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EDOUARD RICHARD 
 
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 MISSING LINKS OF A LOST CHAPTER 
 
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ACADIA: 
 
 MISSING LINKS OF A CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 June 6th, Lawrence, by a trick, confiscates 400 muskets — He or- 
 ders the Acadian s to give up the remainder of their arms — June 
 10th, Petition of the Acadians of Grand Pre and Pigiguit begging 
 Lawrence not to oblige them to give up their arms — This Petition 
 is not considered till July 3d ; meanwhile, the arms are surren- 
 dered — The Petition is deemed insolent — New Petition — Law- 
 rence's grievances — The Acadian delegates at first refuse the oath 
 — The next day they offer to take it — Lawrence's refusal — They 
 are put in prison. 
 
 The taking of Beausejour was an event of great im- 
 portance. Though at the time there was a nominal 
 peace, that so-called peace was really a long series of 
 hostilities, which, hitherto smouldering, then burst out 
 with extreme violence all along the frontier, from 
 the Gulf to the Great Lakes, although war was not 
 officially declared till almost a year later. The French 
 occupation of the isthmus and of all the northern coast 
 of the Bay of Fundy had been a source of trouble to the 
 English and of broils between the two nations. For 
 the Acadians the situation was still worse ; critical as it 
 was of itself, it had been aggravated on the one hand 
 by the exactions and the severity of the English gov- 
 
Z NOTHING TO FEAR. 
 
 ernors, and, on the other, by the conduct of Le Loutre 
 and the French authorities. 
 
 Naturally, the fall of Beaus6jour ought to have re- 
 moved from the English all motive for fearing the Aca- 
 dians, if indeed there ever were any cause for such fear. 
 What, indeed, was to be feared from a people who during 
 forty-five years, in spite of all sorts of temptations and 
 difficulties, not only never had recourse to arms, but 
 never even withstood the most arbitrary commands ? 
 Since the majority of those who crossed the frontier did 
 so only in self-defence, forced to fly by the Indians who 
 had burned their houses ; since the small number who 
 took up arms for the French at Beause*jour did so only 
 on compulsion, what reason was there to fear those who 
 remained in the Peninsula, when the only strategic 
 point that might favor revolt had fallen ? To put this 
 question is to answer it. No one knew this better than 
 Lawrence. He had very exactly gauged the disposi- 
 tions of those who lived on the French side. He knew 
 that it would be impossible, as he himself admitted, 
 except under enormous provocation or circumstances 
 altogether abnormal, to force them to take up arms 
 against the English. Now all these extraordinary con- 
 ditions were verified all together at the siege of Beause*- 
 jour — with a result even better than what he had fore- 
 seen. Which of my readers is there, who, if lie is con- 
 vinced that the facts I have related are correct, can 
 harbor any doubt as to the fidelity of those who lived in 
 the Peninsula, far from the allurements of the French, 
 surrounded by forts and soldiers to keep them in check, 
 having to protect their families and their property, 
 without any possible assistance from the French, hav- 
 ing, in a word, everything to lose and nothing to gain 
 
NOTHING TO FEAR. 3 
 
 by revolt ? All those conditions which might reason- 
 ably lead to the belief that those who lived with the 
 French would take up arms for them, were in this case 
 completely reversed. The Acadians on the other side of 
 the frontier were undeniably French subjects, they had 
 a right to take up arms ; they would not, held back by 
 scruples arising from a situation which, clear as it was, 
 left doubts in the minds of simple straightforward peo- 
 ple. The Acadians of the Peninsula, on the contrary, 
 were British subjects ; they were bound by an oath ; 
 they could have no doubt about their duty so long as 
 they remained on English territory. Was there any 
 reason to fear them? Impossible! The others were 
 subjected to enormous pressure, both to convince them 
 that they were French subjects and to force them to 
 fight for France. The stubbornness of their resistance 
 is well-nigh incredible, though no one can gainsay it. 
 Can we, then, reasonably suppose that the peninsular 
 Acadians, free from all pressure, without any possible 
 contact with the French, would have resisted or even 
 intended to resist or make mischief ? The others were 
 backed, protected by the French ; they may have hoped 
 that the French arms would prevail. These were com- 
 pletely dependent on the English ; they could hope for 
 neither support nor help from the French, now defeated, 
 humbled and driven from all their strongholds on the 
 Bay of Fundy. And yet, in such a plight, without the 
 prospect of success, they could have been deemed dan- 
 gerous, they could have been suspected of hatching a 
 disturbance ! The thing is impossible, ridiculous in 
 the extreme! 
 
 If the above argument does not settle the question, 
 all reasoning by analogy is futile. Lawrence was too 
 
4 GKEED OF GAIN. 
 
 well aware of the dispositions of the Acadians to have 
 a moment's doubt about them. Indisputable proof of 
 this is afforded by that declaration of his to the Lords 
 of Trade, quoted near the end of the last chapter. 
 
 But, then, how can we explain his behavior ? Very 
 simply : by interested motives, which will be made clear 
 in the sequel ; for, conclusive as the foregoing negative 
 argument is, it is only a small part of my plea. 
 
 Almost a year had now gone by since Lawrence had 
 made up his mind to a wholesale deportation of the 
 Acadians. He was waiting for a favorable opportunity. 
 That opportunity he was preparing with the patience of 
 a mole and with all the skill that Clive and Hastings 
 were, about the same time, displaying toward the natives 
 of Hindostan. Imaginations in England were then 
 greatly excited by the dazzling stories about the treas- 
 ures of the rajahs, by the princely fortunes brought back 
 from Calcutta, Bombay and Madras by the officers of 
 the East India Company. America presented none of 
 these tempting baits : no gathered treasure, no Nabobs 
 to despoil, no Bengalese to tax unmercifully ; but the 
 fertile mind of Lawrence had seen the possibility of a 
 transaction that might lead to similar results. Had he 
 not under his thumb, isolated in this corner of the con- 
 tinent, a small nation of known peaceableness and 
 docility ? Taken one by one, these peasants had noth- 
 ing that could tempt a man in search of honors and 
 wealth ; but their aggregate possessions would make 
 him rich. So long as the French occupied the north of 
 the Bay of Fundy, he could not realize his purpose. 
 The capture of Beaus^jour, the removal of the French 
 would be necessary to screen him from grave danger. 
 This was the opportunity he had long been preparing 
 
THE IRON HAND. 5 
 
 for; the obstacle had disappeared; but some pretexts 
 must be invented. The means he chose was oppres- 
 sion : he hoped that, by making the lot of the Acadians 
 intolerable, he would drive them, through despair, to 
 some acts of insubordination or resistance that should 
 shield him from disgrace, if not from the censure of the 
 Home Government. We are about to see how all his 
 efforts in this direction failed ; yet such was his deter- 
 mination that he deported them in spite of everything. 
 After careful consideration I am firmly convinced 
 that the more Lawrence persecuted the Acadians, the 
 more submissive were they and the more did they avoid 
 giving him pretexts for severity. They had a vague 
 presentiment that plots were weaving in the dark 
 against their very existence. They saw with dismay 
 how the iron hand laid upon them was drawing closer 
 day by day the links of the chain that was to swathe 
 and crush them. Whithersoever they looked, they dis- 
 cerned on all sides the signs of impending, inevitable 
 woe ; inevitable if they resisted, inevitable if they sub- 
 mitted, inevitable whether they refused or accepted the 
 oath. Under Cornwallis and Hopson they could at 
 least have hoped that, should they take the oath, their 
 acquiescence would not be made a pretext to force them 
 to fight against the French ; under Lawrence no such 
 hope could be indulged in ; on the contrary, he would, 
 must they have thought, take advantage of the oath to 
 rivet them to the soil and expel their priests. In this 
 extremity of peril, they deemed complete submission 
 still the safest course toward the staving off or the 
 lessening of their misfortunes ; and, whether through a 
 mutual understanding, as is likely, or through com- 
 munity of feeling arising from their condition, every- 
 
6 SEIZURE OF ARMS. 
 
 thing they did bore the impress of the most thorough 
 submissiveness. After all, they thought, the worst that 
 can happen to us would be the order to quit the country 
 without taking away any of our property. Painful as 
 this alternative is, we once accepted it ; we are ready to 
 accept it again, if need be. Alas ! in their honest sim- 
 plicity they did not dream of another solution, a terrible 
 solution ; and this was not an alternative. 
 
 About the sixth of June, that is to say, during the 
 siege of Beausejour, Lawrence carried out the following 
 project. A hundred men from Fort Edward and fifty 
 from the garrison of Halifax were sent to Mines district 
 to seize the arms of the inhabitants.* The plan was 
 to pretend that these men were indulging in " a fishing 
 frolic " on their way to Annapolis. The soldiers were 
 to reach Grand Pre* and the neighborhood in the even- 
 ing, and, instead of sleeping in the barns as was their 
 custom, were to distribute themselves two by two in 
 the houses of the residents. At midnight they were to 
 seize all arms and ammunition found in each house. It 
 was an easy undertaking and succeeded perfectly with- 
 out provoking any resistance. The next morning all 
 the soldiers met at Grand Pre* with the arms they 
 had seized, put them on board a boat that had been 
 waiting for that very cargo and carried them to Fort 
 Edward, f 
 
 * At the head of the MS. from which I take the above details, is the 
 following note in the handwriting of the Rev. Andrew Brown: "I have 
 the date of this from a Petition. It occurred about the middle of June. 
 Mode of disarming the Acadians— Judge Deschamps present. One of the 
 parties pretending a fishing frolic on the river." 
 
 Beausejour surrendered June 16th. 
 
 f These particulars, as well as many others that follow, are not in the 
 volume of the Archives. The proceedings of the Council and other docu- 
 ments of that period were, as we shall see later, removed from the Archives. 
 Dr. Brown, who resided at Halifax not long after the deportation, has 
 
A PROVOCATION. 7 
 
 Immediately or at most a few days after this fine 
 trick, an order was issued commanding all Acadians in 
 the Peninsula to surrender their arms under penalty of 
 being treated as rebels. * As may well be imagined, 
 these measures were not likely to please the Acadians, 
 still less to win their affection. Had they afforded any 
 pretext for such arbitrary and irritating conduct ? Not 
 the slightest. After what we have seen the Acadi- 
 ans do at Beausejour, it is well-nigh impossible to 
 suppose that Lawrence's motive for this mean trick 
 was the fear of insurrection. Such a supposition would 
 be very strange if not ridiculous. And yet Lawrence 
 undoubtedly had a motive, for everything tends to show 
 that the deportation was not only practically determined 
 on long since, but even arranged for by this time in all 
 its details. It must be done and over during this season. 
 There was no time to lose. The yoke must be made 
 heavier, more galling ; some new plan must be adopted 
 to sting the Acadians into discontent and to provoke 
 trouble. This alone can have been Lawrence's imme- 
 diate motive in seizing the arms at Grand Pre and in 
 the general order to the same effect. In order to gain 
 time Lawrence did not wait for the capitulation of 
 Beausejour. As soon as he saw that the small garrison 
 of this fort would not be reinforced from Louisburgnor 
 assisted by the majority of the Acadian emigrants, and 
 that the place would surely fall, he set about executing 
 his project. True, besides his immediate motive of 
 making trouble, he may have also intended to preclude, 
 
 pieced together a part of the story by means of verbal information, and 
 sometimes by copies of the missing documents, obtained from the sur- 
 viving counsellors of Lawrence as well as from persons who had been 
 witnesses of the deportation. 
 * " I have this order — a new outrage." (Note in Dr. Brown's writing). 
 
8 COMPLETE SUBMISSION. 
 
 by a general disarmament of the Acadians, any danger 
 of an insurrection at the critical moment of the deporta- 
 tion. But I maintain that, had he not also distinctly 
 contemplated the arousing of discontent, this seizure of 
 arms would have been not merely an unwise but an 
 exceedingly perilous move, supposing, as some still 
 believe, that the Acadians were a restless and disaffected 
 people. For this highly provocative proceeding could 
 only effect a partial disarmament, as the four hundred 
 guns seized were probably not one-fifth of the whole 
 number in the hands of the Acadians. Had they 
 been rebellious and ripe for revolt, as Lawrence's 
 seizure of arms implied, this was an infallible way 
 of making the insurrection break out and become 
 quite dangerous, and it was, moreover, the surest way 
 of inducing them not to give up the remainder, i. e., at 
 least four-fifths of their arms. Now Lawrence was far 
 too deep to commit so dangerous a blunder. The logi- 
 cal conclusion, based on a reduetio ad ahsurdum, is, 
 therefore, that Lawrence was so confident of the peace- 
 able dispositions of the Acadians as to feel sure he ran 
 no risk in seizing a small part of their arms. The same 
 course of reasoning, however, leads to the further in- 
 ference that he expected to provoke irritation, disobedi- 
 ence and perhaps local, though not dangerous, disturb- 
 ances, which would warrant greater severity and thus 
 justify the deportation he had in view. In this latter 
 expectation he was mistaken ; he provoked neither 
 disobedience nor disturbance. Incredible as so thor- 
 ough a submission may appear, it is none the less un- 
 deniable. 
 
 Mindful of the chastisement inflicted the preceding 
 autumn on some of their friends who had momentarily 
 
COMPLETE SUBMISSION. 9 
 
 suspended, while awaiting- an answer to their representa- 
 tions, the execution of Lawrence's arbitrary orders 
 about furnishing wood, the Acadians this time unani- 
 mously executed the order about yielding up their arms. 
 Directly after this order, they sent a petition to Law- 
 rence, dated June 10th. This^petition should have been 
 taken into consideration before the day fixed for the 
 surrender of the arms, since its object was precisely to 
 obtain that the order be revoked. But Lawrence let 
 the interval pass without a reply ; it was not till long 
 after the date of the surrender of arms that he consented 
 to listen to them, on July 3d. 
 
 To avoid fresh oppression and fresh misfortunes, the 
 Acadians handed in all their guns on the appointed day, 
 and according to Judge Deschamps, quoted by Dr. 
 Brown, the number of the guns was two thousand nine 
 hundred. " These orders," says Haliburton, who had 
 made only an approximate guess at the true inwardness 
 of the drama then enacting, " were complied with in 
 a manner which might certainly have convinced the 
 Government that the Acadians had no serious intention 
 of any insurrection, but, as Papists and Frenchmen, 
 their submissions never gained much credit with their 
 Protestant and English masters, by whom they were 
 both hated and feared." 
 
 Not to speak of all the acts of obedience I have 
 already related, acts which bear such eloquent testimony 
 to the submissiveness of the Acadians, would not this 
 one alone suffice definitely to establish their claim to 
 this virtue ? And yet Parkman is not convinced, or 
 rather he makes believe not to be convinced, if, indeed 
 he has taken any real pains to ascertain the true state 
 of the case — which I very much doubt. 
 
10 WITHOUT A PARALLEL. 
 
 In the whole range of human history it is hard to find 
 such complete submission under such arbitrary despot- 
 ism. Assuredly nothing like it could be discerned in 
 the history of New England. In fact, one feels tempted 
 to blame the Acadians for having reached that excess 
 of subjection which is fraught with danger. Perverse 
 men are ever ready to profit by such dispositions. A 
 time comes when the evils of subjection are greater 
 than those which follow from resistance. That time 
 had come for the Acadians as soon as Lawrence was 
 appointed governor of the province. They did not 
 realize this, and how could, they, unless they read his 
 inmost thoughts ? Could they sound the depths of per- 
 versity in the mind of this ferocious brute? They 
 could not help seeing that he seemed to seek pretexts 
 for further oppression in order to obtain, if lie could, 
 the Home Government's approval of an order to quit 
 the country. They were simple enough to think that, 
 on his own responsibility, Lawrence could not, or would 
 not dare, to proceed to this extremity ; and, if he did, 
 well, they would depart. Such was, I am convinced, 
 their mistake and the reason why their submission was 
 so exceedingly disastrous. 
 
 Lawrence must have been disappointed by their utter 
 obedience. He had calculated that the seizure of a few 
 hundred guns would be the most effectual means of stir- 
 ring up revolt against the order to surrender the few 
 thousand that remained in their hands. But the sur- 
 render was accomplished without affording the slightest 
 pretext for complaint. What was he to do? He could 
 not be at a loss, he whose power was absolute and whose 
 despotism recognized no check. He found fault with 
 their petition, which I now quote entire, so that the 
 
STRONG PROTEST. 11 
 
 reader may be in a position to judge by himself if its 
 contents or its form deserved the reception it met with. 
 
 11 To His Excellency Charles Lawrence, 
 
 Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia or Acadia, etc., etc. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " We, the inhabitants of Mines, Pigiguit and the river Canard, take 
 the liberty of approaching Your Excellency for the purpose of testify- 
 ing our sense of the care which the Government exercises over us. 
 
 " It appears, sir, that Your Excellency doubts the sincerity with 
 which we have promised to be faithful to His Britannic Majesty. 
 
 " We most humbly beg Your Excellency to consider our past con- 
 duct. You will see, that, very far from violating the oath we have 
 taken, we have maintained it in its entirety, in spite of the solicita- 
 tions and the dreadful threats of another power. We still entertain, 
 sir, the same pure and sincere disposition to prove under any circum- 
 tances, our unshaken fidelity to His Majesty, provided that His 
 Majesty shall allow us the same liberty that he has granted us. We 
 earnestly beg Your Excellency to have the goodness to inform us of 
 His Majesty's intentions on this subject, and to give us assurances 
 on his part. 
 
 "Permit us, if you please, sir, to make known the annoying cir- 
 cumstances in which we are placed, to the prejudice of the tranquillity 
 we ought to enjoy. Under pretext that we are transporting our corn 
 or other provisions to Beausejour and the river St. John, we are no 
 longer permitted to carry the least quantity of corn by water from 
 one place to another. We beg Your Excellency to be assured that 
 we have never transported provisions to Beausejour, or to river St. 
 John. If some refugee inhabitants from Beausejour have been 
 seized with cattle, we are not, on that account, by any means guilty, 
 inasmuch as the cattle belonged to them as private individuals, 
 and they were driving them to their respective habitations. As 
 to ourselves, sir, we have never offended in that respect ; conse- 
 quently, we ought not, in our opinion, to be punished ; on the contraiy, 
 we hope that Your Excellency will be pleased to restore to us the 
 same liberty that we enjoyed formerly, in giving us the use of our 
 canoes, either to transport our provisions from one river to another, 
 or for the purpose of fishing ; thereby providing for our livelihood. 
 This permission has never been taken from us except at the present 
 time. We hope, sir, that you will be pleased to restore it, specially 
 in consideration of the number of poor inhabitants who would be 
 very glad to support their families with the fish that they would be 
 
12 BUT HUMBLE. 
 
 able to catch. Moreover, our guns, which we regard as our own 
 personal property, have been taken from us, notwithstanding the 
 fact that they are absolutely necessary to us, either to defend our 
 cattle which are attacked by the wild beasts, or for the protection of 
 our children and of ourselves. Any inhabitant who may have his 
 oxen in the woods, and who may need them for purposes of labour, 
 would not dare to expose himself in going for them without being pre- 
 pared to defend himself. It is certain, sir, that since the Indians have 
 ceased frequenting our parts, the wild beasts have greatly increased, 
 and that our cattle is devoured by them almost every day. Besides, 
 the arms which have been taken from us are but a feeble guarantee of 
 our fidelity. It is not the gun which an inhabitant possesses, that 
 will induce him to revolt, nor the privation of the same gun that will 
 make him more faithful ; but his conscience alone must induce him 
 to maintain his oath. An order has appeared in Your Excellency's 
 name, given at Fort Edward, June 4th, 1755, by which we are com- 
 manded to carry guns, pistols, etc., etc., to Fort Edward. It appears 
 to us, sir, that it would be dangerous for us to execute that order, be- 
 fore representing to you the danger to which this order exposes us. 
 The Indians may come and threaten and plunder us, reproaching us 
 for having furnished arms to kill them. We hope, sir, that you will 
 be pleased, on the contrary, to order that those taken from us be 
 restored to us. By so doing, you will afford us the means of preserv- 
 ing both ourselves and our cattle. 
 
 " In the last place, we are grieved, sir, at seeing ourselves declared 
 guilty without being aware of having disobeyed. One of our inhabi- 
 tants of the river Canard, named Pierre Melan^on, was seized and 
 arrested in charge of his boat, before having heard any order forbid- 
 ding that sort of transport. We beg Your Excellency, on this 
 subject, to have the goodness to make known to us your good pleasure 
 before confiscating our property and considering us in fault. Tins is 
 the favor we expect from Your Excellency's kindness, and we hope 
 you will do us the justice to believe that very far from violating our 
 promises, we will maintain them, assuring you that we are very 
 respectfully, 
 
 "Sir, your very humble and obedient servants." 
 
 This petition is, word for word, the translation given 
 by the Compiler of the archives. If, considering the 
 then circumstances, or in fact, any circumstances, this 
 petition is not remarkably respectful, I confess myself 
 
MORE HUMBLE STILL. 13 
 
 ignorant of what is meant by respect. Out of such 
 material, Lawrence, who had been able to create no other 
 grievance or pretext, was going to raise a storm of his 
 own making, a storm without cloud or wind in a clear 
 sky, and } r et all the more terrible for that. The average 
 reader, unaware of the faults Lawrence was going to 
 find in this document, would be sorely puzzled to guess 
 beforehand, on a careful perusal of this humble petition 
 breathing submissiveness and sincerity, what points the 
 Governor would fasten his fangs upon. However, the 
 better to show the spirit that moved him and his deter- 
 mination to pick a quarrel, I must here add that, before 
 Lawrence had expressed to the Acadians his view of 
 their petition, the signers thereof learned that it was 
 considered impertinent, and accordingly addressed to 
 him another petition on the 24th of June as follows : — 
 
 Grand Pre, June 24th, 1755. 
 " To His Excellency Charles Lawrence, etc., etc. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " All the inhabitants of Mines, Pigiguit and the river Canard, beg 
 Your Excellency to believe that if, in the Petition which they have 
 had the honor to present to Your Excellency, there shall be found any 
 error or any want of respect towards the G-overiiment, it is entirely 
 contrary to their intention ; and that in this case, the inhabitants who 
 have signed it, are not more guilty than the others. 
 
 " If sometimes they become embarrassed in Your Excellency's pres- 
 ence, they humbly beg you to excuse their timidity ; and if, contrary to 
 our expectation, there is anything hard in the said petition, we beg 
 Your Excellency to do us the favor of allowing us to explain our 
 intention. 
 
 ' ' We hope that Your Excellency will be pleased to grant us this 
 favor, begging you to believe that we are very respectfully, 
 
 " Sir, your very humble and very obedient servants. 
 
 " Signed by forty-four of the said inhabitants in the name of the 
 whole." 
 
 This new petition, still humbler than the first, should, 
 
14 PETITION CRITICISED. 
 
 in the case of a humane governor, have sufficed to ex- 
 plain the intention of the first document and to remove 
 all cause of offence, had any such existed. But Law- 
 rence was not going to abate one jot of his fault-finding. 
 On July 3d, the Acadian delegates were admitted to 
 the governor's presence, and the following resolution 
 was read to them : 
 
 " The Council having then taken the contents of the said Memorials 
 into consideration, were unanimously of opinion that the Memorial 
 of the 10th of June is highly arrogant and insidious, and deserved 
 the highest resentment.'''' 
 
 To show them what Lawrence called the impudence 
 of the petition, it was read to them clause by clause. 
 
 In answer to this sentence : u That they were affected 
 with the proceedings of the Government towards them, 11 
 they were told : 
 
 " That they had always been treated with the greatest 
 lenity and tenderness. That they had enjoyed more 
 privileges than English subjects, and had been indulged 
 in the free exercise of their religion. That they had at 
 all times full liberty to consult their priests, and had 
 been protected in their trade and fishery, and had been 
 for many years permitted to possess their lands (part 
 of the best soil of the province), though they had not 
 complied with the terms, on which the lands were 
 granted, by taking the oath of allegiance to the crown. 
 
 " They were then asked whether they could produce 
 an instance that any privilege was denied to them, or 
 that any hardships were ever imposed upon them. 
 
 " They acknowledged the justice and lenity of the 
 Government. 
 
 " Upon the paragraph where ' TJiey desire their past 
 conduct might be considered 1 
 
PETITION CRITICISED. 15 
 
 " It was remarked to them that their past conduct 
 was considered, and that the Government were sorry to 
 have occasion to say that their conduct had been unduti- 
 ful and veiy ungrateful for the lenity shown them. 
 That they had no returns of loyalty to the crown or 
 respect to His Majesty's Government in the province. 
 That they had discovered a constant disposition to assist 
 His Majesty's enemies and to distress his subjects. 
 That they had not only furnished the enemy with pro- 
 visions and ammunition, but had refused to supply the 
 inhabitants or Government with provisions, and when 
 they did supply they have exacted three times the 
 price for which they were sold at at other markets. That 
 they had been indolent and idle on their lands, had 
 neglected husbandry and the cultivation of the soil, and 
 had been of no use to the province either in husbandry, 
 trade or fishery, but had rather been an obstruction to 
 the king's intentions in the settlement. 
 
 " They were then asked whether they could mention 
 a single instance of service to the Government. To 
 which they were incapable of making any reply." 
 
 Upon reading this paragraph — 
 
 " It seems that Your Excellency is doubtful of the sincerity of 
 those who have promised fidelity. That they have been so far from 
 breaking their oath that they had kept it in spite of terrifying men- 
 aces from another power — " 
 
 " They were asked what gave them occasion to sup- 
 pose that the Government was doubtful of their sin- 
 cerity ; and were told that it argued a consciousness 
 in them of insincerity and want of attachment to the 
 interests of His Majesty and his Government. That, as 
 to taking their arms, they had often urged that the In- 
 dians would annoy them, and that by taking their arms 
 
16 LECTURING THE GOVERMMENT. 
 
 by act of Government it was put out of the power of 
 the Indians to threaten or force them to their assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Upon reading this paragraph — 
 
 " Besides, the arms we carry are a feeble surety for our fidelity. 
 It is not a gun that an inhabitant possesses, which will lead him to 
 revolt, nor the depriving him of that gun that will make him more 
 faithful, but his conscience alone ought to engage him to maintain 
 his oath.—' 1 '' 
 
 "They were asked what excuse they could make for 
 their presumption in this paragraph, and treating the 
 Government with such indignity and contempt as to 
 expound to them the nature of fidelity, and to prescribe 
 what would be the security proper to be relied on by 
 the Government for their sincerit}\ That their con- 
 sciences ought indeed to engage them to fidelity from 
 their oath of allegiance to the king, and that, if they 
 were sincere in their duty to the crown, they would not 
 be so anxious for their arms, when it was the pleasure 
 of the King's Government to demand them for His 
 Majesty's service. 
 
 " They were then informed that a veiy fair oppor- 
 tunity now presented itself to them to manifest the 
 reality of their obedience to the Government by imme- 
 diately taking the oath of allegiance in the common 
 form before the Council. Their reply to his proposal 
 was, that they were not come prepared to resolve the 
 Council on that head. They were then told that they 
 very well knew for those six years past the same thing 
 had often been proposed to them and had been as often 
 evaded, under various frivolous pretences ; that they 
 had been often informed that some time or other 
 it would be requested of them and must be done, and 
 
MUST CONSULT THE PEOPLE. 17 
 
 that the Council did not doubt but they knew the 
 sentiments of the inhabitants in general, and had 
 fully considered and determined this point with re- 
 gard to themselves before now, as they had been 
 already indulged in with six years to form a resolution 
 thereon. 
 
 "They then desired they might return home and 
 consult the body of the people upon this subject, as they 
 could not do otherwise than the generality of the in- 
 habitants should determine, for that they were desirous 
 of either refusing or accepting the oath in a body, and 
 could not possibly determine till they knew the senti- 
 ments of their constituents. 
 
 " Upon this so extraordinary a reply, they were in- 
 formed they would not be permitted to return for any 
 such purpose, but that it was expected from them to 
 declare on the spot, for their own particulars, as they 
 might very well be expected to do after having had so 
 long a time to consider upon that point. They then 
 asked leave to retire to consult among themselves, 
 which they were permitted to do, when, near after an 
 hour's recess, they returned with the same answer, that 
 they could not consent to the oath as prescribed with- 
 out consulting the general body, but that they were 
 ready to take it as they had done before ; to which they 
 were answered : That His Majesty had disapproved of 
 the manner of their taking the oath before. That it 
 was not consistent with his honor to make any condi- 
 tions, nor could the Council accept their taking the oath 
 in any other way than as all other His Majesty's sub- 
 jects were obliged by law to do when called upon, and 
 that it was now expected they should do so ; which, they 
 still declining, they were allowed till the next morning; 
 
18 OFFER TO TAKE THE OATH. 
 
 at ten of the clock to come to a resolution. To which 
 time the Council then adjourned. 
 
 " The next day, the Council being met according to 
 adjournment, the Acadian deputies who were yesterday 
 ordered to attend, were brought in, and upon being 
 asked what resolution they were come to in regard to 
 the oath, they declared they could not consent to take 
 the oath in the form required without consulting the 
 body. They were then informed that, as they had now 
 for their own particulars, refused to take the oath as 
 directed by law, and thereby sufficiently evinced the 
 .sincerity of their inclination towards the Government, 
 the Council could no longer look on them as subjects to 
 His Britannic Majesty, but as subjects to the king of 
 France, and as such they must hereafter be treated ; and 
 they were ordered to withdraw. 
 
 " The Council, after consideration, were of opinion 
 that directions should be given to Captain Murray to 
 order the Acadians forthwith to choose and send to 
 Halifax new deputies with the general resolution of the 
 said inhabitants in regard to taking the oath, and that 
 none of them should for the future be admitted to take 
 it after having once refused so to do, but that effectual 
 measures ought to be taken to remove such recusants out 
 of the Province. 
 
 "The deputies who had just withdrawn were then 
 called in again, and having been informed of this res- 
 olution, and finding they could no longer avail them- 
 selves of the disposition of the Government to engage 
 them to dutiful behavior by lenity or persuasion, 
 offered to take the oath, but were informed that, as there 
 was no reason to hope their proposed compliance pro- 
 ceeded from an honest mind, and could be esteemed only 
 
OFFER TO TAKE THE OATH. 19 
 
 the effect of compulsion and force, and is contrary to a 
 clause in an act of Parliament I. George II. chap, IS, 
 whereby persons who have once refused to take oaths 
 cannot be afterwards permitted to take them, but con- 
 sidered as Popish Recusants. Therefore, they would 
 not now be indulged with such permission. And they 
 were thereupon ordered into confinement." 
 
 The foregoing documents I have reproduced in their 
 entirety or in their essential parts, in spite of their 
 length, because I consider them as the key to the situa- 
 tion. Far from shirking difficulties, I hunt them up ; I 
 am on the look-out for anything that may throw light 
 on this lost chapter; I have a special preference for 
 choosing what the Compiler has deemed unfavorable to 
 the Acadians ; and, as far as I can, I endeavor to enable 
 the reader to judge for himself. Almost invariably we 
 have nothing but the Government version of facts. If 
 this version proves Lawrence's action unjustifiable, it 
 must be emphatically so. What further iniquity might 
 be revealed, were there in existence a plea for the other 
 side, and could we but get at the hidden motives that 
 are forever buried beyond our ken ? Although in the 
 above extracts we have the unusual good fortune of 
 reading a petition from the Acadians themselves — a 
 favor which we no doubt owe to the strictures passed 
 upon it — still it is none the less Lawrence's case stated 
 by himself, drawn up with care and with his own re- 
 markable skill, in view of future self-defence, should 
 such be needed. 
 
 Philip H. Smith, in his book, " Acadia — a Lost Chap- 
 ter in American History," refers as follows to the mat- 
 ter in hand : 
 
 " We open the chapter by allowing this simple people to tell the 
 
20 CEITICISM UNJUST. 
 
 story of their suffering and wrongs in the following Memorial to 
 Governor Lawrence, under date of June 10th, 1755, previous to the 
 fall of Beausejour and other French reverses on the Peninsula. We 
 mention this, as otherwise it might be said they were disheartened, 
 and came to sue for peace only after having lost all hope. We ask 
 the candid reader to peruse the document carefully, and judge for 
 himself whether the strictures put upon it by Governor Lawrence are 
 just or otherwise." 
 
 The same question is in order here. What can be 
 pleaded in defence of the arbitrary and insulting methods 
 which Lawrence employed in order fraudulently to 
 take away the arms of the Acadians ? Had they been 
 guilty, I will not say of insurrection, of taking up arms, 
 of insubordination, of resistance to orders, but of any- 
 thing whatever that might cast the slightest reasonable 
 doubt on the maintenance of peace? Are there any 
 such facts alleged ? If so, let them be recited. On 
 which side was the provocation ? Was it not altogether 
 on Lawrence's part ? Who were the insulted parties, if 
 not the Acadians themselves, against whom such deeds 
 of duplicity were done ? Where was the danger, since 
 even when thus provoked, they yielded up at the first 
 intimation, without resistance, whatever arms they pos- 
 sessed, at the very moment when expressions of mis- 
 trust seemed to suggest that they should disobey and 
 not throw themselves upon the mercy of a man whose 
 cruelty was notorious? Danger? Was not Lawrence 
 creating it by running the risk of exasperating a peace- 
 ful people who had weapons enough, even after this first 
 seizure, to imperil the province ? Can any one believe 
 that he would have acted in this absurdly dangerous 
 fashion, had he entertained any doubt of their fidelity ? 
 Lawrence was too artful to take such a leap in the dark. 
 He was fully aware that, firm and even stubborn though 
 
A RESPECTFUL POSITION. 21 
 
 this people might be, they were peaceable and law-abid- 
 ing, and that he might harry them with impunity. 
 
 Over and over again have I read that petition which 
 Lawrence and his council find so arrogant and so insult- 
 ing to the King. I cannot for the life of me find in it 
 anything but a clear and precise document, expressed 
 in the humblest and most submissive language. The 
 only fault I am inclined to see in it is that it seems too 
 submissive after the shameful treatment of the Acadians 
 which was the occasion of this petition. Let the reader 
 ask himself if, under such circumstances, he would con- 
 fine himself to so respectful a document. To my mind 
 it is not the accused, but the accuser, Lawrence himself, 
 on whom the guilt of insolence rests. If the petition 
 was insolent, it was because Lawrence was arrogant and 
 brutal and was seeking his own interest in finding it 
 insolent. He took advantage of his power to divert 
 attention from his own odious conduct by words of 
 seemingly honest indignation which were in very truth 
 applicable to himself alone. Knowing, as we do, with 
 what severity he visited the only case of disobedience 
 — if indeed it was disobedience — which occurred during 
 his administration, we are justified in refusing to accept 
 his vague and general accusations and in insisting on 
 detailed proofs. Had his rebuke been merited, he 
 would undoubtedly have supported it there and then 
 with specific facts ; whereas at no time, whether before 
 or after or at this juncture, did he deal in anything but 
 high-sounding generalities. 
 
 Before the thunders of his high mightiness, these 
 poor people could only bow their heads and stammer 
 out excuses to him who brooked no discussion nor ex- 
 planation. What was the use of answering a pas- 
 
22 DID NOT ASSIST INDIANS OR FRENCH. 
 
 sionate tyrant who was determined beforehand to find 
 fault with everything they might say ? How dare they 
 contradict his assertions when he paused for a reply? 
 They were too prudent to do so. They knew that if 
 they did they would be considered doubly impudent. 
 So they chose to be silent. Hence in the report those 
 passages : " They acknowledged the justice and lenity 
 of the Government; " " they were incapable of making 
 any reply." But, if they could only hang their heads 
 and hold their tongues, history can decide which was 
 the insolent party. The lineal descendant of Lawrence's 
 victims can, though late, now rend the veil that still 
 hides his infamy, and brand his memory as that of a 
 scoundrel. 
 
 Let us examine his accusations one by one. He 
 charges the Acadians with having secretly assisted the 
 Indians, in the face of the fact that, for the past five 
 years, not one group of Indians had resided in the Penin- 
 sula or in the neighborhood of the Acadians. Since 
 Cornwallis had set a price on their heads, they all dwelt 
 on the French side at Beaus^jour, from which the 
 Acadian settlements were separated by long distances. 
 Besides, it is well known that the Acadians near the 
 frontier and at Cobequid had much to suffer from the 
 Indians at a time when Forts Lawrence, Edward and 
 Vieux Logis were not yet built. Under these circum- 
 stances it is difficult to understand on what foundation 
 Lawrence's charge could rest.* 
 
 He next charges them with not giving " timely intel- 
 ligence" of the movements of the French. This accu- 
 
 * Mr Prevost, writing to the Minister on the 27th of September, 1750, 
 said, of the Acadian refugees at Beauseiour on French territory ; " The 
 English have come down to BeausSjour to found a settlement. The 
 Indians want to molest them, but the Acadians will not allow it." 
 
TIMELY INTELLIGENCE. 23 
 
 sation can refer only to the French raids from 1744 to 
 1748. Although their position as Neutrals might have 
 been interpreted as relieving them from the duty of in- 
 forming the authorities, nevertheless, they did give 
 valuable information on many occasions. I have men- 
 tioned some of these in the course of this work, among 
 others, the French attack on Grand Pre*. When they 
 warned Colonel Noble of the project they had wind of, 
 he laughed at them, with the result we know.* There 
 are repeated proofs that, in all these raids, the French, 
 for fear of that " timely intelligence " communicated 
 by the Acadians to the English, took the precaution of 
 guarding all the roads. We see that they did so before 
 the Grand Pre fight : " As it was intended," says Camp- 
 bell (Hist, of N. S. page 95), " to take the English by 
 surprise, the woods were guarded, so that intelligence 
 might not reach them." See also Murdoch, vol. II., 
 page 106. Other instances of this timely intelligence 
 furnished by the Acadians to the English authorities, 
 are to be found at pages 133, 138, 147, 152, 155, 157, 
 177-183, and 605 of the volume of the Archives itself ; 
 and in Murdoch, vol. I., page 411 ; vol. II., pages 18-25, 
 42, 73-76. 
 
 Of course there may, or rather must have been 
 instances of an opposite character. To deny this would 
 argue ignorance of human nature. But the only im- 
 portant juncture where ignorance of the facts was dis- 
 astrous to the English was the Grand Pre* raid, and we 
 have just seen that the Acadians deserved thanks, not 
 blame, for their conduct then. If Lawrence had any 
 special charge in view, it must have been this case, 
 which is the only one specified, and on which the Aca- 
 
 * Hannay— Murdoch. 
 
24 THRIFT. 
 
 dians had to offer an explanation. They readily did so 
 and if we now are certain that they gave information of 
 the designs of the French, we owe that knowledge to 
 this investigation, failing which historians would still 
 go on borrowing from each other, as an unquestionable 
 historical fact, a charge which we know to be false. To 
 find pretexts Lawrence was obliged to go back eight or 
 nine years and condemn the behavior of the Acadians 
 when it had been repeatedly praised by Governor Mas- 
 carene, and in spite of the fact that the few culprits 
 during this war were denounced by the Acadians them- 
 selves and punished. 
 
 " That many of them had even appeared in arms 
 against His Majesty." This accusation, if true, could 
 onty refer to the three hundred Acadians who had just 
 been taken armed at the surrender of Beause"jour, and 
 who had been pardoned by Monckton because they had 
 taken up arms under penalty of death ; and thus this 
 charge had nothing to do with the men whom Lawrence 
 had before him. 
 
 " That they had been indolent and idle on tlveir lands, had 
 neglected husbandry and the cultivation of the soil and have been 
 of no use to the Province, either in husbandry, trade or fisliery, 
 but had been ratlier an obstruction to the King's intentions in 
 the settlement" 
 
 These accusations are at once childish and false. 
 Even were they true they were out of place in such a 
 meeting. At any rate they show how difficult it was 
 for him to fabricate grievances. If the Acadians had 
 really been unthrifty the preponderating blame must 
 fall on their Governors. For forty years they were 
 refused titles to their lands as well as the privilege of 
 
MOUNTAINOUS MOLE-HILL. 25 
 
 taking up new homesteads, and were thus condemned 
 to live on small parcels of land which paralyzed their 
 ambition and energy. And yet, in spite of this par- 
 celling out, they produced more than was needed for 
 the whole Province. " Your lands," Cornwallis said to 
 them, " produce grain and nourish cattle sufficient for 
 the whole Colony. We are well aware of your industry 
 and your temperance, and that you are not addicted to 
 any vice or debauchery." 
 
 "I found it," Winslow said two months after this 
 meeting, when he was about to proceed to deport the 
 Acadians, "a fine country and full of inhabitants, a 
 beautiful church, abundance of the goods of this world, 
 and provisions of all kinds in great plenty." 
 
 "Mr. Cornwallis can inform your Lordships," Hop- 
 son wrote to the Lords of Trade, " how useful and 
 necessary these people are to us, how impossible it is to 
 do without them, or to replace them even if we had 
 other settlers to put into their places." 
 
 Two years had not yet elapsed since the writing of 
 these lines. No change had taken place, save that a 
 tyrant had succeeded an upright and honest man. 
 What the one had seen and judged with the noble 
 instincts of a man, the other had seen and judged with 
 the instincts of a brute intensified by low greed. The 
 Acadians had been reproached with a too exclusive 
 devotedness to the fisheries and the fur trade in the 
 beginnings of the colony. Lawrence now finds means to 
 twit them with a too exclusive devotedness to agricult- 
 ure. We shall see how, later on, the English colonists, 
 who occupied these same lands begged the Governor 
 to allow them to employ the Acadians in rebuilding the 
 dikes which they could not build themselves. 
 
26 NO INSOLENCE. 
 
 I pass on to the last objection, which seems to have 
 been deemed the gravest, the most insolent. I crave 
 the reader's pardon for delaying him so long with what 
 he and I must look upon as trifles. My excuse is the 
 importance attached to this petition apparently so 
 humble and so respectful. Harmless as this document 
 may seem, everything is made to turn upon it; Law- 
 rence makes a mountain out of this mole-hill. We are 
 therefore forced to look at it on every side as he does. 
 For any one that will take the trouble to reflect, to 
 penetrate the character and motives of this man and to 
 pass judgment on the events in which he was the prime 
 mover, this particular item holds the mirror up to him 
 with striking fidelity. 
 
 Here is the insolent paragraph : 
 
 " Besides, the arms we carry are a feeble surety for our fidelity. 
 It is not a gun tJiat an inhabitant possesses, which will lead him to 
 revolt, nor tlie depriving him of that gun that ivill make him more 
 faithful, but his conscience alone ought to engage him to maintain 
 his oath." 
 
 " They were asked what excuse they could make for 
 their presumption in this paragraph, and treating the 
 Government with such indignity and contempt as to 
 expound to them the nature of fidelity, and to prescribe 
 what would be the security proper to be relied on by 
 the Government for their sincerity." 
 
 An interpretation such as this supposes no mean exer- 
 cise of the imagination. Far from presenting any real 
 cause for complaint, this paragraph is a proof of good 
 faith and honesty of purpose. This language of the 
 Acadian petitioners sets forth in a striking way how 
 much they valued their oath of fidelity. This was the 
 
LAWRENCE CONTRADICTS HIMSELF. 27 
 
 impression these poor people had hoped to create. 
 They no doubt nattered themselves that this very para- 
 graph would convince Lawrence that conscience was 
 their guiding star. But they were expostulating with 
 a man who had no conscience. It was the old fable of 
 the wolf and the lamb. In vain did the poor little lamb 
 reply that he could not possibly make the water muddy, 
 since he was drinking down stream, that he could not 
 have been guilty of the slander the wolf charged him 
 with, since at the time mentioned he was not yet born ; 
 he was devoured. There is no reasoning with the maw 
 of a famished wolf. Lawrence's grievances and rage 
 had no more valid motives than the wolf's. It was a 
 storm in a teapot, but one that was to scatter to the 
 four winds of heaven a gentle and peaceable people, 
 in order that the persecutor might fatten on their 
 spoils. 
 
 After having stood the fire of Lawrence's reproaches, 
 the Acadian delegates were requested to take there and 
 then an unrestricted oath. They begged to be allowed 
 to return to their homes in order to consult with their 
 people and come to a unanimous decision on the ques- 
 tion. If Lawrence sincerely wished to obtain this oath, 
 he would have shown wisdom and good policy by grant- 
 ing this easy favor, from which no harm could come. 
 Instead of acceding to their prayer, he gave them 
 twenty-four hours for a final answer. The next day 
 their answer was the same : We are, said they, delegates 
 each one from his own district; we cannot, either in 
 our own name or in that of the people, make any pledge 
 without consulting all our fellow-countrymen ; we wish 
 to come to a decision, whether for or against, which 
 shall be the same for all. They were told that the 
 
28 WHY HE IMPRISONS THE DELEGATES. 
 
 Council could no longer consider them as subjects of 
 His Britannic Majesty, but as subjects of the King of 
 France, and as such they must hereafter be treated. 
 Would to God they had been, subsequently, treated as 
 subjects of the King of France ! 
 
 If, on account of their refusal to swear allegiance in 
 the ordinary way, they were looked upon as French 
 subjects, the Acadians ought to have been allowed to 
 go away as they had begged and implored many a time 
 but always in vain. It was not by their own will they 
 were there, but by the restraint of their governors. 
 And if, on account of that refusal, they became once 
 more French subjects, why had Lawrence himself ad- 
 dressed a proclamation to those who had left the country 
 five years before, declaring that they were not released 
 from their oath of fidelity, that they would be con- 
 sidered as British subjects and treated as rebels if found 
 armed ? 
 
 In this entire petition there is but one sentence 
 which, malevolently interpreted, might give umbrage to 
 a despot ; and even of this sentence we know not if it 
 has been correctly translated. At any rate, we must 
 bear in mind how they had been provoked by the clan- 
 destine seizure of their arms. Besides, the second peti- 
 tion, protesting that the first was well meant, ought to 
 have sufficed to convince Lawrence of their sincerity 
 and good intentions. Murdoch says of this petition 
 and of those that followed it : " The different Memo- 
 rials of the Acadians are long and argumentative, and 
 are couched in respectful language." 
 
 On the refusal to take the oath immediately, the Coun- 
 cil decided that instructions should be sent to Captain 
 Murray, bidding the Acadians name new delegates, that, 
 
 
WHY HE IMPRISONS THE DELEGATES. 29 
 
 should they not take the oath, measures should be taken 
 to expel these Popish recusants from the province. 
 The delegates were then called in and informed of this 
 decision. In the face of this threat, indefinite but ter- 
 rible, they offered to take the oath. " Too late," re- 
 plied Lawrence ; " your consent is but the offspring of 
 fear; it comes not of a sincere attachment to His 
 Majesty ; there is an Act of Parliament against admit- 
 ting you now to the oath ; you can no longer be looked 
 upon otherwise than as Popish recusants." 
 
 Lawrence had foreseen that nothing short of extraor- 
 dinary measures could drive the delegates to a decis- 
 ion without first consulting their constituents. Despite 
 his hardihood, he would have been greatly embarrassed 
 if the delegates had immediately accepted his proposals, 
 had he not accurately guessed how they would behave. 
 He was ready for every emergency : should they end by 
 consenting, that Act of Parliament was at hand to 
 checkmate them. His plan would have been endan- 
 gered by their return to their constituents : for there 
 was reason to fear lest the delegates, having offered to 
 take the oath, should persuade the others to do likewise ; 
 and, as the oath was merely a pretext to mask his plan, 
 a general offer to take it would have caught him in his 
 own trap. Therefore, to get out of the difficulty, he 
 put the delegates in prison. " It does not appear," says 
 Philip H. Smith, "that the men thus summarily im- 
 prisoned, were proven guilty of assisting the king's 
 enemies or refusing to supply the Government with 
 provisions, nor even that they were individually charged 
 with the offence, neither did the Council make any but 
 a general accusation of a constant disposition to distress 
 the English subjects without deigning to support the 
 
30 SELF-INTEREST MUST BE THE MOTIVE. 
 
 charge with a single instance circumstantially proven, 
 or ever asserted." 
 
 Had the Acadians taken Lawrence at his word and 
 sworn allegiance without reserve, we must infer that they 
 would have been allowed to remain unmolested on their 
 farms. Would he have acted thus with rebels or people 
 inclined to revolt ? Their oath of fidelity bound them 
 just as firmly to loyalty as the oath which he now pro- 
 posed to them. If they were rebellious and dangerous, 
 what was the use of a new oath ? No ; it is quite evi- 
 dent that the dispersion of the Acadians and the un- 
 speakable woe brought upon them were not caused by 
 the dread of danger. There remains but one cause, and 
 that merely the semblance of one : the refusal of the 
 oath. Were this a bona fide motive, the deportation 
 would still be a monstrous crime, though without profit 
 for its author. He would have committed it when he 
 had everything to lose and nothing to gain. This can- 
 not be : because all the precautions he took to hide his 
 projects fron the Lords of Trade show that he was play- 
 ing a risky game, where the stake must have been 
 tempting enough to counterbalance the risk he was 
 about to run. Wherefore we are justified in concluding 
 that the oath was but a pretext, and that the true mo- 
 tive of the deportation was some tangible advantage to 
 be gained by Lawrence. 
 
 Finally, if the Acadians could have been dangerous 
 when they had arms, what was to be feared now that 
 they were deprived of them and that the surrender of 
 these arms had been effected without resistance, every- 
 where, upon a mere command? How could they be 
 dangerous when their boats had been confiscated, and 
 
SELF-INTEREST MUST BE THE MOTIVE. 31 
 
 when the French had been expelled from all their strong 
 holds on the coast? 
 
 Let Mr. Parkman answer this question, he who, in 
 order to prejudge the matter, has not so much as al- 
 luded to the seizure of arms and boats, he who has care- 
 fully eschewed whatever could throw light on this 
 ignoble tragedy. 
 
32 GRADUAL PREPARATION. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXVII. 
 
 June 28th Lawrence announces to the Lords of Trade the taking 
 of Beausejour — He says he has ordered Monckton to expel the 
 Acadians from Beausejour — July 15th Lawrence gets Bos- 
 cawen to approve the expulsion — Which had long since been 
 decided upon — Proofs — Morris's report — Lawrence seeks pre- 
 texts — His letter of July 18th to the Lords of Trade — He dis- 
 guises his designs — July 25th one hundred Acadian delegates 
 appear before Lawrence — Refusal of the oath — They are im- 
 prisoned—The priests carried off — Letter from Daudin. 
 
 The material part of the deportation was henceforth 
 an easy matter. But there remained another far more 
 serious difficulty : so barbarous an act could surely not 
 be accomplished without the consent of the metropolitan 
 authorities. This consent was out of the question. 
 Never would England sanction such an infamous deed. 
 Should the situation become unbearable, should the 
 Acadians rebel, England would prefer to annihilate 
 them on the spot by force of arms rather than to lend 
 herself to a project like that which Lawrence had con- 
 ceived. However the Home Government must be 
 gradually prepared for some such issue ; hence it was 
 that, in the preceding year, when he gave a sombre pict- 
 ure of the Acadians, he had vaguely intimated " it 
 would be better that they were awayT 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1755, less than two weeks after 
 the evacuation of Beausejour, and a few days before the 
 consideration of the petition just analyzed, Lawrence, 
 announcing this event to the Lords of Trade, added : 
 
THE SECOND MOVE. 33 
 
 " The deserted Acadians are delivering up their arms, I have 
 given him (Monckton), orders to drive them out of the country at 
 all events though, if he wants their assistance inputting the 
 troops under cover, he may first make them do all the service in 
 their power." 
 
 This letter would imply that Monckton had orders 
 that he should command such Acadians as dwelt in the 
 territory which France had just evacuated to quit the 
 country, and, in case of refusal, that he should constrain 
 them thereto by force of arms. Yet this was not Law- 
 rence's intention ; far from it ; but it did not suit his 
 purpose to unveil clearly to the Lords of Trade his plan. 
 He had to leave them under an indefinite, half-and-half 
 impression, by way of preparation for the extreme meas- 
 ures he had resolved upon. Before announcing his 
 intentions with regard to those who had remained quiet 
 on their lands in the Peninsula, it was better to make 
 mention of those only who had long been refugees at 
 Beause'jour, and about whom the Lords of Trade would 
 feel less concern. Almost any piece of audacity may 
 be made a success if prepared with skilful gradation. 
 This was the second step. Were the " deserted Aca- 
 dians " expelled in accordance with the order he said he 
 gave Monckton ? By no means. He took good care that 
 no such expulsion should take place. We shall soon 
 see that he was completely successful in creating the 
 indefinite impression he wished in the minds of the 
 Lords of Trade ; and we shall also see that his project, 
 mutilated as it was and presented in a softened aspect, 
 gave rise to alarm and was severely blamed ; but it was 
 too late then, the crime was consummated. 
 
 Lawrence shows us by this letter that even these 
 Acadians refugees obeyed the order to deliver their 
 
34 NO MENTION OF THE PARDON. 
 
 arms. To all appearances they were peaceable and sub- 
 missive, and Lawrence entertained no fears about them, 
 since he intended, before expelling them, to employ them 
 on the fortifications of Beause'jour. 
 
 Another point, which proves that Lawrence sought to 
 prejudice the Lords of Trade against the Acadians, is 
 that in his letter he makes no mention of the fact that 
 the three hundred Acadians found armed at the sur- 
 render of Beause'jour were pardoned by Monckton be 
 cause they had taken up arms only under pain of death.* 
 Surely this was important enough to deserve mention. 
 With a similar end in view, writing to the Lords of 
 Trade the preceding year, he told them that those who 
 had crossed the frontier had done so " willingly" 
 although he was aware that the contrary was the truth. 
 And, after all, where was the guilt of those three 
 hundred Acadians, French subjects, taken with arms 
 which they had accepted only under pain of death, 
 especially when we know that many of them de- 
 serted, and that, at last, those who remained abso- 
 lutely refused to fight ? Moreover, if they were par- 
 doned, why should they be punished ? And the one 
 thousand two hundred others, on the French side, who 
 stubbornly refused to go to the fort and arm themselves, 
 wdiat were they guilty of? All these considerations 
 afford clear proof of their peaceable dispositions, a proof 
 which applies with still greater force to the Acadians of 
 the Peninsula. 
 
 Not daring openly to ask the Lords of Trade to 
 approve his project of deportation, Lawrence sought 
 support elsewhere. He needed some one, outside of his 
 
 * The articles of the Beausejours' capitulation, so important, are like- 
 wise omitted by the Compiler. 
 
BOSCAWEN APPROVES. 35 
 
 council, to share with him the heavy responsibility he 
 was going to assume. He must secure a defence before- 
 hand and prepare a plea of urgency to justify himself. 
 Probably because his audacity was dreaded he had 
 received orders — he himself tell us so — to consult the 
 commander of the fleet in every unforeseen juncture 
 that threatened the security of the Province. These 
 orders he turned to his own advantage and thus obtained 
 the support of the Vice-Admiral then at Halifax, Bos- 
 cawen, aptly nicknamed " Heart of Oak." He was just 
 the man for Lawrence, who knew his dispositions and 
 had skilfully prepared him to accept the cherished plan. 
 
 " The Lieut. -Governor acquainted the Council that he was in- 
 structed by His Majesty to consult the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 fleet, upon any emergency that might concern the security of the 
 Province." 
 
 The next day Boscawen, accompanied by his assistant, 
 Mostyn, appeared before the Council : 
 
 ''They approved of the said proceedings, and gave it as their 
 opinion, that it was now the properest time to oblige the said in- 
 habitants to take the oath of allegiance or quit tJie Country." 
 
 The trick was thus successfully played. This oc- 
 curred July 14th, 1755. 
 
 The reader should not forget that he is face to face 
 with a man of consummate artfulness, with a house- 
 painter's apprentice who, by sheer duplicity, has in a 
 few years raised himself to an exalted position. The 
 superiority of his intelligence would of itself suffice to 
 account for his success. One would have to be very 
 simple to believe that the events I have just related 
 were the result of unforeseen accidents, which Lawrence 
 
36 SURVEYOR MORRIS'S REPORT. 
 
 met as best he could from day to day. His letters to 
 the Lords of Trade, the seizure of arms, his feigned in- 
 dignation, his imaginary grievances, his consultations 
 with Boscawen, all this was but the get-up of the drama 
 he was preparing, so many means to an end. Happily, 
 to enlighten us as to his intentions, we now have access 
 to a document, which had long ago disappeared from 
 the Archives and was discovered by the Rev. Andrew 
 Brown. It affords a strong presumption that Lawrence 
 had resolved upon the deportation long before the siege 
 of Beause*jour, and that, as a consequence, his griev- 
 ances, his special pleading anent the oath, etc., had 
 nothing to do with his decision. True, this document 
 is undated, but it bears intrinsic evidence that it was 
 drawn up before the events I have related above. Mr. 
 Grosart, the finder and purchaser of Brown's MS., wrote 
 at the bottom of this document : " This invaluable 
 paper was drawn up b}' Judge Morris early in 1755" 
 
 Morris, then Provincial Surveyor, had been charged 
 by Lawrence with the preparation of a report on the 
 most effectual method of deporting the Acadians. His 
 report is very long and replete with details. " One 
 must read it attentively," says Casgrain, "to form a 
 just estimate of the undertaking and of the man, to be 
 in a position to appreciate them, I mean, to treat them 
 both with deserved contempt." 
 
 Morris begins his paper, continues Casgrain, with most 
 minute topographical details. He describes each parish, 
 each village, and even each small cluster of houses, 
 which he enumerates one by one. He indicates the 
 situation thereof, whether on the seashore, near the 
 rivers or in the interior. He points out all the water- 
 ways and roads by which the Acadians could escape 
 
 
VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS. 37 
 
 and suggests how they could be intercepted. He omits 
 neither one patrol to guard a land-route nor one cruiser 
 to protect a sea-passage. In all this he exhibits a feline 
 sagacity that forcibly reminds one of a cat watching a 
 mouse. But the good judge really surpasses himself in 
 the variety of snares and lies he invents to surprise and 
 seize the poor Acadians. For instance, an effort must 
 be made to spread among them beforehand a rumor that 
 they are to be transported, not into exile into a foreign 
 country, but to Canada. Once they come under this 
 false impression they will be more willing to do as they 
 are bid. If only they could be persuaded to give them- 
 selves up of their own accord ! But that is hardly feas- 
 ible. No doubt on Sundays, when they are together 
 in church, they might be surrounded and arrested. 
 What if they were surprised in their beds ? But they 
 are too numerous and too scattered for that. Finally, 
 the judge lays his finger on the best method, the one 
 which was adopted at last : send to Mines and else- 
 where strong detachments of soldiers to make the 
 people prisoners after they had come together for a 
 public meeting. 
 
 For the better understanding of this document, I 
 append a few extracts : 
 
 ''The number of men necessary to remove the Acadians, and 
 the places to post them will depend much on their behaviour, and 
 it will much facilitate their readiness to go, if a persuasion could 
 obtain among them that they are to be removed to Canada, could 
 it be propagated by common report, for it is natural to think they 
 will be unwilling to quit their possessions, and to offer themselves 
 voluntarily to be transported they know not whither. I apprehend 
 such a persuasion would greatly facilitate the enterprise. . . If 
 they can possibly be persuaded to surrender themselves voluntarily, 
 or if they can be apprehended by any stratagem. Tlie rest might 
 
38 brown's estimate of morris. 
 
 submit willingly ; but, if they prove obstinate, and take to the 
 woods, and take up arms, it will require the whole force of the 
 Colony to subdue them. 
 
 "If strong detachments were placed in the villages of Grand 
 Pre, Pigiguit and Canard, at a certain day, they might be all sum- 
 moned to attend, and then seize on all those that attend : or 
 whether to invest their churches on a Sunday to be agreed on, and 
 to seize on all present : or whether to invest their villages in the 
 night, and seize them in bed ; their living in such scattering situa- 
 tion will render this difficult ; a number of whaleboats would be 
 absolutely necessary if this were concluded on, to seize all those 
 contiguous to the Basin, which would be best stationed at Grand 
 Pre, as being near the centre of the settlements from whence they 
 may be sent out. 
 
 " In short, it is difficult to conjecture how it may be accom- 
 plished, but the circumstances as they arise, will afford the best 
 information of the most effectual methods of dealing with them. 
 Happy would it be, if they, in general, come in of their own accord ! 
 
 " Is it not possible to employ some person who can be confided 
 in, and who has been among them, to sound their present disposi- 
 tion and intention, and from thence to take measures accord- 
 ingly?" 
 
 What treachery ! To what acts of base servility may 
 not the desire of self-advancement impel a man, perhaps 
 otherwise upright enough, who wants to please an odious 
 despot! Morris's reward was a judgeship. 
 
 It is noteworthy that, among all Morris's infernal 
 combinations, not the slightest allusion occurs to the 
 unrestricted oath, about which so much fuss was to he 
 made a few weeks later. Evidently, it was of little 
 consequence whether the Acadians took this oath or 
 not; they were in any case condemned to deportation. 
 " Tliey are at all adventures to be rooted out ; " these are 
 Morris's own words. Was I not right in saying that 
 the oath was but the semblance of a motive, a sham to 
 make the deportation plausible? The same may be 
 said of all Lawrence's other shifts. 
 
CHAIN OF INTRINSIC EVIDENCE. 39 
 
 This is how Brown himself brands that hideous paper 
 and its author : 
 
 "The subject was referred to Mr. Morris, as best acquainted 
 with the country and the inhabitants. He wrote this report in 
 consequence, little honorable to his heart, as it is replete with un- 
 justifiable stratagems, cruel advice and barbarous counsel. . . I 
 found this paper among the council fyles. From it I corrected a 
 less perfect copy put into my hands by his son, and from it got 
 this transcript taken." 
 
 Morris's report bore this heading : 
 
 " Some reflections on the situation of the inhabitants, commonly 
 called Neutrals, and some methods proposed to prevent their escape 
 out of the colony, in case, upon being acquainted with the design 
 of removing them, they should attempt to desert over to the 
 French" 
 
 Whoever carefully reads this title will see that it im- 
 plies that the project of deporting the Acadians was 
 already formed when Morris received instructions to 
 prepare his report. All he had to do was to furnish in- 
 formation as to the method of carrying out the project, 
 and to prevent the Acadians from joining the French. 
 Therefore, Lawrence was deceiving the Lords of Trade 
 when he wrote to them that he had ordered Monckton to 
 banish from the country the Beausejour Acadians, since 
 at that very moment he was doing his best to find some 
 means of preventing their departure, so that he might 
 have them in his power to scatter them at his own 
 chosen time. Indeed Morris, in the following passage, 
 distinctly hints that they are to be transported to 
 English Colonies : " It will much facilitate their read- 
 iness to go if a persuasion could obtain among them 
 that they are to be removed to Canada, for it is natural 
 
40 DATE OF LAWRENCE'S DECISION. 
 
 to think they will be unwilling to offer themselves vol- 
 untarily to be transported they know not whither." 
 
 Morris felt pretty sure that, should the Acadians be- 
 come persuaded of their future deportation to Canada, 
 they would submit to their fate. I think he was right. 
 But, once more, does not this prove that they were not 
 and could never become rebels, except under extraor- 
 dinary provocation from their rulers? For, we must 
 bear in mind — and this is fresh evidence that Morris's 
 report was prepared before the siege of Beausejour — that 
 the Acadians still had their arms, since, while enumer- 
 ating his skilful combinations, Morris says: "but if 
 they prove obstinate and take up arms, it will require 
 the whole force of the colony to subdue them. This 
 lie certainly could not have said if their arms had al- 
 ready been taken from them. 
 
 The foregoing considerations demonstrate, I think, 
 first, that this document was prior to the siege of Beau- 
 se*jour, and to Lawrence's dealings with the delegates, 
 and, secondly, that Lawrence had already decided upon 
 the deportation. But by analogous reasoning we are 
 led to place the date of Lawrence's decision still further 
 back ; we must go beyond the mere drawing up of the 
 report to the time when Lawrence instructed Morris to 
 prepare it. Now a document of this length and impor- 
 tance, comprising a multitude of minute details and a 
 complete census of the population, is not the work of a 
 day or a week either. Besides, the idea of giving such 
 an order to Morris cannot have sprung all at once from 
 Lawrence's head like a jack-in-a-box. It was and must 
 have been there for a long time ; he had slowly hatched 
 it ; he had himself matured the means of realizing it. 
 By an indisputable chain of facts we come to the con- 
 
PARKMAN IGNORES BROWN. 41 
 
 elusion that, long before the siege of Beausejour, Law- 
 rence had resolved to cast away the Acadians on the 
 shores of New England. We also come to this other 
 parallel conclusion, that he seized the Acadians' arms 
 for the double purpose of creating pretexts and of more 
 securely executing his project ; that he took offence at 
 a respectful petition because it was his interest to ap- 
 pear hurt ; that he forbade the delegates to consult their 
 fellow-countrymen lest his proposal of an unrestricted 
 oath might be accepted ; that for the same reason he 
 rejected their tardy consent to take this oath ; that he 
 imprisoned them because he wished the mass of the 
 Acadians to believe that their delegates had peremp- 
 torily and constantly refused to comply with his behests, 
 for he knew that the example of the delegates' accept- 
 ance would have great weight with the people ; that, if 
 he consulted Boscawen, " Heart of Oak," it was only 
 because he had prepared and won him over to his views, 
 and because he was most anxious to shield himself behind 
 another's responsibility, for he knew full well that he 
 could never obtain the consent of the Lords of Trade, 
 and that, if he did not protect himself, he ran great risk 
 of being blamed and disgraced ; that his letter of June 
 28th to the Lords of Trade was a trick to mask his 
 designs. 
 
 " I would fain believe," says Casgrain, " that the his- 
 torians who have striven to justify the deportation had 
 not in hand all the documents we possess to-day ; but I 
 must say that he whose narrative is the most famous 
 had a complete copy of those documents before his eyes 
 while he wrote." 
 
 Casgrain here alludes to Brown's MS. and to Park- 
 man. In fact this writer could not but know all about 
 
42 ACADIANS ARCHIVES CARRIED OFF. 
 
 Brown. It would, indeed, be astonishing if he who de- 
 voted almost fifty years of his life to the history of this 
 country, and who took the trouble to get sixty-two vol- 
 umes of manuscripts copied from the Paris Archives, 
 should have never heard of Brown's MS. deposited in 
 the British Museum in 1852, and copied by the Nova 
 Scotia Hist. Soc. a few years before Parkman's narra- 
 tive on Acadian affairs. Besides, if need be, I can prove 
 beyond question that Parkman had read this manuscript. 
 And yet he has never quoted Brown's opinions nor the 
 documents his MS. contains, nor so much as men- 
 tioned his name. Did he think that the views of 
 Brown, a minister of the Gospel, a professor of a cele- 
 brated university, a citizen of Halifax, a contemporary 
 of the actors and witnesses of the tragedy, passing judg- 
 ment as between absent foreigners and fellow-country- 
 men with whom lie was intimate and whose very rem- 
 iniscences he was using, were not worth the views of 
 Pichon the traitor and spy? At all events, the docu- 
 ments contained in Brown's MS. had a voice of their 
 own; Parkman might quote them and name the author 
 of the MS. without a blush, without being forced to 
 conceal his identity as he felt he must do for Pichon. 
 
 Where had Brown found Morris' document? He tells 
 us himself : in the Archives. Since that time it lias, like 
 so many other papers, disappeared therefrom. Many 
 people were of course interested in suppressing such 
 dangerous witnesses of villainy. The Historical Society 
 of Halifax got a great part of Brown's MS. copied into 
 its collections, but all the odious portion of Morris's 
 report is cut away, the topographical descriptions alone 
 being preserved. May we not be warranted in suppos- 
 ing that there was somebody at work who was interested 
 
WHY LAWEENCE WROTE TO THE LORDS. 43 
 
 in shielding one of his ancestors from public con- 
 tempt ? 
 
 About the middle of July, as far as I can ascertain, 
 the priests were arrested and the Archives of the Aca- 
 dians carried off. The Halifax archives do not mention 
 these important facts. By this time the reader must 
 have ceased being surprised at these omissions. The 
 Abbe' Le Guerne, who spent many years on the Gulf 
 coasts with the Acadians that had escaped the deporta- 
 tion, tells us that the arrest of the priests took place 
 about the middle of July, and he names, among those 
 who were thus carried off, the Abbe's Daudin, Chau- 
 vreulx and Le Maire. These were the only priests then 
 dwelling in the Peninsula with the exception of Desen- 
 claves, who succeeded in escaping by taking to the 
 woods. We find him afterwards at Cape Sable with the 
 remnants of some families that had escaped the deporta- 
 tion. The series of Lawrence's persecutions would not 
 have been complete without this carrying off of the 
 priests. He knew that whatever touched the religious 
 faith of the Acadians was for them a very sore point. 
 Perhaps he had hoped thus to exasperate them and 
 drive them into acts of resistance that would make a 
 great show and emphasize his accusations. If so, he 
 was doomed to disappointment. But what could have 
 been Lawrence's motive in seizing the archives of the 
 Acadians? Had he foreseen, so far ahead, the pos- 
 sibility of petitions to the King and denunciations of his 
 conduct? This would have been a correct forecast, 
 seeing that, two years later, the Acadians deported to 
 Philadelphia, in a petition to the King, explain that 
 it was impossible for them to prove their assertions 
 because their archives had been carried off. And since 
 
44 LONG-HEADED AUDACITY. 
 
 a detail apparently so insignificant did not escape the 
 fertile and watchful mind of Lawrence, it is easy to 
 understand why the archives are so incomplete, why he 
 has so effectually blotted out all vestige of his crime, 
 why we are confronted with a lost chapter. 
 
 In his letter of June 28th to the Lords of Trade, 
 Lawrence had mentioned expulsion with regard only to 
 the Acadian refugees at Beaus^jour. It was not becom- 
 ing that he should take action against those who had 
 always remained in the Province, without giving the 
 Lords of Trade a vague hint at least of his plans. His 
 own interest with a view to meet the difficulty of justi- 
 fying his conduct made this imperative. His fault 
 would be deemed all the greater and his justification all 
 the more difficult, the more completely he would be 
 leaving the Lords of Trade in the dark as to his designs. 
 There was no doubt a serious inconvenience, nay, a 
 danger in giving them any inkling of his purpose : they 
 might forbid him to carry it out ; but, three months 
 would have to elapse before an answer came back, and 
 meanwhile the deportation would be an accomplished fact. 
 He would not dare to disobey a positive prohibition ; 
 but he flattered himself he could make them accept an 
 accomplished fact without grave disadvantage to him- 
 self. If, however, contrary to his expectation, the 
 Lords of Trade took a threatening view of his conduct, 
 he would intrench himself behind the approval of his 
 Council and of Boscawen, he would plead necessity and 
 urgency. Moreover, there was actual war between 
 France and England ; that war might become official at 
 any moment, and it is always easier to fish in troubled 
 waters. The engrossing cares of a military campaign, 
 scattering attention over so many points at a time, would 
 
 
WHAT HIS LETTER DOES NOT MENTION. 45 
 
 not suffer that attention to rest on one special point, 
 and that an isolated one, lost on a little-frequented 
 shore, where the very bitterness of the struggle would 
 make observers indulgent, and the din of battle would 
 smother the cries of the victims. So long as the war 
 lasted there could hardly be any question of making an 
 investigation into his conduct. Men " don't swap 
 horses when they're crossing a stream." The war bid 
 fair to be long and lively, and afterwards . . . well, 
 afterwards, all would be forgotten or confused. If final 
 victory crowned the efforts of England, all would be 
 buried under the trophies of triumph. Lawrence was 
 playing high; he knew it, but he also knew that cir- 
 cumstances were in his favor. Does not fortune favor 
 the bold ? Audaces fortuna juvat. 
 
 No ; there was no reason to stay his hand. He had 
 better let the Lords of Trade know a part of his plan. 
 This he did on the 18th of July. 
 
 After having stated that the Acadians had never yet 
 taken an " unqualified " oath, he informs their Lord- 
 ships that he took advantage of their coming before 
 the Council with an extremely insolent petition, to pro- 
 pose to them the oath ; which they obstinately refused. 
 
 " The next morning they appeared and refused to take the oath 
 without the old reserve of not being obliged to bear arms, upon 
 which, they were acquainted that, as they refused to become 
 English subjects, we could no longer look upon them in that 
 light, that we should send them to Franee by the first opportunity, 
 and, till then, were ordered to be kept prisoners. Your Lordships 
 will see our proceedings in this case, as soon as it is possible to 
 prepare the minutes of the Council." 
 
 Not a word does this letter contain about the subject- 
 matter of this supposedly impudent letter, not a word 
 
46 
 
 PRESUMPTIVE ATTITUDE OF THE LORDS. 
 
 about the seizure of arms, about the confiscation of the 
 boats, about the order to give up all fire-arms and the 
 immediate delivery thereof, about the arrest of the 
 priests and the carrying off of the Acadian archives, not 
 a word on points the knowledge of which was so very 
 importaut to enable the Lords of Trade to understand 
 the state of affairs. 
 
 Once more his object is manifest ; he wants to conceal 
 his actions and intentions. His whole behavior has the 
 same general trend ; we have here not merely one 
 isolated fact, lost amid others of a different nature, or 
 unconnected with the tenor of his conduct, but an un- 
 interrupted series of connected facts which could have 
 only one objective point. Nor can it be alleged that 
 these omissions were immaterial ; on the contrary, they 
 were a flagrant violation of duty : for he was evidently 
 bound to acquaint the Lords of Trade with all these 
 grave events and to enter the record of them in the 
 Archives. 
 
 Lawrence knew very well that, unless he could cite 
 clear cases of rebellion, it would be difficult, not to say 
 impossible, to convince the Lords of Trade that the 
 Acadians were to be feared. The Home authorities 
 had the experience of forty-five years to go by ; they 
 knew, from Mascarene's letters, that, in exceptionally 
 painful circumstances, they had never once resorted to 
 arms ; they knew that it had not been otherwise under 
 Cornwallis and Hopson. Often, it is true, complaints 
 had been made of their lack of sentimental attachment to 
 England, of their partiality for the French, of their 
 stubbornness about the oath ; but this was all. The 
 Lords of Trade were anxious to keep them in the coun- 
 try ; they were known to be peaceable, moral and hard- 
 
PEESUMPTIVE ATTITUDE OF THE LORDS. 47 
 
 working. What, then, would the Lords of Trade have 
 thought of Lawrence's plans, even as toned down in 
 their presentment, if he had informed them that he had 
 tricked the Acadians out of part of their arms and that 
 they had delivered up the remainder as well as their 
 boats on a simple order to that effect ; that he had im- 
 prisoned their priests and carried off their archives ; 
 that, despite this cruel treatment, he could not reproach 
 them with a single act of rebellion or resistance ; that 
 the only complaint he could make referred to a Petition 
 which he called insolent, but which he neither repro- 
 duced nor explained, taking good care not to mention 
 the second petition in which they developed and justified 
 the good intentions of the former? Doubtless the Lords 
 of Trade would have replied in some such strain as this : 
 By your insulting and arbitrary measures you have 
 exposed the province to an insurrection ; you have sown 
 discontent and distrust among a people which we were 
 trying to assimilate or at least to attach to our interests. 
 You have ruined or at least jeopardized a policy 
 which we have long been following with great care. 
 And, since they have undergone your humiliations and 
 your cruelty without breaking the peace, without violat- 
 ing their oath of fidelity, can you not see how excellent 
 are their dispositions ? Finally, since they have neither 
 boats in which to escape nor arms for attack or defence ; 
 since the majority of their brethren who dwell with the 
 French refused to take up arms ; since those who did 
 were forced to it under pain of death ; since the French 
 have been repulsed and driven from their posts all along 
 the coast; since it is henceforth impossible for the 
 Acadians to have any intercourse with the French, what 
 in the world have you to fear ? 
 
48 DELEGATES SUMMONED BY LAWRENCE. 
 
 Another ruse of Lawrence's was his assertion, in this 
 letter to the Lords of Trade, that he had declared to 
 the Acadian delegates that " he should send them to 
 France," whereas we have seen how, long before, he had 
 made up his mind to deport, not merely the few dele- 
 gates he had imprisoned, but the entire population, not 
 to Canada nor to France, but to places he must carefully 
 keep them ignorant of. Even with respect to the 
 imprisoned delegates he treacherously veiled his purpose 
 in vague terms as if his decision as to them might be 
 reversed: " They have since desired to be admitted to 
 take the oath, but have not been admitted, nor will any 
 answer be given them until we see how the rest of the 
 inhabitants are disposed." 
 
 A little further on, however, at the close of his letter, 
 as if he thought better of it and as if he had a far-off 
 vision of the disgrace he might incur should he not 
 shield himself more carefully against the imputation of 
 purposely disguising his projects, he adds : u I am 
 determined to bring the inhabitants to a compliance or 
 rid the province of such perfidious subjects.'''' 
 
 During the ensuing week, on July 25th, a hundred 
 new delegates from all parts of the Province met at 
 Halifax in compliance with Lawrence's orders. Were 
 they to have the same fate as the fifteen delegates he 
 had put in prison and still held in St. George's Island ? 
 They could hardly doubt it, since they came with a 
 final answer that they would not take the oath he 
 required. There was self-denial, if not heroism, in 
 accepting a mandate that exposed them to rot in prison ; 
 but they did not flinch ; some one must voice the will 
 of the people, and so they braved the anger and ven- 
 geance of the tyrant. But why so many delegates when 
 
 
RESPECTFUL REPLIES. 49 
 
 twenty-four was the usual number ? What need was 
 there of a hundred men merely to carry an answer ? We 
 shall see later on. This was another of Lawrence's 
 clever machinations, and one that shows how artfully 
 he had planned, far in advance, all the details of his- 
 crime, and how far he carried his inhumanity. 
 
 The reply of the inhabitants of Annapolis reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Having received Your Excellency's orders, dated July 12th, 
 1755, we assembled on Sunday the 13th (July) in order to read 
 them to all the inhabitants, wishing always to observe a faithful 
 obedience. 
 
