224 'The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     These are the accounts that have been given me: but 
     
     to the above related facts, which must have come to 
     
     your knowledge, I shall add a piece of intelligence which 
     
     I have received lately ; namely, that the English traders 
     
     have talked strangely here to one another, in the hear- 
     
     ing of people who they imagined did not understand 
     
     them, and from whom I have received this information. 
     
     In the course of their conversation they explained them- 
     
     selves very clearly concerning their intention of con- 
     
     cluding a sham peace with your nation. They said that 
     
     under this specious pretext, they should find means to 
     
     assemble as many as they could from among your dif- 
     
     ferent tribes, and then to massacre you all. 
     
    

    
     It is not my intention, in reminding you of so many 
     
     acts of cruelty, to excite you to a barbarous and bloody 
     
     war. A true christian is incapable of any such design. 
     
    

    
     Besides, you are at liberty to conclude war or peace. 
     
     The king lays you under no restraint upon this head; 
     
     but you cannot enter into a peace under the present 
     
     circumstances, without consulting that protector, who 
     
     has never failed to grant you what succours you had 
     
     occasion for, and who has given you so many marks of 
     
     his affection. Besides, the repeated oaths you made in 
     
     my presence some time ago, that you would conclude 
     
     nothing without my knowledge, must surely be the more 
     
     binding, as they were voluntary and unasked. You 
     
     called in your patriarch as witness to this engagement; 
     
     and from the marks of joy which you shewed on that 
     
     occasion, there was room to think you could not break it. 
     
    

    
     But on the other hand, have not you reason to appre- 
     
     hend, that in such a case his majesty would be justly 
     
     incensed against your behaviour, so as to stop his boun- 
     
     teous hand, to withdraw his succours, and to abandon