English citizen and Lieutenant-Governor at Annapolis in 1740, said in a letter to the Lords of Trade, "without the neutrality of the Acadians, this province would have been lost (to the English)." Yet the grievous charge laid against them was one of deceit and treachery. Frequently all the Acadians—of Chignecto, Annapolis, Piziquid, Minas—were harried in punishment for the acts of a few. Often they were called upon to renew their vows of allegiance. This they did by word and by deed. When the French were at war with the English in 1744 they called on their brothers for aid which was steadfastly denied, despite threats from their priests and the menace of Indians.
In 1746 began the struggle of the English to hold what they had gained and of the French to regain what they had lost. A mighty fleet of seventy ships and ten thousand men left Brest in June, but tempest and disease so weakened the French forces assembled under the Duc d'Anville that intended attacks on Louisbourg (which had been surrendered to the Colonials the previous year) and Boston were abandoned. A remnant of the fleet sailed for Annapolis, but this also met with disaster. Meantime, a land invasion planned against Annapolis by Ramezay had been delayed until spring. Hannay recites that Governor Shirley of Massachusetts sent troops "to overawe the Acadians and check the attack of the detachment from Canada."
