When M. de la Galissoniere failed in his endeavor to obtain the aid of an extensive immigration from France, he turned his thoughts toward the Acadian settlers[435] (whom the treaty of Utrecht had transferred to the British crown), with the object of forming a new colony. The readiest expedient to influence this simple and pious people was, obviously, by gaining over their clergy; the Abbe le Loutre was selected as the fittest embassador to induce them to withdraw from allegiance to the English government. This politic and unscrupulous priest appealed to their interests, nationality, and religion as inducements to abandon the conquered country, and to establish themselves under the French crown in a new settlement which he proposed to form on the Canadian side of Acadia. Le Loutre's persuasions influenced many of these primitive people to proceed to the French posts, where every protection and attention was bestowed upon them.

Animated by the success of this measure, and sanguine that large numbers of the Acadians would follow the first seceders, De la Galissoniere induced the home government to appoint a considerable sum yearly to carrying out his views; but, in the midst of his patriotic exertions, he was obliged to hand over the reins of government to M. de la Jonquiere, who had now arrived to claim the post so ably held by another during his captivity with the English. Galissoniere, however, before he sailed for France, magnanimously furnished his successor with the best information on colonial matters, and pointed out the most promising plans for the improvement of the province.[436] De la Jonquiere unwisely rejected such as related to the Acadian settlements; but the King of France disapproved of his inaction, and reprimanded him for not having continued the course of his predecessor. Instructions were given him to take immediate possession of the neighboring country, to build new forts for its retention, and to occupy it with troops; he was also desired to aid Le Loutre in all his proceedings, and to forward his designs. In obedience to these orders, M. de Boishebert was dispatched with a body of troops and some peasants, to take post near the mouth of the River St. John, which was looked upon as an important post for the defense of the new settlement.

These measures inevitably aroused the jealousy of the English governor of Nova Scotia, who made repeated remonstrances on the subject, but with no other effect than that of causing De la Jonquiere to warn his officers to avoid all possible grounds of dispute, as he expected the limits of the rival powers would be speedily arranged.

(1749.) Supplies for the new post at St. John's could only be obtained from Quebec, and transmitted by the long and difficult circuit of the whole Acadian peninsula. M. de Vergor was sent on this mission in an armed sloop, containing military and other stores for the French and Indians. He was ordered to avoid all English vessels, but, if he could no longer shun pursuit, to fight to the last. This stern command was not obeyed, for he surrendered without an effort to Captain Rous, who, apprised of his design, had intercepted him on the coast. On the news of the capture of this sloop, M. de la Jonquiere empowered the governor of Louisburg[437] to make reprisals upon all English vessels that might enter his port.

General Cornwallis, governor of Halifax,[438] sent a detachment of British troops, under Major Lawrence, to watch the movements of La Corne, the French commander, who had been directed to build a fort on the Bay of Fundy, called Beau-sejour.[439] As soon as Le Loutre became aware of the arrival of the English, he caused the houses and homesteads of those unfortunate Acadians who remained faithful to England to be burned. Soon after this cruel severity the French and English leaders held a conference, and agreed to erect forts opposite to each other on each side of the River Beau-bassin,[440] but to remain at peace till they received further instructions.

While occasions of dispute were thus arising on the Nova Scotia peninsula, a still more dangerous difficulty threatened the cause of peace in the far West. The governors of the British colonies continued to grant license to their merchants to trade on the banks of the Ohio, in contempt of the haughty pretensions of French sovereignty. By the orders of La Jonquiere, three of these adventurers were seized, with all their goods, and carried captive to Montreal: after a long examination, however, they were discharged.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 412: "Vis a vis de Montreal, du cote du sud est un endroit qu' on appelle la Prairie de la Madeleine."—Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 233.

"Le Cap de la Madeleine a eu son nom de l'Abbe de la Madeleine, un des membres de la Compagnie des cent Associes." The name of the Prairie had probably the same origin.—Charlevoix, tom. v., p. 167.]

[Footnote 413: There was a flourishing settlement at Mount Louis in 1758, which was destroyed by General Wolfe.]

