OUR ISLAND STORY 23 would have been sufficient to have defended it. If it is to be given up the destruction of the settlements at this time would ensure His Majesty's subjects in Nova Scotia from any danger of the inhabitants of this Island for some years to come, as it must have been the work of many years for the French to bring it to its present state. If they are not destroyed they will re-establish it easily and may become too powerful. This is on a supposition that this Island may be given up; but if we are to keep possession of it, the present inhabitants are not to be trusted by us in their settlements. The produce of the settlements is not so necessary to an English garrison as to a French. We can very well live without it; the French would starve without it." This is the explanation of an act that reflected no credit upon British annals. The motive and the manner in which the act was carried out are alike questionable in the light of sub¬ sequent events, and of the indulgence due to a defeated and fallen foe. There were, in point of fact, no stronger reasons for the expulsion of the French from this Island than there were for the expulsion of the French from Quebec . Yet the latter, more considerable in number, were not disturbed, while the former were condemned to the loss of that home which they had hewn out of the wilderness; and hundreds of them suffered an awful fate.