 " We have unanimously consented to deliver up our fire-arms 
 to M. Handfield, our very worthy commandant, although we have 
 never had any desire to make use of them against His Majesty's 
 Government. We have therefore nothing to reproach ourselves, 
 either on that subject, or on the subject of the fidelity we owe to 
 His Majesty's Government. For, sir, we can assure Your Excel- 
 lency, that several of us have risked our lives to give information 
 to the Government concerning the enemy ; and have also, when 
 necessary, laboured with all our heart, on the repairs of Fort 
 Annapolis, and other work considered necessary by the Govern- 
 ment, and are ready to continue with the same fidelity. We have 
 also selected thirty men to proceed to Halifax, whom we shall 
 recommend to do or say nothing contrary to His Majesty's Coun- 
 cil ; but we shall charge them strictly to contract no new oath. 
 We are resolved to adhere to that to which we have been faithful, 
 as far as circumstances required it ; for the enemies of His Majesty 
 have urged us to take up arms against the Government but we 
 have taken care not to do so. 
 
 " Signed by two hundred and seven of the said inhabitants." 
 
 " They were told that they must now resolve either to take the 
 oath or quit their lands. Upon which they said they were deter- 
 mined, one and all, rather to quit their lands than to take any 
 other oath than what they had done before. They were given till 
 next day at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, to reconsider the matter." 
 
 The delegates of Grand Pre*, Pigiguit, Riviere aux. 
 4 
 
50 LAWRENCE ENSURES REFUSAL OF THE OATH. 
 
 Canards, being brought before the Governor, present 
 their reply : — 
 
 u The inhabitants of our Districts having been informed by M. 
 Murray, etc. , etc. We take the liberty of representing, that, after 
 having taken the oath of fidelity to His Majesty, with all the cir- 
 cumstances and reservations granted to us in the name of the 
 King, by His Excellency Governor Philipps, which allegiance we 
 have observed as far as possible, enjoying peaceably our rights 
 according to the terms of our oath in all its tenor and reserve ; 
 and always having relied on our oath of fidelity, we are resolved 
 with one consent and voice, to take no other oath. We have taken 
 the oath of fidelity in good faith, We are very well pleased and 
 satisfied. We hope, sir, that you will have the kindness to listen 
 to our just reasons ; and, in consequence, we all, with a unani- 
 mous voice, beg His Honor to set at liberty our people who have 
 been detained at Halifax for some time [the previous delegates], 
 not even knowing their situation, which appears to us deplorable. 
 We have full confidence, sir, that you will have the goodness to 
 grant us the favor which we have the honor most humbly to 
 beg. Charity for our detained inhabitants, and their innocence, 
 oblige us to beg Your Excellency to be touched by their miseries, 
 and to restore to them their liberty with all possible submission 
 and the most profound respect. 
 
 " Signed by two hundred and three." 
 
 11 The Deputies were then called in and peremptorily refused 
 the oath. 
 
 " Those of Annapolis also appeared and refused the oath. 
 
 " Whereupon, they were all ordered into confinement. 
 
 "" As it had been before determined to send all the Acadians out 
 Of the Province if they refused to take the oath, nothing now re- 
 mained to be considered but what measures should be taken to send 
 them away, and where they should be sent to. 
 
 11 After mature consideration, it was unanimously agreed, to 
 prevent as much as possible their attempting to return and molest 
 the settlers that may be set doum on their lands, it would be most 
 proper to send them to be distributed amongst the several colonies 
 on the Continent, and that a sufficient number of vessels should 
 be hired with all possible expedition for that purpose." 
 
 Under any circumstances these petitions may be 
 
ARREST OF PRIESTS. 51 
 
 deemed excessively deferential, but particularly so in 
 the present case when causes of discontent were so grave 
 and so numerous. There is in all these petitions a ring 
 of sincerity which, for the unprejudiced reader, is far 
 more convincing than the vague and really childish 
 accusations of Lawrence. No ; these good people who 
 so unanimously obeyed all the iniquitous commands 
 Lawrence chose to lay upon them could not be danger- 
 ous either with or without arms. Those who would 
 gainsay this give the lie to all historical reasoning in 
 the search after truth ; and, since Lawrence made the 
 remaining in the country depend upon the taking of the 
 oath, the few writers who approve the deportation, the 
 " rari nantes," have but one resource left, they must base 
 their defence of that act on the simple refusal to take 
 the oath. But those who, like myself, are convinced 
 that the Acadians afforded no reasonable excuse for 
 their deportation, and that their refusal to take the oath 
 could not have been Lawrence's real motive, will be 
 forced to admit that he had his own interest in view, to 
 attain which he did all he could to prevent the taking 
 of the oath. Knowing that kindness would win the 
 Acadians, he treated them harshly. We cannot fix the 
 date of the arrest of the priests ; l'Abbe* Le Guerne 
 places it in the middle of July (a la mi-juillet), and 
 this meeting of the delegates was on the 25th of that 
 month. If the priests had already been arrested, this 
 was quite enough to prevent the taking of the oath, as 
 it clearly meant that the exercise of their religion was 
 at an end. However this may be, there are enough 
 other facts of a grave character to warrant the inference 
 that Lawrence would not have the oath, that he behaved 
 so as not to get it, and that, if it had been taken, the 
 
52 daudin's narrative. 
 
 deportation would have been accomplished all the same 
 under other pretexts. 
 
 Parkman, with the candor that distinguishes him, 
 tells us that the Acadians refused the oath "in full 
 view of the consequences." But, have we not just seen 
 that Lawrence declared to them, " You must now re- 
 solve to take the oath or quit your lands ?" Was this 
 the same as the deportation which he had decided on, 
 and which was actually soon to be a matter of fact? 
 As well might we say that the moon was like green 
 cheese. From this declaration of Lawrence's the 
 Acadians could draw but one conclusion : namely, that, 
 in case they refused, they would have to give up their 
 lands and go wherever they pleased. In this case 
 history would have been silent as to their fate. There 
 would have been cruelty, injustice, bad faith, violation 
 of a treaty and of solemn engagements ; but this fact 
 would have been like some others that stain the pages 
 of history and are forgotten by reason of the time in 
 which they occurred or of the frequency of their occur- 
 rence. Cruel as the order to give up property and 
 fatherland would have been, they would have obeyed 
 and accepted the alternative. There can be no doubt 
 of this, neither did Morris doubt it, since he thought 
 they would be resigned to their fate even if they were 
 to be deported, provided they were led to believe that 
 they would be transported all together to Canada. At 
 the very moment when Lawrence was hypocritically 
 declaring that they would have to quit their lands, his 
 resolution was thus expressed : " As it has been before 
 determined to send all the Acadians out of the Prov- 
 ince." And, at the same sitting of the council, it was 
 decided that they should be scattered up and down 
 
AN HEROIC NEGATIVE. 53 
 
 the British colonies ; in other words, this Resolution 
 was but the fulfilment of formalities connected with 
 a decision long since arrived at. 
 
 By way of relieving the dry monotony of official 
 documents, always drawn up with a keen eye to self- 
 defence, I will insert here the recital of these last 
 events by Abbe* Daudin, who must then have been a 
 prisoner at Halifax. 
 
 " For a long time," says he, " the English never spoke to the 
 Acadians except to announce their ruin in the near future. They 
 were told that they would be made slaves, that they would be 
 dispersed like the Irish ; in short, everything foreboded the de- 
 struction of their nation ; there was talk of nothing else than 
 burning the houses and laying waste the fields. However, the in- 
 habitants were not discouraged, as is proved by the most abundant 
 harvest that was ever seen in the country. Prayer is the only 
 weapon they used against the English." 
 
 " After the taking of Beausejour they made a show of command- 
 ing the inhabitants on holidays to go to the Fort and sharpen all 
 their instruments of war, telling them these weapons were to de- 
 stroy them, after they had cut up into pieces their brethren who 
 were refugees with the French." 
 
 " When the Grand Pre delegates had started for Halifax, there 
 came to Annapolis an order promulgated at the church door on 
 Sunday, July 6th, which order enjoined on all the inhabitants to 
 carry their arms to the Fort, and to meet for the nomination of 
 thirty delegates who should immediately go to join at Halifax 
 those of the other parishes. The very next day the arms were 
 brought in and the delegates left the following Wednesday. After 
 their departure, the canoes were demanded and burned." 
 
 " When the delegates from all parts had arrived to the number 
 of about one hundred, they were called before the Council, where 
 they were immediately told that no propositions nor explanations 
 would be received from them. Those from Annapolis wished to 
 show their privileges granted by Queen Anne, since acknowledged 
 and ratified by the reigning King ; but in vain. The Governor 
 replied to them that he wanted no answer but yes or no. He put 
 the following very plain question to them : ' Will you or will 
 
54 AN EPIDEMIC OF TYRANNY. 
 
 you not swear to the Bang of Great Britain that you will take up 
 arms against the King of France, his enemy ? ' The answer was 
 not less laconic than the question. 'Since,'' said they, 'we are 
 asked only for a yes or a no, we will all answer unanimously, No ; ' 
 adding, however, that what was required of them tended to despoil 
 them of their religion and everything else." 
 
 1 ' Immediately the Governor gave orders to transport them on a 
 small island, distant as far as a cannon-ball would carry from 
 Halifax, whither they were conducted like criminals, and where 
 they remained until the end of October* fed on a little bad bread, 
 deprived of the liberty of receiving any assistance as well as of 
 speaking to any one." 
 
 " The Governor imagined that this harshness would soften their 
 courage ; he found them as firm as ever. He took the resolution 
 of betaking himself to the aforesaid island with a numerous ret- 
 inue, accompanied by all the instruments of torture, in order to 
 try to soften their courage at the sight of this spectacle. In the 
 midst of this display befitting a tyrant he asked them if they per- 
 sisted in their answers. One of them replied, ' Yes, and more 
 than ever ; we have God for us and that is enough.' The Gov- 
 ernor drew his sword and said : ' Insolent fell OW t you deserve that I 
 should run my sword through your body.'' The peasant presented 
 his breast to him, and, drawing nearer, said : ' Strike, Sir. if you 
 dare; I shall be the first martyr of the band: you con kill my 
 body, but you shall not kill my soul.' The Governor in a sort of 
 frenzy, asked the others if they shared the feelings of that inso- 
 lent fellow who had just spoken ; all with one voice exclaimed : 
 ' Yes, Sir ! Yes, Sir! '" 
 
 " After the carrying off of the priests, the English raised their 
 flag above the churches and made the latter into barracks when 
 their troops passed there The missionaries reached Hali- 
 fax with this fine accompaniment, drums beating. They were 
 led out on the parade, where they were exposed during three 
 quarters of an hour to mockery, contempt and insults." 
 
 The official documents, mutilated as they are, let us 
 catch but a faint glimpse of Lawrence's oppression. 
 It could hardly be otherwise even if they were cora- 
 
 * The deportation was then pretty well completed, and these prisoners 
 were deported together, apart from their families, and to other places. 
 
AN EPIDEMIC OF TYBANNY. 55 
 
 plete : a despot does not register his misdeeds, espe- 
 cially when he is responsible to a higher authority and 
 when he is playing a dangerous game without the 
 knowledge of that authority. Lawrence seems to have 
 taken especial delight in figuring as a tyrant, in mak- 
 ing poor wretches who could only hold their tongues 
 quail and quake before his eye. None but an upstart 
 could carry to such lengths the abuse of his power 
 merely because the Acadians refused to lend themselves 
 to an act against nature; and, if we give credit to 
 Daudin, he was careful to render this oath more ter- 
 rible by intimating that they would have to fight the 
 French. Evidently, he was anxious to fail. 
 
 This letter of Daudin's confirms the intrinsic evi- 
 dence of Morris's report as to Lawrence's intentions 
 having been formed long ago. Long before the taking 
 of Beause*jour, whether he avowed his purpose or 
 merely let it be guessed by the people about him, the 
 English officials used to say to the Acadians that they 
 would be dispersed, that their houses would be burned. 
 
56 FOUR MONTHS WITHOUT A LETTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 July 31st — Lawrence's instructions to Monckton, Winslow, Murray 
 and Handfield about the deportation — Proofs of his cruelty. 
 
 At length the deportation was now officially decided, 
 even as to the manner in which it was accomplished. 
 One would think that Lawrence forthwith wrote to the 
 Lords of Trade. This time at least the duty was press- 
 ing, imperative. Quite true ; yet he did no such thing. 
 In his letter of July 18th, given above, he had gone as 
 far as he deemed prudent. The main point now was to 
 gain time. If the deportation were accomplished easily, 
 without grave disturbance, the bold game he was play- 
 ing would probably be won. The Home Government 
 would shut their eyes to an accomplished fact, though 
 they could not do so to a mere project. Lawrence did 
 not write to the Lords of Trade till three months later, 
 when the deportation, though almost completed, was as 
 yet unknown to them, and when he was urged by them 
 to write and explain the obscure hints of his letter of 
 June 28th. Is this not a new proof that he was trying 
 to deceive them, that he was fencing with them, that 
 his letters of August 1st, 1754, June 28th and July 
 18th, 1755, were so many steps in a clever scheme of 
 duplicity organized and matured long ago ? 
 
 He must make haste ; he had not a moment to lose. 
 The deportation must be done and over before the mid- 
 dle of October, before he could receive an answer from 
 
LAWRENCE'S FEARS. 57 
 
 the Lords of Trade to his letter of June 28th. These 
 latter, if they were quick about it, could let him have 
 an answer about the beginning of October ; and if at 
 that date the deportation was not being executed, if this 
 answer blamed him and ordered him to desist from his 
 projects concerning the Acadians of Beaus£jour, his 
 position would become extremely embarrassing. How 
 could he proceed with the deportation of all the Aca- 
 dians of the province, if he were blamed for the mere 
 intention to banish those who had less claims on the 
 indulgence of the Government? Lawrence fully real- 
 ized the enormous distinction the latter would draw 
 between those who dwelt in the province and the 
 refugees of Beaus6jour, and the still greater distinction 
 between deportation as he was going to carry it out and 
 a banishment that would have left each of the banished 
 free to go where he pleased. The latter might be 
 dangerous, though in some respects excusable ; the for- 
 mer was an unprecedented crime which left an indelible 
 stain on the national flag. 
 
 Nor were Lawrence's fears of a disagreeable and early 
 reply unfounded. About this time, the Secretary of 
 State, frightened at the disguised projects of Lawrence, 
 as expressed in his letter of June 28th, was dictating a 
 reply full of alarm, which arrived too late to save a 
 whole people from the hateful plot a monster had 
 hatched against their corporate existence. But, before 
 considering this important letter, which reflects so much 
 credit on its author and is so consoling for the sons of 
 the victims and for all mankind, let us follow Lawrence 
 in his preparations and in the consummation of his 
 undertaking. 
 
 Two days only after the official decision that the 
 
58 SAVE THE CATTLE. 
 
 Acadians be deported, on July 31st, Lawrence addressed 
 the following letter to Colonel Monckton, Commandant 
 at Beause^jour. I give it in full despite its length : for 
 it helps greatly to an understanding of the events that 
 ensued and of Lawrence's sentiments. 
 
 " The Deputies of the Acadians of the Districts of Annapolis, Mines 
 and Pigiguit, have been called before the Council and have refused 
 to take the oath of allegiance, whereupon, the council advised and it 
 is accordingly determined that they shall be removed out of the 
 Country, as soon as possible, and, as to those about Beausejour, who 
 were in arms and therefore entitled to no favor, it is determined to 
 begin with them first ; and, for this purpose, orders are given for a 
 sufficient number of transports to be sent up the Bay with all possi- 
 ble dispatch for taking them on board, by whom you will receive 
 particular instructions as to the manner of their being disposed of, 
 the places of their destination, and every other thing necessary for 
 that purpose. 
 
 11 In the meantime, it will be necessary to keep this measure as 
 secret as possible, as well to prevent their attempting to escape, as 
 to carry off their cattle etc., etc., and, the better to effect this, you will 
 endeavour to fall upon some stratagem to get the men, both young 
 and old — specially the heads of /ami lies — into your power, and 
 detain them till the transports shall arrive, so as they may he ready 
 to be shipped of; for, when this is done, it is not much to be feared 
 that the women and children will attempt to go away and carry off 
 the cattle. But, lest they should, it will not only be very proper to 
 secure all their shallops, boats, canoes, and every other vessel you 
 can lay your hands upon; but also to send out parties to all suspected 
 roads and places from time to time, that they may be thereby inter- 
 cepted. As their whole stock of cattle and corn is forfeited to the 
 Crown b} r their rebellion, and must be secured and applied towards a 
 reimbursement of the expense the Government will be at, in transport- 
 ing them out of the country, care must be had that nobody make any 
 bargain for purchasing them under any colour or pretence whatever; 
 if they do the sale will be void, for the inhabitants have now no 
 property in them, nor will they be allowed to carry away the least 
 thing but their ready money and household furniture. 
 
 11 The officers commanding the Fort at Pigiguit and the garrison of 
 Annapolis have nearly the same orders in relation to the inhabitants 
 of the Peninsula. But I am informed those will fall upon ways and 
 
ALWAYS THE CATTLE. 59 
 
 means, in spite of all our vigilance to send off their cattle to the 
 island of St. Johns (Prince Edward Island) and Louisburg (which is 
 now in a starving condition) by the way of Tatmagouche. I would, 
 therefore, have you, without loss of time, send thither a pretty strong 
 detachment to beat up that quarter and to prevent them. You can- 
 not want a guide for conducting the party, as there is not an Acadian 
 at Beausejour but must perfectly know the road. 
 
 "When Beausoleil's son arrives, if he brings you no intelligence 
 which you can trust to, of what the French design to do or are doing 
 upon the St. John river, I would have you fall upon some method of 
 procuring the best intelligence by means of some Acadian you dare 
 venture to put confidence in, whom you may send thither for that 
 purpose. 
 
 " As to the provisions that were found in the stores at Beausejour, 
 the 832 barrels of flour must be applied to victual the whole of the 
 Acadians on their passage to their place of destination, and, if any 
 remain, after a proper proportion is put on board each Transport, it 
 will be sent to Lunenburg for the settlers there. 
 
 11 It is agreed that the Acadians shall have put on board with them 
 one pound of flour and half a pound of bread per day for each person, 
 and a pound of beef per week to each, the bread and beef will be sent 
 to you by the Transports from Halifax ; the flour you have already in 
 store. 
 
 " I would have you give orders to the Detachment you send to Tatma- 
 gouche, to demolish all the houses, etc., etc., they find there, together 
 with all the shallops, boats, canoes or vessels of any kind which may 
 be lying ready for carrying off the inhabitants and their cattle, and 
 by these means the pernicious intercourse between St. John's island 
 and Louisburg and the inhabitants of the interior part of the country, 
 will in a great measure be prevented." 
 
 On the 8th of August he wrote him again : 
 
 "The Transports for taking off the Acadians will be with you 
 soon, as they are almost ready to sail from hence, and by them you 
 shall hear further, and have particular instructions as to the manner 
 of shipping them, and the places of their destination. 
 
 "I am hopeful that you will, in the meantime, have accomplished 
 the directions you had in my last with regard to the Acadians. As 
 there may be a deal of difficulty in securing them, you will, to pre- 
 vent this as much as possible, destroy all the villages on the north 
 and northwest side of the Isthmus that lay any distance from Fort 
 
60 REMARKABLE SOLICITUDE. 
 
 Beausejour, and use every other method to distress as much as can 
 be, those who may attempt to conceal themselves in the woods. 
 But, I would have all care taken to save the cattle, and prevent as 
 much as possible the Acadians from carrying off or destroying the 
 cattle:' 
 
 These letters are a revelation of Lawrence's char- 
 acter ; his soul leers through them in all its naked 
 hideousness. Did he reflect for an instant on the suf- 
 ferings he was about to inflict ? Was there a struggle 
 in his mind, were it only for a moment ? Not a trace 
 of it appears. Does the wolf that tears and rends the 
 lamb think of the pain he is making his prey endure ? 
 Does the cat, while prolonging the mouse's life for the 
 instruction of its offspring in the predatory art, or 
 simply for the wanton exercise of its own agility, reflect 
 on the tortures of its quarry ? Like the wolf, like the 
 cat, Lawrence was glutting his hunger, or rather slaking 
 his thirst for wealth, and like them he was deaf to the 
 agonizing cries that would assail him. 
 
 Two days only had elapsed since the resolution of 
 the council had officially decided on the deportation, 
 and Lawrence had already ordered from Boston and 
 other places the transports he needed ; he had already 
 written to the commanding officers at Annapolis and 
 Pigiguit, giving each of them minutely detailed instruc- 
 tions, in which all contingencies were provided for with 
 satanic skill. Once more it is evident that everything 
 had been pre-arranged long ago, and that Lawrence was 
 making haste to forestall the answer of the Lords of 
 Trade. 
 
 The reader must have noticed in the foregoing letters 
 how solicitous Lawrence is about the cattle. In the first 
 his instructions recur to tliem six times, and twice in 
 
THE CATTLE WOULD MAKE HIM BICH. 61 
 
 the second. This is really remarkable ; this insistence 
 gives rise to suspicions. The thing might pass unob- 
 served, if it were an isolated fact, but it is quite other- 
 wise. It is linked with other facts of the same kind and 
 much graver, and thus acquires considerable importance. 
 Loose links are useless ; rivet them together and they 
 may form a strong chain, hard to break. With such 
 a chain is Lawrence bound to the pillory of history 
 whence he can never escape. 
 
 Human nature is a very complex thing. Both good 
 and bad instincts are found commingled in varying 
 degrees of intensity in one and the same person, making 
 him the battle-field of long, violent, and sometimes per- 
 petual conflict, the issue of which is very various. His 
 efforts under the influence of religion and education 
 develop the good and stifle the evil that is in him. No 
 one can entirely escape the action of the environment 
 in which he lives and in which his character has been 
 formed. Good instincts will spring up in his soul, as it 
 were, in spite of him, if they have been stimulated by 
 example. The cruellest, the vilest of men, though he 
 may never rise to heroism, will occasionally be swayed 
 by some noble feeling — even if it only flash across his 
 brain — which lifts him for the nonce above the brute. 
 This is the rule ; Lawrence is the exception. You may 
 search in vain, throughout his entire career, for one 
 single act, one single phrase, one single word that 
 might lead you to suppose he was amenable to pity. 
 Was he, then, a being inferior to the order of outlaws 
 and assassins ? I know not ; but this much is certain : 
 he was mastered by a passion that had stifled whatever 
 good instincts he may once have had. Of a most hum- 
 ble origin he had reached, while still young, a high po- 
 
62 GREED CREEDS CRUELTY. 
 
 sition ; he wanted to rise higher still ; he wanted a high 
 social standing and, for this, wealth was needed. The 
 cattle of the Acadians was, as I will shortly demonstrate, 
 the means he had long since fixed upon and was now 
 pursuing unblushingly, but still with consummate pru- 
 dence and craft. The baneful influence of his vile 
 project had stamped out every vestige of good feeling, 
 if indeed he ever had any. Else, how could he have 
 given Monckton that infamous order about separating 
 the women and children from their husbands and 
 fathers ? I would fain be mistaken in my reading of 
 this passage ; but, surely, it can mean only that the 
 men, young and old, were to be arrested and detained 
 until the arrival of the transports, on which they were 
 to be then embarked and sent off first of all ; " so that 
 they may be ready to be shipped off ; for, when this is 
 done, it is not much to be feared that the women and 
 children will attempt to go away and carry off the cattle." 
 Any doubt that may still remain as to the meaning I 
 attribute to this passage of Monckton's instructions, 
 seems to be completely dispelled by the instructions 
 sent to Handfield : " Upon the arrival of the Trans- 
 ports, as many of the inhabitants as can be collected, 
 particularly the heads of families and young men are to 
 be shipped on board of them at the rate of two to a ton." 
 Besides, this tallies exactly with the general advice 
 (see above, page 60) : " to use every other method to dis- 
 tress them as much as can be" The coarsest cattle-raiser 
 and the ignorant Indian drover of the South America 
 Pampas are kinder to their herds than was Lawrence 
 to the Acadians. This is the man Parkman would force 
 us to admire ; and, the better to succeed in this achieve- 
 ment, he has omitted everything that might discredit 
 
 
BEREAVED WOMEN AND CATTLE. 63 
 
 him and set him in his true light. He carefully avoids 
 producing this letter or any of its essential parts. He 
 sums it up in four lines, cutting in two, by a process 
 that is familiar to him, the sentence I have just analyzed. 
 Thus he takes all the sting out of it. Let the reader 
 judge ; this is Parkman's mutilated summary : " Law- 
 rence acquainted Monckton with the result and ordered 
 him to seize all the adult males in the neighborhood ; 
 and this, as we have seen, he promptly did." 
 
 What motive could Lawrence have had for so barbar- 
 ous an order ? Was he afraid that the confusion conse- 
 quent upon the gathering together of many families 
 might permit some of them to escape with the cattle ? 
 This is the only explanation I can offer, and besides he 
 himself has set at rest all doubt on this point. Prince 
 Edward Island was only a short distance from Beause- 
 jour ; he thought it would be possible for the Acadians 
 to transfer thither such cattle as they might manage to 
 save ; and he would not run any risk with regard to the 
 cattle, were it even necessary, in order to secure them, 
 to separate for life wives from their husbands, children 
 from their parents. As he willed the end, wealth, he 
 also willed the means : he must have every head of 
 cattle. But if pity found no place in Lawrence's own 
 heart, he could gauge pretty correctly the feelings of 
 others. He knew that, after the departure of their hus- 
 bands, fathers and brothers, those wives and children in 
 tears, plunged in despair and in mortal anguish, could 
 never have the presence of mind or the will to run away 
 with the cattle. 
 
 Winslow at Grand Pre, Murray at Pigiguit, Hand- 
 field at Annapolis, received the same orders as Monckton 
 at B cause* jour. Lawrence had begun with these last, 
 
64 DISTRIBUTING THE EXILES. 
 
 because, said he, these deserved no favor. Pretty favor 
 indeed, to be whelmed in the same disaster eight da}^s 
 later ! One is forcibly reminded of the angler's con- 
 siderateness in kind old Lafontaine's fable : M With 
 what sauce would you like to be eaten ? said he to his 
 captive fishes." If in this Lawrence was humane, I 
 hasten to give him credit for it, as it is the only case 
 where he betrays a semblance of commiseration. The 
 fact of the matter is this : he knew that his transports 
 would not all arrive at the same time, and that, owing 
 to the distance, he could operate at Beause*jour a week 
 or a fortnight earlier before its being known in the set- 
 tlements of the Peninsula. 
 
 In his instructions to Murray, Winslow and Hand- 
 field, he enters into fuller details : 
 
 " You will," says he to Winslow, " allow five pounds of flour and 
 one pound of pork for seven days to each person. You will have 
 from Boston vessels to transport one thousand persons, reckoning 
 two persons to a ton. 
 
 11 Destination of the vessels appointed to rendezvous in the Basin 
 of Mines : 
 
 "To be sent to North Carolina, such a number as will trans- 
 port five hundred persons or thereabout. 
 
 "To be sent to Virginia, such a number as will transport one 
 thousand persons. 
 
 "To Maryland, such a number as will transport five hundred 
 persons, or in proportion, if the number should exceed two thou- 
 sand persons." 
 
 We have not, in the instructions to Murray and 
 Monckton, the destination of the Pigiguit and Beaus£- 
 jour Acadians. The instructions to Handfield, Com- 
 mandant at Annapolis, are the following : 
 
 " To be sent to Philadelphia, such a number of vessels as will 
 transport three hundred persons. 
 
BEVELLING IN CRUELTY. 65 
 
 "To be sent to New York, such a number of vessels as will 
 transport two hundred persons. 
 
 " To be sent to Boston, such a number of vessels as will trans- 
 port two hundred persons, or rather more in proportion to the 
 Province of Connecticut, should the number to be shipped off ex- 
 ceed one thousand persons." 
 
 Lawrence's calculation fell far short of the reality. 
 The total number of persons deported by Winslow at 
 Grand Pre*, exceeded three thousand ; at Annapolis, it 
 reached sixteen hundred and fifty. 
 
 " You must proceed," he continues, " by the most rig- 
 orous measures possible, not only in compelling them to 
 embark, but in depriving those who shall escape of all 
 means of shelter or support by burning their houses and 
 destroying everything that may afford them the means 
 of subsistence in the country." 
 
 And to Murray he writes : " If these people behave 
 amiss, they should be punished at your discretion ; and 
 if any attempt to molest the troops, you should take an 
 eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ; and, in short, life 
 for life, from the nearest neighbor where the mischief 
 should be performed." 
 
 One can hardly refrain from concluding that Law- 
 rence fairly revelled in cruelty. Everything seems to 
 have been calculated to make the lot of his victims as 
 wretched as possible. All those commandants had full 
 scope. With Murray, this was no light matter. But 
 Lawrence did not stop there. The better to emphasize 
 what he meant, he supplemented this freedom of action 
 by instructions inviting them to unutterably barbarous 
 deeds : " life for life, from the nearest neighbor" At 
 Beausejour, the order was clear, to seize the men and 
 ship them off first, the women and children afterwards, 
 
 5 
 
Ob ONLY MOTIVE FOR SEPARATION. 
 
 to different destinations far distant from each other. 
 In the other settlements the order is not so clear. The 
 instructions do not state that the men must be shipped 
 separately, they merely say that as many persons as 
 possible must be arrested, especially the heads of families 
 mid the young men, to be shipped off on the arrival of 
 the first transports. There is here no doubt a slight 
 difference in the wording ; but it is very far from an 
 indication that members of one family should be put on 
 board the same ship. Elsewhere than at Beausdjour it 
 was practically impossible for the women and children 
 to run away with the cattle ; hence there was less object 
 in insisting on separation between men and women. 
 When Lawrence did insist on that separation he can 
 have had, it seems, no other motive than cruelty: for it 
 was his interest to favor the reunion of families in order 
 to allay discontent, agitation and murmurings, to prevent 
 desperate resistance and to facilitate for his victims the 
 acceptance of so cruel a lot. 
 
 Again, was it in order to make their condition more 
 pitiable that he destined the inhabitants of one locality 
 to different ports, far distant from each other ? Besides 
 the father, mother and children, the immediate family 
 dwelling under the same roof, there were the married 
 brothers and sisters and their children, the uncles, 
 nephews and cousins, all bound by ties of kindred 
 which the separation was to sever; there were the 
 neighbors and friends living in the same district, whose 
 acquaintance or intimacy, especially in an agricultural 
 country like Acadia and among a sociable, genial peas- 
 antry like theirs, was the chief charm of life and often 
 an indispensable help in the bearing of life's burden. 
 Apart from humanitarian motives — since Lawrence 
 
EXTERMINATION BY GRIEF. 67 
 
 was inaccessible to these — was it not his interest to 
 unite the families of one locality, so that they might 
 cling together and thus obviate those continual journeys 
 from place to place in search of a father, mother, brother 
 or sister, journeys which did not cease till thirty-two 
 years after this fatal year ? Could he hope that families 
 mourning an absent father or son could be kept in the 
 land of their exile, or take any interest in life, or be- 
 come useful subjects ? What was to be hoped for from 
 dismembered families, suffering from the direst want, 
 sighing over the not less cruel lot of relatives rudely 
 snatched from their hearths and transported they knew 
 not whither ? Not daring to exterminate them by the 
 sword, did Lawrence intend to kill them by grief ? Such 
 cruelty outstrips all flights of fancy, and the memory of 
 these woes, which no one can fully realize unless he has 
 been forced thereto by the oft-told fireside recital, still 
 brings to my eyes, after more than a century, tears 
 which I cannot restrain. 
 
 Does not this total absence of kindly feelings, or 
 rather this premeditated cruelty, afford, of itself, over- 
 whelming presumptive evidence that his grievances 
 were fabricated with a view to some project of enrich- 
 ment? Nothing could stop so ferocious a man. All 
 suppositions shameful to his memory he has made pos- 
 sible ; and, as his interest could lie in one direction 
 only, there it is that we must seek it, and there it is 
 that I have found it. 
 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that Parkman re- 
 produces those iniquitous instructions I have quoted of 
 Lawrence to Murray. It would also be a mistake to 
 believe that his work contains a single reference to the 
 destination of the transports. On the contrary lie lias 
 
05 EXTERMINATION BY GRIEF. 
 
 omitted all such references and has done his best to 
 let his readers infer that the deportation was accom- 
 plished humanely. By his constantly recurring efforts 
 to falsify history he has, so to speak, become an accom- 
 plice after the fact, and in this capacity he will affix to 
 his name a part of the scorn with which the authors of 
 this crime are visited. 
 
THEIR HOME WAS HERE. 69 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Winslow goes from Beausejour to Grand Pre to execute Law- 
 rence's orders — Proclamation — His Journal — Winslow's state of 
 mind — Murray — Prebble. 
 
 We are at last on the eve of witnessing the fulfil- 
 ment of Lawrence's doubly criminal project, the deporta- 
 tion of an entire people, violently snatched from their 
 homes, from that smiling and fertile land which their 
 fathers had discovered and colonized over a century 
 before. 
 
 In a burst of colonizing zeal France had left upon 
 these shores some dozens of families, whom she after- 
 wards, with guilty carelessness, forgot. At the period 
 we have now reached the memory of the French father- 
 land had long become faint and indistinct. Tradition 
 alone could recall both France and the history of those 
 who were the pioneers of the country. Those original 
 families had increased and multiplied ; the two hundred 
 who founded the colony had grown to seventeen thou- 
 sand souls, a small nation, with habits, tastes and tradi- 
 tions of its own. They were all members of one large 
 family, bound together by ties of blood or by common 
 memories. Their home was no longer France ; it was 
 there, all in all before their eyes, in the country that 
 stretched as far as they could see, in silent nature or in 
 the works which they or their fathers had laboriously 
 accomplished. By little and little, the accumulated 
 
70 A SCENE OF BEAUTY. 
 
 labor of several generations had pushed back and lim- 
 ited the sea, had encroached on the forest; the wilder- 
 ness blossomed as the rose, the tiers of rising upland 
 smiled with the golden grain. Here and there, on those 
 gentle slopes that lead to the Basin of Mines, were 
 ranged in line as far as the eye could reach their simple 
 rustic dwellings. Each house had an orchard at its 
 back and was shaded by willows, thus forming a nest of 
 greenery where everything spoke of ease, quiet and the 
 happiness of rural life. Below lay the singularly fer- 
 tile meadows protected by their dikes, where vast herds 
 were grazing. Then there was the Basin itself, always 
 heaving, with its vast dazzling sheet of reflected light ; 
 now folded back and narrowing into littleness and re- 
 tirement, now proud and mighty pushing its waters far 
 inland, caressing with its waves the graceful outlines 
 of the dells. In the middle distance, hills rising one 
 above the other, and silent forests framed this charming 
 scene ; on either hand Cape Blomedon and Cape Fendu 
 stood out boldly as sentinels to mark the entrance to 
 this asylum of peace and happiness, and, as it were, to 
 bar the way to all human passions. In the far distance 
 the Cobequid Mountains blended with the purple lines 
 of the horizon. Haliburton says it would be difficult to 
 find elsewhere a landscape that could equal in rural 
 beauty that which meets the eye from the hills that look 
 down upon the ancient site of Grand Pre* village. This 
 was home and country to the Acadians. A few days 
 more and the cupidity of a tyrant would make it the 
 most desolate spot on the face of the earth. A whole 
 people was to be heaped pell-mell in ships and scattered 
 on a dozen coasts like leaves whirled away by the winds 
 of autumn. 
 
winslow and Murray. 71 
 
 In the Mines district the task of breaking upon this 
 idyllic peace and contentment was confided to Winslow 
 and Murray, the former having to operate at Grand 
 Pr6, which contained the parishes of St. Charles and St. 
 Joseph (Riviere aux Canards), and the latter at Pigi- 
 guit, where were two other parishes, Ste. Famille and 
 L'Assomption. 
 
 Winslow was at Beause'jour when he received the 
 order to proceed to Grand Pre. Having embarked on 
 August 14th at Fort Lawrence with three hundred 
 militia-men of his regiment, he cast anchor the following 
 day before Grand Pre\ Thence, without stopping, he 
 went to Pigiguit where Murray was impatiently await- 
 ing him. Both of them had the same instructions. 
 They were, moreover, to consult together as to the most 
 effective means of fulfilling their task. After they had 
 done so, Winslow returned to Grand Pre. " I am 
 pleased," he wrote to Lawrence, " with the place pro- 
 posed by Your Excellency — the village church — for our 
 reception. I have sent for the elders to remove all sacred 
 things, to prevent their being defiled by heretics." 
 
 The church was occupied as an arsenal, the soldiers 
 pitched their tents around the churchyard and the 
 church, and Winslow made the presbytery his head- 
 quarters. At the same time he informed Lawrence that 
 he intended forthwith to surround his camp with a pal- 
 isade, so as to guard against a surprise. Thereupon 
 Lawrence took alarm and sent word to him, through 
 Murray, that it was better to avoid whatever might ex- 
 cite wonder and mistrust. Winslow answered as 
 follows : — 
 
 "Grand Pre, August 30th, 1755. 
 " I am favored with Your Excellency's letters, which Captain 
 
72 WINSLOW WRITES TO LAWRENCE. 
 
 Murray was so good as to be the bearer of, and with whom I have 
 consulted as to the duty proposed ; and, as the corn is not all down, 
 the weather being such, has prevented the inhabitants from hous- 
 ing it. It is his opinion and mine, that Your Excellency's orders 
 should not be made public until friday ; on which day we pro- 
 pose to put them in execution. We have picquetted in the camp 
 before the receipt of Your Excellency's letter, and I imagine it is 
 so far from giving surprise to the inhabitants as to their being 
 detained, that they look upon it as a settled point that we are to 
 remain with them all winter Although it is a disagree- 
 able part of the duty we are put upon, I am sensible it is a neces- 
 sary one, and I shall endeavour strictly to obey Your Excellency's 
 orders, to do anything in me to remove the neighbours to a better 
 Country.''' 
 
 When Murray brought to Winslow Lawrence's letter, 
 the two came to the conclusion that the surest way to 
 get the inhabitants together would be to issue a proc- 
 lamation requiring that all the men and all the chil- 
 dren above ten years of age should meet in the church 
 to receive His Majesty's instructions with regard to 
 them ; and that this proclamation should be so ambigu- 
 ously worded as not to reveal its object, and yet so per- 
 emptory that it would not be disobeyed. 
 
 The day after his return to Pigiguit, Murray wrote to 
 Winslow : " I think the sooner we strike the stroke the 
 better, therefore, I will be glad to see you here as soon 
 as conveniently you can. I shall have the orders for 
 assembling ready written for your approbation, only the 
 day blank, and am hopeful will succeed according to 
 our wishes. " 
 
 Before meeting Murray again, Winslow wished to see 
 for himself how far advanced was the harvest. Consid- 
 ering that it would be almost impossible to make use of 
 it, Lawrence had decided to let it be stored in the barns 
 and to burn it with the buildings. His instructions 
 
PROCLAMATION CONVOKING THE INHABITANTS. 73 
 
 were that the country must be made an uninhabitable 
 wilderness, so as to force deserters to give themselves 
 up and to discourage the return of the exiles. Accom- 
 panied by an escort of soldiers, Winslow made a tour of 
 inspection through the surrounding country and ascer- 
 tained, with regret, that much of the grain was still 
 standing in the fields. On the Tuesday, he went to 
 Pigiguit to come to a definite understanding with Mur- 
 ray and to draw up the proclamation that was to be ad- 
 dressed to the inhabitants. It was translated into 
 French by a man called Beauchamp, a merchant at 
 Pigiguit.* 
 
 It reads as follows : 
 
 " To the inhabitants of the District of Grand Pre, Mines, river 
 Canard and places adjacent, as well ancients as young men and 
 lads. 
 
 Whereas, His Excellency the Governor, has instructed us of his 
 late resolution respecting the matter proposed to the inhabitants, 
 and has ordered us to communicate the same in person, His Excel- 
 lency being desirous that each of them should be satisfied of His 
 Majesty's intentions, which he has also ordered us to communicate 
 to you, as they have been given to him : We, therefore, order and 
 strictly by these presents, all of the inhabitants as well of the 
 above-named District as of all the other Districts, both old and 
 young men, as well as the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the 
 Church of Grand Pre, on friday, the 5th instant, at three of the 
 clock in the afternoon, that we may impart to them what we are 
 ordered to communicate to them ; declaring that no excuse will be 
 admitted on any pretence whatsoever on pain of forfeiting goods 
 and chattels, in default of real estate. 
 
 " Given at Grand Pre, 2nd Sept., 1755. 
 
 "John Winslow." 
 
 * I think the name ought to be Deschamps instead of Beauchamp. 
 Deschamps, who afterwards became a judge, was then, I believe, a clerk 
 with Mauger at Pigiguit. Winslow, being a stranger, may easily have 
 mistaken the name, and I am almost sure he did. 
 
74 PPwOCLAMATION ANALYZED. 
 
 A copy of this proclamation was made for Murray's 
 use at Pigiguit. 
 
 Had there been, behind the arras, a stenographer to 
 report verbatim the discussions arising out of the com- 
 position of this cunning document, his notes would have 
 been highly interesting. The only object of this proc- 
 lamation was to get the men and lads in the church at 
 the appointed hour. The contents and the form would 
 be all the more perfect according as they the better de- 
 ceived the people. Murray, who must have known bet- 
 ter than Winslow the character of the Acadians, was 
 no doubt the principal composer of this paper. The dis- 
 cussion must have been a long one ; so manifold are the 
 methods of deceit. However, three principal points 
 must have occurred to Murray's mind and been readily 
 accepted by Winslow. First, vagueness of expression 
 as to the purpose of the meeting; the clause, " of his 
 late resolution respecting the matter proposed to the in- 
 habitants," quite met this requirement. Lawrence had 
 decided that, if they refused the oath, they should have 
 to quit the country ; as they had accepted this latter 
 alternative, and as they had no reason to suspect anything 
 more serious, when they were told that the Government 
 had formed a resolution that was to be communicated 
 to them, they would naturally think of some modification 
 favorable to their desires. " Respecting the matter pro- 
 posed " was suitably vague, and would leave a good 
 impression. Second point : His Majesty's authority 
 invoked. The good impression must be intensified when 
 the people learn of " His Majesty's intentions,'" and that 
 it was to let them hear these intentions that they were 
 convoked. They could not easily doubt that Lawrence 
 had really and truly received instructions from the 
 
THREE IMPORTANT POINTS. 75 
 
 King, and these instructions, they naturally conjectured, 
 would be either an extension of the time allowed for 
 evacuating the country, with, perhaps, the privilege of 
 carrying on their movables, or, still better, some new 
 proposal, some middle term imposing military service 
 on those only who should be born after this date, a pro- 
 posal they would be glad to accept. In fact, some 
 months before, they had addressed a petition to the 
 French Government, praying the King, as custodian of 
 the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht, to intervene 
 in their favor with the King of England. They had 
 begged of him to ask for a delay of three years before 
 quitting the province, with the privilege of carrying 
 away their effects and the facilities necessary to effect- 
 uate their transmigration. They would now say to them- 
 selves : the question has no doubt been definitively set- 
 tled between the two crowns, and it must be with ref- 
 erence to this decision that Lawrence wishes us to be 
 present.* They had everything to fear from Lawrence 
 himself, but no injustice, or at least, no inhumanity from 
 the British Government. They would, therefore, to all 
 appearance, have no risk to run and everything to gain. 
 It would seem impossible to them that Lawrence, or his 
 subordinates, could invoke the King's authority falsely. 
 Murray, on the other hand, could not but be aware that 
 Lawrence had resolved upon the deportation without 
 instructions, without orders from His Majesty, and that 
 he could not have obtained them. This, then, must be 
 
 * The French Ambassador in London had submitted the petition of the 
 Acadians to the Cabinet of St. James in the preceding May (1755), and the 
 answer given in June or July had been : " In regard to the three years 
 for transmigration proposed for the Acadians of the Peninsula, it would 
 be depriving Great Britain of a very considerable number of useful subjects, 
 if such transmigration should extend to those who were inhabitants there 
 at the time of the Treaty of Utrecht (Secretary of State to Lawrence, 13th 
 August, 1755). 
 
76 AN ASTUTE HINT ABOUT REAL ESTATE. 
 
 an infallible means of ensuring obedience to the proc- 
 lamation ; past subterfuges would be forgotten in the 
 face of such plausible assertions. Murray must have 
 rubbed his hands with delight and have thought himself 
 a deep diplomatist as he expounded to Winslow this 
 creation of his brain. 
 
 Of course there remained a few difficulties that gave 
 pause to Winslow and Murray. For instance, could 
 the Acadians hope for good news, so long as their dele- 
 gates were kept prisoners at Halifax ? And that con- 
 vocation of lads of ten years might well cause astonish- 
 ment and distrust. What if the cat were thus let out 
 of the bag? But Lawrence's orders were precise : men 
 and lads above ten years of age were to be seized, put 
 on board ship and sent off before anything was done 
 with the women and younger children. To get round 
 this obstacle, Murray invented the formula which ends 
 the Proclamation and constitutes the Third Point settled 
 on before the document was composed. Threats of for- 
 feiture were to be uttered in these words : " declaring 
 that no excuse will be admitted on any pretence what- 
 soever on pain of forfeiting goods and chattels, in default 
 of real estate." This would lead the Acadians to infer 
 unhesitatingly that the new instructions received from 
 His Majesty must be exceedingly favorable, since there 
 was question of forfeiting movables and even im- 
 movables, if they refused to attend. According to 
 Lawrence's decision in presence of their delegates, the 
 immovables were already forfeited. This proclamation 
 seemed to imply that they were not ; therefore, His 
 Majesty's instructions must be such as to cause great 
 rejoicing. And once more Murray rubbed his hands. 
 This document, thought he, will be highly relished by 
 
A BRUTAL LETTER. 77 
 
 the Governor, and will raise me several degrees in his 
 favor. 
 
 A few days before, Winslow, who now saw this 
 part of the country for the first time, had sent Captain 
 Adams to reconnoitre in the direction of Riviere aux 
 Canards and Riviere des Habitants, and Captains 
 Hobbs and Osgood in other directions. Adams re- 
 ported that it was " a fine country and full of inhabit- 
 ants, a beautiful church, abundance of the goods of 
 this world, and provisions of all kinds in great plenty." 
 Hobbs, who had visited Melancon village and the 
 River Gaspereau, and Osgood, who had reconnoitred the 
 rivers in the Pigiguit district, made equally favorable 
 reports. Murray wrote again to Winslow on Sep- 
 tember 4th : " All the people quiet, and very busy at 
 their harvest ; if this day keeps fair, all will be in here 
 in their barns. I hope to-morrow will croivn all our 
 wishes." 
 
 Stung by Braddock's rout at Monongahela, Winslow 
 had written, when he was still at Beausdjour and before 
 the official decision of the deportation, this abominable 
 letter : 
 
 " We are now hatching the noble and great project 
 of banishing the French Neutrals from this province ; 
 they have ever been our secret enemies, and have en- 
 couraged our Indians to cut our throats. If we can 
 accomplish this expulsion, it will have been one of the 
 greatest deeds the English in America have ever 
 achieved; for, among other considerations, the part of 
 the country which they occupy is one of the best soils in 
 the world, and, in that event, we might place some 
 good farmers on their homesteads" 
 
 Rameau de Saint Pere comments thus on this letter : 
 
78 BEADDOCK'S DEFEAT ENEAGED THE ENGLISH. 
 
 " The most brutal of the pirates that issued from the 
 rocks of Norway to go and lay waste the coasts of 
 Europe, in the year 1000, would not have published a 
 more ferocious and cynical proclamation to collect 
 around him the companions of his brigandage." 
 
 Let us not be more severe on Winslow than is be- 
 coming. This terrible defeat of Braddock had thrown 
 the English provinces into consternation ; one must 
 read the chronicles of the time to form an idea of the 
 mental and moral confusion which that event had 
 produced. Rage made men ferocious. Everything 
 French was included in a hate which seemed insatiable 
 except by complete extermination. This state of pub- 
 lic opinion was of great assistance to Lawrence in his 
 projects. Winslow was under the influence of this 
 popular frenzy, and we should, before judging him, 
 make allowance for that influence. The historian, 
 more than all other men, is in duty bound to be indul- 
 gent; he must take account of the special circum- 
 stances of the epoch he is describing, if he wishes to 
 set a proper value on men and their doings. Now, war 
 means hatred. From one day to the next it works a 
 complete revolution in men's minds. In a moment 
 brains are on fire, blood is up, the friend is transformed 
 into a foe. A victory makes a whole nation wild with 
 joy ; a defeat arouses hot indignation and fierce rage. 
 In America this effect was intensified by the necessary 
 interference of the Indian element, with the cruelties 
 that were its inevitable accompaniment. On either 
 side the redskin was a much-sought auxiliary ; war be- 
 came an ambush. This defeat at Monongahela, brought 
 about by the infatuation of Braddock, was particularly 
 exasperating because it had afforded no scope for mili- 
 
HATE WITHIN, PEACE WITHOUT. 79 
 
 tary valor as understood in Europe. The outburst of 
 anger and hatred that ensued was unjust ; but, psycho- 
 logically, it could not be otherwise. Lawrence, having 
 all power in his hands, had found it easy to take advant- 
 age of this madness and to mould his subordinates to 
 his views. Seldom does it happen that the servant, for 
 whom flattery is a necessity, fails to outdo his master. 
 A prey to this morbid infection, Winslow had come to 
 Grand Pre. The severity of military discipline, the 
 love of glory, warlike ardor, the very intensity of 
 patriotism, act upon the soldier as mighty forces beat- 
 ing back to the bottom of his heart the tenderness of 
 his better nature. It seems that these feelings were 
 lulled only for the moment in Winslow, and that he 
 was influenced to a certain extent by the scene of peace 
 and contentment that lay before him. From the pres- 
 bytery, wherein he had taken up his quarters, the 
 eye embraced a wide prospect of country. Whither- 
 soever he turned his gaze, he saw naught but restful- 
 ness, plenty and happiness. Those who had chosen 
 this lovely retreat, " far from the madding crowd," 
 must have been drawn thereto by the wish to dwell 
 peacefully in a safe asylum. He had expected to find 
 a restless and turbulent people, ready to rise in revolt ; 
 instead of which, he comes and goes among them, he 
 asks for the keys of the presbytery and the church, 
 which are eagerly handed to him ; he lodges there, he 
 arranges his camp, he fortifies it ; squads of soldiers 
 march up and down the country roads ; all this produces 
 no unusual stir ; his orders are obeyed with submission 
 and respect ; the harvest labors are pursued with un- 
 abated zeal. Is this, he must have asked himself, the 
 attitude of an unruly and rebellious people ? He had 
 
80 THE CONTRAST MOVES HIM. 
 
 come in the temper of a general marching against an 
 experienced and formidable adversary ; he found him- 
 self confronted by peaceable and trustful men, by 
 harmless women and children. He was disarmed. 
 Was he, a brave officer, thirsting for battle and renown, 
 to become the executioner of a submissive and 
 defenceless people, to make a desert of this fair land, to 
 ruin the lives of an entire generation ? God forbid. 
 He must have been deceived. These good people 
 could not deserve the fate he was preparing for them. 
 Perhaps their stubbornness seemed stupid to him ; but 
 it was based on motives which mankind has ever re- 
 spected. He could not but admit that they were sin- 
 cere in their belief, superstitious though it seemed to 
 him, and in their patriotism, to which they sacrificed all 
 else that was most dear. Perhaps also he had a pre- 
 sentiment that history would deal with himself far 
 more severely than with his victims. 
 
 Such, I believe, were the anxious thoughts that 
 haunted his mind when he entered in his Journal the 
 following cry apparently wrung from his inmost soul : 
 " Things are now very heavy on my heart and hands. . . 
 I impatiently wait. . . That, once at length, we may 
 get over this troublesome affair, which is more grievous 
 to me than any service I was ever employed in." 
 
 And further on : . . . " Shall soon have our hands 
 full of the disagreeable business to remove them from 
 their ancient habitations, which, in this part of the 
 country are very valuable. . ." 
 
 Winslow was no ordinary man. He held a high 
 position in the provinces of New England. He was a 
 thoughtful man, as the Journal he kept shows. To 
 judge from an entry he made in it some days before, he 
 
WINSLOW'S JOURNAL. 81 
 
 seems to have had an eye to posterity. As he was 
 leaving Beausejour for Grand Pre, Monckton, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, had obliged him to leave behind him 
 his regimental flag. Winslow thought this order a 
 breach of courtesy, and told him indignantly that this 
 action of his was strange and would appear so in history. 
 Now, as this incident was far from important enough to 
 be an historical event, and would have been forgotten 
 but for his mention of it, we may be warranted in sup- 
 posing that Winslow meant to publish his Journal. It 
 did indeed become public property in this way. It had 
 lain for seventy years in the treasures of the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society, when that part of it which 
 treats of the events we are now reviewing finally saw 
 the light. In the absence of public documents, which, 
 as we have seen, were abstracted from the Archives, this 
 Journal of Winslow takes on great value. Though it 
 refers only to the scenes in which he himself was the 
 chief actor at Grand Pre*, and though we still know 
 nothing, or next to nothing, of what occurred at 
 Pigiguit, Cobequid, Annapolis and Beausejour, yet 
 what Winslow gives us is very precious. If he wrote 
 for posterity, he must, evidently, have put himself in 
 the most favorable light ; but the fact that he was 
 aware of the odious part he was playing entitles us to 
 grant him the benefit of any mercy his situation may 
 elicit. The orders he had received were severe, and 
 cruelty was as inseparable from the execution of them 
 as cutting is inseparable from the surgeon's art. To 
 make his success more complete he had to tell no end 
 of lies. It may very well be that he never made any 
 such reflections as I have suggested above, nor expe- 
 rienced any of those feelings I have described ; but, for 
 6 
 
82 THE DEVIL QUOTING SCRIPTURE. 
 
 the honor of mankind and civilization, I prefer to err 
 on the side of charity. Of Handheld and Monckton's 
 feelings we know little ; but as for Scott and Prebble, 
 and, above all others, Murray, they are entitled to no 
 such leniency. Winslow's Journal produces a letter 
 from Handheld, which, to his honor, contains the fol- 
 lowing : " I heartily join with you in wishing that we 
 were both of us got over this most disagreeable and 
 troublesome part of the service." 
 
 Here is what Prebble wrote to Winslow from Beau- 
 sejour : 
 
 ..." We rejoice to hear of your safe arrival at Grand Pre and 
 am well pleased that you are provided with so good quarters for 
 yourself and soldiers ; as you have taken possession of the friar's 
 house, hope you will execute the office of priest." 
 
 A few days later : 
 
 ..." I rejoice to hear that the lines are fallen to you in pleasant 
 lands, and that you have a goodly heritage. I understand you are 
 surrounded by the good things of this world and having a sancti- 
 fied place for your habitation, hope you will be prepared for the 
 enjoyments of another. . . . We have only this to comfort us, 
 that we are as nigh to heaven as you are at Grand Pre, and since 
 we are denied our good things in this world, doubt not we shall 
 be happy in the next." 
 
 " Jedediah Prebble, 
 
 " Camp at Cumberland (Beausejour), 
 5th Sept., 1855." 
 
 After citing these and other letters, Philip H. Smith, 
 in his " Acadia — A Lost Chapter in American History," 
 adds : " We will not burden these pages with more of 
 this sickening religious cant. Such professions of piety 
 made by men engaged in the work they were in, appear 
 to be little short of sacrilege." 
 
THE DEVIL QUOTING SCRIPTURE. 83 
 
 Mr. Smith takes these rollicking blackguards too 
 seriously. Their jocose references to Holy Scripture 
 were not meant to be " professions of piety," and there- 
 fore do not rise even to the dignity of hypocrisy — which 
 is, after all, an indirect homage to genuine virtue. 
 
84 ON TENTER-HOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Memorable day, September 5th, at Grand Pre— Four hundred and 
 fifteen adults gathered in the church — Reading the edict of 
 deportation — Usurped powers — Despatch of the Secretary of 
 State, Sir Thomas Robinson, to Lawrence, dated August 13th, 
 in reply to his letter of June 28th — The Secretary of State greatly 
 alarmed at Lawrence's disguised projects — Either this despatch 
 came too late or Lawrence feigns not to have received it in 
 time — October 18th, he briefly announces the deportation to the 
 Lords of Trade without replying to the despatch of August 13th, 
 to which he replies only on November 30th and then briefly — 
 Letter of March 25th, 1756 — The very important despatch of 
 August 13th is passed over in silence by almost all writers — 
 Brown and Parkman. 
 
 The memorable fifth of September is now come. The 
 meeting was fixed for three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 The most anxious person was probably Winslow himself ; 
 as yet, indeed, he had noticed no sign of anxiety on 
 the part of the Acadians ; the proclamation had given 
 rise to no grouping of loiterers ; not the slightest 
 excitement was visible. Everything seemed to favor the 
 full success of his treachery ; but the situation was so 
 novel, so strange, the work in hand so barbarous, that 
 he could not help the nervous dread that beset him. 
 He was humbled, ashamed of himself ; at the same time 
 he was most desirous that his enterprise should succeed. 
 Should there be refusal to obey and resistance, to what 
 cruel extremities would he not be obliged to resort 
 against a despairing and unarmed people ? He must 
 
SURMISES OF THE PEOPLE. 85 
 
 have run through all the mental struggles that the 
 perpetration of a first crime entails upon a hitherto 
 faithful servant. 
 
 The clock was soon about to mark for the Acadian 
 people the end of a century of quiet enjoyment. During 
 the past year the serenity of the olden time had disap- 
 peared ; clouds had gathered thicker and more numerous 
 above their heads ; the storm was upon them and was 
 growing. In quick succession, their arms, their boats, 
 their archives and their priests had been taken from 
 them ; one hundred and fifteen of the principal citizens, 
 simply because they had refused to take the oath, were 
 still languishing in the prisons of Halifax ; now their 
 churches were profaned. True, the proclamation im- 
 plied the intervention of the English Government, which 
 was calculated to give them confidence ; but what was 
 the meaning of this deploying of troops, this intrenched 
 camp, this occupation of their church and their presby- 
 tery ? Evidently the wished-for intervention was a 
 myth ; else this armed force would be inexplicable. 
 The occupation of their church clearly meant that their 
 priests would not be restored to them, and, in that case, 
 it was impossible for them to remain, even if they were 
 allowed. To go, they were resolved ; and yet the 
 thought of leaving that dear spot, that beloved country, 
 their property, their herds, in order to begin elsewhere 
 the labor of a century, had made them sad. Joy had 
 flown ; the home circle was gloomy and silent. This 
 convocation could only be the sentence of departure ; 
 but at least, thought they, the Government would give 
 them the time and the facilities necessary for their 
 transportation into French territory ; and perchance, 
 moved by so much misfortune, it would allow them to 
 
86 FOREGATHERING. 
 
 carry with them their effects and the harvest they had 
 just garnered. On the other hand, what favors could 
 they hope for if left at Lawrence's mercy ? That man 
 had never known or shown pity. No ; unless there was 
 some intervention of the Home Government, this con- 
 vocation must be a warning of some greater woe. 
 Nevertheless they reached the practical conclusion that 
 obedience to orders was after all the wisest course. 
 
 Winslow, too, had his troubles, though very different 
 in kind. So has the cat watching the mouse, so has the 
 wolf waiting for the lamb. His anxious eyes often 
 scanned the dusty roads ending at Grand Pre*. Soon, at 
 intervals, he espied afar off light clouds of dust ; people 
 on foot were slowly wending their way from neighboring 
 farms; then came well-filled carts from the Rivers 
 Perreau, des Habitants, Canard and Gaspereau ; the 
 numbers were increasing ; they all passed before the 
 church casting anxious looks on the public square 
 covered with tents and soldiers ; then the village was 
 full ; the new-comers had scattered in groups in the 
 houses, on the door-steps, along the fences. All these 
 groups were grave and almost silent. They exchanged 
 a few words on the weather, the harvest, absent friends, 
 or on indifferent subjects ; but minds were busy with 
 other thoughts ; concern was to be read on eveiy 
 face ; men involuntarily looked in the direction of the 
 church and the presbytery; but, as often happens on 
 such sad and solemn occasions, it was the object of the 
 meeting that they spoke least of. People leaned for- 
 ward to hear an opinion ; there was a questioning look 
 in their eyes ; but the ordinary advisers were prisoners 
 at Halifax ; nobody seemed to have any settled 
 opinion. 
 
WINSLOW READS ANOTHER PROCLAMATION. 87 
 
 There was a great gathering at Pere Landry's and a 
 still greater one at the house of the old notary Rene 
 Leblanc. Besides his twenty children and his many 
 grandchildren, there were a host of relatives and friends. 
 He himself, ever so full of confidence, so partial to the 
 Government, and so zealous in its service, seemed that 
 day anxious and mournful ; in answer to questions he 
 had let fall some words of encouragement, but his 
 countenance betrayed his troubled state of mind.* 
 
 The clock was on the stroke of three ; the officers 
 appeared on the threshold of the priest's house; the 
 groups had begun to move ; they had drawn near to the 
 church. They had entered. 
 
 Winslow followed closely in full uniform, surrounded 
 by his officers. He took his place at a table set in the 
 middle aisle ; his glance rested on that silent crowd, 
 kneeling because, despite the profanation of their tem- 
 ple, it was still the hallowed place, the house of prayer. 
 They had knelt partly through habit perhaps, but also 
 to implore God's help in their hour of distress. The 
 church was full ; there were present four hundred and 
 eighteen men and lads above ten years of age. It was 
 a complete success. 
 
 It were idle to attempt to analyze the wild war of 
 inward emotion produced by the reading of this eter- 
 nally infamous document. Deep grief is dumb. 
 
 What Winslow read was as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, — I have received from His Excellency 
 Governor Lawrence, the King's instructions, which I 
 
 * When Grand Pre was invested by the Indians five years before, the 
 notary Leblanc, who had opposed the departure of the inhabitants, was 
 taken prisoner by the Indians. He had been restored to liberty after four 
 years of captivity. 
 
05 PURPORTING TO BE THE KING S COMMANDS. 
 
 have in my hand. By his orders you are called together 
 to hear His Majesty's final resolution concerning the 
 French inhabitants of this Province of Nova Scotia, who 
 for more than half a century have had more indulgence 
 granted them than any of his subjects in any part of his 
 dominions. What use you have made of it, you your- 
 selves best know. 
 
 " The duty I am now upon, though necessary, is very 
 disagreeable to my natural make and temper, as I know 
 it must be grievous to you, who are of the same species. 
 But it is not my business to animadvert on the orders 
 I have received, but to obey them ; and therefore, with- 
 out hesitation, I shall deliver to you His Majesty's in- 
 structions and commands, which are, that your lands 
 and tenements and cattle and live stock of all kinds are 
 forfeited to the crown, with all your other effects, ex- 
 cept money and household goods, and that you your- 
 selves are to be removed from this his Province. 
 
 " The peremptory orders of His Majesty are, that all 
 the French inhabitants of these Districts be removed, 
 and, through His Majesty's goodness, I am directed to 
 allow you your money and as many of your household 
 goods as you can take without overloading the vessels 
 you go in. I shall do everything in my power that all 
 these goods be secured to you, and that you be not 
 molested in carrying them away, and also that whole 
 families shall go in the same vessel; so that this re- 
 moval, which I am sensible must give you a great deal 
 of trouble, may be made as easy as His Majesty's service 
 will admit ; and I hope that in whatever part of the 
 world your lot may fall, you may be faithful subjects, 
 and a peaceable and happy people. 
 
 "I must also inform you, that it is His Majesty's 
 
A BAREFACED LIE. 89 
 
 pleasure that you remain in security under the inspec- 
 tion and direction of the troops that I have the honor 
 to command." 
 
 They were prisoners. " They were greatly struck," 
 says he, " though I believe they did not imagine that 
 they were actually to be removed." 
 
 The church served as a prison for them, and their 
 families were notified to bring them food. " Thus," 
 says Winslow in his Journal, " ended the memorable 
 5th of September, a day of great fatigue and trouble." 
 
 Before proceeding further, I will stop to consider one 
 of the important assertions of the Proclamation and of 
 the edict of expulsion. Winslow declares : " I have 
 received" .... "the King's instructions, which I have 
 in my hand "...." His Majesty's final resolution " 
 . . . " The peremptory orders of His Majesty are" . . . . 
 Nothing could be more positive. Winslow held in his 
 hand the instructions of His Majesty. And yet noth- 
 ing could be more false. The falsity of these declara- 
 tions is proved, beyond the slightest doubt, by an official 
 document, authentic and precise, by a letter from the 
 Secretary of State, Sir Thomas Robinson, to Lawrence, 
 which is in the volume of the Archives. 
 
 I have cited, in a preceding chapter, the despatch 
 which Lawrence addressed to the Lords of Trade on 
 June 28th, shortly after the capitulation of Beausejour. 
 In this despatch he informed them that, on taking the 
 fort, he had found therein 150 soldiers and 300 Acadians : 
 " Tlie deserted Acadians" he said, " delivered up their 
 arms ; I gave orders to Colonel Monckton at all events 
 to expel from the country the deserted Acadians, 
 although, if he needed their sendees to put the troops 
 
90 REPLY OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 under cover, he might first make use of them for that 
 purpose." 
 
 Lawrence had made this passage purposely ambig- 
 uous. Did he mean to expel all the Acadians who 
 dwelt in the north of the Peninsula, or the Acadian ref- 
 ugees, or merely the three hundred men found armed at 
 the surrender of the Fort ? The most obvious inter- 
 pretation seemed to be that he meant all the Acadian 
 refugees, who were in considerable numbers. The reply 
 of the Secretary of State shows that these violent 
 measures, which nothing seemed to justify, had thrown 
 himself and the Lords of Trade into great alarm. This 
 letter is dated August 13th, about six weeks after 
 Lawrence's ; so that it must have been written without 
 any delay. And, to signify the importance which the 
 Lords of Trade attached to it, this reply, by an exceed- 
 ingly rare exception, was made in the name of the 
 Secretary of State himself ; and, to emphasize it still 
 more, its essential passages were underlined. 
 
 Here are its essential parts : 
 
 . . . . " Whatever construction may be put upon 
 the word PardonnS in the fourth article of the capitu- 
 lation of Beaus£jour, it is observed by your letter of 
 the 28th of June, that you had given orders to Colonel 
 Monckton to drive the deserted French inhabitants at all 
 events out of the country. It does not clearly appear 
 whether you mean to drive away all the Acadians of the 
 Peninsula, which amount to many thousand, or such of 
 them, as you say, as were living in the neighborhood of 
 Beause^our, or, lastly, whether you mean, only such as 
 were found at Beause*jour, when evacuated by the gar- 
 rison ; the latter seems rather to have been your in- 
 tention, as you add, that if M. Monckton ivants the as- 
 
DEPRIVING ENGLAND OF USEFUL SUBJECTS. 91 
 
 sistance of the deserted Acadians, in putting the troops 
 under cover, he might first make them do all the service in 
 their power. Let your intention have been what it will, 
 it is not doubted but that you have considered the 
 pernicious consequences that may arise from an alarm 
 which may have been given to the whole body of the 
 French Neutrals and how suddenly an insurrection may 
 follow from despair, or what an additional number of use- 
 ful subjects may be given by their flight to the French 
 King. It cannot, therefore, be too much recommended to 
 you, to use the greatest caution and prudence in your con- 
 duct towards these Neutrals, and to assure such of them, 
 as may be trusted, specially upon their taking the oath, 
 that they may remain in the quiet possession of their 
 settlements under proper regulations. What has led me 
 to a more particular notice of tins part of your letter, 
 is the following proposal, that was made no longer ago 
 than in the month of May last by the French ambas- 
 sador, viz. : That all the French inhabitants of the Pen- 
 insula, should have three years allowed them to remove 
 from thence with their effects, and should be favored 
 with all means of facilitating this removal, which the 
 English would, undoubtedly, look upon as very advan- 
 tageous to themselves. Whereupon, His Britannic 
 Majesty was pleased to order an answer to be given, 
 which I now send you for your particular information 
 in the following words, viz. : In regard to the three years 
 transmigration proposed for the Acadians of the 
 Peninsula, it would be depriving G-reat Britain of a 
 very considerable number of useful subjects, if such 
 transmigration should extend to those who were in- 
 habitants there at the time of the treaty and to their 
 descendants." 
 
92 CONDEMNS EXPULSION. 
 
 One could scarcely be more explicit. This reply is a 
 formal condemnation, not merely of any such hideous 
 plan as Lawrence's deportation, but even of expulsion 
 in any form, not merely of the Peninsular Acadians, 
 nor of those who dwelt in the territory lately occupied 
 by the French, but even of those who were found armed 
 in the Fort at the capitulation of Beausejour. The 
 letter also condemns Lawrence's interpretation of the 
 word pardonne (forgiven) with respect to this last class 
 of Acadians. As will be seen further on, Lawrence 
 pretended that the word pardonne simply meant that 
 they would not be put to death. It is easy to see that 
 the Secretary of State did not understand it in that 
 way. By obvious implication, what he says amounts to 
 this : I do not admit your interpretation of the word 
 pardonne ; in virtue of this clause of the capitulation 
 they could not be expelled, nor punished, nor disturbed 
 for the part they had taken in the siege of Beause"jour ; 
 but, supposing that your interpretation were allowable, 
 the consequences of an expulsion as to these would be 
 too pernicious to allow it to be carried out. 
 
 The whole question of the views and responsibility 
 of the Home Government as to the deportation is 
 summed up in this despatch of the Secretary of State. 
 It formally condemns that cruel deed : for it condemns a 
 partial expulsion that was infinitely less cruel and un- 
 just than the deportation. And this opinion the Secre- 
 tary of State had formulated after the receipt of Law- 
 rence's letter of June 28th, after the fall of Beausdjour, 
 in spite of false representations. Nor could subsequent 
 events have altered his opinion, since, as we have seen, 
 nothing happened after this date that could modify 
 such a carefully formed opinion ; on the contrary, the 
 
CONTRAST BETWEEN ROBINSON AND LAWRENCE. 93 
 
 Acadians showed the most unlimited submissiveness 
 under intolerable provocations and persecution. And, 
 as if the better to accentuate the views of the British 
 Government, we read, in this letter of the Secretary of 
 State, that His Majesty had just refused to the French 
 Ambassador a permission to depart which the Acadians 
 had solicited, because "it would be depriving Great 
 Britain of a very considerable number of useful subjects." 
 By the way, it may be proper to remark that this 
 refusal, as formulated in the above letter, seems to 
 imply leave to depart, within three years with their 
 movable effects, to all those living outside the Penin- 
 sula. At any rate, what a difference between the lan- 
 guage of wise and enlightened statesmen and that of a 
 wretched upstart, unfeeling and heartless like Law- 
 rence ! And how bitter must have been his oppression, 
 when it drove men that clung so tenaciously to their 
 country and property to implore that they might be 
 allowed to leave ! Is this the behavior of people prone 
 to resistance ? 
 
 At the date of this despatch of Sir Thomas Robinson's, 
 Monckton, Handfield, Murray, and Winslow had already 
 been ten days in possession of their orders for the 
 deportation, and Lawrence was attending to the prep- 
 arations therefor with feverish energy. The haste 
 with which he worked can scarcely be explained except 
 by his fear of receiving a snub that would put an end 
 to his projects. 
 
 All the contents of this despatch are a flat contradic- 
 tion of Lawrence's conduct at the time. While the one 
 counselled moderation and kindness, the other was doing 
 his best to drive the Acadians to that despair against 
 which Sir Thomas Robinson warned him. But, in spite 
 
94 CONTRAST BETWEEN ROBINSON AND LAWRENCE. 
 
 of his seizure of arms, of boats, of archives, of priests, 
 and his imprisoning one hundred and fifteen of the prin- 
 cipal citizens, he was at his wits' end; he could not 
 drive them to despair. He had gone beyond what he 
 thought would justify resistance unto death, and he 
 had not even provoked the slightest disobedience. 
 
 " I beg leave to ask," says Casgrain, who has written 
 an eloquent comment of this despatch of the English 
 Secretary of State, " what was there in common between 
 the barbarous behavior of Lawrence and the instruc- 
 tions, so humane, so conciliatory, of the British Cabinet? 
 Is it not evident that Lawrence most firmly resolved to 
 rid himself at any cost of the Acadians, the most invet- 
 erate enemies to our religion, as he hypocritically said in 
 the despatch wherein he afterwards announced the 
 deportation? What wonder if, after such treatment, 
 they were afraid to take the unqualified oath he required 
 of them with the severity of a Roman proconsul ? And, 
 what is most incredible is that, after all this intimida- 
 tion, when those of them who finally made up their 
 minds to take an oath so formidable in their eyes pre- 
 sented themselves before Lawrence, instead of welcom- 
 ing them with extreme wariness and prudence and ensur- 
 ing to them the tranquil possession of their lands, as Sir 
 Thomas Robinson enjoined him to do, he rejected 
 their offer with disdain, and told them " that it was too 
 late, and that henceforth they would be treated as Popish 
 recusants" 
 
 Was the oath mentioned in this despatch of the Secre- 
 tary of State ? Yes ; but not in a way to oblige Law- 
 rence to impose it, since, after the other recommenda- 
 tions I have just commented on, Sir Thomas adds : 
 " and to assure such of them as may be trusted, spe- 
 
AN ATROCIOUS CRIME. 95 
 
 dally upon their taking the oath, that they may remain 
 in the quiet possession of their settlements under proper 
 regulations." Was this not equivalent to saying: 
 Allow those who will consent to take the oath the quiet 
 possession of their settlements ; and do not molest those 
 who should refuse, but avoid any imprudence towards 
 these latter, so as to induce them to take the oath of 
 their own accord ? 
 
 There is no mistaking the drift of this despatch. It 
 breathes the same spirit as all previous dispatches from 
 the same source. Despite the misrepresentations of 
 Lawrence and of some of his predecessors, the Lords of 
 Trade were pretty accurately informed of the situation ; 
 it was not easy to deceive them out and out ; besides, 
 they naturally inferred that, since the few refugees 
 who took up arms did so only under threat of death, 
 there was nothing to fear from those who remained 
 quiet on their lands. That scruple about military serv- 
 ice on the part of men who, willingly or not, had 
 crossed the frontier, when the withdrawal of the neutral 
 status they had hitherto enjoyed and had accepted as a 
 condition of their stay in the country gave them clearly 
 the right to fight for France, was a signal proof of 
 their sincerity and rectitude. Such facts could be 
 appreciated by the Lords of Trade even through the 
 intentional mist of official documents. As against 
 these men expulsion was an injustice, as against the 
 others a crime. But when, in lieu of expulsion pure 
 and simple, it becomes a deportation into foreign colo- 
 nies, depositing them here and there in places far 
 distant from each other, without any effort to keep 
 families together, the act takes on the proportions of 
 an indescribable monstrosity. 
 
96 OPINIONS OF HIST OK I AN S. 
 
 " There have been instances, in the annals of the 
 past," says Philip H. Smith, " in which a country has 
 been desolated in time of actual war, and where the 
 inhabitants were found in arms ; but we defy all past 
 history to produce a parallel case, in which an un- 
 armed and peaceable people have suffered to such an 
 extent as did the French Neutrals of Acadia." 
 
 Bancroft, the eminent historian of the United States, 
 has thus stigmatized the deportation : " These unfort- 
 unate Acadians were guilty of no other crime than 
 their attachment to France. I know not if the annals 
 of the human species have preserved the memory of 
 woes inflicted with so much complacency, cruelty and 
 persistence." 
 
 John Clark Ridpath, another well-known American 
 historian, refers to it as follows : " Governor Lawrence 
 and Admiral Boscawen, in conference with the Chief 
 Justice of the Province (Belcher), settled upon the 
 atrocious measure of driving the people into banish- 
 ment. The first movement was to demand an oath of 
 allegiance which was so framed that they could not take 
 it. The next step on the part of the English was to 
 accuse the Acadians of treason and to demand the sur- 
 render of all their firearms and boats. To this measure 
 the broken-hearted people also submitted. They even 
 offered to take the oath, but Lawrence declared that, 
 having once refused, they must now take the conse- 
 quences. The history of civilized nations furnishes no 
 parallel to this wanton and wicked destruction of an 
 inoffensive colony." 
 
 The Rev. Andrew Brown, who lived at Halifax 
 shortly after the deportation, and who knew better 
 than any one else the extent of this crime and the cir- 
 
PHOOF THAT WINSLOW LIED. 9T 
 
 cumstances that accompanied it, says in the MS. 
 already quoted: "I can take upon me, from a painful 
 examination of the whole matter, to assert that Raynal 
 neither knew nor suspected the tenth part of the distress 
 of the Acadians, and that, excepting the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, I know of no act equally reprehensible 
 as the Acadian deportation that can be laid to the 
 charge of the French nation. In their colonies, nothing 
 was ever done that at all approaches to it in cruelty 
 and atrociousness." 
 
 A considerable number of writers might be quoted 
 who have all condemned the deportation just as severely. 
 Strictly speaking, not one has entirely approved it. 
 He who comes nearest to an approval is Parkman. 
 Some seem to have striven earnestly to extenuate the 
 guilt of the Provincial Government and to throw as 
 much blame as they could on the Acadians. In this 
 there is nothing surprising, nothing that would call for 
 scathing reproof. At most they may be charged with 
 thoughtlessness or want of perspicacity. Unless one 
 had been able to penetrate the interested motives of 
 Lawrence and his councillors, it was natural to suppose 
 that there must have been some excuse, and, as they 
 did not ferret out the true motives, their well-meant 
 efforts and inferences are not blameworthy. Most of 
 those who have related these events are English 
 writers, and it is creditable to them as well as consoling 
 for all, that the great majority of them have had the 
 courage and the candor to condemn an act that seri- 
 ously affected the honor of their nation. It is a con- 
 solation for me, and it must be so for every born 
 British subject, that the Home Government had nothing* 
 
 to do with this infamous project. The despatch of the. 
 
 7 
 
»« SUSPICIOUS DELAY. 
 
 Secretary of State establishes beyond a doubt that 
 Lawrence was usurping powers that he neither had nor 
 could have had, that Winslow was lying when he 
 affirmed in his edict of expulsion that he held in his 
 hand His Majesty's instructions ordering the deporta- 
 tion ; and it is not surprising that the Acadians, up to 
 the last moment, refused to believe him, as Winslow 
 himself says. 
 
