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GOVERNOR Cornwallis was determined to have a
fort on the Isthmus of Chignecto and in August, 1750, sent another
force, under Lawrence, to effect that object. The latter had 700 men
with him, and the materials for erecting barracks and other
buildings. The Indians and some of the French inhabitants apposed
his landing, but were driven back with loss. La Corne, who was in
command of the French, desired an interview with Lawrence in the
middle of the Misseguasli River, but was told he was trespassing on
British territory and that Lawrence could hold no parley with him.
In view of what occurred to How a few weeks later, it was perhaps
just as well that Lawrence declined this invitation. He lost no time
in establishing himself on the site of the village of Beaubassin and
began the erection of a fort which was named Fort Lawrence. It was
only a mile and a half from the French fort of Beausejour, on the
north side of the Misseguasli River, which was then being built by
La Corne. A modern rifle would carry a bullet from one to the other,
but, when they were built, they were thought to be beyond cannon
shot of each other. The relations between the trench and English
were not improved by the barbarous murder of Mr. How, the person
employed by Cornwallis to communicate with the Indians. How was
enticed to the Misseguash by a pretended flag of truce, and shot by
a party of Indians who were lying in ambush. Some French writers
accuse La Ixmtre of being the instigator of this crime, but it is
quite as likely to have been suggested by Le Corne who, although a
brave man, was cruel and ruthless. Whether he hail a hand in it or
not, he did nothing to punish the Indians who committed the
treacherous deed. Almost immediately after it, he was recalled to
Canada and M. de St. Ours succeeded him in the command of Beausejour.
The Acadians whom La Loutre had gathered about
him at Beausejour, were a source of great embarrassment. They had to
be fed and clothed, for they had been deprived of their means of
living by their enforced emigration. The government of Canada was
charged with the task of feeding them, but this was attended with
great difficulty for the necessary supplies had to be sent in
vessels to Baie Verte and the Bay of Fundy and several of these
vessels were captured by the English. Some of the Acadians were
induced to go to Prince Edward Island, but most of them preferred to
remain under the guns of Beausejour or at Shediac. A return made in
1751 shows that there were 174 families numbering 958 persons at
Beausejour and Shediac, who had emigrated from other parts of
Acadia. Of these 29 families were from Minudie, 20 from River
Hebert, 8 from Maccan, 23 from Nappan, 31 from Bcaubassin, 11 from
Mines and 5 from Cobequid. In February, 1752, there were at
Beausejour 204 refugee families, numbering 1,113 persons, most of
them from the territory immediately south of the Misseguash. Besides
these, and depending on Beausejour for protection, were 204
families, numbering 1,47.3 persons, who resided north of the
Misseguash at Tantramar, Shepody, Memrarncook, Petitcodiac and other
points. Thus the total Acadian population under the protection of
Beausejour at that time was 2,38(3 and in March, 1755, their number
had increased. Of all these enumerated in 1752, there were but 60
families from Port Royal, Mines, Pizequid and Oobeqnid, numbering
perhaps 350 persons. This emigration represented the net result of
the labours of La Loutre to entice the prosperous inhabitants of
these districts away from their homes.
There are no returns showing the population of
the St. John River at this period. In the summer of 1753, Governor
Shirley estimated the number of French families on the St. John at
100, and stated that the French had greatly strengthened the fort at
the mouth of the river and had built another 20 miles up, on which
24 guns were mounted, and which had a garrison of 200 men. This fort
was on the
point of land where the Nerepis flows into the St John, on the east
side of the first named river, but its strength was greatly
exaggerated by Shirley. We first hear of it in the summer of 1751,
when it was under the command of M. de Gaspe. It appears to have
been built on the site of an old Indian fortification and is marked
Fort Boishebert on some of the maps, but it never made any figure in
Acadian history. In 1754 Lawrenco employed a man to visit the French
fortifications on the north side of the Bay of Fundy and give him an
account of them. He reported that Beausejour, a fort of five
bastions, had 32 small cannon and a mortar mounted, besides eight
18-pounders not mounted. It had a garrison of regulars, six officers
and 69 men. The fort although not large was very strong. At St. John
there was only a small fort, with three bad old guns and one officer
and 16 men. There were besides 160 Indians capable of bearing arms.
A reinforcement was shortly expected from Canada. "When he passed
Beausejour there were 400 Indians collected at Baie Yerte, and he
reported that the French, in forty-eight hours, could assemble from
1,400 to 1,500 men from the different settlements. This spy says
nothing about the fort whichi the French had at Baie Verte, Fort
Gaspereau, or in regard to Fort Boishebert on the St. John river, so
that it is evident he did not go very far within the enemy's lines.
