While Lawrence was formulating his policy with regard to
the Acadians, events were at the same time rapidly moving
towards a renewal of war between France and Great Britain
in North America. Indeed, though as yet there had been
no formal declaration, the American phase of the momentous
Seven Years' War had already begun. France had been
dreaming of a colonial empire stretching from Newfoundland
to the Gulf of Mexico. She had asserted her ownership of
the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi; and she had
set before herself the object of confining the English
colonies within limits as narrow as possible. In May 1754
Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, had advised the
home government that he had received intelligence from
Halifax 'that some of the rebel inhabitants of Chignecto,
together with the Indians of the Peninsula and St John
River, are through the influence of the French garrison
at Beausejour engaged in an enterprise to break up all
the eastern settlements,' and he pointed out that 'if
the advices are true, they will afford .
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