[Footnote 414: "Sans avoir le brilliant de son predecesseur, il en avait tout le solide; des vues droites et desinteresses, sans prejuge et sans passion; une fermete toujours d'accord avec la raison, une valeur, que le flegme scavoit moderer et rendre utile: un grand sens, beaucoup de probite et d'honneur, et une penetration d'esprit, a laquelle une grande application et une longue experience avoient ajonte tout ce que l'experience peut donner de lumieres. Il avoit pris des les commencemens un grand empire sur les sauvages, qui le connoisoient exacte a tenir sa parole, et ferme a vouloir qu' on lui gardat celles qu' on lui avoient donnees. Les Francois de leur cote etaient convaincus qu'il n' exigeroient jamais rien d'eux, que de raisonnable; que pour n' avoir ni la naissance, ni les grandes alliances du Comte de Frontenac, ni le rang de lieutenant general des armees du roi, il ne scauroit pas moins se faire obeir que lui."—Charlevoix, tom. iii., p. 353.]

[Footnote 415: "Enfin la retraite des deux armees Anglaises qui devaient attaquer en meme tems la Nouvelle France par terre et par mer, et diviser ses forces en les occupant aux deux extremites de la colonie, n' etant plus douteuse, et le bruit s' etant repandu que la premiere avait fait naufrage dans le fleuve St. Laurent vers les Sept Isles, M. de Vaudreuil y envoya plusieurs barques. Elles y trouverent les carcasses de huit gros vaisseaux, dont on avoit enleve les canons et les meilleurs effets, et pres de trois mille personnes noyees, dont les corps etoient etendus sur le rivage. On y reconnut deux compagnies entieres des Gardes de la Reine, qu' on distingua a leurs casaques rouges, et plusieurs familles Ecossoises, destinees a peupler le Canada, mais quoique le reste de la flotte eut reste mouille plusieurs jours au meme endroit, pour enlever toute la charge des vaisseaux brises, on ne laissa point d' y faire un assez grand butin."—Charlevoix, tom. iv., p. 82.]

[Footnote 416: The city of Detroit dates its history from July, 1701. At that time M. de la Motte Cadillac, with one hundred men, and a Jesuit, carrying with them every thing necessary for the commencement and support of the establishment meditated, reached this place. "How numerous and diversified," said a public literary document, "are the incidents compressed within the history of this settlement. No place in the United States presents such a series of events interesting in themselves and permanently affecting, as they occurred, its progress and prosperity. Five times its flag has changed; three different sovereignties have claimed its allegiance; and since it has been held by the United States, its government has been thrice transferred. Twice it has been besieged by the Indians, once captured in war, and once burned to the ground."

"Detroit has long been considered as the limit of civilization toward the northwest. This town, or commercial port, is dignified by the name, and enjoys the chartered rights of a city, although its population at present does not exceed three thousand. The banks of the river above and below the city are lined with a French population, descendants of the first European traders among the Indians in that quarter, and extending from Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair, increasing in density as they approach the town, and averaging, perhaps, one hundred per mile. This place, but a little while ago so distant, is now brought within four days of the city of New York, the track pursued being seven hundred and fifty miles. Here, at Detroit, some of the finest steamers in North America come and go every day, connecting it with the east, and have begun already to search out the distant west and north."—Colton's Tour to the American Lakes, vol. i., p. 46.]

[Footnote 417: "Le fruit de sa victoire (Da Buisson) fut que les Anglois desespererent de s' etablir au Detroit, ce qui auroit ete la ruine entiere de la Nouvelle France, non seulement a cause de la situation de ce lieu, qui est le centre et le plus beau pays du Canada, mais encore parcequ'il ne nous auroit plus ete possible d'entretenir la moindre communication avec les sauvages d'en haut ni avec la Louisiane."—Charlevoix, vol. iv., p. 105.]

[Footnote 418: "Le roi tres Chretien cede a la reine d'Angleterre a perpetuite, l'Acadie, ou Nouvelle Ecosse, en entier, conformement a ses anciennes limites, comme aussi la ville de Port Royal, maintenant appellee Annapolis Royale."—Article XII. du Traite d'Utrecht, 1713.]

[Footnote 419: "Ce dernier article ne nous ota rien de reel, et ne donna non plus rien aux Anglais, parceque les cantons renouvellerent les protestations, qu'ils avoient deja faites plus d'une fois contre les pretentions reciproques de leurs voisins et ont tres bien scu se maintenir dans la possession de leur liberte et da leur independance."—Charlevoix.]

[Footnote 420: "Il (Prior) etoit pareillement autorise a traite sur les limites de l'Amerique septentrionale, et s'il plaisoit au roi, ces deux articles pouvoient etre regles en peu de tems."—Memoires de Torcy sur la Paix d'Utrecht, vol. iii., p. 426.]