 This despatch of the Secretary of State, dated 
 August 13th, could, under ordinary circumstances, 
 reach Halifax about the 15th, or the 20th of September, 
 forty days before the general exodus of the Acadians ; 
 and yet Lawrence did not reply to it till the 30th of 
 November, three months and a half after its date. Are 
 we to suppose that Lawrence received it within the 
 usual time, or at least before the embarkation, and that 
 he purposely refrained from answering it till November 
 30th, with a view to escape the imputation of disobedi- 
 ence, or that the letter was really so long in coming ? 
 Had he received it when, on October 18th, he wrote to 
 the Lords of Trade announcing that the deportation 
 was partly executed, which, by the way, was false ? I 
 am inclined to think he had : for even at that date, 
 two months and five days — much more than the average 
 time for a passage from London to Halifax — had 
 elapsed. Lawrence's last letter was dated July 18th ; 
 so that he had been exactly three months without com- 
 municating with the Lords of Trade. As at such an 
 extraordinary juncture he was more than usually bound 
 to keep them well informed of everything that hap- 
 pened, we cannot help concluding that this long silence 
 was intentional. Doubtless, in the case of the Secre- 
 tary of State's despatch, the long delay may be attri- 
 
LAWRENCE ANNOUNCES THE DEPORTATION. 99 
 
 buted to the uncertainties of navigation in those days ; 
 but, when we have to deal with so artful a dodger as 
 Lawrence, we are warranted in closely scrutinizing all 
 his actions, and, in suspecting him wherever his in- 
 terest may give rise to suspicion. And in this con- 
 nection, it will be advisable to anticipate a little and 
 examine just here all the letters exchanged on this 
 subject between Lawrence and the Lords of Trade. 
 
 In his letter of October 18th Lawrence announces the 
 deportation, and does it with the same artfulness and 
 the same want of feeling that mark all his acts. He is 
 laconic as to the details of the deportation ; he speaks 
 of it like a merchant writing about a cargo of merchan- 
 dise, for which time and expense are the only really 
 important considerations : 
 
 "Since my last of the 18th of July, the Acadian deputies have ap- 
 peared before the council to give their final answer to the proposal 
 about the oath ; they have persistently refused, and though every 
 means were used to point out their interest, and sufficient time given 
 to consider, nothing would induce them to acquiesce in any measures 
 consistent with His Majesty's honour or the security of this Province. 
 Upon this behaviour, the Council came to a resolution to oblige them 
 to quit the colony, and immediately took into consideration what 
 might be the speediest, cheapest and easiest method of giving this 
 resolution its intended effect. We easily foresaw that driving them 
 out by force to Canada, would be attended with difficulty, and would 
 have reinforced those settlements with a very considerable body of 
 men who were ever universally the most inveterate enemies to our 
 religion. 
 
 11 The only means of preventing their return, or their collecting 
 themselves again into a large body, was distributing them along the 
 colonies from Georgia to New England. Accordingly, the vessels 
 were hired at the cheapest rates ; the embarkation is now in great 
 forwardness, and I am in hopes that there will not be one remaining 
 by the end of next month. 
 
 "I have taken all the care in my power to lessen the expense ; the 
 vessels were most of them bound to the places where the Acadians 
 
100 THE DEPORTATION A SECONDARY INCIDENT. 
 
 were destined, and by that means are hired greatly cheaper. They 
 have hitherto been victualled with their own provisions, and will be 
 supplied for the passage with those taken at Beausejour as far as they 
 will go. 
 
 "In order to save as many of the Acadian cattle as possible, I have 
 given some of them among such of the English settlers as have the 
 means of feeding them." 
 
 After saying that one of the good results of this exo- 
 dus will be to afford excellent lands ready for tillage, he 
 adds: 
 
 " As the French priests Chauvreulx, Daudin and Le Maire were of 
 no further use in this Province, Vice- Admiral Boscawen has been so 
 good as to take them on board his fleet, and is to give them a passage 
 to England. 1 ' 
 
 The rest of the letter, whicli is a tolerably long one, 
 treats of the fortifications of Beausejour, of Bay Verte, 
 of the River St. John, etc., just as if these matters were 
 the main object of his letter, and what concerned the 
 deportation were merely an incident of secondary im- 
 portance among the many details of his administration. 
 The picture would have been incomplete had not Law- 
 rence donned the mantle of religion and patriotism with 
 which to cloak his crime — criminals on a large scale 
 affect this method of self-defence — and so he deemed it 
 good policy to dub the Acadians " the most inveterate 
 enemies to our religion " and to represent them as refusing 
 to acquiesce " in any measures consistent with His Maj- 
 esty's honour" 
 
 It is easy to imagine the worry and anxiety Lawrence 
 must have have felt at being obliged to inform the Lords 
 of Trade of so portentous an event as the deportation of 
 an entire people. However, it had to be done. To 
 make this announcement before the embarkation, while 
 
LAWRENCE ANSWERS THE DESPATCH. 101 
 
 acknowledging receipt of the Secretary's despatch were 
 impossible unless Lawrence were prepared to suspend 
 operations. To proceed with the deportation in spite 
 of the Secretary's known remonstrance were to condemn 
 himself and to close every loophole of excuse. To make 
 the announcement, even after the embarkation, but while 
 acknowledging having received this despatch, were 
 highly impolitic. The safer course would be to ignore 
 the despatch, to pretend to act on his own responsibility 
 as if he had not yet received any reply from England. 
 Such were, I think, the motives that determined Law- 
 rence to announce the deportation on October 18th with- 
 out acknowledging receipt of the despatch of August 
 13th. Before replying to the latter he wanted to give 
 himself time to prepare the way. Boscawen had left 
 Halifax toward the end of October to return to England. 
 As Lawrence had persuaded him to share the responsi- 
 bility of his own acts, he had in him an accomplice highly 
 interested in justifying the deportation ; but this accom- 
 plice must be allowed all the time needed to circumvent 
 the Lords of Trade. Thus it was not till November 30th 
 that Lawrence finally made up his mind to answer this 
 awkward despatch. 
 
 The Compiler, as is his wont, has put asterisks in lieu 
 of the first part of this very important letter. Probably, 
 what is omitted would confirm my view ; but what we 
 have is enough. We are now sufficiently accustomed 
 to these omissions to understand their hidden meaning. 
 In this letter of November 30th Lawrence explains at 
 considerable length what he understood by the " deserted 
 Acadians." He applies the term to those who had vol- 
 untarily crossed the frontier ; it was these he meant in 
 his letter of June 28th. Passing on to that article of 
 
102 CHARGE OF DISLOYALTY. 
 
 the Beausejour capitulation which referred to them, to 
 wit : 
 
 " Concerning the Acadians found in the Fort, as they took up arms 
 under pain of death, they are pardoned," he thinks that the word 
 pardoned merely signified that they would not be put to death. 
 
 "It was with these inhabitants alone that Lieut.-Col. Monckton 
 had anything to do, for we could not easily at that time form any con- 
 jecture what turn the inhabitants of the Peninsula would take upon 
 the surrender of Beausejour, when it was thought they could enter- 
 tain no further hopes of assistance from the French. But when we 
 found the Acadians who had not deserted their lands, entertained the 
 same disloyal sentiments with those who had, and positively rejected 
 the oath of allegiance, we thought it high time to resolve, as well for 
 His Majesty's honour as the immediate preservation of the prov- 
 ince, that the whole Acadians, as well those who had not deserted as 
 those who had, should be embarked aboard Transports and dispersed 
 among the neighbouring colonies. By much the greater part of them 
 are sailed, and I flatter myself by this time the whole. I will not 
 trouble you with any further account of this measure, having had 
 already the honour to lay it fully before you in my letter of the 18th 
 of October." 
 
 Let us note some of the false statements in this 
 letter. Lawrence's interpretation of the word pardoned 
 shows that he had no respect for solemn engagements, 
 because that interpretation is altogether inadmissible. 
 When he declares that the Acadians who crossed the 
 frontier did so xvillingly, he knew that he was lying, for 
 he was aware that the Indians had forced them to do 
 so by burning their houses, and that they had applied 
 for leave to return to their lands, though their situation 
 on the other side of the frontier was perfectly justifiable. 
 His boldest piece of deception, however, is his affirma- 
 tion that he was obliged to include the Peninsular 
 Acadians in his deportation scheme because, after the 
 taking of Beausejour, they entertained the same dis- 
 loyal sentiments. Now I have proved that, even while 
 
PROOFS OF THEIR LOYALTY. 103 
 
 Beaus^jour was besieged, Lawrence seized a part of 
 their fire-arms by fraud, that they delivered up the 
 remainder of their arms together with their boats on a 
 mere order, that, a fortnight later, without insubordina- 
 tion on their part, without any act that might be con- 
 strued as disloyal, the deportation was virtually decided 
 upon, nay, that it was a settled purpose long before the 
 fall of Beausejour True, their loyalty, under his gov- 
 ernment, could scarcely rest on sentiment — man not 
 being made to love chains nor those who rivet them on 
 — but it rested on a sense of duty and of self-interest ; 
 which was quite as much as could be required, and far 
 more than could be expected under such oppression. 
 
 As maj'- be seen, the details in this letter, as well as 
 in that of October 18th, are very scanty. Lawrence 
 must, indeed, have been loath to dwell upon the facts, 
 since in doing so he would have had to lay bare hate- 
 ful proceedings of his own followed by a submission so 
 complete as to open the eyes of his superiors ; he would 
 have had to explain that the Acadians had neither arms 
 nor boats, and therefore were incapable of disturbing the 
 peace of the country, had they wished to give trouble. 
 But, a truce to comments ; the reader is now sufficiently 
 enlightened to be able to seize, without any help from 
 me, all the craftiness of this letter, which, viewed in all 
 its malignity, contains nothing to justify the deporta- 
 tion or, for that matter, any other measure of expulsion. 
 
 The following letter of the Lords of Trade to 
 Lawrence, dated March 25th of the following year 
 (1756), completes the correspondence on this subject, 
 so far as it is known to us : 
 
 " We look upon a war between us and France as inevitable. . . 
 " We have laid that part of your letter which relates to the 
 
104 REFERRED TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 removal of the Acadians and the steps you took in the execution 
 of this measure before His Majesty's Secretary of State ; and, as 
 you represent it to have been indispensably necessary for the 
 security and protection of the Province in the present critical sit- 
 uation of our affairs, we doubt not but that your conduct herein 
 will meet with His Majesty's approbation." 
 
 Owing to the importance of the matter, it had been 
 referred to the Secretary of State. Under these cir- 
 cumstances it was fitting that the Lords of Trade should 
 express no opinion, and their reply is but the official 
 intimation that the question had been submitted to the 
 consideration of a higher authority. Lawrence had had 
 time to use the influence of his friends ; the war, 
 already existing de facto was about to be officially pro- 
 claimed ; in the din of battle, amid the anxieties of a 
 long and desperate war this matter was lost sight of, 
 the accomplished fact was accepted or put up with ; 
 Lawrence was or seemed to be safe. He felt he had 
 run great risks ; but, like a bold and lucky gambler, 
 he had won. The wolf is not always killed for eating 
 the lamb. 
 
 These letters save the honor of the British Government 
 from all responsibility ante factum in this crime. They 
 are published in the volume of the Archives ; all those 
 who have written on this subject since 1869 could 
 consult them. How comes it, then, that neither Camp- 
 bell, nor Hannay, nor Parkman mention them ? Rameau, 
 Casgrain and Brown are the only writers who refer to 
 them. Haliburton and Murdoch wrote before the pub- 
 lication of the Archives, at a time when many official 
 documents and certainly Lawrence's letters in the years 
 1755 and 1756 had been withdrawn. The Compiler 
 succeeded in procuring in London duplicates of the let- 
 
WHY SOME HISTORIANS OMIT THESE LETTERS. 105 
 
 ters exchanged between Halifax and the Metropolis, 
 among which, I suppose, are those I have reproduced. 
 What, then, can have been the object of Parkman and 
 others in ignoring so completely letters so important ? 
 I have sought for some answer to this question, and I 
 must confess that no solution has seemed fully satisfac- 
 tory in the case of some writers otherwise worthy of 
 respect. There is surely no great difficulty in making 
 out the gist of these letters ; their meaning is perfectly 
 clear and calls for no special exercise of perspicacity. 
 All that is needed is a little patience in order to dis- 
 entangle and readjust the data scattered through a 
 maze of documents. No doubt the historians of this 
 epoch, as a general rule, have not given themselves the 
 trouble to penetrate the true inwardness of events; but 
 this rule must admit of some exceptions. There is, of 
 course, the obvious difficulty that the declarations of 
 Lawrence and Winslow to the Acadians contradict the 
 official documents of the Home Office ; but those dec- 
 larations are valueless if not based on these official 
 documents, and worse than useless if they contradict the 
 latter. Did the historians I allude to fear to ruin their 
 theory of justification which they were attempting to 
 palm off on the public ? They would be sure to save 
 England's honor by relieving the British Cabinet of all 
 responsibility, so far as a Government can be acquitted 
 of complicity with its officers ; but, then, they must ex- 
 pose to view the plot in all its repulsive crudeness, they 
 must sacrifice Lawrence and his council, they must 
 give up trying to defend them. They seem to have 
 preferred saving both Lawrence and the Home Office at 
 the risk of saving neither — a not unprecedented pro- 
 ceeding. However, this explanation cannot apply to 
 
106 BROWN DELIGHTED. 
 
 Campbell, who, after strenuously striving to magnify 
 the faults of the Acadians and minimize those of Law- 
 rence and his accomplices, probably so as to explain 
 what seemed to him unexplainable otherwise, ends by 
 condemning the deportation in the following terms : 
 
 " The transportation of the Acadians in the manner 
 executed was a blunder, and it is far more manly to 
 acknowledge it as such than vainly to attempt to 
 palliate or to excuse conduct at which, when coolly 
 viewed in relation to its consequences, the moral in- 
 stincts of mankind shudder." 
 
 I am equally reluctant to include Han nay among the 
 historians who defend both Lawrence and the Home 
 Office, for, in spite of his unjustifiable inferences, he 
 seems impartial as to facts. Parkman's case is quite 
 other. 
 
 When the Rev. Andrew Brown was collecting, at 
 Halifax in 1787, documents for the history that he pur- 
 posed publishing, the suppression of those that bore on 
 the period of the deportation does not seem to have 
 been as complete as it was later on. He who had had 
 the rare advantage of conversing with the authors and 
 witnesses of this drama, who had sounded and, so to 
 speak, handled the gigantic fraud at the bottom of it 
 all, who sought nothing but the truth and honest 
 excuses if they existed, immediately realized the im- 
 mense importance of the despatch of the Secretary of 
 State (August 13th). His patriotism had received a 
 rude shock; his heart, one feels, had bled at the humili- 
 ation inflicted on the fair fame of his country ; his brain 
 was in a whirl at the recital of the inconceivable mis- 
 fortunes heaped upon a whole people ; and now it is a 
 pleasure to see with what intense satisfaction he notes 
 
PARKMAN AFRAID. 107 
 
 the discovery of this precious document. He appends 
 to it this short comment : " This important ! . . . 
 Government at least innocent ! " It was no mere com- 
 ment, but rather a shout of joy bursting from his breast ; 
 his soul was relieved of the weight that was crushing it, 
 the honor of his country was saved or partly saved. 
 Thus does great emotion find vent. This exclamation 
 of his involuntarily recalls that other cry of Archimedes. 
 Brown too had his eureka, and if he did not run shout- 
 ing through the streets of Halifax, he doubtless gave 
 full play, in the secret of his sanctum, to his transports 
 of delight. Parkman has also read the same document ; 
 but the animus of these two men is very different ; 
 Parkman utters no cry of relief. What delighted the 
 one, perhaps affrighted the other. The former wished 
 to fasten the guilt on some other than the Government; 
 the latter wanted, it seems, to whitewash both. While 
 the one purposed bringing this document to light and 
 giving it all its importance, the other whispered to him- 
 self : I must suppress it ; I must put this light under a 
 bushel. That private note : " Government at least in- 
 nocent" is more telling in praise of Brown's moral 
 rectitude than whole volumes of polished platitudes. 
 Hitherto he had believed that the Home Office must 
 have ordered the deportation ; yet his conviction that it 
 was an iniquity had not faltered ; but now, though 
 others of his race were guilty, thank God it was not the 
 Government in London. He understood that if the 
 self-respecting historian can, when hard pressed, grant 
 his country the benefit of the doubt, he is in duty 
 strictly bound to state facts as they are, be they ever so 
 distasteful. 
 
 A little further on, Brown interjects this other remark : 
 
108 le guerne's testimony. 
 
 " The Lords of Trade extremely guarded ! " — " No 
 blame imputable to them on the subject." 
 
 Considering that Parkman found Brown's manuscript, 
 from beginning to end, a condemnation of all that he 
 was writing on the deportation, it is not surprising that 
 he maintains with regard to it an absolute silence. 
 Pichon suited him infinitely better.* 
 
 Before Brown had remarked the usurpation of royal 
 authority, Abbe" Le Guerne had done so, soon after the 
 shipping of the Acadians : " Mr. Lawrence," he says, 
 " Governor of Chibouctou (Halifax). . . determined, 
 without consulting the Court of London^ to expatriate the 
 Acadians and disperse them in the various countries of 
 New England." 
 
 * We know that the deportation was accomplished with the assistance of 
 the New England volunteers, who, under Winslow, had achieved the 
 taking of Fort Beausejour. The part they had in this melancholy affair 
 was that of soldiers obeying orders, and therefore no blame can attach 
 to them. Had Parkman any ancestors among them, and could he pos- 
 sibly have been influenced by that ? With most people such a motive 
 could not be even mentioned ; with Parkman it is permissible in the absence 
 of other known motives. 
 
FAILUBE AT BEAUSEJOUIi. 109 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 How the convocation and arrest of the Acadians succeeded in 
 other places. — A few vessels arrive at Grand Pre. — Winslow de- 
 cides to put all young men on board — They resist but finally obey. 
 — Scenes of woe and distress — Correspondence between Murray, 
 Winslow and Prebble showing their state of mind — Seven more 
 vessels arrive four weeks later — Departure of the fleet on the 31st 
 of October — Other incidents — Computations about the cattle of 
 the Acadians. 
 
 I now go back to Grand Pre* and other Acadian set- 
 tlements to resume my narrative in connection with the 
 proceedings to carry out the deportation. Whether it 
 was that the details had not been conceived and executed 
 with so much skill, or that the people were more suspi- 
 cious, the success of the conspirac}^ in the other places 
 was not so remarkable as at Grand Pre*. Handfield com- 
 plained to Winslow that several families had taken refuge 
 in the woods : there had even been resistance and some 
 men had been killed. 
 
 At Beausejour, where Monckton was commandant, the 
 failure was more striking. The proclamation which 
 convoked all the inhabitants, was generally disobeyed ; 
 and Monckton could get together on his transports 
 only about twelve hundred persons. This was about 
 one third of the population. Major Frye, whom he 
 had sent to the settlements of Chipody, Peticodiac 
 and Memrancook, with orders to burn all the houses 
 and carry off with him the women and children, could 
 
110 HOUSES BURNT. 
 
 execute only the first part of his instructions. At his 
 approach, the entire population, having learnt the fate 
 of those who had obeyed the proclamation, had fled to 
 the woods. After burning 120 houses at Chipody, the 
 church included, he entered the Peticodiac River and 
 ascended it some distance, burning all the buildings on 
 both sides of the stream. Reaching the principal vil- 
 lage, he cast anchor and ordered Captain Adams, with 
 sixty men, to join the detachments of Lieutenants Endi- 
 cott and Billings, which were marching up the river 
 along its banks. " Two hundred and fifty houses," says 
 Haliburton, " were on fire at one time, in which a great 
 quantity of wheat and flax were consumed. The miser- 
 able inhabitants beheld, from the adjoining woods, the 
 destruction of their buildings and household goods with 
 horror and dismay ; nor did they venture to offer any 
 resistance, until the wanton attempt was made to burn 
 their chapel. This they considered as adding insult to 
 injury, and rushing upon the party, who were too intent 
 on the execution of their orders to observe the neces- 
 sary precautions to prevent a surprise, they killed and 
 wounded twenty-nine rank and file, and then retreated 
 again to the cover of the forest." 
 
 Major Frye, feeling unable to do any more, withdrew, 
 carrying off with him twenty-five infirm or invalid 
 women found in the houses that were burned. 
 
 Abbe* Le Guerne, who was in the neighborhood of 
 Beaus^jour before and after the deportation, related these 
 events in detail at the very time in a letter to the 
 commandant of Louisburg. 
 
 " After the taking of Beausejour," says he, " I thought 
 I perceived that the officers of the Fort were hiding sin- 
 ister designs, while seeming to be interested in improv- 
 
LE GTTERNE TELLS THE STORY. Ill 
 
 ing the settlements. An order came that all should go 
 to the Fort, to make arrangements, it was said, about 
 the lands. I felt tempted to advise disobedience to 
 this order which, to my mind, boded ill ; but, apart 
 from the fact that I had promised the authorities not to 
 meddle in temporal affairs, I feared that the Acadians 
 would not listen to me. For they regarded the English 
 as their masters ; they thought themselves secure under 
 the solemn pledge of the capitulation; they thought them- 
 selves bound to obedience. For these reasons I could not 
 dissuade them therefrom without running the risk of 
 bearing the responsibility of all the misfortunes that 
 have befallen them, for this disobedience of some would 
 have been a specious and solitary pretext for severity 
 against all. 
 
 " As soon as those that went to the Fort were made 
 prisoners, I saw clearly that concessions became useless. 
 The English commandant, by his tempting promises, 
 by captious offers, and even by presents, thought he 
 had won me over to his interest. Thinking himself 
 sure of me, he sent me word that he wished to see me. 
 I took good care not to fall into the snare he had got 
 ready for me ; I replied that I did not mistrust him, 
 but that he might receive orders against the mission- 
 aries, which he would be obliged to execute against me, 
 and, since he was ordered to deport the Acadians, the 
 only course left for me to adopt was to withdraw ; but 
 that I should gladly remain if he received contrary 
 orders. To a letter in which he urged me again to 
 banish all distrust, I answered that Mr. Maillard had 
 been put on board ship in spite of the positive assurance 
 of a governor, and that I deemed it better to withdraw 
 than to expose myself in any way." 
 
112 mubhay's success. 
 
 Murray, at Pigiguit, fulfilled his task with a success 
 fairly equal to that of Winslow at Grand Pre. The 
 inhabitants did not submit to the proclamation with 
 the same unanimity ; yet they all finally yielded with- 
 out making any resistance. On the very evening of 
 the convocation, he thus reported his success to Win- 
 slow : 
 
 "I have succeeded finely, and have got one hundred and eighty- 
 three men in my possession. I believe there are but very few left, 
 except their sick. I am hopeful you have had equally as good luck ; 
 should be glad you would send me Transports as soon as possible. I 
 should also esteem it a favor, if you could also send me an officer and 
 thirty men more, as I shall be obliged to send to some distant rivers, 
 where they are not all come yet." 
 
 The day after the arrest, the prisoners of Grand Pre* 
 begged Winslow to allow a certain number of them to 
 visit their families in order to acquaint them with what 
 had occurred and to console them. After consulting 
 with his officers, Winslow consented to let twenty 
 prisoners, of whom ten were from Riviere aux Canards 
 and ten from Grand Pre', go ewery day, by turns, to 
 visit their families, on condition that the others be 
 responsible for their return. 
 
 Patrols scoured the country in every direction to 
 seize on such as had not responded to the call. With 
 the exception of some who were killed while trying to 
 run away, and of some others who succeeded in escap- 
 ing, all those who had held back gave themselves up as 
 prisoners. In a few days the number of prisoners was 
 over five hundred. 
 
 Winslow's Journal contains a petition that was ad- 
 dressed to him by the captives a few days after their 
 arrest. It is eloquent in its simplicity, touching by the 
 
TOUCHING PETITION ADDRESSED TO WTNSLOW. 113 
 
 sentiments it expresses. Strong as was their attach- 
 ment to their property, to their country ; great as were 
 their woes and griefs, what they were most anxious 
 about was their spiritual welfare. In this overwhelm- 
 ing disaster, when it would seem that nature stifles 
 every feeling except the sense of present evil, the last 
 and only favor they begged of their tormentors, who 
 refused it, referred to their religious interests. 
 
 " At the sight, 1 ' wrote they, " of the evils that seem to threaten us 
 on every side, we are obliged to implore your protection and to beg of 
 you to intercede with His Majesty, that he may have a care for those 
 amongst us who have inviolably kept the fidelity and submission 
 promised to His Majesty ; and, as you have given us to understand 
 that the King has ordered us to be transported out of this Province, 
 we beg of you that, if we must forsake our lands, we may at least be 
 allowed to go to places where we shall find fellow-countrymen, all 
 expenses being defrayed by ourselves ; and that we may be granted a 
 suitable length of time therefor ; and all the more because, by this 
 means, we shall be able to preserve our religion, which we have deeply 
 at heart, and for which we are content to sacrifice our property." 
 
 Did Winslow understand the sublimity of the senti- 
 ments expressed in this petition ? His Journal does not 
 tell us. He moves on without a word of comment. 
 He was engaged upon a job that allowed him neither 
 to turn back nor to open his heart to pity. He had 
 orders to arrest the men and lads above ten years, to 
 put them on board the ships and to send them away. 
 He had successfully performed the first part of his task ; 
 there now remained the embarkation, which was to be 
 the greatest wrench of all. Lawrence's pitiless edict 
 willed it so ; everything must be sacrificed to ensure 
 the safe accomplishment of his plan. 
 
 As indignation was openly expressed at his hard- 
 
 heartedness, he took advantage of the arrival of five 
 8 
 
114 THE MAKCH TO THE SHIPS. 
 
 vessels to proceed immediately with the embarkation. 
 In the forenoon of September 10th, he sent word to the 
 prisoners by Pere Landry, who acted as interpreter, that 
 two hundred and fifty of them, beginning by the young 
 men, would be put on board ship directly ; that they 
 had but one hour to get ready, seeing that the tide was 
 on the point of ebbing. " Landry was extremely sur- 
 prised," says Winslow, " but I told him that the thing 
 must be done, and that I was going to give my orders." 
 As I have not access to Winslow's Journal, I will let 
 Casgrain relate the episode of this embarkation.* 
 ' " The prisoners were brought before the garrison and 
 drawn up in column, six abreast. Then the officers 
 ordered all the unmarried men, to the number of a hun- 
 dred and fifty-one, to step out of the ranks ; and, after 
 having put these latter in order of march, they flanked 
 them on all sides with eighty soldiers of the garrison 
 under command of Captain Adams. 
 
 " Up to this moment all these unfortunate men had 
 submitted without resistance ; but, when they were told 
 to march towards the shore and be there put on board 
 ship, they protested and refused to obey. It was no use 
 commanding and threatening them ; all were obstinate 
 in their revolt, with cries and extreme excitement, say- 
 ing truly that, by this barbarous measure, sons were 
 separated from their fathers, brothers from their brothers. 
 This was the beginning of that inexcusable dismember- 
 ment of families which has stained with an indelible 
 blot the name of its authors. 
 
 " When one knows that some of these young people 
 were mere lads from ten to twelve years old, and there- 
 
 * Pderinage au Pays d' Evangeline. 
 
MURRAY AND WIXSLOW'S FEELINGS. 115 
 
 fore much, less to be feared than married men in the 
 vigor of manhood, who had greater interests to protect, 
 it is impossible to understand this refinement of 
 cruelty." 
 
 Let Winslow himself relate this part of the incident : 
 
 " I ordered ye prisoners to march. They all answered they would 
 not go without their fathers. I told them that was a word I did not 
 understand, for that the King's command was to me absolute and 
 should be absolutely obeyed and that I did not love harsh means, but 
 that the time did not admit of parlies or delays, and then ordered the 
 whole troops to fix their bayonets aud advance towards the Acadians, 
 and bid the 4 right hand files of the prisoners, consisting of 24 men, 
 which I told off myself to divide from the rest, one of whom I took 
 hold of who opposed the marching, and bid march ; he obeyed and 
 the rest followed, though slowly, and went off praying, singing, and 
 crying, being met by the women and children all the way (which is 14- 
 mile) with great lamentations upon their knees, praying, etc., etc." 
 
 " Another squad," Casgrain continues, " composed 
 of a hundred married men, was embarked directly after 
 the first amid similar scenes. Fathers inquired of their 
 wives on the shore where their sons were, brothers 
 asked about their brothers, who had just been led into 
 the ships ; and they begged the officers to put them 
 together. By way of answer the soldiers thrust their 
 bayonets forward and pushed the captives into the 
 boats." 
 
 Two days before this first embarkation Murray wrote 
 to Winslow: 
 
 "I received your favor, and am extremely pleased that things are 
 so clever at Grand Pre, and that the poor devils are so resigned ; here 
 they are more patient than I could have expected for persons so cir- 
 cumstanced, and, what still surprises me, quite unconcerned. When 
 I think of those at Annapolis, I appear over thoughtful of summon- 
 ing them in ; I am afraid there will be some difficulty in getting them 
 
116 A GUZZLER. 
 
 together ; you know our soldiers hate them, and if they can but find 
 a pretext to kill them they will. I am really glad to think your camp 
 is so well secured — as the French said, at least a good prison for in- 
 habitants. I long much to see the poor wretches embarked, and our 
 affairs a little settled, and then I will do myself the pleasure of meet- 
 ing you and drinking their good voyage.'''' 
 
 The vessels that were to bring provisions and trans- 
 port the captives were very late in arriving. Murray 
 and Winslow were getting impatient; the pressing 
 letters written by the latter to the Commissary, Saul, 
 remained unanswered. After a long delay a ship laden 
 with provisions appeared before Grand Pre* ; but the 
 transports for the Acadians and the ships that were to 
 convoy them did not come till much later. Winslow, 
 writing to a friend at Halifax, thus describes his impres- 
 sions : " I know they deserve all and more than they 
 feel ; yet, it hurts me to hear their weepings and wail- 
 ings and gnashing of teeth. I am in hopes our affairs 
 will soon put on another face, and we get transports, 
 and I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was 
 in." 
 
 At last, after four interminable weeks, seven vessels 
 hove in sight, three of which were sent to Murray, who 
 could not contain his jo}< : " Thank God ! " says he, 
 44 the transports are come at last. So soon as I have 
 shipped off my rascals, I will come down and settle 
 matters with you, and enjoy ourselves a little." 
 
 In fairness to Winslow I choose in preference those 
 parts of his Journal which exhibit him in the most favor- 
 able light. Where facts that are positively horrible 
 fill so large a space, one eagerly greets a semblance of 
 humane feelings. These are so rare that one need not 
 be squeamish. Such as they are, however, they refresh 
 
TeRRIBLE THREATS. 117 
 
 the soul and cheer the sight like a green oasis after the 
 burning sands of the desert. One longs for them as 
 the diver rising to the surface longs for a breath of air. 
 Nevertheless it is expedient to show what a vile fellow 
 was that Murray who, for many years past, had been in 
 charge of this district, the most populous in Acadia. 
 His letters invariably end with a fervent wish to drink 
 and make merry. Prebble, at least, though he never for- 
 gets the enjoyment he hopes to secure, " the good things 
 of this world," does not forget spiritual things either, 
 albeit he makes them a text for mockery of the Acadians' 
 belief. Murray's mind grovels in gross pleasures alone. 
 He is always thirsty ; he is always ready to start the 
 nunc est bibendum, and this thought haunts him ever. 
 Such is the man after his own heart whom Lawrence 
 chose to rule and exasperate this people, to prepare and 
 execute the dark designs he had long been meditating. 
 Think how the oppression of such a sensualist must 
 have weighed on the Acadians, and then wonder at their 
 unvaryingly peaceful submission to the caprices of this 
 despot. 
 
 Winslow prepared everything for the embarkation and 
 gave notice to the prisoners to be ready for October 8th : 
 " Even after this warning," says he, " I could not per- 
 suade them I was in earnest." 
 
 I cannot attempt to describe the scenes that marked 
 the embarking of the rest of the people. Winslow thus 
 reports them in his Journal : " Began to embark the 
 inhabitants, who went off very solentarily ($£<?) and un- 
 willingly ; the women in great distress, carrying off 
 their children in their arms ; others carrying their de- 
 crepit parents in their carts with all their goods, moving 
 
118 TERRIBLE THREATS. 
 
 in great confusion, and appeared a scene of woe and 
 distress." 
 
 The four vessels with their human cargo lingered in 
 the roadstead until the 29th of the same month (Octo- 
 ber). Meanwhile there remained yet upon the shore 
 more than half the population who had not been able to 
 find place on board. 
 
 Some were still hiding in the woods. In order to 
 force them to surrender, Winslow issued the following 
 
 order, which needs no comment : " If within days 
 
 the absent ones were not delivered up, military execu- 
 tion would be immediately visited upon the next of 
 kin:' 
 
 " In short," says Haliburton, " so operative were the 
 terrors that surrounded them, that, of twenty-four young 
 men who deserted from a Transport, twenty-two were 
 glad to return of themselves, the others being shot by 
 sentinels ; and one of their friends, Francois Hdbert, 
 believed to have been an accessory to their escape, was 
 carried on shore to behold the destruction of his house 
 and effects, which were burned in his presence, as a 
 punishment for his temerity and his perfidious aid to 
 his comrades." 
 
 We have no written proof that acts of cruelty other 
 than those necessitated by the very nature of the enter- 
 prise were committed by the soldiers ; but, when we 
 take into account Lawrence's instructions " to distress 
 them as much as possible," and the hatred entertained 
 against everything French and Catholic, when the sol- 
 diers had about full scope to act as they pleased, the 
 experience of history is there to prove that there must 
 have occurred scenes of cruelty more revolting than 
 those which have been chronicled in Winslow's Journal. 
 
PARKMAN EIGHT FOR ONCE. 119 
 
 It must have been to put an end to abuses of this sort 
 that he ordered the soldiers and sailors, under pain of 
 severe chastisements, not to absent themselves any more 
 without leave from their quarters, " that an end may be 
 put to distressing this distressed people." 
 
 Haliburton has supposed that the first vessels which 
 received on October 10th their shipment of young and 
 married men, were sent off directly. This was, indeed 
 according to Lawrence's orders ; but, for want of provi- 
 sions, and perhaps also because it was thought more pru- 
 dent to have the vessels accompanied by convoys, they 
 did not set sail till the bulk of the fleet did, at the end 
 of October. Parkman has rightly pointed out this mis- 
 take, which tended to demonstrate that the separation 
 of families was general and intentional. True, this evil 
 intention can be demonstrated, whatever may be the 
 time at which the ships set sail: for I have reason 
 to believe that the prisoners remained exactly as they 
 were distributed on board the ships on the 10th of 
 October and that no change was made between that 
 date and the departure. I will give, further on, some 
 instances referring to members of my own family, 
 which seem to settle the question. However, I 
 wish to correct Haliburton's mistake and to give the 
 reader an opportunity of doubting, if he thinks he 
 honestly can, the correctness of my opinion. There are 
 enough horrors in this story without exaggerating the 
 reality. 
 
 In Winslow's instructions as to the destination of the 
 Acadians of the Mines District, we read : 
 
 To North Carolina, so many. 
 
 To Virginia id. 
 
 To Maryland such a number of vessels as will transport 500 per- 
 
120 A FIVE-YEAR OLD WITNESS OF THE BURNING. 
 
 sons, or in proportion, if the number to be shipped off should ex- 
 ceed 2,000. 
 
 Now, the total number, from Pigiguit and Grand Pre*, 
 exceeded 3,000, and perhaps 3,600. Other vessels fol- 
 lowed the first, and the embarkation took place as they 
 arrived, amid the same scenes of desolation and despair. 
 Then, on October 29th, the fleet set sail. 
 
 All that vast bay, around which but lately an in- 
 dustrious people worked like a swarm of bees, was 
 now deserted. In the silent villages, where the 
 doors swung idly in the wind, nothing was heard but 
 the tramp of soldiery and the lowing of cattle wan- 
 dering anxiously around the stables as if looking for 
 their masters. 
 
 Lawrence's orders were that all buildings be de- 
 stroyed. The last ships that carried off the exiles had 
 not yet passed the entrance to the Mines Basin, when 
 these poor people, casting a farewell glance on their 
 dear native land, perceived clouds of smoke rising from 
 their own roofs. In a few moments all the shore, from 
 Cape Blomedon to Gaspereau was in flames. This 
 was truly an eternal farewell, the utter annihilation 
 of whatever illusions might still have haunted their 
 minds.* 
 
 The convoys of the fleet were : the Nightingale, Cap- 
 tain Diggs ; the Snow {Halifax), Captain Taggert ; the 
 armed schooner, Warron, Captain Adams, with the fol- 
 lowing transports : — 
 
 * Rosalie Bourc (Bourg), my great-grandmother, wife of Jean Le Prince 
 and mother of Jean Charles Prince, bishop of St. Hyacinthe, P. Q., was then 
 five years old. The impression caused by the burning of their habitations, 
 when the fleet was going out of the Basin remained always vivid in her 
 mind. She died in 1846 at the age of ninety-six. An oil portrait of her is 
 in my possession. 
 
NAMES, CAPTAINS, PASSENGERS. 
 
 121 
 
 Corvette Banger, 
 '• Dolphin, 
 
 Schooner Neptune, 
 
 " Three Friends, 
 
 Corvette Sun Flower, 
 " Hannah, 
 
 Schooner Leopard, 
 
 Corvette , 
 
 Molly & Sarah, 
 " Mary, 
 
 ' ' Prosperous, 
 
 " Endeavour, 
 
 " Industry, 
 
 Capt. 
 
 Piercey. . 
 Far nam., 
 Davis. . . 
 Carlisle . 
 Donnell. 
 Adams . 
 Church . 
 Milbury 
 Haslum 
 Denny. . 
 Bragdon. 
 Stone. 
 Goodwin . 
 
 91 
 
 87 
 
 90 
 
 69 
 
 81 
 
 70 
 
 87 
 
 93 
 
 70 
 
 90i 
 
 75 
 
 83 
 
 86 
 
 Puddington'80 
 
 182 
 174 
 180 
 138 
 180 
 140 
 174 
 186 
 140 
 181 
 150 
 166 
 172 
 160 
 
 Additional. 
 
 81 
 56 
 27 
 674 18 = 856 
 
 1649 
 
 2,505 
 
 This report, as well as those of other places, had dis- 
 appeared from the Archives at the time when Dr. Brown 
 was writing ; this one was given him by the Secretary of 
 the Council under Lawrence, Richard Bulkeley, who was 
 still living in 1790. At the bottom of his report he 
 adds : 
 
 U N. B. I have made some blunder by the loss of the principal list 
 of those who embarked, but the number of souls that embarked on 
 board the Transports were 2,921. How many embarked afterwards 
 I know not. The remainder of the Neutrals remained until more 
 Transports arrived." 
 
 By some researches I have succeeded in rectifying 
 the list furnished by Bulkeley, with regard to the ves- 
 sels that sailed from Pigiguit. I have added 182 for 
 this place ; my additions are to be found in the extreme 
 right hand column of the list. To equal Bulkeley 's to- 
 tal, 416 would have also to be added for Grand Pre. But, 
 as, on the other hand, we know from Winslow's Journal, 
 
122 DISCREPANCIES IN FIGURES. 
 
 that the total number deported from Pigiguit was 1,100 
 and that, after this first departure, there still remained 
 more than 600 at Grand Pre*, we should have to admit 
 that the total number deported from the Mines District 
 would be nearer 4,000 than 2,921, which is, with a 
 variation of units only, the figure invariably given by 
 historians. 
 
 Furthermore, Winslow's Journal, under date of No- 
 vember 3rd, four days after the sailing of the fleet, gives 
 the number deported from Grand Pre* as 1,510 in 9 ves- 
 sels ; whereas the list produced above shows 10 vessels 
 instead of 9. Besides, Winslow adds : " I put more 
 than two to a ton, and the people greatly crowded ; 
 there is more than 600 remaining in my District." 
 
 If this figure, 1,510, is correct, then there would not 
 be quite two persons to a ton. 
 
 It is not easy to account for these discrepancies; 
 still, as we know, from a memorial of Abbe" de l'lsle-Dieu, 
 that the population of Mines Basin was, two years be- 
 fore, about 4,500, we may, with more likelihood, I think, 
 estimate the total number deported from this district as 
 between 3,600, and 4,000, and very likely nearer the 
 former than the latter figure. The remainder must 
 either have quitted the country during Lawrence's 
 administration, or have run away at the time of the 
 deportation. 
 
 According to Winslow's Journal, Murray completed 
 his task about the end of October, having sent off 1,100 
 persons " in four frightfully crowded Transports." This 
 is strikingly at variance with Bulkeley's estimate, which 
 gives the number contained in these four vessels as 674, 
 and with my correction raising it to 856. There would 
 still be at least 244 persons to be accounted for, so as to 
 
MUBEAY WAS VERY " DRY." 123 
 
 equal Winslow's eleven hundred. I am inclined to 
 think that, after the sailing of his four ships, Murray- 
 decided to add his prisoners to the shipment from Grand 
 Pre*. The two places were near each other; the de- 
 parture of so many people had made the doubling of 
 garrisons useless ; and it was now more convenient to 
 operate from one point. This would explain how it 
 happened that his task was ended, when we know for a 
 certainty that he still had between two and three hun- 
 dred prisoners to dispose of. Murray was gasping with 
 thirst ; he was burning with desire to join Winslow and 
 enjoy himself. 
 
 Though Winslow and Bulkeley's reports do not 
 agree in the details, they do in the total of the first 
 departure, which they state, respectively, as 2,921 and 
 2,923. Winslow says he still had 600 to deport ; 
 Bulkeley declares he knows nothing of the number 
 embarked later on. The only doubtful point apparently 
 is, whether or not the 600 still with Winslow comprised 
 the 244 needed to complete Murray's 1,100. Winslow's 
 task was not done till December 20th, when two vessels 
 laden with 232 persons carried of! the remnant of the 
 population. 
 
 The total of deported persons at Annapolis, generally 
 estimated at 1,654, seems to agree with what we know 
 of the total population minus the number of those who 
 escaped the deportation. At Cobequid (Truro) the 
 people had been alarmed in time and had taken 
 refuge in Prince Edward Island. 
 
 We have seen how, at Chipody and Peticodiac, 
 Major Frye had been able only to burn the houses and 
 arrest a few women. In the district of Beaubassin 
 those who fell into the hands of the authorities were 
 
124 NUMBER OF PERSONS DEPORTED. 
 
 the inhabitants who dwelt in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood of Beausejour. Monckton vaguely estimates their 
 number at more than a thousand. This district con- 
 tained at least 4,000 souls. The total number of 
 Acadians deported at this time may be put down as, at 
 least, 6,500 and, at the utmost, 7,500. We shall see 
 later that this number was ultimately doubled, and that 
 the deportations did not cease till after the peace of 
 1763. 
 
 Six hundred and eighty-six buildings, not including 
 eleven mills and two churches, were burned at Grand 
 Pre and at Riviere aux Canards. The families carried off 
 from these two parishes owned, according to Winslow's 
 estimate, 7,833 head of cattle, 493 horses, 8,690 sheep 
 and 4,197 pigs. The total amount of live stock owned 
 by the Acadians at the time of the deportation has been 
 variously estimated by different historians, or, to speak 
 more correctly, very few have paid any attention to this 
 subject. Raynal, who cannot be considered a safe 
 guide in this matter, goes as high as 200,000. This 
 figure is altogether too large. Rameau, who has made 
 a much deeper study than any other historian of 
 the domestic history of the Acadians, sets the total 
 at 130,000, comprising horned cattle, horses, sheep and 
 pigs. Whoever will take the trouble to follow this 
 author in the patient researches to which he has 
 devoted himself for nearly forty years, cannot help 
 assigning to his opinion on these statistical questions 
 considerable authority. Leaving out of our calcu- 
 lation the few thousand Acadians who then lived in 
 Prince Edward Island, there were, in the Peninsula and 
 in the Beaubassin district, about 13,000 souls. Now, 
 taking Winslow's figures, both for the population and 
 
ESTIMATE OF LIVE STOCK. 125 
 
 the live stock at Grand Pre, and applying the same pro- 
 portion to the entire population of Acadia, we get the 
 following result : 
 
 2,300 inhabitants at Grand Pre owned — 
 
 Horned cattle 7,833 
 
 Sheep 8,690 
 
 Pigs 4,197 
 
 Horses 493 
 
 21,213 
 
 Therefore, we may not unreasonably suppose, taking 
 as a basis Winslow's estimate at Grand Pre*, that the 
 Acadians residing in English territory at the time of 
 the deportation, viz. : 
 
 13,000 inhabitants owned — 
 
 Horned cattle 43,500 
 Sheep 48,500 
 
 Pigs 23,500 
 
 Horses 2,800 
 
 118,300 
 
126 STRONG CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Lawrence's administration reviewed — Facts linked together 
 showing his early design to deport the Acadians, his interested 
 motives and his clever tactics to bring it about without endanger- 
 ing his ambitious projects — How he deceived the Home authorities 
 — Repeated charges against him by Halifax people — Their truth 
 finally admitted by the Secretary of State — His timely death saves 
 him from disgrace. 
 
 I have asserted elsewhere that Lawrence's motive 
 for the deportation was speculation on the live stock 
 of the Acadians. The time has now come to prove this, 
 and I hope the proof will convince the most sceptical. 
 It is easy to see that here was an opportunity for a fine 
 stroke of business. But I must again remind the reader 
 that we are indicting a man of rare skill, whose power 
 was absolute, and over whom, practically, there was no 
 effectual control. He had been able to arrange, far in 
 advance, his method of operation and the way to efface 
 all vestige of his crime. Every one knows how difficult 
 it is, in spite of our democratic institutions, in spite of 
 the watchfulness of representative assemblies, of the 
 press and of special departments scientifically organized, 
 in spite of interlacing and counter-checking responsi- 
 bilities, to bring home the proofs of fraud to rulers or 
 even to their subordinate officers. Nor is there ques- 
 tion here of a contemporary, tangible fraud, concerning 
 which a commission could be instituted, a tribunal chosen, 
 witnesses called and public or private documents in- 
 
HOPSON'S KINDNESS MAKES LAWRENCE CAUTIOUS. 127 
 
 spectecl. The fraud was committed 137 years ago (I 
 wrote this in 1892). And yet I think the evidence 
 I am going to produce would be sufficient to ensure 
 Lawrence's condemnation by our courts of law, or, to 
 say the least, at the bar of public opinion. The evi- 
 dence is, of course, partly circumstantial ; but that does 
 not impair its strength ; more than one criminal has 
 justly expiated with his life a crime that was proved 
 by purely circumstantial evidence. 
 
 All Lawrence's conduct, from the first day of his ad- 
 ministration till his death, forms a chain of evidence 
 from which not one link is missing. Frequently in 
 criminal trials, just after proofs that seem overwhelming, 
 justice is thrown off the scent by some incident that 
 jars with the whole tenor of the evidence. Here we 
 meet with nothing of the sort ; all facts have the same 
 general tendency, they all converge to one end. Let 
 me sum up these facts. First, remember what Governor 
 Hopson wrote to the Lords of Trade in reference to the 
 Acadians some months before his departure : " Mr. 
 Cornwallis can inform Your Lordship how useful and 
 necessary these people are to us ; how impossible it is to 
 do without them, or to replace them, even if we had other 
 settlers to put in their places." 
 
 His administration inspires so much confidence that 
 the Acadians, without solicitation, meet, deliberate and 
 are on the point of deciding to take the unrestricted 
 oath, when, at the last moment, an objection expressing 
 fear of molestation by the Indians stops further pro- 
 ceedings ; moreover, those who have quitted the 
 Province present a petition to the Governor asking to 
 be permitted to return. Hopson is allowed a year's leave 
 of absence for his health ; he is replaced temporarily by 
 
128 HIS BEHAVIOR CHANGES. 
 
 Lawrence. So long as the latter's position as adminis- 
 trator and president of the council is precarious, no 
 change is apparent ; he himself opens negotiations with 
 the Acadian refugees in French territory to invite them 
 to return to the province. He writes to the Lords of 
 Trade that the Acadians are " pretty quiet as to Govern- 
 ment matters." Eight months later, speaking of the 
 Acadian refugees, he feels certain that, in case of war, 
 despite all the efforts of the French, they would not 
 consent to bear arms against the English. Events 
 proved that this forecast was right ; but Lawrence had 
 not then conceived his sinister project; he spoke and 
 acted with a certain candor, if such a term can he 
 applied to a creature like him. Hopson does not re- 
 turn ; Lawrence succeeds him. He then conceives the 
 project of deporting the Acadians ; his whole behavior 
 undergoes a change. He has mapped out a line of con- 
 duct which he resolutely follows. It consists, on the 
 one hand, in representing the Acadians in a more and 
 more unfavorable light, in molesting and persecuting 
 them to drive them to acts of insubordination and thus 
 provide himself with plausible pretexts ; on the other, 
 in gradually preparing the Lords of Trade to accept his 
 project, or rather to put up with the deed when done : 
 for he knows full well that, except under extraordinary 
 circumstances, he will never obtain their acquiescence. 
 He first timidly approaches the subject : " As they 
 possess the best and largest tracts of land in the Prov- 
 ince, it cannot be settled with any effect while they re- 
 main, and tho' I would be very far from attempting such 
 a step without Your Lordship's approbation, yet I can- 
 not help being of opinion that it would be much better, 
 if they refuse the oath, that they were away." 
 
THE FRENCH AT BEAUSEJOUR. 129 
 
 Beyond a doubt, he already has the deportation in 
 his mind's eye. Lawrence is not unaware that a volun- 
 tary departure would rejoice France and be very prej- 
 udicial to English interests. However, as a preparation 
 for grave events, this declaration has its value. The 
 ways and means are perhaps not yet clearly defined, 
 obstacles are many and some very serious ; but the 
 project itself is fully decided on. His perfidious pro- 
 posal to the Lords of Trade meets with no responsive 
 echo ; this he perhaps expected. The object he had in 
 view — to prepare them by little and little — was attained ; 
 this was one step. An obstacle of a most formidable 
 nature is the occupation of the isthmus and of the 
 north shore of the Bay of Fundy by the French. As 
 long as Fort Beausejour remains in French hands, the 
 deportation scheme has but very little prospect of suc- 
 cess. What is he to do ? To dislodge them, and in time 
 of peace, is no easy matter. The traitor Pichon transmits 
 to Captain Hussey at Fort Lawrence a letter purporting 
 to come from General Duquesne, in which the latter ad- 
 vises the French Commandant at Beausejour to find a pre- 
 text for attacking the English. Hussey, transmitting the 
 letter to Lawrence, tells him that he has strong evidence 
 that the Duquesne letter, so-called, is " of Pichon 's own 
 composing" and gives the reasons for his belief. This is 
 exactly the opportunity sought for by Lawrence. He 
 at once writes to Governor Shirley that " he is well 
 informed of French designs to encroach upon His 
 Majesty's rights in the Province," and to thwart them 
 he wants 2,000 Massachusetts soldiers early in the 
 spring. This is done ; the French are taken unawares, 
 Beausejour capitulates, and the whole north shore of 
 the Bay of Fundy is rid of the French. 
 
130 THE PRECAUTIONS LAWRENCE TAKES. 
 
 Three hundred Acadians are found armed in the Fort. 
 Lawrence indites a letter, in which, beneath ambiguous 
 and well-calculated forms, he both reveals and hides to 
 the Lords of Trade a part of his design, which was 
 already arranged in all its details with the assistance 
 of Morris. Then he hurries on the execution thereof. 
 Time presses ; all must be done and over before the 
 reply of the Lords of Trade. Deeds of oppression fol- 
 low one another with feverish haste. As he does not 
 succeed in provoking disobedience, he requires the oath 
 from the Acadian delegates without allowing them to 
 consult with their constituents. They hesitate, then 
 offer to take it ; he will not accept it now. He im- 
 prisons them to prevent all intercourse with their coun- 
 trymen and to lead the latter to believe that they have 
 persisted in refusiDg the oath. He carefully provides 
 against their making off with the live stock or resisting 
 by force of arms. He lays hold on their archives, their 
 boats, their priests, their principal advisers. He gets 
 his councillors, as well as Boscawen, to endorse his 
 project. To make its success more certain, lie gives in- 
 structions to disperse his victims in places far distant from 
 each other ; he burns everything to prevent them from 
 coming back ; he dismembers families to destroy all 
 hope of return, and to keep them engrossed with the 
 more pressing question of finding their relatives. To 
 make assurance doubly sure, he instructs the governors 
 of other provinces to keep them constantly under watch. 
 Thus the game is played ; the crime is consummated. 
 The plan was infernal in its conception, infernal in its 
 execution ; its author stopped at nothing to ensure its 
 full success, he was a man that never said nor did a 
 humane thing. 
 
SEIZING HORSES. 131 
 
 Lawrence never expressed any solicitude except for 
 the preservation of the live stock. We have seen what 
 measures he adopted to make the country inhabitable, 
 so that fugitives could not find whereon to live. Here 
 the question naturally presents itself : What did he do 
 with the 120,000 head of cattle that remained at his 
 disposal ? Can he have left them without keepers, 
 without protection, without making use of them in 
 some way, when the fugitive Acadians would thus be 
 enabled to live on the fat of the land, and after he had 
 taken such pains to make it impossible for those very 
 fugitives to live in that very land ? In the case of a 
 man of Lawrence's acuteness and astuteness the infer- 
 ence is evident. But, before coming to the principal 
 heads of evidence, let us seize, by the way, on a new 
 link in the circumstantial chain. 
 
 There was at Halifax a certain Moses de Les Derniers, 
 whose trade was that of a peddler through the Acadian 
 parishes. His knowledge of all that concerned the 
 Acadians made him a precious tool for Lawrence. In 
 the last days just before the proscription, the Governor 
 charged him to go through the country choosing the 
 finest horses he could find, and to send them to him 
 without, of course, paying for them, as they were al- 
 ready practically sequestrated. For some time past no 
 one had been allowed to move about from parish to 
 parish without a pass. Moses de Les Derniers received 
 the following : 
 
 " Permit the bearer, Moses de Les Derniers, to go to Grand Pre, 
 Kiver Canard and Habitants, to look for some horses for the use 
 of the Lieutenant-Governor and bring the same to the Fort. 
 
 " Fort Edward, 3rd Sept. 1755. 
 
 " The number of horses mentioned above are six. 
 
 " A Murray." 
 
132 SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS EQUINE INCIDENT. 
 
 His second permit, allowing him to take and pass six 
 more horses, is dated September 4th, and signed by 
 Winslow. 
 
 " It commonly happens," says Rameau, " that petty 
 tyrants are the more servile toward great ones in pro- 
 portion as they are more ferocious toward their own 
 victims. Murray, therefore, played the sycophant to 
 His Excellency of Halifax, offering his services to his 
 respectable agent; and, as Winslow was, not unnatu- 
 rally, interested in this business, Murray gave him an 
 account of his researches. Thus, at this critical mo- 
 ment, when the existence of a whole people was at 
 stake, the horses of a cross-road hero engrossed the 
 attention of the entire staff." * 
 
 On September 3rd, Murray wrote to Winslow : 
 
 " I had not found until now anything which to my mind could 
 please His Excellency ; but I am informed to-day that there is a 
 black horse belonging to a man of the name of Armand Gros of 
 Grand Pre, which, they tell me, will be a saddle-horse that will 
 suit his taste. I therefore desire that you will have the kindness 
 to command Rene Le Blanc, Jr., or some other Acadian, to take 
 possession of it and bring it to me." 
 
 The expression " until now " shows that Murray and 
 Winslow had long since received their orders about 
 these twelve horses. They were waiting for the arrest 
 of the Acadians before carrying out these orders ; and, 
 as these passes and letters bore date September 3d and 
 4th, whereas the arrest took place on the 5th, it is clear 
 that all these details were calculated to the day and 
 hour. Meanwhile, all the staff was astir to find out 
 
 * Une Colonie Feodale en Amerique, vol. ii. p. 160. 
 
HALIGONIANS ACCUSE LAWRENCE. 133 
 
 where they could procure what would suit His Excel- 
 lency. 
 
 This strange haste to take possession of the finest 
 horses and to get up a splendid stable without cost 
 naturally arouses suspicion. Of itself it might escape 
 one's notice ; but, when taken in connection with the 
 instructions Monckton received to watch carefully over 
 the preservation of the cattle and to prevent the 
 Acadians from running away with them, instructions 
 repeated so many times that their repetition appears 
 otherwise idle and ridiculous, one cannot but harbor 
 suspicions which need but fresh signs of guilt to become 
 a certainty. 
 
 These fresh signs exist, if, indeed, a direct and formal 
 accusation may be called merely a fresh indication of 
 guilt, when that accusation against Lawrence is signed 
 by the citizens of Halifax three years after the deporta- 
 tion in a petition addressed to some distinguished per- 
 son in England. This petition was confided to Dr. 
 Brown by those who had signed it. Brown has affixed 
 to it this title : " Lawrence's character" and the pur- 
 chaser of his MS. adds this remark : " A long letter 
 (sixteen closely written pages) addressed to some one 
 in England by the colonists concerning the state of the 
 Province. This is a high-toned and most vigorous 
 letter and lays bare with most withering scorn the char- 
 acter of Governor Lawrence." It was written in 1757, 
 or 1758, two or three years after the deportation. 
 
 The contents of this long memorial, which we insert 
 elsewhere, show that it was not the only document of 
 its kind. It accuses Lawrence of exercising on the 
 population of Halifax and of the whole province so in- 
 tolerable a despotism that many persons have left the 
 
) 
 
 134 WHOLESALE FRAUD. 
 
 colony ; that many others also would leave, were they 
 not hindered, by orders given to the owners of ships ; 
 that no one can go beyond the town limits without a 
 pass ; that Halifax is nothing less than a prison ; that 
 Lawrence has persuaded Lord Loudon to urge in 
 England the necessity of putting the Province under 
 military rule and to withdraw from the other colonies 
 their charters, the effect of which, they say, must be to 
 bring on a struggle for liberty and consequences too 
 fatal to be named. 
 
 "We had not touched upon these matters," says the petition, 
 " but, as we think Providence more immediately seems to concern 
 itself in discovering the villainous arts of the authors of our 
 calamities, and hope will direct in pouring vengeance on the man 
 whose sole aim seems to have been to blast the good intentions of 
 his country, and to make all subordinates to him miserable. . . . 
 
 " It is with pleasure we hear the accounts of Nova Scotia will be 
 strictly enquired into, as we are very sure, if they were sifted to 
 the bottom, it will be found that not less than ten thousand 
 pounds worth of rum, molasses — (of which there was not less 
 than 30,000 gallons, which alone was worth £3.000) beef, pork, 
 etc., etc., provisions, and much merchandise for the supply of 
 the Indians and French inhabitants, were taken in Beausejour, 
 neither distributed as a reward to the captors, nor accounted for, 
 except some small quantity of beef, sold to the commissary M. 
 Saul, on M. Baker's supply, which was extremely bad and de- 
 cayed, and certified by Governor Lawrence, as provisions sent by 
 Governor Shirley. 
 
 " Tfiat the cattle of the Acadians were converted to private use, 
 of which we knoiv, 3,600 hogs and near 1,000 head of cattle teas 
 killed and packed at Pigiguit alone; sent by tvater to other places. 
 And what at other forts is yet a secret, all unaccounted for to the 
 amount of a very large sum ; and he and his commissary are now 
 under great perplexity to cover this iniquitous fraud, etc., etc. 
 
 " But we hope before this time, many complaints have reached 
 the ear of the minister, and that it will shortly evidently appear 
 that, whilst Governor Lawrence has the least influence in 
 American affairs, so long will ruin and confusion attend them, 
 
THE DEPORTATION SCREENED HIM. 135 
 
 and this truth General Shirley at Home, and Lord Charles Hay 
 when he goes home, will, as we are informed, make evident to 
 demonstration; for, it is generally believed, that Lord Charles 
 Hay's confinement was solely due to Governor Lawrence s insinua- 
 tions to Lord Loudon, on his — Lord Hay — examining too freely 
 into the expenses of batteries, etc. , etc. , and speaking too contempt- 
 ibly of what had been done for the mighty sums expended in 
 Nova Scotia." 
 
 These extracts form but a small part of the petition, 
 and what I omit is scarcely less important.* No one, 
 on reading the above, can escape the conviction that his 
 oppression of the people was unbearable. And, since 
 this was the case for English colonists, one can the bet- 
 ter understand what I have said of Lawrence's tyranny 
 in respect of the Acadians. This petition reveals, with 
 great precision, his transactions, his methods of opera- 
 tion, his accomplices and even his anxiety to cover his 
 frauds. The deportation had acted as a screen, allow- 
 ing him to extend his operations and disguise them more 
 effectually. Without it, he would have found it dif- 
 ficult to turn to his profit the immense booty that the 
 taking of Beausejour had exposed to his " itching palm." 
 With the deportation, he could seem to devote the spoils 
 to the feeding of the Acadian captives, while in reality 
 he had fed them partly with their own provisions. 
 The turmoil and disorder produced by the deportation 
 enabled him, without exposing his jobs to the indis- 
 creet notice of his subordinates, to utilize, as we shall 
 see later, the transports which deported the Acadians 
 for the sale in other colonies of their cattle and of the 
 rich Beausejour booty. We gather likewise from this 
 petition that he imprisoned Lord Charles Hay under 
 false pretences, whereas the real motive of his imprison- 
 
 *See Appendix No. 2. 
 
136 BROWN HINTS AT TRAITOROUS WISHES. 
 
 ment was the having revealed or spoken too freely of 
 frauds committed in the erection of batteries. 
 
 As regards more particularly the Acadians, we have 
 the positive fact that, from one place only, he sent off 
 3,600 pigs and nearly 1,000 head of cattle. We have 
 in this petition, two several times, the categorical asser- 
 tion that no account was rendered, first, of the Beause*- 
 jour booty, and secondly, of the Acadians' live stock 
 except — and the exception adds great weight to the 
 assertion — of a small quantity of beef, and, what is 
 more, this was certified by Lawrence as coming from 
 Governor Shirley. 
 
 Brown had been able to converse about the facts 
 alleged in this petition with the very men who signed 
 it, when Lawrence had been long dead and when, con- 
 sequently, they had no object in deceiving him. In 
 many other ways also could he verify these assertions ; 
 so that, when he intituled them "Lawrences character" 
 he showed that he accepted their substantial correctness. 
 However, he has expressed himself still more clearly in 
 the following lines : 
 
 " MS. relating to Lawrence's abuses. 
 " How wicked must these men be, who thus deceived their 
 country . . . such persons, no doubt, would have been glad to see 
 this important colony annexed to the Crown of France, that they 
 might never be called to account for their abuse of tlie trust 
 reposed in them and their misapplication of the Nation's money." 
 
 The inhabitants of Halifax were so exasperated at 
 Lawrence's oppression that they deputed one of their 
 number, Ferdinand John Paris, to London to state their 
 grievances. Besides the above petition, they sent him 
 two more, one bearing date March 15th, 1757, and the 
 other April 2d. Brown's MS. contains a fourth from 
 
A GIFT THAT IS A BLIND. 137 
 
 Paris himself to the Lords of Trade, dated February 
 4th, 1758, from which I take these short extracts : 
 
 11 That the partial, arbitrary and illegal behaviour of the present 
 governor, of which they have continually instances. . . 
 
 " That the many thousands of the Government's and people's 
 money uselessly lavished on dependents and favorites, by redupli- 
 cated salaries, and other ingenious contrivances, is another griev- 
 ous injury. 
 
 " The value of the cattle, hogs, taken from the Acadians, as well 
 as the rum, molasses, etc., etc., taken from the French, was very 
 considerable, £20,000 at least. How it has been accounted for 
 should be enquired." 
 
 The Archives set forth one only trace of a legitimate 
 use of all this live stock, viz. : when Lawrence allowed 
 some inhabitants of Lunenburg to go and get a few head 
 of cattle, the number thereof being estimated as between 
 sixty and a hundred. In one of his letters to the Lords 
 of Trade, Lawrence, very probably with a view to pre- 
 paring an excuse for himself, said that he would give 
 this live stock to those of the English colonists who could 
 winter them, as if the remainder could not be saved 
 from destruction, when, as the above petition shows, he 
 had managed successfully the more difficult point of 
 saving even the pigs. In fact he gave away just enough 
 to serve in his own defence, if necessary. Those were, 
 surely, words of foresight. 
 
 The first of the petitions I have quoted mentions 
 Lawrence's efforts to persuade Lord Loudon, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the British forces in America, to use 
 his influence to the end that the colony be put under 
 military rule. Smarting under the slight control ex- 
 ercised over him by a council of his own creation, and 
 one that was apparently servile enough, Lawrence 
 wanted to get rid of it in order to reign alone. Those 
 
138 THE LORDS INSIST ON AN ELECTIVE ASSEMBLY. 
 
 who have closely studied the history of the Province are 
 acquainted with the many ruses set going by Lawrence 
 to avoid the establishment of a representative assembly. 
 The colonists were clamoring for it ; the Lords of Trade 
 imperatively demanded it. He who had dreamt of 
 getting rid of his weak council, was far from relishing 
 an elective assembly, to which he would be subject, and 
 which might perhaps take it into its head to inquire 
 about his transactions. He always had some new shift 
 at hand to elude what the Lords of Trade more and more 
 sternly ordered him to do : 
 
 " Having so often and so fully repeated to you our sense 
 and opinion of the propriety and necessity of this measure 
 taking place, it only remains for us to direct its being 
 carried into immediate execution." The patience of 
 the authorities had reached its utmost limits ; another 
 subterfuge would be his ruin ; Lawrence was wise in 
 time and yielded. 
 
 To have hoped to free himself from the control of a 
 council composed of his creatures, whom he had cowed 
 into silence while he publicly branded them as " a pack of 
 scoundrels" and then to fall under the control of an As- 
 sembly representing that public opinion which he had 
 trampled under foot, under the control of those merchants 
 whom he had called " a parcel of villains and bankrupts" 
 was, it must be confessed, a terrible disappointment. He 
 had hitherto needed the help of none but the great, none 
 but men who enjoyed some influence at Court. The 
 " low cunning and consummate flattery" which he had 
 successfully used with those who could be of some use 
 to him, was no longer sufficient. The people, who had 
 been nothing, were now become great in their turn. 
 Thus he had reason to dread lest this Assembly should 
 
LAWEENCE TELLS THE ASSEMBLY TO HURRY. 139 
 
 expose his iniquities. Deep, sharp, resourceful as he 
 was, the task was enormous ; he must propitiate and 
 appease those whom he had crushed with scorn ; instead 
 of the absolute power he had dreamt of, he could keep 
 but a shred thereof, and even that he must fight for 
 inch by inch, and, by so doing, expose himself to new 
 dangers. 
 
 His letter to the Lords of Trade, after the election of 
 the representatives of the people, expresses his fears : 
 " I hope," he says, " I shall not find in them a disposition 
 to embarrass or obstruct His Majesty's service, or to dis- 
 pute the royal prerogative, though I observe, that too 
 many of the members chosen are such as have not been 
 the most remarkable for promoting unity or obedience 
 to His Majesty's Government here. I hope I may be 
 able to dispatch such business as may be necessary for the 
 present without too much loss of time in rejoining the 
 army." 
 
 This is the expedient on which his fertile mind had 
 hit to ward off danger : he was to pretend that the 
 urgent need of his services in the army made it imper- 
 ative for the Assembly to have a session only as a matter 
 of form, merely to vote supplies and to legalize, as it 
 were, in the lump, those acts of his council which stood 
 in need of that formality. To the representatives of 
 the people, in his opening address, he said : 
 
 u As I am now necessarily employed, and will be for 
 some time to come, upon an enterprise of importance in 
 a distant part of the Province, there is not at present 
 an opportunity of entering upon such particulars as 
 might otherwise call for your attention, I am therefore 
 earnestly to recommend the expediency or rather neces- 
 sity of unanimity and dispatch in the confirmation of 
 
140 COAXING THE MEMBERS. 
 
 such acts of a Legislative natureas the Governor and 
 Council have found expedient before the forming of 
 an Assembly." 
 
 Anxiety is manifest in each line ; he is earnestly beg- 
 ging them to do nothing, or to get quickly through the 
 most urgent business, and then pack their trunks until 
 next year. The Assembly was timid and inexperi- 
 enced ; members had no time to come together and 
 consult with each other ; the most expert were 
 Lawrence's creatures, the members of his old Council ; 
 everybody was in great glee over the new departure in 
 the way of popular representation ; votes were rapidly 
 recorded ; everybody went home ; the danger was past. 
 Lawrence was delighted. Reporting to the Lords of 
 Trade the result of the session, he said : " I have reason 
 to hope that we shall get through with less altercation 
 than from the seeming disposition of the people I was 
 apprehensive of." 
 
 The war between France and England had become 
 highly interesting. Success had followed the first 
 reverses. Louisburg, Cape Breton, Prince Edward 
 Island had been conquered ; Quebec had just capit- 
 ulated ; joy was in the hearts of all, public rejoicings 
 followed one another with a sort of glad delirium ; feel- 
 ings of hatred disappeared in the enthusiasm of a com- 
 mon delight ; enemies became friends ; Lawrence was 
 daily showing more suavity and sweeter smiles ; the 
 danger was going to be averted a second time. At 
 this exceptionally favorable moment it became an easy 
 matter for Lawrence to put off the crisis he seemed so 
 greatly to dread. The second session passed like the 
 first. There is," said Lawrence to the Assembly, " but 
 very little requiring your attention, when your private 
 
ATKOPOS CUTS THE THREAD. 141 
 
 avocations but ill admit of your attendance. The most 
 material point that seems to call your attention, under 
 the present circumstances of the Province is a pro- 
 vision for maintaining a light-house at Sambro and 
 managing the affairs of the work-house." 
 
 Were Lawrence's arts to prevail? Was he going, by 
 his cajolery and trickery, to consign to oblivion the 
 humiliations he had inflicted upon the whole population ? 
 Would circumstances continue to favor him long enough 
 to allow of his definitively escaping retribution for his 
 crimes ? It was not likely. However, the " low cunning 
 and consummate flattery " that had served him in such 
 good stead with the great, he was now bringing to bear, 
 with as much persistence and with growing success, 
 upon the representatives of the people. But there is 
 another contingency which great criminals do not al- 
 ways keep in mind, the hour of which is unknown, 
 though its advent is certain ; it often breaks in unher- 
 alded when all the tokens of joy are at hand, and when 
 human justice seems belated. Seized with inflammation 
 of the lungs at a ball he was giving on the occasion, I 
 think, of the capitulation of Montreal, he died eight 
 days later, on the 19th of October, 1760, in the prime 
 of life and at the zenith of his glory, some weeks before 
 his accomplice Boscawen. 
 
 As we shall presently see, Lawrence died just in time 
 to save his honor from investigation. He was on the 
 point of being hurled from the Tarpeian rock, when he 
 died on the Capitol. His friends wanted to hush up the 
 affair to avoid a scandal, just as happens even in our 
 day in spite of our democratic institutions, in spite of 
 our boasted Press and civilization. De mortuis nil nisi 
 bonum. This the Legislature understood. To thank 
 
142 IN THE NICK OF TIME. 
 
 him for having, by his death, relieved them of a burden, 
 to conform to the venerable and solemn custom of erect- 
 ing monuments and inditing flattering inscriptions to 
 those who die in some high post of honor, the Assembly 
 voted a monument to his memory, with this inscription : 
 " From a grateful sense of his many services, his inde- 
 fatigable endeavors for the public good, and a wise, 
 upright and disinterested administration." 
 
 One discerns the hand of an accomplice in the word- 
 ing of this inscription. Death was to ward off the blow 
 that threatened more than one culprit ; but, the better 
 to ensure immunity, it was advisable to obtain the assent 
 of the Legislature. Men being, under such circum- 
 stances, prone to indulgence and mercy, the vote was 
 carried. 
 
 It was high time. Three months later, the Lords of 
 Trade, naming Judge Belcher to succeed Lawrence, 
 wrote to him as follows : — 
 
 "It has been represented to us, that Governor Lawrence had 
 encouraged and protected the disorderly part of the military under 
 his Government, in several outrages on the property, persons, and 
 even the lives of the inhabitants ; sometimes by assuming illegal 
 powers, and at others, by abusing those which were lawfully 
 vested in him for better purposes ; by frequently interrupting the 
 free course of justice, in discharging while under prosecution, 
 and in enlarging after conviction, soldiers and officers guilty of 
 destroying fences, violent assaults, and many other far greater 
 enormities. 
 
 " Several very heavy charges have likewise been made against 
 Governor Lawrence with respect to contracts which were entered 
 into, both on account of the provisions distributed to the weak 
 settlements of the colony, and tlie vessels which have so long been 
 kept upon the establishment for the service of the Province. 
 
 (Signed) "Dunk. Halifax, 
 
 " W. S. Hamilton, 
 "W. Sloper." 
 
LORDS OF TRADE DEEM HIM GUILTY. 143 
 
 I was not far wrong in saying that Lawrence escaped 
 the Tarpeian rock only by an opportune death. The 
 meaning of this document is clear to the dullest com- 
 prehension. The Lords of Trade were convinced of his 
 guilt ; there remained but the usual legal formalities to 
 be gone through ; they had weighed all the information 
 they had been able to collect, and, notwithstanding the 
 manifold cares of war, they felt the time had come for 
 action ; the blow was about to fall on Lawrence and 
 plunge him into disgrace, or perhaps inflict upon him 
 some exemplary punishment. It is worthy of remark 
 that this despatch contains many accusations that are 
 not to be found in the petitions cited above ; which 
 proves that the Lords of Trade had received information 
 from many other quarters. " And many other far greater 
 enormities " implies, not only that the crimes they dis- 
 tinctly recited were enormous, but that those not men- 
 tioned were far more numerous and atrocious. The 
 measure of his iniquities was full; it would soon 
 have overflowed. Without counting his crimes, Law- 
 rence alone had broken more laws than all the Acadians 
 put together, during the forty-five years of English 
 domination. 
 
 It will be remembered that, when Lawrence informed 
 the Lords of Trade of the deportation, he especially 
 insisted on the economy he had practised therein. He 
 pointed out that he had chartered the transports at the 
 very places to which the Acadians were shipped. Now, 
 a list I have before me shows what he charged the 
 Government for fifteen out of seventeen vessels : seven 
 vessels are reported as taking four months to complete 
 the voyage, and are charged so much a day for four 
 months ; three other vessels are charged so much a day 
 
144 HIS BOASTED ECONOMY. 
 
 for five months ; two, so much a day for six months ; 
 two more, for seven months; one for eight months. 
 These, with the deportation itself and Lawrence's use 
 of the Acadian cattle, are probably some of the u several 
 very heavy charges " and some of the " many far greater 
 enormities " to which the Lords of Trade allude. The 
 extreme limit of the voyages these vessels made was 
 two or three months at most. I think I am war- 
 ranted in believing that Lawrence had entered into 
 collusion with the company that furnished these vessels 
 — Apthorp and Hancock — who had kept them at his 
 personal service for transporting the live stock taken 
 from the Acadians and the Beause*jour booty. Since the 
 Lords of Trade made this a count in their indictment, 
 they must have had proof that Lawrence had retained 
 these vessels for a service other than that of the Govern- 
 ment ; else their ranking this among the " heavy charges M 
 would be meaningless. 
 
 This letter of the Lords of Trade to Belcher was 
 essentially a public document and ought therefore to be 
 found in the archives. It is not there. It was still 
 there, apparently, in 1787, when Brown was writing. 
 It was no longer there in 1820, when Haliburton was 
 preparing his History ; in fact, at this latter date, there 
 remained not a single public document of the deporta- 
 tion period. Listen to Haliburton : 
 
 " It is very remarkable that tliere are no traces of this important 
 event (the deportation of the Acadians) to be found among the 
 records in the Secretary's office at Halifax. I could not discover 
 that the correspondence had been preserved, or tliat the Orders, 
 Returns and Memorials had even been fyled there. In the letter 
 book of Governor Lawrence, which is still extant, no communica- 
 tion to the Lords of Trade is entered from the 24.H1 of December 
 1754 to the 5th of August 1756, if we except a common victualling 
 
HALIBURTON, RAMEAU, CASGRAIN, SMITH. 145 
 
 return. The particulars of this affair seem to have been carefully 
 concealed, although it is not now easy to assign the reason, unless 
 the parties were, as in truth they well might be, ashamed of the 
 transaction.''' 
 
 Haliburton was, as I have had occasion to observe at 
 the beginning of this work, a judge of the Supreme 
 Court of Nova Scotia, the celebrated author of Sam 
 Slick, one of the grandest and noblest characters on the 
 historic stage of this Province, which, small as it is, has 
 produced so many remarkable men. Nine years before, 
 he had, in the local House, says Rameau, given vent to 
 his indignation in this way : " The archives of Halifax 
 remind one of a mystery which people try to hide ; and, 
 from the little we know of them, there is reason to believe 
 that important papers of different epochs have wholly or 
 partially disappeared." * 
 
 ♦Rameau, who consulted the Archives of Nova Scotia in 1860, when the 
 Compiler was preparing his volume, wrote as follows to Casgrain : " I ar- 
 rived at Halifax in September ; my friend, Mr. Murdoch, obtained leave 
 for me to consult the archives of the Government, and I made an appoint- 
 ment for the next day. I presented myself at the appointed hour, and was 
 shown, on a table, a number of registers and volumes ; but I was forbid- 
 den to copy anything or make any extracts ; and, consequently, I was re- 
 fused the use of paper, pen or pencil. I was placed near a table in the 
 middle of a large room in which eight or ten clerks were at work ; I was 
 not given a chair, so that I could not sit down, and so that none of my 
 movements could escape the notice of the clerks. 
 
 " Such was the situation in which I was allowed to consult the archives 
 during the ten days I spent in Halifax. 
 
 " I must say this treatment involuntarily recalled to my mind what Hali- 
 burton relates of the disappointment he himself experienced in consult- 
 ing these same archives. I remarked, as he did, the gaps that exist at 
 certain epochs in the archives, gaps which the volume published in 1869 
 has not filled." 
 