Although there was nominally peace in Acadia
after the Treaty of Aix-la-Ohapelle, the attitude of the French and
English towards each other was one of veiled hostility. It was felt
by both sides, that war was very near and hostilities broke out in
America long before war was actually declared in Europe. It was
impossible that such conflicting territorial claims as existed in
Acadia, could continue to be maintained without leading to
bloodshed. Obviously the first thing to be accomplished by the
English was the capture of Beausejour. That fortress, was the key to
the possession of Acadia so long as Louisburg and Quebec continued
in the hands of the French. Even now, in the event of a war with
some great naval power, the isthmus of Chignecto would become a
great strategic point and would bear tbe same relation to Halifax
that the isthmus of Perekop bore- to Sebastopol during the Crimean
War. But it was much more than that in 1755, for it supplied au
interior line of communication from Quebec to all the settlements of
the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of St. Laurence.
The capture of Beausejour was undertaken in the
spring of 1755. Preparations had been made for it early and, in
April, two battalions of infantry, numbering about 2,000 men under
the command of Lieut. Col. Winslow and Lieut. Cot Scott were raised
in Massachusetts. The expedition, which left Boston towards the last
of May, was under the command of Lieut. Col. Monckton, an officer of
the regular army, who was afterwards Senior brigadier under Wolfe,
at the siege of Quebec. At Annapolis 300 regulars of the 45th
Regiment were taken on board and a small train of artillery. They
reached Chignecto on the 2nd of June, and on the following day all
the troops were landed and encamped about Fort Lawrence.
Fort Beausejour was then under the command of M.
de Chambon de Verger, a great grandson of Charles La Tour, He was a
man of no ability, and is described in a confidential French report
as "inferior in every respect," but rich. His riches were acquired
in Acadia by robbing the King, his master, and diverting the money
granted for public services to his own use. When he was appointed,
Bigot, the Intendant of Canada, wrote to him: "Profit by your place,
my dear Verger; clip and cut, you are free to do what you please so
that you can come to join me in France and buy an estate near me."
Verger followed this advice and became rich, and this is why
Beausejour was in an unfinished state when the English appeared
before it in June 1755.
As Beausejour could not be assailed in front,
because of its great elevation above the marsh, Moncton decided to
attack it from the rear. On the 4th of June, the English captured
the blockhouse at Pointe a Buot, and crossed the Misseguasli,
establishing themselves the same evening on the north side of that
river, a mile and a half from the fort. A week was expended in
bridging the Misseguasli and getting the cannon and mortars across,
and, on the morning of the 13th, fire was opened on the fort from
the trenches at a distance of 700 feet. Cannon and mortar fire wras
continued until the 10th when Verger surrendered, after learning
that there was no prospect of any help reaching him from Ixmisburg.
The terms of surrender were, that the garrison were to march out
with the honours of war and to be sent to Louisburg at the charge of
Great Britain, but not to bear arms for six months.' The Acadians
were to be pardoned, on the ground that they had been compelled by
Verger to take arms on pain of death. Verger might have made a more
prolonged defence, but his fort must have been
captured in the end,
and, as there was no prospect of relief from outside, there was no
object in a lengthened resistance. His garrison was weak and not
well affected, while the Acadians in the fort had no stomach for
fighting, under the circumstances the surrender of Beausejour was
justifiable.
Governor Lawrence changed the name, of
Beausejour to Fort Cumberland, in honour of the hero of Culloden,
and both it and Fort Gaspereaux at Baie Verte were occupied by
English garrisons.
Boishebert was now- the only French leader in
arms in Acadia and it was determined to make short work of him.
Capt. Rous, who had been in command of the naval portion of the
expedition,, was sent to the St. John River with three 20-gun ships
and a sloop to drive the French away. It had been reported that
there were two French warships in St. John harbour, but when Rous
got there he found no ships. The French evidently did not think
themselves strong enough to hold their position for, as soon as Rous
appeared, they burst their cannon, blew up their magazine, set fire
to all the buildings in their fort and fled up river. Capt. Rous did
not attempt to follow them so that the fort at Nerepis was not
attacked. The Indians living at the mouth of the River invited Capt.
Rous ashore and gave him the strongest assurances of their desire to
be at peace with the English. The French inhabitants at St. John
were told that they would be required to take the oath of allegiance
to the British crown and, if they refused, they would be removed
from the country. This was probably regarded by those to whom it was
addressed as an empty threat but it was destined to be only too soon
fulfilled.
