Notwithstanding the many difficulties we thus laboured under, yet we dare appeal to the several Governors, both at Halifax and Annapolis Royal, for testimonies of our being always ready and willing to obey their orders, and give all the assistance in our power, either in furnishing provisions and materials, or making roads, building forts, etc., etc., agreeable to Your Majesty’s orders, and our oath of fidelity, whensoever called upon, or required thereunto.
It was also our constant care to give notice to Your Majesty’s commanders, of the danger they from time to time have been exposed to by the enemy’s troops, and had the intelligence we gave been always attended to, many lives might have been spared, particularly in the unhappy affair which befell Major Noble and his brother at Grand Pre, when they, with great numbers of their men were cut off by the enemy, notwithstanding the frequent advices we had given them of the danger they were in ; and yet we have been very unjustly accused as parties in that massacre.
And although we have been thus anxiously concerned to manifest our fidelity in these several respects, yet it has been falsely insinuated, that it had been our general practice to abet and support Your Majesty’s enemies ; but we trust that Your Majesty will not suffer suspicions and accusations to be received as proof sufficient to reduce thousands of innocent people, from the most happy situation to a state of the greatest distress and misery. No, this was far from our thoughts ; we steemed our situation so happy as by no means to desire a change.
We have always desired, and again desire that we may be permitted to answer our accusers in a judicial way. In the meantime permit us, sir, here solemnly to declare, that these accusations are utterly false and groundless, so far as they concern us as a collective body of peoole. It hath been always our desire to live as our fathers have done, as faithful subjects under Your Majesty’s royal protection, with an unfeigned resolution to maintain our oath of fidelity to the utmost of our power. Yet it cannot be expected but that amongst us, as well as amongst other people, there have been some weak and false-hearted persons, susceptible of being bribed by the enemy so as to break the oath of fidelity. Twelve of these were outlawed in Governor Shirley’s Proclamation before mentioned ; but it will be found that the number of such false-hearted men amongst us were very few, considering our situation, the number of our inhabitants, and how we stood circumstanced in several respects ; and it may easily be made to appear that it was the constant care of our Deputies to prevent and put a stop to such wicked conduct when it came to their knowledge.
We understand that the aid granted to the French by the inhabitants of Beaubassin has been used as an argument to accelerate our ruin ; but we trust that Your Majesty will not permit the innocent to be involved with the guilty ; no consequence can be justly drawn, that, because those people yielded to the threats and persuasions of the enemy we should do the same. They were situated