 " It is precisely to clear up these doubts," says Casgrain, " that I went 
 to London, so that I might make a comparative study in the Public Record 
 Office and the British Museum. I must state at the outset that the facility 
 with which access is granted to these archives forms a striking contrast 
 with the system of mistrust set up at Halifax. I must also add that I 
 found the proof that my suspicions were only too well grounded. The 
 volume of the Archives published at Halifax has evidently been com- 
 piled with a view to justify the deportation of the Acadians. To this end, 
 themost compromising documents have been systematically eliminated and 
 left in the shade. Let it be borne in mind that the Compiler of this vol- 
 10 
 
) 
 
 146 STJPPKESS10X OF DOCUMENTS. 
 
 This opinion was disputed at the time ; but, when he 
 published his History, nine years later, Haliburton reit- 
 erated his accusation in the same way. Nobody knows 
 with certainty whether these documents were destroyed 
 or merely hidden away ; but a host of indications point 
 to the conclusion that they disappeared gradually be- 
 tween 1756 and 1800, and that they were abstracted by 
 the principal accomplices in the deportation and by 
 their children. Have we not seen that Brown secured 
 Judge Morris's famous report in the Archives and got it 
 copied by the judge's son ? Has it not disappeared 
 from the Archives since ? Were it not for the finding of 
 Brown's MS., that document would have been lost 
 forever. Have we not seen another document which 
 Bulkeley, after his retirement from the service, showed 
 Brown? Why was it in Bulkeley's hands and not in 
 the Archives ? Does not Haliburton tell us that Law- 
 rence's Letter-book ivas still extant when he wrote, but 
 that all the letters from 1754 to 1756, with one trifling 
 exception, had disappeared ? Note, moreover, that since 
 the letter-book itself was still extant, the missing let- 
 ters must have been detached and taken away. Is not 
 this a tangible proof of abstraction for some cause which 
 Haliburton rightly attributed to shame? And this 
 letter of the Lords of Trade to Belcher immediately 
 
 ume has no right to pretend that he did not know, for he himself shows 
 in several places that he has studied the official documents of the Public 
 Record Office, in order to collate them with those of Halifax. In my turn 
 I have collated the Halifax compilation with the originals in the Public 
 Eecord Office in London, and I ascertained that there are considerable 
 omissions of matters so essential as to change the whole complexion of 
 iff'iirs " 
 
 Philip H. Smith says on the same subject : "The deportation was con- 
 ducted in so heartless a manner that, as though by common consent, the 
 reports of details have been purposely destroyed, and historians have j «S9e I 
 over it with only an allusion, as if unable to record the shamo of the trans- 
 action." 
 
THE COLONIAL RECORDS. 147 
 
 after Lawrence's death, so important, so fatal to the 
 theory of those who, like Parkman, strive to whitewash 
 Lawrence and his accomplices, where was it? It was in 
 the Archives in 1787 ; it was no longer there in 1820 ; 
 it was not there in 1859 when Rameau wrote ; nor was 
 it there in 1865 when Murdoch composed his History, 
 for I have too much trust in his honor to suppose him 
 capable of ignoring it if it had been in the Archives. 
 And was not the Compiler obliged to apply to the Co- 
 lonial Records in London to fill some of the Halifax gaps? 
 And why, after thus consulting the Colonial Records, 
 has he not given a small corner of his volume to this 
 important letter of the Lords of Trade to Belcher, dated 
 March 3d, 1761 ? Will he pretend that, by a strange 
 coincidence, its disappearance at Halifax was repeated 
 in London ? If so, then there must have been a regular 
 plot with distant ramifications ; and such a supposition 
 is ridiculous. That document had, indeed, disappeared 
 from the Halifax Archives ; but it was really in the Co- 
 lonial Records. He might have secured it with the other 
 documents he got there ; but he did not dare to produce 
 it, not because it was unimportant but because it was 
 too important. 
 
 To these numerous associations distinctly formulated 
 against Lawrence, coming from the most respectable 
 sources and covering all the branches of the public serv- 
 ice, I will add another from Dr. Brown, which dis- 
 closes what the citizens of Halifax thought of the 
 deportation at the very time it was being carried out. 
 In a letter which it would be very interesting to know, 
 Lawrence had communicated to his accomplice Bos- 
 cawen the anxiety he felt at the way the citizens of 
 Halifax blamed his conduct towards the Acadians. 
 
148 HALIGONIANS BLAMED THE DEPORTATION. 
 
 Brown adds the following remarks to Bosca wen's 
 answer dated Sept. 25th, 1758 : 
 
 ''This letter appears to be in the handwriting of the intrepid 
 Admiral. The complaints of the people of Halifax, and reflec- 
 tions of many with respect to the Acadian removal, were tlie 
 subject of disquietude with Governor Lawrence. He communi- 
 cated them to Boscawen, but ' Heart of Oak ' despised them. 
 His feelings do not seem to have been very exquisite, when the 
 sufferings of an enemy were investigated. His hatred of the 
 French was too much of the old English make, a personal 
 antipathy, an instinctive aversion." 
 
 This removes all doubt as to the opinion the people 
 of Halifax entertained about the deportation. These 
 animadversions must have been pretty general, and 
 must have been manifested pretty openly before they 
 could disquiet a man like Lawrence, who cared so little 
 for the opinions and feelings of his subjects, so long as 
 he was absolute master ; and it must therefore be ad- 
 mitted that, in the eyes of those who witnessed the 
 " Acadian removal," that act was deemed an iniquity. 
 For any one that takes the trouble to ponder over the 
 full significance of this testimony, its value as corrob- 
 orative evidence cannot but be recognized. Lawrence, 
 with his well-known skill, with his retinue of syco- 
 phants interested in humoring him, could easily mould 
 public opinion. Events seemed to favor his purpose ; 
 the war, now carried on with spirit, kept alive those 
 national animosities that had long been so intense ; the 
 people, so utterly dependent on a military ruler, might 
 hope to profit, directly or indirectly, by the spoils of 
 the Acadians, especially by their lands. And yet all 
 these motives, I am happy to say, could not prevail 
 against the strong feelings and the natural rectitude of 
 
INFLUENTIAL MEN OFFENDED. 149 
 
 the people. After honor has been driven from high 
 station by the ever dangerous impulse of self-interest, 
 it will yet be found among the people. Brown was but 
 the echo of the popular sentiment in his time when he 
 denounced the deportation in scathing terms. 
 
 This same Dr. Brown relates at some length an 
 anecdote in which he himself figured, and which points 
 clearly to the persistence of this same frame of mind in 
 Halifax when he was writing. I briefly sum up his 
 account : " Each time a public discussion was raised on 
 the question of the deportation, there was great excite- 
 ment in the camp of the old servants of Lawrences 
 G-overnment. When Raynal published his work, what 
 related to the Acadians was printed in full in one of 
 the Halifax newspapers. Bulkeley and Judge Des- 
 champs took alarm ; the publication of this article they 
 looked upon as a personal insult. Together they drew 
 up a reply, which they published with great ostenta- 
 tion. It was handed to me by Judge Deschamps, who 
 thought it an unanswerable defence. 
 
 "Later, in 1789, Messrs. Cochran and Howe founded their 
 1 Magazine.' Not knowing the sensitiveness of the other gentle- 
 men with regard to the deportation, they reproduced the offend- 
 ing passage from Raynal. Messrs. Bulkeley and Deschamps 
 were quite as much offended at it as they had been the first time. 
 They again determined to reply. As I had preserved the copy of 
 the newspaper which contained their former reply, I was awakened 
 very early in the morning by Judge Deschamps himself, who 
 earnestly begged of me to hand him that newspaper and the other 
 documents he had entrusted to me. 
 
 " Mr. Cochran, whose situation did not allow of his making 
 enemies of such influential men, resigned himself to publish Judge 
 Deschamps' reply, adding, without entering into the merits of the 
 question, some remarks that cast doubt upon the veracity of Ray- 
 nal." 
 
150 VALUE OF BKOWN'S STRICTURES. 
 
 At the close of this anecdote Brown observes : "Al- 
 though I can take upon me, from a painful examination 
 of the whole matter, that Raynal neither knew, nor sus- 
 pected the tenth part of the distresses of the Acadians, 
 and that, excepting the massacre of St. Bartholemew, 
 I know of no act equally reprehensible as the Acadian 
 removal." 
 
 Such an expression of opinion supposes in a man of 
 Brown's character very deep convictions. The avowal 
 was evidently distressing : u from a painful examination 
 of the whole matter" He hints clearly enough elsewhere 
 his conviction that the secret motive of the deportation 
 was none other than a speculation of Lawrence's in the 
 live stock of the Acadians. With those who seek to 
 form a correct and impartial judgment, the opinions of 
 this good, high-minded and sympathetic man, of this 
 contemporary chronicler, have far more weight than 
 those of a mere collector of interesting anecdotes like 
 Parkman. Brown wrote soon after the deportation, 
 when it was fully consummated, when peace and quiet 
 reigned over America. This was a more favorable time 
 than would have been the very moment of the deporta- 
 tion. Contemporary official documents are, of course, 
 valuable ; but they are often one-sided presentments by 
 interested parties. But, as the story I have just given 
 shows, Brown lived in familiar intercourse with the 
 authors of the deportation ; he knew all the points of 
 their defence, which had been pleaded more than once 
 by a judge ; he had examined and weighed all the writ- 
 ten and verbal evidence. His opinion has the force of 
 a judicial sentence, the rather as the case was tried in 
 the absence of the Acadians, as the decision is against 
 the party present in court, against fellow-countrymen 
 
CONTEMPORARY MURMURS. 151 
 
 and perhaps against friends whom he might wish to 
 save from historic infamy. 
 
 We have reason to believe that, even before the de- 
 portation, when Lawrence was persecuting the Acadians, 
 seizing their arms, imprisoning their delegates, the peo- 
 ple of Halifax murmured against this treatment. This 
 seems to be implied in the following order, which no 
 doubt alludes directly to the blame brought upon him 
 in Halifax by this persecution. The order is dated 
 July 4th, 1755, the very day after the imprisonment of 
 the first Acadian delegates. 
 
 "Whereas busy, ill-disposed, caballing and malicious persons, 
 have wickedly and with an intent of usurping power in this Prov- 
 ince to themselves, invented and published false and scandalous 
 reports reflecting on the authority and administration of Govern- 
 ment. . . For the more effectual prevention of such mischiefs, it 
 is resolved by the Lieut. -Governor and Council that, if any person 
 or persons, shall after the publication of this act . . . presume to 
 utter, publish and declare any insinuations or reports reflecting 
 on the administration of the Government, the person or persons 
 so offending shall "... 
 
 After having been led astray by the evil influence 
 which a despot always exercises over the people about 
 him, many of the actors in this drama were apparently 
 realizing, in Brown's time, the odiousness of their co- 
 operation. They had been misled by Lawrence's diplo- 
 macy ; they had not seen till all was done and over the 
 motives that actuated him ; in their good faith they had 
 been deceived. In the calm of afterthought they had 
 been able to rearrange the sequence of events and to 
 discover the secret intrigues that had warped their 
 judgment. It would be unfair to pass a sweeping con- 
 demnation on the intentions of these men. We may 
 
152 EXCUSE AND BLAME. 
 
 and do reprobate the deed ; but to extend our reproba- 
 tion to the intentions of all subordinate actors were 
 presumptuous ignorance and too sweeping to be just. 
 
 Brown gives us information of inestimable value to 
 historians, for he tells us what was the opinion of the 
 contemporaries and witnesses of the events he describes. 
 Nor is this the opinion of strangers who are indifferent 
 or of adversaries who are hostile, but of the persons 
 under Lawrence's own jurisdiction. It appears evident 
 that the citizens of Halifax were divided into two parties 
 on this question of the deportation : on one side, Law- 
 rence's councillors and favorites, on whom " he had 
 lavished the people's money by reduplicated salaries 
 and other ingenious contrivances " as one of the peti- 
 tions cited above says ; on the other, the remainder of 
 the population, those who were groaning under Law- 
 rence's oppression. In other words, his conduct was 
 approved or excused by those who were interested in 
 this approval or excuse, and blamed by those who were 
 disinterested. 
 
 Neither is it surprising that Judge Deschamps and 
 Bulkeley, sometime secretary of the Council, took 
 offence, as Brown says, at all that was said or published 
 against the deportation. Had they not received in 
 divers ways the price of their complicity? Paikman 
 and some other writers have not been eager to inform 
 the public that the complicity of Lawrence's favorites 
 was liberally rewarded by numerous favors. We should 
 have been interested in learning that each of the chief 
 agents in the plot received 20,000 acres of the lands 
 that belonged to the Acadians. I have not tried to 
 ferret out all the details of these tempting gratuities ; 
 but what we are told by the two principal historians of 
 
ACCOMPLICES REWARDED. 153 
 
 these events may suffice. Haliburton, at page 100 of 
 the first volume of his History of Nova Scotia, says : 
 
 " The crops of wheat which the Acadians raised were so super- 
 abundant, that, for many years previous to their expulsion, they 
 exported a great quantity to the Boston market. Although im- 
 mediately occupied by the English, after the deportation of these 
 unfortunate people, it underwent no material changes until the 
 last twenty years (1810). The most valuable lands were granted 
 to gentlemen residing at Halifax, among whom were many of 
 His Majesty's Council. That portion of it which fell into the 
 hands of resident proprietors, was divided among a few individ- 
 uals. Thus was introduced a system of tenantry, which, in Nova 
 Scotia, neither contributes to the improvement of the soil, nor the 
 profit of the landlord." 
 
 If Parkman, after fifty years of study, has not been 
 lucky enough to come across this interesting passage 
 of the distinguished historian, he ought at least, I think 
 to have remarked what Murdoch says at page 528, 
 vol. II. of his History. He produces a despatch from 
 Governor Legge to the Secretary of State, Lord Dart- 
 mouth, which mentions incidentally those grants of land 
 Haliburton speaks of. We read that the Lords of Trade 
 disapproved of them, and by a sort of compromise, reduced 
 the amount from 20,000 to 5,000 acres. Some of the 
 names of the grantees are given, among others those of 
 Belcher, who succeeded Lawrence, and of Morris, after- 
 ward judge and the author of that remarkable memorial 
 which I have analyzed and in which he concludes that 
 the Acadians " tvere at all events to be rooted out." We 
 are not told if Lawrence had secured for himself a part 
 of these grants ; his preference seems to have been for 
 the live stock and other movables easily exchanged for 
 hard cash; but there is not the least doubt of his taking 
 the lion's share. Ought not all these facts to have 
 
154 CLINCHING THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 opened Parkman's eyes to the motives of the deporta- 
 tion? And yet he seems, on the contrary, to have 
 resolutely closed them to any reasonable solution of the 
 problem, in order to mystify his readers by his shameful 
 Pichon tricks (ses Pichonneries). 
 
 I venture to think I have kept my promise that I 
 would prove Lawrence's interested motives. To require 
 more direct evidence would be unreasonable. I cannot 
 point to any commission of inquiry or to any sentence 
 of a law court ; but short of such legal formalities, 
 nothing is wanting to his condemnation, which, as the 
 Lords of Trade's letter to Belcher shows, was already 
 complete as far as the Home Government was con- 
 cerned, and would have been soon followed by utter dis- 
 grace, had not the grim reaper stepped in and claimed 
 his own. It is obvious that Lawrence, notwithstanding 
 his astuteness, had run a fearful risk when he deported the 
 Acadians without the orders and against the expressed 
 intentions of the Home Government. His methods, the 
 studied concealment or the half-revealing of his pur- 
 pose, the precautions with which he surrounded himself, 
 the haste with which he pressed the execution of the 
 job before receiving a reply to his ambiguous letters ; 
 all these and many others are signs of the deliberation 
 with which he had played a game that might at any 
 moment entail the ruin of his future and the loss of his 
 honor. He was too far-seeing not to have weighed 
 and measured this risk. Then, why did lie expose him- 
 self to this awful danger, unless he cherished a hope 
 great enough to outweigh what was now trembling in 
 the balance ? And what other hope could he have than 
 to make a fortune out of the spoils of his victims ? 
 Any other inference would seem absurd. Even if 
 
HE FEATHERED HIS XEST. 155 
 
 we had not the numerous proofs we now possess 
 against Lawrence, we might still argue with rigorous 
 logic in this way : Since it is absolutely certain that 
 his councillors were rewarded for their complicity 
 in the deportation, Lawrence, who alone ran the risk, 
 must necessarily have rewarded himself either in lands 
 or in live stock or in both at once. Since he was 
 dishonest enough to let others enrich themselves by 
 such methods, he must have been dishonest enough 
 to feather his own nest, unless he was a fool, which he 
 certainly was not. The bandit chief who risks his 
 liberty and life in the perpetration of his crimes never 
 does so without appropriating a part of the booty. This 
 argument, taken in connection with the mass of proofs 
 I have produced, with the many links I have welded 
 together, completes the chain of evidence that must 
 bind Lawrence for all time to the scourging post of 
 history. 
 
 True, we cannot, without loathing, think that a man 
 has been found inhuman enough to expatriate a whole 
 people in order to enrich himself with their property. 
 Unable to doubt his speculations in the live stock and 
 the lands of the Acadians, we should be inclined to 
 doubt that the spoliation was premeditated, were such a 
 doubt possible ; but it is not. His crime is horrible, it 
 exceeds our wildest imaginings ; but, on the other 
 hand, we know that in all ages and in all stations of life 
 there have been men whose crimes were so incredible as 
 to admit of no limit save that of their power to per- 
 petrate them. Not premeditated ! A man who never 
 uttered a word of pity at the sight of the desolation he 
 was causing, who gave instructions that the men should 
 be seized and deported to certain countries, and that the 
 
156 PROOFS OF PREMEDITATION. 
 
 women should be seized later and deported to other 
 countries, with special recommendations to the Gover- 
 nors of those countries to keep them constantly under 
 watch, that man was quite capable of premeditating his 
 crime with a view to spoliation. Not premeditated ! 
 The man whose oppression of his own countrymen was 
 unbearable, who speculated in all the branches of the 
 public service, was quite capable — were he guilty of 
 only half the charges made against him by the people 
 under his rule and by the Lords of Trade — of plotting 
 the deportation as a stepping-stone to wealth. Great 
 criminals like him are omnivorous in their greed. Not 
 premeditated ! A man who, like Lawrence, from being 
 a poor apprentice to a house-painter, raises himself in a 
 few years to the rank of Brigadier-General and to the 
 dignity of governor of a province, leaves nothing to 
 chance. At a period when promotion was almost closed 
 to a plebeian, he must have had no ordinary talent for 
 intriguing, his combinations must have been skilful and 
 deliberate, his purpose well defined and all the steps 
 thereto carefully prepared and strongly fortified. Not 
 premeditated ! Unforeseen temptations have little place 
 in the lives of plotters and schemers ; they habitually 
 anticipate them all ; they are their own tempters. 
 Now there were, at the very lowest estimate, a hundred 
 thousand head of live stock ; what to do with them was 
 a question that arose of itself at the outset, a difficulty 
 that stared one in the face like the sun at high noon, it 
 was the first question an intelligent child would have 
 asked ; and are we to believe that Lawrence, the house- 
 painter's apprentice who had risen by sheer brain-power 
 to the governorship, was innocent enough not to have 
 thought out the whole problem beforehand, when he 
 
OBVIOUSNESS OF THE CATTLE DIFFICULTY. 157 
 
 had foreseen and regulated the smallest details of the 
 deportation with diabolical precision ? Nonsense ! 
 Everything must have been prepared and mapped out 
 long before. Having in a few years reached a post of 
 honor that would have dazzled a merely lucky upstart, 
 having got there hy dint of practising all the arts that 
 serve to elevate skilful intriguers, he felt the want of 
 wealth. He hoped shortly to be promoted to a wider 
 sphere. With opulence he could land at a bound on 
 the highest attainable elevation. The painter's appren- 
 tice, who had been clever enough to find out how to 
 become governor, would surely be able to understand 
 still better what he must do to attain a yet higher posi- 
 tion, and, being a despot, he would do it. 
 
 Haliburton was weighing his words well when he 
 said the disappearance of the documents could be at- 
 tributed only to shame. The same motive caused the 
 confiscation of the Acadians' archives one month before 
 their arrest. 
 
 Another cause that may have contributed somewhat 
 to raise in Lawrence's mind the idea of the deportation 
 was the unprecedented and extraordinary submissiveness 
 of the Acadians, which at any rate ensured to the exe- 
 cution of that crime a success that would otherwise be 
 inexplicable. 
 
158 HISTORIANS OF ACADIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Character sketch of Parkman — His ideas and ways — Murdoch, 
 Haliburton, Campbell, Brown, Longfellow, the compiler — Brook 
 Watson, Moses de les Derniers. 
 
 This dispersion of a people, this " Lost Chapter 
 in American History" as the title of Philip H. Smith's 
 remarkably honest work puts it, has hitherto been a 
 riddle that has both attracted and repelled many 
 writers. Some of them, honest and upright, incapable 
 of conceiving the gigantic fraud at the bottom of it all, 
 or of guessing the cause of the absence of documents, 
 found themselves, in good faith, constrained to magnify 
 the Acadians' faults, to suppose more than facts 
 warranted, in order to harmonize and explain what 
 seemed, in any other hypothesis, unexplainable and dis- 
 cordant. Not being in a position to penetrate the motives 
 of Lawrence and his accomplices, they have accepted 
 all their unproved and interested accusations. Among 
 such writers may be ranked Murdoch, Campbell and Han- 
 nay. Others, like Haliburton, Smith, Bancroft, Rameau 
 and Casgrain, more wary, and perhaps more perspicacious, 
 discerned and pointed out this absence of documents ; 
 their suspicions were aroused, and their conclusion was 
 an unequivocal condemnation of the crime. Brown is 
 the only one who, thanks to his position, to the time and 
 place in which he lived, has succeeded in clearing up the 
 mystery. His manuscript, found after a long interval, is 
 the answer to this riddle of a century. 
 
A CHARMING STORY-TELLER. 159 
 
 Another writer, I regret to say, superficial and dis- 
 honest, improving on his predecessors of the first cate- 
 gory, torturing documents already tortured and mutilated, 
 taking no account of the judicial temper that ought to 
 accompany the true historian, has tried his hand at every 
 kind of subterfuge to justify what is unjustifiable. I 
 allude, of course, to Parkman. To be frank, I believe 
 him to be, of all writers I am acquainted with, the most 
 subtilely one-sided, the most expert in the art of decep- 
 tion. His work is the first I read on the subject I am 
 now handling, and I confess, in all humility, that he 
 deceived me ; for a long time I believed in his sincerity 
 and took his part against those who attacked him. It 
 was only when I went on to consult official sources and 
 then to compare his methods, that I became firmly con- 
 vinced what a thorough imposture his work is. He 
 has reduced historical trickery to a fine art, which pre- 
 sents a curious, though not difficult study, of the use of 
 language to conceal one's thoughts. 
 
 By temperament he stands midway between the 
 historian and the novelist. He lacks the exquisite deli- 
 cacy of the latter, the kindness, lofty character and love 
 of truth necessary for the former. Not wishing to re- 
 main a mere story-teller, he preferred to rise to the 
 level of history, for which he was in no way adapted, 
 as he possessed none of the essential requisites of the 
 historian. His brilliant qualities as a narrator were, 
 however, of great assistance for transient success, and 
 he used and misused them to the utmost. To interest 
 and charm was his principal object, and he pursued it 
 most successfully ; on this score his merits are as great 
 as they are unchallenged. But this exclusive quest 
 obliged him to skip the arid tracts of history and to de- 
 
160 AN ANECDOTE HUNTER. 
 
 vote himself to the unearthing of stirring tales and 
 spicy anecdotes. Wherever he found a bauble, were 
 it on a dunghill, he would eagerly pick it up, if he 
 thought that, by polishing it, he could make it sparkle 
 and attract attention. 
 
 Nevertheless, while attempting history, Parkman has 
 remained what nature made him, a charming story-teller, 
 and nothing more. He is always interesting, captivating, 
 and generally plausible, owing to the skill with which 
 he constructs a theory and to the crumbs of praise he 
 bestows on those whom he intends to smash with a 
 sledge-hammer. When he flatters, then is he especially 
 dangerous. He aims at effect in everything. He seeks 
 to please, to delight, to leave the reader in a state of at 
 least semi-satisfaction. His turn of mind seems to be 
 quite that of those society story-tellers, those agreeable 
 talkers who can cap any anecdote with another more 
 marvellous. Such men we do not despise ; they some- 
 times possess, in a high degree, the faculty of keenly 
 appreciating the humorous and whimsical aspects of 
 society, the spiciness and point of a situation. We 
 listen to them with interest ; they amuse us ; but we 
 know what to think of the core of the matter, we are 
 fully aware that the amount of truth contained in their 
 tales bears the same proportion to the latter as a pippin 
 does to a ripe apple. To this class of men does Park- 
 man belong. The misfortune is that he transferred to 
 the field of history his talent for narrative. It would 
 be unreasonable to expect from such a man that rever- 
 ence which is due to truth. He is astride his hobby, 
 galloping after sensations, to which history lends itself 
 but seldom. The moment he entered upon historical 
 work, Parkman ought to have adopted a different style, 
 
NO CONSECUTIVENESS. 161 
 
 he ought to have changed his dispositions and drunk more 
 deeply of the springs of truth. A mere society story- 
 teller leaves no traces behind him ; no one examines 
 into the value of his proofs ; he chooses them where he 
 wills, or he gives none at all ; his anecdote is finished, 
 and there is an end of it. Not so, the historian, as 
 Parkman knew full well ; but he could not change his 
 character, and, even if he could, he would not ; above 
 all he was anxious to please and charm, whereas true 
 history implies many slow and dry details. 
 
 Just follow him a little and you will see how, while 
 attempting history, he has remained an anecdote-hunter. 
 He cannot stick to one thing, he skips from one subject 
 to another, from one place to another. Following the 
 bent of his whim, he is now at Detroit, now at Port 
 Royal, again in Europe and the next moment in the 
 Big Horn Mountains or with the Outagamis. He 
 comes, goes, and twists about, apparently without any 
 definite object, always on the hunt and taking but little 
 of what he finds. He settles down on nothing ; like the 
 bee, he pilfers here and there, and his honey is the anec- 
 dote, the sharp saying. Everywhere he is all agog for 
 this, on the dirt-heap as well as on the flower. When 
 he finds it, he hugs it with delight. Should he in his 
 erratic gyrations come across any ecclesiastic that has an 
 off-hand way about him, and whom legend has bedecked 
 with arabesques, what a jolly humor Parkman is in ! 
 What a windfall he has had ! Woe to you if at such a 
 moment you say to him : But, my dear friend, perhaps 
 this story is not authentic, the authority on which it 
 rests is undeserving of any trust and has been rejected 
 by all serious writers. No, no ; he won't listen to you. 
 
 Do you think he is going to lose such a spicy anecdote ? 
 11 
 
162 SENSATIONAL. 
 
 He clings to it as the dog does to his bone. Hands 
 off! 
 
 Though I have no other knowledge of Parkman than 
 what I gather from his works,* yet I venture to maintain 
 that, unless all intrinsic evidence is illusory, my esti- 
 mate of his character and of the special bent of his 
 mind is fairly accurate. He himself is never accurate. 
 He is continually deceiving his readers as much by what 
 he says as by what he omits to say. Were all his works 
 submitted to a searching examination, not one page 
 perhaps would stand scrutiny, not even the titles of 
 some of his books. The one that treats of the dispersion 
 of the Acadians is entitled " Montcalm and Wolfe," 
 though it contains very little about these two men, as 
 may be judged from the titles of most of the chapters : 
 " Prussia and her foes ; " " Siege of Havana ; " " M. de 
 Choiseul ; " " The New Czar ; " " Frederick of Prussia ; " 
 " George III.; " " Pitt— his character ; " « Conflict for 
 Acadia ; " " Shirley ; " " Loudun ; " " Wm. Johnson ; " 
 " Removal of the Acadians." A veritable hotch-potch, 
 with which the title of the book has almost nothing 
 to do. With his nomadic instincts, his feverish rest- 
 lessness, it was indeed a very difficult matter to hit 
 upon a title suited to his works. He understood 
 that, at this latter end of the age of electricity and 
 rapid manufacture, if he wished to reach the mass of 
 readers, he must fall into line with the busy pub- 
 lic, which calls for " go," rush, new sights and 
 sounds, frequent and varied changes of scene. This 
 was all the easier for him because it agreed with his 
 tastes and his irresistible need of new sensations. 
 
 * This was written before Parkman's death. Since that time I have, of 
 course, read many panegyrics written by his admirers, which in no way 
 alter my opinion of him. 
 
ANTIPATHY TO ACADIANS AND LONGFELLOW. 163 
 
 It is evident that Parkman has conceived a downright 
 antipathy to the Acadians. He seems to have been 
 disgusted with hearing everywhere about him, in Long- 
 fellow's land, his countrymen pitying the fate of the 
 Acadians. It looks as if he had long made up his 
 mind to crush them. In conversation with his friends 
 Parkman must have often striven to destroy the effect 
 produced by Longfellow's poem. At first, he probably 
 meant merely to bring back men's minds to the stern 
 reality of fact, from which Longfellow's poetic effusions 
 were necessarily a slight departure. But a new theory 
 is apt to carry one too far ; an ardent one-ideaed man 
 soon loses the judicial temper; Parkman's wits were 
 sharpened for an onslaught. Such, I firmly believe, is 
 the true explanation of his bitterness. To realize this, 
 we should bear in mind that Longfellow and Parkman 
 were both residents of Boston ; the one, much older, 
 surrounded with the respect and veneration of his 
 fellow-countrymen, his fame being largely due to the 
 poem of Evangeline, was the greater glory ; the other, 
 much younger, was the lesser glory, the budding glory. 
 Their characters were as the poles asunder : Longfellow 
 had a great soul attuned to the noblest inspirations, 
 taking high views of life ; Parkman's tendencies were the 
 exact opposite. He, the lesser glory, seems to have ex- 
 perienced feelings of jealousy in the neighborhood of the 
 greater luminary before which all other lights paled. 
 There runs through all that he has written about the 
 Acadians a thread of veiled spiteful allusions to Long- 
 fellow's view. Parkman's discussions with his own 
 friends become chapters, his theory is crystallized in 
 print. He takes great pains to make us understand his 
 aversion for " medievalism," " humanitarianism," "New 
 
164 ABSORBED IN MATERIAL PROGRESS. 
 
 England humanitarianism melting into sentimentality," 
 " the effusive humanitarianism of to-day ; " all which is 
 intended to counteract the effect produced by his fellow- 
 Bostonian's touching poem. Incapable of literary ex- 
 cellence in the same line, he thought he could create a 
 sensation by a startling contrast. The way he girds at 
 his great rival betrays his secret envy of him, and he 
 strikes at him through the unfortunate Acadians just 
 when Longfellow had disappeared from the scene. 
 
 Amid the travailing of our time toward the birth of a 
 new social order, amid the groping about of science and 
 modern thought, some men become so infatuated with 
 the dominant note of progress at the moment of their 
 entrance into life, that they cannot advance beyond that 
 initial and narrow horizon. When Parkman began his 
 career, men were on the threshold of that great move- 
 ment toward material progress which lights up this nine- 
 teenth century. The world was absorbed in this idea. 
 Continents covered with a network of railways and 
 electric wires, oceans crossed by steamships, begot 
 dreams of prodigious developments. Inventive genius 
 was hard at work in every direction ; manufactures re- 
 ceived a marvellous impetus ; the wealth of nations ad- 
 vanced with unexpected strides. Parkman fell in love 
 with all that, so much so that he came to detest what- 
 ever was not precisely that ; hence his contempt for the 
 past, for medicevalnm ; hence his seeming aversion for 
 humanitarianism, for all higher progress. He fastened 
 his soul to what was the popular fad at the beginning 
 of his conscious life ; to that he still clings, albeit the 
 world of thought has moved on. Doubtless the mate- 
 rial progress movement was a fine field for a certain kind 
 of enthusiasm that absorbed second-rate minds ; but a 
 
MATTER ONLY A MEANS. 165 
 
 higher criticism was waiting to see its fruits and con- 
 sequences. Parkman seems to share the immobility of 
 the many men whom this movement enriched and filled 
 with unprogressive satisfaction. He never asked him- 
 self if the wealth thus increased has been more equitably 
 distributed, if the condition of the poor has thereby 
 been improved as greatly as had been hoped, if the 
 moral benefits have been at all commensurate with the 
 material ; and yet these are grave questions which men 
 of light and leading have been studying all these years. 
 One can hardly entertain a doubt that material prog- 
 ress, which is begotten of science, which itself is be- 
 gotten of creative wisdom, is a providential part of the 
 divine plan ; but, in order to its remaining so, it must 
 be studied, analyzed, understood, made subservient to 
 the higher interests of morality. All human progress 
 carries with it potencies for good and evil ; the general 
 effect is what constitutes its true value ; it is because 
 the general effect is capable of being made to subserve 
 morality that we admire progress. That outburst of 
 progressive tendencies which is the leading feature of 
 the present century has not yet borne its best fruits, the 
 promise of which is as yet vague and remote. Hith- 
 erto the material aspect has absorbed most of these pro- 
 gressive tendencies, because the movement began with 
 revelations of the possibilities of matter ; but, after all, 
 matter, be it ever so deftly fashioned, can be but the 
 medium, the vehicle of the designs of Providence mak- 
 ing for the interests of civilization and true Christi- 
 anity ; it can have no real value unless it produce this 
 result. Though no one can study this great question 
 without admitting that much has been done and that a 
 revolution has been wrought in the world of ideas, still 
 
166 BONDS OF BROTHERHOOD. 
 
 it must be borne in upon the patient and thoughtful 
 observer that the greatest results are yet far off. 
 
 In material progress itself a distinction should be 
 drawn between merely ingenious inventions and those 
 that have a marked influence on civilization. The 
 greatest inventions are those that diminish distance and 
 bring together in more friendly contact nations and in- 
 dividuals : for their social effect is to destroy national 
 antipathies and prejudices, to make war more difficult, 
 to bridge the gulf between the classes and the masses, 
 to smooth down all kinds of asperities arising from mis- 
 understandings between men of different nations and 
 creeds, and to help all men toward the realizing of that 
 brotherhood of the race which is one of the foundation- 
 stones of Christianity. Considered as mighty auxiliaries 
 of Christian thought, these inventions may be said to 
 be preparing the overthrow of heathenism and the spread 
 of true civilization in all parts of the globe, and more 
 especially in India, Japan and China. As light expels 
 darkness, so will the true culture introduced by these 
 inventions gradually bring about the voluntary relin- 
 quishment of heathen forms of worship. 
 
 Christianity, while ever containing in itself the 
 essence of all moral progress, has often had to struggle 
 with absolutism and arbitrary power ; in this environ- 
 ment it could not produce all the fruits it is capable of 
 bearing. Wherever men were divided into a handful 
 of oppressors and a mass of slaves, material progress 
 and true moral progress had to remain at a stand-still. 
 Liberty is the spring that sets both in motion. This 
 is quite within the purview of that divine wisdom which 
 presides over the destinies of the world. The oppn 
 multitude rises gradually, rises continually ; freed from 
 
PARKMAN BEHIND THE AGE. 167 
 
 oppression, it becomes its enemy ; a wise tolerance, a 
 spirit of justice, and a kindly feeling towards one's 
 fellow-men, penetrate deeper and deeper into the hearts 
 of the people ; the great maxims of Christianity are 
 more and more fully understood, no longer only by 
 chosen groups of men, but by the common people. The 
 God of vengeance and terror becomes still more to them 
 the God of love and mercy. Men that were once cruel 
 are becoming daily more humane. We have entered 
 upon an era of that brotherly love which lies at the root 
 of Christianity. 
 
 This is what Parkman does not seem to have realized. 
 He stopped short at mere material progress, with a 
 marked aversion for whatever came before or was to 
 follow the early crystallizing of his own views. He 
 seems to hate " humanitarianism " and " sentimentalism " 
 just as bitterly as " medievalism ; " he involves the 
 future as well as the past in one common hatred. He 
 is as much behind his age as the Acadians were behind 
 theirs, with this essential difference that the higher 
 interests of morality were for them the mainspring 
 of their lives, whilst Parkman is too much taken 
 up with material progress to care as he ought for moral 
 progress and in particular for the spread of humanizing 
 influences. 
 
 With reference to progress men may be ranged under 
 three heads : those who are interested in all kinds of 
 progress, and more especially with the highest kind ; 
 those who look upon morality as everything and the 
 rest as nothing, because they fail to notice the correlation 
 between all things ; and those for whom material prog- 
 ress is everything. To this last class Parkman seems 
 to belong. He would go into ecstasies over an invention 
 
168 VULGAK PREJUDICE. 
 
 that would reduce by thirty seconds the time needed 
 for converting a hog into sausages. Dr. Ox's gas, 
 which transformed slow Dutchmen into firebrands, 
 would probably give him intense delight. He abhors 
 the very word " medievalism." It rings in his ears like 
 an echo of " diabolism." He speaks of it as if, 150 or 
 200 years ago, the Acadians were a rare and exceptional 
 example of it, and as if that were a sufficient reason to 
 hold them up to public contempt and to justify their 
 deportation. These two fads, his hatred of medievalism, 
 his persistent dragging in of this question in season 
 and out of season, as if he had just made an important 
 discovery that was to give him rank among deep 
 thinkers, and above all his undiscriminating aversion 
 for " humanitarian " ideas, as if, together with the 
 platitudes this term often covers, there was not a great 
 amount of good in any humanizing agency, show that 
 he is still in the A B C of social science. He reminds 
 one of a schoolboy picking his first steps through the 
 field of knowledge. If Parkman's animus were the high- 
 est expression of our civilization, we should almost be 
 willing to return to medievalism, especially if we were 
 assured of finding it associated with the rectitude and 
 moral worth of the Acadians. But, thank heaven, in all 
 ranks of society there are many men that love progress 
 in all its forms, and can seize the higher aspects of our 
 civilization, while Parkman can appreciate only the 
 lower. They like material progress as a means to spread 
 a lofty moral tone and those humanitarian ideas which 
 he sneers at. Material progress, viewed in any other 
 light, is worthless. He who fails to appreciate the 
 humanizing influences that are the outcome of material 
 progress and are rapidly girdling us about, must have a 
 
parkman's likes and dislikes. 169 
 
 very limited intellect, closed to the noblest and highest 
 thoughts. He who hates medievalism so intensely has 
 a restless, superficial mind, incapable of breaking through 
 the trammels of vulgarity. The statesman and the 
 philosopher indulge in no such hatred : they know that 
 all things are developed and evolved in various ways 
 and that rapid evolution is not always the best; they 
 study the past and the present and the hidden connection 
 between the two, striving to deduce therefrom principles 
 according to which they may forecast the future ; they 
 are patient, nay, indulgent ; they are aware that a few 
 years more or less are of small account in the history of 
 mankind, and that, amid our joys and sorrows, our failures 
 and successes, we are ever marching onward in the path 
 of progress, which, like the asymptote of an hyperbola, 
 is continually approaching, though it can never hope to 
 reach perfection. 
 
 Parkman has some fellow-feeling for the Canadians 
 of the first period in French colonization. That spirit 
 of adventure which carried them to the great lakes, the 
 Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains had a special charm 
 for him. He had the same feeling for the Acadians in 
 the days of La Tour, Denys and Biencourt, when some 
 of them were traders, forest rangers, adventurers, 
 corsairs. Their life was neither moral nor civilized, 
 but it was full of excitement ; and what Parkman can- 
 not stand is a humdrum, peaceful life, be it ever so 
 moral, happy and fruitful, while the other life, which 
 he revels in, is vicious, demoralizing, wretched and use- 
 less. " Morality ! What in the world is that ? " said a 
 brilliant and flippant French writer. " Humanitarian 
 ideas ! What in the world are they ? " would Parkman 
 say. He is not more moved at the deportation and its 
 
170 MENTAL ROBUSTNESS. 
 
 attendant woes than is the country bumpkin who sets 
 the heel of his boot on an ant-hill. Whatever does 
 not smack of the feverish activity of to-day deserves 
 none of his sympathy. Those simple and ignorant 
 Acadians have no claim on his pity ; they may have been 
 moral, very moral indeed ; but they were too fond of 
 their nationality, their customs, their language. Morbid 
 sentimentality ! They should have put all that rubbish 
 behind them to fuse themselves with their masters into 
 a homogeneous mass. Ignorant, backward people like 
 them ought to make way for others. He speaks fre- 
 quently of " hard facts ; " which, being interpreted, 
 signifies : Down with every obstacle, never mind how ! 
 Lawrence's audacity has particularly captivated Park- 
 man : " He was resolute, unbending ; his energetic will 
 was not apt to relent under the softer sentiments." 
 " Tlie effusive human it arianism of to-day had no part in 
 him" Well done, Lawrence ! 
 
 Parkman may have deemed himself safe from the 
 severe judgments of his contemporaries ; but impunity 
 is not eternal ; a nemesis awaits the historian not less 
 surely than it brands the facts he relates. Sooner or 
 later comes the hour of retribution ; and if the public 
 are indulgent to eccentricities of mind and errors of 
 judgment, they have no mercy for dishonesty. Then 
 will he be judged by his own u hard facts." 
 
 Parkman, in his u Montcalm and Wolfe," speaks of 
 the ecclesiastical tutelage over the French-Canadians, 
 which " aids the tamer virtues " that " need the presence 
 of a sentinel to keep them from escaping, but " which " is 
 fatal to mental robustness and moral courage." This 
 sounds well indeed. I do not wish to dispute anything 
 of Parkman's where diversity of opinion is permissible, 
 
halibtjrton's rectitude. 171 
 
 or where his guilt does not go beyond mere exaggeration ; 
 but how beautiful are the " mental robustness and moral 
 courage " of those he so much admires, of Lawrence, of 
 Shirley and of himself ! Friend Parkman, " if that can 
 be called a virtue which needs the constant presence of 
 a sentinel to keep it from escaping," I thank thee, as 
 Gratiano thanked Shylock, for teaching me that word. 
 Aye, if an historian needs a sentinel to watch him lest 
 he escape beyond the pale of truth, can his tamer virtues 
 of graphic word-painting and crisp narrative be called 
 virtues at all ? Here have I been standing sentinel 
 over you, or rather dogging your steps, and I have 
 found you escaping, whenever you thought you safely 
 could, from the precincts of truth ! Is this what 
 you understand by mental robustness and moral cour- 
 age ? 
 
 Very different is the temper of Brown, Haliburton and 
 Murdoch. Kindness, rectitude and love of truth are 
 their chief characteristics. They are not, nor do they 
 seem to wish to be thought, charming story-tellers ; 
 evidently their only ambition is to get at the truth and 
 set it forth without artifice, with sinplicity and candor. 
 Haliburton proved elsewhere that he had all the gifts 
 of fancy needed for a good story ; but here he confines 
 himself to a simple narrative of events. For him history 
 is not a series of disjointed and highly spiced pen-pictures, 
 nor a swallow's flight dipping here and there athwart 
 two continents ; it is a labor of deep thought and great 
 patience wherein the dry bones of uninteresting facts 
 underlie the more pleasing features of thrilling ad- 
 venture and clever sayings. As we see that he is no 
 dissembler, we read him without distrust ; we feel that 
 we have in him a safe guide, a man of lofty and per- 
 
172 Murdoch's indulgence. 
 
 spicacious mind who collects his facts, analyzes them 
 and states them frankly, while his documents are handled 
 with perfect order and sequence. 
 
 Murdoch belongs to the same school ; but he had not 
 the same firm grasp of facts as Haliburton, and there- 
 fore fell short of perfection as an historian. In moral 
 worth, as is transparently clear from his writings alone, 
 he is second to none ; it would be difficult to conceive 
 of a man with more winsome gifts ; but some of those 
 very gifts, when applied to history, became defects. 
 Thus his extreme indulgence and good-nature led him 
 into excusing everything, into seeing good actions or at 
 least good intentions everywhere. Seldom does he 
 attempt censure, and, when he reluctantly does, he seeks 
 to lessen the weight of his charges by all the excuses 
 which his gentle and kindly nature can suggest. Some- 
 times he goes so far as to be ingeniously apologetic. 
 For instance, after exhibiting Armstrong as an odious 
 tyrant and frankly proving this by all relevant docu- 
 ments, he palliates his conduct on the score of pecuniary 
 losses which had occurred twelve or fifteen years before 
 his suicide. Generally speaking, however, he prefers 
 to be silent about defects and faults, and hazards 
 an opinion only on good qualities or indifferent 
 actions which may be construed as good or bad ac- 
 cording to circumstances. Of the expulsion he merely 
 says: 
 
 "In the expulsion itself he — Lawrence — was deeply engaged, 
 and the praise or blame of it — perhaps both — belong largely to him. 
 He was a man inflexible in his purposes, and held control in no 
 feeble hands. Earnest and resolute, he pursued the object of es- 
 tablishing and confirming British authority here with marked 
 success. He won the respect and confidence as well of the au- 
 thorities in England as of the settlers in this country." 
 
MURDOCH HONEST BUT WEAK. 178 
 
 He has not a word to say against the Acadians, whose 
 virtues he admires, while commiserating their sad lot : 
 
 " In the melancholy fate of the Acadians, removed by force, 
 scattered in strange lands, among an uncongenial people, the re- 
 trospect is anything but agreeable. While we see plainly that Eng- 
 land could never really control this province while they remained 
 in it, all our feelings of humanity are affected by the removal, and 
 still more by the severity of the attendant circumstances. Sent to 
 the other colonies without any previous consent on their part to 
 receive them, and with little or no provision made for their support 
 when they arrived there, scattered among communities to whom 
 their religious worship was odious, and deprived of all their 
 property, it is not to be wondered at that the poet and the novelist 
 have made capital of their sufferings. It is, however, some con- 
 solation to know, that many of the exiles returned to their native 
 land, and, though not restored to their original farms, they be- 
 came an integral and respected portion of our population, display- 
 ing under all changes those simple virtues that they had inherited; 
 the same modest, humble and peaceable dispositions that had been 
 their early attributes." 
 
 It is impossible to withhold one's esteem from such a 
 man, whose shortcomings were but an exaggeration of 
 his virtues. He is so scrupulously honest as to inform 
 us that one of Lawrence's councillors was an ancestor 
 of his, as if he thought himself obliged to make this 
 avowal, in order that the public might make allowance 
 for his involuntary bias. And yet, notwithstanding the 
 unlimited respect I entertain for him, I cannot help 
 observing that this excessive indulgence for everything 
 and everybody often warps his judgment of facts, which 
 are thus necessarily distorted. Murdoch lacked the 
 sagacious acumen of Brown and Haliburton; these 
 latter had all the kindliness that is expected of an his- 
 torian, while at the same time they were possessed of 
 that dauntless spirit which affronts all obstacles, that 
 
174 A MERE SUMMARY USELESS. 
 
 constancy which, having once undertaken to sift a ques- 
 tion, goes thoroughly into all its intricacies and entan- 
 glements and throws into relief responsibilities, intentions 
 and ultimate results. Murdoch, on the contrary, trips 
 rapidly over the deportation, as if he felt himself 
 unequal to the disentangling of such a skein of schemes, 
 or as if his sensitive nature winced at the sight of such 
 shocking ruthlessness. Besides, he had not the oppor- 
 tunities Parkman so egregiously misused, for he wrote 
 before the publication of the Archives and the discovery 
 of Brown's manuscript. The latter, more especially, 
 would have greatly enlightened him as to Lawrence's 
 character and the motives of the deportation. At any 
 rate this much should be said of Murdoch, that he dis- 
 torts nothing that he has learnt, and still less does he 
 resort to any subterfuge to disguise the truth. Though 
 his History is a mere journal of events, it will remain 
 and increase in value, whereas Parkman, with all his 
 witchery of style and wealth of anecdote, will be more 
 and more discredited in proportion as his statements are 
 more carefully dissected. 
 
 However, with all his ingenuousness, Murdoch could 
 not write a truthful history of these events by making a 
 mere summary of the documents that were left.* The 
 course I have adopted may look like special pleading, but 
 it is the only one available to reach a satisfactory con- 
 clusion, and it is, moreover, the only one to be followed 
 by those who would differ from me. When a crime 
 is committed, almost all the evidence must have the 
 same drift, if the true culprit stands for judgment. 
 
 ♦Although too severe, Campbell, in his History of the County of 
 Yarmouth, is in the right direction when he styles Murdoch's History 
 "a valuable repository of facts for some future historian." 
 
THE COMPILER'S SPECIAL PLEADING. 175 
 
 So it is here, and this explains what appears to be 
 special pleading. If I could possibly be wrong as 
 to the motives of the deportation and Lawrence's guilt, 
 then, of course, much of what I have said would fall 
 at the same time. The exceptional circumstances of the 
 case forced me to examine carefully, in all their bearings, 
 the documents I have produced, and to detect, by close 
 comparison and analysis, the hidden connection between 
 apparently isolated events ; no other course is open to a 
 man who tackles a period of history that is so poor in 
 documentary evidence. If the most impartial of men 
 were to confine himself to a mere summary of the docu- 
 ments that have escaped destruction, he would be guilty 
 of grave injustice and would put before the public a 
 work that would lack the very semblance of history. 
 Still more would this be the result, if he restricted him- 
 self to the volume of the Archives, which, as I have 
 superabundantly proved, is but the one-sided and 
 mutilated collection of the documents for the defence, 
 made after the counsel for the defence had expunged 
 with the greatest care from its own documents whatever 
 could throw light on the difficulties of the case. It is 
 the volume of the Archives which, in the guise of mere 
 materials for history, is pre-eminently a record of special 
 pleadings. What, then, should be thought of those 
 writers, happily few in number, who, not content with 
 confining themselves to this one-sided and dishonest 
 record, cull therefrom only such passages as may seem to 
 support their extreme views ? Even if that record were 
 unmutilated, it would represent, after all, only the 
 version of Lawrence and the authorities, and little or 
 nothing of the Acadian view ; but, imperfect as it is in 
 itself, mutilated by Lawrence and his accomplices, 
 
176 ELOQUENT ASTERISKS. 
 
 mutilated again by the Compiler, what becomes of it 
 when it is mutilated a third time and unsparingly by 
 Parkman ? 
 
 In order the better to understand how unfair it would 
 be to write the history of this province with these garbled 
 documents, and even with the Archives if complete, it 
 is necessary to recall to mind the malversations with 
 which Lawrence is charged, the tyranny he exercised 
 over the English colonists of Halifax and the humilia- 
 tions he heaped upon them, as their petitions show. 
 Of all this what do the official documents say ? Noth- 
 ing, absolutely nothing. And the reason is plain. Law- 
 rence, whose immediate rule was uncontrolled, would 
 surely not insert in state papers the complaints of the 
 people against himself, and still less would he transmit 
 them to the Lords of Trade. All these important facts 
 were unknown to the public for more than a century, 
 and, without Brown's manuscript, would be still un- 
 known. There is, it is true, one official paper that could 
 throw much light on the tyranny and malversations of 
 Lawrence, I mean the letter the Lords of Trade wrote 
 to Belcher on March 3d, 1761, which I have given ; 
 but the time-serving Compiler has simply suppressed it. 
 
 When first I became aware of the Compiler's system- 
 atic omissions, I purposed consulting all the originals 
 of the documents that appear in the volume of the 
 Archives, collating the two texts and restoring the 
 expunged portions. But I soon acquired sufficient 
 experience to understand quite well the meaning of 
 those asterisks staring at me up and down the compila- 
 tion. Whenever I found elsewhere the missing pass- 
 ages indicated by those asterisks, these passages invari- 
 ably proved to be more interesting than that part of the 
 
ELOQUENT ASTERISKS. 177 
 
 documents which the Compiler chose to produce, and 
 they always tended to weaken or ruin the pretensions 
 which he thus put forward as exclusive of all others. 
 Ere long I had collected more than enough instances 
 of his deliberate system of mutilation to convince the 
 public, and, from that moment, the inductive process 
 being satisfactorily conclusive, the task of completely 
 restoring all the omitted passages became useless. 
 Doubtless, further research would have led to many 
 curious discoveries ; but the chronicling of them all 
 would have overloaded my work with repetitions ad 
 nauseam of the same tricks. Of course, if my proofs 
 be challenged, I will pursue the restitution of the miss- 
 ing passages ; for, far from dreading, I invite criticism ; 
 but I feel confident that any such provocation could 
 only prepare fresh humiliations for the Compiler. 
 
 His usual practice is to take from the correspondence 
 of the Governors those passages only which seem un- 
 favorable to the Acadians ; the omitted portions are 
 either indicated by asterisks or not indicated at all. 
 Their replies, those of their priests or of the French 
 Governors of Cape Breton, are almost invariably omitted. 
 And what are the grievances of the English Governors ? 
 When specific, they mostly refer to delay in answering 
 gubernatorial communications, to passive resistance 
 when it was enjoined upon them to take an unrestricted 
 oath, to efforts and negotiations with a view to substi- 
 tuting therefor a compromise. Surely, there is not 
 much here to complain of, especially if we bear in mind 
 the utter powerlessness of the English Governors to 
 enforce their will, with a handful of soldiers, upon so 
 large and sturdy and scattered a population. And yet, 
 
 because certain parts of this volume contain only such 
 12 
 
178 INTEMPERANCE OF THE EARLY HALIGONIANS. 
 
 documents as recite these grievances, and because these 
 grievances are intensified by the stiffness of military- 
 language, the careless or prejudiced reader is prone to 
 draw inferences unfavorable to the Acadians. Seldom 
 'does the ordinary reader take the trouble of comparing 
 dates ; he takes the documents as they come, in the 
 order in which he finds them, without noticing the time 
 that intervenes between them. This document follows 
 that one ; therefore, he infers, they are closely connected 
 in point of time ; yet it happens occasionally that long 
 periods are skipped without the insertion of a single 
 despatch from the Lords of Trade or the Governors. 
 For example, during the three years that preceded 
 Armstrong's suicide, when he had almost lost his head 
 :and was too absorbed in his quarrels with his Council 
 and the people about him to pay any attention to the 
 Acadians, there is a complete blank in the volume of 
 the Archives. 
 
 The Compiler is less exclusive and more generous in 
 that part of his volume which relates to the foundation 
 and growth of Halifax, though here also the gaps are 
 wide and important. Generally, he avoids whatever 
 points to a spirit of insubordination or to a moral con- 
 dition inferior to that of the Acadians ; but, on the 
 whole, he is more circumstantial : though he inserts 
 none of the colonists' complaints, he gives us glimpses 
 of their daily occupations, of their disappointments and 
 their quarrels, for they are far from being a happy 
 family. Military rule, to which the Acadians had 
 cheerfully submitted for forty years, seems a grievous 
 burden to the Halifax colonists, though it was purposely 
 lightened for them. Without in the least degree wish- 
 ing to depreciate these early colonists, we quite under- 
 
STRANGE SPECIMEN OF HALIFAX MANNERS. 179 
 
 stand how, among these recruits from anywhere and 
 everywhere, there must have been worthless men, just 
 as there must have been scamps among the Acadians in 
 De la Tour's time. Certain extraordinary facts confirm 
 this very natural inference, and indicate no very high 
 degree of morality. Six months after the foundation of 
 Halifax, when already twenty-nine licenses had been 
 granted for the sale of spirituous liquors, forty persons 
 were arraigned before the grand jury for selling liquor 
 without license ; and note that this occurred after the 
 Government had distributed ten thousand gallons of 
 rum between July and December. Moreover the offi- 
 cers of Annapolis, at most a dozen, had consumed three 
 thousand gallons of the same in a space of time which 
 cannot have exceeded a twelvemonth.* 
 
 Haliburton cites a strange specimen of Halifax man- 
 ners : 
 
 " We may," he says, " form some opinion of the state of public 
 morals at that time, from an extraordinary order of Governor 
 Cornwallis, which, after reciting that the dead were attended to 
 the grave by neither relatives, friends or neighbors, and that it 
 was even difficult to procure the assistance of carriers, directed 
 the justices of the peace, upon the death of a settler, to summon 
 twelve persons from the vicinity of the deceased's last place of 
 abode, to attend his funeral, and carry his corpse to the grave ; 
 and as a penalty for not complying with the orders, directions 
 were given to strike out the name of every delinquent from the 
 mess books of the place, etc. etc." 
 
 * Ten years later, in May, 1760, the Hon. Alexander Grant, member of 
 the Executive Council, writing from Halifax to the Rev. Ezra Stiles of 
 Boston, says : " The inhabitants may be about 3,000 ; one-third Irish, one- 
 fourth German or Dutch, the most useful and industrious settlers among 
 us, and the rest English, with a very small number of Scotch. 
 
 " We have upwards of 100 licensed hoiises, and perhaps as many more 
 which retail spirituous liquors without license; so that the business of 
 one-half the town is to sell rum, and the other half to drink it. You may, 
 from this single circumstance, judge of our morals, and naturally infer 
 that we are not enthusiastic in religion." 
 
180 TWO TOURISTS LUGGED IN AS WITNESSES. 
 
 The Compiler reproduces only the latter part of this 
 order ; he omits the reasons why it was issued ; so that 
 one would think it was merely a preventive command 
 against the possibility of such an offence, whereas it 
 was the very prevalence of the offence that elicited the 
 order. This is precisely one of Parkman's favorite re- 
 ceipts : Cut a quotation in two and drop out the peccant 
 part ; excellent advice, indeed, for a surgeon, but 
 scarcely suited to the historian. 
 
 The Lords of Trade in a reply, dated October 10th, 
 1749, to three letters of Cornwallis, refer to the contents 
 of the latter, and, among other things, to the irregularity 
 and the indolence of the Halifax colonists. Now, on 
 consulting these three letters as found in the volume of 
 the Archives, we discover that there is no mention of 
 irregularity or indolence ; only, in one of the letters we 
 see asterisks, which probably indicate the passage con- 
 taining the obnoxious complaints. Quite otherwise 
 would the Compiler have acted had complaints been 
 made against the Acadians. In the chapter on the 
 Founding of Halifax he repeats all the strictures on 
 the Acadians which he had already complacently inserted 
 in the chapter on "Acadian French," and this is the 
 only instance of such repetition. This creates the im- 
 pression that what is merely a rehash of previous fault- 
 finding is really something new, and thus strengthens 
 the brief he holds against the Acadians. One would 
 think that he had borrowed Parkman's method of 
 multiplying by dividing, were it not that the Compiler's 
 book appeared before Parkman's. They both under- 
 stand each other like pickpockets in a crowd. 
 
 Not satisfied with introducing the letters of the 
 traitor Pichon into a collection of official papers, the 
 
UNTRUSTWORTHY. 181 
 
 Compiler finds means to insert a letter that was utterly 
 foreign to the legitimate object of his compilation, a 
 letter from two French officers of Quebec, Hocquart 
 and Beauharnais, to the French Minister in Paris, the 
 Count de Maurepas. The motive of this insertion is 
 three or four lines of this letter that present the Acadians 
 in an unfavorable light. Had these officers any correct 
 information or personal acquaintance with the Acadians ? 
 Neither seems likely. They may have visited Louis- 
 burg, but, certainly, they never entered Acadia, for no 
 French officers would have been allowed there. Their 
 strictures on the Acadians, though inapplicable to those 
 who lived on their own farms in the Peninsula, may 
 very well apply to those of mixed blood who were 
 scattered everywhere and whom they may have met on 
 the shores of Cape Breton Island. What these officers say 
 is that the houses of the Acadians " were wretched 
 wooden boxes, without conveniences and without orna- 
 ments/' and that they were "covetous of specie." As 
 to the first count of this indictment, many passages of 
 the Archives agree with the chronicles of the period in 
 representing the Acadians as living in plenty, and 
 dwelling in roomy and comfortable houses ; but, be- 
 cause the Compiler has inserted this letter in his volume, 
 it is copied by several writers ; which proves that the 
 end he had in view — to prepare an arsenal of weapons 
 against the Acadians — has been attained. Nevertheless, 
 it is evident that these officers were not in a position to 
 form an enlightened opinion ; and if all the obiter dicta 
 of thoughtless tourists must be treasured up, history 
 would be a caricature. Even if these officers spoke 
 from actual experience, what they said would apply 
 equally well to some Anglo-Americans or Canadians, in 
 
) 
 
 182 FAULT-FINDING. 
 
 fact, to all new colonies. Then, again, an opinion of 
 this kind depends for its value on the point of view, 
 the circumstances of time, place and persons. To these 
 gay gallants, enervated perhaps by the splendors of the 
 court, setting foot for the first time on American 
 soil, strangers to the simple and rude life of the husband- 
 man and the colonist, the dwellings of the Acadians, if 
 indeed they ever saw them, must have appeared very 
 humble. The Acadians had no skilled architects, no 
 upholsterers ; rich brocades, many-colored hangings, 
 valuable paintings were wanting in their rustic homes ; 
 no doubt, as we may well believe, their houses were 
 " without ornaments." As to their being u covetous of 
 specie," they were neither more nor less so than are all 
 the peasants of the world, who live by the sweat of their 
 brow and not on capital accumulated by the labors of 
 other men. 
 
 The gentle and peaceful manners of the Acadians are 
 admitted by all historians. They are acknowledged to 
 have been an industrious people, living in plenty not- 
 withstanding the forced subdivision of their lands. 
 Their morals are admitted to have been excellent ; there 
 was as much harmony among them as it is possible to 
 expect in this world; their differences were settled 
 amicably ; the poor were very rare and were eagerly 
 assisted by the community. To be sure, there must be 
 one discordant voice in this harmonious conceit of 
 historians anent Acadia, the voice of Francis Park- 
 man. Were the human race divided into two categories, 
 the admirers of goodness and the fault-finders, or, in 
 other words, the good-natured and the crabbed, Park- 
 man would rank high among the latter. This mania for 
 censure, if not restrained, necessarily drags its victims 
 
DISCOURAGEMENT VERY NATURAL. 183 
 
 into partiality, and sometimes into downright dishonesty. 
 The field for fault-finding is illimitable ; nothing is 
 easier than to give an unfavorable color to the most in- 
 nocent actions. Men are to be found who will blame 
 whatever you do, even if you cannot help doing it. 
 Listen to one of these. " They were," says Parkman, 
 " a very simple and ignorant peasantry, industrious and 
 frugal till evil days came to discourage them" 
 
 Of course the Acadians were " discouraged " on the 
 shores of New England; but if Parkman had had a 
 spark of humanity, he would have readily understood 
 that no other frame of mind was possible in their then 
 desperate condition. Did he expect them to become 
 colonists in the places whither they had been exiled ? 
 Of what use would lands have been to sundered 
 families, whose scattered members bemoaned their 
 separation, and, owing to Lawrence's injunctions, had 
 not, during eight years, until the peace of 1763, the 
 sad privilege of searching for each other, if so be they 
 might meet again? Was there any hope of making 
 steady colonists, attached to the land of their exile, 
 out of people who had been reduced to a state of mind 
 that was worse than death ; robbed of all their posses- 
 sions ; snatched from the lap of plenty and their 
 smiling homes to become beggars among men that 
 abhorred their language and their faith and often 
 sneered at them and treated them with scorn? Park- 
 man can talk glibly about the " evil days that came 
 to discourage them," because he does not put himself 
 in their place. Being good-hearted people, so simple 
 and so unsophisticated, nothing was left for them, 
 bereaved as they were, but discouragement. 
 
 Their very simplicity and ignorance, joined to their 
 
184 SUCCESS IN FARMING. 
 
 love of hard work and those high moral qualities wit- 
 nessed to by Parkman's fellow-countrymen, acted as a 
 powerful magnet, winning for them in their misfort- 
 unes the sympathy of many distinguished writers. 
 The man of generous instincts does not shrink from his 
 oppressed brother, still less does lie visit him with 
 scorn because he is simple and ignorant. It is precisely 
 this simple rectitude that afforded a covetous despot the 
 opportunity to reduce them to beggary, so that he 
 might fatten on the fruits of their toil. 
 
 Tillage and the raising of live stock were their chief 
 occupations. Parkman seems to reproach them for 
 having u little spirit of adventure." But, surely, their 
 preference for agricultural pursuits shows a higher 
 civilization than that of the roving hunter, trapper and 
 fisherman. Very likely, had they been what Parkman 
 reproaches them with not being, he would have had 
 still harder things to say against them. We see, by 
 Winslow's statistical table, that eacli family in the 
 Mines District had, on an average, 23 head of horned 
 cattle, 30 sheep and 14 pigs. This would be a large 
 average in our own day and must have been proportion- 
 ably greater then, since it represented the slow increase 
 of a few head of cattle brought into the country 75 
 years before. It took fifty years of continuous occupa- 
 tion of the lands of the Acadians after the dispersion 
 to bring the total of the British settlers in the Mines 
 Basin up to the total of the Acadians when they were 
 driven out, notwithstanding the fact that the British 
 settlers began in greater numbers than were the original 
 Acadian settlers and took possession of lands already 
 tilled, whereas the beginnings of the Acadians had been 
 most arduous owing to the forests they had to clear 
 
ACADIANS NECESSARY FOR DIKE-BUILDING. 185 
 
 and the marshes they had to drain. Though the suc- 
 cessors of the Acadians set great store by the diked 
 lands and were able to use a part of the diking con- 
 structed by the Acadians, yet the area enclosed by 
 dikes diminished greatly in the hands of the British 
 settlers.* When in 1765 the new colonists wished to 
 reconstruct or repair these dikes, they applied to Gov- 
 ernor Belcher for permission to employ Acadians at the 
 expense of the Government, although they themselves 
 had had the advantage of occupying cleared lands, f 
 
 True, the Acadians were simple and ignorant; but 
 at that time most peasants in Europe, and hardly 
 less so in England, were ignorant. It would be unfair 
 not to take into account their altogether exceptional 
 situation. The 175 families that were left as colonists 
 in what was then an out-of-the-way place remained 
 just as isolated under French dominion as they after- 
 wards were under British rule. When we consider 
 that, in such an environment, the need of education 
 was but slightly felt, and the desire, born of that need, 
 was dulled in course of time by the obstacles that stood 
 in the way of its gratification, their ignorance is not 
 surprising. But, were it as inexcusable and as com- 
 
 * See Haliburton, Hist, of Nova Scotia. 
 
 f The memorial of the inhabitants of King County, etc., etc., " That the 
 Acadians who have hitherto been stationed in this County have been of great 
 use as laborers in assisting the carrying on our business in Agriculture 
 and improvements in general, but particularly in the repairing and making 
 of dykes, a work which they are accustomed to, and experienced in, and 
 we find that without their further assistance many of us cannot continue 
 our improvements, nor plough, nor sow our lands, nor finish the dyking 
 still required to secure them from salt water, and being convinced from 
 experience that unless those dyke lands are inclosed we cannot with cer- 
 tainty raise bread for our subsistence. 
 
 " John Burbidge, Samuel Willougby, Handly Chipman, Elisha Lathrop, 
 Nathan de Wolf, Robert Dennison, Judge Deschamps, Moses de les 
 Derniers, W. Yonge, Henry Denson, Joseph Wilson, Joseph Baly, Benj. 
 Sanford. In behalf of the inhabitants of Cornwalhs, Horton, Windsor, 
 Falmouth and New Port." 
 
186 KAYNAL LESS IMAGINATIVE THAN PAEKMAN. 
 
 plete as Parkman so often insinuates, that would not be 
 a reason to treat them with scorn or to refuse them the 
 sympathy that misfortune elicits, especially when that 
 misfortune is undeserved. 
 
 The complacency with which he is continually harp- 
 ing on their ignorance and simplicity in connection 
 with their woes, as if their ignorance and simplicity 
 could excuse or attenuate the crime of their oppressors, 
 is, to put it mildly, strangely out of season. In point 
 of fact, we know, from their petitions, that one-fourth 
 and sometimes one-third of the names are signed by the 
 petitioners ; which is far from implying such utter illit- 
 eracy as Parkman hints at. 
 
 " Raynal, who never saw the Acadians" says Parkman, 
 " has made an ideal picture of them, since copied and im- 
 proved in prose and verse, till Acadia has become Arca- 
 dia. This humble society had its disturbing elements, 
 for the Acadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious 
 race and neighbors often quarrelled about their bound- 
 aries. Nor were they without a bountiful share of jeal- 
 ousy, gossip, and backbiting to relieve the monotony of 
 their lives." 
 
 Parkman has a horror of monotony. It would, in- 
 deed, have been monotonous to stick to commonly 
 received opinions; he thought lie ran no great risk 
 in supposing a different state of things. It is quite 
 true that Raynal had never seen any Acadians except 
 those who took refuge in France ; his views were based 
 on hearsay and common report ; this was much, though 
 too little to ensure absolute precision ; but does not the 
 same reproach apply with still greater force to Park- 
 man, who is so positive, though he has no known evi- 
 dence at all to back him ? No doubt, he was at liberty 
 
MARVELLOUS MORALITY. 187 
 
 to suppose that the state of society described by Raynal 
 and by so many others was an ideal picture incom- 
 patible with human frailty ; hence came the dark colors 
 his imagination added to the picture; he may have 
 thought that in doing so he could not be far wrong, and 
 indeed I myself am inclined to think Raynal's lights 
 needed some shading ; but what I complain of is that 
 Parkman is inventively positive without proof, and that 
 the unfortunate bent of his mind and heart have led to 
 the limning of a picture more imaginary than that of 
 Raynal. Here again we must observe what an impor- 
 tant factor their situation was ; it made possible a state 
 of things that under other circumstances would have 
 been impossible. The original population was less 
 motley than in other colonies ; they were all sons of 
 husbandmen or husbandmen themselves. Three-fourths 
 of this little nation were descended from the 47 heads 
 of families that settled in the country a century before 
 their dispersion ; they were all related or connected by 
 marriage ; their fertile lands furnished in abundance all 
 that could satisfy their simple wants. Left to them- 
 selves, they were self-supporting and locally self-gov- 
 erned, dispensing with courts of justice, policemen and 
 bailiffs, regulating the public business of each parish in 
 common, settling their disputes by arbitration. In the 
 entire volume of the Archives we find not a single in- 
 stance of dissidence among themselves when meeting 
 for concerted action, not an instance of an Acadian ar- 
 raigned for murder, theft, assault or indecency ; these 
 things are not so much as mentioned. This astonishing 
 fact is, of course, attributable to their exceptional situa- 
 tion. Any reasonable explanation of it is admissible ; 
 but the fact is beyond a doubt. Considering that mor- 
 
188 GARBLING A QUOTATION. 
 
 ality is not an unimportant matter, should their priests 
 have had something to do with these splendid results, it is, 
 perhaps, not asking too much if we bespeak an indulgent 
 view of the authority they so successfully exercised. Had 
 the people freed themselves in a greater degree from this 
 control, which Parkman considers so fatal to mental 
 robustness, what they might have gained in independ- 
 ence, in initiative, in material progress, they would 
 probably have lost in moral worth, thrift, trustworthi- 
 ness and contentment. I am as great an admirer as 
 Parkman is of the conquests of the human intellect, 
 of the soul's upward strivings, I believe in a constant 
 and beneficent evolution of Christian nations along 
 lines marked out by Providence ; yet, if in reading the 
 records of the past, I meet with an infant nation happy 
 and prosperous, enjoying a somewhat primitive but very 
 virtuous fellowship, and all impregnated with the true 
 Christian spirit, I do not stop to reflect on the narrow 
 limits of their mental horizon, on the greater or less 
 control exercised by some of their leaders, on the doubt- 
 ful benefits of a revolution in their ideas ; I am satisfied 
 with admiring what I behold, without mental reserva- 
 tion and without expressing any wish for other scenes ; 
 I leave to time the slow process of evolution, feeling 
 convinced that virtue is after all the most abiding and 
 precious of blessings. 
 
 Parkman could not fail to reproduce the opinion of 
 the two French officers which has found its way into 
 the volume of Archives and is mentioned above ; but 
 he does so in his usual misleading way : " French offi- 
 cials" he says, " described their dwellings as wretched 
 wooden boxes, without ornaments or conveniences, and 
 scarcely supplied with furniture. Two or more families 
 
HIS MODUS OPERANDI. 189 
 
 often occupied the same house ; and their way of life, 
 though simple and virtuous, was by no means remarkable 
 for cleanliness." 
 
 The inverted commas are mine; there are none in 
 Parkman's quotation. Where do the words of the 
 " French officials " end ? We cannot tell. The reader 
 will be inclined to think that the whole passage is bor- 
 rowed verbatim from them, while in reality the latter 
 half is either evolved from Parkman's imagination or 
 based on something he alone has unearthed nobody 
 knows where. 
 
 Let us examine more closely, in this short quotation, 
 Parkman's favorite method : for this is a typical instance 
 and will serve to throw light on many similar passages. 
 What authority had he to go by ? Two French officers, 
 and perhaps only one, since a letter signed by two per- 
 sons is written by one alone, and the silent partner is 
 not likely to object to assertions that seem to him un- 
 important and of which perhaps he has no personal 
 knowledge. Moreover, these two officers resided at 
 Quebec, and, as far as I have been able to ascertain by 
 special researches, never set foot in Louisburg or 
 Beause*jour. Consequently, Parkman's proof, besides 
 being grounded on one of those sweeping assertions that 
 are always so dangerous, is pretty nearly worthless. 
 How, then, is he going to give it weight? By two 
 easy dodges, the first of which is, without mentioning 
 the names of these officers, to use a term, " French offi- 
 cials," which has the advantage of conveying a specific 
 as well as a generic meaning : specific, in that it sug- 
 gests, not officers travelling among natives whom they 
 did not know, but officers on duty in the neighborhood 
 of the Acadians, either on Cape Breton Island or at 
 
190 A LITERARY MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Beause'jour ; generic, in that it suggests, not one or 
 two, but an indefinite number, say, five, twenty or 
 perhaps all the French officials in the countiy. The 
 second dodge, which is one that he often adopts, consists 
 in tacking on to the quotation other graver charges 
 founded on no known proof, and then in making these 
 additions pass for part of the quotation by omitting all 
 quotation marks. Out of next to nothing he thus con- 
 structs an apparently strong piece of evidence. 
 
 If I insist so much on the basis of Parkman's charges, 
 it is not because of their intrinsic importance, which is 
 inconsiderable, but because of that which they borrow 
 from the high position he has fraudulently won. 
 Though it is a thankless task, yet the moment one has 
 set his face against disgust, like a surgeon about to 
 operate, the process of following him in his shifts and 
 twists becomes really interesting. But one cannot help 
 reflecting all the time that a writer who lowers himself 
 to such petty arts and works like a mole underground, 
 is incapable of rising to the higher strata of thought. 
 Nor is there any unkindness in trying to unmask a cheat 
 for the sake of truth. The enterprise is useful, nay, 
 necessary. My object is to point out the methods of 
 this literary malefactor, in the hope that others may 
 pursue investigation further. I have confined myself 
 to the ninety pages that refer to Acadia, and even here 
 I have only reviewed the most obvious points. As these 
 ninety pages do not constitute a thirtieth part of Park- 
 man's works, there must remain a perfect mine of 
 Pichon-tricks (Pichonneries) to unearth ; for he who 
 has formed the habit of fraud will use it as often as it 
 suits him. It is only the first steps in this downward 
 path that make a man hesitate. 
 
CLEANLINESS. 191 
 
 " Not remarkable for cleanliness." I had always 
 thought they were remarkable for cleanliness ; and I 
 have had much better opportunities than Parkman for 
 forming an opinion. I have known at least two gen- 
 erations of Acadians before my time, and the oldest 
 members of the Acadian community in which my early 
 years were spent had inherited their habits of cleanliness 
 directly from the victims of the deportation. Besides, 
 the descriptions I will quote further on of Acadian 
 homes lay stress upon their orderliness and tidiness, 
 two qualities which are inseparable from cleanliness. 
 This last assertion of Parkman's, forming part, as it 
 does, of that sentence which he has tacked on to the 
 original words of the two French officers, seems to me 
 a pure fabrication intended to cast a slur upon a whole 
 people. 
 
 Were I to follow his example, I could paint in sombre 
 colors the Anglo-American soldiers of that period, with- 
 out leaving the limits of Nova Scotia. Parkman must 
 be aware of the opinions held anent them by Admiral 
 Knowles, Governor of Louisburg. " All those I found 
 here," he writes to the Secretary of State, " from the 
 generals down to the corporals, were sellers of rum. 
 The soldiers are lazy, dirty, obstinate ; I rejoice at 
 getting rid of them, and I pity Warren who had to 
 deal with them." 
 
 The militiamen here referred to belonged, if I mis- 
 take not, to an expedition undertaken as a religious 
 crusade against popery ; they were the pick of the 
 colony of Massachusetts. If, starting from this delib- 
 erate statement of an admiral to so distinguished a 
 person as the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State 
 and Head of the British Government, I should infer 
 
192 HALIBURTON ENDORSES RAYNAL. 
 
 the uncleanliness and degradation of these militiamen 
 and, constructively, of the entire population of New- 
 England, I should be doing exactly what Parkman has 
 done in reference to the Acadians, with this striking 
 difference, however, that I should not be drawing on 
 my imagination nor relying upon the casual remark of 
 persons without either knowledge or authority. But, 
 as I am writing with no intention of throwing mud at 
 any one, I do not hesitate to sa}', before examining the 
 facts, before weighing the motives or the personal worth 
 of this admiral, that his charges, distinct and definite 
 as they are, produce very little impression upon me. I 
 am inclined to think he wrote thus out of spleen or 
 vexation, because he was angry at the independent w r ays 
 of the American militia. Parkman, who, in his excur- 
 sions across the continent, has picked up so many 
 things, has not, to the best of my knowledge, noticed 
 this one. 
 
 Raynal's work was known to Haliburton as well as to 
 Parkman ; but the Nova Scotia Chief Justice had the 
 further advantage of living near the Acadians. When 
 he wrote his History, 75 years after the dispersion, 
 the Acadians whom he was acquainted with no longer 
 enjoyed the competence of the olden time. Their 
 struggle for existence was painful. Tolerated on lands 
 of inferior quality, they engaged in the fisheries or the 
 coasting-trade. Their present mode of life was not so 
 favorable as had been their past to an idyllic condition 
 of society. Yet here is w T hat Haliburton adds to his 
 quotation from Raynal : 
 
 " Such is the picture of these people as drawn by Raynal. By 
 many, it is thought to represent a state of social happiness, totally 
 inconsistent with the frailties of human nature ; and that it is 
 
MOSES DE LES DERNIERS TESTIFIES. 193 
 
 worthy rather of the poet than the historian. In describing a 
 scene of rural felicity like this, it is not improbable that his nar- 
 rative has partaken of the warmth of feeling for which he was 
 remarkable ; but it comes nearer the truth than is generally 
 imagined. Tradition is fresh and positive in the various parts 
 of the United States, where they were located, respecting their 
 guileless, peaceable and scrupulous character ; and the descend- 
 ants of those whose long cherished and endearing local attach- 
 ment induced them to return to the land of their nativity, still 
 deserve the name of a mild, frugal and pious people." 
 
