ts, to the year
one thousand six hundred and fifty-four, as proofs of the equity and
validity of the claim he then made; in which claim and in the manner of
supporting it, he was particularly approved of by the court of
France. The same court afterwards thought it so clear, upon former
determinations, and her own former possessions, that the true ancient
boundaries of Acadia were Pentagoet to the west, and the river St.
Lawrence to the north, that she desired no specification of limits in
the treaty of Breda, but was contented with the restitution of Acadia,
generally named; and, upon a dispute which arose in the execution
of this treaty, France re-asserted, and Great Britain, after some
discussion, agreed to the above-mentioned limits of Acadia; and France
obtained possession of that country, so bounded, under the treaty of
Breda. The sense of France upon this subject, in the years one
thousand six hundred and eighty-five, and one thousand six hundred and
eighty-seven, was also clearly manifested in the memorials delivered at
that time by the French ambassador at the court of London, complaining
of some encroachments made by the English upon the coast of Acadia: he
described the country as extending from isle Percee, which lies at the
entrance of the river St. Lawrence, to St. George's island; and again,
in a subsequent complaint, made by Mons. Barillon and Mons. Bonrepaus
to the court of Great Britain, against the judge of Pemaquid, for having
seized the effects of a French merchant at Pentagoet, which, said they,
was situated in Acadia, as restored to France by the treaty of Breda. To
explain the sense of France, touching the bounds of Acadia in the year
one thousand seven hundred, the British commissaries produced a proposal
of the French ambassador, then residing in Great Britain, to restrain
the limits of that country to the river St-George. They also instanced
the surrender of Port Royal in the year one thousand seven hundred and
ten, in which Acadia is described with the same limits with which France
had received it in the years one thousand six hundred and thirty-two,
and one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven. And further to ascertain
the sense of both crowns, even at the treaty of Utrecht itself, they
produced the queen of Great Britain's instructions to her ambassadors,
in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven, in which they were
directed to insist, "That his most christain majesty should quit all