[Footnote 421: It is hardly remembered at the present day that the French nation once claimed, and had begun to colonize the whole region which lies at the back of the thirteen original United States, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, comprising both the Canadas and the vast fertile valley of the Ohio, and had actually occupied the two outlets of this whole region by its ports at Quebec and New Orleans.[422] Canada, the oldest French colony, and the only one on the continent to which that nation has sent any considerable number of settlers, was under the management of an exclusive company, from 1663 to the downfall of what was called the Mississippi Scheme, in 1720; and this circumstance, still more, perhaps, than the vicious system of granting the land to non-resident proprietors, to be held by seignorial tenure, checked its progress. Louisiana, with more sources of surplus wealth from climate and soil, was never a very thriving colony, and was surrendered to Spain with little reluctance, from which last power its dominion passed to the United States.

The French traders and hunters intermarried and mixed with the Indians at the back of our settlements, and extended their scattered posts along the whole course of the two vast rivers of that continent. Even at this day, far away on the upper waters of these mighty streams, and beyond the utmost limits reached by the backwoodsman, the traveler discovers villages in which the aspect and social usages of the people, their festivities and their solemnities, in which the white and red man mingle on equal terms, strangely contrast with the habits of the Anglo-American, and announce to him, on his first approach, their Gallic origin.—Merivale, vol. i., p. 58; Sismondi, Etudes sur L'Ecole Politique, vol. ii., p. 200; Latrobe.]

[Footnote 422: "La ville de Nouvelle Orleans fut fondee dans l'annee 1717. M. de Bienville fit choix de la situation. On a nomme cetto fameuse ville la Nouvelle Orleans. Ceux qui lui ont donne ce nom croyoient qu' Orleans est du genre feminin, mais qu' importe? l'usage est etabli et il est au-dessus des regles de la grammaire. Cette ville est la premiere qu' un des plus grands fleuves du monde ait vu s'elever aur ses bords."—Charlevoix, vol. viii., p. 192.]

[Footnote 423: "Garcilasso de la Vega parle des Chichachas dans son histoire de la conquete de la Floride, et il les place a peu pres au meme endroit ou ils sont encore presentement.... Ce sont encore les plus braves soldats de la Louisiane, mais ils etoient beaucoup plus nombreux du tem de Ferdinand de Soto.... C'est notre alliance aves les Illinois qui nous a mis en guerre avec les Chichachas et les Anglois de la Caroline attisent le feu. Notre etablissement dans la Louisiane fait grand mal au coeur a ceux-ci; c'est une barriere que nous mettons entre leurs puissantes colonies de l'Amerique septentrionale, et le Mexique.... Les Espagnols qui nous voyent avec des yeux si jaloux nous fortifier dans ce pays, ne sentent pas encore l'importance du service que nous leur rendons."—Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 160.]

[Footnote 424: From the year 1706 the name of Cape Breton was changed to Ile Royale. Louisburg was called le Havre a l'Anglais.]

[Footnote 425: "The importance of the colonies[426] was too little considered until the commencement of the last war. The reduction of Cape Breton by the people of New England was an acquisition so unexpected and fortunate, that America became, on that remarkable event, a more general topic of conversation. Mr. Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts Bay, was the principal projector of that glorious enterprise; an enterprise which reduced to the obedience of his Britannic majesty the Dunkirk of North America. Of such consequence to the French was the possession of that important key to their American settlements, that its restitution was, in reality, the purchase of the last general peace of Europe."[427]—A Review of the Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a Nobleman, p. 4 (London, 1757).

"The plan of the invasion of Cape Breton was laid at Boston, and New England[428] bore the expense of it. A merchant named Pepperel,[429] who had excited, encouraged, and directed the enterprise, was intrusted with the command of the army of 6000 men, which had been levied for this expedition. Though these forces, convoyed by a squadron from Jamaica, brought the first news to Cape Breton of the danger that threatened it; though the advantage of a surprise would have secured the landing without opposition; though they had but six hundred regular troops to encounter, and eight hundred inhabitants hastily armed, the success of the undertaking was still precarious. What great exploits, indeed, could have been expected from militia suddenly assembled, who had never seen a siege or faced an enemy, and were to act under the direction of sea-officers only? These inexperienced troops stood in need of the assistance of some fortunate accident, with which they were indeed favored in a singular manner. The construction and repair of the fortifications had always been left to the care of the garrison at Louisburg. The soldiers were eager to be employed on these works, as the means of procuring a comfortable subsistence. When they found that those who were to have paid them appropriated to themselves the profits of their labors, they demanded justice: it was denied them, and they determined to assert their right. As the depredations had been shared between the chief persons of the colony and the subaltern officers, the soldiers could obtain no redress. They had, in consequence, lived in open rebellion for above six months when the English appeared before the place. This was the time to conciliate the minds of both parties; the soldiers made the first advances, but their commanders distrusted a generosity of which they themselves were incapable. It was firmly believed that the soldiers were only desirous of sallying out that they might have an opportunity of deserting, and their own officers kept them in a manner prisoners, until a defense so ill managed had reduced them to the necessity of capitulating. The whole island shared the fate of Louisburg, its only bulwark. This valuable possession, restored to France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, was again attacked by the English in 1748, and taken. The possession was confirmed to Great Britain by the peace in 1763, since which the fortifications have been blown up, and the town of Louisburg dismantled."—Winterbottom's History of America, vol. iv., p. 14.]