The expulsion of the Acadians which took place
in 1755 was the direct result of their refusal to take the oath of
allegiance. When Port Royal was captured by the English in 1710 one
of the terms.
of the capitulation was that "the inhabitants
within cannon shot of Port Royal, shall remain on their estates,
with their corn, cattle and furniture, during two years, in case
they are not desirous to go before, they taking the oath of
allegiance and fidelity to his sacred majesty of Great Britain.'
This distance, "within cannon shot of Port Royal," was interpreted
to mean three English miles; and it was ascertained that the number
of persons residing in this area was 481, By the Treaty of Utrecht,
in 1713, France ceded all Acadia to Great Britain, and by the 14tli
article of that Treaty it was agreed that "the subjects of the King
of France may have liberty to remove themselves within a year to any
other place, with all their moveable effects, but those who are
willing to remain and to be subject to the King of Great Britain,
are to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, according to the
usages of the Church of Rome, so far as the laws of Great Britain,
do allow the same." In June of the same year, nearly three months
after the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. Queen Anne wrote to
Nicholson the Governor of Nova Scotia ordering him to "allow such of
the Acadians as had any lands or tenements under his government and
were willing to continue subjects of the Queen, to retain and enjoy
their lands without molestation or to sell the same, if they chose
to remove elsewhere.'' The consideration given by the King of France
for this concession was his release from the galleys of a number of
his own subjects who had been condemned for being Protestants.
It will be observed that the condition on which
the Acadians were to be allowed to retain their lands and remain in
the country was, that they should take the oath of allegiance and
become British subjects. The Acadians refused to take this oath and,
while they professed their willingness to do no injury to British
interests, claimed to be neutral and therefore exempt from all these
services to winch other subjects were liable. Many were the attempts
that were made by the Governors and administrators of Nova Scotia,
to induce the Acadians to take the oath of allegiance. All were
unsuccessful until the return of Governor Phillips to the province
in 1730. Then all the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia took the
oath of allegiance without any qualification as to bearing arms. The
Acadians afterwards declared that they did this with the
understanding that a clause was to be inserted, exempting them from
bearing arms. This, if true, would go to show that twenty years
after Acadia had become a British province, the French inhabitants
still refused to regard themselves as British subjects.
When Cornwallis became Governor of Nova Scotia,
one of his first acts was to request the Acadians to take the oath
of allegiance. This they refused to do but they offered to take the
oath of 1730, with an exemption from bearing arms. They said that if
this was not granted, they were resolved one and all to leave the
country. Matters were brought to a crisis after the fall of
Beausejour. Governor Lawrence summoned deputies from all the French
settlements to Halifax and informed them that all the Acadians must
either take an unconditional oath of allegiance or leave the
country. They all refused to take, this oath and Governor Lawrence
and his council at once took measures to remove them. Transports
were hired in New England for the purpose of conveying the Acadians
to their places of exile, and troops were collected at the various
settlements to assist in doing this most revolting work.
The expulsion of the Acadians from their homes
was carried out in September and October, 1755. At Mines and
Pizequid about 3,400 persons were embarked and sent away. At
Annapolis 1,604 were deported, but one of the vessels, with 220
persons on board, was seized by her passengers and carried into the
St. John River. At Chignecto the officer who had charge of the work
of deportation met with very indifferent success. Boishebert, who
had been driven from St. John, had made his way to Chignecto and
organized the Acadians to resist the English The inhabitants fled to
the woods when the English tried to collect them, and the latter had
to be content with burning their dwellings and barns. On the 2nd of
September Major Erye was sent with two hundred men from the garrison
of Fort Cumberland to burn the villages of Shepody, Petitcodiac and
Meinranicook. At Shepody they burnt 181 buildings, but found no
inhabitants except 23 women and children. Next day they burnt the
dwellings on both sides of the Petitcodiac River. Fifty men who were
sent to burn the Chapel and some buildings near it, were attacked by
300 French and Indians under Boishebert, and compelled to retreat,
with the loss of 23 men killed and wounded including two officers.
Frye advanced with the remainder of his force against Boishebert
but, after an engagement which lasted some time, was compelled to
retire to his vessel. In the end about 1,100 of the inhabitants of
Chignecto were got together and sent away, but this was hardly more
than one-third of the inhabitants of that district. The others,
however, had been driven from their homes and were forced to become
wanderers, depending for their food on the generosity of the French
government, until after the fall of Quebec.
