The French and the Micmacs 231

to do with it.”** At the same time Desherbiers, who, on August 15, 1749, had informed the Minister that he and Bigot were sending Le Loutre on his vile errand, wrote Cornwallis two months later that he saw with “horror and indignation the cruelty and treachery of the savages,” and begged him to believe that he had not nor should have any part in such actions. La Jonquiére also approves of Le Loutre, including in his praise Pére Germain, saying that they “manage their intrigues so as not to appear in them.”** Two years later the same La Jonquiere in- forms the Minister that he has sent several Acadians disguised as Indians with the savages to give them courage and that “if they should be captured they could say that they acted of their own accord.”** So the wretched story of the interests of the state and religion proceeds until the final overthrow of French power in America. In 1753 Le Loutre pays 1800 livres for eighteen English scalps, and Prevost, who writes the glad tidings to the Minister, says that Le Loutre should have an advance fund for such emergencies.” After the fall of Beauséjour Le Loutre’s activities in Acadia came to an end. He was reproached by the Bishop of Quebec not for his policy in regard to the English but for his severity toward the Acadians. From him the interest shifts to the Abbé Le Guerne and he is best described in his own words, “The first

19 Can, Arch, Report, 1905, Vol. 11, App. N, p. 284. 17 Ibid., pp. 285, 295, 311.

18 Ibid., pp. 828, 341.

19 C11 B, Vol, 83, p. 229.