 Although this opinion of a quasi-contemporary, 
 weighty as it is, failed to attract Parkman's attention ; 
 although the very name of so eminent a writer is never 
 mentioned by him, I trust I may be allowed to quote 
 the opinions of persons who had much to do with the 
 deportation, and in doing so I am far from pretending 
 to enlighten Mr. Parkman, who had these passages be- 
 fore him when he wrote ; I merely wish to furnish the 
 unprejudiced reader with reliable data from the most 
 authentic sources. 
 
 The Rev. Andrew Brown, wishing to collect informa- 
 tion on the character, manners and habits of the Aca- 
 dians, made inquiries of persons who had had excellent 
 opportunities of judging. One was Captain Brook 
 Watson, who had commanded the detatchment sent to 
 Bay Verte to carry off the inhabitants and burn their 
 houses, and, on another occasion, had had command of 
 a flotilla of several vessels transporting the Acadians 
 from Halifax to Boston. Another of Brown's witnesses 
 is that Moses de les Derniers who played so wretched 
 a part during the deportation. This one I quote first : 
 
 " The Acadians were the most innocent and virtuous 
 people I have ever known or read of in any history. 
 They lived in a state of perfect equalit}^, without dis- 
 13 
 
194 NO AVARICE. 
 
 tinction of rank in society. The title of c Mister ' was 
 unknown among them. Knowing nothing of luxury or 
 even of the conveniences of life, they were content with 
 a simple manner of living, which they easily compassed 
 by the tillage of their lands. Very little ambition or 
 avarice was to be seen among them ; they anticipated 
 each other's wants with kindly liberality ; they de- 
 manded no interest for loans of money or other prop- 
 erty. They were humane and hospitable to strangers, 
 and very liberal toward those who embraced their relig- 
 ion. They were very remarkable for their inviolable 
 purity of morals. I do not remember a single instance 
 of illegitimate birth among them, even to this day. 
 Their attainments in agriculture were very limited, 
 though they cultivated well enough their diked lands. 
 
 " They were altogether ignorant of progress in the 
 arts and sciences. I have known but one of them that 
 could read and write well ; some could do so, but im- 
 perfectly, and none of them had learned the mechanical 
 arts. Each husbandman was his own architect and 
 each land-owner tilled the soil. They lived in almost 
 complete independence of other peoples, except when 
 they wanted salt and tools, because they used very little 
 iron in the other agricultural implements, 
 t " They themselves cultivated and made up whatever 
 was needed for their clothing, which was uniform. As 
 for colors they were fond of black and red, and liked to 
 have stripes on their legs, knots of ribbons and flowing 
 bows. Notwithstanding their negligence, their want of 
 skill and knowledge in agriculture, they amassed abun- 
 dant stores of food and clothing, and had comfortable 
 dwellings. 
 
 " They were a very healthy people, able to endure 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. 195 
 
 great fatigue, and generally living to a very advanced 
 age, though none of them employed doctors. The men 
 worked hard in the sowing and harvesting seasons, in 
 the season suited for building or repairing dikes, and 
 whenever work had to be done quickly. They thus 
 secured, for at least half the year, leisure which they 
 employed in social gatherings and amusements of which 
 they were very fond. But the women were more con- 
 stantly at work than the men; however, they had a 
 considerable share in the amusements of the former. 
 Though they were all quite illiterate, yet it seldom hap- 
 pened that any of them remained silent for a long time 
 in company. They never seemed at a loss for something 
 to talk about. In short, they all appeared at heart joy- 
 ful and gay and of one mind almost always. If any dis- 
 putes arose in their transactions, they always submitted 
 to the decision of an arbitrator, and their final appeal 
 was to the priests. Although I have known a few in- 
 stances of mutual recrimination after these decisions, 
 still one seldom or never noticed among them thoughts 
 of malice or revenge. Finally, they were quite accus- 
 tomed to behave with candor under all circumstances. 
 Really, if there ever was a people that recalled the 
 golden age, as described in history, that people was the 
 old-time Acadians." 
 
 Brook Watson's description reads thus : " They were 
 an honest, hard-working, sober and virtuous people ; 
 rarely did quarrels arise among them. In summer, the 
 men were continually at work on their farms ; in winter, 
 they were engaged in cutting wood for their fuel and 
 fences, and in hunting ; the women spent their time card- 
 ing, spinning and weaving wool, flax and hemp which 
 this country furnished in plenty. These articles, with 
 
196 beook watson's description. 
 
 the fur of bear, beaver, fox, otter and marten provided 
 them not only with comfortable, but often with taste- 
 ful garments. They also procured for them other nec- 
 essary or useful objects by means of the exchange trade 
 they carried on with the French and English. There 
 were few houses without a cask of French wine. They 
 had no other dyes than black and green ; but, to obtain 
 red, of which they were remarkably fond, they got Eng- 
 lish red stuffs, which they cut up, ravelled out, carded, 
 spun and wove into strips to adorn the women's dresses. 
 Their country was so rich in provisions that, as I have 
 heard, an ox could be bought for fifty shillings, a sheep 
 for five, and a bushel of wheat for eighteen pence. 
 Young men were not encouraged to marry unless the 
 young girl could weave a piece of cloth, and the young 
 man make a pair of wheels. These accomplishments 
 were deemed essential for their marriage settlement, 
 and they hardly needed anything else, for every time 
 there was a wedding the whole village contributed to 
 set up the newly-married couple. They built a house 
 for them, and cleared enough land for their immediate 
 needs ; they gave them live stock and poultry ; and nat- 
 ure, seconded by their own labor, soon put them in a 
 position to help others. I have never heard of marital 
 infidelity among them. Their long cold winters were 
 spent in the pleasures of joyous hospitality. As they 
 had plenty of firewood, their houses Avere always com- 
 fortable. Rustic songs and dancing were their principal 
 amusement." * 
 
 * Collection of N. S. Hist. Soc. Vol. II, p. 132. This is taken from Cas- 
 grain's translation. 
 
 Here is an extract from a letter addressed to the Due de Nivernais on 
 Dec, 2, 1762: "The Acadians lived like the ancient patriarchs amid 
 their flocks and herds, in the innocence and equality of the earliest ages. 
 All those who have known them speak with emotion of their virtues and 
 their happiness." 
 
WJRITTEN AT BROWN'S REQUEST. 197 
 
 I have little to add or change in these descriptions of 
 Acadian manners. In their lights as in their shades I 
 know them to be fairly correct, and that is all I am 
 looking for. What a difference between these pictures 
 and the disjointed extracts culled here and there by 
 Parkman ! Seldom does the historian meet with mate- 
 rials combining in so high a degree those conditions 
 that inspire confidence and respect. The circumstances 
 in which these descriptions were composed are unique : 
 they were intended to figure in a history which Brown 
 was preparing. This man, whose high character sets 
 him on the same level as Haliburton and Murdoch, when 
 casting about him for competent witnesses, must have 
 chosen them with discernment and with the fullest con- 
 fidence in their ability and willingness to tell the un- 
 varnished truth. Considering that the information 
 furnished by these men was intended for so important a 
 purpose, it is evident that they must have been 
 thoroughly conversant with the subject and must have 
 carefully weighed their words. In fact they seem to 
 be replying to a series of questions. Neither of the two 
 had any interest in exaggerating the virtues of the Aca- 
 dians, since, had they done so, they would have added 
 to the infamy of their own share in the deportation. It 
 might appear astonishing that Parkman has not seized 
 this exceptional opportunity of giving authentic infor- 
 mation to his readers, did we not know that he has 
 never mentioned even the names of Brown and Hali- 
 burton, and that, under various disguises, he has given 
 so much space to Pichon. 
 
 Moses de les Derniers and Brook Watson were nei- 
 ther poets nor novelists, and yet Raynal said no more 
 than they did. " Raynal," as Rameau observes, " may 
 
198 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 
 
 have sinned against good taste by describing these 
 things in the turgid style of the eighteenth century; 
 but the wording alone is out of tune; the things 
 are quite true." * Poets and novelists, moved by 
 the woes of the Acadians after a long period of 
 plenty and happiness, may have girdled them with a 
 romantic halo that places them beyond the stern reali- 
 ties of life. This cannot be helped ; in doing so, they 
 followed the noblest drawings of our human nature. 
 Great tragedies have a magnetism of their own ; he who 
 dramatizes them may, without writing history, correct 
 it in some of its representatives. Parkman, for instance, 
 has made such contributions necessary. The writers 
 thereof are the successors of those knights-errant of yore 
 who went about the world seeking for woes to console, 
 injustices to repair and tyrants to punish. It were 
 cruelty to carp at the oil and wine they have poured, 
 like the good Samaritan, on the wounds of the people 
 that were stripped by robbers and left half dead. For 
 those who, wishing to forget this traged}^, cannot, it is a 
 great consolation to call to mind the sweet memory of 
 Longfellow and of so many other sympathetic souls. 
 
 To come down to plain facts, I would say with 
 Rameau : " The Acadians were not poets, nor en- 
 thusiasts, nor dreamers; they were simpty good folk 
 (de braves gens), very obliging to each other, very 
 religious, very devoted to their families, and living 
 gaily in the midst of their children, without much 
 worry." f In a word, they were honest, peaceable and 
 happy folk, with more or less of the weaknesses of our 
 common nature. 
 
 * Une Qolonie Feodale en Amerique, Vol. II. p. 97. 
 f Ibid. p. 89. 
 
SAINT GREGOIRE PARISH. 199 
 
 To these unexceptionable testimonies I trust I may- 
 be suffered to add my own, as far as it goes. I have 
 had the privilege, if not of living long among Acadians, 
 at least of very frequently visiting them in the parish 
 of Saint-Gre*goire, opposite Three Rivers, where my 
 grandfathers lived. This is one of the places they took 
 refuge in after the eight years of exile in the ports of 
 New England. They founded this parish, and to this 
 day it probably does not contain five families that are 
 not of Acadian origin. The soil was very rich, but 
 very damp and thickly wooded. The Acadians — and 
 in this I think they were right — have always preferred 
 low-lying lands, in spite of the greater difficulty of 
 clearing and draining them ; those who settled at 
 L'Acadie, near the town of St. John, P. Q., and at St. 
 Jacques l'Achigan also chose similar lands. These 
 parishes are among the most prosperous of the province 
 of Quebec. To speak of Saint-Gre*goire alone, I believe 
 the descriptions of Brook Watson and Moses de les 
 Derniers would apply to the state of this parish twenty- 
 five years ago as exactly as the circumstances permitted. 
 Except that parents alone arranged for the marriage 
 settlements of their children, and that education was very 
 general, all the rest faithfully represents the condition of 
 affairs that existed at Grand Pre 137 years ago. Dis- 
 putes were still settled by arbitration ; I never heard of 
 but one lawsuit, and never of an illegitimate birth or a 
 public scandal. There never has been, and I think 
 there still is not a single licensed hotel in the place. 
 It was still the custom to provide in the autumn for 
 the necessities of the poor during winter : all the 
 fuel, provisions and clothing they needed till spring 
 were brought to their houses. I am told that a Mutual 
 

 200 
 
 THE PRINCE FAMILY. 
 
 Insurance Company was founded two years ago; up to 
 that date all losses by fire were made good by the com- 
 munity, which provided not only the material but the 
 labor, and the rule was to replace the sufferer in the 
 same situation as before the accident. I remember that 
 no exception was made to this rule even in the case of 
 a rich miser of unenviable reputation. And, if their 
 houses are like those of their fathers in Acadia — which 
 is very likely, because they were such sticklers for 
 tradition, and because very many of the houses date 
 from the last century — then the contemptuous remarks 
 I have quoted from two French officers would be 
 altogether inapplicable.* 
 
 * My grandfather, Joseph Prince — Le Prince — was a merchant at Saint- 
 Gr6goire, in partnership with his brother Francois. They were married 
 to two sisters, Julie and Henriette Doucet. They each had ten children, 
 in all fourteen girls and six boys. They held all their household property 
 in common and lived in the same house, which they enlarged several 
 times. They had with them their aged parents, and gave a college edu- 
 cation to their youngest brother, who became bishop of Saint-Hyaeinthe. 
 They adopted a young Irish girl, Mary Walsh, whose parents had died of 
 cholera at Quebec. All these children received a good education, either in 
 a college or a convent ; two of the sons are priests, both canons, one of 
 the diocese of Three Rivers and the other of that of Kaint-Hyacinthe. 
 When the house would no longer admit of enlargement, they built a new 
 one alongside ; but after it was furnished, it remained unoccupied more 
 than a year, so averse were they to a separation after forty years of this 
 life in common. 
 
 About the year 1836 the Governor of Canada, on his way to Sherbrooke 
 with his suite, lodged and was entertained at his own request in my 
 grandfather's house. Later, during the troubles of 1837-8, hospitality of 
 a very different nature was extended to the brother (Benjamin) of the 
 Honorable L. J. Papineau. His retreat was finally discovered ; he was 
 arrested there by Chief Constable Burns and imprisoned at Three 
 Rivers. 
 
 Some years before, an American from Boston, returning from Quebec 
 stayed over night with ray grandfather. The name of the city of Boston 
 was sorrowfully familiar to the Acadians of Saint-Gregoire : but the sad- 
 ness of the memory was not so marked in my grandfather's case, because 
 his own grandfather had been kindly taken up and protected by a charitable 
 lady of whom my family ever cherished a touching remembrance. The 
 conversation was long and agreeable ; it turned on the deportation and 
 finally on the charitable lady. Great was the surprise and joy of my 
 people when they discovered that the stranger was the grandson of my 
 grandfather's benefactress, whose name, to my deep regret, I cannot 
 recall. Our American friend prolonged his stay, and, when he was about 
 
FALSE STATEMENTS. 201 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Comments on Lawrence's letter to the Governors — On Parkman's 
 insinuations anent the separation of families — More on Park- 
 man's ways. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. of this work closes with the depart- 
 ure of the flotilla carrying the Acadians into exile : I 
 now come back to the main part of my narrative. 
 
 Lawrence had confided to all the captains of the 
 vessels employed in the deportation a circular addressed 
 to the governors of the provinces where the exiles were 
 to be landed. Here are some extracts from this letter : 
 
 " The successes we have gained over the French at Beausejour 
 have put us in a position to exact from the Acadians either an 
 unqualified oath or that they should quit the country. Tliey have 
 always stipulated for a restriction to the effect that they were not 
 to bear arms against the French ; Governor Philipps consented to 
 grant it to them, but he was blamed for this by His Majesty. 
 They have taken advantage of this neutrality to give information 
 and provisions to the French and the Indians, and, at the evacua- 
 tion of Beausejour, 300 of them were found armed. 
 
 " Notwithstanding this bad conduct, I offered to leave those who 
 dwelt in the Peninsula in peaceable occupation of their lands, if 
 they consented to take an unqualified oath. This offer was auda- 
 ciously refused by the entire population. 
 
 "Under these circumstances, after consultation with Vice- 
 to leave, lie was presented with a pocket-compass which his grandmother 
 had given to Joseph Prince's grandfather, and which had guided him and 
 his companions through the forests. " Take it," said my grandfather, 
 " it may be of use to you as you return by the same road. How pre- 
 cious soever it is to us as a memento of past kindness, it will be equally 
 so to you and may do you the same service it did to us." 
 

 
 202 A SERVICE TWISTED INTO A CRIME. 
 
 Admiral Boscawen, my council came to the decision to deport 
 them. We foresaw that their expulsion, with the privilege of 
 going where they willed, would have considerably strengthened 
 France ; as, moreover, the latter country had no cleared lands to 
 offer them, those who were able to bear arms would have been 
 employed in harassing us ; I have therefore deemed that the most 
 effectual and expeditious means of getting rid of them, without 
 inconvenience, was to distribute them throughout the colonies, so 
 that they might not come together again. As this measure was 
 absolutely indispensable to the safety of this colony, we hope you 
 will have no hesitation to receive them, and that you will dispose 
 of them in such a way as to meet our views, which are to prevent 
 them from coming together again." 
 
 Always the same general accusations ; only one specific 
 fact, repeated on every occasion, the three hundred men 
 taken armed at Beause*jour. Lawrence, here also, is 
 careful not to add that they were pardoned by the 
 articles of the capitulation because they had taken arms 
 under pain of death. Where, then, was the guilt of the 
 only Acadians against whom he has been able to formu- 
 late a precise charge ? Does he not admit himself that 
 Philipps had granted them the restriction they then 
 wanted and which they have always demanded ? This 
 condition being withdrawn, had they not the right to 
 quit the country, as they had done ? By that very fact 
 were they not become French subjects, as Cornwallis 
 himself admitted, and as the most ignorant common 
 sense would show ? Did not the conduct of those living 
 near Fort Beause^our who refused to fight the English, 
 and the conduct of the 300 inside the fort, who yielded 
 only to the most terrible threats, deserve the thanks and 
 sympathy of the English ? There is ample proof that it 
 was the pressure brought to bear on the French com- 
 mandant by these 300 men that led him to surrender 
 without resistance. 
 
THE RESTRICTION NEVER DISAPPROVED. 203 
 
 Lawrence adds that His Majesty disapproved the 
 restriction granted by Philipps. What really happened 
 was that the Lords of Trade expressed doubts as to the 
 meaning of a word in the French copy of the oath ; 
 Philipps maintained his interpretation, and his reply 
 ended the discussion ; but nowhere is it said that the 
 Lords of Trade, still less the King, disapproved the 
 neutrality clause. Moreover, if there was any such 
 disapproval, it could not affect the Acadians unless 
 they were formally notified of it, and we see, from the 
 documents I have quoted with regard to Cornwallis's 
 administration, that, up to that period, no mention had 
 been made of this disapproval. 
 
 The way Lawrence repeats his charge about the 300 
 proves that he had no other definite charges to make. 
 At any rate the case of the Peninsular Acadians, who 
 had remained peaceably on their lands, at a great distance 
 from the French settlements, ought to be considered 
 separately. Besides, had they been inclined to rebel, 
 what would have been the use of an unrestricted oath, 
 since the one they had already taken bound them to 
 fidelity as much as any other ? In fact, it was called the 
 oath of fidelity. Why this insistence on any oath at 
 all, if they were faithless to the one they had taken ? 
 The importance attached to a special form of oath im- 
 plies that they set great store by such engagements, and 
 therefore were not rebels. Parkman says they refused 
 the oath "in full view of the consequences." Evidently 
 Parkman means the consequences that actually followed, 
 viz., the deportation. Now, between this and the alter- 
 native they accepted, viz., to quit the country and go 
 where they pleased, there yawns a bridgeless chasm, of 
 which Parkman was quite aware. 
 
204 LAWRENCE'S OBJECT. 
 
 When Lawrence avers that he does not send the 
 Acadians to Canada because there were no cleared lands to 
 receive them, he gives a reason that would be amusing, 
 were not the subject so overwhelmingly sad and his 
 fraud so transparent. Pray, what had he prepared for 
 them at Boston, in Connecticut, in New York, at 
 Philadelphia, in Georgia and North Carolina? His 
 circular to the Governors was the first intimation they 
 received of the expulsion ; some of them even refused a 
 landing and the exiles were left, for weeks, horribly 
 crowded in their vessels, decimated by disease. 
 
 " Our view," says he, " in thus scattering them, is to 
 prevent them from coming together again." We are 
 justified in paraphrasing this sentence somewhat after 
 this fashion : " I have thought that, were we to deport 
 the inhabitants of one parish to the same place, leaving 
 the members of each family together, they might con- 
 spire to return and take possession of their lands once 
 more. Effectually to obviate this possible contingency, 
 I have given orders to scatter the people of one parish 
 in widely distant places, and I have striven, as far as I 
 could, to do the same thing for the members of each 
 family ; so that father, mother and children will, for a 
 long time, have no other concern than how to find each 
 other. Meanwhile, bodily privations and grief will kill 
 them off in great numbers." This is the only satisfactory 
 explanation of the special pains which Lawrence, who 
 was too artful not to have a motive for everything, took 
 to separate parish and family groups. 
 
 " In spite of Winslow's care," says Parkman, " some 
 cases of separation of families occurred; but they were 
 not numerous." Proofs of this assertion lie gives none 
 for obvious reasons. True, Winslow had declared to 
 
MOST FAMILIES WERE SEPARATED. 205 
 
 the delegates imprisoned in the church of Grand Pre* 
 that he would see to keeping families together ; but a 
 promise is no proof that the thing was done. Winslow 
 may have been more humane than the others ; but we 
 must not forget that Lawrence's orders were to seize 
 the men and ship them off first, and to attend to the 
 women and children afterwards. If these orders were 
 not executed to the letter, it was because the provisions 
 and the convoys for the transports arrived only at the 
 last moment, after almost all the people had been for 
 weeks on board the ships, and because Winslow and the 
 other commanding officers had not the power or the 
 inhumanity to prevent the reunion of a certain number 
 of families. In other words, opportunity was wanting 
 for the execution of the barbarous order in all its 
 severity. When I say that a certain number of families 
 were reunited on the same vessel, I mean — and I am 
 weighing my words carefully — that these families were 
 the exception. I affirm, therefore, the exact contra- 
 dictory of Parkman's affirmation: he says "cases of 
 separation were not numerous ; " I say cases of non- 
 separation were not numerous. Of course Parkman could 
 not know what I have learned by word of mouth in 
 Acadian homes. It would be a serious mistake to sup- 
 pose that the memory of these events has long been 
 lost among the Acadians. I know it is fast disappear- 
 ing now; but, as late as thirty-five years ago, each 
 family could relate the story of the departure, the em- 
 barkation and the many migrations that ensued. The 
 strivings after reunion lasted until 1786, and then the 
 number of families that remained incomplete was con- 
 siderable. 
 
 However, let us first examine the public proofs, which 
 
MEN ALONE SHIPPED TO NORTH CAROLINA . 
 
 Parkman had access to as well as any one else. We 
 have seen that Lawrence had imprisoned on St. George's 
 Island, at Halifax, the Grand Pre* and Pigiguit dele- 
 gates who had refused the oath. They were fifteen in 
 number. We have also seen how, directly after, he 
 ordered the inhabitants of Annapolis, Grand Pre* and 
 Pigiguit to send him delegates, whom he also imprisoned. 
 They were a hundred, seventy from the two last-named 
 places and thirty from Annapolis ; in all (with the 
 15 just mentioned) 115 of the principal citizens, probably 
 all heads of families. Their guilt was in no way differ- 
 ent from that of the rest of the population ; they had 
 refused the oath, that was all. What became of them ? 
 The following order will tell us : 
 
 "Sailing orders and instructions to Samuel Barron, master of 
 the Transport Sloop ' Providence.' 
 
 " Halifax, dd Oct. 1755. 
 "Sir, 
 
 " You are to receive on board your sloop from George 
 Island, a number of French inhabitants, a list whereof you will 
 receive from the commanding officer there, and you are to pro- 
 ceed therewith to the Province of North Carolina, etc., etc., 
 
 1 ■ Lawrence "* 
 
 I have been able to ascertain that the number of 
 men sent away on this occasion was only 50. Were 
 the 65 others sent off earlier or later, or did they join 
 their families before the deportation ? I cannot say for 
 certain ; but I have reason to think that they were sent 
 to Grand Pre* and Annapolis later on, in order to com- 
 plete the quota of the vessels that carried off the rest of 
 the population. Seven days after these 50 Acadians 
 left Halifax, another vessel, the Hopson, destined also 
 
 * N. S. Archives, page 280. 
 
TREATMENT OF RENE LE BLANC. 207 
 
 to North Carolina, set sail from Halifax on October 
 10th to take or complete its shipment at Annapolis. 
 We may reasonably suppose that some, if not all, of the 
 65 other prisoners were on board this vessel. Did they 
 meet at Annapolis some members of their respective 
 families ? Possibly ; but, as many of them hailed from 
 Grand Pre* and Pigiguit, those who were reunited to 
 their families at Annapolis must have been few. Con- 
 sequently, we have, in this single instance, probably 
 from 100 to 115 husbands separated from their wives 
 and children ; and, with an average of five children, be- 
 sides the parents, for each family, a modest estimate 
 for Acadians, we can already count from 700 to 800 
 persons suffering from the dismemberment of their 
 families. The fact that Lawrence kept these heads of 
 families at Halifax, while he was transporting the rest 
 of the population, proves evidently that his intention 
 was to disunite the families. 
 
 Since Parkman seems bent on exonerating Winslow, 
 I am about to show that the latter probably deserves 
 no such palliation. With the exception, perhaps, of 
 Joseph Le Blanc, Nicolas Gauthier, Louis Allain and 
 Lucien de la Tour, the most important personage among 
 the Acadians was Rene* Le Blanc, the notary of Grand 
 Pre. Though having a right to enjoy the benefits of 
 neutrality, he had eschewed them to serve the British 
 Government so zealously that he was made prisoner by 
 the Indians and kept in captivity during four years. 
 In a petition to the King (produced in full at the end 
 of this volume) the Acadian exiles at Philadelphia thus 
 describe their misfortunes : 
 
 "We were transported into the English Colonies, and this was 
 ujae with so much haste, and with so little regard to our neces- 
 

 208 THE HEBERT BROTHERS. 
 
 sities and the tenderest ties of nature, that from the most social 
 enjoyments and affluent circumstances, many found themselves 
 destitute of the necessaries of life. Parents were separated front 
 children and husbands from wives, some of whom have not to 
 this day met again ; and we were so crowded in the Transport 
 vessels, that we had not room even for all our bodies to lay down 
 at once. . . And even those amongst us who had suffered deeply 
 from Your Majesty's enemies, on account of their attachment to 
 Your Majesty's Government, were equally involved in the com- 
 mon calamity, of which Rene Le Blanc, the Notary Public, is an 
 instance. He was seized, confined, and brought away among the 
 rest of the people, and his family, consisting of twenty children 
 and about one hundred and fifty grand-children, were scattered 
 in different colonies, so that he was put on shore at New York, 
 with only his wife and two youngest children, in an infirm state 
 of health, from whence he joined three more of his children at 
 Philadelphia, where he died," etc., etc., etc., 
 
 Parkman must have seen this petition, which is found 
 in Haliburton and elsewhere. Now, if such was the 
 treatment inflicted on the leading citizen of Grand Pre\ 
 on a man who had suffered a long captivity in the serv- 
 ice of the English Government, what must have been 
 the fate of the other exiles ? 
 
 With regard to Grand Pre', I will now adduce an in- 
 stance with which I am personally connected. Honord 
 Hubert, the grandfather of my grandmother Richard, 
 had three brothers whose ages ranged from 10 to 20 at 
 the time of the deportation. Each of the four brothers 
 was deported to a different place, and it was not till 
 ten years later that they were able to meet again in 
 the parish of Saint-Gregoire. The story is related by 
 Casgrain in his " Pelerlnage an pays oV Evangeline" not 
 as if it were an exceptional case, but because the family 
 became relatively more prominent than others. 
 
 " Of this number was a young man of eighteen 
 named Etienne Hubert, carried off from the parish of 
 
MRS. WILLIAMS ON WINSLOW'S PROMISE. 209 
 
 Grand Pre", where he dwelt in the valley of Petit 
 Ruisseau, in the concession of the Heberts. Separated 
 from his brothers, who had been deported one to 
 Massachusetts, another to Maryland, and the third to 
 another place, while he himself, put ashore at Philadel- 
 phia, had entered the service of an army" officer, he 
 gave himself no rest until he could find his brothers 
 whom he believed to have gone to Canada. Disap- 
 pointed in this hope, but not discouraged, he secured 
 a grant of land at Saint-Gregoire in the seigniory of 
 Becancourt, and started for the South in winter on 
 snowshoes. After a long search, he had the joy of 
 bringing all three of them back ; one was at Worcester, 
 another at Baltimore, and the third somewhere else. 
 The four brothers settled down close to one another at 
 Saint-Grdgoire, where they soon prospered." * Casgrain 
 adds that Etienne Hebert, having learnt later that his 
 Grand Pre* betrothed, Josephte Babin, was at Quebec, 
 went to meet her there and married her. 
 
 We have seen that at Grand Pre' — and the same thing 
 must have happened in the other Acadian parishes, since 
 such were Lawrence's orders — some of the men and 
 boys were put on board ships one month before the 
 sailing of the flotilla. Haliburton supposed that they 
 had been deported at once ; Parkman rightly corrected 
 this mistake ; but from the above account it appears evi- 
 dent that these men and boys were nevertheless de- 
 ported separately ; else it were hard to explain how 
 these four brothers were separated. 
 
 Mrs. Williams, the author of " French Neutrals," a 
 
 * They returned northward by the Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers as far 
 as Quebec. The one from whom I am descended, Honore, was found at 
 Boston. On his way to Canada he had his feet frozen. 
 14 
 
210 FRASER OF MIRAMICHI. 
 
 countrywoman of Parkman's, who wrote long before him 
 at a time when the memory of these events was still fresh, 
 says, in reference to Winslow's promise to the Acadian.? 
 that he would not separate families : " A promise which, 
 whatever may have been the intentions of Winslow in 
 making it, was most shamefully and inhumanly broken. 
 By what sophisms Winslow reconciled this deception, 
 not to say abominable falsehood, to his conscience, 
 history does not tell." 
 
 In Dr. Brown's notes are to be found memoranda by 
 a Mr. Fraser of Miramichi, whom Brown had asked to 
 collect information from the Acadians who had settled 
 there. I extract therefrom the following passage : 
 " Michel Le Basque (Bastarache), his brother Pierre and 
 twelve others, travelled through the woods from Caro- 
 lina to the head of the river St. Lawrence, and from 
 there came all the way in a canoe to Shediac (in New 
 Brunswick) to meet their wives and families. The 
 greatest injustice that the Acadians seem to think the 
 English were guilty of is, that those who were removed 
 from Beaubassin and Grand Pre* had it not in their 
 option to go wherever they pleased, and that the wives 
 and children of several were not permitted to embark on 
 board the same vessel with the husband and parents, but 
 were put on board other ships bound to different colonies, 
 by which means many families were separated and have 
 not met to this day (1790)." Brown adds : " Mr. 
 Fraser has not the active curiosity of J. Gray, the acute 
 sensibility of Moses de Les Derniers, or the dignified 
 benevolence of Brook Watson, but he is a man of shrewd 
 understanding, calm passions, with nothing of the roman- 
 tic in his nature." 
 
 Hutchinson, the historian of Massachusetts, mentions 
 
A COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 211 
 
 several cases of separation that came to his knowledge. 
 The New York Mercury of that period protests against 
 these outrages. " Their wives and children," it says, 
 " were not permitted with them, but were shipped on 
 board other vessels." 
 
 A letter from Abbe Le Guerne says that, among 250 
 families who were at River St. John after the dispersion, 
 there were not less than 60 women whose husbands had 
 been deported. 
 
 So numerous, indeed, are the witnesses to this dis- 
 memberment of families that the only difficulty is to 
 make a proper selection. Perhaps the most striking of 
 these testimonies is the collective petition to the French 
 Government of a crowd of exiles landed at St. Malo, 
 who begged to be transported to Boston, thus exposing 
 themselves to fresh persecutions in " the hope," as their 
 petition expressed it, " of being reunited to their children 
 whom the English had carried thither." 
 
 The Reverend Louis Richard, President of Three 
 Rivers College, in answer to a request for precise in- 
 formation on the beginnings of the Acadian colony of 
 Saint Gregoire and of the Three Rivers District, writes to 
 me on November 2d, 1892 : 
 
 " You were not mistaken ; for more than 
 
 twenty years I have been collecting, here and there, 
 all that concerns the Acadian families and their settle- 
 ment in the District of Three Rivers. I have made 
 extracts of all the registers of the parishes of Saint- 
 Gregoire, Nicolet, Be*cancour, etc. ; I have questioned old 
 people ; I have made a voyage to Acadia ; at Halifax I took 
 copies of the old registers of Port Royal, and to-day I 
 possess all the data necessary to recompose in a great 
 measure the genealogy of the families in this District. 
 

 212 
 
 THE RICHARDS. 
 
 I knew in a general way from fireside recitals that there 
 had been much separation of families ; but I was far 
 from suspecting that it was so general. The first ref- 
 ugees arrived in 1759 ; they were almost all from the 
 neighborhood of Beause'jour, and had come by the St. 
 John River. Starting in the spring, without provisions 
 or ammunition, their advance was necessarily slow, as 
 they could provide for their sustenance only by fishing 
 and the rare game they sometimes caught in snares. 
 At length, however, at the beginning of winter, they 
 came out upon the St. Lawrence at Cacouna. There 
 was probably not one complete family in this first group. 
 My ancestor, Joseph Richard, and yours, Michel 
 Richard, were of the party ; mine was with some of his 
 wife's relatives, the Cormiers ; yours, then 15 years old, 
 had with him only his sister, Fe*licite*, 10 years of age, 
 and his aged grandfather, Rend Richard.* The names 
 of Joseph Richard and his wife, Madeleine Le Blanc, 
 father and mother of your great-grandfather Michel 
 Richard, appear nowhere in the registers, whether it be 
 that they were dead before the deportation or died in the 
 English colonies before the peace of 1763. Nor do I 
 find that he was rejoined at Saint-Grdgoire by any of his 
 brothers or sisters. 
 
 " All those who settled in Canada between 1759 and 
 1763 belong to the group that escaped the deportation. 
 After the treaty of peace others came continually from 
 many different places till 1786, when the last contingent 
 came from France. Even then, the complete families 
 were very rare ; in many cases this was probably due to 
 the very great mortality produced by want and suffering 
 
 * He was then 73 years old and died in 1776 at the age of 90. 
 
 
JEAN PRINCE. 213 
 
 for those who had escaped the deportation, and by disease 
 for those who were deported to hot climates. 
 
 " These researches produced on me the most painful 
 impression, because I found at every step proofs of the 
 unprecedented dismemberment of families. All those 
 that land on our shores are but wretched remnants. We 
 constantly meet with none but widowers, widows and 
 orphans ; there are many more widowers than widows ; 
 it looks as if the women had been less able to withstand 
 grief and want ; you can judge of this yourself by the 
 accompanying lists." . . . 
 
 Here is what Casgrain says of another of my ances- 
 tors, Jean Prince (Le Prince) : " The grandfather of 
 Monseigneur Prince, the first bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, 
 was put ashore alone at Boston, where a charitable 
 family received him ; he found his parents only many 
 years later (1772)." 
 
 I cannot conceive what Parkman's authority was for 
 saying that the families separated were u not numerous." 
 Setting aside my special sources of information, which 
 were inaccessible to him, it seems to me he had enough 
 witnesses from all quarters to convince him of the con- 
 trary. We have positive testimony that even at Grand 
 Pre* families were not allowed to unite. However, it 
 may be that many of these separations were due to the 
 ignorance in which the Acadians were maintained as to 
 the place of their destination. In order to induce them 
 to be more resigned to their fate, they must have been 
 made to believe that they would all be disembarked at 
 the same port ; this being so, it mattered little whether 
 or not the members of one family were on the same 
 vessel ; they would all meet again on landing, which 
 was the important point. 
 
214 SCRUPLE OF MODESTY TPwAVESTIED BY PAEKMAN. 
 
 Besides, for so religious and modest a people as 
 they were, it was not becoming that young men and 
 grown-up girls should be crowded together in the 
 same ship. This is what Abbe* Le Guerne very 
 clearly hints at ; but Parkman, who quotes, without 
 understanding him, attributes to his words a meaning 
 that is quite absurd : " Le Guerne, missionary priest in 
 this neighborhood (Beause'jour), gives a characteristic 
 and affecting incident of the embarkation : * Many un- 
 happy women, carried away by excessive attachment to 
 their husbands, whom they had been allowed to see too 
 often, and closing their ears to the voice of religion and 
 their missionary, threw themselves blindly and despair- 
 ingly into the English vessels. And now was seen the 
 saddest of spectacles ; for some of the women, solely 
 from a religious motive, refused to take with them their 
 grown-up sons and daughters.' " Parkman adds this 
 sapient, and as he thought, sarcastic remark : " They 
 would expose their own souls to perdition among 
 heretics, but not those of their children." What Le 
 Guerne meant was this : It was unfortunate that, for 
 a mere scruple of decency and propriety, these women 
 refused to take with them in the same ship, their grown- 
 up sons and daughters. His expression, " from a re- 
 ligious motive," used by a French Catholic priest, with 
 whom to be modest and to be religious are practically 
 synonymous terms, undoubtedly signifies " from a mo- 
 tive of decency." The words, "grown-up sons and 
 daughters," explain Le Guerne's meaning perfectly. 
 Parkman's interpretation is, moreover, contrary to fact. 
 These young men, whom their mothers would not take 
 with them and their grown-up daughters of different 
 families, were, nevertheless, also deported, since they 
 
RELYING ON PROMISES. 215 
 
 were in the power of the authorities, and therefore 
 Parkman's wretched joke about exposing them among 
 heretics does not apply at all to them ; but they were 
 deported on other vessels and to other places ; hence it 
 is that Le Guerne deemed this a deplorable piece of 
 scrupulosity in such circumstances, since its effect was 
 to dismember families. I should not have taken the 
 trouble to contradict Parkman in a matter of such 
 slight importance, did I not see in this fact a possible 
 explanation of a certain number of separations. 
 
 It is plain that the exiles were kept under the im- 
 pression that the vessels they were sailing on were all 
 destined to the same place. No other idea could enter 
 their heads unless they supposed a refinement of cruelty 
 that surpassed the wildest flights of their fancy. Le 
 Guerne, who enumerates the subterfuges employed to 
 induce the fugitives to give themselves up, says ex- 
 pressly that the promise was made to bring back " each 
 one to his old homestead " after the war. 
 
 Bulkeley, secretary of the Council, who tried so hard 
 and unsuccessfully to make Brown admit his justifica- 
 tion of the expulsion and its attendant incidents, says, 
 " that, instead of taking with them their effects and 
 money, they piled them up in chests and earthen vessels, 
 which they buried in the earth or lowered to the bottom 
 of wells ; that, after their departure, these effects and 
 considerable sums of money were found by the English." 
 Surely, the Acadians would not have left their valuables, 
 especially their money, behind them, had they not relied 
 on some such promises as Le Guerne mentions. 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause of the separation 
 of families, whether it was due to a preconceived plan — 
 which seems evident so far as Lawrence is concerned — • 
 
216 TREATED WORSE THAN CATTLE. 
 
 or to the persuasion fostered among the Acadians that 
 all the vessels were bound for the same port, or to other 
 unavowable subterfuges, the result is the same, the 
 crime is none the less. No more attention was paid to 
 the feelings and comfort of these unfortunate beings 
 than if they had been a cargo of cattle ; in fact, cattle 
 would be better treated by any one who had an interest 
 in their healthy condition. " The whole colony was 
 embarked pell-mell," says one writer, " without regard 
 to the reunion of families. A civilized nation renewed 
 the ancient barbarities of the Gepidae and the Heruli." 
 
 "In one particular," says Parkman, "the authors of 
 the deportation were disappointed in its results. They 
 had hoped to substitute a loyal population for a dis- 
 affected one ; but they failed for some time to find 
 settlers for the vacated lands. The Massachusetts 
 soldiers, to whom they were offered, would not stay in 
 the Province ; and it was not till five years later that 
 families of British stock began to occupy the waste fields 
 of the Acadians. This goes far to show that a longing 
 to become their heirs had not, as has been alleged, any 
 considerable part in the motives for their removal." 
 
 I should prefer to be calm and indulgent, as I have 
 been towards other writers, though often I thought my- 
 self justified in suspecting their motives ; but I confess 
 that I find it very difficult to restrain my indignation 
 against Parkman. The amount of trickery and inac- 
 curacy which he has crammed into his ninety pages ex- 
 ceeds all that the reader could imagine. The foregoing 
 extract is on a par with the rest ; his methods are always 
 the same. 
 
 The way Parkman introduces his expression, "fami- 
 lies of British stock" seems to show that he wanted to 
 
NEW ENGLAND COLONISTS' 217 
 
 convey the impression that these lands were settled by 
 old country people. He can stand well enough an im- 
 putation against these, but not against New England 
 people. 
 
 No thoughtful writer has ever pretended that the 
 motive of the expulsion was a desire on the part of 
 New England colonists to get possession of the lands 
 of the Acadians. This pretension may, indeed, have 
 been put forward, but merely as an hypothesis and not 
 by any writer of note. Few persons, even among his- 
 torians, have studied thoroughly this " Lost Chapter." 
 The disappearance of the documents made it a question 
 that both attracted and repelled the patient truth-seeker. 
 The very mystery in which it was shrouded aroused 
 suspicions ; in the fragments that had escaped destruc- 
 tion there were clear vestiges of a crime. Not being 
 able to discover the true cause, some have allowed their 
 suspicions to rest on all imaginable points. Parkman, 
 with his customary assurance, believed he could settle 
 the whole question and get round the difficulty by 
 defending what was not seriously attacked. Choosing 
 out of the heap of suggested explanations one mere 
 supposition, rarely hazarded, the least likely, the least 
 respectable of all ; lifting it to the level of a strong 
 argument, as if it were the only one, he overthrows it 
 with a trenchant phrase, as if he were cutting the 
 Gordian knot. 
 
 It may very well be that the American colonists 
 longed to become the heirs of the Acadians ; the mur- 
 derer's crime is sometimes profitable to others ; but that 
 profit does not enter into his calculations ; he is think- 
 ing of himself alone when he commits the crime. Law- 
 rence was working for his own interests, and, if he had 
 
218 LISTS OF FACTS OMITTED BY PARKMAN. 
 
 accomplices, they were near him at Halifax, and not on 
 the coasts of New England, where the projects he was 
 forming were most probably unknown to the public. 
 
 Had not Parkman intended merely to draw the public 
 off the scent, in order to save the true culprits, this would 
 have been an excellent opportunity for introducing into 
 his work, without comment if he so preferred, some brief 
 mention of the 20,000 acres each, which Lawrence's coun- 
 cillors granted themselves out of the lands of the Aca- 
 dians. And, if he thought he could explain this grant 
 in such a way as to exonerate the grantees, he would at 
 least have had the merit of exhibiting his casuistic abil- 
 ity, without inventing a sham effigy in order to have the 
 glory of knocking it down. 
 
 Since Parkman here touches on the motives for the 
 removal of the Acadians, his readers would have been 
 interested in hearing of the charges made against Law- 
 rence by the citizens of Halifax anent the cattle of the 
 Acadians and other branches of the public service ; of 
 the letter of the Lords of Trade to Belcher, containing 
 charges of the same kind and many more, which show 
 what sort of a tyrant Lawrence was ; of Lawrence's in- 
 structions to Monckton, ordering him to seize the men 
 and ship them off first, and to see to the women after- 
 wards. His readers would likewise have been interested 
 in learning that the archives of this important period 
 were despoiled of the documents they once contained ; 
 that the records of the Acadians were carried off by 
 Lawrence's orders and destroyed ; that Pichon, the trai- 
 tor and spy, whose opinions furnish forth most of Park- 
 man's narrative, is not the only available authority, but 
 that there exists at Halifax a manuscript compiled with 
 care by a contemporary of the events, the Rev. Andrew 
 
COLONISTS FEABED LAWEENCE. 219 
 
 Brown, who spent ten years in that city, and that this 
 manuscript contains new and valuable documents and 
 equally valuable opinions, very different from his. Fi- 
 nally, what would perhaps have interested the public 
 above everything else was Sir Thomas Robinson's letter 
 to Lawrence, condemning beforehand all expulsion, and 
 thus proving to a demonstration that Lawrence was 
 deceiving both the Acadians and the rest of the world 
 when he said he was authorized to impose the oath un- 
 der penalty of expulsion. Not one of this long list of 
 facts has been explained or even touched by Parkman, 
 although he knew of them all. 
 
 However, some one will say, Parkman's assertion that 
 the Massachusetts soldiers, to whom the Acadian farms 
 were offered, would not stay in the Province, and that 
 the waste fields of the Acadians were not occupied by 
 British families till five years later, must surely be true. 
 Yes, there is just a wee grain of truth in it. It is true 
 that the soldiers refused to remain in the Province, but 
 the real motive of their refusal is nowhere given by 
 Parkman. It is true that four or five years elapsed 
 before English-speaking families settled there ; but 
 these families were mostly not of " British stock," and 
 the true motive of the delay is not given by Parkman. 
 
 Lawrence wanted to retain these Massachusetts sol- 
 diers in his province in spite of their repugnance and of 
 the expostulations of Winslow and Governor Shirley. 
 These soldiers had enlisted for a year ; their time was 
 up ; and yet Lawrence, conscienceless as he was, strove 
 to lengthen out their service ; but nowhere do we read 
 that he offered them or that they refused the lands of 
 the Acadians. I should, therefore, be justified in setting 
 over against Parkman's mere assertion my firm convic- 
 
220 Shirley's explanation. 
 
 tion, based on experience of his usual methods, that he 
 has simply invented this offer of lands. However, in 
 presence of an affirmation the truth of which I am un- 
 able to verify, I am willing to admit this offer, un- 
 likely though it is. But the motive of their refusal is 
 no proof that they did not " long to become the heirs of 
 the Acadians." If they refused, it was because that 
 offer of lands was valueless so long as Lawrence ruled 
 Nova Scotia with his iron hand. Citizens of a province 
 accustomed to self-government, they would not put up 
 with this Governor's tyranny. 
 
 Directly after the deportation Lawrence had requested 
 Shirley to send him colonists. It is probably this re- 
 quest that suggested Parkman's assertion ; but it seems 
 clear, from Shirley's answer, that Parkman distorts the 
 fact when he applies this request to the Massachusetts 
 soldiers under. Winslow's orders. Shirley, in the fol- 
 lowing reply, says nothing about soldiers and lays stress 
 upon the danger of hostilities in a way that he would 
 not if the settlers were soldiers. 
 
 " Tlie settling of the vacated lands of the Acadians" 
 says the Governor of Massachusetts, " seems to me very 
 difficult to be effected in the present state of hostilities 
 in North America, exposed as would be the settlers from 
 Indian and French hostilities. The present constitu- 
 tion of the Government in your Province will be an 
 obstacle to its being settled by good Protestant subjects 
 from New England, as they are fond, not only of being 
 governed by General Assemblies, consisting of a Gov- 
 ernor, Council and House of Representative, but like- 
 wise of Charters. To draw settlers from this Continent 
 you would have also to make public the terms, etc., etc." * 
 
 * Archives of Nova Scotia, p. 421. 
 
IMMIGRANTS FROM THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 221 
 
 This reply embodies all the motives for which Law- 
 rence was unable during four years to plant colonists 
 on the lands of the Acadians. Parkman, of course, knew 
 of this letter, but said nothing about the explanation 
 it affords of the long delay. Shirley was right in saying 
 that the terms on which these lands would be held 
 should first be made public. For practical men like 
 those to whom Lawrence applied, this question was 
 important. If Lawrence's councillors had already 
 voted themselves their land grants, it is to be pre- 
 sumed that they would not concede their property 
 gratis. 
 
 But at least, it may be urged, was not Parkman 
 historically correct when he said that the vacant lands 
 were occupied, not by Americans, but " by families of 
 British stock " ? No ; he was not. It is true that, sub- 
 sequently, there came colonists from England, Ireland 
 and Scotland ; but the great majority of the first suc- 
 cessors of the Acadians, from 1759 to 1762, came from 
 New England. 
 
 Lawrence, unable to offer the inducement of repre- 
 sentative institutions which Shirley deemed necessary, 
 did not seriously renew his efforts till October, 1758, 
 when the Lords of Trade had forced him to grant a 
 Legislative Chamber. Then he issued a proclamation 
 specially inviting the inhabitants of New England to 
 come and occupy these lands. He laid particular stress 
 on the fact that the government of Nova Scotia was 
 now altogether similar to those of Massachusetts, Con- 
 necticut and the other American colonies. From that 
 moment, says Haliburton, " emigration began to flow in a 
 steady and constant stream from the colonies on the conti- 
 nent. From Boston there arrived six vessels carrying 
 
222 IMMIGRANTS FROM THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 
 
 200 settlers and from Rhode Island four schooners with 
 100 passengers." * 
 
 " The township of Cornwallis, which has been styled 
 the garden of Nova Scotia, was settled at the same time 
 with Horton (Grand Pre* and Riviere aux Canards) and 
 by persons who emigrated from the same colony, Con- 
 necticut. They sailed together in a fleet of twenty 
 vessels, convoyed by a brick of war, mounting sixteen 
 guns, commanded by Captain Pigott. They arrived on 
 the 4th of June, 1760, and took possession of the lands 
 formerly occupied by the Acadians. They met a few 
 
 straggling families of Acadians They had 
 
 eaten no bread for five years." f 
 
 The wee grain of truth in Parkman's assertion is 
 contained in the arrival about this time (1760) of two 
 hundred emigrants from the North of Ireland, who 
 settled at Horton (Grand Pr£). 
 
 No blame, as I have already pointed out, attaches to 
 these colonists ; they doubtless profited by the property 
 and deportation of the Acadians, but in an altogether 
 indirect way, without sharing in the guilt or even know- 
 ing of the crime to which they were indebted for the 
 ownership of these lands. 
 
 * Hist, of Nova Scotia, voL I. p. 234. f Ibid., voL II. p. 120. 
 
WAR EMBITTERED THEIR WOE. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Acadians in Exile. 
 
 We have now to follow the Acadians into exile, to 
 relate the sufferings of their long pilgrimage in foreign 
 lands. This chapter is still more obscure than the 
 preceding one. Their lamentations and their anguish 
 were lost in the din of arms. For eight years, with 
 varied success, France and England kept up the struggle 
 with increasing obstinacy, the latter, in order to seize 
 upon and secure the definitive possession of this conti- 
 nent, witness of so many struggles and sacrifices ; the 
 former, in order to retain a shred of what was slipping 
 from her grasp, and to withdraw without too great 
 humiliation from the conflict upon which she had im- 
 prudently entered. 
 
 Added to the intense prejudices that then existed, 
 this cruel war, which raged for the eight years of the 
 captivity of the Acadians, was not calculated to foster 
 the sympathy which their lamentable fate might have 
 evoked. War stifles all sentiments of pity ; whatever 
 has the remotest connection with the enemy becomes an 
 object of hatred or contempt. Those who, in ordinary 
 circumstances, would allow themselves to be moved at 
 the sight of suffering, close their hearts to compassion ; 
 and hardly are there found here and there a few elect 
 souls who deign to sympathize and offer consolation. 
 What could these unfortunate people hope for at such 
 
224 WITHOUT HOPE. 
 
 a time ? Nothing had been prepared for them. They 
 arrived at the beginning of winter, when their presence 
 was met by murmurs and marks of fear. 
 
 Dispersed by the orders of Lawrence, decimated by 
 malady, grief and misery, deprived of spiritual succor 
 and human consolations, received with mistrust and 
 contempt, placed in a desperate situation without any 
 visible way out, crushed under the burden of an over- 
 whelming woe, could they again become attached to life, 
 set themselves once more to work and resume their 
 former hopes? Hope, however faint, is the last tie that 
 binds us to life. Where was this hope ? Would they 
 ever be able to leave the place of their exile ? Would 
 they be able to go in quest of one another, to meet once 
 more and find a safe asylum against new persecutions ? 
 This hope was too distant to be seriously entertained. 
 Scattered as they were on all shores from Georgia to Bos- 
 ton, along the coast of the Gulf, in the West Indies, in 
 England and France, how could they ever unite again ? 
 How many years would elapse before the husband could 
 find his wife, the parents their children, deported no one 
 knew where ? Would they survive the grief, the hard- 
 ships, the climate ? 
 
 History has so far done no more than relate the 
 principal fact, the tragic event that violently snatched 
 them from their homes. It is this forsaking of all their 
 possessions, this loss of fatherland that has most forcibly 
 impressed itself on the popular imagination. Unaware 
 of the separation of the inhabitants of one and the same 
 locality, of the dispersion of members of one and the 
 same family, people looked upon this exodus as an im- 
 mense calamity but a calamity, after all, the traces of 
 which time would blot out. Life is made up of an infi- 
 
ALMOST HALF THE NATION. 225 
 
 nite variety of ties. There are some sudden, poignant 
 griefs that rend the soul ; sometimes misfortune has 
 broken only some of these ties : grief has been keen, nay 
 overpowering, but the wound had no great depth ; a 
 short time has sufficed to repair the tissues and close the 
 scarred spot. This abandonment of their goods, this 
 loss of fatherland were only the least important of those 
 broken ties. The wife, cast upon a foreign shore, sepa- 
 rated from her husband and children, themselves cast on 
 other distant coasts, whom she despaired of ever seeing 
 again ; these are the broken ties which time could not 
 renew, which memory could not efface. So long as the 
 body was sound and vigorous, it might hold out ; but 
 grief wastes the strength, the body sinks, and this weep- 
 ing mother, this inconsolable wife could but languish 
 and die. She died of such and such a sickness, people 
 said ; but in reality moral suffering alone had killed her. 
 The extent of these sufferings can be realized by none 
 but Acadians, the sons of the afflicted, who have heard 
 at the family hearth the lamentable account of the 
 transmigration of their forefathers, of their privations 
 and their useless efforts to get together again after long 
 years of captivity. Numerous as were the separations 
 due to Lawrence's orders or to the artifice or indifference 
 of his subalterns, the separations traceable to the great 
 mortality of the exiles were still more numerous. 
 Rameau, who consecrated forty years of his life to 
 patient researches on the number of the deported, their 
 destination and successive transmigrations, ascertained 
 beyond all doubt, by official statements or accurate 
 general estimates, that, of the 18,000 Acadians who 
 peopled the peninsula, the isthmus of Shediac, Prince 
 
 Edward Island and Cape Breton, 14,000 were deported 
 15 
 
226 ORAL TRADITION DISAPPEARING. 
 
 between 1755 and 1763 ; and that the number of those 
 who perished during this time was no less than 8,000. 
 This reduction of forty-four per cent, in the population, 
 when the yearly normal increase had till then been five 
 per cent., represents many other separations besides 
 those ordered by Lawrence. However, to those latter 
 must be attributed, as a natural consequence, a con- 
 siderable number of the former ; and whatever may 
 have been the cause of that terrible mortality, whether 
 grief, destitution, epidemics or ordinary disease, it was 
 none the less appalling. What mother will ever be com- 
 forted for the loss of her child who died in exile, far 
 from her motherly care, and perhaps of hunger ? And 
 what a small proportion this 44 per cent, leaves of 
 mothers that escaped this misfortune ? 
 
 It is not by reading the bare narration of the histori- 
 cal events that cease at the embarkation in the ports of 
 Acadia, or by giving only a passing thought to the in- 
 evitable anguish of this expatriation, that one can real- 
 ize the extent of the misfortune which fell so heavily on 
 this people. Where history stops, there the field is opened 
 to the poet or the novelist. From the mute crosses 
 planted along their route he restores and recomposes the 
 life of this stricken nation ; he brings vividly before us 
 their peaceful happiness, their hopes, their virtues and 
 their misfortunes. From these crumbs dropped by the 
 historian there have risen works that honor humanity 
 and elevate it by tender sympathy with the humili- 
 ations into which miscreants had plunged their fellow- 
 men. As long as history, as long as the human race 
 lives, so long will the beautiful poem of Evangeline 
 and the name of Longfellow live in the memory of men. 
 
 I had intended to reconstruct the hitherto obscure 
 
RAMEAU, CASGRAEST AND SMITH. 227 
 
 story of the deportation, following the exiles step by 
 step in their successive and repeated migrations, in their 
 efforts to gather together and find a secure asylum, 
 where they might again enjoy the quiet and comfort of 
 former days, far from the din of arms, far from conflicts 
 occasioned by the cupidity and ambition of men and 
 nations ; but, I must confess, I have not the heart to do 
 so. I long to withdraw far from these painful remem- 
 brances, from a subject that would throw a gloomy pall 
 over my life by renewing wounds that cannot heal. Be- 
 sides, it is too late, because there is nothing but distant 
 tradition to build upon. What was possible thirty years 
 ago, when the then existing generation had its mind 
 replete with these recollections, is hardly possible at the 
 present time. I shall restrict myself, therefore, to a 
 short sketch of the principal facts, rather with a view to 
 completing my task than in order to throw more light 
 on the subject. 
 
 The researches of Rameau, in recent years, bear 
 especially upon the wanderings of the Acadians after 
 their deportation, and their grouping here and there, in 
 France, in Louisiana, in Canada and in the maritime 
 Provinces. He follows these groups from place to place, 
 gives their exact or approximate number, describes the 
 foundation and progress of their different colonies, etc., 
 etc. He has rescued from oblivion many important 
 facts, and his painstaking labors have made his name 
 very dear to the descendants of this unfortunate people. 
 For the present, at any rate, in order to the complete- 
 ness of my work, I will give, in the next two or three 
 chapters, a summary of the information furnished by 
 Rameau, Casgrain and Smith on this topic ; after which 
 I will enlarge on their researches and enter into a field 
 
228 LE loutke's doings. 
 
 hitherto unexplored. The feelings and opinions of 
 those who will guide me through the subsequent chapters 
 are immaterial. The climax of the tragedy is past; 
 its consequences alone remain to be considered. Those 
 who have had the patience to collect these facts deserve 
 credit for their pains. The result, however, is often a 
 mere matter of statistics, the sole object of which is to 
 satisfy a praiseworthy curiosity. Quite different is the 
 tenor of my preceding chapters ; there, I have been 
 very circumspect in the choice of authorities ; I have 
 sifted the character, the interests, the sentiments, the 
 motives of the actors in the events and of those who 
 related them. Rameau is by far the most complete of 
 all the writers on the questions of which I have just 
 treated ; his character is above all reproach, his quota- 
 tions are always sure and correct; lie is often very 
 severe to the French. However, as his patriotism is 
 ardent, I have refrained from having recourse to his 
 opinions on essential points and have sought to go deeply 
 into questions that he has only lightly touched upon 
 because they were obscure and supported by scanty 
 evidence. For instance, the part played by Le Loutre 
 and his influence on events were considerable : it cannot 
 be denied that his conduct was irritating to the English 
 and on more than one head unjustifiable ; it was equally 
 so to the Acadians ; by his intrigues he intensified the 
 national hatred and may have roused in Lawrence's 
 mind the idea of the deportation ; without him, without 
 his repeated provocations, in spite of the perversity of 
 the despot who effected this deportation, it would have 
 been impossible. It is true that all the information we 
 possess on the deeds and character of this fiery abbe* is 
 drawn entirely from two questionable, not to say, con- 
 
le loutp.e's doings. 229 
 
 temptible sources. Between the traitor Piclion and the 
 author of the " Memoires," it was indeed difficult to form 
 well-grounded opinions. However, the r61e of Le Loutre 
 was too important to be ignored. I cannot help think- 
 ing that the proper course was, not utterly to reject those 
 two authorities, but so to utilize them as to arrive at a 
 fairly satisfactory estimate of the truth. That is what 
 I have done, and I should have had no fault to find 
 with Parkman, if he had exercised discretion and 
 prudence in his use of those questionable sources, if he 
 had given them, not full credit, as he has done, but 
 only a secondary importance, and especially if, wherever 
 he quoted them, he had shown clearly who and what 
 Pichon was, and what was the unmistakable animus of 
 the author of the " Memoires." 
 
230 DREADED AS DANGEROUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The Acadians in Pennsylvania, in the Carolinas, at Boston and 
 in Maryland. 
 
 The number of Acadians that landed at different 
 places in the United States is only approximately known. 
 With the exception of Boston, where nearly 2,000 were 
 put ashore, only a small number were left in other northern 
 ports. Connecticut received for its share 300, New York 
 200. The remainder were distributed in Pennsylvania,. 
 Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia. Lawrence had 
 executed his project so hurriedly that he had not even 
 asked leave of the various governors before shipping 
 the exiles to the provinces they governed. He had 
 thought it his interest to transport them as far as 
 possible and to separate them in as many groups as he 
 could ; but he had to reckon witli the good-will of these 
 governors. Boston had the disadvantage of being too 
 near ; yet there at least he could hope much from the 
 complaisance of the governor, who was aware of his 
 projects ; however, there as everywhere else, discontent 
 was prevalent. 
 
 Whether it were for want of lodging, or because peo- 
 ple did not wish to be burdened with them, objections 
 were everywhere made to their landing, they were 
 everywhere looked upon as dangerous to the public 
 welfare. The prejudices against all that pertained to 
 Catholicism had reached such a degree of intensity in 
 
GOVERNOR MORRIS'S ALARM. 231 
 
 all classes of society, that amazement seizes upon any- 
 one who now reads the memoirs and public documents 
 of that time. The astonishment that this reading 
 produces must, I do not doubt, be felt nowadays by all 
 those who give themselves up to these studies, whether 
 they be or not the sons of those who shared in these 
 ridiculous alarms. There was no machination, how- 
 ever unreasonable it might be, of which a Catholic 
 would not be supposed guilty. This handful of inoffen- 
 sive people, who had been so when they held in their 
 grasp the fate of Acadia, now crushed by misfortune, 
 without arms, without money, caused an inconceiv- 
 able disquietude as though the safety of the country 
 was seriously endangered. This was more than enough 
 to extinguish benevolence and to drive to acts of cruelty 
 a nation naturally generous and hospitable. Such was 
 the case at Boston, at Philadephia, and in most places 
 where fate cast the Acadians. 
 
 At Philadelphia, where on November 19th arrived 
 three ships laden with exiles, the captains received orders 
 to withdraw from the port. " Governor Morris," says 
 Philip H. Smith, " was thrown into a terrible alarm," 
 and on the very day that these boats arrived he wrote to 
 Governor Shirley : 
 
 "Two vessels are arrived here with upwards of 300 Neutral 
 French from Nova Scotia, whom Governor Lawrence has sent to 
 remain in this Province, and I am at a very great loss to know 
 what to do with them. The people here, as there is no military- 
 force of any kind, are very uneasy at the thought of having a 
 number of enemies scattered in the very bowels of the country, 
 who may go off from time to time with intelligence, and join their 
 countrymen now employed against us, or foment some intestine 
 commotion with the Irish and German Catholics, in this and the 
 neighboring Province. I, therefore, must beg your particular 
 
232 A NEW JERSEY TERROR. 
 
 instructions in what manner I may best dispose of these people. I 
 have, in the meantime, put a guard out of the recruiting parties 
 now in town, on board of each vessel, etc., etc." 
 
 Jonathan Belcher, chief justice of New Jersey, father 
 of Jonathan Belcher, chief justice of Nova Scotia and 
 Lawrence's counsello'r, was even more exaggerated in 
 his ridiculous apprehensions. Writing to Governor 
 Morris, shortly afterwards, he expressed himself thus : 
 " I am truly surprised how it could ever enter the 
 thoughts of those who had the ordering of the French 
 Neutrals, or rather traitors and rebels to the Crown of 
 Great Britain, to direct any of them into these Provinces, 
 where we have already too great a number of foreigners 
 for our own good and safety. I think they should have 
 been transported to old France, and I entirely coincide 
 with Your Honor that these people would readily join 
 with the Irish Papists, etc., etc., to the ruin and destruc- 
 tion of the King's Colonies, and should any attempt to 
 land here (Elizabethtown), I should think it my duty to 
 the King and to his good people under my care to do 
 all in my power to crush an attempt." 
 
 Smith, after having cited other examples showing 
 the extent of the prejudices, adds : " Were it not that 
 these accounts are fully substantiated by incontro- 
 vertible evidence, they could scarcely be credited, so 
 strangely do they sound since national prejudice and 
 religious intolerance have been dissipated before the 
 light of knowledge and the benign influence of the 
 Gospel." 
 
 On November 24th, Governor Morris addressed a mes- 
 sage to the House of Representatives of the State, declar- 
 ing that he did not judge it prudent to allow the exiles 
 to debark, but that he had given orders to land some of 
 
BROTHERLY LOVE. 233 
 
 them on Province Island, since a contagious malady 
 had broken out on one of these boats. 
 
 What could these unfortunate people hope from so 
 fanatic a population ? Some citizens of Philadelphia 
 were shameless enough to propose to have them sold as 
 slaves. The Acadians rose up with all the pride and 
 indignation of their French blood, and protested by 
 petitions against this criminal project, which was never 
 carried out. Fortunately, the honor of Pennsylvania 
 was redeemed by many leading men, who were moved 
 at so much woe. Of this number, I must not forget the 
 philanthropic Antoine Benezet. A grandson of exiles, 
 expelled, as the Acadians were, from fatherland, he 
 laid aside his natural feelings of rancor to consider 
 only the sufferings to which they were a prey, as had 
 been his own ancestors before them. He devoted him- 
 self to their solace with a touching solicitude, and 
 greatly contributed to alleviate their sorrows. More 
 highly favored than their companions deported else- 
 where, they had the happiness to fall in with Father 
 Hardy, a sympathizing and devoted missionary, who 
 afforded them spiritual consolation and courage to sup- 
 port their afflictions more patiently. But, says Casgrain, 
 they had become as plants torn from the soil ; they could 
 no longer revive. More than half died shortly after 
 their arrival. Homesickness killed as many of them as 
 hardships did ; like Antores of old, they expired with 
 their eyes turned toward their native land : 
 
 Et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos. 
 
 The minutes of the local Assembly contain the follow- 
 ing passage : " Anthony Be*ne*zet, attending without, was 
 called in and informed the House, that he had, at the 
 
234 benezet's charity. 
 
 request of some of the members, visited the French 
 Neutrals now on board sundry vessels in the river, near 
 the city, and found that they were in a great need of 
 blankets, shirts, stockings, and other necessaries ; and 
 he then withdrew, (Whereupon) Resolved, That this 
 House will allow such reasonable expenses as the said 
 Bendzet may be put to in furnishing the Neutral French 
 now in the Province. v 
 
 After many interviews and hesitations, the landing 
 was at last authorized. As many of these unfortunate 
 persons had been on board the boats for nearly three 
 months, it is easy to conceive how this overcrowding 
 in the holds of overladen vessels, together with their 
 grief, with the fatigues of the sea, and with coarse food 
 altogether unfit for their condition, must have affected 
 the health of these people and contributed to this dread- 
 ful mortality. 
 
 During their first two months of captivity, after 
 landing, they received from the Legislature and from 
 private charity as much as their situation required. 
 Their first petition to the Legislature ends thus : " Blessed 
 be God that it was our lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, 
 where our wants have been relieved, and we have, in 
 every respect, been treated with Christian benevolence 
 and charity." 
 
 But this was not to continue for any length of time. 
 Charity soon wearies of prolonged assistance. The 
 Acadians wished to be restored to liberty in order to go 
 and join their compatriots somewhere else, or to be 
 deported whither it would be judged best, provided it 
 were to France or one of her colonies, or in fine, if none 
 of these proposals could be accepted, they asked as a 
 last resort to be treated as prisoners of war. To pro- 
 
A TOUCHING APPEAL. 235 
 
 vide against the mishap of being left to their own 
 resources, as was threatened, they drew up a petition to 
 the Legislature, ending thus : " If this, our humble 
 request, should be refused, and our wives and children 
 be suffered to perish before our eyes, how grievous will 
 this be ! Had we not better have died in our native land ? 
 (See Appendix No. III.) 
 
 Their request was, however, to pass unheeded. The 
 Legislature decided that all who were able to work 
 should be distributed throughout the Province, "to 
 give them an opportunity of exercising their own labor 
 and industry." 
 
 This resolution struck the exiles with consternation. 
 Reduced by deaths to 217 from 450 who left Grand Pre 
 and Port Royal, their affliction knew no bounds. Those 
 wives, those husbands, those children who were going 
 to be separated anew, protested with hot indignation 
 against such cruel measures. Rather die together than 
 be separated again, said they. We will work, if we 
 can take heart to do so ; but we must remain together. 
 Lands, tools, etc., etc., were offered them ; but all these 
 offers which involved separation were energetically 
 rejected. Those who decided to accept work in rural 
 districts were not themselves accepted : " The prejudice 
 entertained at that day against those of another religion, 
 prevented the employment of such of the Neutrals as 
 were willing to work." "Many of us," says one of their 
 petitions, " have had neither bread nor meat for many 
 weeks together, and have been obliged to pilfer and steal 
 for the support of life." 
 
 This new appeal to charity, and, still more perhaps, 
 this avowal of pilfering to appease their hunger, hurried 
 upon the exiles what they dreaded most — separation. 
 
236 loudon's prejudice. 
 
 The Legislature decided to take charge of the old men, 
 the sick and infirm, but obliged the parents to give up 
 those of their children who were under age to the 
 service of private families. 
 
 Their petitions, with a view to avert the execution of 
 this decision, bear witness that the blow it dealt them 
 was the most cruel they had to bear. They again 
 begged for liberty ; but their touching entreaties were 
 to be answered only by the angel of death. Despairing 
 of obtaining any tiling from the provincial government, 
 they made a last effort and appealed to the sovereign 
 himself. This appeal, reproduced entire at the end of 
 this volume, is simple and touching ; it bears the stamp 
 of deep conviction, and is well-nigh irresistible. This 
 document is the defence of the Acadians drawn up by 
 themselves. As it is the only one of its kind in this 
 ex parte cause, the most elementary fairness should have 
 induced the Compiler of the archives to insert it in his 
 volume alongside of the letters of Pichon, etc., etc. 
 He must have seen it, since it is found entire in Hali- 
 burton. 
 
 The remnant of these Neutrals, in Philadelphia, occu- 
 pied in Pine Street a row of small wooden houses, long 
 known by the name of " Neutral Huts." They were 
 gradually dying out, when in the spring of 1757 there 
 arrived at Philadelphia one of the highest dignitaries 
 ever sent by Great Britain to this colony, Lord Loudon, 
 commander-in-chief of the English armies in America, 
 he who was derisively called by the citizens of Halifax, 
 the hero of the cabbage planting expedition.'" * Lord 
 
 * " Not only his military skill, but his courage and integrity were ques- 
 tioned. It is, therefore, not surprising to learn that the multitude 
 shouted at the news of his being recalled to England," (Murdoch. I! >'. <>f 
 N. 8. vol. ii. p. 315.) 
 
LOUDUN AND PICHON. 237 
 
 Loudun stayed only a few days in Philadelphia, where 
 his passage gave rise to public feasts and ovations ; 
 still, he sojourned there long enough to show that his 
 high position did not shield him from the vulgar prej- 
 udices of his time. He had the exact number of the 
 Catholic population of Pennsylvania made out for him, 
 in order to provide against the terrible dangers of a 
 papist conspiracy. According to Father Hardy's state- 
 ment, this population barely amounted to 2,000 souls 
 divided between English, Irish and Germans. 
 
 The Acadians counted at that time for so little that 
 the missionary did not think it worth while to mention 
 their names in this report. 
 
 It would seem that nothing but pity could be felt for 
 this sad remnant, whose poverty was at this moment so 
 extreme that the Assembly itself, which had hitherto 
 treated them harshly, was moved to pass an act recom- 
 mending them to the public officers, " in order," as it 
 said, " to prevent them from dying of hunger." 
 
 The traitor Pichon, who, since the deportation was 
 residing at Halifax, happened then, it seems, to be pass- 
 ing through Philadelphia. Before going to enjoy in 
 London the fruit of his treachery, he wished to have the 
 importance of his services recognized ln T a man of Lord 
 Loudun's high station. As a French officer, pretending 
 to be a prisoner like the Acadians, feigning to commiser- 
 ate their misfortune, it was easy for him thus to gain the 
 confidence of these unfortunate persons who thirsted after 
 consolation. The result of his interviews was the arrest 
 of Charles Le Blanc, Jean-Baptiste Galerne, * Philippe 
 Melan§on, Paul Bujeauld and Jean Landry, " as being 
 badly-intentioned persons who had proffered threatening 
 
 * See in Appendix petition of Jean-Baptiste Galerne, No. IV. 
 
238 LAST PHILADELPHIA RECORD. 
 
 words against His Majesty." I must not omit that the 
 Acadians at the arrival of Loudun had presented to 
 him a petition embodying their grievances. This 
 document was in French : " I returned it," he wrote, 
 " and said I would receive no memorial from the King's 
 subjects but in English, on which they had a general 
 meeting at which they determined they would give no 
 memorial but in French." 
 
 This refusal to consider their petition because it was 
 in French may have caused discontent ; but it is very 
 probable that there was nothing more than discontent. 
 Without form of trial, relying on the report of Pichon, 
 whose previous history was well known to Loudun, 
 since he recounts it himself to the Minister, these un- 
 fortunate people were snatched away from their families 
 already so sorely tried, were placed on board war ves- 
 sels and banished again. 
 
 No one knows the subsequent fate of these wretched 
 beings, guilty of having raised their voices in the name 
 of their companions of exile and of having dared to 
 express themselves in the French tongue, the only one 
 they could then speak. They probably went to swell the 
 number of those families that could never afterwards 
 be reunited. 
 
 Thenceforth, every complaint was looked upon as an 
 offence, and there remained no other resource but to die 
 in silence ; and, indeed, never, since that moment, has 
 there been found any trace of complaint or expostulation 
 from these unhappy people. 
 
 The last official record that concerns them has all the 
 sadness of an epitaph ; it is a petition of an undertaker, 
 addressed in 1766 to the Legislature, and worded as 
 follows : 
 
A LOST FORTUNE. 239 
 
 " A petition from John Hill, of the city of Philadelphia, joiner, 
 was presented to the House and read, setting forth that the 
 petitioner has been employed from time to time to provide coffins 
 for the French Neutrals who have died in and about this city, and 
 had had his accounts regularly allowed and paid by the Govern- 
 ment until lately ; that he is informed by the gentlemen commis- 
 sioners, who used to pay him, that they have no public money in 
 their hands for the payments of such debts : that he has made 
 sixteen coffins since their last settlement, without any counter- 
 mand of his former order. He, therefore, prays the House to 
 make such provisions for his materials and labor in the premises 
 as to them shall seem meet. 
 
 Order to he on the table." * 
 
 * The author of this work can trace several of his relations who were 
 with this band of exiles, among others, the notary Rene Le Blanc ; Etienne 
 Hebert, brother of his ancestor Honore Hebert, who, separated from all 
 his relations, had entered the service of an army officer ; Tranquille Le 
 Prince, who died before seeing again his relatives. 
 
 There was also, but not related to the author, one Charles Le Blanc, who 
 died there about 1828, an old bachelor with considerable property. He 
 was about 12 years old when deported there ; his parents and his only 
 sister, younger than he, were deported elsewhere and finally settled at 
 St. Gregoire P. Q. The destruction of the Acadian archives, by order of 
 Lawrence, made it impossible for Charles Le Blanc's sister and her heirs 
 to prove their relationship to him, so that their efforts to secure his prop- 
 erty were fruitless. It is yet held by the city of Philadelphia and is said 
 to be of great value. 
 
240 FOUR THOUSAND DEPORTED SOUTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 The Acadians in South Carolina, Georgia, etc. 
 
 Lamentable as was the fate of the Acadians at 
 Philadelphia, we have reason to believe it was just as bad 
 elsewhere, and much worse in some places. The State 
 Legislature, it is true, was often merciless towards them ; 
 but private charity, stimulated by the generous efforts 
 of good Mr. Be*n6zet, came to their succor with a most 
 praiseworthy solicitude. Even as regards the Legislature, 
 we have proof that on several occasions it helped them 
 effectually. It is precisely owing to this fact that we are 
 better informed concerning this group of exiles than 
 concerning others that were numerically much more 
 important. Philadelphia was a pretty considerable 
 centre even at that time. If the assistance tendered to 
 only 450 persons and soon to less than half that number, 
 appeared so onerous, and was the occasion of so many 
 petitions to the Legislature, we can well imagine what 
 must have been the misery and mortality of the groups 
 of exiles in Maryland, Virginia, Carolina and Georgia, 
 where the climate was so fatal to people from the 
 North. They numbered about 4,000 in three or four 
 places. Public and private charity became powerless 
 to afford assistance to so many ; and that is probably 
 why some governors of these Provinces did not seek to 
 retain them. 
 
 The 1,500 Acadians who disembarked in South 
 
THE CRUEL HAMPTON ITES. 241 
 
 Carolina were at first distributed among the settlements ; 
 but the authorities were soon moved by their cruel fate, 
 and furnished them, at the expense of the State, with 
 ships to enable them to go elsewhere. 
 
 A memorial written in 1762 recounts in the following 
 terms the adventures that befell a band of Acadians 
 who had set out from South Carolina : 
 
 " The inhabitants gave them two old vessels, a small quantity 
 of very poor provisions and permission to go where they wished. 
 Having embarked in vessels that were riddled with leaks, they 
 were soon stranded on the coast of Virginia near Hampton, an 
 Irish colony. They were first taken for enemies coming to plunder, 
 afterwards for pirates, and at last for dangerous guests to be got 
 rid of immediately. They were forced to buy a vessel ; and, as 
 all the money they could collect amongst themselves amounted 
 to " four hundred pieces of eight," this was the price they had to 
 pay. This ship was still less seaworthy than those they had just 
 left, and they had all the difficulty in the world to run aground 
 a second time on the coast of Maryland. It would be unfair to 
 forget to say here that one of the magistrates of Virginia, having 
 learnt the perfidy with which these unfortunate people had been 
 treated, caused the inhabitants of the village of Hampton to be 
 punished, and sent a boat for the Acadians to get them to return 
 and acquaint them with the condition of their vessel. The remains 
 of their shipwreck were then the only resource they had, and 
 they spent two months On a desert island repairing this vessel. 
 They finally succeeded, and after having once more put to sea for 
 the third time, they had the good fortune to reach the Bay of 
 Fundy, where they landed near St. John River, reduced to nine 
 hundred from having been over two thousand at their departure 
 from Acadia."* 
 
 Georgia, as is known, had been founded to serve as a 
 refuge to the unfortunate ; but it was declared in the 
 charter that no Roman Catholic could settle there ; so 
 
 * Archives des affaires etrangeres, Paris. Memoir es de M. de la Kochette. 
 The number given above, i. e., nine hundred on a vessel of apparently small 
 tonnage, is surely greatly exaggerated. 
 
 16 
 

 242 DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 that, as soon as the Acadians arrived, Governor Reynolds 
 decreed their banishment. With his authorization, 
 they constructed roughly-made boats. In the hope of 
 seeing again their native country, or at least of remov- 
 ing from a climate which made so many victims among 
 tthem, they trusted themselves to the mercy of the 
 -waves. Thanks to incredible courage and perseverance 
 some were able to reach New York and even Massa- 
 chusetts : but an order from the pitiless Lawrence 
 stopped them ; their boats were confiscated or destroyed, 
 and they themselves were again thrown into captiv- 
 ity.* 
 
 Others traversing the immense wilderness that separ- 
 ated them from the Gulf of Mexico, were able at last 
 to reach the Mississippi and then Louisiana by paddling 
 down the great stream that leads thither, 
 
 i "Far down the Beautiful River." Longfellow. 
 