The period from the fall of Beausejour to the
capture of Montreal, was an uneasy time in Acadia. The French had
been driven from Beausejour and Fort Gaspereau, but they still held
the River St. John and all the country north of the isthmus. The
Acadians, of whom there were about 2,500 in that region, were
rendered desperate by their missfortunes and they were aided by
bands of Indians to whom killing and plundering were more pleasing
than the arts of peace. The English garrisons of the forts on the
isthmus were so beset by them, that the soldiers did not dare to
venture beyond the reach of their guns. The French fort at Baie
Verte had been renamed Fort Monckton after its capture. In April
1756 a party of thirty soldiers went out from this fort to get wood.
They were attacked by a party of Indians who killed and scalped nine
of the men. This, and other attacks of a similar character, led to
the enlisting of a company of Rangers whose special business it was
to deal with Indians. These men received higher pay than the
regulars or the New England troops. The latter indeed were very
difficult to retain in Nova Scotia after the fall of Beausejour, for
many of them thought their services ought to have terminated with
the capture of that place. Boishebert, the French leader had
established himself at Shediac, which was within easy reach of
Louisburg, his lieutenant held the St. John River. The Acadians had
to be fed, as they had been driven off their farms, and, in the
course of a year or two, most of them made their way to the
Miranuchi and the Restigouche where they were not likely to be
molested by the English. They built villages of considerable size at
both places, and, had Canada been preserved to France, no doubt
would have settled themselves on these two great rivers, but Canada
was lost and the Acadians once more left to the mercy of their
enemies.
The capture, of Louisburg was the next object of
the English, for 't was felt that so long as that place remained
French, Nova Scotia could not be secure. The resources of Great
Britain were then wielded by the great William Pitt who was.
resolved to destroy French power on the continent of America.
Louisburg had been threatened in 1757 by an English fleet and army,
but it was not until the following year that the final stroke, came.
The threat however, had the effect of relieving Acadia for a time of
the presence of Boishebert, for he was summoned to Louisburg, to
which he took 100 Canadians and Acadians and 250 Indians and was
placed on outpost duty outside its walls. From that time until
1758-Boishebert was employed in aiding its defence by outside
operations, none of which
were very successful or had any substantial effect on the work of
the beseigers.
Immediately after the capture of Louisburg Col.
Monckton was sent, with a force of Colonial Infantry, the 35th
Regiment and the second Battalion of Royal Americans to drive the
French from the St. John River. The fort, which had only two small
cannon in position, was captured and most of the garrison escaped up
the river in boats. The armed Province sloop "Ulysses," which
attempted to follow them, was wrecked in the falls. The French took
refuge at St. Anne's Point, where there w as a settlement, where
there had been for two or three years an armed fort. The old fort at
St. John was then occupied by an English garrison and named Fort
Frederick. Lord Rollo was, at the same time, sent to St. John Island
where there was upwards of 4,000 French inhabitants to exact
submission from them, while General Wolfe, who had taken a leading
part in the capture of Louisburg, was sent with Sir Charles Hardy to
ravage Gaspe, Miramichi and the other French settlements on the Gulf
and Bay Chaleur. This was a wretched business for the future
conqueror of Quebec to be engaged in, but he mitigated its severity,
so far as possible, by refusing to allow the persons of the
inhabitants to be injured.
Lawrence was anxious to have the vacant lands in
Nova Scotia, from which the French had been driven, settled by
English from the old colonies in Great Britain, and, in October, he
issued a proclamation directing attention to the value of these
lands and offering them for settlement. A second proclamation which
was issued a few months later, stated the terms upon which these
lands would be granted. Townships were to consist of 100,000 acres.
Each head of a family was to receive 100 acres of woodland, and 50
acres were to be added for each member of a family, subject to a
quit rent of one shilling for every fifty acres, to begin ten years
after the date of the grant. The grantees were to cultivate or
enclose one third of the land in ten years, one third more in twenty
years and the remainder in thirty years. No one person -was to
receive more than 100 acres. These liberal terms attracted the
attention of persons hi the New England Colonies who were looking
for land, and agents for these land seekers began to arrive at
Halifax in April, 1759, from Connecticut and Rhode Island. As these
people were the first comers, they had the choice of the best lands,
and, during the summer, arrangements were completed for settling
Horton, Cornwallis, Pizequid, Cobequid, Granville and Chignecto. The
last named township was selected by agents from Connecticut. The
number of families to be settled in all these townships was 2,550,
of which 1350 families or 3,250 persons were to be settled in 1760
and the remainder in the two following years. This programme was not
strictly carried out for Chignecto was not settled until 1701.
In March 1759 a company of Rangers under Capt.