[Footnote 426: "L'ile de Cap Breton n'etoit pas alors (at the time of the treaty of Ryswick), un objet, et l'etablissement que nous y avions n'avoit rien qui put exciter la jalousie des Anglais: elle nous demeura."—Charlevoix, tom. iii., p. 349.]

[Footnote 427: "The island of Cape Breton, of which the French were shamefully left in possession at the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, through the negligence or corruption of the British ministry, when Great Britain had the power of giving law to her enemies."—Russell's Modern Europe, vol. iii., p. 223.

"Only three years after Cape Breton was taken by the New Englanders, England was obliged reluctantly to resign her favorite conquest of Cape Breton, in order to obtain the restitution of Madras. This was by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The final conquest took place in 1758, by the English, under Amherst and Wolfe."—Belsham, vol. ii., p. 333.]

[Footnote 428: "The sum of L235,749 was granted by the British Parliament to the provinces of New England, to reimburse them for the expense of reducing Cape Breton."—Smollett, vol. iii., p. 224.]

[Footnote 429: "The news of this victory being transmitted to England, Mr. Pepperel was preferred to the dignity of a baronet of Great Britain."—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 154.]

[Footnote 430: "When Marshal Belleisle was told of the taking of Cape Breton, he said he could believe that, because the ministry had no hand in it. We are making bonfires for Cape Breton, and thundering over Genoa, while our army in Flanders is running away."—Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, July 26, 1745.]

[Footnote 431: "The tract of country known by the name of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, was in 1784 divided into two provinces, viz., New Brunswick on the southwest, and Nova Scotia on the southeast. The former comprehends that part of the old province of Nova Scotia which lies to the northward and westward of a line drawn from the mouth of the River St. Croix, through the center of the Bay of Fundy to Baye Verte, and thence into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, including all lands within six leagues of the coast. The rest is the province of Nova Scotia, to which is annexed the island of St. John's, which lies north of it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The modern Nova Scotia is the French Acadia. The modern New Brunswick is the French Nouvelle Ecosse. This name was given by Sir William Alexander, to whom the first grant of lands was given by James I.; since then the country has frequently changed hands, from the French to the English nation, backward and forward. It was not confirmed to the English till the peace of Utrecht. Three thousand families were transported into this country in 1749, at the charge of the government, and they built and settled the town of Halifax."—Winterbottom's History of America, vol. iv., p. 39.]

[Footnote 432: "La cour de France avoit extremement a coeur de recouvrer cette province (Acadia); les efforts reiteres des Anglois pour l'avoir en leur puissance, et plus encore, leur triomphe apres l'avoir conquise, avoit enfin ouvert les yeux aux Francois sur la grandeur de la perte qu'ils avoient faite. M. de Pontchartrain ecrivit ainsi a M. de Beaubarnois: 'Je vous ai fait assez connoitre combien il est important de reprendre ce poste (le Port Royal) avant que les ennemies y soient solidement etablis. La conservation de toute l'Amerique septentrionale, et le commerce des Peches le demandent egalement: ce sont deux objets qui me touchent vivement.'"—Charlevoix, tom. iv., p. 90.]