 They thought they were bidding an eternal farewell 
 to their beloved country, to their kinsfolk and friends 
 cast on other shores ; but at least in this isolated place 
 they could hope for a safe asylum against new persecu- 
 tions ; it was still better to combat the elements and 
 the climate than to expose themselves to the fury of a 
 tyrant. Their lot, sad as it was, certainly was prefer- 
 able to that of their countrymen who exposed themselves 
 anew to the cruelty of Lawrence. The number of 
 those who took refuge in this asylum was at first incon- 
 siderable. How could severed families make up their 
 minds to flee in a direction which removed them still 
 farther from their relatives that were cast on the shores 
 of New England, or had taken refuge in the forests of 
 
 * Stevens' History of Georgia, Vol. I., pp. 413, 417. 
 
SUCCESS IN LOUISIANA. 243 
 
 New Brunswick? Yet the sequel proved that their 
 determination was much the wiser. True, they were 
 neither better nor worse off than the others as to the 
 sundering of families ; but in a very few years they 
 could, in this luxuriant region, regain a decent livelihood 
 and enjoy the liberty and tranquillity that were so long 
 wanting to so many others. From 1765 to 1788, and 
 especially from 1780 to 1788, they were reinforced by 
 about 3,000 compatriots who arrived from San Domingo, 
 Guiana, the ports of New England, and particularly 
 from France. 
 
 The first colony was founded on the Mississippi itself 
 near Baton Rouge ; but those who came to join them 
 pushed their settlements into the interior to the Atta- 
 kapas and Opelousas, where they formed important and 
 prosperous groups. There they have devoted their 
 attention chiefly to the raising of cattle in large herds ; 
 they have preserved their customs, traditions and 
 language with a fidelity that makes them recognizable 
 at sight. They number to-day about 40,000. 
 
 Several of their descendants have won their way to 
 high positions : for instance, Alexandre Mouton sat for 
 some time in the senate of the United States, became 
 Governor of Louisiana and was president of the conven- 
 tion which decreed the secession of the Southern States. 
 His son, General Mouton, was killed at the head of his 
 regiment, wholly composed of Acadians, during the 
 war of secession. Mr. Poche*, also an Acadian, is at 
 present, if I am well informed, chief-justice of this 
 State.* 
 
 ♦The names that occur most frequently in this Acadian colony are: 
 Hebert, Thibaudeau, Landry, Boy, Cormier, Doucet, Theriau, Breau, Le 
 Blanc, Arseneau, Kichard, Mouton, Comeau, Prejean, Brassard, Gaudet, 
 Blanchard, Guillebault, Bourgeois, Gotreau, Martin, Bobichaud, Daigle. 
 
244 HAESH HARDY. 
 
 In the south the Acadians were generally treated with 
 humanity ; but it was not always so in the Provinces of 
 New England. Those especially were treated merci- 
 lessly who, on their return from Carolina and Georgia, 
 wished to obtain provisions in the ports of Connecticut 
 and Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1756 a band of 78 exiles succeeded, after a thou- 
 sand privations, in building a small vessel. Having set 
 out from Carolina in the spring-time, they had at length 
 passed New York. While stopping in a cove of Long 
 Island to get water and provisions, they were seized by 
 order of the governor, Sir Charles Hardy, although they 
 had passports signed by the governors of Carolina and 
 Georgia ; they were banished into the interior of the 
 province in several remote villages, where the magis- 
 trates were ordered to provide work for the adults, and 
 to get possession of the children in order " to turn them 
 into good and useful subjects," that is to say, into Pro- 
 testants. All these children were accordingly severed 
 from their parents and distributed in the counties of 
 Westchester and Orange. 
 
 The lot of these unfortunate people was already cruel 
 enough, it would seem, to enlist sympathy and kindness. 
 Was it not enough to have been expelled from their 
 country, stripped of all their goods, separated from 
 their relations and flung upon a burning soil where 
 disease had sown death and mourning ? Had they not 
 endured enough privations and labor in order to build 
 themselves a vessel with which to sail away from that 
 fatal climate ? Had they not borne the hardships of a 
 laborious and painful voyage ? And, after all these 
 multiplied afflictions, had they not to bear separation 
 among strangers to their creed, their language and 
 
THE CHEISTIAN SPIRIT. 245 
 
 their habits ? Yet all this was not enough. The tran- 
 quillity of Lawrence was troubled by these migrations. 
 In the following year an order was issued to throw 
 them into prison, and, as Gilmary Shea relates, this 
 decree was carried out all along the coast from Rich- 
 mond northward. 
 
 Before such an accumulation of sufferings and out- 
 rages inflicted on a peaceable and unarmed population, 
 which had never given any occasion for severity at a 
 time when it held in its hands the destinies of its coun- 
 try, one feels a pang of heartrending grief, forcing to the 
 lips a cry of inexpressible anguish, with which are un- 
 consciously mingled words of malediction. Has ever a 
 shipwrecked crew, fallen among the fiercest islanders of 
 Oceania, been forced to endure so many moral tortures 
 as fell to the lot of these poor victims of a tyrant's op- 
 pression ? And this took place in a civilized country, 
 eighteen centuries after the foundation of Christianity 
 and the coming of Him whose greatest teaching was 
 charity and the love of one's neighbor ; this occurred on 
 the eve of a revolution in the name of liberty. Slow 
 indeed is the evolution that must lead mankind to 
 understand and practise the true spirit which constitutes 
 the essence of Christianity. What wonder that unrest 
 dwells in men'sminds, that they are asking themselves 
 if our social status be not the obstacle that prevents 
 the full development of the pure Christian spirit? 
 
 This latter end of the nineteenth century thinks it 
 has attained a high degree of civilization. Are we very 
 sure of it ? We may answer by pointing to our material 
 progress, our inventions, our discoveries of all kinds ; 
 but that is, at best, a proof of ingenuity ; our age is, of 
 course, pre-eminently ingenious. But what of the ex- 
 
246 GOVERNORS OWED NO OBEDIENCE TO LAWRENCE. 
 
 pansion and progress of the true Christian spirit, where- 
 in is necessarily found the only true civilization ? 
 
 We have societies for the prevention of cruelty to the 
 brute beast ; but man, the moral being, who suffers 
 even when his body does not suffer or long after the 
 body has ceased to suffer, who suffers because he has a 
 soul that feels keenly and forgets slowly, is he, I ask, 
 protected more than, or even as much as, the brute ? 
 Society has acted fairly with the brute ; has it done so 
 with man? Hardly. Nor is it surprising that this 
 anomaly should provoke a certain restlessness that is 
 inclined to attack the foundations of society as if the 
 fault lay in their very structure. 
 
 But let me continue this sad tale. I want to be gen- 
 erous and should like to suppose, for the honor of hu- 
 manity, that the local authorities obeyed orders it would 
 have been imprudent to disobey, or, perhaps, that these 
 barbarous deeds were the inevitable consequence of the 
 first act of this tragedy; but I find nowhere the justifi- 
 cation I am looking for. Lawrence, who had acted 
 without orders, had not himself the right to give any to 
 these governors, especially for such odious measures; 
 and, nothing in the history or accounts of the times 
 points to a single act of insubordination or resistance by 
 force of arms on the part of these exiles. 
 
 In July of the same year seven small vessels, bearing 
 ninety exiles, were sailing along the south coast of 
 Massachusetts. They also were arrested at their en- 
 trance into port and dispersed by the local authorities, 
 who seized their passports. 
 
 The following year some of those who had been con- 
 fined in the county of Westchester succeeded in escaping 
 and endeavored to reach the frontier of Canada ; but 
 
GOVERNORS OWED NO OBEDIENCE TO LAWRENCE. 247 
 
 they were arrested at Fort Edward and again con- 
 demned to captivity. These attempts at escape might 
 easily have been prevented, if Acadian families had 
 been allowed to live in groups, or, at least, if the mem- 
 bers of the same family had been allowed to live together. 
 By separation and harsh treatment they were driven to 
 flight. 
 
I 248 Hutchinson's kindness. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 The Acadians at Boston ; in Virginia ; these latter are not allowed 
 to land ; they are sent to England — Frightful mortality — One 
 of the ships destined for Philadelphia is lost at sea ; two others 
 are driven by storm on the island of San Domingo ; a fourth 
 is saved by the Acadians and stranded near St. John River — In- 
 habitants of Cape Sable attacked. 
 
 Lawrence must have hoped that the population 
 of Boston and Massachusetts, whose interests were on 
 many points identified with those of Nova Scotia and 
 whose sons had helped to carry out the sentence of ex- 
 pulsion, would be eager to favor his projects ; there, 
 however, as elsewhere, the arrival of the exiles pro- 
 voked serious objections. For several days the fleet 
 remained in the roadstead with its human freight, 
 awaiting the result of official deliberations. 
 
 " Here, as in Philadelphia," says Philip H. Smith, " a 
 Roman Catholic was held as one of the worst of foes to 
 society. There was likelihood, too, that they would 
 become a charge to the public, and it was some time be- 
 fore the authorities could bring themselves to decide on 
 turning a thousand of these creatures loose on society. 
 The suffering of the captives detained on board the ves- 
 sels, is said to have been dreadful. One Hutchinson 
 (afterwards Governor of Massachusetts), who visited 
 them on board, wrote an account of a case particularly 
 distressing. He found a woman in a dying state from 
 the foul atmosphere and uncomfortable quarters, but 
 
BOSTON UNLIKE THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 249 
 
 the regulations did not admit of her removal. Three 
 small children were with her, requiring a mother's care 
 To save her life, Hutchinson had her conveyed to a 
 house on shore, contrary to orders, at his own risk, where 
 the poor widow was made comfortable. But distress 
 had wrought too great havoc in her frame to admit of 
 recovery ; she wasted away and left her little ones with- 
 out a protector ; but, just before she died, she besought 
 her benefactor 4 to ask the Governor, in the name of 
 their common Saviour, to let her children remain in the 
 place where she died.' " 
 
 Finally the debarkation was authorized ; the captives 
 were placed temporarily in barracks erected on the com- 
 mon, and then distributed in the towns and villages of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 " At first," says again the same author, " they set up 
 the claim that they were prisoners of war, and refused 
 to work, but, subsequently, became an industrious ele- 
 ment. There was one great difficulty attending their 
 employment, and that was the prejudice of the people 
 against the admission of a papist into their families. 
 The Neutrals here do not appear to have been re- 
 ceived with the considerate kindness their brethren were 
 so fortunate as to experience in Philadelphia. They 
 were not permitted to go from one town to another, and, 
 if taken without a passport from two selectmen, they were 
 to be imprisoned five days, or whipped ten lashes, or per- 
 haps both. By this treatment, as useless as it was cruel, 
 members of families were kept separated from their 
 friends and from each other. The meagre records of 
 those times show that numerous petitions were sent, and 
 advertisements were constantly circulated to find lost 
 relatives ; it being a feature peculiar to their case, that 
 
250 DREAD OF PAPISTS. 
 
 they were left in the most distressing doubt as to the 
 fate of those nearest and dearest to them. In the midst 
 of so much distress and fanaticism, the unwelcomed 
 Gallo-Acadians were subjected to the most rigid sur- 
 veillance ; there was no deed so dark but they were be- 
 lieved to be capable of performing ; and every species 
 of crime committed in the vicinity, the perpetrators of 
 which were unknown, was attributed with one consent 
 to the papists. 
 
 " A petition from one town on the coast asks to have 
 the Neutrals removed to the interior, as they have a 
 powder-house there, and were afraid they would blow 
 them up. The student of human nature finds in this 
 another illustration of the power that education and 
 prejudice exert over the judgment of men. The Aca- 
 dians themselves refer to this view entertained to- 
 wards them by the English : that of being addicted to 
 pillage and other warlike exploits. In one of their 
 memorials they advance, as a reason that they could not 
 have possessed the belligerent characteristics attributed 
 to them, the fact that it was the absence of these qual- 
 ities that enabled the English to obtain such unlim- 
 ited power over them ; otherwise, several thousand 
 Acadians never would have submitted to a handful of 
 English soldiers." 
 
 Several cases of abuse and cruelty are cited by Mrs. 
 Williams,* Smith and Hutchinson, the historian of 
 Massachusetts ; and these cases were so notorious that 
 the legislature of the State enacted laws to guard 
 against their recurrence. But, of all their sorrows, 
 that which wrung from them the bitterest complaints 
 in their written appeals was the sundering of families. 
 
 * French Neutrals. — By Mrs. Williams, Boston. 
 
BLINDED BY TEAKS. 251 
 
 "It is too evident," says the historian Hutchinson, 
 " that this unfortunate people had much to suffer from 
 poverty and bad treatment, even after they had been 
 adopted by Massachusetts. The different petitions ad- 
 dressed to Governor Shirley, about this time, are heart- 
 rending." He tried to copy some of them from the 
 archives of the Secretary of State ; but he was so blinded 
 by tears, as he tells us, that he had to stop. 
 
 Parkman must have found the tears of this writer and 
 the sentimentality of Longfellow, both countrymen of 
 his, most ridiculous. He must have had these two emi- 
 nent men in his mind's eye, when he wrote : " New 
 England humanitarianism, melting into sentimentality 
 at a tale of woe, has been unjust to its own." To what 
 acts of injustice this sentimentality may have con- 
 duced, it is difficult to see, and Parkman does not 
 explain. Perhaps he means to hint that the harsh 
 treatment of the exiles was just. If so, this hint is 
 merely a fresh specimen of his " silken brutality." For 
 myself, and many others, this sentimentality which is 
 based on so many reasonable motives, and is so much in 
 keeping with facts, is the most beautiful eulogium that 
 can be addressed to his fellow-countrymen. On the con- 
 trary, I look upon as despicable the man who, to all ap- 
 pearance, has knowingly falsified history in order to pre- 
 vent others from entertaining sentiments which he him- 
 self could not or did not wish to feel. Parkman pre- 
 ferred novelty and audacity to the monotony of beaten 
 paths. The public may like novelty ; but in history, 
 truth always ends by ensuring permanence to the labors 
 of those who make themselves its defenders. Sooner 
 or later the clay-footed statue which Parkman raised for 
 himself will crumble never to rise again. 
 
252 DISLOYALTY AND INTOLERANCE. 
 
 In this fairly harmonious concert, in favor of a people 
 unjustly oppressed, it is easy to forget Parkman's dis- 
 cordant voice, and to remember only those distinguished 
 men who have made Boston the metropolis of the 
 intellect, the warm-heartedness and the knowledge of 
 this continent.* 
 
 I have reason to believe, from current tradition, that 
 the cases of ill-treatment of the Acadians became less 
 and less frequent in Massachusetts. Their peaceable 
 and virtuous habits succeeded in entirely dispelling 
 the prejudices aroused by their first arrival. Disdain 
 and cruelty gave way, with the better classes, to a 
 benevolent solicitude which was manifested generally 
 enough to cast into shade the wrongs to which they 
 were still subjected in certain places and in certain 
 classes of society. Their heaviest burdens could be 
 lifted off, and so they were ; but nothing could console 
 them for their separation nor teach them to take kindly 
 to their irremediable misfortunes. 
 
 Strange irony of human affairs ! This little people 
 had been overwhelmed with woe on the simple pretext 
 of disloyalty; and the last Acadians had no sooner 
 quitted Boston than the standard of revolt was hoisted 
 over this same town. And, stranger still, this same 
 people, who had been the warders of these pretended 
 rebels, eagerly welcomed the soldiers of France, while 
 those who would not be disloyal to their English 
 sovereign, were going into exile and taking refuge on 
 the lands of these same Acadians. 
 
 " Washington had scarcely appeared in the Revolu- 
 
 1 1 have it on excellent authority, that Haliburton, in his private conver- 
 sations, stigmatized, much more severely than he does in his history, the 
 conduct of Lawrence towards the Acadians. It was he, I am also In- 
 formed, who inspired Longfellow and suggested to him the idea of writing 
 " Evangeline." 
 
VIRGINIA SENDS THEM TO ENGLAND. 253 
 
 tionary Camp at Boston," says Smith, " when he found 
 preparations being made for burning the Pope in effigy. 
 His memorable order of November 5th had the effect 
 of putting an end to the custom of " insulting the re- 
 ligion " of brethren and co-workers. When the French 
 fleet arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, to aid the cause 
 of the colonists, the Legislature made all haste to repeal 
 a law on her statute book, forbidding a Roman Catholic 
 to put foot upon her soil under pain of death. At 
 Boston, a funeral procession traversed the streets, with 
 a crucifix at its head and priests solemnly chanting, 
 while the selectmen of Puritan Boston joined in the 
 ceremony, giving this public mark of respect to the 
 faith of their allies." 
 
 Virginia opposed a most energetic resistance to the 
 landing of the 1,500 Acadians whom Lawrence cast on 
 the coasts of this Province. Neither disease, which was 
 making frightful havoc among this crowd of human 
 beings huddled together in the holds of dreadfully over- 
 laden ships, nor any other consideration, could decide 
 the Virginians to accept the burden which Lawrence 
 imposed on them. They addressed to the authorities 
 such vigorous protests that all these exiles, after having 
 waited several weeks on board their vessels, were told 
 to set sail for England. 
 
 We know not how many of these 1,500 died before 
 reaching the ports of England ; but, considering that 
 half of those who were transported to Philadelphia 
 succumbed on the way, and that the mortality elsewhere 
 was also very considerable ; considering that the sojourn 
 on the boats bound for England was three or four times 
 longer than on those that went only as far as New 
 England, we are justified in supposing the death-list to 
 
254 EVANGELINE LESS TRAGIC THAN THE FACTS. 
 
 have been a very long one. Moreover, we have some 
 exact figures tending to show that in 1763, eight years 
 later, in spite of the births, the number of exiled 
 Acadians in England was then reduced one-third since 
 their arrival in that country. I think it no exaggeration 
 to say that, at the time of the treaty of peace in 1763, 
 the original 1,500 were reduced to less than 500.* 
 
 This fact gives us a glimpse of the woe-begone condi- 
 tion of this ill-fated people, thus driven from all coasts 
 and tossed about on the sea, not knowing where they 
 could go to suffer and die. What a lamentable situation 
 for poor mothers separated from their husbands, for 
 children separated from their parents, or even for heads 
 of families, comfortable and peaceable farmers, who had 
 never quitted their villages, where but lately they 
 dwelt in happiness, now flung into mid-ocean, alone, 
 stripped of everything, torn from their wives and 
 children by order of Lawrence or by death, surrounded 
 by enemies, without future, without hope ! If, at least, 
 after eight years of exile they had found peace and what 
 remained of their decimated families ; but their whole 
 life was spent in often fruitless researches in the West 
 Indies, in Louisiana, on the coasts of New England, in 
 Canada and in the maritime provinces, etc., etc.f 
 
 Longfellow, in spite of all his ability to produce a 
 
 * Memoire of M. de la Rochette. 
 
 Also the declarations of the Acadians who settled at Belle-isle-en-Mer. 
 The French Government, at the solicitation of Abbe Le Loutre, who had 
 returned from his captivity at Jersey, granted morsels of land in this 
 island to 77 Acadian families. All the heads of families were called upon 
 to declare before the authorities their line of descent from the first 
 founder of each family in Acadia down to the present time. These declara- 
 tions, which form a pretty large manuscript, contain valuable information, 
 and give a very clear idea of the mortality at sea and of the sundering of 
 families. 
 
 f My great-grandmother Le Prince (Rosalie Bourg), referred to elsewhere, 
 was five years old at the time of the deportation. Her sister, born at sea, 
 
ACADIANS MUTINY AND ESCAPE. 255 
 
 lasting impression and narrate forcibly, has not succeeded 
 in painting the full extent of the blow that struck the 
 most afflicted families. It is a case of noble poetry 
 falling short of the reality, and by many it is thought 
 that he has failed to render the dramatic force suggested 
 by the tragedy. The fate of Evangeline is far from 
 equalling in sadness and tragic force that of many other 
 young girls, separated, not only from their betrothed, 
 as she was, but also from their parents. 
 
 Of the twenty and odd ships, that carried the Acadians 
 away into the ports of New England, four never reached 
 their destination. Of those destined for Philadelphia, 
 one perished at sea with its cargo of captives, two others 
 were tossed about by the winds and driven to San 
 Domingo, where the prisoners were left. Another ship, 
 containing 226 Acadians from Port Royal, among whom 
 were found persons with the names Boudreau, Dugas, 
 Guillebault, Richard, Bourgeois, Doucet, Landry, was 
 captured by the exiles which it bore. They were 
 pursued and attacked by one of the convoys that ac- 
 companied the fleet ; but after a slight encounter of no 
 consequence they were able to get away and land at 
 St. John River, where they met a considerable band of 
 fugitives, who had escaped the deportation. 
 
 Here is how Casgrain relates this moving adventure : 
 " While the transports were sailing under a fair wind 
 on the Bay of Fundy, an Acadian of Port Royal, 
 named Beaulieu, an old master mariner, having asked 
 the captain of the ship whither he was going to conduct 
 them : 
 
 was bereft of reason, and her mother, undermined by grief, died a few 
 years later. Though my great-grandmother was gifted with a great mind 
 and was habitually very gay, still the account of these misfortunes had 
 the effect of plunging her into such profound sadness that all allusion to 
 these events was carefully shunned by the family. 
 
256 
 
 THE CAPE SABLE D ENTEEMONTS. 
 
 " ' To the first desert island I shall meet,' replied he 
 insolently, ' that's all that French papists, as you are, 
 deserve.' 
 
 " Quite beside himself, Beaulieu, who was of much 
 more than ordinary strength, dealt him a blow with his 
 fist that stretched him flat on the deck. This was a 
 signal for the other captives. Though unarmed, they 
 rushed upon the guards, wounded some of them and 
 put the rest hors de combat. 
 
 " Beaulieu then assumed the command of the trans- 
 port and stranded it in the St. John River." 
 
 There still remained a small band of Acadians in the 
 peninsula at Cape Sable, at the southwestern extremity 
 of Nova Scotia. This little colony was comprised in 
 the barony of Pobomcoup, property of the d'Entremonts 
 and partly inhabited by the numerous descendants of 
 this family. Cut off from Halifax and other Acadian 
 settlements, without means of communication except 
 what navigation offered them, they had dwelt in as 
 complete isolation as if they had inhabited a small 
 island in the midst of the ocean. For more than a 
 century they had lived there and managed their affairs 
 as they thought proper, the administration paying no 
 more attention to them than if they had not existed. 
 They hardly knew of Lawrence's persecutions and of 
 the obligation to which he subjected the Acadians of 
 the other parts of the Province in the matter of the oath. 
 Thus, there assuredly was no motive for expelling these 
 persons ; they had not even been able to furnish the 
 pretexts that Lawrence invented against those of Port 
 Royal, Grand Pre* and Beaus^jour. These poor people, 
 after the terrible calamity that had just befallen their 
 brethren, could but wish to remain unmolested in their 
 
PLUNDER AND ABSON. 257 
 
 retreat, either ignored as they were in the past or left 
 in peace as insignificant. Had Lawrence spared this 
 peaceable and isolated colony, this would have afforded 
 a proof, not perhaps quite conclusive, but tending at 
 least to show that his conduct was based on fairly defens- 
 ible motives and guided by a certain sense of fitness. 
 
 It often takes a long time, with its repetition of mis- 
 deeds, before we can penetrate and realize all the 
 malice of which those are capable with whom we are in 
 daily contact. Often our penetration is at fault, and 
 we are forced to extend the bounds of their depravity. 
 These poor inhabitants of Cape Sable must have hoped 
 that, being peaceable, never having given cause for ill- 
 treatment, they would certainly be able to remain un- 
 molested in their retreat. However it was not to be ; 
 Lawrence's cruelty had not yet reached its utmost 
 bound. Before the end of the winter that followed the 
 embarkation at Grand Pre* and other places, he gave 
 Major Prebble, then setting out with his regiment for 
 Boston, the following order, which needs no comment : 
 
 " You are hereby required and directed to put into Cape Sable, or 
 some of the adjacent harbors, (in your way to Boston), and, -with 
 the troops at your command, to land at the most convenient place ; 
 and to seize as many of the said inhabitants as possible, and carry 
 them with you to Boston, where you will deliver them to His Excel- 
 lency Governor Shirley, with a letter you will receive with this or- 
 der. You are, at all events, to burn and destroy the houses of the 
 said inhabitants, and carry off their utensils and cattle of all kinds, and 
 make a distribution of them to the troops under your command as a 
 reward for the performance of this service, and to destroy such things, 
 as cannot conveniently be carried off. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal this 9th April, 1756. 
 
 11 By His Excellency's command, Chas. Lawrence." 
 "Wm. Cotterell." 
 
 IT 
 
258 PETITION TO GOVERNOR POWNALL. 
 
 This invitation to plunder, by greatly exciting the 
 cupidity of the soldiery, could not fail to produce the 
 desired effect: "April 23d," relates l'Abbe* Desen- 
 claves, an eye-witness, " a village was invested and 
 1;aken ; everything was burned and the live stock killed 
 or seized. They tore away the scalp of one of the 
 •children of Joseph d'Entremont, after having plundered 
 and burnt his house." 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Lawrence effected a new descent 
 upon them, and the same scenes of havoc were repeated. 
 This time they were able to seize a part of the inhab- 
 itants, and with them TAbbe* Desenclaves. 
 
 Those who had escaped these attacks were reduced 
 to great distress. Their cattle being killed or taken 
 from them, their houses burnt, their parents and breth- 
 ren dragged into captivity, unable to put to sea in order 
 to procure assistance for their families without running 
 the risk of being taken, having no hope of human 
 succor, they, no doubt, wished they had been carried off 
 with the others. 
 
 No longer expecting any pity from Lawrence, and 
 informed of the humane character of Mr. Pownall, the 
 new Governor of Massachusetts, they addressed to him 
 a petition, which clearly depicts the extreme destitution 
 and abject misery in which they were : 
 
 " We, your bumble petitioners, bave taken this opportunity to write 
 to you these few lines, hoping they will obtain the happy end for 
 which they are designed, and we hope above all things that Your 
 Excellency will have compassion on us, your poor distressed fellow- 
 creatures, and grant to us this humble request that we earnestly im- 
 plore of you, and that it might please Your Excellency to take us 
 under your Government. And, if it might please you to settle us 
 here in this land where we now live, we shall ever hold it our bounden 
 duty to love and honor you with our last breath, and we shall assure 
 
POWNALL AND AMHERST MOVED TO PITY. 259 
 
 you that we are heartily willing to do whatever you require of us 
 as far as we are able to perform. We are also willing to pay to 
 Your Excellency's Government our yearly taxes ; we are also will- 
 ing to support and maintain the war against the King of France 
 as long as we live, and if ever any damage should be done here 
 on our territories by the Savages, it shall be required at our hands. 
 We are in all about forty families, which consist of about one 
 hundred and fifty souls ; the Savages that live between here and 
 Halifax do not exceed twenty men, and they are also willing to come 
 under the same Government with us. . . . And, if we shall be so for- 
 tunate as to obtain so much friendship with Your Excellency as to be 
 received into your Government, we will send in two men with a list 
 of all our names, and the Savages will do likewise, and we will all 
 submit to do whatever you require of us, and if any others should 
 desert from elsewhere, Savages or French, and come to us, we will in 
 no wise receive them unless they get from under Your Excellency's 
 hand liberty so to do. 
 
 " And now to conclude, if we should be so unfortunate as to be 
 denied this, our humble request, we will submit to Your Excellency's 
 goodness to do with us whatever may seem good in your sight ; only 
 this we beg, that, if we may no longer stay here, that we may be re- 
 ceived in New England to live as the other Neutral French do, for we 
 had all rather die here than go to any French dominion to live. 
 
 " We beg that Your Excellency will send us word what we shall do 
 as soon as you can, and we will do it as soon as you send. And, if 
 it be our hard fate to go away from here, we will obey Your Excel- 
 lency and go, though it would be to us like departing out of this 
 world. 
 
 "Dear sir, do for us what lays in your power to settle us here, and 
 we will be your devoted subjects till death." 
 
 This petition was drawn up and taken to Boston by 
 one Haskell, who had ventured to Cape Sable with the 
 object of trading with the people there. Wishing to be 
 of service to these unfortunates, but fearing arrest, he 
 had this petition delivered by some one else. It was 
 nevertheless traced to him ; he was arrested, but escaped 
 conviction. 
 
 Pownall, moved at this cry of distress, communicated 
 this petition to General Amherst, who was then at Bos- 
 
260 KILLING WOMEN AND CHTLDEEN. 
 
 ton. They consulted together on the best means of com- 
 ing to their assistance. Amherst advised him to pay the 
 expense of transporting them to Boston ; but one thing 
 stopped them : these persons were under the govern- 
 ment of Lawrence, and so they themselves had no right 
 to decide their lot without his approbation. Pownall 
 transmitted the petition to Lawrence and accompanied 
 it with these remarks : . . . " As for the case of the 
 poor people at Cape Sable, it seems very distressful and 
 worthy any relief that can be afforded them. If policy 
 could acquiesce in any measure for their relief, human- 
 ity loudly calls for it. I send you a copy of their peti- 
 tion, and in it the copy of the Journal of Council which 
 I also enclose ; you will see that General Amherst was 
 willing to relieve them, could it have been done here, 
 but by the same you will see the Council could by no 
 means advise me to receive them." 
 
 The only answer Lawrence gave was to dispatch a 
 ship to Cape Sable. All the population that remained 
 there was transported to Halifax, and, four montlis 
 later, to England. New cruelties must have been com- 
 mitted there, since we find the proof thereof in a letter 
 of General Amherst himself to Lawrence, signifying his 
 disapprobation of such conduct. He pointed out a cer- 
 tain Captain Hazen as the principal guilty person, and 
 added : " 1 shall always disapprove of killing women and 
 helpless children''' 
 
 As soon as hostilities opened between France and 
 England, Lawrence in a proclamation dated May 14th > 
 1756, declared : " We do hereby promise a reward of 
 thirty pounds for every male Indian prisoner above the 
 age of sixteen years brought in alive ; for a scalp of 
 such male Indian twenty-five pounds, and twenty-five 
 
ACADIANS SCALPED. 261 
 
 pounds for every Indian woman or child brought in 
 alive." * 
 
 However great might have been the exasperation pro- 
 voked by the conduct of the Indians in time of war, this 
 proclamation, which opened the campaign, was little 
 calculated to soften the horrors of the coming war. It 
 was not by surpassing these barbarians in their cruel 
 customs that their manners would be chastened and the 
 beneficent influence of Christianity extended to them. 
 As to Lawrence, however, nothing can astonish us; 
 under a civilized exterior he was still more barbarous 
 than any savage, and, had he dared, he would have in- 
 cluded in his enticing rewards the Acadians found armed. 
 In point of fact the proclamation had the effect of mak- 
 ing Acadian pass for Indian scalps. The greed of gain 
 was going to give rise to frauds upon which Lawrence 
 would complacently close his eyes. The following extract 
 of a letter from Rev. Hugh Graham to Rev. Andrew 
 Brown, dated 1791, gives the practical result of the 
 proclamation : 
 
 " A party of Rangers of a regiment chiefly employed in scouring the 
 country of the deluded Acadians who had unfortunately fallen under 
 the ban of British policy, came upon four Acadians who had, with all 
 possible caution, ventured out from their skulking retreats to pick 
 some of the straggling cattle or hidden treasure. The solitary few, 
 the pitiable four, had just sat down weary and faint on the banks of 
 the desert stream in order to refresh themselves with some food and 
 
 * " It is impossible," says Murdoch, " to read the solemn orders for de- 
 stroying and annihilating the homes and surroundings of our fellow-crea- 
 tures — the forcible capture and removal of families — the rewards in money 
 to the soldier for the scalp of an enemy, and many other proceedings of 
 those in authority at this period, without strong sensations of pain and 
 disgust. This brought into active play one of the lowest, meanest, and 
 most brutalizing features of humanity — a miserable avarice — a thirst of 
 gain to be acquired by cruelty, and spent most probably in the most de- 
 grading sensual pursuits. Nothing could be calculated to lower and dis- 
 figure the character of the soldier more than this appeal to his selfishness 
 and his basest appetites." 
 
262 ACADIAN WOMEN DYING UNDER THE LASH. 
 
 rest, when a party of Rangers surprised and apprehended them, and, 
 as there was a bounty on Indian scalps, a blot, too, on England's 
 escutcheon, the soldiers soon made the supplicating signal, the offi- 
 cers turned their backs, and the Acadians were instantly shot and 
 scalped. A party of the Rangers brought in one day 25 scalps, pretend- 
 ing that they were Indians', and the commanding officer at the fort, 
 then Colonel Wilmot, afterwards Governor Wilmot (a poor tool), gave 
 orders that the bounty should be paid them. Captain Huston, who 
 had at that time the charge of the military chest, objected to such 
 proceedings, both in the letter and spirit of them. The Colonel told 
 him, that according to law the French were all out of the country, 
 that the bounty on Indian scalps was according to law, and that 
 though the law might in some instances be strained a little, yet there 
 was a necessity for winking at such things. 
 
 " Upon account, Huston, in obedience to orders, paid down £260, 
 telling: that the curse of God should ever attend such guilty deeds. 
 
 "A considerable large body of the French Neutrals were one time sur- 
 prised by a party of Rangers on Petitcodiac river; upon the first alarm, 
 most of them threw themselves into the river and swam across, and by 
 this way the greater part of them made out to elude the clutches of those 
 bloody hounds, though some of them were shot by the merciless 
 soldiery in the river. It was observed that these Rangers, almost 
 without exception, closed their days in wretchedness, and, particu- 
 larly, a Captain Danks, who rode to the extreme of his commission 
 in every barbarous proceeding. . . . He lived under a general dislike 
 and died without any to regret his death." 
 
 This Rev. Hugh Graham was, like Dr. Brown, a 
 contemporary of the events he describes. He was liv- 
 ing in Nova Scotia at the very time, I think, of the de- 
 portation, and this was the reason why Brown applied 
 to him for information. He seems to have been actu- 
 ated by the same spirit as Brown, and, like him, he also 
 judged severely the acts and authors of this tragedy,* as 
 
 * After the taking of Beausejour, where a large number of Acadians were 
 made prisoners, while their families were being summoned to join them, 
 with the threat that their houses would be burnt, some poor women were 
 so cruellv flogged as to fall dead under the lash. ( Vaudreuil au Mmistre, 
 Oct. SOth, 1755.) 
 
 About the same time a party of H Indians, of St. John River, having 
 been surprised and captured, the soldiers amused themselves cutting them 
 
LAWRENCE REBUKED BY THE LORDS. 263 
 
 have also done all his contemporaries that were in a 
 position to pass an enlightened and impartial judgment 
 thereon, or whose character was sufficiently elevated to 
 be above religious or national prejudices. 
 
 I have furnished the reader with the means of judg- 
 ing Lawrence's character by the opinion that the citizens 
 of Halifax entertained of him ; we also have, in the 
 foregoing, material for a sound estimate of that Colonel 
 Wilmot who, a few years later, as Governor of the Prov- 
 ince, was in his turn to oppress the Acadians. 
 
 The cabinet of London, which, as we have seen, had 
 been thrown into great alarm at the discovery of the 
 poorly-disguised projects of Lawrence, saw itself obliged 
 to accept the accomplished fact, and let him finish his 
 work of proscription. The following extract of a letter 
 from the Lords of Trade to Lawrence, dated March 10th, 
 1757, seems to be a condemnation of his conduct, both 
 as to the non-justification and odiousness of so barbarous 
 measure, and as to the fatal consequences that might 
 issue therefrom : " There is no attempt, however des- 
 perate and cruel, which might not be expected from per- 
 sons exasperated as they must be by the treatment they 
 have met with." 
 
 In fact it could not have been otherwise. The meek- 
 est, the most peaceful man, when he sees himself un- 
 justly driven to bay ; when all his happiness has van- 
 ished ; when his country, his goods have been taken 
 from him ; when his wife and children have been 
 snatched from his hearth and whelmed with woe, if not 
 separated from him and from one another ; when he has 
 no longer any hope of pity from an enemy bent on the 
 
 in pieces as they would pig's flesh and scattering upon the ground these 
 ghastly remains. ( Vaudreuil au Ministre, Oct. 18th, 1755.) 
 
264 REVENGE. 
 
 destruction of all that makes him cling to life ; this man 
 may become a raging lion whose thirst for vengeance 
 nothing can quench. Yes, I hesitate not to say so, after 
 so unjust and extraordinary a persecution, there was 
 sufficient provocation to turn the head of the most 
 peaceful man, to make him a highwayman or a pirate, 
 lying in ambush in the thickets of a forest as a hunter 
 of men. That is what I would have done, that is what 
 most of my readers would have done ; yet, that is what 
 the Acadians, except a very small number, did not do. 
 
 Tradition has preserved the remembrance of the ter- 
 rible deeds of vengeance wrought by some of these men, 
 and more particularly by Jean Le Blanc, Nicholas Gau- 
 thier and Noel Brassard dit Beausoleil. 
 
 This last-named person dwelt with all his family in 
 the cantons of Chipody and Petitcodiac, on the north of 
 the Bay of Fundy. This colony had been founded in 
 1699 by the miller Thibaudeau and Jean Francois Bras- 
 sard. Thibaudeau had become seignior of Chipody and 
 a large concession had been granted to his friend Bras- 
 sard. Ties of relationship soon still more closely united 
 the two families. Brassard, whose wife, Catherine 
 Richard, was the eldest daughter of Michel Richard, 
 first of that name in Acadia, my ancestor, gave his 
 daughter in marriage to the son of the elder Thibaudeau, 
 and the two families soon formed an important and 
 prosperous group. 
 
 We have seen that, at the time of the deportation, a 
 detachment of troops had been sent from B cause* jour 
 (Cumberland) to burn the houses of Chipody and Petit- 
 codiac and carry away the inhabitants ; we have seen 
 that the population, forewarned of this attack, lay in 
 ambush on the edge of the forest, and that, just as a 
 
NOEL BRASSARD, 265 
 
 squad of this detachment were preparing to set fire to 
 the church, the Acadians made such an onslaught on the 
 soldiers as to force them to withdraw. 
 
 He who had directed this attack was Noel Brassard 
 dit Beausoleil, son of Jean Franc,ois Brassard and Cath- 
 erine Richard. Casgrain, in his "Pelerinage au pays 
 d'Evangeline," thus relates the succession of events in- 
 asmuch as they concern Noel Brassard ; events which 
 are still deeply rooted in the memory of the Acadians 
 of the maritime provinces : — 
 
 44 No inhabitant of the place had more interest than 
 Noel Brassard in defending his home. He was the father 
 of ten children, the last of whom was hardly eight days 
 old ; he had with him his own mother, a nonagenarian. 
 His father, one of the first colonists of Petitcodiac, had 
 bequeathed him, with the paternal residence, a large and 
 beautiful tract of land under full cultivation, which gave 
 him comfort and plenty. So Noel Brassard could not 
 resign himself to the thought of quitting Chipody to go 
 and wander in the woods with his family at the approach 
 of our terrible winters. He knew that the weakest would 
 find there certain death. 
 
 44 In the assembly of the inhabitants in which the de- 
 parture was decided, Noel Brassard voted for a struggle 
 to the death, and it was only after the whole parish had 
 been abandoned that he decided to join the fugitives. 
 
 44 While his wife, who could hardly drag herself 
 along, was going towards the edge of the forest, car- 
 rying her last born in her arms, he was loading a cart 
 with the few effects he could take away and waiting for 
 his aged mother, whom the anguish of these last days 
 had brought to the brink of the grave. He had soon 
 overtaken his family on the top of the hill, whence 
 
266 HIS JOURNEY MARKED BY GRAVES. 
 
 could be seen the half-burnt village and the entrance to 
 the river. 
 
 " They stopped there in silence ; the children pressed 
 around their mother gulping down their sobs ; as to Noel 
 Brassard, he wept not, but he was pale as a ghost, and 
 his lips trembled when he looked upon his wife sighing 
 and drying her tears. The sun set behind them on the 
 tops of the trees, a beautiful clear autumn sun that 
 gladdened all the landscape. Its oblique rays lit up as 
 with fire the windows of the houses, and threw their 
 lengthened shadows down the valley. 
 
 " Mother Brassard, whose strength was ebbing fast, 
 appeared almost insensible while the cart was moving ; 
 but then she opened her eyes, and, as if the splendor of 
 the scene gave her new animation, she began to look at 
 each of the houses of the village one after another ; she 
 threw a long farewell look on the roof where she had so 
 long lived; then her eyes remained fixed on the ceme- 
 tery, where the graves and white crosses, brilliantly 
 illuminated, stood out in relief on the grass. 
 
 " 4 1 shall go no further,' she sighed to her son, ' I 
 feel myself dying. You shall bury me there near your 
 father.' 
 
 " The cart moved on ; but it had not made half a 
 mile on the rough and badly-traced road that plunged 
 into the forest, when Noel Brassard perceived that his 
 mother's face was becoming whiter than wax ; beads of 
 cold sweat appeared on her cheeks. 
 
 M His wife and he did all they could to revive her, but 
 in vain. She was dead. 
 
 " On the evening of the morrow two men were busy 
 digging a grave in the cemetery. Beside them was 
 waiting the missionary, Mr. Le Guerne, whom they had 
 
HUNTERS OF MEN. 267 
 
 had time to go and warn. Noel Brassard and his 
 brother-in-law hastened to finish their work, for the 
 moon, then full, was quickly rising on the horizon and 
 might have easily betrayed their presence. 
 
 " When the grave was finished, the missionary put 
 on his surplice, with his black stole, and recited in a 
 low tone the prayers of the burial service. He then 
 helped the two men to fill up the grave. 
 
 "A moment afterwards the gate of the cemetery 
 creaked on its hinges, and silence again reigned. 
 
 44 Noel Brassard was as yet only at the beginning of 
 his troubles. In spite of his sinister presentiments, had 
 he been able to foresee all the misfortunes that awaited 
 him, he would have shrunk back terrified. 
 
 44 In the course of this frightful winter he lost his 
 wife and all his children except two, a girl and a hoy. 
 From Petitcodiac to Restigouche, where he arrived in 
 the first days of spring, one might have followed his 
 steps by the graves he had left behind him. 
 
 44 In his despair he could not hear the name of an 
 Englishman pronounced without being seized with a 
 kind of frenzy. He confided the two remaining children 
 to his sister Marguerite d'Entremont, who herself had 
 lost all her own, and he resumed his old profession of 
 hunter ; but this time it was to hunt down men, to hunt 
 all that bore the name of English. At the head of some 
 partisans, skilled marksmen like himself, and exas- 
 perated as he was by the excess of their misfortunes, he 
 spared no pains to do his enemies all the harm he had 
 suffered from them. During the five following years 
 he put himself at the disposal of French officers, who 
 employed him to rouse the Indian tribes and accompany 
 them on their bloody expeditions. Each time he slew 
 
268 
 
 TEN THOUSAND HIDING. 
 
 ) 
 
 
 an enemy he made a notch on the butt-end of his gun. 
 This gun has been preserved by his descendants and it 
 bears no less than twenty-eight notches. 
 
 " In the spring of 1760 Noel Brassard was back at 
 Restigouche. When the marquis D'Anjac took refuge 
 there with his four vessels, he claimed the privilege of 
 serving one of the cannons that were landed on Battery 
 Point to defend the mouth of the river. The gunners 
 were killed at their guns, and Noel Brassard, who 
 had fought like a lion, was pointing the last cannon 
 that remained on its carriage, when he was cut in two 
 by a cannon ball." 
 
 Lawrence alluded to the exploits of Brassard, Gau- 
 thier and Le Blanc * when he wrote : " These land 
 ruffians, turned pirates, have had the hardiness to fit 
 out shallops to cruise on our coast, and sixteen or seven- 
 teen vessels, some of them very valuable, have already 
 fallen into their hands." 
 
 As far as we can judge from the meagre documents 
 we possess, it does not appear that the Acadian popula- 
 tion, who took refuge on the coasts of New Brunswick 
 and Prince Edward Island, were engaged in active 
 guerilla warfare against the English troops. Circum- 
 stances imposed on the men the duty of remaining with 
 their families so as to provide for the daily needs of 
 an existence continually threatened with hunger, cold, 
 privations, sickness, and the danger of being surprised. 
 They kept themselves, for the most part, on the shore 
 of the sea, because it offered in summer a surer means 
 of procuring nourishment, but at the least danger they 
 made for the woods. 
 
 * This Jean Le Blanc was a son of Jean Le Blanc and Marguerite Rich- 
 ard, sister of one of my ancestors, Rene" Richard, who died at St. Gregoire, 
 in the district of Three Rivers, in 177G. 
 
TEN THOUSAND HIDING. 269 
 
 There still remained on the coasts of the gulf, on St. 
 John River, and in Prince Edward Island, about 10,000 
 Acadians, who were able to maintain themselves in their 
 retreats till 1758 and 1760. But even they, as we shall 
 see further on, were for the most part obliged at last to 
 endure the fate of those who were cast on the coasts of 
 New England. 
 
270 FACTS HITHERTO UNRECORDED. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Capture of Louisburg — New deportations — Four thousand Aca- 
 dians of Prince Edward Island are deported to England and 
 France — One or two vessels founder — Three hundred Acadians 
 perish in one shipwreck. 
 
 Without Winslow's manuscript we should know- 
 next to nothing of the circumstances that accompanied 
 the wholesale deportation effectuated at Grand Pre*, 
 Annapolis, Pigiguit and Beausdjour in the autumn of 
 1755. Of late years Brown's manuscript has thrown 
 a new light on the question, but there still remain, 
 besides this first deportation, important facts that have 
 not even been touched by any historian. The general 
 impression is that the acts of the deportation and the 
 rigor exercised against the Acadians were limited to 
 the events of 1755. This is a grave error. As we shall 
 see, the deportations of this year were only the begin- 
 ning of a systematic and pitiless persecution which con- 
 tinued long after the peace of 1763. 
 
 There still remained, as I stated at the end of the pre- 
 ceding chapter, 10,000 Acadians, who took refuge on St. 
 John River, on the shores of the Gulf, and in Prince 
 Edward Island. What was their fate? About 1,500, 
 or perhaps 2,000, betook themselves to Quebec, by way 
 of the St. Lawrence, between 1756 and 1758 ; some 
 hundreds ascended the St. John River in 1759 and 1760, 
 and settled in the district of Three Rivers. Those who 
 adopted this course, however painful may have been 
 
ANOTHER OF PARKMAN'S FIGMENTS. 271 
 
 the voyage and their settlement in a country which suf- 
 fered from want and from the exactions of Intendant 
 Bigot, were, nevertheless, the most fortunate of all the 
 Acadian population. Soon after their arrival they were 
 able to settle on lands of their own, and, by dint of 
 work and perseverance, to create new homesteads in the 
 fertile domains of Becancour, St. Jacques l'Achigan, 
 L'Acadie, etc. Their number was, however, dreadfully 
 reduced by sickness, since at Quebec alone 500 died of 
 small-pox on their arrival. 
 
 Parkman, with his usual good faith, has sought to 
 show that the lot of those who took refuge in Canada 
 was by far the most wretched. He says that Intendant 
 Bigot, to favor a friend, confided to him the care of 
 nourishing a certain number of these refugees at so much 
 a head, and that the latter so stinted them of neces- 
 sary nourishment that several perished of hunger and 
 wretchedness, and thereupon he veils his face, exclaim- 
 ing : What a country ! What morals ! The particu- 
 lar fact he relates is, I think, exact ; but what is not so 
 is to insinuate that the majority of the refugees were 
 welcomed in the same heartless fashion. I know be- 
 yond a doubt that the religious authorities and the entire 
 population came to their assistance with most praise- 
 worthy eagerness. But Parkman is right in what con- 
 cerns Bigot and his accomplices. For its misfortune 
 France was traversing one of those periods which, while 
 withering the patriotism and the civic virtues of the 
 directing classes, was hurrying it into humiliations that 
 would drag it down from its high station and warp its 
 destiny. But the saturnalia that ran riot around the 
 throne, and had penetrated into the administration and 
 into the army, had not yet spoiled the body of the 
 
272 THE ISLAND ACADIANS. 
 
 nation ; and, as a consoling proof of this, there still 
 remained a deep sentiment of honor sufficiently pro- 
 nounced to bring Bigot and his accomplices to trial 
 before the whole French people, and to inflict upon them 
 an ignominious condemnation. 
 
 While stigmatizing Bigot's conduct, as I myself un- 
 hesitatingly do, Parkman is inexcusable in that he 
 argues from the particular to the general and blames 
 the entire Canadian people. I have been careful not to 
 imitate him, not to attribute to the whole English 
 nation the crimes of Lawrence and his crew. Parkman 
 would have done better to have kept a little of his 
 indignation for the horrible deeds that were done at 
 Halifax against a whole people, for Lawrence, who had 
 acted thus only to enrich himself at the expense of the 
 live stock of the Acadians, for his counsellors, who were 
 to appropriate their lands. If there is a stigma to be 
 affixed to men of Bigot's stamp, there is another to be 
 affixed to those writers who falsify history. May the 
 reader forgive the severe terms my indignation suggests. 
 I have made ample allowances for the weaknesses of all 
 the personages who have figured in the course of this 
 work. But to appreciate rightly the motives that actu- 
 ate me in this case, one must have been, like myself, in 
 a position to detect the methods of him whom I charac- 
 terize so severely. 
 
 There still remained in 1758 about 8,000 Acadians in 
 the maritime provinces, nearly 5,500 of whom were in 
 Prince Edward Island. The first important settlements 
 in this island began only in 1749, when Beaus£jour was 
 founded. Le Loutre, as we have seen, had set fire to 
 the dwellings of the inhabitants of Beaubassin, so as to 
 force them to take refuge with the French and leave a 
 
BOSCAWEN REPORTS. 
 
 273 
 
 wilderness around the fort which the English purposed 
 constructing on the south side of the little river, Missa- 
 gouetche. The half of this populous district was thus 
 depopulated against the will of the inhabitants. The 
 greater number of these passed immediately into Prince 
 Edward Island, where they began anew as best they 
 could the quiet existence that had just been so suddenly 
 interrupted. Furthermore, after the events of 1755, 
 their number increased considerably by the addition of 
 those who escaped the deportation. 
 
 Until 1758 they were able to lead their former tranquil 
 life without molestation, for they were protected by 
 France, which still held possession of Isle Ro}^ale (Cape 
 Breton), and kept a garrison at Fort Lajoie in Prince 
 Edward Island. The capture of Louisburg and the sur- 
 render of these two islands was going to furnish Law- 
 rence with the opportunity he was waiting for. 
 
 Hardly had Louisburg been evacuated when Boscawen 
 (Heart of Oak) appeared with a fleet of transports to 
 carry off all the population. Praj^ers, supplications, 
 nothing could touch the heart of this valiant patriot. 
 Had these men committed any act of hostility, which 
 would anyhow have been justifiable, since they had once 
 more become French subjects and had dwelt nine years 
 in French territory? No. Had they presented them- 
 selves before him armed for the purpose of resisting 
 him ? No. But what of that ? To Boscawen, no 
 less than to Lawrence, these were questions of no im- 
 portance. From the outset it had been decided that 
 not a single Acadian should remain in the country, not 
 one of their dwellings, not a single vestige of what might 
 recall the places they had so cherished, not a name to 
 remind future generations that this country had been 
 18 
 
274 
 
 BOSCAWEN NOT SO BAD AS LAWRENCE. 
 
 
 colonized and inhabited for more than a century by 
 another people. Does not the criminal efface, if he 
 can, all reminders of his crime ? 
 
 Boscawen's official report puts the population of the 
 island at 4,100 ; but, without entering into explanations 
 that support my estimate, I have reason to believe that 
 his was much too low, and this can be explained by the 
 departures at the news of the fall of Louisburg and be- 
 fore his arrival in the island. This settlement was of 
 recent date ; and yet, says Boscawen, " almost all the 
 beef and wheat supplied to Quebec since the war lias 
 been drawn from this place. They have above 10,000 
 horned cattle, and many of the inhabitants told me they 
 each harvested 1,200 bushels of wheat a year." 
 
 Boscawen does not take into account the horses, 
 sheep, pigs, etc. This number of 10,000 horned cattle 
 tends to confirm my reckoning of the cattle that Law- 
 rence had at his disposal in the peninsula ; for it must 
 be borne in mind that over half of this population was 
 composed of those who escaped the deportation of 1755 
 by running away to elude the soldiers who were pur- 
 suing them. They had to pass near Fort Monckton on 
 Bay Verte, so that they must have brought away with 
 them only a few effects and the most indispensable 
 utensils. Besides, as Boscawen says, Prince Edward 
 Island during the two preceding years was the place 
 that supplied with beef and wheat Canada, which was 
 suffering from dearth. Lawrence, who had had at his 
 disposal 40,000 head of cattle, apart from the horses, 
 etc., speaks only vaguely thereof to the Lords of Trade 
 and as of an insignificant quantity which he would dis- 
 tribute to the colonists who could winter the cattle. 
 The difference between the two men must have been 
 
AN UNSEA WORTHY SHIP. 275 
 
 that the one acted in good faith, without interested mo- 
 tives, and that the other depreciated the importance of 
 the cattle, in order the better to throw the government 
 off the scent. Neither had any pity, but Boscawen may 
 have had some conscience and certain principles of 
 honor. 
 
 Three or four thousand of these unfortunate Acadians 
 were thrown pell-mell into the holds of ships hastily col- 
 lected, without any regard to their destination or their 
 condition, and were consigned to England. 
 
 What was their fate ? We know not, or rather we 
 can merely form more or less satisfactory conjectures. 
 Their destination was probably England and not France, 
 since the war between the two nations was at the height 
 of its intensity. However, from statistics collected in 
 England after the peace by M. de la Roche tte, we have 
 reason to think that many of them were transported 
 directly to France. We know that M. de Villejoint, 
 who commanded at Fort Lajoie before the surrender of 
 the island, was able to take away with him 700, whom 
 he put ashore at La Rochelle in France. On the other 
 hand we know that, on Dec. 26th, 1758, one of these 
 vessels, containing 179 persons, was driven by a storm 
 into the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Moreover, it is 
 almost certain that two other ships foundered at sea 
 during the passage. One of these shipwrecks is re- 
 lated as follows by a certain Captain Pile, commander 
 of the ship " Achilles " towards the end of the last 
 century : 
 
 " Captain Nichols," says he, " commander of a trans- 
 port coming from Yarmouth, was employed by the Gov- 
 ernor of Nova Scotia to remove from Prince Edward 
 island three hundred Acadians with their families. Be- 
 
276 UNEXAMPLED HEROISM. 
 
 fore setting sail he represented to the government agent 
 that it was impossible that his ship in its actual condition 
 could arrive without danger in England, especially at 
 such an advanced period of the season. In spite of his 
 representations, he was obliged to receive them on board 
 and undertake the voyage. Having arrived at a hundred 
 leagues from the coast of England, the ship leaked so 
 much that in spite of all the efforts of the crew it be- 
 came impossible to prevent it from foundering. A few 
 minutes before it sank, the captain sent for the mis- 
 sionary who was on board, and told him that the only 
 means of saving the life of a small number was to have 
 the passengers consent to let the captain and sailors 
 seize on the boats. The missionary delivered an ex- 
 hortation to the Acadians, gave them absolution and in- 
 duced them to submit to their unhappy lot. A single 
 Frenchman embarked in one of the boats ; but his wife 
 having reproached him for thus abandoning her with 
 her children, he returned on board. A few moments 
 later the ship went down with all its passengers. The 
 boats, after having braved a thousand dangers, arrived 
 in one of the ports of the west of England.' , 
 
 This story outvies in dramatic sadness and in heroism 
 all that the poets and tragedians have invented. When 
 we reflect on the natural clinging to life in spite of all 
 adversities and afflictions ; when we think of the inde- 
 scribable bewilderment that upsets the mind at the 
 sight of a certain and immediate death, we remain as- 
 tounded at an act of heroism surpassing our concep- 
 tions. These poor people must have passed through the 
 refining crucible of ineffable sufferings ere they could 
 reach such heights of Christian charity as would enable 
 them to face death with so much equanimity, to listen 
 
PITILESS LAWRENCE. 
 
 277 
 
 to, weigh and accept a proposal that cut off their last 
 human hope. 
 
 How touching and sublime to see this priest, with 
 his eyes turned heavenward, exhorting the unfortunate 
 people to accept death in order to give life to their per- 
 secutors ! I cannot dispel from my mind the thought 
 that there were perhaps amongst them cherished relatives 
 of my ancestors, whose fate caused bitter mourning for 
 long years. Oh Lawrence ! Lawrence ! How many 
 tears you have caused to flow ! What unspeakable 
 anguish you are the author of ! What mattered to him 
 the representations of Nichols about the unseaworthi- 
 ness of his ship ? It would be lost, and there would be 
 an end of it. The master would be only the better 
 served. 
 
278 
 
 CBAMAHE AND MONCKTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Fate of a party of 200 Acadians coming from Quebec— The Acadi- 
 ans on the Gulf coast send delegates to Colonel Frye — Their sub- 
 mission and fate — The Compiler — New persecutions — Motives 
 of the local authorities — Belcher's administration — 1761-1763) — 
 General Amherst four times refuses to allow him to deport the 
 Acadians — He applies to the Lords of Trade and is refused — He 
 deports the Acadians to Boston without orders — They are re- 
 fused a landing there and are taken back to Halifax — Severe 
 blame from the Home authorities — Belcher is replaced by 
 Colonel Montague Wilmot — The Compiler. 
 
 Immediately after the capture of Quebec, two hun- 
 dred Acadians who had sought refuge there applied to 
 the authorities for the purpose of taking the oath of alle- 
 giance and obtaining permission to return to Acadia and 
 settle on their former property. The oath being taken, 
 Judge Cramahe' gave them a certificate, signed with his 
 own hand, by which he certified that these people had 
 taken the oath and that consequently Brigadier-General 
 Monckton had permitted them to return to their lands or 
 to settle on St. John River. Provided with this certifi- 
 cate, they set out accompanied by their families. The 
 undertaking was extremely painful; they had before 
 them a journey of 700 miles, 500 of which were across 
 a forest without habitations, without roads, at the aj>- 
 proach of winter, with children of every age. As may 
 be imagined, their sufferings and their privations were 
 necessarily terrible ; but, after all, they were alleviated 
 by the hope that they might at length live in peace in 
 
A STUPID PRETEXT. 
 
 279 
 
 their dear Acadia. Having set out from Quebec at the 
 beginning of October, they reached Fort Frederick on 
 St. John River towards the end of November. On 
 their arrival they presented their certificate to Colonel 
 Arbuthnot, who commanded this post. He referred 
 the matter to Lawrence, who declared that this per- 
 mission had been obtained under false pretences, 
 on the supposition that these people belonged to 
 some other river St. John in Canada. Consequently it 
 was decided, November 30th, 1759, that they should 
 be brought to Halifax and retained as prisoners while 
 awaiting a favorable opportunity to send them to 
 England. 
 
 This was a fresh outrage added to all the rest, and it 
 was still more disgraceful in that the pretext invented 
 by Lawrence was contradicted by the circumstances. In 
 fact, Monckton could not have made the mistake attrib- 
 uted to him, because there was no other such place in 
 Canada, and especially because Monckton was as well 
 acquainted with Acadia and the Acadians as Lawrence 
 himself. For it was the same Monckton who, four 
 years previously, had directed the deportation of the 
 Acadians from the innermost parts of the Bay of Fundy ; 
 it was also, I believe, the same Monckton who had 
 established Fort Frederick on that same River St. John. 
 Besides Monckton could not but have known that those 
 who asked him to be reinstated in the possession of 
 their lands were and could only be Acadians, because 
 nobody in Canada had been dispossessed of his lands 
 after the taking of Quebec. It is probable that several 
 of these unfortunate people had left their families at 
 Quebec until the formation of their projected new 
 settlements. The least Lawrence should have done, if 
 
280 
 
 UNREALIZED DREAMS. 
 
 ) 
 
 there remained in him any vestige of honor, was to 
 permit them to return to Quebec. 
 
 I have elsewhere related that a band of Acadians, 
 among whom were my ancestor, Michel Richard, then 
 15 years old, his sister Felicite*, aged 11 years, his grand- 
 father Rene' Richard, aged 79, and Madeleine Pellerin, 
 aged 5, who afterwards became Michel's wife, had as- 
 cended the St. John River during this same summer 
 of 1759, reaching Cacouna on the St. Lawrence River 
 about the middle of October. According to all proba- 
 bility this party of Acadians coming to Canada and 
 those who were returning to Acadia met somewhere in 
 the neighborhood of Cacouna. This meeting must 
 necessarily have suggested an exchange of sad thoughts, 
 and it is easy to imagine what formed the subject of 
 their intercourse after four long years of distress. How- 
 ever there was still some hope; one group thought 
 themselves on the point of entering again into possession 
 of their lands ; they had reason to hope that, after hard 
 and persevering work, they would be able eventually to 
 recover their former comfort and ease ; for the other 
 party, this hope was more distant, though they also 
 thought they would be able a little later to enjoy the 
 same advantages. All their relatives and friends dis- 
 persed here and there would return ; the old fatherland 
 would be restored, and, since France had lost its colonies 
 in America, they would no longer be troubled by the 
 vicissitudes of war. All this was yet far off and un- 
 certain ; but at least hope was the undercurrent of their 
 thoughts. All were about to be undeceived, and espe- 
 cially those who mistakenly thought they had most 
 reason to hope. 
 
 The peace of Quebec had led to the submission to 
 

 SUBMISSION OF ACADIANS. 281 
 
 England of the Acadians in Canada, and, as soon as the 
 news was known, their example was followed by those 
 on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As early as Nov. 16th, 
 Alexandre Brassard, Simon Martin, Jean Bastarache 
 and Joseph Brassard presented themselves at Fort 
 Cumberland (Beausejour) before Colonel Frye to signify 
 their submission. They said that they were delegated 
 for this purpose by 190 persons then refugees up to the 
 rivers Petitcodiac and Memramcook ; that they were 
 without means of subsistence, and they begged the 
 authorities to assist them during the winter. It was 
 agreed, between Colonel Frye and these delegates, that 
 a third of them would come to the fort, where they 
 would be fed during the winter, and, until their arrival, 
 Alexandre Brassard was retained as hostage. " After 
 the siege and fall of Quebec," says Murdoch, " the 
 Missionaries Manach and Maillard were disposed to 
 induce their followers, both Acadians and Indians, to 
 submit themselves to the English as a conquering nation. 
 The French officer Boishebert, who had been left on the 
 frontier to guard and promote French interests, was 
 very angry with these priests, because they advised 
 their people to submission. " 
 
 Two days later, Pierre Surette, Jean and Michel 
 Bourg presented themselves in turn to the commander 
 of the fort, as delegates for about 700 persons of Mira- 
 michi, Richibouctou and Bouctouche. It was similarly 
 agreed that a third of these people should betake them- 
 selves to the fort where they would receive rations till 
 spring. " By all which it pretty evidently appears," 
 wrote Colonel Frye to Lawrence, " that early in the 
 spring, there will be at this place and Bay Verte, about 
 
282 
 
 TRANSPORTED TO HALIFAX. 
 
 
 900 souls, to be disposed of as Your Excellency shall 
 see fit." 
 
 Colonel Frye's conduct was approved by the council ; 
 " His Excellency acquainted the Council that he was 
 informed, from Fort Cumberland, that the number of 
 Acadians that might be collected there would amount 
 to near 1,200 ; and that, as he apprehended that these 
 people are on the same footing with those who have 
 lately come to river St. John from Quebec, he desired the 
 advice of the Council whether it would not be proper to 
 send away the whole. 
 
 " The Council were of opinion that such a measure 
 would be extremely proper." 
 
 The fifth of the following August, Colonel Frye in- 
 formed the governor that he had at his disposal 400 
 Acadians, and that he expected 700 others in a few days. 
 
 " The Council having taken the same into consider- 
 ation, did advise that His Excellency would be pleased 
 to take up vessels to transport such of those inhabit- 
 ants to Halifax as were not able to travel by land, in 
 order to their being disposed of as hereafter may be 
 thought proper." 
 
 All these people, or at least a great part of them, were 
 in fact transported to Halifax while awaiting the oppor- 
 tunity for their deportation. 
 
 Here begins, against the Acadians, within the limits 
 of Nova Scotia, a new series of iniquitous measures on 
 which it is not easy to pass a correct judgment. This 
 part of the history is almost as obscure as that which 
 concerns the first deportation. Only one writer seems 
 to have understood it, and even he very imperfectly. 
 The volume of the Archives furnishes but meagre data. 
 It contains, no doubt, numerous documents, but those 
 
THHITY-FOUU LETTERS MISSING. 283 
 
 we should expect to find therein, those which appear 
 to us the most important are not there. I do not 
 desire to overload my work by pointing out at every 
 turn the numerous omissions I meet with ; but some are 
 so gross that I could not help indicating them. Let the 
 reader judge. He will readily admit that the most im- 
 portant documents, those which have a vital bearing on 
 the history of Nova Scotia, are the letters of the gov- 
 ernors either to the Lords of Trade or to other personages. 
 Now, we find from 1756 to 1761, thirty-four letters to 
 Lawrence without a single one of his replies, namely : 
 fifteen from General Amherst, five from Governor Pow- 
 nall, four from General Whitmore, three from Shirley, 
 three from Governor Phips, and four from Hutchinson, 
 Gibson and Rutherford. We find, moreover, in the 
 volume of Archives during the same period, letters 
 from generals or officers of lesser rank serving in other 
 parts of America to other generals or officers likewise 
 on duty outside Nova Scotia. These documents, dis- 
 coursing on events of the war in other parts of America, 
 may be important for history in general ; but, surely, in 
 a volume, the aim of which was to collect the documents 
 which referred to the special history of the province, 
 the letters of one of its governors should have been 
 deemed far more important than those of officers writ- 
 ing to one another outside the Province. Such, very 
 properly, was the intention of the Legislature of 
 Nova Scotia, as may be gathered from the resolution 
 of this assembly concerning the publication of this 
 volume. 
 
 " The House of Assembly of N. S., on the motion of Hon. 
 Joseph Howe, adopted the following resolution : That His Excel- 
 lency the Governor be respectfully requested to cause the ancient 
 
284 THE COMPILER MUTE. 
 
 records and documents illustrative of the history and progress oj 
 society in this province, to be examined, preserved and arranged," 
 etc., etc. 
 
 If there were question only of a few letters not pub- 
 lished, I would pass over the omission in silence, as I 
 have very often done elsewhere ; but, when there is a 
 total of thirty-four letters, and not a single reply from 
 him who was Governor of the province, the omission 
 appears so strange as to be positively astounding. It 
 cannot be that Lawrence never answered the letters 
 that were addressed to him, since General Amherst, 
 writing from Albany on May 29th, 1759, acknowledged 
 the receipt of three letters, dated April 15th, 23d and 
 27th. On the 5th of February, 1760, the same Amherst 
 acknowledged the receipt of four, namely, one of Aug. 
 22d, another of Sept. 17th, and two others of the 
 month of December. Have they also disappeared from 
 the Archives like all the other documents that related to 
 the first deportation, and of which Hali burton speaks ? 
 If so, is it not astonishing that the Compiler of these 
 Archives has not, in some short note at the foot of the 
 page, such as he very often inserts when it suits him, 
 mentioned this strange fact, even without comment if 
 comment displeases him, in order to inform the reader 
 of this disappearance or of the reasons he might have 
 for suppressing them? Lawrence had every advantage 
 for saying only just what he wished, he was stating and 
 pleading his own case ; but the public would thereby 
 have been, to a certain extent, in possession of the facts 
 and able to judge of them in spite of the artful diplo- 
 macy of his language ; it was little, but this little might 
 still be dangerous. Such is the only explanation I can 
 suggest. The too complaisant Compiler did not dare to 
 
ACADIANS LONGING FOR QUIET. 285 
 
 put the public in a position to examine into the reasons 
 of that disappearance or of his own silence. 
 
 However, in spite of all these omissions, I will try to 
 get at the bottom of this lamentable history and expose 
 the turpitude that lies hidden under this interested cur- 
 tailment which time-serving worthies like Parkman and 
 Thomas B. Akins try to conceal. 
 
 No great array of documents is needed to betray the 
 motives of Lawrence, Belcher, Wilmot, and the rest of 
 Lawrence's crew. The little we have is quite sufficient. 
 With less documents the labor is greater ; but the end 
 is attained just as surely. 
 
 In the obscure parts of history the task of the his- 
 torian becomes a process of careful pondering rather 
 than one of rapid search through numerous documents. 
 In the present instance this is the only available method. 
 It has stood me in good stead in previous chapters by 
 lighting up dark corners, and will, I feel sure, be equally 
 serviceable in the unillumined region I have yet to 
 traverse. 
 
 Quebec had surrendered ; the people had yielded up 
 their arms and taken the oath of allegiance; all had 
 been left in the peaceful possession of their property. 
 Amherst, writing to Lawrence under date of May 4th, 
 1760, said: "Six thousand Canadians have taken the 
 oath, and brought in their arms; they seem much 
 pleased with their change of masters; we employed 
 several of them, whom we paid, and they did their 
 business cheerfully and well." 
 
 The two hundred Acadians who bore a permit from 
 Monckton had taken the oath at about the same time, 
 and they hoped for similar treatment, to which they 
 had a greater right than the Canadians. The same may 
 
286 
 
 KEPT IN SUSPENSE. 
 
 be said of the Acadian refugees on the Gulf coast, since, 
 in spite of the pressing solicitations of the French com- 
 mandant, de Boishe*bert, they left him to throw them- 
 selves on Lawrence's mercy. For the latter, this was a 
 good opportunity to ensure at one stroke the immediate, 
 complete and final pacification of Nova Scotia, and to 
 annex a group of hard-working, virtuous people that 
 could not but contribute to the progress and develop- 
 ment of the country. They were anxious for rest and 
 quiet; they longed for the cessation of hostilities in 
 order to see the end of their sufferings, to resume their 
 former peaceful life, to begin again, if need be in some 
 other part of the Province, the long and painful labors 
 that had earned for them that abundance of which they 
 had been unjustly despoiled. These were the motives 
 that prompted them to surrender to Lawrence at the 
 first news of the taking of Quebec. It would no doubt 
 have been cruel to drive them away from their lands at 
 a time when these were still unoccupied ; but I think 
 they would have accepted without a murmur any other 
 uncleared lands in a suitable place. 
 
 Nothing of the sort was offered them. As soon as 
 they had submitted to Colonel Frye, it was decided 
 that they should be deported ; but, in order not to alarm 
 them and thus hinder their gathering together under 
 military supervision, this decision was withheld from 
 them as long as was deemed necessary. Meanwhile, 
 although they learnt the shameful way in which their 
 brothers coming from Quebec under protection of an 
 official promise had been treated, yet all those who had 
 promised to surrender made it a point of honor to fulfil 
 their promise. 
 
 There still remained a good many Acadians in the 
 
MOTIVE NOT CRUELTY NOR FEAR, 287 
 
 Baie des Chaleurs, and a few in the upper reaches of 
 the St. John River. These would have been ready to 
 submit, had they not had before their eyes the example 
 of the treatment inflicted upon the refugees from Que- 
 bec. Seeing that submission was followed by imprison- 
 ment and threats of future woes, might it not to be 
 better to preserve their liberty, wretched though it was, 
 and even to become the irreconcilable enemies of a 
 nation that was so unrelenting ? 
 
 Such was the situation. Whoever strips himself of 
 preconceived notions and opens his eyes to the light 
 will find no difficulty in understanding what was going 
 on. What, then, was the motive that prevented Law- 
 rence, Belcher and Wilmot from welcoming the un- 
 armed Acadian remnant? This question many have 
 put themselves without answering it plainly, because a 
 plain answer would have been too disagreeable. Why 
 worry over a problem when the solution threatens to be 
 humiliating ? Why do justice to a small nation which 
 by this time has probably forgotten its history, and 
 none of whose sons will be likely to dive into this lost 
 chapter ? No such hindrances stand in my way ; I 
 mean to probe the matter to the bottom, to clear up, as 
 far as I can, every mystery, to explain what seems 
 inexplicable. 
 
 Cruel as Lawrence was, his cruelty cannot stand as a 
 full explanation ; we have to look elsewhere. There 
 remains, therefore, but one alternative. When obvious 
 motives do not suffice, some motive of self-interest must 
 be sought for. It could not be fear of armed hostilities 
 that prevented Lawrence from allowing these unarmed 
 people, surrendering at discretion, to settle in the coun- 
 try. France was conquered, dispossessed of Canada, 
 
288 
 
 BUT PILLAGE. 
 
 
 Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island ; there was no 
 longer a single French soldier in the whole country ; 
 what, then, was there to fear from this handful of 
 settlers, who were longing for quiet and who proved the 
 peacefulness of their intentions by spontaneously giving 
 themselves up against the will of French officers directly 
 after the fall of Quebec ? 
 
 It is certain that Lawrence had made up his mind to 
 deport them before they had given any cause for com- 
 plaint ; this is proved by the imprisonment of those who 
 had come to settle on the St. John River with the 
 permission of Monckton, and by Lawrence's suggesting 
 to his Council, as soon as he heard of Acadian* sub- 
 mitting to Colonel Frye, that these Acadians should be 
 deported. His motive is not far to seek. Do we not 
 know that his Councillors had voted to each of their 
 number a grant of 20,000 acres from the lands of 
 the Acadians? Do we not know that, later on, either 
 to satisfy the greed of influential persons who were 
 jealous of the Councillors' windfall, or to force them to 
 endorse their conduct, the remainder of the Acadian 
 farms were parcelled out to all those who had any 
 standing in the Province ? Do we not know that, later 
 still, in order to ensure impunity and powerful support 
 from the Home Government, the crown lands were 
 handed over to be pillaged by the highest officers of the 
 army, by noble lords and doughty generals, by Lord 
 Egremont, Lord Colville, Dr. Franklin (soon after- 
 wards Postmaster-general of England), Generals Bou- 
 quet and Haldimand, Sir Robert Wilmot, Lady Wilmot 
 and many others ? 
 
 All this had not yet come to pass at the time I am 
 now speaking of; but the pillage was beginning and 
 
FATTENING FAVORITES. 289 
 
 was to continue with ever-increasing vigor. These 
 grants were not all gratuitous nor unconditional ; there 
 were great, middling and small privileges proportioned 
 to the influence of the grantees ; but all were equally 
 eager for the spoils, and each aspirant for booty carried 
 away the consoling morsel that earned his silence or his 
 support, and was at liberty to flaunt it in the face of 
 the legitimate Acadian proprietor or of the poor tenant 
 who should take the latter's place. As may well be 
 imagined, Lawrence's councillors were not recipients of 
 the small privileges. Belcher, his successor, had his 
 goodly share, and so must Wilmot have had his. 
 
 4 ' In closing the outline of the year 1765," says Murdoch, 1 "and 
 reflecting on the very large land grants, sanctioned by Governor Wil- 
 mot and his Council, I cannot help thinking it an ugly year, and that 
 the growth of the Province was long retarded by the rashness of 
 giving forest lands away from the power of the crown or the people 
 in such large masses." 
 
 When all the lands of the Acadians had been thrown 
 to these hungry vultures, the authorities had to fall 
 back on the uncleared lands, and these were flung, by 
 the thousand acres at a time, to favorites. There must 
 have been many assumed names among the grantees; 
 one grant was not enough for the more greedy ones, 
 who went on the principle that " you can't have too 
 much of a good thing ; " but, when they received more 
 than one grant, they could easily mask their identity 
 under a name borrowed for a consideration. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs in what Murdoch calls 
 that " ugly year," 1765. How many fortunes date their 
 inception from this shameful complicity ! How many 
 
 i VoL ii., p. 455. 
 
 19 
 
i 
 
 290 SWEET ENGLISH RULE. 
 
 scamps sprang from this mud into lordly grandeur ! If 
 one had to go back to the beginnings of great families 
 whose descendants browbeat one with their opulence, 
 if one had to scrutinize the foundations of many great 
 names, the man of stainless honor would perhaps thank 
 Providence for the lowliness of his own origin. For my 
 part, I deem it a greater satisfaction to be descended 
 from humble victims of oppression than from their 
 haughty oppressors. 1 
 
 The reader is now in a position to understand why 
 the poor Acadians, who threw themselves on the mercy 
 of their oppressors, were not kindly welcomed as they 
 should have been, but imprisoned until they could be 
 deported ; why they were not even suffered to settle in 
 some isolated part of the Province ; why their oppres- 
 sors persisted in deporting them to such a distance that 
 they would never think of returning; why Lawrence, 
 and, after him, Belcher and Wilmot, importuned Am- 
 herst to allow them to get rid of the Acadians ; why 
 they described the latter as discontented, dangerous and 
 incapable of appreciating what they called " the lenity 
 and sweet of English rule." Strange sweetness indeed, 
 which treated them as prisoners and convicts directly 
 after they had submitted, and was on the look-out for a 
 chance of deporting them to the ends of the earth ! These 
 men would have been either more or less than human, 
 if they had not felt the humiliations and the mental tor- 
 tures that were inflicted upon them, if they had not 
 resented them in words. Even the most submissive 
 hound will snap and snarl when the lash is applied 
 
 i The Compiler's extracts from the Archives contain a number of Orders 
 in Council, but none that bear on these land grants ; and yet orders of this 
 latter kind are in the Archives, as Parkman well knew. 
 
NO REBELLIOUS ACT. 
 
