Two rather interesting incidents in connection with the Deportation
which have come to notice, follow.
Although all records of births, deaths, etc., were destroyed or in part
lost, one of the Piziquid exiles carried the deed of his grandfather's
property with him to Philadelphia. The writer saw this document in
1920, still held by a descendant as a precious relic.
René Le Blanc, mentioned above as figuring in history, came to notice at
this time in the following manner. Winslow, evidently touched by the
man's age and gentleness of character, made a special request to
headquarters that Le Blanc be permitted to return to his home in
Marshfield, but the old man was sent to New York with his wife and two
children, out of the twenty of his family. His grandchildren numbered
over a hundred. Later he found three more of his children in
Philadelphia, where René died.
The Acadians were scattered throughout the British colonies. A few who
escaped, wandered over the country to be later apprehended and deported.
A number more found their way unharmed into the wilderness of New
Brunswick, but by 1763 there were less than 1,500 who had escaped the
removal.
There is a tradition based upon traces of dwellings found in the woods
south of New Minas, that a few escaped Acadians lived there through the
following winter. These few either were captured or later joined those
retreating into New Brunswick.
After the expulsion of the French settlers, Great Britain, to induce
settlers to come to the country of Horton and Cornwallis from the older
English colonies, sent out an invitation with a description of the
country:--
"One hundred thousand acres, of which the country has produced
wheat, rye, barley, oats, hemp, flax, etc., without failure for the
last century; and another hundred thousand acres are cleared and
stocked with English grass, planted orchards and embellished with
gardens, the whole so intermixed that every individual farmer might
have a proportionate quantity of plowed land, grassland, and
woodland."
This appeared in 1759. In June, the next year, after the country was
viewed by agents from New England, the people came to occupy the vacated
lands. With the assistance of the Acadian prisoners remaining at Fort
Edward, the dykes were repaired, and the country began to thrive with
new life upon the grave of the old.
The last written trace of the Acadians in a body, appears in an order
issued from Halifax in 1762, causing one hundred and thirty of them to
be sent from Hants and King's counties, where they were working for
English inhabitants.
For the English settlers, the farm lands were divided into hundred-acre
lots. New roads were laid out, and the old Acadian landmarks are now
gradually disappearing. A single farm to-day perhaps occupies the site
of a whole village of Acadian times. Willows still mark roads or the
buried foundations of their homes. Their apple trees yet bear fruit,
sometimes found among the wild, recent growth, or in pastures. Roads and
dykes may be traced, and numerous cellars in out-of-the-way places where
they have not been disturbed.
In the history of the English colonies during the next twenty years
following upon the re-settlement of the Acadian country of Grand-Pré,
affairs went topsy-turvy. French Canada was lost to France through
the operations and strength of the colonies under English rule. New
England strengthened Nova Scotia for England by removing the Acadians,
and then bringing her people to the deserted farmlands.
[Illustration: Bear River
Bear River nestles deep down in a little valley about five miles
from the sea on a river from which it takes its name. At low tide
there is very little river to be seen--it is reduced to a tiny
stream that seems to trickle with difficulty through vast stretches
of mud. But when the tide does come up it alters the whole
appearance, and the place seems to come to life again as the strong
current pushes its way up--running far up the little streams, and
beneath the houses, which are built out over the river bed, at the
bridge, on high wooden gates--giving a wonderfully picturesque
effect, and reflecting all shades of color. The town scrambles up
the steep hills, which rise sharply on either side, and beautiful
views of the winding river may be seen from almost any point, and
quantities of cherry trees everywhere add to the
picturesqueness--whether in blossom or laden with the ripe fruit.]