IN ACADIA. THE SCENE OF LONGFELLOW'S EVANGELINE. N traveling through Nova Scotia, the tourist is struck with the numerous memorials of the early French inhabitants. Ancient orchards, which had been planted by those industrious and peaceful settlers, are seen along the roadsides. Rows of tall Lombardy poplars, also, remind us of France; and in the alluvial plains of Cornwallis and Annapolis, our attention is called to long green mounds, or dikes, which had been constructed by the old French proprietors. Wherever, indeed, there is any old work of art, it is French, unless it happen to be a decayed blockhouse or fort, which had been erected for the purpose of oppressing that ill-treated people. One hears so much of the virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, that it would almost seem as if there were nothing to be admired in any other class of American settlers; and yet in the original French occupants of Nova Scotia would have been found an example of great integrity, with a kindliness of manner and a depth of piety seldom equaled; while the sufferings to which this people were subjected must ever command the utmost sympathy and regret. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that Nova Scotia, under the name of Acadia, was the earliest French possession in America. There, a few adventurous families from the north of France had built their dwellings about sixteen years before the Puritans landed in Massachusetts. In process of time they had cleared the forest, multiplied in numbers, and in all respects approved themselves a thriving and peaceable community. Through a long succession of years, nothing appears to have disturbed them in their solitary and hard-earned possessions. As French subjects, and professors of the Roman Catholic religion, they may have been to some extent obnoxious to the nearest English settlements, the inhabitants of which, from strong hereditary reasons, had a fierce abhorrence of "Popery;" but with these the Acadians had too little intercourse to be much influenced by the feelings or opinions they might entertain respecting them. were they, for a long time, much disturbed by the contest in which the French and English governments became engaged for the acquisition of further territory, and Nor the consequent limitation of the power of each nation. This contest, however, was frequently interrupted by treaties and arrangements respecting boundaries, some of which had reference to the occupation of Acadia; and at length, by a stipulation made at the Peace of Utrecht, the province was finally ceded to Great Britain. subdued, scarcely conscious that they had changed their rulers. They took, indeed, an oath of fidelity and submission to the English king; but in return they were promised indulgence in "the true exercise of their religion, and exemption from bearing arms against the French or Indians." On account of this, they became known under the name of the "French neutrals." For nearly forty years from the Peace of Utrecht, they were left undisturbed in the possession of their prosperous seclusion. The change of sovereignty does not appear at first to have effected any material alteration in the condition of the people. It was intended to secure their obedience by intermixing them with English colo-"No tax-gatherer counted their folds; no nists; but the presence of a feeble garrison at Annapolis, and the emigration of hardly half-a-dozen English families, were for many years nearly all that marked the supremacy of England. The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they had magistrate dwelt in their hamlets. The parish priest made their records, and regulated their successions. Their little disputes were settled among themselves, with scarcely an instance of an appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pas tures were covered with their herds and flocks; and dikes, raised by extraordinary efforts of social industry, shut out the rivers and the tide from the alluvial marshes of exuberant fertility. The meadows thus reclaimed were covered by richest grasses, or fields of wheat, that yielded fifty and thirtyfold at the harvest. Their houses were built in clusters, neatly contructed and comfortably furnished; and around them all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the spinning-wheel and the loom their women made, of flax from their own fields, of fleeces from their own flocks, coarse but sufficient clothing. The few foreign luxuries that were coveted could be obtained from Annapolis or Louisburg in return for furs, or wheat, or cattle. Thus were the Acadians happy in their neutrality, and in the abundance which they drew from their native land. They formed, as it were, one great family. Their morals were of unaffected purity. Love was sanctified and calmed by the universal custom of early marriages. The neighbors of the community would assist the new couple to raise their cottage, while the wilderness offered land. Their numbers increased, and the colony, which had begun only as the trading station of a company with the monopoly of the fur trade, counted perhaps sixteen or seventeen thousand inhabitants."* Bancroft's History of the American Revolution. Longfellow thus celebrates their rural life: "In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, To make sure of the submission of the French inhabitants, it was suddenly proclaimed to their deputies convened at Halifax, that English commissioners would Distant, secluded, still, the little village of repair to their villages, and require them Grand-Pré Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretch'd to the eastward, to take the oath of allegiance unconditionally. This placed them in a perilous Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks predicament. They could not pledge themwithout number. There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village. Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of chestnut, Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries. Thatch'd were the roofs, with dormer windows; and gables projecting Over the basement below protected and shaded the door-way. There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset Lighted the village street, and gilded the vanes on the chimneys, Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white cap, and in kirtles Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spin ning the golden Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens." At length, England vigorously undertook to colonize the country, and from that time the independence of these simple people began to be seriously affected. In March, 1749, proposals were made to disbanded officers, soldiers, and marines, to accept and occupy the vacant lands; and before the end of June, more than fourteen hundred persons, under the auspices of the British Parliament, were conducted by Colonel Edward Cornwallis into the harbor of Chebucto. "There, on a cold and sterile soil, covered to the water's edge with one continued forest of spruce and pine, whose thick underwood and gloomy shade hid rocks and the rudest wilds, with no clear spot to be seen or heard of," rose the present town of Halifax. Before winter, three hundred houses were covered in. At a place now called Lower Horton, a blockhouse was also raised, and fortified by a trench and a palisade; while, on the present site of Windsor, a fort was soon erected, to protect the communications with the town. These positions, with Annapolis on the Bay of Fundy, secured the peninsula to the English, a part of which had now again become matter of dispute between the French and British governments. In selves to join in war against the land of their origin and love; and so, in a letter signed by a thousand of their men, they pleaded rather for leave to sell their lands and effects, and abandon the peninsula for other homes, which France, as they supCornwallis would offer them no choice, posed, would generously provide. But save between unconditional allegiance and the total confiscation of their property. "It is for me," said he, "to command and to be obeyed;" and as he had the power to enforce his unjust exactions, the poor Acadians were subjected to the most merciless severities. records, the titles to their estates and inTheir papers and heritances, were taken from them. cases where their property was demanded for the public service, they were informed that "they were not to be bargained with for payment." An order to this effect, says Mr. Bancroft, may still be read in the council records at Halifax. They were told that they must comply, without making any terms, and that" immediately," or "the next courier would bring an order for military execution upon the delinquents." And when on some occasions they delayed in providing firewood for their oppressors, it was told them from the government, that if they did not do it in proper time, the soldiers should "absolutely take their houses for fuel." Under pretence of fearing that they might rise in behalf of France, escape to Canada, or convey provisions to the French garrisons, they were ordered to surrender their boats and firearms; which, accordingly, they did, leaving themselves defenseless, and without the means of flight. Not long afterward, orders were given to the English officers to punish the Acadians at discretion, should they in any case behave amiss; if the troops were annoyed, vengeance was to be inflicted on the nearest, whether the guilty one or not, after the rate of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." These, and similar severities, were in course of perpetration for nearly seven years. Meanwhile the French, who dis puted the right of the English to a portion of the country which they claimed, took military occupation of the isthmus that formed the natural boundary between Acadia and the province of New France. Hence, however, their forces were ejected with little difficulty in 1755, and thenceforward the Acadians seemed to be left without the possibility of redress. In their extremity, they cowered before their masters, hoping forbearance; not unwilling to take an oath of fealty to England, | yet in their single-mindedness and sincerity, still refusing to pledge themselves to bear arms against the land from which they sprung. The English were masters of the sea, were undisputed lords of the country, and could have exercised clemency without the slightest apprehension. But the men in power showed no disposition for acts of generosity or conciliation. Indignant at the obstinate consistency of the people, they sought only to reduce them to a humiliating dependence, and in the plenitude of their tyranny resorted to a project which the judgment of humanity must denounce as treacherous and dastardly. It was planned in secret, and no warning was given of their purpose till it was ready for being put into execution. It was, in fact, determined, "after the ancient device of Oriental despotism," to carry away the French inhabitants of Acadia into captivity to other parts of the British dominions. In August, 1754, Lawrence, the lieutenant-governor of the province, had written to Lord Halifax in England: "They have laid aside all thought of taking the oaths of allegiance