 291 
 
 unsparingly. And yet, despite this accumulation of 
 wrongs, can there be found, amid all the documents of 
 their oppressors, mention of one single act of rebellion 
 on the part of the Acadians, from the date of their sur- 
 render in December, 1759, till 1766? If any mention of 
 such an act can be produced, I should be curious to see 
 it. We read, in the letters written with a view to obtain 
 leave to deport them, that fears were entertained about 
 the future, that the Acadians were dangerous beings 
 who would seize the first opportunity to revolt. Such 
 statements were necessary in order to obtain the desired 
 leave ; but there is no mention of a single act of insub- 
 ordination, though, if any such act had occurred, it 
 would beyond a doubt have been mentioned in the 
 letters to Amherst. The only definite charge made, 
 and from it strong inferences are drawn, is that certain 
 groups of Acadians had not yet submitted and " were 
 lurking in the woods." Does this not prove how base- 
 less were the grievances of the authorities ? Pray, were 
 these poor people obliged to give themselves up to im- 
 prisonment, followed as it was to be by deportation? 
 The marvel is that the men thus dragged to prison did 
 not hurl themselves upon their oppressors and rend them 
 limb from limb, before receiving the fatal blow that would 
 have put an end to their embittered and hopeless lives. 
 Ah ! but they thought of their sorrow-stricken families 
 groaning under want, separation and the bereavements 
 of death, and they feared to add to their anguish and to 
 leave them without support or solace in the throes 
 of their agony. They also found in their religion — a 
 subject of mockery for their tyrants — the strength 
 and the courage to bear and forbear and mayhap to 
 forgive. 
 
292 BOBBERS DREAD THEIR VICTIMS. 
 
 Let us now examine the mutilated correspondence of 
 the Governors to see if we can detect, in these artfully 
 constructed documents, some unguarded expression 
 that betrays- the secret they were so anxious to hide. 
 While making this examination, we must bear in 
 mind that these land-robbers felt they would be ex- 
 posing themselves to the pressing of claims dangerous 
 for their own tranquillity, if they allowed the Acadians 
 to remain in the Province. If these Acadians were 
 once admitted, all the others who could return from 
 exile would have to be admitted likewise. Would they 
 consent without a murmur to become the tenants-at- 
 will of Lawrence's councillors on lands that belonged 
 to them and had been cleared by their forefathers ? 
 And if they consented to plunge into the forest, there 
 to carve out a new homestead, would not the daily and 
 involuntary nearness of their misery be a continual 
 reproach to their despoilers? Does the criminal enjoy 
 being all his life confronted with his victim? Does 
 the successful swindler build his splendid mansion next 
 to the hovel of the man lie lias ruined? Might not this 
 awkward neighborhood open the eyes of the public and 
 the Lords of Trade, disgrace the land-robbers and bring 
 about the annulment of the titles they either had already 
 secured or were about to secure ? And this was no small 
 risk, since, even with all their wise precautions, the 
 Lords of Trade, a few years later, cut down their 
 grants from 20,000 to 5,000 acres. Hence it became an 
 urgent necessity to scatter the Acadian refugees far 
 and wide, so that they might forget their country, their 
 nationality, their language, their religion and lose 
 the very remembrance of what they had been in the 
 past. 
 
SEEKING " PERFECT SECURITY." 293 
 
 Lawrence and his councillors were not slow to scent 
 the danger ahead, and, at the first intimation of the 
 arrival of 200 Acadians with permits to settle in the 
 Province, it was resolved that they be banished once 
 more. As soon as Frye sent in his first communication 
 announcing that the Acadians of the coast were about to 
 submit, Lawrence advised his Council to deport them. 
 " He desired the advice of the Council whether it would 
 not be proper to take up Transports to send away the 
 whole" 
 
 Whereupon, "The Council, were of opinion that such a measure 
 would be extremely proper, and seemed absolutely necessary, in order 
 to facilitate the settlement of the Acadian lands by the persons who 
 are coming from the Continent for that purpose, who, otherwise, 
 would be always liable to be obstructed in their progress by the in- 
 cursions of these French inhabitants. Whereas, on the contrary, if 
 they are removed out of the Province, the settlement will remain in 
 perfect security." 
 
 The motive is clear enough. The lands they wanted 
 to protect against troublesome claims and exposure were 
 now theirs ; it could not be expected that a resolution of 
 this kind would contain any explicit mention of the 
 danger that threatened the Councillors' own spoils ; 
 they had to cloak their thoughts with the welfare of the 
 settlement in general ; but to any one reading between 
 the lines, it was the " perfect security " of their private 
 interests they wished to protect. All great rogues 
 adopt similar tactics. 
 
 However, before deporting all these Acadians, it was 
 necessary to obtain the consent of the authorities in 
 other countries. England had received her share of 
 Acadian exiles ; the provinces of New England thought 
 they had more than their share. To act without their 
 consent might be dangerous. What was to be done ? 
 
} 
 
 294 AMHERST IS FOR RETAINING ACADIANS. 
 
 On February 20th, 1761, Belcher, who had succeeded 
 Lawrence after the latter's demise, submitted to his 
 Council a letter in which General Amherst recommended 
 " the continuation of the Acadians in the Province." 
 
 Whereupon, etc., etc., "The Council proceeded to take the same 
 into consideration, etc., etc. And that it is their unanimous opinion 
 that the said French Acadians cannot by the said Royal order and 
 the said Provincial law, be permitted to remain in the Province, and 
 the Council did advise that this their opinion may be submitted 
 with all deference to the consideration of His Excellency General 
 Amherst." 
 
 On March 22d Amherst replied to this resolution of 
 
 the Council : 
 
 "New York, 22d March, 1761. 
 " Your dispatch of the 25th of February reached my hands last 
 night ; I have nothing more at heart than the advantage and the 
 security of the Province of Nova Scotia ; if the removal of the Aca- 
 dians still remaining within the same could add to either, I should 
 be the first to advise their expulsion; but as under the new circum- 
 stances of that valuable and nourishing Province, I do not see that it 
 can have anything to fear from those Acadians, but on the contrary 
 that great advantages might be reaped in employing them properly; 
 I must own I should incline towards letting them in the Province 
 under proper regulations and restrictions. 1 ' 
 
 Amherst, as a stranger to the Province and probably 
 unaware of the secret motives of Belcher and his Coun- 
 cil, could not, it would seem, do otherwise than accept 
 without discussion their views. Had he done so, 
 there would have been no ground for surprise ; but, 
 being a thoughtful man, anxious for the welfare of the 
 country, he did not see the wisdom of their request. 
 
 Not content with sending to Amherst the resolution 
 of his Council, Belcher wrote him two other letters on 
 the same subject before he had received the answer given 
 above. One of these letters bears date March 11th, the 
 
BELCHER TRIES FOUR TIMES. 295 
 
 other, March 19th. These two letters are not in the 
 volume of the Archives ; but the answer shows that they 
 referred again to the desired permission to deport the 
 Acadians. Amherst replies on April 15th : 
 
 " I beg to differ in opinion with you on the insufficiency of troops 
 in your Province. Those that are destined to remain there are far 
 more than requisite under your present circumstances, for the danger 
 the late Governor might last year have some reason to apprehend is 
 now entirely removed. The few Acadians at Ristigouche that are 
 said not to have yet surrendered under the capitulation, can, 1 am 
 certain, make no object, even were they to persist in their error ; but 
 depend upon it, they will soon awaken out of it and rejoice at our 
 acceptance of their submission." 
 
 This was a rebuke. After three such categorical 
 answers, all implying a refusal, it would seem Belcher 
 and his Council ought to have definitely given up their 
 plan of deportation. But they were not satisfied. On 
 April 15th, in a long letter to Amherst, Belcher enumer- 
 ates anew all his fears for the peace and tranquillity of 
 the Province ; but this time he adds a new motive, 
 which, he hopes, must persuade Amherst to grant the 
 longed-for permission : 
 
 11 Besides the reasons I have already offered to you, why attempts 
 from these people are to be feared, there yet remains one of some 
 weight, which is, that there are many amongst the Acadians at Risti- 
 gouche, who were formerly in possession of some of those lands in 
 the District of Beaubassin, and as they have not yet lost hopes of re- 
 gaining them, through notions which they have received from priests 
 and Frenchmen, I think it at least probable that they will disturb 
 the beginnings of these settlements, in which case, the loss of two or 
 three lives will strike such terror as may not only intimidate and 
 drive away the people of these townships, but may also greatly 
 obstruct the settlement of other parts." 
 
 There yet remained one more solitary reason, and 
 Belcher could not give up the game without invoking 
 
296 HE PRACTICALLY REFUTES HIMSELF. 
 
 it. In fact, it was no new reason, but the only and true 
 one disguised : the danger for the security of his spoils. 
 He thought it strong enough to justify his importunity, 
 but Amherst was no man to yield to mere ungrounded 
 insistence. Apparently this new reason had prompted 
 this new letter ; Belcher thought it decisive. Though 
 he had, for a whole year, kept about a thousand Acadi- 
 ans imprisoned at Halifax, the only grievance he could 
 trump up was fear for the future. He could not point 
 to one fact, one murder, one assault, one theft, not even 
 to a refusal to obey. Verily, this was a bitter disap- 
 pointment ; his 20,000 acres were in jeopardy. 
 
 Amherst replied on the 28th of April by another 
 refusal, the fourth : 
 
 " I cannot say I am under apprehensions for the settlements 
 which are to be established at Beaubassin. The Acadians may not 
 be so thoroughly well disposed as I could wish, but I expect a differ- 
 ent behavior from them, for they never have been in the situation 
 they are now in, and they can hardly be mad enough to attempt any- 
 thing against the establishment of the Province at this time." 
 
 Thereafter Belcher seems to have abandoned all hope 
 of obtaining from that quarter the authorization he so 
 eagerly desired ; for we find no other correspondence 
 between him and Amherst for a long time, with the ex- 
 ception of the following letter, asking leave to employ 
 the Acadians in work for the new colonists. He thus 
 refuted himself, since he could, without danger, employ 
 these men whom he had represented as so dangerous. 
 The colonists themselves can have apprehended no 
 danger, since the leave was asked at their own request. 
 
 " Halifax, 18th June, 1761. 
 " Sir: By representations made to m&from the new settlements in 
 this Province, it appears extremely necessary that the inhabitants 
 

 
 BELCHER WRITES TO LORDS OF TRADES. 297 
 
 should be assisted by the Acadians in repairing the dykes for the 
 preservation and recovery of the marsh lands, particularly as on the 
 progress of this work, in which the Acadians are the most skillful in 
 the country, the support and subsistence of several of the inhabitants 
 will depend. 
 
 " This weighty reason, together with the consideration of the great 
 service rendered these settlements through the Acadians by the late 
 governor last year, urges me to repeat my application. . . . And I 
 shall expect the less difficulty on this occasion, as the Secretary of 
 Military Affairs assured me some time since, from you, that the 
 Acadians should be ready to receive my orders on half an hour's 
 warning." 
 
 Thus were the Acadians set to work on their own 
 lands, to assist those who had been put in their places 
 and who were profiting by the labor of a century. Think 
 of these dangerous Acadians submitting to a compulsory 
 labor that racked their very souls, and that " at half an 
 hour's warning ! " They had submitted to this imposi- 
 tion the previous year, apparently without resistance, 
 and now it was required of them again. What more is 
 needed to demonstrate that all the fears of Belcher and 
 his Council were merely contemptible pretexts invented 
 to cover their real fears about their own land grants ? 
 And yet the Acadians were perverse enough, forsooth, 
 not to appreciate " the lenity and the sweet of English 
 rule!" 
 
 The volume of the Archives does not contain any 
 letter of Belcher's showing that, after his fourfold fail- 
 ure with Amherst, he applied to the Lords of Trade ; 
 but the following extract from one of their letters proves 
 that he did : 
 
 "Whitehall, 23d June, 1761. 
 " The number of Acadians you state to have been collected together 
 in different parts of the Province, and their hostile disposition, ap- 
 pears to us to be a very untoward circumstance in the present state of 
 
298 INDIRECT PROOF OF REFUSAL. 
 
 the Province, but as it does not properly belong to our department to 
 give directions upon a matter of this nature, we must refer you to His 
 Majesty's Secretary of State, to whom we have transmitted copies of 
 such of your letters, and the papers received with them, as relate to 
 this subject." 
 
 The Compiler produces nothing but the above short 
 extract of this important letter ; however it is sufficiently 
 clear for my present purpose ; Belcher had written to 
 the Lords of Trade and his letters and papers (not pro- 
 duced), in which he asked leave to banish the Acadians, 
 were referred to Lord Egremont, the Secretary of State, 
 that he might answer them. 
 
 This answer is not in the volume of the Archives ; but, 
 seven months later, January 9th, 1762, we find a letter 
 from Belcher to the Secretary of State. The usual 
 asterisks show that it is garbled in passages that appear 
 important ; yet, by the way in which he presents new 
 motives for the deportation, it clearly implies that his 
 request had been refused : 
 
 " I beg leave to represent to your Lordship, that besides these per- 
 sons, there are many others of the Acadians in this Province, who 
 although they have surrendered themselves, are yet ever ready and 
 watchful for an opportunity, either by assistance from the French, or 
 from hopes of stirring up the Indians to disturb and distress the new 
 settlements lately made, and those now forming; I am perfectly con- 
 vinced, from the whole course of their behavior and disposition, that 
 they cannot with any safety become again the inhabitants of it." 
 
 Though the volume of the Archives does not contain 
 the answer of the Secretary of State, we can infer with 
 certainty that it was unfavorable, because nearly seven 
 months went by without Belcher's making any move 
 toward deportation. Had the reply been favorable, 
 Belcher would undoubtedly have hastened to make use 
 
belcher's council on the defensive. 299 
 
 of a permission he was so anxious to obtain. This in- 
 ference is made still more evident by the letter of the 
 Lords of Trade under date of the 3d of the following 
 December, reproduced further on, in which they dis- 
 tinctly condemn the deportation that had then just taken 
 place. 
 
 On July 26th, 1762, Belcher and his Council decided 
 upon banishing all the Acadians. The resolution em- 
 bodying all the motives of their decision is very long ; 
 all possible grievances are collected therein ; and yet, 
 strange to say, it contains no mention of any act of hos- 
 tility or actual resistance ; on the contaary, it is strictly 
 confined to apprehensions about the future. One feels 
 that the Council is making a last decisive effort to draw 
 up a document in self-defence in case of need. This 
 resolution, as we shall see, speaks of no authorization 
 whatever, either from the Secretary of State or General 
 Amherst ; and how could it, since, as is evident, its 
 raison d'etre was the very refusals Belcher had met at 
 their hands ? Lawrence had succeeded by sheer auda- 
 city ; they were trying the same plan. In the event of 
 a rebuke, Belcher would plead the opinion of his Coun- 
 cil and the local circumstances which imperatively called 
 for some such action. Here is the conclusion of this 
 document : 
 
 " For all which reasons, the Council are of opinion that, in this 
 time of danger it is absolutely necessary immediately to transport 
 the Acadians out of this Province, as their continuing longer in it 
 may be attended with the ivorst circumstances to the projected new 
 settlements in particular, as well as to the general safety of the 
 Province. And therefore, the Council do unanimously advise and 
 recommend, in the most earnest manner, for the safety and secu- 
 rity of this Province and its new settlements, that the Lieutenant- 
 Governor would be pleased to take the speediest method to collect 
 
300 BOLD BAD BELCHER. 
 
 and transport the said Acadians out of this Province ; and do fur- 
 ther advise that, as the Province of Massachusetts is nearest ad- 
 jacent to this Province, that the Lieutenant-Governor would be 
 pleased to cause them to be transported to that Province with all 
 convenient dispatch." 
 
 This new deportation, after so many explicit refusals, 
 both from Amherst and the Home authorities, was a 
 piece of audacity on a par with Lawrence's ; Belcher's 
 disobedience was even far worse, and the danger he was 
 placing himself in was such that it is legitimate to in- 
 fer that he had, or thought he had, great private interests 
 to serve thereby. Lawrence had sheltered himself be- 
 hind his Council, so did Belcher ; and we may well sup- 
 pose that this strongly-worded resolution was handed 
 ready-made by him to his subservient and equally inter- 
 ested Council. This was a wise precaution, but the pen- 
 alty, if any, could not very well fall on his Council ; he 
 alone would be made to suffer. The sequel will show 
 that he did. 
 
 Belcher was successful only in so far as he succeeded 
 in obtaining from Amherst a sort of semi-approval of 
 the accomplished fact. Here is the part of Amherst's 
 letter which refers to it : 
 
 "Although I cannot help thinking that these people might have 
 been kept in proper subjection while the troops remained in Nova 
 Scotia, yet I must own I am glad you have taken the measures for 
 removing them, as they might have become troublesome when 
 the Province was drained of the forces." * 
 
 * Sir Jeffrey Amherst has won great distinction for his intelligence and 
 ■wisdom in the conduct of affairs in America during the war, and it may 
 be well deserved. But, at the same time, his moral worth, judging from 
 some of his correspondent with Colonel Bouquet, could not very well be 
 of a very high order. In 1763, while the Pontiac conspiracy was in prog- 
 ress, he wrote to the latter: 
 
 " Might w« not try to spread smallpox anions the rebel Indian tribes? 
 We must in this occasion make use of every device to reduce them." 
 
BROOKS AGAIN PRAISES ACADtANS. 301 
 
 This is, briefly, what had happened. Directly after 
 the resolution of his Council, Belcher sent off in great 
 haste to Boston five vessels filled with Acadians. The 
 Legislature of Massachusetts peremptorily refused to 
 receive the exiles. The urgent entreaties of Captain 
 Brooks * and even of Governor Bernard could not over- 
 come the resistance of that Assembly. They went so 
 far as to refuse to await the return of a messenger that 
 was to be despatched to General Amherst. Hancock, 
 who in Boston represented the Government of Nova 
 Scotia, refused to provide provisions. After waiting 
 two or three weeks in Boston harbor, Captain Brooks, 
 commander of the expedition, was obliged to return to 
 Halifax with his shipment of exiles. 
 
 Their return provoked in Belcher's camp an explosion 
 of anger against the Massachusetts Legislature, which 
 
 " I will try," answered Bouquet, " to introduce smallpox by means of 
 blankets, which we will cause to fall into their hands." 
 
 That suggestion was adopted by Amherst. " You will do well," he again 
 wrote him, " to try to spread smallpox by means of blankets, and by every 
 other means which might help to exterminate that abominable race." 
 
 A few months afterwards smallpox made awful havoc among the un- 
 fortunate tribes. 
 
 * This is the same Captain Brooks Watson who, in 1791, wrote for the 
 Rev. Dr. Brown the description of Acadian manners, quoted in a previous 
 chapter. Elsewhere, he speaks as follows of their behavior in exile and of 
 their return : 
 
 " Their orderly conduct (in Georgia), their integrity, sobriety and fru- 
 gality, secured to them the good will of the people and gained them com- 
 fortable support. But, still longing for their native country, all their in- 
 dustry was stimulated, all their hopes supported, by that landmark of 
 their former felicity; many of them built boats, and, taking their families, 
 coasted the whole American shore, from Georgia to Nova Scotia. But, 
 alas ! what did they find? All was desolated; for, the more effectually to 
 drive them out of the country, all their houses had been burnt, all their 
 cattle killed by order of Government : hence they found no shelter ; still they 
 persevered with never-failing fortitude, with unremitting industry, and. 
 established themselves in different remote parts of the Province, where 
 they had been suffered to remain, but without any legal property ; at least, 
 I have not heard of any land having been granted to them. . . 
 
 "Their numbers, I am told, have increased about two thousand, and, I 
 am informed, they still continue what I know them to have been in 
 their prosperous state, an honest, sober, industrious and virtuous people." 
 — Hon. Brooks Watson to Bev. Andrew Brown, July 1st, 1791. 
 
302 BLAME FROM THE LORDS OF TRADE. 
 
 had refused to be, for the second time, a party to such 
 odious persecution. The situation was a critical one 
 for him; he had to explain matters to the Lords of 
 Trade and the Secretary of State. This foolish enter- 
 prise had been undertaken without their assent, without 
 that of Amherst. His was, indeed, a most ticklish 
 position. Happily for him, however, Amherst had, 
 after the event, granted a semblance of approval to the 
 fact; and this is the point Belcher insists on most 
 strongly in his defence, taking care to speak of it in 
 veiled language as if the approval had preceded the 
 fact. Yet, incredible to relate, after so many rebuffs, 
 he still persisted in asking leave to deport the Aca- 
 dians. 
 
 The Compiler does not produce the answer of the 
 Secretary of State. As to the Lords of Trade, their an- 
 swer, which is also absent from the volume of the Ar- 
 chives, can be gathered from the following extract of 
 the minutes of their meetings to be found in the Ar- 
 chives : 
 
 "Dec. 3d, 1762. 
 " Their Lordships, upon consideration of Mr. Belcher's letter of 
 26th October, 1762, which relates to the removal of the Acadians, 
 are of opinion that this measure and the future disposition of these 
 Acadians is entirely within the department of the Secretary of 
 State. Their Lordships, however, could not but be of opinion, 
 that, however expedient it might have been to have removed the 
 Acadians at a time when the enterprises of the enemy threatened 
 danger to the Province, yet, as that danger is now over and hos- 
 tilities between the two nations have ceased, it was neither neces- 
 sary nor politic to remove them, as they might, by a proper dis- 
 position, promote the interest of the colony, and be made useful 
 members of society, agreeable to what appear to be the sentiments 
 of General Amherst in his letter to the Lieutenant-Governor." 
 
 The castigation was severe and vigorously applied. 
 
ANOTHER IMPORTANT LETTER MISSING. 303 
 
 Moreover, we are led to understand that Belcher dis- 
 torted the meaning of that letter of General Amherst 
 from which he pretended to seek support. This was 
 not the time nor the place for the Lords of Trade to 
 express an opinion on the first great deportation of 
 1755 ; but the language in which they allude to it seems 
 to imply condemnation. 
 
 As I gather from the above minutes of proceedings, 
 the matter was deemed too important for the Lords of 
 Trade to adjudicate upon. Belcher's conduct was to be 
 judged by the Secretary of State himself; but, so stupid 
 and cruel did it appear to them, that they could not 
 refrain from expressing an opinion. It follows, as a 
 matter of course, that the Secretary of State wrote to 
 Belcher on the subject. It is but reasonable to suppose 
 that his blame was still more severe, and, likely, it con- 
 tained his dismissal, for, shortly after, Belcher was 
 removed from office. Where is this letter ? Why is it 
 not in the volume of Archives ? It would be one of the 
 most important in the whole volume, just as much so as 
 the letter of the Lords of Trade to Belcher reciting 
 Lawrence's many misdeeds, the same also omitted from 
 that volume.* 
 
 The sequence of events just related is fairly orderly 
 and clear ; but it would be a mistake to suppose that 
 the Compiler of the volume of the Archives has followed 
 the order I have adopted. On the contrary, to dis- 
 entangle this confused part of the Archives required an 
 amount of patience which no one else appears to have 
 brought to bear upon it. From the end of 1759 to 
 1763, the papers are jumbled together without order of 
 dates or even of years, and great pains are needed to 
 
 *To be found at page 142, Chapter XXXII., of this book. 
 
304 WHAT EXONERATES THE LORDS OF TRADE. 
 
 reconstitute the natural connection of the facts. This 
 disorder is inexplicable, unless it be the result of 
 design. 
 
 On a close and pitiless examination of all the inci- 
 dents of the successive Acadian expulsions, some of the 
 blame might be made to rest with those who held in 
 their hands the destinies of England ; but there are two 
 considerations that almost completely save the honor 
 of the Home Government. One is the system of mis- 
 representation begun by Lawrence and continued by 
 Belcher and others ; this was a conspiracy of calumny 
 and opportune silence, the very existence of which was 
 most probably not suspected in England. The other is 
 the breaking out of the war, which was alread} T certain 
 when first the Lords of Trade learned of the deporta- 
 tion, and which absorbed all other concerns of what 
 seemed to them minor importance. Sorry as this com- 
 fort is for those who have suffered so much, the de- 
 scendants of the exiled Acadians will welcome it as a 
 solace in their misfortune. 
 
 If audacity often triumphs, if nothing succeeds like 
 success, conversely, nothing fails like failure. Belcher's 
 usefulness was gone. He was replaced, soon after his 
 fiasco, by that same Wilmot whom the Rev. Hugli 
 Graham called a poor tool, and who " once upon a time " 
 paid the bounty for twenty-five Acadian scalps, saying 
 " that the law might be strained and that there was a 
 necessity for winking at these things." 
 
 This was drifting from bad to worse. Opportunities 
 for wholesale spoliation are like revolution ; they throw 
 up to the surface hideous monsters of greed, hungry 
 jackals hankering for their prey. 
 
 Before taking leave of Belcher I will relate another 
 
SOME ACADIANS NOT YET FERRETED OTJT. 305 
 
 incident of his administration, and it is a new iniquity. 
 Among the powerful reasons he laid before the Lords of 
 Trade to obtain leave to deport the Acadians, there was 
 one on which he insisted strongly as an unanswerable 
 proof of their evil dispositions : 
 
 "I beg leave to remark further, that none of the Acadians have 
 ever made voluntary submission, but on the contrary, their wants 
 and terrors only have reduced them to it, of which there is an in- 
 stance from some of them remaining at the village of Ste. Anne on 
 the St. John's River, to the amount of forty, who have yet made no 
 offers of surrender." 
 
 This was true ; these few families had not given 
 themselves up. They had preferred — horrible to re- 
 late — their freedom with the wretched and precarious 
 existence it entailed to a submission that would mean 
 imprisonment and deportation. This was their crime. 
 The remoteness of their retreat shielded them from 
 persecution long enough to enable them to await the 
 peace-making orders of the Lords of Trade ; but, in the 
 mean time, the lands they occupied had been included 
 in the numerous grants that were being bestowed every- 
 where ; their clearings had whetted the greed of the 
 covetous, and the harvest was about to be gathered in. 
 Belcher notified them to quit immediately the lands 
 they occupied. Here is their reply, which gives us an 
 insight into the facts of the case and the dispositions of 
 these people. The tone of this letter is certainly not 
 threatening nor even rebellious, though the order of 
 banishment was so unjust and so cruel : 
 
 " "We have received with respect the orders which the Commandant 
 
 of Fort Frederick published to us in your name to evacuate the River 
 
 St. John. We would have obeyed these orders immediately, had we 
 
 not hoped that, through compassion for our past misfortunes, you 
 
 20 
 
306 GLUTTING GROSSEST GREED. 
 
 would deign to spare us new ones. In truth, sir, we were beginning 
 to issue out of the awful calamity to which war had reduced us ; the 
 appearances of an abundant harvest promised us provisions for the 
 ensuing year. If you absolutely order us to depart before the harvest, 
 most of us being without money, without provisions, we shall be 
 obliged to live after the manner of the savages wandering hither and 
 thither; on the contrary, if you allow us to pass the winter in order 
 to dry our grain, we shall be in a fit state to till new lands viherener 
 you will order us to withdraw to. Your sagacious minds enable you 
 to undertand that a husbandman who settles on hitherto uncultivated 
 soil without provisions for a year, can only become a poor creature 
 useless to the government under which he lives. We hope, sir, that 
 you will have the goodness to grant us a priest of our religion ; this 
 will make us bear with patience the hardships inseparable from such 
 a migration. We await your final orders on this subject, and we have 
 the honor to be with all possible respect and submission, sir, 
 Your most humble and obedient servants, 
 
 The Inhabitants of the Rivek St. John. 
 [Received August 8th, 1763.] 
 
 This petition is not in the volume of the Archives. 
 Brown, who never let himself be swayed by mean mo- 
 tives, found it important enough to give it a place in 
 his manuscript. There is a flavor of artlessness about 
 this letter that is not devoid of charm ; at any rate it 
 was not written by a priest, since it asked for a priest. 
 Their principal request — to reap what they had sown — 
 was not unreasonable, especially as the season for har- 
 vesting was at hand. 
 
 We know that they had to quit the country ; but we 
 do not know if they were allowed to enjoy their harvest. 
 We trust they were.* We should like to believe that 
 Lawrence, Belcher, and their henchmen were not all so 
 utterly wicked as to delight in the mere infliction of 
 
 * I have since discovered that this respectful and submissive letter was 
 judged impertinent. This unwarrantable displeasure leaves little room 
 for doubt as to the rejection of all their requests, including the request to 
 take away the harvest. 
 
belcher's forced declaration. 307 
 
 useless pain. But a man's better self is often stifled by 
 prejudice, particularly if he serve an unprincipled mas- 
 ter skilful enough to give him a share in his shameful 
 speculations. In such cases a man sinks to the level of 
 the brute, and forgets everything but the glutting of his 
 grosser appetites. The ties of kinship broken, the tears 
 shed, the sighs and sufferings of all kinds which he pro- 
 vokes, all these are nothing ; he sees nothing, feels 
 nothing ; his mind is filled with the absorbing thought 
 of the dainty morsel dangling before his mental vision. 
 
 In this, as in a nutshell, lies this whole historical 
 question. This lost chapter is rooted in private greed. 
 Public interest had nothing to do with it from beginning 
 to end. Nor had national animosity any decisive bear- 
 ing on it. True, some Acadians at one time harassed 
 the British troops ; but that was after the first deporta- 
 tion and before the fall of Quebec, when, hunted and 
 harried like wild beasts, they were exasperated and 
 sought revenge for the iniquitous and inhuman perse- 
 cution they had suffered ; and such isolated cases do 
 not touch the true motive of this persecution : private 
 greed ; a motive which none but the thoughtless or the 
 mentally obtuse can gainsay. 
 
 In the minutes of the Halifax Council we find the 
 following, one of the last official acts of Belcher's ad- 
 ministration : " The Lieutenant-Governor acquainted 
 the Council that he had the opinion of the Lords of 
 Trade against the general removal of the Acadians 
 from this Province." This declaration, it is easy to 
 surmise, was forced on Belcher by the instructions con- 
 tained in the letter which the Compiler has omitted. 
 
308 
 
 NO POSSIBLE DANGER. 
 
 CHAPTER XLL 
 
 Colonel Montague Wilmot's administration, 1764-1766 — The Lords 
 of Trade's earnest endeavor to procure a settlement for the Acadians 
 in the Province or neighboring colonies thwarted by Wilmot — 
 He is afraid they will come back, and wants them to be sent to 
 tropical climates — He forces them to that course through persecu- 
 tions and disgust — His object made clear by his own letters— His 
 death at Halifax. 
 
 It would be natural to suppose that the blame from the 
 Home authorities and Belcher's dismissal would put an 
 end to the persecutions the Acadians had been unceas- 
 ingly subjected to since 1755. In spite of his many en- 
 treaties, Belcher had no motive that could be understood 
 and accepted by Amherst and the Lords of Trade, for 
 they knew full well that no possible danger could be 
 apprehended from people situated as they were, had 
 they been so disposed, since Cape Breton, Prince Ed- 
 ward Island and Canada had long ago been conquered 
 and the French driven out from the continent. But 
 the end was not yet. Wilmot was, if anything, worse 
 than Belcher. 
 
 In his instructions to Wilmot, at the opening of his 
 administration, Lord Halifax enjoined on him to prevent 
 by every lawful means the departure of the Acadians, 
 and to let them settle wherever they pleased in the 
 British dominions. It would seem that such a positive 
 
ENRICHING THE WILMOT FAMILY. 309 
 
 order, following closely on Belcher's dismissal for dis- 
 obedience, would effectually put an end to further 
 persecutions and deportations ; but, wherever private 
 interest and greed are powerfully stimulated, and 
 wherever the controlling authority is distant, soul- 
 less men in Wilmot's position will always find a way 
 to baffle that authority. 
 
 Taught by experience, he applied himself to finding 
 some means whereby he might realize the same purpose 
 without, however, seeming to oppose so directly the 
 clearly-expressed views of the Lords of Trade. He 
 had been too much mixed up with these intrigues not 
 to have many interests in common with Belcher and 
 his Council. He appears to have had his share of the 
 Acadians' lands ; at any rate the path of spoliation was 
 plainly trodden for him by his former governor and his 
 friends, and now his own high position gave him his op- 
 portunity. In fact we know that, soon after his installa- 
 tion, a large grant of land was made to Sir Robert 
 Wilmot and another to Lady Ann Wilmot, doubtless 
 relatives of his. Very likely, Wilmot surpassed both 
 Lawrence and Belcher in the art of annexing landed 
 property. , " In closing the outline of the year 1765," 
 says Murdoch in the memorable words already quoted, 
 " and reflecting on the very large land grants, sanctioned 
 by Governor Wilmot .... I cannot help thinking it 
 an ugly year." 
 
 Wilmot was becoming more and more imbued with 
 the motives that actuated Belcher and his Council. 
 Like them, he feared that the Acadians, as he said, 
 "would always seek to repossess their lands" In an 
 address he says : " That these people, seeing the English 
 daily in possession and enjoyment of the lands formerly 
 
310 DISGUSTING THE ACADIANS. 
 
 occupied by them, will forever regret their loss ; and 
 consequently will lay hold of every opportunity for re- 
 gaining them.'''' 
 
 For a man in his position it was an easy matter to 
 reach his end without incurring reproach or giving an 
 inkling of his motives. He alone controlled all corre- 
 spondence with the Lords of Trade or the Secretary of 
 State. He could easily put off that settlement of the 
 Acadians which the former seemed to desire. By dint 
 of procrastination and by representing this ultimate set- 
 tlement as uncertain, he could disgust the Acadians, 
 make them loathe the country and thus provoke their 
 voluntary exile. And this is precisely what he suc- 
 ceeded in doing. 
 
 " One shudders," says an historian, " at the thought 
 of the fate of these unfortunate people. Eight years 
 had elapsed since they had been snatched from their 
 rich and peaceful homes ; and, after enduring so much 
 suffering and fatigue in returning thither, they find 
 themselves carried off again, dragged from prison to 
 prison, deported a second time, and finally brought 
 back to be reduced to the condition of outcasts among 
 their oppressors." 
 
 The war had now been virtually over for four years, 
 France had lost her American colonies, a definitive treaty 
 of peace had been signed; all intercourse between the 
 French and the Acadians, if indeed there ever had been 
 reason to dread such intercourse, had become impos- 
 sible ; the Acadians had been decimated by grief, want, 
 and disease, they formed in all a wretched group of 
 some 1,800 persons,* five-sixths of whom were women 
 
 * Memorandum communicated to the Lords of Trade by Wilmot, the 22d 
 of March, 1764: 
 
ACADIANS BECOME DISCONTENTED. 311 
 
 and children; most of them were at Halifax itself, 
 prisoners or under surveillance ; they had no money, 
 no arms, no means of getting any had they so wished. 
 Under such circumstances their only object could have 
 been to live in peace in order to escape fresh misfor- 
 tunes. Can any person in his senses believe that those 
 who pretended to fear for the peace of the country be- 
 cause of these outcasts were in good faith ? The ques- 
 tion answers itself. To insist upon so obvious a reply 
 were an insult to the reader. But, if the alarmists 
 were not honest, then they had some hidden motive, as 
 I have attempted to prove. 
 
 In truth, the Acadians were discontented, and very 
 much so. They could see no reason for this relentless 
 persecution clinging to them as vultures to carrion. 
 Yes ; they were daily growing desperate. For a long 
 time they bore their trials bravely, hoping that circum- 
 stances would gradually bring their persecutors to re- 
 lent ; but, when they found themselves deported anew, 
 when they saw a general peace concluded and yet 
 nothing coming to ensure them a standing in the 
 country and an end to their misfortunes, they protested 
 with energy, declaring that they would not take the 
 oath of allegiance, that they wanted to quit the Prov- 
 ince and become French subjects. Thsy, who had been 
 so anxious to return to their dear Acadia, had now no 
 
 Number of families of Acadians still remaining in the Province : 
 
 Number 
 Families. of persons. 
 
 At Halifax and the environs, 232 1,056 
 
 At King's County, Fort Edward, 77 227 
 
 Annapolis Koyal, 23 91 
 
 Fort Cumberland, 73 388 
 
 Total, 405 1,762 
 
 In addition to the above there are 300 souls on the island of St. John 
 (P. E. I.). 
 
} 
 
 312 LORD HALIFAX SEEKS TO SATISFY THE ACADIANS. 
 
 other desire than to get out of it as soon as possible. 
 Wilmot had gained his point in a roundabout way. 
 
 Here let us go back a little and see how he acted 
 on the Lords of Trade so as to get rid of the Acadians. 
 I do not intend to go minutely into the means he used 
 to frustrate the Home Government's kindly wishes with 
 regard to the Acadians ; this is a study I would rec- 
 ommend to those who would like to get an idea of all 
 the Machiavelism brought to bear upon this design. 
 The authorities in London sincerely desired that perse- 
 cution should stop, that the Acadians should settle in 
 the Province ; nay, they wished that all legitimate means 
 he used to prevent their departure. This opposition 
 between their views and Wilmot's is a further proof 
 that the British Government had no part in the vari- 
 ous deportations. During all Wilmot' s administration, 
 i. e., during almost three years, we find, on the one 
 hand, continual reiteration of these good intentions, 
 and, on the other, constant attempts to baffle them and 
 to provoke the departure of the Acadians. Once more, 
 fairly complete success crowned the efforts of the local 
 government. Lawrence had succeeded by audacity, 
 Wilmot succeeded by astuteness. 
 
 Directly after the treaty of peace, the Acadians, see- 
 ing that this had brought them no relief and that they 
 were still refused any settlement in the Province, wrote 
 to Monsieur de la Rochette, secretary of the Due de 
 Nivernois, to obtain by his intervention either some 
 improvement in their position in the Province, or some 
 chance of settling in France or in the French colonies. 
 Informed of these negotiations, Lord Halifax remon- 
 strated with the French Government and instructed 
 Wilmot " to take every lawful means of preventing any 
 
JAMES EOBINS'S PROJECT. 313 
 
 of the Acadians from being clandestinely withdrawn from 
 His Majesty's Government." Then he added : " But, 
 necessary as it is, on the one hand, to put a stop to the 
 seduction and secret removal of these His Majesty's 
 subjects, it seems but just and reasonable, on the other, 
 that care should be taken to provide "prober settlements 
 for them, as much to their oivn satisfaction as may be 
 consistent with the public safety" 
 
 This shows how painful was the situation in which 
 they were placed. On one side the authorities of Nova 
 Scotia would not allow them to settle, would not tol- 
 erate them at all; on the other, they were prevented 
 from taking refuge on French territory. But Lord 
 Halifax, at least, wisely understood that, though their 
 departure for French colonies must be opposed, yet 
 common justice required that they be allowed to settle 
 wherever they chose in the British colonies, " consistently 
 with the public safety." 
 
 Wilmot took advantage of this last phrase to con- 
 tinue thwarting their attempts at settlement, hoping 
 that, weary of the long delay and despairing of redress 
 from him, they would go away of their own accord, and 
 that Acadia would thus become hateful to all those who 
 might have entertained the notion of returning thither. 
 
 His first step in this direction was to inform the 
 Lords of Trade that a certain James Robins, then in 
 London, had invited the Acadians to go to Miramichi, 
 where he was about to inaugurate a large establishment 
 for trade and fishery, and that this Robins pretended he 
 had the King's promise of a grant of lands, on which he 
 offered homesteads to the Acadians. Wilmot begged 
 the Lords of Trade to observe that, once settled in that 
 district, the Acadians could open up communications 
 
) 
 
 314 WILMOT ADVISES THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 with France to the advantage of that country and to 
 the injury of the interests of His Britannic Majesty. 
 
 To any one who remembers that the war had been 
 over for a year, and that France owned nothing in 
 America except two wretched little islands off the coast 
 of Newfoundland, this pretext must appear frivolous. 
 However, Wilmot's motives are most clearly expressed 
 in his letter of March 22d, 1764 : 
 
 " It has always been the opinion of this Government, and is at this 
 time, that the settlement of them in the Province, is inconsistent 
 with the safety of it. . . . If settled in any other Province, it 
 should not be those of the neighboring Colonies of New England, 
 for, I conceive, my Lord, that their vicinity to Nova Scotia, would, on 
 all occasions, strongly induce them to be active in disturbing this 
 Province, from the facility of returning into it, and the hopes that 
 their assistance might be successful in regaining them the possession 
 of it. . . . As to Canada, they would not be well treated or 
 happy. . . . And, as Canada borders on this Province, I don't 
 apprehend that it would be either safe for us, or satisfactory to 
 them. 1 '' 
 
 He ends by advising the Government to authorize 
 him to deport them to the West Indies : 
 
 "It is on account of all these considerations, that I have, in my 
 two former letters, offered to Your Lordships the measure of trans- 
 porting them to some of the West India islands. There, cut off 
 from the continent, and from all hopes of returning, they would 
 content themselves with a settlement." 
 
 Lord Halifax, in his answer of June 9th, 1764, reiter- 
 ates his wish to see the Acadians settle in Nova Scotia, 
 "in such parts of your Government as may be agreeable 
 to themselves consistent with the public peace and se- 
 curity." 
 
 The good intentions of the Lords of Trade were to 
 be frustrated once more by Wilmot. To attain his end, 
 
A VOLUNTARY EXODUS. 315 
 
 he tendered the Acadians an oath that was an insult to 
 their religion, and offered them for settlement barren 
 lands scattered here and there in the interior of the 
 Province. He would not allow more than ten or fifteen 
 families at most to settle in the same place, and more- 
 over these settlements were far apart from each other. 
 This isolation and ostracism paved the way to their 
 complete extinction ; it was contrary to the injunctions 
 of Lord Halifax, who wished to let them settle "in 
 such parts of your Government as may be agreeable to 
 themselves." Scattered as they would be in widely 
 distant groups, they could not get priests for their 
 spiritual needs ; they would lose their language, and 
 perhaps their religion. The offer was unacceptable for 
 another reason. Could they, in their present state of 
 destitution, bury themselves in the forest and begin life 
 anew without any such means of support as the neigh- 
 borhood of the sea would have afforded them ? 
 
 In this situation they finally understood that de- 
 parture was a necessity, and they undertook it with a 
 rush that was irresistible. One hundred and fifty of 
 them near Canso applied to the local magistrate for 
 permission to leave the country. In spite of his refusal 
 they departed for the islands of St. Pierre and Mique- 
 lon ; and soon afterwards 600 others sailed for the West 
 Indies. Wilmot winked at their preparations for de- 
 parture ; it was just what he wanted and had pur- 
 posely provoked. Listen to him relating these incidents 
 to Lord Halifax : 
 
 " I had the honor in my letter of the 9th of last month, to lay be- 
 fore Your Lordship some further particulars of the disposition of the 
 Acadians, after the oath of allegiance had been tendered to them, 
 and offers of a settlement in t?iis country. 
 
316 WILMOT CHUCKLES OVER THE FATAL CLIMATE. 
 
 " Since that time, no reasonable proposals being able to overcome 
 their zeal for the French, and aversion to the English Government, 
 many of them soon resolved to leave this Province ; and having hired 
 vessels at their own expense, six hundred persons, including women 
 and children, departed within these three weeks for the French West 
 Indies. And, although they had certain accounts, that that climate 
 had been fatal to the lives of several of their countrymen, who had 
 gone there lately from Georgia and Carolina, their resolution was not 
 to he shaken, and, the remainder of them, amounting to as many 
 more, in different parts of the Province, have the same destination in 
 view'' 1 
 
 After enumerating various reasons which make him 
 consider this exodus an advantage for the Province, he 
 adds: 
 
 "All these reasons induced the Council, at wttich Lord Col- 
 ville, His Majesty's Rear Admiral assisted, to be unanimously of 
 opinion that they should be at full liberty to depart. . . . 
 Their settlement in the West Indies removes them far from us, and, 
 as that climate is mortal to the natives of Northern countries, the 
 French will not be likely to gain any considerable advantage from 
 them." 
 
 The measure of iniquity must have been full to over- 
 flowing, when it so exasperated the Acadians as to 
 impel them to forsake their country, the home of their 
 forefathers during five or six generations, in order to 
 brave once more the dangers of the sea and seek an 
 asylum in some far-off island, where the climate, they 
 knew, had already killed their relatives and would, no 
 doubt, ap-ain decimate their families. Of this Wilmot 
 was well aware ; three different times he had advised 
 that they be deported to those fatal islands, and, having, 
 by his remonstrances, prevented their migration to Mira- 
 michi, to Canada, or even to New England, in fact to 
 any place whence it seemed to him possible they might 
 return, he had prepared the present issue. We have 
 
TAKING SHELTER BEHIND LOKD COLVILLE. 317 
 
 seen how he hypocritically told the Lords of Trade 
 " that in Canada the Acadians would not be well treated 
 nor happy." And yet do we not now see, from the 
 letter just quoted, how he cannot hide from the Lords 
 of Trade the delight he experiences at the thought that 
 the West India climate will be mortal to them ? 
 
 The Home authorities earnestly desired to offer the 
 Acadians all the various alternatives they might wish, 
 except that of settling on French territory ; Wilmot 
 offered them none. Neither Nova Scotia, the New 
 England provinces, nor Canada suited him. In all 
 these places they would or could come back and, 
 possibly, by pressing their claims, endanger for him 
 and his accomplices the quiet enjoyment of their spoils. 
 To make the Acadians and himself happy, they had to 
 go and die in the West Indies. This was the only course 
 left to them. So much perversity is hardly credible, and 
 I would have hesitated to believe and record it, had it 
 not been clearly and unmistakably stated in Wilmot's 
 own letters. 
 
 Surmising that this exodus would not be relished by 
 the Lords of Trade, he imitated Lawrence, who sheltered 
 himself under Boscawen's name. Wilmot invoked the 
 opinion of Lord Colville. But the noble lord was 
 interested in the departure of the Acadians, since, as 
 we have seen in a preceding chapter, he also had a 
 grant of their lands. Thus we have ever the same 
 underhand methods with the same result. 
 
 This was the last act of that comedy which Lawrence, 
 Belcher and Wilmot had been playing before the Lords 
 of Trade for almost ten years. To prove conclusively 
 that it was a comedy, with no evidence other than the 
 garbled correspondence of the parties most interested 
 
318 POISONING THE WELLS. 
 
 in concealing their motives from the Lords of Trade, 
 might seem an astonishing achievement, were it not 
 that facts have an eloquence of their own and that the 
 most cunning tricksters occasionally betray their secret 
 thoughts. As to the Lords of Trade themselves, taken 
 up as they were with a multitude of other knotty 
 questions, they may have failed to discern the plot of this 
 comedy. Very likely they were not aware, at the time, 
 of the way the lands of the Acadians had been divided 
 up among the chief actors. The very sources of all 
 their available information were poisoned. The Aca- 
 dians were continually depicted to them as dangerous 
 creatures, ever plotting against the security of the State. 
 Not being informed of the schemes and real purposes of 
 their representatives, could they refuse to believe that 
 the statements of the latter were made in the interest 
 of the public ? And yet, despite the constant affirma- 
 tions and subterfuges of the Governors, did not the 
 Lords of Trade ever show a leaning to opposite meas- 
 ures more conformable to humanity and justice ? No 
 doubt it does seem as if no great sagacity was needed 
 to detect premeditated deceit and ill-disguised cruelty 
 in Wilmot ; but perhaps Lord Halifax was too high- 
 minded and conscientious himself to suspect him of 
 such infamous projects. 
 
 By a strange coincidence of fate, Wilmot, who 
 chuckled over the idea that the climate of the West 
 Indies would kill the Acadians, requested leave of 
 absence, a year after their departure, to restore his own 
 health endangered by the climate. " The cold winters 
 of these Northern parts of America" he wrote, " have so 
 much increased the gout which afflicts me that my friends 
 and the physicians assure me that I cannot survive 
 
RETRIBUTION. 319 
 
 another ivinter in this country." Like Lawrence and 
 Boscawen he was not long allowed to enjoy the fruit of 
 his iniquity ; seventeen days after the date of this letter 
 he expired, even before he could leave the climate that 
 was killing him. 
 
320 
 
 TWO OUT OF EIGHTEEN THOUSAND. 
 
 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Michael Franklin's long and fruitful administration (1766-1776)-— 
 He does all in his power to carry out the wishes of the Home 
 Authorities and to alleviate the distress of the Acadians — They 
 settle wherever they please, at Prospect, Chezetcook,Isle Madame, 
 Memramcook and other places — The d'Entremonts are restored 
 to their former lands at Cape Sable — A party of 800 gather at 
 Boston and settle mostly at Baie St. Marie. 
 
 At Wilmot's death, in the whole extent of the Mari- 
 time Provinces, there remained only some fifteen hun- 
 dred or two thousand Acadians. After eleven years of 
 a persecution unprecedented in history, this was the 
 only remnant of a population of 18,000 souls. If any 
 of them had for a brief space cherished the hope that 
 they might repossess their lands, their treatment by 
 Lawrence, Belcher, and Wilmot must have convinced 
 them that this hope was groundless ; for we hear of no 
 such claim. The spoilers had no longer anything to 
 fear : the abject misery to which the scattered relics of 
 this people were reduced, together with the long series 
 of disappointments they had gone through, made the 
 interests of their oppressors sufficiently secure. 
 
 Michael Franklin, who succeeded Wilmot, was as 
 kind to the Acadians as the latter had been cruel to 
 them. His whole administration shows that he made 
 special efforts to alleviate their sufferings and to make 
 them forget the wrongs they had endured. To be sure, 
 the Home Government's positive instructions were to 
 that effect ; but he seems, in all his words and deeds, 
 
franklin's kindliness. 321 
 
 to have acted in obedience rather to the impulse of his 
 kindly nature than to the orders of his superiors. We 
 may also note, by the way, how the Lords of Trade 
 appear full of justice and good-will as soon as they 
 cease to be deceived by interested misrepresentation. 
 
 " His Majesty," Lord Hillsborough writes to Franklin, " was so 
 well pleased to find by your letter that the Acadians are so well 
 disposed ; this disposition should be encouraged by holding out 
 every advantage that can be given to them consistent with public 
 safety, and therefore you will not fail to give them the fullest 
 assurances of His Majesty's favor and protection. . . . His Majesty 
 considers with tenderness and attention the situation of those who 
 have made settlements in Cape Breton under the protection of 
 temporary licenses from the Government of Nova Scotia." 
 
 All subsequent letters of the Lords of Trade are in 
 the same spirit, which also permeates Franklin's instruc- 
 tions to the officers or magistrates of the Province. He 
 writes to Colonel Denson in the following touching 
 terms, which breathe his humane feelings : 
 
 " Some of the Acadians who reside in King's County and at 
 Windsor, have informed me that they have been warned to train 
 with the other militia, which they conceive as a hardship, being 
 unprovided with arms, and unable to purchase them just now, 
 were they to be bought. 
 
 " I am therefore to desire that you do exempt them from muster- 
 ing or training, until you have orders to the contrary. And I am 
 further to signify to you, that it is the King's intention, and I do 
 expect, they be treated with all possible mildness and tenderness 
 upon every occasion." 
 
 Why this complete change of manner ? How comes 
 it that, under Lawrence, Belcher, and Wilniot, we hear 
 nothing but complaints and fears, whereas now all is 
 peace and contentment ? What had happened ? Noth- 
 ing, save that a new governor, full of kindliness, had 
 21 
 
) 
 
 322 SUSPICION IS AHOUSED. 
 
 succeeded to men that had none, to governors who, for 
 selfish motives, had purposely misled the Lords of 
 Trade and worried the Acadians in every way. This 
 accounts adequately for the change : falsehood and 
 •oppression on the one hand, rectitude and kindness on 
 the other. The Acadians had not changed ; but the 
 "wise and considerate administration of Hopson was 
 revived by Franklin. 
 
 From the foregoing we may infer that the British 
 Government was now fully informed of the injustice 
 done to the Acadians and of the motives of their perse- 
 cutors. Were it not so, those touching expressions of 
 tenderness and solicitude on Lord Hillsborough's part 
 would seem out of place in an official communication. 
 Of course I do not advance this as a necessary inference ; 
 but there is cumulative and more cogent evidence to 
 support it. Many incidents, some of which have been 
 mentioned elsewhere in this work, show that, after the 
 peace of 1763, public opinion, generally speaking, con- 
 demned the deportation. We have seen, for instance, 
 that even in Lawrence's time, the censure of the citizens 
 of Halifax was sufficiently pronounced to disquiet him 
 and make him unbosom himself about it to his accom- 
 plice Boscawen. Such a proceeding on the part of so 
 bold a man, who at that very time was manifesting in a 
 thousand ways his contempt for the opinion of the per- 
 sons under his jurisdiction, is fraught with significance. 
 
 So long as the war lasted, the civilized world had no 
 leisure to examine into the causes and incidents of this 
 deportation ; but all this was changed when minds 
 became calm after the peace of 1763. Witnessing the 
 sufferings of these exiles, their migrations, their vain 
 attempts to find their lost relatives, and to get back to 
 
THE HAPPY HOMES OF MEMRAMCOOK. 323 
 
 their old home or make a new one, the public was 
 moved to take an interest in their fate. Wherever the 
 lot of these exiles was cast, the civilized world could 
 bear testimony to their meekness and the purity of their 
 morals, to their peaceable and laborious habits. The dis- 
 memberment of their families proved to all observers 
 that the dispersion had been executed with cruelty ; 
 people were astonished that persons so virtuous could 
 have deserved in any way so barbarous a punishment ; 
 this led to inquiries into the character of Lawrence, 
 Belcher, and Wilmot, and soon the persuasion grew 
 that a great crime had been committed. Outside of a 
 small group at Halifax, condemnation became general. 
 Students of history sought to clear up the mystery by 
 consulting documents. Meanwhile, the authors of the 
 deportation, or their sons, who either had the care of 
 the Archives or easy access to them, became alarmed ; 
 they would have to explain, to justify themselves ; 
 they must do something to avoid exposure, to lessen 
 the shame and obloquy that threatened them. Then 
 began that withdrawal of documents which seems to 
 have been practised at intervals for a long time. 
 
 Evidently it was public censure that provoked these 
 withdrawals ; else we should have to suppose that the 
 documents were suppressed in dread of future dis- 
 closures, and this would be a still more convincing 
 proof of guilt and shame. 
 
 " At last," says Rameau, " the frightful series of dis- 
 asters which had befallen the Acadian people during 
 eleven years, was drawing to a close. After having 
 been proscribed, transported, retransported, plunged 
 and replunged into want and misery, those who were 
 left in Acadia had a breathing spell amidst the ruins 
 
) 
 
 324 ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER. 
 
 and deaths heaped up around them. . . . Each one 
 settled as best he could in the place where fate had cast 
 him. The prisoners around Halifax betook themselves, 
 some to Prospect, south of the town, others to the north 
 at Chezetcook, most of them to the Straits of Canso and 
 to the Madame islands ; others, in fine, gathered together 
 on the Baie des Chaleurs, at Nipisigny, Caraquette and 
 Tracadie." * Perhaps the most fortunate were those 
 who established themselves at Memramcook, on lands 
 formerly occupied by them, where they could take ad- 
 vantage of clearings already made. Though these lands 
 were still unoccupied, they had been granted, like all 
 the rest, to favorites of the governors and councillors. 
 These in particular had been granted to Frederick 
 Wallet Desbarres, who had the wise foresight to allow 
 many improvements to be made before asserting his 
 claim. Happily the Acadians here, unlike those of the 
 St. John River, were not obliged to quit. They ob- 
 stinately clung to the soil, and ultimately they entered 
 into an arrangement allowing them to keep the land on 
 payment of a lease. Desbarres was satisfied with culti- 
 vating another property that had been granted to him 
 at Menoudy, where later on he leased to the Acadians 
 the farms which they had owned a few years before. f 
 
 Among the more favored were some families called 
 d'Entremont of Cape Sable ; they were not only re- 
 instated in their possessions but provided once more 
 with legal titles to their property, and this was the 
 beginning of the strong Acadian colony that has grown 
 up there since that time. They owed this favor to the 
 
 * Rameau de Saint-Pere, TJne Colonie Feodale, vol. ii., pp. 178, 184. 
 t This Desbarres, thus enriched, subsequently became Governor of Cape 
 Breton. 
 
REFUGEES IN MARYLAND. 325 
 
 following incident. 1 About 1765, several members of 
 this family, descended from the ancient barons of Po~ 
 bomcoup (Pubnico), had set sail from Boston with the 
 intention of taking up their abode in Quebec. When 
 they put into port at Halifax, they met an English 
 officer who recognized them and warmly welcomed 
 them, because one of them had formerly saved his life. 
 He dissuaded them from settling in Canada, promising 
 to get their property and titles restored to them, which 
 he succeeded in doing. 
 
 " When peace was concluded in 1763 " — I am quoting, 
 with slight additions of my own, from Rameau — out 
 of about 6,500 Acadians who had been deported to 
 the United States, there remained a little more than 
 one half. Often had they in vain begged the authori- 
 ties to allow them to leave the place of their exile ; 
 but after the peace their homeward rush was resist- 
 less. Divers groups made for Canada, where they set- 
 tled, some at l'Acadie, near St. John, P. Q., others at 
 Saint-Gr^goire, Nicolet and Be*cancour, in the District of 
 Three Rivers, and others at Saint-Jacques-l'Achigan, in 
 all of which places they formed rich and prosperous 
 parishes. 
 
 Those who had not been able to join this exodus, met 
 together three years later in the spring of 1766, at Boston, 
 with the intention of wending their way back to their lost 
 and lamented Acadia. There then remained in foreign 
 lands only a small minority, riveted to the spot by infirm- 
 ity or extreme want. We must, however, except those 
 who had been deported to Maryland, where the presence 
 of English Catholics and of a few priests had made their 
 
 * Casgrain, Pelerinage au Pays d' Evangeline. 
 f Une Golonie Feodale, voL ii., p. 185 et seqq. 
 
) 
 
 326 AN HEROIC CARAVAN. 
 
 lot less intolerable, and where some of their descendants 
 may still be found.* 
 
 " The heroic caravan " which formed in Boston and 
 determined to cross the forest wilderness of Maine on 
 its return to Acadia, was made up of about 800 persons. 
 " On foot, and almost without provisions, these pil- 
 grims braved the perils and fatigues of a return by 
 land, marching up the coast of the Bay of Fundy as far 
 as the isthmus of Shediac, across 600 miles of forests 
 and uninhabited mountains ; some pregnant women of 
 this pitiful band were confined on the way ; I have 
 known some of the sons of these children of sorrow, 
 who told me this story as they had it from their fathers 
 born in the course of this painful journey. 
 
 "No one will ever know all that these unfortunate 
 people, forsaken and forgotten by everybody, suffered 
 as they hewed their way through the wilderness ; the 
 many years gone by have long since stifled the echoes 
 of their sighs in the forest, which itself has disappeared ; 
 all the woes of these hapless beings are now lost in the 
 shadows of the past; others are joyously reaping 
 harvests on their obliterated camping-grounds, and there 
 hardly remains aught but a few dim traditions of this 
 sublime and sorrowful exodus scattered among the fire- 
 side tales of aged Acadians in the Bay of Fundy. 
 
 * General Phil. Sheridan was a grandson of one of these Acadians. 
 
 Abbe' Robin, chaplain to the array of Comte de Rochambeau, has drawn 
 a touching picture of the little Acadian colony at Baltimore in 1781 : 
 " They still keep up the French language and remain greatly attached to 
 all that belongs to the nation of their ancestors, especially to their re- 
 ligion, which they follow with a strictness worthy of the first ages of 
 Christianity. The simplicity of th^ir manners is a remnant of what ob- 
 tained in happy Acadia. . . . The sight of a French priest seemed to 
 recall to them their former pastors. They begged me to officiate in their 
 church. In fulfilling this holy function, I could not refrain from con- 
 gratulating them on their piety and from depicting to them the virtues of 
 their forefathers. I was reviving memories that were too dear; they 
 burst into tears." 
 
GROUPS SETTLE HERE AND THERE. 327 
 
 " In the wild paths that wound in and out through 
 the interminable forests of Maine, this long line of 
 emigrants walked painfully on ; there were small groups 
 of women and children, dragging the slender baggage 
 of misery, while the men, scattering hither and thither, 
 sought in the chase, in fishing and even among wild 
 roots something wherewith to feed them. There were 
 very small children, who were hardly able to walk and 
 were led by the hand, the larger children carrying them 
 from time to time ; many of these unfortunate mothers 
 held an infant in their arms, and the cries of these poor 
 babes were the only sound that broke the gloomy and 
 dismal silence of the woods. 
 
 " How many died on the way, children, women and 
 even men ? How many breathed their last, overpowered 
 by weariness, suffering from hunger, sitting down to be 
 forgotten forever in some wild path, without priest, 
 without consolation, without friends ? The last agony 
 of death was embittered, for these innocent victims, by 
 all the anguish of regret and neglect. 
 
 "While this sorrowful caravan advanced, some in- 
 deed were found whose failing strength refused to carry 
 them any further ; however all did not succumb, and 
 one after another a few groups remained along the road 
 to form the nuclei of future colonies. It was thus that, 
 on the banks of the River St. John, several families 
 fixed their abode amid the ruins of the settlements for- 
 merly occupied by the French in this district," where, 
 in the ancient fief of Jemsek (of which La Tour had 
 been the owner) and in that of Ekoupag, some few 
 Acadian families still dwelt. 
 
 " When the column of exiles, thinned out by the 
 fatigues of the journey, reached the banks of the Petit- 
 
328 MEETING FRIENDS. 
 
 codiac, they had been four months on the road. There, 
 at length, they could taste a few moments of repose and 
 consolation ; the first to come out at the foot of the 
 wooded mountain-range along this river met there some 
 men, half-hunters, half-husbandmen, who spoke their 
 language, and among whom they were not slow to 
 recognize fellow-countrymen and relatives. This was 
 the remnant of the former inhabitants of Memramcook, 
 Chipody and the isthmus of Shediac. . . . Build- 
 ings and clearings were already to be seen along the 
 river bank, when the band of captives returning from 
 the United States joined them at the close of the 
 summer of 1766." 
 
 How touching must have been the meeting, after a 
 separation of eleven years, of these beings whose hearts 
 were wrung by a common calamity ! Here, at least, 
 the wayfarers could rest for a moment in peace after 
 their excessive fatigues, without any risk of rebuff or 
 ill-will from indifferent or hostile strangers ; " the 
 friends they had just found again were themselves very 
 poor, but their welcome was cordial and sympathetic. 
 
 " Unfortunately, after this first burst of joy, they 
 had to suffer a great heaviness of heart. They had 
 cherished the hope that, away on the other side of the 
 Bay of Fundy, at Beause"jour, Beaubassin, Grand Pre", 
 Port Royal, they would find once more their lands and 
 perhaps their houses, that they might be allowed to 
 settle on the farms that were not yet occupied ; but 
 they soon realized that all this was a dream ; every- 
 thing had been allotted to their persecutors or to new 
 colonists. The great and painful journey they had just 
 made was now useless ; they had no longer either home 
 or country ! These discouraging tidings overwhelmed 
 
STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN OLD HOME. 329 
 
 most of them ; they were utterly worn out, and, without 
 seeking to advance, they remained on the very spot to 
 which Providence had led them. 
 
 " However a certain number of them could not be- 
 lieve that all was lost and that they were hopelessly 
 despoiled of those rich lands, formerly wrested from the 
 sea by the laborious skill of their forefathers. Fifty or 
 sixty families, men, women and children, once more set 
 out ; they rounded the innermost shore of the old Baie 
 Franchise, which had become Fundy Bay ; they visited 
 in turn Beaubassin, Pigiguit, Grand Pre* ; but Beau- 
 se*jour was now called Cumberland ; Beaubassin, Am- 
 herst ; Cobequid had taken the name of Truro; Pigi- 
 guit, that of Windsor, and Grand Pre was named Jlor- 
 ton ; everything was changed ! English names, Eng- 
 lish villages, English inhabitants ; wherever they ap- 
 peared, they looked like ghosts come back from a past 
 age ; nobody had thought of them for a long time. 
 
 " The children were frightened at them, the women 
 and the men were annoyed as by a threatening spectre 
 from the grave, everybody was angry with them, and the 
 poor wretches dragged themselves from village to village, 
 worried and worn out by fatigue, hunger and cold, and 
 a despair that grew at every halting-place ; the last was 
 Port Royal (Annapolis), where the same irritation on 
 the one hand and the same disappointment on the other 
 were repeated. 
 
 " Yet, what was to be done with this caravan of poor 
 people in rags, weary unto death, crushed by want and 
 grief? The officers of the garrison adopted the plan 
 of conducting them a little further south, on St. Mary's 
 Bay, the unoccupied shores of which were lined with 
 vast forests. The wretched Acadians, driven to ex- 
 
330 REST AT LAST. 
 
 haustion and despair by so many misfortunes, not 
 knowing whither to go, allowed themselves to be led 
 and so ended by stranding on this deserted shore, where 
 lands were granted to them on December 23d, 1767. 
 Thus, without counting the long tramps they had to 
 undertake to meet together in Boston, they had traversed 
 on foot a distance of about a thousand miles before 
 reaching the end of their journey. 
 
 " The most cruel crosses do not always wholly crush 
 human energy ; the calm after the tempest, the faintest 
 glimmer of hope reviving, allow our eased spirits to 
 cling once more to life, to resume work and make a 
 fresh start. Under pressure of necessity these unfortu- 
 nate outcasts raised log-huts ; they took to fishing and 
 hunting ; they began to clear the land, and soon out 
 of the felled trees some roughly-built houses were put 
 up." Such was the origin of the colony that now covers 
 all the western portion of the Peninsula. 
 
 During many subsequent years there were numerous 
 migrations. Acadians arrived from France, from the 
 West Indies, from Louisiana, Canada and the United 
 States, going from one settlement to another in search 
 of a father, a mother, a brother, a relative whose where- 
 abouts they had not yet found. Often death had 
 claimed the long-sought one ; sometimes, on the other 
 hand, he that was supposed to be dead was unexpectedly 
 discovered. Slowly the scattered members of one 
 family succeeded, not infrequently, in all getting to- 
 gether once more. Those who were in better circum- 
 stances collected their poorer brethren around them ; 
 the bereavements of the past were gradually softened by 
 new ties, and finally each group took on the aspect of a 
 distinct and homogeneous community. 
 
ACADIANS DISLODGED. 331 
 
 CHAPTER XLIIT. 
 
 The war of Independence — The Loyalists — Condition of the 
 Acadians — Their last disabilities removed. 
 
 The forest was still echoing the sighs of these un- 
 fortunate Acadians returning fom exile, when the first 
 mutterings were heard of the storm that was, in a few 
 years, to change the face of this continent. Subjects 
 having the same origin and language, and professing 
 Christianity were about to raise the standard of revolt 
 against the Home Government. Noble as may have 
 been the love of liberty that moved them, blameless as 
 may have been their actions from the view-point of 
 conscience, it is none the less certain that their griev- 
 ances bore on purely material interests ; their religious 
 liberty was not threatened, nor were they forced to fight 
 their own flesh and blood. Here a strange contrast 
 presents itself. While the Acadians, who did not even 
 lift a hand in defence of rights that were far higher and 
 more worthy of respect, were despoiled, snatched from 
 their homes, separated from each other, cast on far-off 
 shores and there reviled, those who were the true rebels 
 kept their lands and homes, and their chiefs have be- 
 come heroes whose names, emblazoned on sumptuous 
 monuments, are ringing in our ears like those of the 
 demigods of fable. I do not pretend to deny that the 
 consequences of the American Revolution, writ large 
 on the achievements of more then a century, have on 
 
332 AMERICANS JUSTIFY ACADIAN SCRUPLES. 
 
 the whole been greatly beneficial to mankind ; but I 
 cannot help noting this extraordinary contradiction. 
 Those who were charged with the guardianship of the 
 so-called Acadian rebels, and who crushed them for 
 supposed misdeeds of which they were guiltless, were, 
 when they themselves became rebels in reality, to re- 
 main in peaceful possession of their homes, while loyal 
 subjects had to trudge into exile. 
 
 This reference to the war of Independence is necessary, 
 because its consequences were disastrous to a certain 
 number of Acadians. Room had to be made for the 
 Loyalists who chose voluntary exile ; the English 
 authorities were naturally full of solicitude for their 
 comfort, and wished to reward them for their fidelity 
 to their Sovereign and for their self-denial ; in some 
 cases this was done at the expense of the Acadians. 
 True, these latter had suffered for twenty-five years ; 
 but justice and vested rights they pleaded in vain. 
 Thus it happened that a group of Acadians, who had 
 been quietly living for eighteen years on lands which 
 they were laboriously clearing on the St. John River, 
 had to give up these lands to the newly-arrived Loyal- 
 ists. Among these were several families of the officers 
 who had contributed to carry out the deportation, in 
 particular Colonel Winslow's family. The dislodged 
 Acadians, forced to begin all over again the hard work 
 of colonists, plunged once more into the forest in an 
 almost inaccessible region. This last migration gave 
 birth to the now populous and flourishing settlement of 
 Madawaska. 
 
 Through another curious reversal of situations, emis- 
 saries from Washington and Lafayette attempted, though 
 in vain, to win the reinstated Acadians from their alle- 
 
STRONGER REASONS FOR ACADIANS. 666 
 
 giance to England, while some of the latter offered their 
 services to the British Government,* and other Acadians 
 who had remained on the American side offered theirs 
 to Congress. f We have seen that the only reason why 
 the Acadians had formerly objected to an unqualified 
 oath was their dread of having to fight against the 
 French ; a similar perplexity was to occur in the war of 
 Independence ; but this time the objection was to come 
 from the American colonists who in 1760 had settled on 
 the lands of the Acadians. The objection was the same : 
 what had rightly made the gorge of the Acadians rise 
 was to excite the same repugnance in those who had 
 succeeded to their property ; but on this occasion the 
 authorities readily realized the force of the sentiment 
 that actuated these men, and unhesitatingly exempted 
 them from military service : " Those of us," said the 
 petition, " who belong to New England, being invited 
 into this Province by Governor Lawrence's Proclama- 
 tion, it must be the greatest piece of cruelty and impo- 
 sition for us to be subjected to march into different 
 parts in arms against our friends and relations" 
 
 But the most curious incident of all was that the 
 petitioners requested the same favor for the Acadians, 
 alleging the same reason : " The Acadians among us 
 being also under the same situation ; most, if not all, 
 having friends distributed in different parts of America, 
 and that done by order of His Majesty's Government." 
 
 And yet these Acadians were not at all in the same 
 position as they had been twenty years before ; at the 
 time of the Revolutionary War there were, at most, in 
 
 * " As to militia forces, 100 Acadians at St. Mary's Bay had volunteered.' 
 Murdoch, Hist, of N. S., vol. ii.. p. 568. 
 f After the war these volunteers settled at Chasy in Vermont. 
 

 
 334 BROWN ADVISES AX APPEAL TO THE THRONE. 
 
 the United States, 250 Acadiaus able to bear arms ; 
 thus, the chances of a meeting on the field of battle 
 were extremely slight ; whereas, before the deportation, 
 the only white men they could have met in battle would 
 have been relatives and fellow-countrymen. What a 
 pity it is that people do not take to heart the great 
 Christian maxim, " As ye would that men should do to 
 you, do ye also to them likewise," that they do not cul- 
 tivate the faculty of entering into the feelings of others 
 before proceeding to act against those others ! This 
 would save the most elementary notions of equity from 
 travesty and violation ; this would avert unnumbered 
 crimes. 
 
 Although it had been decided, at Wilmot's sugges- 
 tion, that the Acadians could settle only by small iso- 
 lated groups in certain designated places in the interior, 
 nevertheless these regulations were never strictly en- 
 forced. Each one was suffered to settle pretty much 
 where he chose ; and, as fishing immediately met their 
 most pressing wants in a way that inferior lands far 
 from the sea would have failed to do, most of the 
 Acadians became fishermen. Up to the deportation 
 agriculture had been their sole occupation ; by force 
 of circumstances fishing and navigation were hence- 
 forth to be their chief resource. 
 
 " At last," says Brown, " the scanty remnant of the ill-fated people 
 was permitted to remain. The Government of Nova Scotia perse- 
 cuted them with rancour, but this rage was at last restrained, and al- 
 though the instructions were that they should be located by small 
 groups in the interior, yet the orders were not rigidly enforced or 
 obeyed. Some of the Acadians are dispersed along the shore with 
 proper grants of the lands which they cultivate. It is even whispered 
 that in some cases the lands belong to proprietors who have tacitly 
 seen their progress, that they may be reclaimed at a future day. A 
 
THE GOVERNOR ASKS FOR A PRIEST. 335 
 
 flagrant instance of this very kind has happened already; the same 
 may occur again. The Government may find it necessary to favor the 
 persecutor. The Acadian snfferings will be lost in the woods. Their 
 voice will not reach the throne; mercy dwells there, and if the voice 
 of history has any influence there, this matter should be at an end." 
 
 And, as if Brown himself had had the intention of 
 drawing up a petition to be sent to the Secretary of 
 State, we find this note following the above remarks : 
 
 " Sir, — Your Acadian subjects have suffered long enough, issue an 
 order to the Government to confirm all their possessions, to give them 
 ull right to their estates, become their patron, announce it openly, 
 and their melodious voices will pray for you in the depths of their 
 woods." 
 
 This was written in 1791, thirty-six years after the 
 first deportation. 
 
 For a long time in the whole extent of Nova Scotia 
 only one priest was tolerated ; but in 1777, as the In- 
 dians of the River St. John, solicited by emissaries of 
 Congress, threatened to rise in support of the rebellious 
 provinces, Governor Arbuthnot begged the Governor of 
 Canada to send a priest who should keep these Indians 
 faithful to the British Government. This was done, 
 and Abbe* Bourg, himself an Acadian, addressed him- 
 self to this undertaking with success in concert with 
 ex-Governor Franklin, who had become Indian Com- 
 missioner. However, general permission to enter the 
 Province was not granted to the Catholic clergy till 
 about 1793, when many priests fled from the French 
 Revolution and several came to Nova Scotia. Hence- 
 forth every obstacle to their ministry was removed. 
 
 There yet remained one clog to the freedom of the 
 Acadians, and this was continued until 1827. 
 The Test Oath excluded them from all public 
 
HALIBUBTON SETS THE ACADIANS FREE. 
 
 
 
 offices. Haliburton, seconded by Mr. Uniacke, un- 
 dertook to knock off this last fetter. " The speech 
 he pronounced on this occasion," says Murdoch, " was 
 the most magnificent piece of eloquence I have ever 
 been privileged to hear." The Assembly, electrified by 
 this masterly discourse, unanimously voted the law that 
 made the Acadians a free people. Omitting Halibur- 
 ton's thrilling recital of their misfortunes and his re- 
 markable eulogy of their morals, I will quote merely 
 the end of his peroration, which is an index to the lofti- 
 ness of his character. 
 
 " Every man who puts his hand on the New Testament and says 
 that is the book of his faith — be he Catholic or Protestant, Anglican 
 or Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist — whatever be the extent of the 
 points of doctrine that separate us, he is my brother and I embrace 
 him. We are marching by different roads toward the same God. In 
 the path which I am treading, if I meet a Catholic I greet him, I 
 walk on with him; and when we reach unto the goal, unto those 
 flammantia limina h<iin<li, when the time shall come, as come it must, 
 when this tongue, which now is speaking, shall be cold and stiff in 
 my mouth, when this breast, which now breathes the pure air of 
 heaven, shall refuse me its service, when this vesture of clay shall go 
 back to the bosom of the earth whence it came and mingle with the 
 dust of the valleys, then, with this Catholic, I will cast a long and 
 languishing look backwards. I will kneel with him, and instead of 
 saying with the presumptuous Pharisee: ' Thank God, I am not like 
 this Papist!' I will pray that, both of us being of the same blood, 
 being bought by the same blood, we may both be pardoned, and that, 
 being brothers, we may both be received into heaven."* 
 
 i Translated from a French Translation. 
 
TO ENGLAND VIA VIRGINIA. 337 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 The Acadians in England, France, Guiana, San Domingo, His- 
 paniola, Louisiana, Canada — Their many transmigrations — 
 Awful rate of mortality — General Statistics. 
 
 Sad as was the fate of the Acadians deported to 
 the United States, and of those who escaped the de- 
 portation by taking refuge in the forests of the Gulf, 
 or by making their way through the wilderness to 
 Canada, it cannot be compared to the fate of those who 
 were deported to England or France, not so much 
 because they were ill-treated or more wretched, but 
 because, for most of them, the uncertainty of their sorrow- 
 ful existence was much more prolonged than in the 
 case of the exiles on this side of the Atlantic. 
 
 After the peace of 1763 all the Acadians then in 
 England went over to France. A great number of these 
 belonged to the fifteen hundred who had been deported 
 to Virginia, and whom the Virginians would not receive. 
 They had been much longer at sea than the others, and, 
 as will readily be understood, the mortality in these 
 overladen ships must have been proportionately greater. 
 The memoir of M. de la Rochette, who was employed 
 in taking a census of the Acadians in England and in 
 transferring them to France, gives us an idea of the 
 magnitude of their trials and of the great mortality. 
 Decimated during the voyages from Acadia to Virginia^ 
 and from Virginia to England, they were again deci- 
 
 AJL 
 

 ) 
 
 338 ACADIAN8 IX FRANCE. 
 
 mated during their sojourn at Liverpool, Southampton, 
 Peryn and Bristol. Consequently, after eight years of 
 captivity, in spite of the births, their number was 
 reduced by more than one third. " Dispersed," said 
 M. de la Rochette, u in all parts of this kingdom, a 
 great many of them perished of want and grief. Three 
 hundred had landed at Bristol, where they were not 
 expected ; they spent three days and nights on the 
 wharves of the city, exposed to all the inclemency of 
 the weather, and it was winter. They were at last shut 
 up in some dilapidated houses, where small-pox killed 
 a great part of them." M. de la Rochette afterwards 
 went to Liverpool, where he visited them and told them 
 his errand. " Tears," he says, " succeeded the first 
 exclamations of joy. Several seemed quite beside 
 themselves ; they clapped their hands, raised them to 
 heaven, struck themselves against the walls and sobbed 
 all the time. It would be impossible to describe all 
 the transports to which these good people gave way : 
 they spent the night blessing the King and his ambas- 
 sador and congratulating each other on the happiness 
 they were about to enjoy. When they arrived at Liver- 
 pool they numbered 336, and now they are reduced to 
 224." 
 
 At Southampton they had dwindled from 340 when 
 they landed to 219 ; the proportion of deaths was sub- 
 stantially the same in the other ports. 
 