McCurdy was sent up the St. John to drive the French from St. Anne's
Point. McCurdy was accidentally killed by a tree falling on him and
Lieut. Hazen, who was afterwards an American General in the
Revolution, took the command. St. Anne's was destroyed and
atrocities were committed by the Rangers which called forth the
censure of General Amherst, who said lie must always disapprove of
killing women and helpless children. He should have equally
disapproved of killing men who were not armed. Hazen not only burnt
all the houses at St. Anne's, but all the French houses on the River
below St. Anne's. The miserable inhabitants fled farther up river to
escape the attacks of their fellow Christians wearing British
uniforms. The people of New England, from whom these Rangers were
recruited, were filled with a savage spirit of hatred towards the
French, which they sought to gratify on every occasion.
The capture of Quebec took place in September,
1759, and was a fatal blow to the French in America. Montreal indeed
was held by the French until the following year, but the struggle to
retain Canada was hopeless and, in a little while, the French flag
was lowered for the last time and all Canada became an English
possession. The last hope of the Acadians was gone, and these
faithful people, whose attachment to France had been their ruin were
left to make the best terms they could with their enemies.
Two hundred inhabitants of the St. John River
under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers Germain and Coquarte
arrived at Fort Frederick and exhibited to Col. Arbuthnot, its
commander, a paper front Cramahe, the Deputy Judge Advocate at
Quebec, certifying that they had taken the oath of allegiance to the
King of England. General Monckton, they said, had then given them
permission to return to their habitations. Arbuthnot referred the
matter to Lawrence, who refused to recognize this right to return to
their lands, on the ground that Cramahe must have supposed that they
were residents of Canada when he administered the oath to them.
These people were required to remain at Fort Frederick during the
winter, and, in the spring, they were taken to Halifax, their status
being that of prisoners of war.
In November, 1759, four Acadians came to Fort
Cumberland with a flag of truce, as deputies for about 190 persons
residing at Petitcodiac and Memramcook. They told Col. Frye, the
commandant, that they desired to surrender to the English
government. They also stated that they had not provisions enough to
keep them alive until the spring. Frye consented to take 63 of them
into the fort and feed them until spring. About the same time three
Acadians arrived at Fort Cumberland, as deputies for 700 French, who
were at Huctouche, Richibueto and .Miraniichi. They were in the same
difficulty as the others with respect to food, and Col. Frye agreed
to keep 230 of them for the winter: These people had been engaged in
piratical expeditions against English commerce during the summer,
and acknowledged having captured twelve vessels near Canso. The
authorities, in view of their desperate condition, agreed to accept
their submission and assist them with provisions. During the
following summer between three and four hundred people who had come
into Fort Cumberland were sent to Halifax. That little town had now
several hundred French Acadians living in it or near it, for whom
there was little or no work, and who were a charge on the
government.
In the spring of 1760 the French sent a small
fleet to Canada to assist in the reduction of Quebec then held by
the English and beseiged by Levis. Two of these vessels were
intercepted and captured by the English, and the other four, after
reaching the Gulf of St. Lawrence and capturing some English
vessels, ran up the Bay Chaleur to escape the English fleet under
Lord Colville. They landed their troops on the north side of the
Restigouche River and built a battery sending a message to Montreal
over land, to notify Vaudreuil of their presence. Admiral Byron, who
was cruising in the Gulf, heard of their arrival and followed them.
On the 24th June he got to the mouth of the Restigouche River and
found a French battery manned by 250 French soldiers. 700 Acadians
and 8l )0 Indians. He found considerable difficulty in approaching
the battery owing to the shallow water, but, after a severe
engagement, on the 8th of July, succeeded in destroying it and
capturing or sinking the four French war ships and. nineteen other
vessells that were with them. The town of New Rochelle which had
been built by the Acadians, was also destroyed. There seemed to be
no place of safety for these poor people and the presence of a
French force which was unable to protect them, completed their ruin.
The fall of Quebec seems to have convinced the
Indians that their business of pillaging and murdering the English,
must soon come to an end and they showed a disposition to make
peace. It is surprising that the authorities at Halifax, should have
thought it worth the trouble to make peace with them, for they had
broken every treaty they ever made, sometimes almost before the ink
was dry. In February and March 1760 new treaties were made with the
Malicete Indians of St. John and Passama-quoddy, and the Micmacs of
Hichibucto, Chignecto, Shubenacadie and other districts. The red men
received in exchange for these treaties, food and clothing, among
the latter being gaudy costumes for their chiefs. They returned to
their homes well satisfied with the result of their parleys with the
English, which had been the means of rescuing some of them from
starvation. |