voluntarily. . . . . . They possess the best and largest tract of land in the province; if they refuse the oaths, it would be much better that they were away." The Lords of Trade, in reply, vailed their wishes under the form of decorous suggestions. "By the treaty of Utrecht," said they, referring to the French Acadians, "their becoming subjects of Great Britain is made an express condition of their continuance after the expiration of a year; they cannot become subjects but by taking the oaths required of subjects; and therefore it may be a question, whether their refusal to take such oaths will not operate to invalidate their titles to their lands. Consult the chief-justice of Nova Scotia upon that point; his opinion may serve as a foundation for future measures." In the day of their affliction, France remembered the descendants of her sons, and asked that they might have time to remove from the peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands and homesteads to their conquerors; but in his answer, the British minister claimed them as useful subjects, and refused them the liberty of transmigration. Some of the inhabitants pleaded with the British officers for the restitution of their boats and guns, promising fidelity if they could but retain their liberties; and declaring that not the want of arms, but their consciences, should engage them never to revolt. "The memorial," said Lawrence in council," is highly arrogant, insidious, and insulting." Nevertheless, the memorialists, at his summons, came submissively to Halifax. "You want your canoes for carrying provisions to the enemy," said he, deridingly, though he knew no enemy was left in their vicinity. "Guns are no part of your goods," he continued, as by the laws of England all Roman Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and allegiance. What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating this government with such indignity, as to expound to them the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by immediately taking the oaths of allegiance in the common form before the council." 66 To this demand the deputies replied, that they would do as the generality of the inhabitants should determine. The next day, however, foreseeing the sorrows that awaited them, they offered to swear allegiance unconditionally; but they were told, that by a clause in a certain British statute, persons who have once refused the oaths cannot be afterward permitted to take them, but are to be considered as Popish recusants; and as such they were immediately imprisoned. The chief-justice, on whose opinion hung the fate of so many innocent families, insisted that they were to be looked upon as confirmed "rebels," who had now collectively, and without exception, become "recusants." Besides, as they were still eight thousand or more in numbers, and the English did not exceed three thousand, they stood in the way of "the progress of the settle ment;""by their noncompliance with the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht, they forfeited their possessions to the crown;" and after the departure" of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a condition to drive them out." "Such a juncture as the present might never occur;' so he advised that the French inhabitants should not be permitted to take the oaths, but that the whole of them should be removed from the province. After mature consideration it was resolved in council to act on this suggestion; and in order to prevent the ejected people from attempting to return and molest the settlers that might be set down on their lands, it was determined that it would be most proper to distribute them among the several colonies on the continent. To secure the success of the scheme, an ungenerous artifice was adopted. By a general proclamation, on one and the same day, they were peremptorily ordered -"both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age❞—to assemble in specified localities on the 5th day of September (1755). Not knowing for what purpose, they innocently obeyed. For example, at Grand Pré, four hundred and eighteen unarmed men came together. They were marched into the church, and the doors were closed, when Winslow, the American commander, rose up, and thus addressed them: "You are convened together to manifest to you his majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds and live-stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this his province. I am, through his majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your money and household goods, as many as you can, without discommoding the vessels you go in." And he thereupon declared them the king's prisoners. What a sound of mocking irony there must have rung through that expression, "his majesty's goodness!" The pitiful privilege which that goodness granted might as well have been withheld, since in effect it did not render them any the less destitute. Their wives and families were also the king's prisoners-numbering with themselves nineteen hundred and twenty-three persons. The doom which had been some time preparing for them took them completely by surprise. will of the soldiers. Then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps of the altar, Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission. 'You are convened this day,' he said, 'by his Clement and kind has he been; but how you majesty's orders. have answer'd his kindness, Let your own hearts reply! To my natural make and my temper Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be grievous. Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will |