 Counting those who were already in France, the total 
 number of Acadians in that kingdom after the peace, 
 and after the arrival of those who had been in England, 
 was about 4,500, scattered in the ports of Granville, 
 Saint-Malo, Boulogne, Rochefort, La Rochelle and 
 Brest. Their fate is but vaguely known. France had 
 
d'estaing saint-victour de peyrtjsse. 339 
 
 no public lands to offer them within her boundaries, 
 and the few colonies she still possessed were in climates 
 where the tropical heat was unsuited to men accustomed 
 to cold countries ; yet these poor people longed for 
 agricultural holdings. Four hundred of them were 
 placed at Belle-Isle-en-Mer, where each colonist re- 
 ceived a lot, a house, a cow, a horse, three sheep and 
 the necessary tools, besides military rations during some 
 time. An allowance of six sous a day for five years 
 was given to each of the Acadian children born in 
 England, and the same sum for life to those who were 
 born in Acadia. This colony dates from 1765, and it is 
 the only place in France where there still remains a 
 compact group of Acadians. 
 
 " Many plans and projects were formed," says Rameau, 
 " in order to procure for these poor people a home and 
 some means of subsistence which they might make 
 profitable ; some proposed to send them to Corsica, 
 others to the Landes. These proposals were not carried 
 out ; but detachments were sent off to San Domingo, 
 Guiana, the Leeward Islands and the Falkland Isles. 
 They could not stay anywhere, nor create prosperous 
 settlements ; they were out of their element and sorely 
 tried by climates so different from their own." x Out 
 of several hundred who went to Guiana in 1764, only a 
 few returned to France ; eighteen months later the rest 
 were all dead. 
 
 "Count d'Estaing, when Governor of Hispaniola," says Smith, 
 " commiserated these people in their misfortune, and invited them 
 to his island, setting apart a particular district to their use. A con- 
 siderable colony availed themselves of the Count's offer ; but neither 
 they nor their kind benefactor had taken into consideration the 
 danger attending a change of abode to a tropical climate. The result 
 
 i Tine Golonie Feodale, vol. II. p. 216. 
 
340 IMMIGRATION TO LOUISIANA. 
 
 ■was that pestilence broke out among them even before they could 
 prepare themselves dwellings. A large number of them died there, 
 and the rest were forced to emigrate to a different climate. Their 
 kind benefactor, on learning of their shocking mortality, went to 
 visit their settlement. He found them in the most pitiable plight, 
 crawling under the bushes, to screen themselves from the torrid sun, 
 and lying down to die." 
 
 " We might," says Rameau, " reconstruct the history of 
 a considerable number of families brought from Prince 
 Edward Island to Louisburg, transported from Louisburg 
 to England in 1758, from England to France in 1763, and 
 from France to Guiana in 1764 ; then, brought back to 
 France in 1765 after the disaster of Kourou, they were 
 quartered in the island of Aix, whence they were taken 
 to Rochefort. After a sojourn of some years in this 
 place, some of these Acadians were sent to Limousin, 
 to M. de SaintrVictour's estate ; but they remained 
 there only a short time and were advised to go, in 1772, 
 to Saint-Malo, where they were met byM. de Peyrusse, 
 who took with him more than a hundred families." 1 
 They remained a few years on the lands lie gave them 
 to till in Poitou at Archigny, Cenan, Bonneuil-ma- 
 Tour and Maille* ; but the soil was poor and the whole 
 country had a gloomy and desolate look that contrasted 
 painfully with the rich valleys and the smiling land- 
 scapes of the Bay of Fundy. In the midst of this 
 isolated and silent wilderness, these families could not 
 make up their minds to consider this their lasting home ; 
 they mourned inconsolably for their dear Acadia and 
 for so many relatives scattered far and wide. Accord- 
 ingly when, after a few years, the Spanish Government 
 made them advantageous proposals for a settlement in 
 
 i line Colonie Ft'odale, vol. II. p. 226. 
 
ESTIMATED POPULATION. 341 
 
 Louisiana, most of these families, together with a great 
 number of others, dwelling elsewhere in France, eagerly 
 accepted them. From 1784 to 1787 a strong current of 
 Acadian emigration set in from France to Louisiana. 
 Of 4,500 Acadians in France in 1763, there remained 
 scarcely eight hundred ; those who were at San Domingo 
 and other West India islands had taken the same direc- 
 tion long before. Thus it was not till thirty years after 
 the first deportation, and after suffering all the heart- 
 burnings of separation, exile, death, misery in its mul- 
 titudinous forms, in fact, all imaginable ills, that this 
 stricken remnant could at length find a lasting asylum. 1 
 
 1 It is impossible to estimate exactly what remained, ten or fifteen years 
 after the deportation, of the 18,000 exiles. Bameau, who took great pains to 
 collect statistics, thinks there must have been 11,500 in 1766. Calculating 
 on the basis of the natural increase during the fifty years that preceded the 
 deportation, the 18,000 would have been 27,000 in 1766 ; but, apart from a 
 considerable decrease in the number of births, we must suppose enormous 
 mortality among the children. 
 
 To arrive at an approximate figure, we must follow the exiles through 
 their successive migrations to the place of their final settlement. Few or 
 none remained in England ; about 700 in France, and at most 800 in the 
 United States, of whom more than two-thirds were at Baltimore and about 
 fifty at Chasy in Vermont, where, after serving in the army during the war 
 of Independence, they received grants of land. The number of those who 
 definitely settled in Guiana, San Domingo and other West India islands is 
 insignificant. About 1,500 joined in the Maritime Provinces the 2,500 who 
 were already there in 1765. 
 
 Taking into account all these migrations, we find the following result : 
 
 France 700 
 
 United States 800 
 
 Maritime Provinces, Gaspe\ Magdalen Islands, Newfound- 
 land coast, St. Pierre and Miquelon 4,000 
 
 Louisiana 2,500 
 
 Province of Quebec 3,500 
 
 Other places 500 
 
 12,060 
 
 Rameau, as we have seen, counts only 11,500 ; but I think he is 500 short 
 as regards the Province of Quebec. Conversely, I may be mistaken in my 
 estimate for other places, particularly for Louisiana, where statistics are 
 less accurate owing to the constant immigration thereto from France dur- 
 ing 32 years . What seems almost certain is that in 1790 the Acadian popu- 
 lation of Louisiana was 4,000. 
 
 Deducting from the above total of 12,000 some 2,000 children born after 
 the deportation, and still living in 1766, we find that the deported popula- 
 
342 A HEART-RENDING FATE. 
 
 Let him whose heart is not of flint, let him whose 
 mind is capable of receiving an impress from without 
 and of realizing the feelings of his fellowman put down 
 this book for a few moments. Let him reconstruct in 
 thought the long and dolorous pilgrimage of these 
 wretched exiles ; let him view them prisoners for 
 weeks at Grand Pre*, Port Royal and Beaubassin ; 
 despoiled of everything, their very houses burnt ; 
 huddled on board ship, separated from their relatives 
 and sometimes from their wives and children ; let him 
 follow them down to the hold in a fetid atmosphere, 
 buffeted by the waves, driven back by the authorities of 
 the port to which they were destined, sent off to England, 
 held captive there for eight long years ; decimated every- 
 where by death ; transported to France, dwelling here 
 and there in that kingdom during several years ; re- 
 embarking for Guiana and the West Indies ; decimated 
 again ; returning to France and sojourning there some 
 years longer ; after thirty years of this unremitting 
 deluge of despair, crushed by the burden of woe, pre- 
 maturely aged by care, worn out by grief and misery, 
 going at last to end their wretched lives in the solitudes 
 of Louisiana. When the reader shall have given a mo- 
 ment's meditation to these scenes and calculated the sum 
 
 tion of 18,000 souls was reduced to 10,000 in 1766, whereas by normal in- 
 crease, had the deportation not taken place, it would have easily become 
 25,000. 
 
 At the present time the entire Acadian race is represented approxi- 
 mately as follows : 
 
 Maritime Provinces, Magdalen Islands, Gasp6, Saint-Pierre et 
 
 Miquelon, Newfoundland (unmixed) 130,000 
 
 French Canada (somewhat mixed with the French Canadians) . 100.000 
 
 Louisiana (unmixed) 40,000 
 
 France (Belle-ile-en-mer — Poitou) ) . , , , 
 
 y Absorbed. 
 
 Other parts of the United States 
 
 270,000 
 
AN APPEAL TO PAKKMAN. 343 
 
 of anguish which they represent, let him ask himself if 
 ever a more dramatic and heart-rending fate befell a 
 whole nation or even a handful of persons, and this, not 
 by the chances of war, but by the cold-blooded greed of 
 rulers robbing unarmed and peaceful subjects. With 
 all this in full view, was it seemly in Parkman to ridi- 
 cule the sentimentality of his fellow-countrymen and 
 purposely to falsify history in order to stamp upon a 
 down-trodden people ? 
 
 "When a single household," says Smith, "has been stripped of 
 shelter and effects by a sudden unavoidable calamity, the occasion is 
 one that calls forth the sympathy of the whole community. Here we 
 have thousands of Acadian exiles, who had lost all, by a common 
 calamity, in obedience to the command of those in authority. 
 
 " Many a mother has clasped her babe more closely to her breast as 
 she has recalled the circumstances, yet fresh in the mind of every 
 reader, of those ancient parents, who, for so many long years have 
 been wearily searching for their kidnapped boy, until their fortune is 
 spent, and their foreheads have become wrinkled with the living sor- 
 row: the fate of those parents but illustrates the experience of the 
 French Neutrals, who passed their lives in searching for members of 
 their families which had been purposely scattered to prevent their 
 
 For nearly two thousand years legendary history, em- 
 bellished by the poets, has been perpetuating the mem- 
 ory of ^Eneas fleeing from his home with his father 
 Anchises on his back. Not a few pulses have throbbed 
 more quickly at the story of the Trojan warrior's flight 
 and filial love, though, even were it true, it was but a 
 transient episode in the lives of two men. And yet 
 here we have undoubted facts about a whole people, 
 with whose misfortunes the brief woes which JEneas 
 calls " unspeakable " can in no wise be compared ; and 
 these misfortunes were inflicted upon them eighteen 
 
I 
 
 ) 
 
 344 CIVILIZING THE HEART. 
 
 centuries after Christ in a Christian country. No, Mr. 
 Parkman ; you may continue, if you choose, your work 
 of falsification ; but kindly leave poets and novelists to 
 their noble labor of love, suffer those whose compassion- 
 ate souls wince at a tale of suffering and turn with loath- 
 ing from the unjust oppression of the weak by the strong, 
 suffer such, I say, to reveal what you have striven to 
 hide, suffer them to unmask the cupidity that is the 
 mainspring of this drama, and to give to the hapless 
 victim the tribute of a tear. Every Acadian still car- 
 ries a wound in his heart ; rip it open if you will, but 
 let sympathetic hearts, let consolers come to us, for we 
 hunger for the bread of consolation. Let the balm they 
 pour on our wounds counteract the gall you have in- 
 jected there. Bear with the poets, when they compas- 
 sionate our sufferings and hold out to us the right hand 
 of friendship. " Friendship," as Ilaliburton so elo- 
 quently said in the discourse I mentioned above, u is 
 natural to the heart of man ; it is like the ivy that seeks 
 the oak, clings to its trunk, embraces its branches and 
 surrounds them with superb festoons ; it climbs to the 
 tree-top and there waves its banner of foliage above the 
 oak's head, as if glorying in having conquered the 
 king of the forests." Believe me, Mr. Parkman, man- 
 kind is and ever will be amenable to noble and generous 
 sentiments ; you have not acquired such prestige as 
 would enable you effectually to close against poets and 
 novelists that abundant wellspring which immortalized 
 Longfellow and will yet, I trust, immortalize others of 
 your countrymen. If civilization is due to the de- 
 velopment of the mind and the spread of knowledge, 
 still more is it the outcome of the culture of the will. 
 Now the seat of the will is in the heart. Therefore, if 
 
CIVILIZING THE HEART. 345 
 
 you rightly move the heart of man, you civilize him, 
 you make him a man of good will. The heart is the 
 royal road through which all civilization must pass. 1 
 
 1 Abbe" Casgrain thinks he noticed, in the Acadian women of the mari- 
 time provinces, an expression of gentle sadness and resignation, which 
 seemed to him to contrast visibly with the sprightly and cheerful faces of 
 their French Canadian sisters. Such generalizations may be rather haz- 
 ardous ; however, in view of the fact that the character and the facial 
 characteristics of a people are the combined result of a multitude of 
 causes, some apparently slight but continuous through long periods of 
 time, others far-reaching though seemingly transient, it would not be 
 astonishing, after all, if the misfortunes that overwhelmed a whole genera- 
 tion had fixed upon the descendants of that generation an indelible stamp 
 of quiet melancholy. 
 
346 PLACES FORGOTTEN, FACTS REVIVE. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 Whilst in other countries historical records are being 
 diligently hunted up for the slightest new detail of ages 
 long since gone by, here, on the contrary, as there has 
 been crime, its authors have tried to consign all memo- 
 rials to oblivion by destroying every reminder of the 
 past. Beause*jour, Gaspereau, Grand Pre*, Beaubassin, 
 Port Royal, sweet-sounding names, so full of memories, 
 so familiar a hundred and fifty years ago, exist no longer 
 except for lovers of history and antiquarians. Patient 
 research is needed to find the spot where stood the 
 village of Grand Pre* ; soon nothing will be left, and 
 historians of the future will dispute about the location 
 of these places as those of our own day are wrangling 
 over the site of Babylon, Troy and so many other cities 
 of ancient heathendom. But it will be otherwise with 
 the history of the Acadians. This lost chapter, de- 
 stroyed by guilty hands, will revive ; the histoiy of it 
 will be reconstructed with fragments that have escaped 
 destruction. The murderer does not always secure 
 immunity from the penalty of his crime by not writing 
 a description thereof, or by effacing whatever he may, 
 in an unguarded moment, have written about it, or by 
 the fact that the deed was not done in the light of day. 
 Justice, though sometimes slow, almost always ends by 
 detecting the best laid plots and by visiting them with 
 
MARCH ONWARD. 347 
 
 condign retribution. This retribution in the present 
 case, in spite of contrary efforts, is under way, and me- 
 thinks, is already at hand. The search is still going 
 on; if circumstances allow, I will endeavor to con- 
 tribute thereto ; and I feel confident that new dis- 
 coveries will soon completely rend the veil that still 
 hides a portion of the truth. 
 
 Were we to indulge in mere sentiment, we could 
 wish to see this little Acadian nation, dispersed but not 
 annihilated, remain what it was of yore, with its simple 
 tastes, with all those idiosyncrasies that make it so dear 
 to our memories; but the law of progress is there, 
 standing before it in its inexorable might, saying to it : 
 March onward, or you will be left behind, perhaps 
 stamped out. This command must be obeyed, the pace 
 must be quickened, the conflict faced, the conquest of 
 progress achieved; and yet it is a painful conquest, 
 which will hasten the merging of that beloved nation 
 in the great homogeneous family of peoples fore- 
 shadowed by the future. To die of its own victory, 
 such is the fate, remote, perchance, but inevitable, that 
 awaits it ! 
 
 The past teaches us a lesson we should do well to 
 reflect upon and profit by. It applies not only to the 
 Acadian people but also to the clergy, whose mission it 
 was to guide them in the spiritual way, and who had 
 the power to lead them likewise along the paths of 
 intellectual progress. To have made of them, or at 
 least helped to make them the sober, hard-working, 
 moral people we know, was certainly to deserve high 
 praise ; but we cannot forget that education is essential 
 to the future of a people ; it was so then and is still 
 more so now. That artless simplicity of theirs, due 
 
f 
 
 ) 
 
 348 SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM. 
 
 in a measure to blissful ignorance, gave a handle to the 
 nefarious projects formed against them and left them 
 an easy prey to men as full of ambition as they were 
 devoid of conscience. No such successful trap can 
 be laid for an entire people, if they are enlightened and 
 nerved for conflict by a suitable course of mental train- 
 ing, which lets them discern the motives of their ag- 
 gressors and enables them vigorously to uphold their 
 rights. What was true in those days is doubly true 
 to-day. We must develop more and more that manly 
 and practical education which gives self-reliance, in- 
 itiative, conscious power, strong individuality. Thus, 
 when the solemn occasion arrives, when the hour of 
 danger strikes, we shall have men fashioned for the 
 stern struggle of life, who know how to meet diffi- 
 culties and baffle the perverse designs of their foes. 
 Si vis pacem, para helium. Inure the mind to ro- 
 bustness as you would the body, train the intellect 
 in every kind of mental tilt, accustom it to find 
 within itself the leverage it needs ; and we shall 
 march onward and upward, we shall grow to the full 
 stature of militant manhood, and then we shall be 
 respected. It is a truism to say that modern pro- 
 gressive nations owe their development, their great- 
 ness, their wealth, their influence to the efforts they 
 have made to promote education. Ours is it, then, 
 to choose whether we shall enter more resolutely 
 into the general forward movement and take our 
 share of the riches, consideration and influence it 
 carries with it, or dance attendance upon others, con- 
 demning ourselves to be the hand that toils and 
 drudges, when we might be the head that commands. 
 In return for the wasting of our muscular energy we 
 
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 349 
 
 shall get nothing but the crumbs that fall from the 
 table, while brain work will seat itself at the ban- 
 quet. We have to choose between being masters or 
 servants ; it is the quantity and more especially the 
 quality of our education that will make that choice 
 possible. 
 
 This is not the time to linger over a bootless con- 
 templation of a past that is gone never to return. The 
 manners of one period do not suit another. By all 
 means let us revere the past, let us study it, but rather 
 in order the better to understand the present and 
 the future. Whatever helps on our interests to-day 
 will be so much laid up for to-morrow. Between past 
 and present, between present and future the connection 
 is not always easy to discern ; it is quite invisible to 
 him that loves the past alone and scorns the present. 
 It is the perception of this connection that will wean 
 us from the past by teaching us that, on the whole, 
 the human race does not go backwards, and, above all, 
 that no retrograde movement can be universal with 
 education and a proper use of liberty. At all events, 
 whatever be our view of what has been and what is, 
 it behooves us to submit to reality and face the inevi- 
 table. 
 
 Liberty and knowledge bear us onward with ac- 
 celerated speed toward a future that is ever-changing ; 
 the absence of these two gifts has ever held mankind 
 stationary and fixed in one spot. Now, as oppression 
 and ignorance cannot be good, so liberty and knowledge 
 cannot be in themselves evil. These latter may, of 
 course, like all blessings, be abused, and must, therefore, 
 be directed by the higher interests of morality ; but he 
 alone can thus direct them who understands and loves 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 350 god's works all linked together. 
 
 them and admires a beneficent Providence gradually 
 lifting humanity out of the sloughs of misery and 
 abjectness. All the works of God are linked together. 
 Natural science is a synthesis of the laws of nature, and 
 the application of this knowledge constitutes material 
 progress. These laws being from God, to repudiate 
 progress would be to repudiate the work of God. Each 
 generation marks a stage in the progress of the race ; 
 the onward thrust is irresistible, it carries with it the 
 masses, while modifying and transforming into regenera- 
 tive lessons the errors of a disappearing past. Science, 
 belief, legislation, methods of action, all things are 
 linked together in this world. With the development 
 of knowledge and ideas, everything, save a small num- 
 ber of unchangeable truths definitely grasped, must 
 progress in man's environment. This movement is 
 becoming more marked from day to day ; it is resistless, 
 because it is a law of our being. Whatever stands in 
 the way of this transformation is flung aside like the 
 garments we have outgrown, and is carried off by the 
 rising flood. We must advance or be crushed, march 
 on or be distanced, move with the tide or be engulfed 
 in it. 
 
 For want of realizing the high moral tendency of ma- 
 terial progress, certain minds see naught but confusion 
 and decadence in what is going on around us ; in their 
 eyes mankind made constant progress until this or that 
 epoch, but from that time forth it entered on a path 
 that is everywhere beset with threatening peril. How 
 much more wise, rational and harmonious would it be 
 to recognize a constant evolution, lifting up the barba- 
 rian and leading him gradually on towards an indefinite 
 progress, which never halts or only halts long enough 
 
MORAL PROGRESS THE OBJECT. 351 
 
 to let him, as he gropes about, study and understand 
 the path he must follow. 
 
 The gigantic strides of material progress in our day, 
 while whetting the appetite for pleasures that had here- 
 tofore fallen to the lot of the privileged few, may have 
 made people lose sight, for a moment, of the moral pro- 
 gress that ought to be the motive and object of all ma- 
 terial advancement. The suddenness of the transforma- 
 tion may have unhinged men's minds and thrown them 
 of! their balance ; they forgot that unmixed good is 
 rarely met with, and that every evil has its antidote at 
 hand. But for any one who takes the trouble to dive 
 beneath the surface of events it will be easy to see that, 
 in many respects, social and Christian progress has been 
 already little, if at all, inferior to the triumphs of mat- 
 ter. The reign of persecution and cruelty is well-nigh 
 ended ; national and religious animosities are on the eve 
 of extinction ; the generality of men, instead of feast- 
 ing on the sufferings of their fellows, show a marked 
 tendency to become indulgent and tender-hearted. 
 Slavery, which was the most articulate expression of 
 barbarism, is no longer tolerated. These progressive 
 steps in social morality, of incalculable value for the 
 manners and religious development of men, are, without 
 doubt, corollaries of scientific, educational and material 
 progress. If social and Christian progress has not yet 
 done itself full justice, it is, nevertheless, a mighty reality ; 
 it is an earnest that that harmony which ought to reign 
 throughout the universe really exists between the differ- 
 ent kinds of progress and especially between science and 
 morality. A distinguished writer has said: "When 
 the grapes, flung by the basketful, are pressed, what is 
 the first result ? A mess, a scum, a seething ferment. . . 
 
352 A PLEA FOR PATIENCE. 
 
 Wait for the necessary period and you will have wine." 
 So is it sometimes with material progress. 
 
 It has taken nearly twenty centuries of incubation 
 and hidden labor for the civilized world to penetrate 
 into the inner mind of Christianity and view the high 
 social results that flow therefrom. These results have 
 been not, indeed, produced, but greatly favored by scien- 
 tific and material progress ; so true is it that all sorts of 
 progress are linked together. And may we not indulge 
 the consolatory hope that these results will ultimately 
 lead us to the reign of goodness, of truth, of justice, of 
 the love of humanizing ideas, of true brotherhood ; so 
 that then will be realized, in its most exalted sense, 
 that prayer we utter every day: Thy Kingdom come? 
 
 These strivings after high ideals, these constant aspira- 
 tions towards a social status more in keeping with jus- 
 tice and solidarity, point to that great current of human- 
 izing tendencies, the source of which is on the top of 
 Calvary, and the waters of which are bearing us onward 
 to a future age when the making capital out of man, 
 the shameful pauperizing of the masses, culpable ignor- 
 ance, and the horrors of war shall be no more. The 
 world has been terrorized by threats and mortal dread, 
 whereas Jesus wished to reign through love and charity. 
 
 In the conflict of Christian civilization, in the strug- 
 gle between ignorance and error, the army that is fight- 
 ing for us is made up of diverse elements which often 
 seem to hinder and paralyze each other. Let us not 
 peevishly complain of the slowness of this, or the rash- 
 ness of that other ally ; both may delay and both may 
 ensure the victory. In France, under the first Republic 
 and the Empire, victories were won rather by impetu- 
 osity. It was this furia francese that enabled Bonaparte 
 
THE CHURCH DEMOCRATIC. 353 
 
 to overrun Europe with his conquering armies and to 
 humble the coalition of Kings. In 1870 it was the 
 wise slowness of heavy artillery that brought France in 
 her turn to her knees. Catholicism is that artillery, 
 often cumbersome, which, at a given moment, will make 
 amends for the rash haste of outpost skirmishers and 
 make victory sure. The life of societies, like that of in- 
 dividuals, is a conflict; to quit the ranks is to court 
 death and oblivion. The evolution which is urging so- 
 cial fabrics toward horizons that are either unknown or 
 dimly outlined through the thick mist of our ignorance, 
 carries along with it the most conservative elements of 
 society. This evolution, ardently desired by some, un- 
 observed by the majority of men, combated by others, 
 and extending its sway over every one, finds in Cathol- 
 icism the most determined support of established order 
 as well as the element that most successfully with- 
 stands the onset of injudicious innovation. It is more 
 friendly to order and stability than to progress ; it 
 dreads the precipitate courses, the sudden enthusiasms, 
 the shocks and random jolts of the latter. It may 
 delay progress, sometimes, however, at an opportune 
 moment, it will make a move to the front in order 
 to decide, by its guidance, the victory of Christian 
 progress and civilization. For instance, in our time, 
 Leo XIII, in the shape of an explicit recognition 
 of Republican forms in France, has done more for 
 the future than could have been accomplished by 
 the most skilful combinations of diplomatists and 
 statesmen. Each progressive step taken by an essen- 
 tially conservative body is a much more valuable and 
 lasting acquisition than would be a similar proceeding 
 
 on the part of a liberal or radical element. In spite 
 23 
 
354 WHAT THIS TRAGEDY TEACHES. 
 
 of its slowness, its changeless character, the apparent 
 inflexibility of its principles, Catholicism will not fail 
 to lend itself to the evolutions germane to the life of 
 mankind. As was recently said by an eminent Catholic 
 orator, Count Albert de Mun, u Pope Leo XIII has 
 taken his stand squarely in the forefront of democracy." 
 
 Each element contributes its quota to the general 
 advance. A few years more or less cannot affect the 
 issue, and they count for little in the long lapse of ages. 
 Provided that, on the whole, mankind is not too vio- 
 lently hurled ahead or thrust backward, we can accommo- 
 date ourselves, without loud complainings, to achieved 
 results. 
 
 History is but an agglomeration of useful teachings; 
 and the horrible drama which I have striven truth- 
 fully to penetrate and expose has its own special in- 
 structiveness. To touch the heart of man is to make 
 him better; and if this pitiable and unjust fate of a 
 people had no other effect than this, it would yet be a 
 lesson laden with fruitful germs. Deeds of cruelty, 
 such as have been chronicled in these pages, would be 
 impossible to-day. At the first move of a new Law- 
 rence, the cry of indignation wrung from the witnesses 
 of his crime would instantly be echoed in the four quar- 
 ters of the civilized globe. 
 
 Taught by experience in the school of misfortune, let 
 us, the sons of those hapless Acadians, understand that 
 we should devote ourselves to the noble cause of educa- 
 tion ; let us enter manfully on the path of that progress 
 which will win for us an honorable place among the 
 nationalities with whom our lot is cast. Let us be 
 friends of order, lovers of our country, living in peace 
 and harmony with our compatriots of a different origin ; 
 
LET ENGLAND CONDEMN LAWRENCE'S DEEDS. 355 
 
 but, above all, let us preserve that high morality which 
 has secured for us so much sympathy in our misfortunes 
 from the very men who might have been interested in 
 condemning us. Nor should we forget that the real 
 motives which brought on our misfortunes were un- 
 known, that those who espoused our cause — and they 
 were the majority — had, in order to do so, to go counter 
 to their natural feelings and to condemn acts which 
 they believed to be referable to the Home Government. 
 This will make it easier for us to forgive and forget. 
 At the same time we may derive comfort from the 
 thought that, sooner or later, the entire truth will issue 
 in all its splendor from the well in which our persecu- 
 tors thought they had forever drowned it. 
 
 Oh ! if we could only blot out from our memory these 
 sad recollections ! Why is there not, as the old fable 
 tells us, a river whose waters make one forget the past ? 
 What people are pleased to call the blessing of educa- 
 tion is precisely what increases our grief ; by feeding our 
 fancy and refining our feelings, it revives and quickens 
 in us the sorrows of a past that will not let itself be for- 
 gotten. The pains and hardships that are the outcome 
 of our own misdeeds or of every-day misfortunes are 
 easily forgotten ; not so the pangs produced by injustice 
 and especially by the injustice of the Government on 
 which we depend. If only that authority, to which we 
 owe respect and obedience, but to which, in the present 
 condition of things, we cannot give our love, had the 
 magnanimity to acknowledge the injustice of its past 
 and to seek to repair that injustice in any degree, such 
 a reparation would be generous, grand, noble, and — an 
 important consideration — it would be highly politic. A 
 measure of this sort would wipe out at one stroke all 
 
356 LESS POWER AND MORE SYMPATHY. 
 
 the bitterness of our recollections ; all would be effectu- 
 ally forgotten and effaced ; the germ of hate that still 
 perhaps ferments in more than one breast would be 
 transformed into a germ of gratitude and love and find 
 voice in a concert of praise that would echo through the 
 whole civilized world, the beneficent fruits of which 
 England would reap among all those peoples whom she 
 has conquered without assimilating them by winning 
 their love and gratitude. There is much boasting about 
 the sun never setting on her dominions. This pride is 
 based on merely one sentiment, that of power. Will 
 the day ever dawn when England will have made 
 enough progress in civilization to take more pride in 
 saying that the sun never sets on a wrong done by its 
 Government? Will the time ever come when all those 
 emblems of wild beasts : teeth, horns, claws, etc., which 
 are proudly flaunted on red, white and blue rags, will 
 disappear and be replaced by emblems more in keeping 
 with a truly Christian civilization ? 
 
 For 137 years we Acadians have, da}' by day, seen 
 the sun set on this wrong, the ghost of which haunts us 
 unceasingly. Often, it is true, have sympathetic writers 
 applied balm to our wounds ; but how much sweeter 
 would be the thought that this wrong has been righted 
 or at least acknowledged by the Government itself ! 
 Great, indeed, would be our joy if such a consolation 
 were offered to us. Since this deportation was executed 
 without cause and against the orders of the only com- 
 petent authorit}' — the Home Government — the confisca- 
 tion of our property by the local authority, by the de- 
 spoiler, was, from the first, null and void ; and therefore 
 our claim to reinstatement or to compensation cannot 
 be questioned. As this solution would be embarrassing 
 
A NOBLE REPARATION. 357 
 
 and onerous, we would ask nothing more than that a 
 certain sum be devoted to the founding of a college for 
 higher education for the benefit of the Acadians of the 
 Maritime Provinces, or that the two existing Acadian 
 colleges be liberally endowed. The struggle for exist- 
 ence is still very hard for these Acadians ; robbed of the 
 rich farms they owned, the sons of the exiles had to be- 
 come fishermen, coasters, mechanics ; those who took to 
 farming again were forced to do so on soil of a very in- 
 ferior quality ; hence it is only at the cost of heroic 
 sacrifices that they have succeeded in founding these 
 two colleges. It would be a noble, though slight, re- 
 paration of the past to place these two institutions on a 
 footing that would make them more efficient; this 
 would, moreover, win the gratitude of all the young men 
 who should profit by this generous deed and also of all 
 the educated Acadians who mould the opinions of their 
 countrymen. And, if this small satisfaction be deemed 
 excessive, we should be glad of any declaration, of any 
 pronouncement implying acknowledgment, regret or 
 amends for the wrongs we have suffered. Is this hop- 
 ing too much ? Corporations are said to have no souls ; 
 is this true of governments ? 
 
) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NO. I. 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE. 
 
 The appearance of this work, more than a year after 
 Mr. Parkman's death, calls for a few words of explanation. 
 While writing it, I fully expected that my statements would 
 meet his eye, and, possibly, be challenged by hira. At the 
 time of his death my manuscript was almost complete. 
 There being then no reason for haste, and my health having 
 suffered from excessive application, I went to spend five 
 months in California. Since my return from Los Angeles, 
 I have been busy making arrangements and providing ways 
 and means for the publication of these volumes, throughout 
 which I have preserved, in referring to Mr. Parkman, the 
 expressions I used when I thought they might be read by 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Parkman's death, depriving me of part of the object 
 I had in view, came upon me with the suddenness of an un- 
 expected shock and the keenness of a great disappointment. 
 
 Much praise has been indulged in by his many admirers 
 since his death, and more particularly by the Rev. Julius 
 Ward in McClure's Magazine of January, 1894. Mr. Park- 
 man had the wise foresight to present to the Massachusetts 
 Historical Society an oaken cabinet containing his manu- 
 script volumes and the documents which he followed. His 
 object, so says Mr. Ward, was to enable critics to estimate 
 the correctness of his writing, and, probably also, to allow 
 his friends to defend him. 
 
 Mr. Ward, moreover, informs us that Mr. Parkman was 
 
 359 
 

 360 PROGRESSIVE DISTORTION. 
 
 so accurate, so trustworthy, so impartial, so careful in all 
 details, that history as written by him is final. Such an 
 assertion is, to put it mildly, rash. All this praise, some of 
 it well deserved, can have no effect on one who, like my- 
 self, has found him out; it is the obvious result of Parkman's 
 plausibility and unparalleled astuteness. 
 
 Now may have come the opportunity for the oaken cab- 
 inet. For my part, I have endeavored to dispense with 
 any such collection, by giving room to my sources of infor- 
 mation in the text itself, readily sacrificing the attractive- 
 ness of the narrative to the higher purpose of affording, to 
 the earnest inquirer after truth, the best available data for 
 forming an independent and reasonable judgment. 
 
 In this connection it may be well to point out how my 
 researches have brought to light a most curious instance of 
 the progressive distortion which history may be made to 
 suffer under the skilful manipulation of unscrupulous men. 
 The Compiler, confronted, on the one hand, with a collection 
 of documents already mutilated by interested persons, and, 
 on the other, by the public opinion of a hundred years con- 
 demning the act which it was his business to throw into 
 clearer relief, sets to work to garble and distort the scraps 
 that had escaped destruction. Far from fulfilling the mis- 
 sion entrusted to him by the Legislature, far from furnish- 
 ing matter for real history, his compilation, by the very 
 fact of its issuing under such high patronage, of its conse- 
 quent claim to impartiality, and of its facilitating the la- 
 bor of research, would inevitably constitute, for the average 
 student of history, a barrier to further inquiry, and would 
 thus pave the way for Lawrence's defenders. Such must 
 have been the Compiler's purpose. Sooner or later some bold 
 writer would be found to realize it and stamp it with the 
 semblance of finality. That writer is Parkman. Trench- 
 ant assertions, positive and precise conclusions and all the 
 other resources of his profound craftiness have been brought 
 to bear upon a fresh mutilation and a further distortion of 
 the Compiler's distorted and twice garbled collection. After 
 
GOLDWIN SMITH. 361 
 
 Parkman, as might have been expected, other writers would 
 arise who, with less knowledge of the subject, would im- 
 prove on his system of suppression or at least of unwarrant- 
 able inference. This process of progressive distortion must 
 have pretty nearly reached its utmost limit in the follow- 
 ing lines : 
 
 "The Maritime Provinces, — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 
 Prince Edward Island, cover, at least the first two of them cover, the 
 area of the old French Acadie, which, submerged by the tide of con- 
 quest, shows itself only in the ruined fortifications of Louisburg, 
 once the Acadian Gibraltar, in remains of the same kind at Anna- 
 polis, and in a relic of the French population. The name, with the 
 lying legend of British cruelty connected with it, has been embalmed, 
 not in amber but in barley-sugar, by the writer of 'Evangeline.' 
 
 " Lieutenant-Governor Adam Archibald, Mr. Parkman, and Dr. 
 Kingston have completely disposed of this fiction, and shown that the 
 deportation of the Acadians was a measure of necessity, to which 
 recourse was had only w r hen forbearance was exhausted. The blame 
 really rests on the vile and murderous intrigues of the priest Le 
 Loutre. The commander of the troops, Winslow, was an Ameri- 
 can/' * 
 
 Thus is history fabricated. The Compiler begat Park- 
 man, Parkman begat Archibald, Archibald begat Goldwin 
 Smith. By dint of repeated mutilations, step by step, they 
 have succeeded in giving the lie to the received opinions of 
 a whole century and in proclaiming to the world, in telling 
 phrase, that the cruelty of this deportation is merely a 
 nursery fable. There remains but one further step to take : 
 let some still more audacious perverter of history affirm 
 either that the deportation itself is a myth, or that the 
 Acadians, if they were not ungrateful, ought to erect monu- 
 ments to Lawrence, Belcher and Wilmot, because they did 
 not exterminate them on the spot. 
 
 Of the writers mentioned above, the Compiler and Park- 
 man are the only ones against whom there is overwhelming 
 evidence of bad faith. The others erred through rashness in 
 that they ventured on ground that was unknown to them ex- 
 * Goldwin Smith : Canada and the Canadian Question, p. 56. 
 
362 
 
 A COVEUT INSINUATION. 
 
 ) 
 
 cept through the descriptions of the garbling pair. For it is 
 hardly necessary to emphasize the fact that Mr. Goldwin 
 Smith, though dabbling in history for fifty years, has prob- 
 ably never gone in for original research, but has preferred 
 to write, in admirable English, brilliant one-sided sum- 
 maries and glittering, though seldom golden, generaliza- 
 tions. However, there is just one short sentence, in the 
 passage I have quoted from him, which looks very much 
 like bad faith " embalmed in barley-sugar" puerility. 
 " The commander of the troops, Winslow," says this great 
 word-monger, " was an American." Now, as these events 
 took place twenty years before the Revolutionary War, 
 there were at that time no Americans as distinguished from 
 Britishers. Besides, Winslow was merely the local com- 
 mander at Grand Pre ; there were three other such com- 
 manders, Handfield at Annapolis, Murray at Pigiguit, 
 Monckton at Beaubassin, all three having nothing at all to 
 do with the American provinces in what is now the United 
 States. Yet, in the teeth of these well-known facts, Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith tries, by an apparently simple statement, 
 to shift the responsibility for the deportation on shoulders 
 that ought not to bear that crushing weight. His covert 
 insinuation means this : The cruelty of the deportation is 
 a lying legend ; and at any rate, if it is not, British honor 
 is safe, since he who commanded the troops was an Amer- 
 ican. Before Mr. Smith, no one ever accused Winslow of 
 being the author of the deportation ; he merely carried 
 out the orders of his superior, Lawrence. To ignore the 
 Governor who concocted the whole scheme, and to throw the 
 blame on one of the subordinate officers who obeyed his 
 orders, is a piece of childish trifling unworthy of an intelli- 
 gent school-girl. As for Longfellow, he needs no defence. 
 His work is but a poem; yet the conscientious historian will 
 find more truth in his " barley-sugar " than in all the lofty 
 sneers of Mr. Smith. 
 
 The following letter was addressed to me since this work 
 has been put in the publisher's hands. It is from George 
 
LETTER FROM MR. GEORGE BROWN. 363 
 
 S. Brown, Esq., now of Boston, Mass., ex-M. P. P. for 
 Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and author of a valuable History 
 of that county. 
 
 " I have read in the Montreal ' Herald ' the Introduction to your 
 forthcoming Book on Acadian History. The subject is of much 
 interest to me, for I have made a special study of it as well as of the 
 Acadians themselves, who are numerous in Yarmouth County, where 
 more than fifty years of my life have been passed. 
 
 "I see that you charge Parkman with partiality, if not with dis- 
 honesty, in dealing with your subject. You are right ; dishonesty 
 seems to be the proper word, for he has evidently suppressed the 
 truth when treating of the Acadian Expatriation of 1755. He has 
 ignored, I am sorry to say, whatever tended to exhibit the deporta- 
 tion in its true light ; he has garbled historic records to suit his 
 purposes ; he has explored every nook and corner to hunt up some- 
 thing disparaging to the Acadians, and he has taken no account of 
 Haliburton, Andrew Brown, and other trustworthy writers. 
 
 " The Home Government not only did not aid or sanction the 
 deportation, but they opposed it, as did also General Amherst, 
 Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Xorth America. I have 
 become conversant with the main facts since my book was published, 
 but I had glimpses of them all along. Casgrain lets in some light, 
 but there is much more to be said in the same direction. For the 
 mere sake of truth and justice, I am glad that you lead the way, and 
 that you expose Parkman' s perversion of the facts of history, etc., 
 etc." 
 
 After reading Mr. Brown's book (who by the way is a 
 stranger to me), I wrote to him, saying, in substance, that 
 his praise of Acadians seemed to me rather excessive. I 
 here extract the following from his answer : 
 
 " In your letter you intimate that I might be held chargeable with 
 undue partiality to the Acadians. I do not, and I stand ready to 
 justify everything I have said of the Acadians of Yarmouth County 
 with whom I have been long and intimately acquainted, and when I 
 say that since the year 1761, when Yarmouth County was first settled 
 by the English, there is not a case on record of an Acadian being 
 charged with a capital crime, — that, though they number about 
 8,000, nearly one third of the population of the County, the occasions 
 have been of the very rarest when the prison doors have been opened 
 for an Acadian charged with an offence of even the most trivial nature, 
 there is little danger of one's saying too much in their praise." 
 
364 LETTER FROM HALIFAX COLONISTS. 
 
 
 No. II. 
 (See Vol. I., page 344, and Vol. II., page 135). 
 Lawrence's Character.* 
 
 Sir, 
 
 We are extremely obliged to you for your favor of the 
 30th July last and for your assiduity in our affairs. 
 
 We can assure you, sir, that we were almost without 
 hopes of being considered as English subjects. The haughty 
 and disdainful behavior of Governor Lawrence to all our 
 remonstrances, though tendered with the utmost submis- 
 sion, gave us much reason to think he was countenanced 
 at Home by those we had all the reason in the world here- 
 tofore to think were the patrons and principal supporters 
 of this infant settlement, and specially when it was pub- 
 licly declared by Governor Lawrence's creatures, that those 
 gentlemen in office here, who had ever been solicitous to 
 forward and promote the settlement and who had in every 
 point behaved with honesty and integrity, specially the 
 Judges of the courts of justice and some of the Council, 
 would soon be displaced. They are the only men who have 
 been the means of keeping the settlers from deserting in a 
 body and supported the rights and liberties of the people. 
 
 Your letter has revived the hopes of the inhabitants, and 
 
 * B)-Uish Museum.— Brown MSS.— Papers relating to Nova Scotia, 1748- 
 17.17.— Add. MSS, Vol. 19072. Iu 4 to fol. 43, No. 33. 
 
 At the top of this letter. A. B. Grosart of London, the owner of Brown's 
 Manuscript, has added with his own hand : 
 
 " A long letter (sixteen closely written pages) addressed to some one in 
 England by the Colonists concerning the state of the Province. 
 
 " This is a high-toned and most vigorous letter: and lays bare with most 
 withering scorn the character of Governor Lawrence. It reminds one of 
 the complaints of the elder Puritans in the days of Charles. . . 
 
 " This MS. most important. 
 
Lawrence's cunning and flattery. 365 
 
 it has been great comfort to them to find an Englishman in 
 England who has their unhappy state and condition at 
 heart and commiserates their bondage under oppression and 
 tyranny. 
 
 We are sensible of the difficulties in England and the 
 unsettled state of the Board of Trade which may retard our 
 affairs ; but, we are not without hopes, through your care 
 and assiduity, that we shall meet with success in having an 
 Assembly soon ordered to be established here ; and we cannot 
 help expressing our extreme satisfaction to find that it was 
 the Lords of Trade's most earnest intention to have an 
 Assembly instantly settled, as we are very sure it is of all 
 things in the world the most necessary step to strengthen 
 and establish this settlement and invite settlers to come and 
 settle among us. 
 
 We cannot but express our most hearty sorrow that our 
 good Lord Halifax has, at this critical juncture, resigned 
 his place at the board. We are all to a man perfectly 
 assured of that good Lord's sincere attachment to the 
 welfare of the colonies, and look upon him truly as the 
 father of this colony. We are fully persuaded that he will 
 use his utmost endeavors to remove from us our oppressor 
 and the oppressor of all his good purposes ; a person un- 
 known to him and recommended by persons on whom he 
 relied and whom we are sure were not acquainted with his 
 bad heart and mischievous intentions, one of whom is Gen- 
 eral Hopson, who has had sufficient reason to alter his opin- 
 ion. The other is General Cornwallis, who is too much a 
 friend to this people if he could be convinced of the ill-treat- 
 ment and unjust oppression this tyrant Governor has been 
 guilty of ever to countenance or support him. 
 
 These are all the friends Governor Lawrence has in 
 England, for, on this side of the water, he has none, either 
 of the inhabitants or gentlemen of the army who hold him 
 in the utmost contempt, except those formerly mentioned 
 to you, his agents in oppression. Perhaps you will be more 
 surprised to hear how this governor who sometime ago was 
 
366 
 
 PITT — PLACEMEN — FOREIGNERS. 
 
 ) 
 
 
 only a painter's apprentice in London should have advanced 
 himself to such heights. We are obliged to confess that he 
 has a good address, a great deal of low cunning, is a most 
 consummate flatterer, has words full of the warmest expres- 
 sions of an upright intention to perform much good, though 
 never intended, and with much art solicitously courts all 
 strangers whom he thinks can be of any service to him. 
 By these and such arts has he risen to be what he is, and, 
 elated with his success, is outrageously bent upon the de- 
 struction of every one that does not concur in his meas- 
 ures. 
 
 We beg leave to make this remark which we desire you 
 will read at the end of twelve months, that if he be not 
 removed Nova Scotia will be lost to the Crown of Great 
 Britain, and the rest of the colonies be endangered of shar- 
 ing the same fate, which ought to be the utmost concern of 
 every Englishman to prevent. 
 
 And, in order that you may in some measure understand 
 the importance of this, he has prevailed with Lord Loudun 
 to represent in England the necessity of placing this 
 Colony under a military government, and of suspending 
 the charters and laws of the other colonies, the consequence 
 of which, we apprehend, would be a struggle in the colo- 
 nies for liberty, and a consequence too fatal to name. And 
 while the contentions subsist there, the French will pene- 
 trate in this Province : indeed they have no feasible con- 
 quest left them but this colony, and, if the others are 
 deprived of their liberties, it is difficult to say what the 
 effect will be, but the worst is to be feared. 
 
 We could say many things which nearly concern us 
 about the affairs in this part of the world, but we are con- 
 fident you will hear of them from better hands, for they 
 must become public. 
 
 We cannot but express our most sincere acknowledg- 
 ment of gratitude and thanks to the Right Honorable Mr. 
 Pitt, that great patron of liberty, for the condescension he 
 has shown in taking notice of our affairs ; and, so far as 
 
LAWRENCE ABUSIVE AND MALEVOLENT. 367 
 
 is reasonable and just, we doubt not of his concurrence and 
 assistance to procure us redress. 
 
 In answer to your remarks, that the quorum of sixteen 
 is too large for the proposed number of twenty-two depu- 
 ties for the whole Assembly, it is also our opinion, but it 
 was the resolve of Council. 
 
 Our desire of having all placemen excluded from the 
 Assembly, was owing to the circumstances of the colony 
 under our present Governor. The voters are almost depend- 
 ants, the officers are wholly so, it would therefore be the 
 Governor's Assembly and not the people's. Laws would be 
 made according to his pleasure, and no grievance would be 
 redressed. But if a Governor who has the welfare of the 
 colony and the interest of the people, was appointed, this 
 would be an immaterial point. 
 
 The reason why triennial Assemblies was proposed, was 
 intended only for the first Assembly, in order to settle the 
 colony under an English Assembly ; otherwise, foreigners, 
 being the most numerous, and the time when they will be 
 naturalized by a seven-years' residence near approaching, 
 the future Assemblies might be mostly composed of for- 
 eigners, which might be dangerous to this frontier settle- 
 ment. 
 
 As to the article of Judges, a good Governor will avail 
 more for the advancement of justice, and then a good judge 
 would be under no concern least he be displaced. 
 
 Another of the Governor's acts, is to misrepresent and 
 abuse all below him. He has publicly called his Council a 
 pack of scoundrels, the merchants a parcel of villains and 
 bankrupts, and has represented in England the whole as a 
 people discontented and rebellious. We have authority of 
 his saying and declaring this from his own mouth in the 
 presence of many officers both of the army and navy. Is 
 it possible, sir, that people can be easy under such a Gov- 
 ernor? We dare appeal to our two former Governors for 
 our behavior under their administration, whose conduct to 
 us was the very reverse of Governor Lawrence. 
 

 368 TERRORISM — PRIVATE SEAL — HAY. 
 
 Believe us, sir, we are not captious. We are not that 
 turbulent people we have been represented ; our interest 
 obliges us to be otherwise ; we desire nothing inconsistent 
 with the prerogatives of the Crown ; we desire none other 
 than the liberties enjoyed by the other colonies, which His 
 Majesty has graciously been pleased to promise by his 
 Royal proclamation. 
 
 Our distresses have arisen from the malevolent disposi- 
 tion of Governor Lawrence and his creatures. Were they 
 removed and a Governor of humanity appointed, one 
 acquainted with the constitution of Englishmen and an 
 Assembly settled, you would soon have the pleasure of 
 hearing of the increase and success of this settlement, f i >r 
 we are well assured that 500 families would remove from 
 Massachusetts and settle immediately here, as we know 
 the offer has been made to Governor Lawrence and rejected 
 upon their requiring an Assembly to be first established, in 
 order that they might have proper laws for their regula- 
 tion and security of their property. 
 
 As for evidence of people leaving the colony for want of 
 an Assembly (those that are already gone), it would take 
 time to collect them as they are dispersed in the colonics ; 
 and though one hundred more families are upon the point 
 of removing, they are extremely fearful of being denied 
 passes if they should be found to have given such evidence, 
 for you must know that Governor Lawrence obliges every 
 master of a vessel to enter into bond, under a penalty of 
 fifty pounds forfeiture, for every person they carry away 
 without license obtained under his hand ; and, this is done 
 without the least shadow of law or order of Council ; nor 
 can any inhabitant go three miles from town without a 
 certificate from a justice of the peace, so that Halifax is 
 really a prison to all intents and purposes. 
 
 As for what you mention of the depositions not coming 
 under the seal of the Province, we beg leave to inform you 
 that it has never been allowed to be fixed to any papers but 
 their own, instead whereof Governor Lawrence fixes his 
 
IMMENSE STORES UNACCOUNTED FOE. 369 
 
 private seal, and must see all the evidence or his secretary ; 
 therefore, to such kind of evidence it would be impossible to 
 procure that, and, for want of the Province seal, many have 
 suffered in their lawsuits in the neighboring colonies, or at 
 the expense of sending witnesses where their suits have 
 been depending, which are some among the many rights we 
 are debarred of. 
 
 But we hope before this time many complaints have 
 reached the ear of the Minister, and that it will shortly 
 evidently appear, if it is not already manifest, that whilst 
 Governor Lawrence has the least influence in American 
 affairs, so long will ruin and confusion attend them. This 
 truth, General Shirley in England, and Lord Charles Hay 
 when he goes there, will, we are informed, make evident to 
 demonstration, for it is generally believed, that, whatever 
 specious crime may be alleged against Lord Charles Hay, 
 his confinement was solely due to Governor Lawrence's 
 insinuations to Lord Loudun, upon a private disgust to that 
 Lord for examining too freely into the expenses of batteries, 
 etc., etc., and speaking too contemptibly of what had been 
 done for the mighty sums expended in Nova Scotia. 
 
 We had not touched upon those matters, but as we think 
 Providence more immediately seems to concern itself in dis- 
 covering the villainous arts of the authors of our calamities, 
 and hope will direct its measures in pouring vengeance on 
 the man whose sole aim seems to have been to blast the 
 good intentions of his country and to make all subordinates 
 to him miserable. 
 
 It is with pleasure we hear that the accounts of Nova 
 Scotia will be strictly enquired into, as we are very sure, if 
 they were sifted to the bottom, it will be found that not less 
 than ten thousand pounds, of rum, molasses (of which 
 there was not less than 30,000 gallons, which alone was 
 worth £3,000), beef, pork, etc., etc., provisions and much 
 merchandize for the supply of the Indians and French in- 
 habitants were taken in Fort Beausejour, neither distributed 
 as a reward to the captors nor accounted for, except some 
 
370 HOGS AND CATTLE APPROPRIATED. 
 
 small quantity of beef and pork sold to the Commissary- 
 Mr. Saul on Mr. Baker's supply, which was extremely bad 
 and decayed, and certified by Governor Lawrence as pro- 
 visions sent by Governor Shirley. 
 
 That the Transports were kept near three months after the 
 French Neutrals were ready for embarcation at an immense 
 expense, and the New England troops kept six months after 
 their service was over, and this for two special reasons : one 
 to oblige them to enlist into the regulars, and the other to 
 defeat General Shirley in raising a sufficient number of 
 troops necessary for the summer's campaign. By which 
 means Oswego was lost, and the expedition to Crown Point 
 rendered abortive. We appeal to General Shirley for the 
 truth of this. 
 
 That the cattle, etc., etc., of the Acadians were converted 
 to private uses, of which we know 3,600 hogs and near 1,000 
 head of cattle were killed and packed at Pigiguit alone and 
 sent by water to other places ; and what at other forts is yet a 
 secret, all unaccounted for to the amount of a very large 
 sum ; and he and his Commissary are now under great 
 perplexity, and contriving to cover this iniquitous fraud. 
 
 That £30,000 has been laid out on batteries not worth 
 thirty pence for the defence of this place in the judgment 
 of every person acquainted therewith. 
 
 It is possible he may produce vouchers to cover all his 
 frauds, for, if the true ones should fall short, he has those 
 under him who have been used to such kind of work and 
 can readily supply the deficiency. But, if a Governor was 
 sent out with orders to enquire into these, or at least to 
 take depositions, we are very sure the whole will be clearly 
 made to appear. 
 
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN NOVA SCOTIA. 371 
 
 No. III. 
 
 (See Vol. II., page 235.) 
 
 Petition of the Acadians Deported to Philadelphia. 
 
 To His Most Excellent Majesty, King of Great Britain, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 The humble Petition of his subjects, the late French in- 
 habitants of Nova Scotia, formerly settled on the Bay of 
 Minas, and rivers thereunto belonging ; now residing in the 
 Province of Pennsylvania, on behalf of themselves and the 
 rest of the late inhabitants of the said bay, and also of those 
 formerly settled on the river of Annapolis Royal, whereso- 
 ever dispersed. 
 
 May it please Your Majesty, 
 
 It is not in our power sufficiently to trace back the condi- 
 tions upon which our ancestors first settled in Nova Scotia, 
 under the protection of Your Majesty's predecessors, as the 
 great part of our elders who were acquainted with these 
 transactions are dead; but more specially because our pa- 
 pers, which contained our contracts, records, etc. , etc. , were, 
 by violence, taken from us some time before the unhappy 
 catastrophe which has been the occasion of the calamities 
 we are now under ; but we always understood the founda- 
 tion thereof to be from an agreement made between Your 
 Majesty's Commanders in Nova Scotia and our forefathers 
 about the year 1713, whereby they were permitted to re- 
 main in the possession of their lands, under an oath of 
 fidelity to the British Government, with an exemption from 
 bearing arms, and the allowance of the free exercise of our 
 religion. 
 
 It is a matter of certainty, — and within the compass of 
 some of our memories — that in the year 1730, General 
 
372 
 
 GOVERNOR SHIRLEY S DECLARATION. 
 
 Philipps, the Governor of Nova Scotia, did, in Your Maj- 
 esty's name, confirm unto us, and all the inhabitants of 
 the whole extent of the Bay of Minas and rivers thereunto 
 belonging, the free and entire possession of those lands we 
 were then possessed of; which, by grants from the former 
 French Government, we held to us and our heirs forever, 
 on paying the customary quit- rents, etc. , etc. And on condi- 
 tion that we should behave with due submission and fidelity 
 to Your Majesty, agreeable to the oath which was then 
 administered to us, which is as follows, viz.: " We sin- 
 cerely promise and swear, by the faith of a Christian, that 
 we shall be entirely faithful, and will truly submit our- 
 selves to His Majesty King George, whom we acknowledge 
 as sovereign Lord of New Scotland, or Acadia; so God 
 help us." 
 
 And at the same time, the said General Philipps did, in 
 like manner, promise the said French inhabitants, in Your 
 Majesty's name, that they should have the true exercise 
 of their religion, and be exempted from bearing arms, and 
 from being employed in war, either against the French or 
 Indians. Under the sanction of this solemn engagement 
 we held our lands, made further purchases, annually pay- 
 ing our quit-rents, etc., etc. ; and we had the greatest reason 
 to conclude that Your Majesty did not disapprove of the 
 above agreement, and that our conduct continued, during 
 a long course of years, to be such as recommended us to 
 your gracious protection, and to the regard of the Governor 
 of New England, appears from a printed declaration, made 
 seventeen years after this time, by His Excellency William 
 Shirley, Governor of New England, which was published 
 and dispersed in our country, some copies of which have 
 escaped from the general destruction of most of our papers, 
 part of which is as follows : 
 
 11 By His Majesty's command, 
 
 " A declaration of William Shirley, Esq., Captain- 
 General and Governor-in-Chief , in and over His Majesty's 
 Province of Massachusetts' Bay, etc. 
 
mascarene's letter. 373 
 
 " To His Majesty's subjects, the French inhabitants of 
 his province of Nova Scotia : Whereas, upon being informed 
 that a report had been propagated among His Majesty's 
 subjects, the French inhabitants of his Province of Nova 
 Scotia, that there was an intention to remove them from 
 their settlements in that Province, I did, by my declara- 
 tion, dated 16th September, 1746, signify to them that the 
 same was groundless, and that I was, on the contrary, per- 
 suaded that His Majesty would be graciously pleased to ex- 
 tend his royal protection to all such of them as should con- 
 tinue in their fidelity and allegiance to him, and in no wise 
 abet or hold correspondence with the enemies of his crown ; 
 and therein assured them, that I would make a favourable 
 representation of their state and circumstances to His Maj- 
 esty, and did accordingly transmit a representation thereof 
 to be laid before him, and have thereupon received his royal 
 pleasure, touching his aforesaid subjects in Nova Scotia, 
 with his express commands to signify the same to them in 
 his name : now, by virtue thereof, and in obedience to His 
 Majesty's said orders, I do hereby declare, in His Majesty's 
 name, that there is not the least foundation for any ap- 
 prehensions of His Majesty's intending to remove them, the 
 said inhabitants of Nova Scotia, from their said settlements 
 and habitations within the said Province; but that, on the 
 contrary, it is His Majesty's resolution to protect and main- 
 tain all such of them as have adhered to and shall continue 
 in their duty and allegiance to him, in the quiet and peace- 
 able possession of their respective habitations and settle- 
 ments, and in the enjoyment of their rights and privileges 
 as his subjects, etc., etc." 
 
 Dated at Boston, the 21st of October, 1747. 
 
 And this is farther confirmed by a letter, dated 29th 
 of June, in the same year, wrote to our deputies by Mr. 
 Mascarene, then Your Majesty's chief commander in Nova 
 Scotia, which refers to Governor Shirley's first declaration, 
 of which we have a copy, legally authenticated, part of 
 which is as follows, viz. : 
 
374 
 
 APPEAL TO GOVERNOR CORNWALLIS. 
 
 
 ) 
 
 "As to the fear you say you labor under, on account of 
 being threatened to evacuate the country, you have in pos- 
 session His Excellency William Shirley's printed letter, 
 whereby you may be made easy in that respect : you are 
 sensible of the promises I have made to you, the effects of 
 which you have already felt, that, I would protect you so 
 long as, by your conduct and fidelity to the Crown of 
 Great Britain, you would enable me to do so, which promise 
 I do again repeat to you. 1 ' 
 
 Near the time of the publication of the before mentioned 
 declaration, it was required that our deputies should, on 
 behalf of all the people, renew the oath formerly taken to 
 General Philipps, which was done without any mention of 
 bearing arms, and we can with truth say, that we are not 
 sensible of alteration in our disposition and conduct since 
 that time ; but that we always continued to retain a grate- 
 ful regard to Your Majesty and your Government, notwith- 
 standing which, we have found ourselves surrounded with 
 difficulties unknown to us before. Your Majesty deter- 
 mined to fortify our Province and settle Halifax ; which 
 the French looking upon with jealousy, they made frequent 
 incursions through our country, in order to annoy that set- 
 tlement, whereby we came exposed to many straits and 
 hardships ; yet, from the obligations Ave were under, from 
 the oath we had taken, we were never under any doubt, 
 but that it was our indispensable duty and interest, to re- 
 main true to your Government and our oath of fidelity, 
 hoping that in time those difficulties would be removed, 
 and we should see peace and tranquillity restored ; and if, 
 from the change of affairs in Nova Scotia, Your Majesty 
 had thought it not inconsistent with the safety of your said 
 Province to let us remain there upon the terms promised 
 us by your Governors, in Your Majesty's name, we should 
 doubtless have acquiesced with any other reasonable pro- 
 posal which might have been made to us, consistent with 
 the safety of our aged parents, and tender wives and 
 children ; and we are persuaded, if that had been the case, 
 
PROOFS OF FIDELTY. 375 
 
 wherever we had retired, we should have held ourselves 
 under the strongest obligations of gratitude, from a thank- 
 ful remembrance of the happiness we had enjoyed under 
 Your Majesty's administration and gracious protection. 
 About the time of the settlement of Halifax, General Corn- 
 wallis, Governor of Nova Scotia, did require that we should 
 take the oath of allegiance without the exemption before 
 allowed us of not bearing arms ; but this we absolutely 
 refused, as being an infringement of the principal condition 
 upon which our forefathers agreed to settle under the 
 British Government. 
 
 And we acquainted Governor Cornwallis, that if Your 
 Majesty was not willing to continue that exemption to us, 
 we desired liberty to evacuate the country, proposing to 
 settle on the Island of St. John, where the French Govern- 
 ment was willing to let us have land ; which proposal he 
 at that time refused to consent to, but told us he would ac- 
 quaint Your Majesty therewith and return us an answer. 
 But we never received an answer, nor was any proposal of 
 that made to us until we were made prisoners. 
 
 After the settlement of Halifax we suffered many 
 abuses and insults from Your Majesty's enemies, more 
 specially from the Indians in the interest of the French, 
 by whom our cattle was killed, our houses pillaged, and 
 many of us personally abused and put in fear of our lives, 
 and some even carried away prisoners towards Canada, 
 solely on account of our resolution steadily to maintain 
 our oath of fidelity to the English Government ; particularly 
 Eene LeBlanc — our public notary — was taken prisoner by 
 the Indians when actually travelling in Your Majesty's 
 service, his house pillaged, and himself carried to the 
 French fort, from whence he did not recover his liberty 
 but with great difficulty, after four years, captivity. 
 
 We were likewise obliged to comply with the demand 
 of the enemy, made for provisions, cattle, etc., etc., upon pain 
 of military execution, which we had reason to believe the 
 Government was made sensible was not an act of choice on 
 
376 
 
 AN ABLE DEFENCE. 
 
 > 
 
 our part, but of necessity, as those in authority appeared to 
 take in good part the representations we always made to 
 them after anything of that nature had happened. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many difficulties we thus laboured 
 under, yet we dare appeal to the several Governors, both 
 at Halifax and Annapolis Royal, for testimonies of our 
 being always ready and willing to obey their orders, and 
 give all the assistance in our power, either in furnishing 
 provisions and materials, or making roads, building forts, 
 etc., etc., agreeable to Your Majesty's orders, and our oath 
 of fidelity, whensoever called upon, or required thereunto. 
 
 It was also our constant care to give notice to Your 
 Majesty's commanders, of the danger they from time to 
 time have been exposed to by the enemy's troops, and had 
 the intelligence we gave been always attended to, many 
 lives might have been spared, particularly in the unhappy 
 affair which befell Major Noble and his brother at Grand 
 Pre, when they, with great numbers of their men were cut 
 off by the enemy, notwithstanding the frequent advices we 
 had given them of the danger they were in ; and yet we have 
 been very unjustly accused as parties in that massacre. 
 
 And although we have been thus anxiously concerned 
 to manifest our fidelity in these several respects, yet it has 
 been falsely insinuated, that it had been our general prac- 
 tice to abet and support Your Majesty's enemies ; but we 
 trust that Your Majesty will not suffer suspicions and 
 accusations to be received as proof sufficient to reduce 
 thousands of innocent people, from the most happy situ- 
 ation to a state of the greatest distress and misery. No, 
 this was far from our thoughts ; we esteemed our situation 
 so happy as by no means to desire a change. 
 
 We have always desired, and again desire that we may 
 be permitted to answer our accusers in a judicial way. In 
 the meantime permit us, sir, here solemnly to declare, that 
 these accusations are utterly false and groundless, so far as 
 they concern us as a collective body of people. It hath been 
 always our desire to live as our fathers have done, as faith- 
 
SEIZURE OF RECORDS. 377 
 
 ful subjects under Your Majesty's royal protection, with an 
 unfeigned resolution to maintain our oath of fidelity to the 
 utmost of our power. Yet it cannot be expected but that 
 amongst us, as well as amongst other people, there have 
 been some weak and false-hearted persons, susceptible of 
 being bribed by the enemy so as to break the oath of fidelity. 
 Twelve of these were outlawed in Governor Shirley's Proc- 
 lamation before mentioned ; but it will be found that the 
 number of such false-hearted men amongst us were very 
 few, considering our situation, the number of our inhabit- 
 ants, and how we stood circumstanced in several respects ; 
 and it may easily be made to appear that it was the constant 
 care of our Deputies to prevent and put a stop to such 
 wicked conduct when it came to their knowledge. 
 
 We understand that the aid granted to the French by 
 the inhabitants of Beaubassin has been used as an argu- 
 ment to accelerate our ruin ; but we trust that Your Maj- 
 esty will not permit the innocent to be involved with the 
 guilty ; no consequence can be justly drawn, that, because 
 those people yielded to the threats and persuasions of the 
 enemy we should do the same. They were situated so far 
 from Halifax as to be in a great measure out of the pro- 
 tection of the English Government, which was not our case ; 
 we were separated from them by sixty miles of uncultivated 
 land, and had no other connection with them than what is 
 usual with neighbors at such a distance ; and we can 
 truly say, we looked on their defection from Your Majesty's 
 interest with great pain and anxiety. Nevertheless, not 
 long before our being made prisoners, the house in which 
 we kept our contracts, records, deeds, etc., was invested with 
 an armed force, and all our papers violently carried away, 
 none of which have to this day been returned us, whereby 
 we are in a great measure deprived of means of making our 
 innocence and the justness of our complaints appear in their 
 true light. 
 
 Upon our sending a remonstrance to the Governor and 
 Council, of the violence that had been offered us by the 
 

 378 IMPRISONED ON FALSE GROUNDS. 
 
 seizure of our papers, and the groundless fears the Govern- 
 ment appeared to be under on our account, by their taking 
 away our arms, no answer was returned to us ; but those 
 who had signed the remonstrance, and some time after sixty 
 more, in all about eighty of our elders, were summoned to 
 appear before the Governor in Council, which they imme- 
 diately complied with ; and it was required of them that 
 they should take the oath of allegiance without the exemp- 
 tion which, during a course of nearly fifty years, has been 
 granted to us and to our fathers, of not being obliged to 
 bear arms, and which was the principal condition upon 
 which our ancestors agreed to remain in Nova Scotia, when 
 the rest of the inhabitants evacuated the country ; which, 
 as it was contrary to our inclination and judgment, we 
 nought ourselves engaged in duty absolutely to refuse. 
 Nevertheless, we freely offered, and would gladly have re- 
 newed our oath of fidelity, but this was not accepted, and 
 we were all immediately made prisoners, and were told by 
 the Governor, that our estates, both real and personal, were 
 forfeited for Your Majesty's use. As to those who remained 
 at home, they were summoned to appear before the com- 
 manders in the forts, which, we showing some fear to com- 
 ply with, on account of the seizure of our papers, and im- 
 prisonment of so many of our elders, we had the greatest 
 assurance given us, that there was no other design but 
 to make us renew our former oath of fidelity ; yet, as soon 
 as we were within the fort, the same judgment was passed 
 on us as had been passed on our brethren at Halifax, and 
 we were also made prisoners. 
 
 Thus, notwithstanding the solemn grants made to our 
 fathers by General Philipps, and the declaration made by 
 Governor Shirley and M. Mascarene in Your Majesty's 
 name, that it was Your Majesty's resolution to protect and 
 maintain all such of us as should continue in their duty and 
 allegiance to Your Majesty, in the quiet and peaceable pos- 
 session of their settlements, and the enjoyment of all their 
 rights and privileges as Your Majesty's subjects ; we found 
 
DESTITUTION, SEPARATION, DEATH. 379 
 
 ourselves at once deprived of our liberties, without any- 
 judicial process, or even without any accusers appearing 
 against us, and this solely grounded on mistaken jealousies 
 and false suspicions that we are inclinable to take part with 
 Your Majesty's enemies. But we again declare that that 
 accusation is groundless ; it was our fixed resolution to 
 maintain, to the utmost of our power, the oath of fidelity 
 which we had taken, not only from a sense of indispensable 
 duty, but also because we were well satisfied with our sit- 
 uation under Your Majesty's Government and protection, 
 and did not think it could be bettered by any change which 
 could be proposed to us. It has also been falsely insinuated 
 that we held the opinion that we might be absolved from 
 our oath so as to break it with impunity, but this we like- 
 wise solemnly declare to be a false accusation, and which 
 we plainly evinced by our exposing ourselves to so great 
 losses and sufferings rather than take the oath proposed to 
 the Governor and Council, because we apprehended we 
 could not in conscience comply therewith. 
 
 Thus we, our ancient parents and grandparents — men 
 of great integrity and approved fidelity to Your Majesty — 
 and our innocent wives and children, became the unhappy 
 victims to those groundless fears ; we were transported into 
 the English Colonies, and this was done in so much haste, 
 and with so little regard to our necessities and the tenderest 
 ties of nature, that from the most social enjoyments, and 
 affluent circumstances, many found themselves destitute of 
 the necessaries of life. Parents were separated from chil- 
 dren, husbands from wives, some of whom have not to this 
 day met again ; and we were so crowded in the transport 
 vessels, that we had not room even for all our bodies to lay 
 down at once, and consequently were prevented from carry- 
 ing with us proper necessaries, especially for the support 
 and comfort of the aged and weak, many of whom quickly 
 ended their misery with their lives. And even those 
 amongst us who had suffered deeply from Your Majesty's 
 enemies, on account of their attachment to Your Majesty's 
 
380 
 
 MORE THAN HALF DIED. 
 
 
 ) 
 
 Government, were equally involved in the common calamity, 
 of which Eene LeBlanc, the Notary Public before mentioned, 
 is a remarkable instance. He was seized, confined, and 
 brought away among the rest of the people, and his family, 
 consisting of twenty children, and about one hundred and 
 fifty grandchildren, were scattered in different colonies, so 
 that he was put on shore at New York, with only his wife 
 and two youngest children, in an infirm state of health, 
 from whence he joined three more of his children at Phila- 
 delphia, where he died without any more notice being 
 taken of him than any of us, notwithstanding his many 
 years' labor and deep sufferings for Your Majesty's service. 
 
 The miseries we have since endured are scarce suffi- 
 ciently to be expressed, being reduced for a livelihood to toil 
 and hard labor in a southern clime, so disagreeable to our 
 constitutions that most of us have been prevented by sick- 
 ness from procuring the necessary subsistence for our 
 families; and therefore are threatened with that which we 
 esteem the greatest aggravation of all our sufferings, even 
 of having our children forced from us, and bound out to 
 strangers and exposed to contagious distempers unknown 
 in our native country. 
 
 This, compared with the affluence and ease we enjoyed, 
 shows our condition to be extremely wretched. We have 
 already seen in this Province of Pennsylvania two hundred 
 and fifty of our people, which is more than half the num- 
 ber that were landed here, perish through misery and vari- 
 ous diseases. In this great distress and misery, we have, 
 under God, none but Your Majesty to look to with hopes 
 of relief and redress : 
 
 We therefore hereby implore your gracious protection, 
 and request you may be pleased to let the justice of our 
 complaints be truly and impartially enquired into, and that 
 Your Majesty would please to grant us such relief, as in 
 your justice and clemency you will think our case requires, 
 and we shall hold ourselves bound to pray, etc. 
 
THE OATH WITH EXEMPTION. 381 
 
 NO. IV. 
 (See Vol. II., page 237.) 
 
 A relation of the misfortunes of the French Neutrals, as laid before 
 the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania by Jean Baptiste 
 Galerne, one of the said people. 
 
 About the year 1713, when Annapolis Royal was taken 
 from the French, our fathers being then settled on the Bay 
 of Fundy, upon the surrender of that country to the Eng- 
 lish, had, by virtue of the treaty of Utrecht, a year granted 
 them to remove with their effects ; but aggrieved at the 
 idea of losing the fruits of so many years' labor, they chose 
 rather to remain there and become the subjects of Great 
 Britain, on the condition that they might be exempted from 
 bearing arms against France, most of them having near 
 relations amongst the French, which they might have 
 destroyed with their own hands, had they consented to 
 bear arms against them. 
 
 This request they always understood to be granted, on 
 their taking the Oath of Fidelity to Her Majesty Queen 
 Anne; which Oath of Fidelity was by us, about 27 years 
 ago, renewed to His Majesty King George by General 
 Philipps, who then allowed us an exemption from bearing 
 arms against France ; which exemption, till lately (that 
 we were told to the contrary), we always thought was 
 approved by the king. 
 
 Our Oath of Fidelity, we that are now brought into this 
 Province, as those of our people that have been carried into 
 neighboring Provinces, have always invariably observed, 
 and have, on all occasions, been willing to afford every 
 assistance in our power to His Majesty's Governors, in 
 erecting forts, making roads, bridges, etc., etc., and provid- 
 
) 
 
 382 UNFORTUNATE SITUATION AT BEAUSEJOUR. 
 
 ing for His Majesty's service, as can be testified by the several 
 Governors and officers that have commanded in His Maj- 
 esty's Province in Nova Scotia ; and this, notwithstanding 
 the repeated solicitations, threats, and abuses which we 
 have continually, more or less, suffered from the French and 
 Indians of Canada on that account, particularly ten years 
 ago, when 500 French and Indians came to our settlements, 
 intending to attack Annapolis Royal, which, had their 
 intention succeeded, would have made them masters of all 
 Nova Scotia, it being the only place of strength then in 
 that Province, they earnestly solicited us to join with, and 
 aid them therein ; but we, persisting in our resolution to 
 abide true to our Oath of Fidelity, and absolutely re- 
 fusing to give them any assistance, they gave over their 
 intention, and returned to Canada. 
 
 And, about seven years past, at the settling of Halifax, a 
 body of 150 Indians came amongst us, forced some of us 
 from our habitations, and by threats and blows would have 
 compelled us to assist them in waylaying and destroying 
 the English, then employed in erecting forts in different 
 parts of the country ; but, positively refusing, they left us, 
 after having abused us and made great havoc of our cattle, 
 etc., etc. I myself was six weeks before I wholly recovered 
 of the blows received at that time. 
 
 Almost numberless are the instances which might be 
 given of the abuses and losses we have undergone from the 
 French Indians, on account of our steady adherence to our 
 Oath of Fidelity; and yet, notwithstanding our strict 
 observance thereof, we have not been able to prevent the 
 grievous calamity which is now come upon us, and which 
 we apprehend to be in great measure owing to the unhappy 
 situation and conduct of some of our people at Beausejour, 
 at the bottom of the Bay of Fundy, where the French 
 erected a Fort. Those of our people who were settled near 
 it, after having had many of their settlements burnt by the 
 French, being too far from Halifax and Annapolis Royal to 
 expect needed assistance from the English, were obliged, as 
 
THANKING GOD FOR PENNSYLVANIA'S CHARITY. 383 
 
 we believe, more through compulsion and fear than inclina- 
 tion, to join with and assist the French, as it appears from 
 the articles of capitulation of Fort Beausejour, agreed on 
 between Colonel Monckton and the French commander, at 
 the delivery of the said Fort to the English, which is exactly 
 in the following words : 
 
 " With regard to the Acadians, as they have been forced 
 to take up arms on pain of death, they shall be pardoned 
 for the part they have been taking." 
 
 Notwithstanding this, as the conduct of these people had 
 given just umbrage to the Government, and created suspi- 
 cion to the prejudice of our whole community, we were 
 summoned to appear before the Governor and Council at 
 Halifax, where we were required to take the oath of alle- 
 giance without our former exemption, which we could not 
 comply with, because, as the Government was then situated, 
 we apprehended we should have been obliged to take up 
 arms, but we offered to take the Oath of Fidelity, and gave 
 the strongest assurances of continuing peaceable and faith- 
 ful to His Britannic Majesty with that exception. This, in 
 the situation of affairs, not being satisfactory, we were 
 made prisoners; and our estates, both real and personal, 
 forfeited to the king. Vessels being provided, we were 
 sometime after sent off with most of our families, and dis- 
 persed among the English colonies. The hurry and confu- 
 sion in which we were embarked was an aggravating cir- 
 cumstance attending our misfortunes; for, thereby, many 
 who have lived in affluence, found themselves deprived of 
 every necessary, many families were separated, parents 
 from children and children from parents. 
 
 Yet, blessed be God that it was our lot to be sent to Penn- 
 sylvania, where our wants have been relieved, and where 
 we have in every respect been received with Christian 
 benevolence and charity. Let me add, that, notwithstand- 
 ing the suspicions and fears which many seem to be pos- 
 sessed of on our account, as though we were a dangerous peo- 
 ple, who make little scruple of breaking our oaths, time 
 
) 
 
 384 BLESSING INVOKED. 
 
 will make it manifest that we are not such a people. No; 
 the unhappy situation which we are now in is a plain 
 evidence that this has no foundation and tends to aggravate 
 the misfortunes of an already too unhappy people; for, had 
 we entertained such pernicious sentiments, we might easily 
 have prevented our falling into the melancholy circum- 
 stances we are now in, viz., deprived of our substance, 
 banished from our native country, and reduced to live from 
 charity in a strange land ; and this, for refusing to take an 
 oath which Christianity absolutely forbids us to violate, 
 had we once taken it, and yet an oath which we could not 
 comply with without being exposed to plunge our swords 
 in the breasts of our relations and friends. 
 
 We shall, however, as we have hitherto done, submit to 
 what, in the present situation of affairs, may seem neces- 
 sary, and with patience and resignation bear whatever 
 God, in the course of His Providence, shall suffer to come 
 upon us. We shall also think it our duty to seek and pro- 
 mote the peace of the country into which we are trans- 
 ported, and inviolably keep the Oath of Fidelity that we 
 have taken to His Gracious Majesty King George, whom we 
 firmly believe, when fully acquainted with our faithfulness 
 and sufferings, will commiserate our unhappy condition 
 and order some compensation for our losses. And may the 
 Almighty abundantly bless His Honour the Governor, the 
 Honourable Assembly of this Province and the good people 
 of Philadelphia, whose sympathy, benevolence and Christian 
 charity, have been, and still are, greatly manifested and 
 extended toward us, a poor, distressed and afflicted people, 
 is the sincere and earnest prayer of 
 
 Jean Baptiste Galerne. 
 
) 
 
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