31. THE ACADIAN REFUGEES. After the conquest of Acadia in 1710— the first and only fruit of Samuel Vetch's grand design for the conquest of Canada,— the Treaty of Utrecht (see UTRECHT, PEACE or) provided for the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion by such of the French inhabitants as were willing to re main there, but also stipulated that any who should choose might remove within a year. Nearly all remained; but, under various ex cuses, in the hope of a return of.French power, they postponed taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown until 1730. In 1745 war broke out again, and in 1749 the founding of Halifax (q.v.) by several thousdnd British emi grants excited the jealousy of the officials of Canada and priests of Acadia. The people were a simple and densely illiterate peasantry, taught to obey their missionaries in everything. These missionaries were chosen and directed by the bishop of Quebec and the governor of Canada as agents of French policy, and hence a very diffi cult position existed, both for the English and for the Acadians. Through the promptings of the fanatical Abbe Louis Joseph Le Loutre (q.v.), and the duplicity of Governor La Jon quiere of Canada and the court of France, the Indians were encouraged to murder English settlers and commit other outrages, some of the Acadians even taking part in these crimes. These charges are proved by the citations from French secret documents given in Parkman's and Wolfe); and have not been effectively answered. Le Loutre, who was vicar general of Acadia and missionary to the Mic macs, even paid 100 livres each for English scalps in time of peace; and the money was re imbursed to him by the intendant of Louisburg. He held constant threats of Micmac massacre over the Acadians themselves, compelling them to acts antagonistic to the English, and moving many of them from their farms and possessions to suit his plans. Yet his inhumanities were evidently justified in his own warped heart and intellect as services to his Church and country. The people, as a whole, would have been quite content to live in peace, being very well treated. In 1751, La Jonquiere issued a proclamation commanding all Acadians to enroll themselves in the French militia. A claim was put forward that only a small part of the province was as ceded to the British under the Treaty of Utrecht, and consequently that all the rest was still under the rule of the French. The latter now conceived the definite design of reconquering the province; but the English, ob taining exact information through the spy Pichon, struck first by capturing Fort Beaus& four, on the neck of the Acadian peninsula, on 16 June 1775. Fort Gaspereau, 12 miles distant, then surrendered, and the French fort at Saint John being burnt and abandoned on the ap proach of an English force, the whole country was left under British control. This entire plan of re-establishment was due to the forethought of Governor Lawrence, aided with due vigor by Governor Shirley (see SHIRLEY, WILLIAM) of Massachusetts.
The chief interest in the Acadians will al ways, however, he centred in the incidents of the famous dispersion, which were now about to begin. The projected French invasion had aroused the apprehension of the small British population and authorities, an apprehension deepened by the Indian outrages of Le Loutre and the fear of the neighboring stronghold of Louisburg. The whole of the Acadians also persistently refused the oath of allegiance. In this state of affairs, which not only seemed a great danger but appeared to imply a great in gratitude, after the mild treatment and privi leges of property and religion so long extended to them, it was determined by Governor Law rence that the only safety lay in removing the Acadian population and replacing them by New Englanders. That view had been held for some time by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and others. Lawrence had complained bitterly to
the Lords of Trade before the capture of the French forts othat this lenity has had so little effect, and that they still hold the same conduct, furnishing them [the French] with labor, pro visions, and intelligence, and concealing their designs from us.D On the capture of Beaus& jour, Lawrence exacted an unqualified oath of allegiance from the Acadians; and in response two successive deputations came to Halifax, representing together nine-tenths of their entire population. Both absolutely refused to take the simple pledge of fidelity and allegiance to the British sovereign. The governor and coun cil therefore resolved that it was necessary to deport their people, and in order that they should not strengthen the enemy, they were to be distributed among the English colonies. Lawrence now ordered Colonels Moncton and Winslow and Major Hanfielck—at Beausejour, Basin of Minas and Annapolis, respectively,— to seize the inhabitants, and if necessary to burn their houses. The principal scenes of the ex pulsion took place under Winslow at Grand Pre and Fort Edward, in the Basin of Minas, just after completion of the harvest at those fair and populous settlements. At Grand Pre all the males over 10 were ordered to the parish church, where Winslow read them the order of removal and detained them as prisoners. They were kept several weeks before deportation, and the year was nearly ended before all were gone. Tragic scenes of lamentation and distress ac companied the leaving, although it was carried out as humanely as possible. The whole num ber removed from the province is usually stated as a little over 6,000, although Richard and others place the figure,s much higher. Some took refuge in the forests or fled to the French territories. Lawrence sent the ships deporting them to the different colonies from Massachu setts to Georgia, where they became a charge on the people and their gradual departure was connived at. Many in the South eventually reached the French settlements of Louisiana, where their descendants are still found in cer tain parishes and were estimated at 40,000 a few years ago. The sorrows of the dispersion were great, and the death rate considerable. It is regrettable that those who reached Canada and the French West Indies suffered perhaps the most terrible miseries of all from neglect and ill-treatment. Most of the refugees at length found their way back to Nova Scotia and were progenitors of the greater part of the present French population. Their woful story was told in an idealized form in the pages of Haliburton, from whom, passing through a medium of fem inine sentimentality in the pages of a lady writer, it reached Longfellow and was immor talized in his (Evangehne.' The unhappy facts were afterward the subject of heated recrimina tions, especially by French writers such as Abbe Casgrain and Rameau, against the New Eng landers, whose leading defenders are Parlcman and Hannay. Edouard Richard in his 'Acadia> ascribes all to Lawrence personally. The dis passionate view would seem to lie in fair allow ances for the difficult situation and training of the actors on both sides. In this light the Acadian population must be remembered as a densely ignorant people. Without some educa tion, the measure of natural shrewdness they possessed could not be expected to clear up for most of them the moral problems connected with allegiance to the British Crown, and the political problem of the ownership of Acadia as it was represented to them. Most of them were undoubtedly trying to be loyal to France and ready to return the country into its pos session, and duplicity did not seem to them improper. This is not only deducible from all the events but plainly set forth in the petition of 3,500 Miramichi refugees to Governor de Vaudreuil in 1756.