[Footnote 433: "Roland Michel Barrin, marquis de la Galissoniere, remplit la poste de gouverneur comme s'il ne se fut toute sa vie occupe que de cet objet.... Il etablit a Quebec un arsenal maritime, et un chantier de construction, ou l'on n'employa que les bois des pays. Il concut, proposa, et fit adopter le vaste plan dont il commenca l'execution, de joindre le Canada et la Louisiana par une chaine de forts et d'etablissements, le long de l'Ohio et des Mississippi, a travers les regions desertes qui separaient ces deux colonies a l'ouest des lacs. A l'avantage d'etablir entre elles une communication moins penible et moins long que par le nord, se joignoit celui de pouvoir faire parvenir les depeches en France, en hiver par la Louisiane, tandis que l'embouchure du fleuve St. Laurent est fermee par les glaces; enfin celui de resserrer les Anglais entre les montagnes et la mer.... Il emporta tous les regrets quand il revint en France, en 1749.... La defaite de l'amiral Anglais, Byng, et la prise de Minorque que fut le fruit de cette victoire decisive, couronnerent sa carriere. Il avoit entrepris cette derniere expedition contre l'avis des medecins qui lui avoient annonce sa mort comme prochaine, s'il se rembarquoit.... Il cacha ses maux tant qu'il put, mais il fut enfin oblige de se demettre du commandement. Il revint en France et se mit en route pour Fontainebleau ou etoit alors le roi. Les forces lui manquerent totalement a Nemours, ou il mourut le 26 Octobre, 1756.... A ses talens eminens comme marin, la Galissoniere unissoit une infinite de connaissances.... Serieux et ferme, mais en meme tems doux, modere, affable, et integre, il se faisito respecter et cherir de tous ceux qui servoient sous ses ordres.... Tant de belles qualites etoient cachees sous un exterieur peu avantageux. La Galissoniere etoit de petite taille et bossu. Lorsque les sauvages vinrent le saluer a son arrivee au Canada, frappes de son peu d'apparence, ils lui parlerent en ces termes, 'Il faut que tu aies une bien belle ame, puisqu' avec un si vilain corps, le grand chef notre pere t'a envoye ici pour nous commander.' Ils ne tarderent pas a reconnaitre la justice de leur opinion, et entourerent de leur amour et de leur veneration, en l'appellant du nom de pere, l'homme qui ne se servit du pouvoir que pour ameliorer leur sort."—Biographie Universelle, art. Galissoniere.]

[Footnote 434: "In observing on old maps the extent of the ancient French colonies in America, I was haunted by one painful idea. I asked myself how the government of my country could have left colonies to perish which would now be to us a source of inexhaustible prosperity. From Acadia and Canada to Louisiana, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, the territories of New France surrounded what originally formed the confederation of the thirteen United States. The eleven other states, the district of Columbia, the Michigan, Northwest, Missouri, Oregon, and Arkansas territories, belonged, or would have belonged to us, as they now belong to the United States, by the cession of the English and Spaniards, our first heirs in Canada and in Louisiana. More than two thirds of North America would acknowledge the sovereignty of France.... We possessed here vast countries which might have offered a home to the excess of our population, an important market to our commerce, a nursery to our navy. Now we are forced to confine in our prisons culprits condemned by the tribunals, for want of a spot of ground whereon to place these wretched creatures. We are excluded from the New World, where the human race is recommencing. The English and Spanish languages serve to express the thoughts of many millions of men in Africa, in Asia, in the South Sea Islands, on the continent of the two Americas; and we, disinherited of the conquests of our courage and our genius, hear the language of Racine, of Colbert, and of Louis XIV. spoken merely in a few hamlets of Louisiana and Canada, under a foreign sway. There it remains, as though but for an evidence of the reverses of our fortune and the errors of our policy. Thus, then, has France disappeared from North America, like those Indian tribes with which she sympathized, and some of the wrecks of which I have beheld."—Chateaubriand's Travels in America, vol. ii., p. 207.]

[Footnote 435: From the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, 1632, till 1654, the French had quiet possession of Acadia; then Cromwell sent Major Sedgwick to attack it, with orders to expel all who would not acknowledge themselves subjects of England. Sedgwick executed his commission, and Cromwell passed a grant of Acadia to one De la Tour, a French refugee, who had purchased Lord Sterling's title to that country; and De la Tour soon after transferred his right to Sir William Temple.

Nova Scotia was ceded to France at the treaty of Breda, in 1670. In 1690 it was retaken by Sir William Phipps on his way to Quebec. It was given back to France by the treaty of Ryswick; retaken by General Nicholson (who gave the name of Annapolis to Port Royal) in 1710, during the War of the Succession. It was formally and finally ceded to England at the peace of Utrecht. The undefined limits of Nova Scotia were a constant source of dispute between the French and English nations.]

