit ourselves to His Majesty King George, whom we acknowledge as sovereign Lord of New Scotland, or Acadia ; so God help us. »
And at the same time, the said General Philipps did, in like manner, promise the said French inhabitants, in Your Majesty’s name, that they should have the true exercise of their religion, and be exempted from bearing arms, and from being employed in war, either against the French or Indians. Under the sanction of this solemn engagement we held our lands, made further purchases, annually paying our quit-rents, etc., etc. ; and we had the greatest reason to conclude that Your Majesty did not disapprove of the above agreement, and that our conduct continued, during a long course of years, to be such as recommended us to your gracious protection, and to the regard of the Governor of New England, appears from a printed declaration, made seventeen years after this time, by His Excellency William Shirley, Governor of New England, which was published and dispersed in our country, some copies of which have escaped from the general destruction of most of our papers, part of which is as follows :
« By His Majesty’s command,
« A declaration of William Shirley, Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief, in and over His Majesty’s Province of Massachusetts’Bay, etc.
« To His Majesty’s subjects, the French inhabitants of his province of Nova Scotia : Whereas, upon being informed that a report had been propa-
