George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

The affairs of Nova Scotia, of which Newcastle was ignorant, served at least his purposes of intrigue.¹ The French saw with extreme anxiety the settlement at Halifax. To counteract its influence, a large force under the command of the recklessly sanguinary partisan, La Corne, had through the winter held possession of the isthmus of the peninsula; and found shelter among the Acadians south of the Messagouche, in the town of Chiegnecto, or Beaubassin, now Fort Lawrence. The inhabitants of that village, although it lay beyond the limits which La Corne was instructed to defend, were compelled to take the oaths of allegiance to the French king;² and in the name of three chiefs of the Micmac Indians,³ orders had been sent to the Acadians of the remoter settlements, to renounce subjection to England, and take refuge with the French.

Cornwallis, who had received the first ñotice of the movement from La Jonquiere himself,⁴ desired immediately to recover the town. He sought aid from the Massachusetts;⁵ but only received for answer, that, by the constitution of that province, the assembly must first be convinced of the necessity of raising supplies;⁶ that to insure cooperation, compulsory measures