CHAPTER XXII. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-CONTINUED. The French Acadiens; their simple Manners, Industry, and good Morals.- XXII. In the mean time other expeditions were undertaken CHAP against the French. For this purpose Massachusetts alone raised eight thousand soldiers, almost one-fifth part 1755. of her able-bodied men. A portion of Acadie or Nova Scotia was still in the hands of the French. It consisted of the isthmus on the northern part, which was defended by two insignificant forts. For forty years, since the peace of Utrecht, the peninsula had been under British rule, and now the whole territory was completely subdued. These forts, with scarcely any resistance, fell into the June hands of the English. Sixteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth this French colony was established on the Peninsula of Acadie. It was the oldest permanent French settlement in North America. For one hundred and fifty years the Acadiens had been gradually clearing and improving their lands, and enjoying the comforts of rural life. At first their chief sources of wealth had been the fisheries and the fur-trade; but these had 16. XXII. CHAP. gradually given way to agriculture. Their social intercourse was governed by a high tone of morals. Their 1755. differences, but few in number, were settled by the arbitration of their old men. Seldom did they go with complaints to their English rulers. Early marriages were encouraged, and when a young man came of age, his neighbors built him a house, and aided him for one year, and the wife's friends aided her with gifts. Their fields were fertile, and industry made them productive. Their meadows, which now were covered with flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, they had, by means of dikes, redeemed from the great flow of the tide. Their little cottages dotted the landscape. In their domestic industry each family provided for its own wants, and clothed its members with cloth and linen made from the wool of their flocks, or from the flax of their fields. As Catholics, they were happy in the exercise of their religion; though they belonged to the diocese of Quebec, they were not brought into close relation with the people of Canada. They knew but little of what was passing beyond the limits of their own neighborhood. Independent of the world, they had its comforts, but not its luxuries. They now numbered about seventeen thousand inhabitants, and up to this time their English rulers had left them undisturbed in their seclusion. A dark cloud was hanging over this scene of rural simplicity and comfort. As they were excused from bearing arms against France by the terms of their surrender, the Acadiens were known as "French neutrals ;" neither had they been required to take the usual oaths of allegiance; they had promised submission to English authority, to be neutral in times of war with France, and it was understood they were to enjoy their religion. This oath was one which, as good Frenchmen and good Catholics, they could not take; it required them to bear arms. against their own brethren in Canada, and it might in THE OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE. volve the interests of their religion. 245 XXII. "Better," urged CHAP. the priests, "surrender your meadows to the sea, and your houses to the flames, than at the peril of your souls 1755. take the oath of allegiance to the British government." But it was now to be exacted. They possess the best and largest tract of land in this province," writes Lawrence, Lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, to Lord Halifax; "if they refuse the oaths, it would be much better that they were away." This "largest and best tract" seems to have been coveted by their English rulers; they undoubtedly were suspicious of the Acadiens as Catholics, and it is true some of their more ardent young men belonged, as volunteers, to the garrisons of the recently captured forts; but as this simple-minded people had neither the will nor the power to aid the enemies of England, we cannot suppose that this suspicion alone induced the British to visit upon them a severity so unparalleled. The question of allegiance was, however, to be pressed to the utmost; if they refused to take the oath, the titles to their lands were to be null and void. The haughty conduct of the British officers sent to enforce these orders was to them a harbinger of sorrow. wantonly taken for the public service, and "they not to be bargained with for payment;" if they did not bring wood at the proper time, "the soldiers might take their houses for fuel." Their guns were taken, and their boats seized, under the pretence that they intended to carry provisions to the French. The English insisted upon treating this people, so faithful to their country and their religion, as lawless rebels. Wearied by these oppressions, their deputies promised allegiance; they declared that their consciences would not permit them to rebel against their rulers, and they humbly asked that their arms and boats might be restored. "The memorial is highly arrogant, insidious, and insulting," said the haughty Lawrence; guns do not belong to you by law, for you are Their property was XXII. CHAP. Roman Catholics." After consultation with the people, the deputies offered to swear unconditionally. Then they were told, as they had once refused, now they should not be permitted to swear. 1755. A calamity, as unexpected as it was dreadful, was at hand. By proclamation, "the old men, and young men, as well as all lads over ten years of age," were called upon to assemble, on a certain day, the fifth of September, at certain posts in their respective districts, to hear the Sept. "wishes of the king." The call was obeyed. At Grand Pré alone more than four hundred unsuspecting and unarmed men and boys came together. They were gathered into the church, its doors were closed, and Winslow, the commander, announced to them the decision of the British government. They were to be banished forever from their native province; from the fields they had cultivated, from the pleasant homes where they had spent their youth. They might not emigrate to lands offered them among friends in Canada, lest they should add strength to the French. They were to be driven forth as beggars among their enemies, a people of a strange language and of a different religion. They were retained as prisoners, till the ships which were to bear them away were ready. As soon as possible, their wives and little children were also seized. On the day of embarkation, the young men and boys were first ordered on board the ship; as their parents and friends were not allowed to go with them, they refused, fearing that if thus separated, they might never meet again-a thought they could not bear. But resistance and entreaties were useless; driven by the bayonet, they were marched from the church to the ship, which was a mile distant; their way was lined with weeping friends, mothers, and sisters, who prayed for blessings on their heads, and they themselves wept and prayed and mournfully chanted psalms as they passed along. Then in the same manner the fathers were driven on board THE SORROWS OF THE EXILES. 247 XXII. another ship. The wives and children were left behind; CHAP these were kept for weeks near the sea without proper shelter or food, shivering in December's cold, till ships 1755. could come to take them away. "The soldiers hate them, and if they can but find a pretext will kill them." Thus wrote an English officer who was engaged in this work of cruelty. In some places the object of the proclamation was suspected, and the men and youth did not assemble. In the vicinity of Annapolis some fled to the woods, with their wives and children, some went to Canada, while others threw themselves upon the hospitality of the Indians, from whom they received a hearty welcome. That these poor people, who had fled to the woods, might be compelled by starvation and exposure to give themselves up, orders were issued to lay waste their homes, and the whole country was made a desolation, from the village and its church, to the peasant's cottage and barn. successive evenings the cattle assembled round the smouldering ruins, as if in anxious expectation of the return of their masters; while all night long the faithful watchdogs howled over the scene of desolation, and mourned alike the hand that had fed, and the house that had sheltered them." "For Seven thousand of these poor people were transported and cast helpless on the shores of the English colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia. Families were separated never to meet again. From time to time, for many years afterward, advertisements in the newspapers of the colonies told the tale of sorrow. Now they inquired for a lost wife or husband, now brothers and sisters inquired for each other; parents for their children, and children for their parents. When any in after years attempted to return they were driven off. Some of those taken to Georgia 'Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia. |