[Footnote 436: Professor Kalm thus speaks of La Galissoniere, who was the governor of Quebec at the time of his travels through Canada. "He was of a low stature and somewhat hump-backed. He has a surprising knowledge in all branches of science, and especially in natural history, in which he is so well versed, that, when he began to speak to me about it, I imagined I saw our great Linnaeus under a new form. When he spoke of the use of natural history, of the method of learning, and employing it to raise the state of a country, I was astonished to see him take his reasons from politics, as well as natural philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences. I own that my conversation with this nobleman was very instructive to me, and I always drew a great deal of useful knowledge from it. He told me several ways of employing natural history to the purposes of politics, and to make a country powerful in order to depress its envious neighbors. Never has natural history had a greater promotion in this country, and it is very doubtful whether it will ever have its equal here. As soon as he got the place of governor general, he began to take those measures for getting information in natural history which I have mentioned before. When he saw people who had for some time been in a settled place of the country, especially in the more remote parts, he always questioned them about the trees, plants, earths, stones, ores, animals, &c., of the place. Those who seemed to have clearer notions than the rest were obliged to give him circumstantial descriptions of what they had seen. He himself wrote down all the accounts he received, and by this great appreciation, so uncommon among persons of his rank, he soon acquired a knowledge of the most distant parts of America. The priests, commandants of forts and of several distant places, are often surprised by his questions, and wonder at his knowledge when they come to Quebec to pay their visits to him, for he often tells them that near such a mountain, or on such a shore, &c., where they often went a hunting, there are some particular plants, trees, earths, ores, &c., for he had got a knowledge of these things before. From hence it happened that some of the inhabitants believed he had a preternatural knowledge of things, as he was able to mention all the curiosities of places, sometimes near 200 Swedish miles from Quebec, though he never was there himself. Never was there a better statesman than he, and nobody can take better measures, and choose more proper means for improving a country and increasing its welfare. Canada was scarcely acquainted with the treasure it possessed in the person of this nobleman when it lost him again; the king wanted his services at home, and could not have him so far off."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 679.]

[Footnote 437: Louisburg, together with the whole island of Cape Breton, had been restored to the French by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.]

[Footnote 438: "In the year after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the land forces of Great Britain were reduced to little more than 18,000 men; those in Minorca, Gibraltar, and the American plantations, to 10,000; while the sailors retained in the royal navy were under 17,000."—Commons' Journals, Nov. 23, 1749, and Jan. 19, 1750.

"From the large number both of soldiers and seamen suddenly discharged, it was found that they might be either driven to distress or tempted to depredation. Thus, both for their own comfort and for the quiet of the remaining community, emigration seemed to afford a safe and excellent resource. The province of Nova Scotia was fixed upon for this experiment, and the freehold of fifty acres was offered to each settler, with ten acres more for every child brought with him, besides a free passage, and an exemption from all taxes during a term of ten years. Allured by such advantages, above 4000 persons, with their families, embarked under the command of Colonel Cornwallis, and landed at the harbor of Chebuctow. The new town which soon arose from those labors received its name from the Earl of Halifax, who presided at the Board of Trade, and who had the principal share in the foundation of this colony. In the first winter there were but 300 huts of wood, surrounded by a palisade; but Halifax at present deserves to be ranked among the most thriving dependencies of the British crown."—Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 6.]

[Footnote 439: "As it was the intention of the government to build a strong fort at Beau-sejour, Chaussegros de Lery, son of the engineer who traced the fortifications of Quebec, was sent for that purpose. De Vassan, who succeeded La Corne in the command of this post, was instructed, as his predecessor had been, to pay the utmost attention to the Abbe le Loutre, and to avoid all disputes with the English. De Vassan's penetration soon led him to discover Le Loutre's true character; but, not wishing to have any misunderstanding with him, he left him full scope in the management of the affairs of the Acadians. These unhappy people had from the first felt the iron hand of his tyranny; neither the provisions nor clothing furnished by the crown could be obtained without repeated supplications and prayers, and in every instance he showed a heart steeled against every sentiment of humanity."—Smith's History of Canada, vol. i., p. 217.]

[Footnote 440: "We soon after came to anchor in the basin, called by the French, with much propriety, Beau-bassin, where a hundred ships of the line may ride in safety without crowding, and from the time we entered this bay we found water enough every where for a first-rate ship of war. It is about five miles from Beau-sejour, now Fort Cumberland."—Knox's Historical Journal, vol. i., p. 35.]

END OF VOL. I.