The Acadians.
Mouth of the Madawaska. July.
At the junction of the rivers Madawaska and St. John, and extending for
some miles down the latter, is a settlement of about three hundred
Acadians. How these people came by the name they bear, I do not exactly
understand; but of their history I remember the following particulars.
In the year 1755, during the existence of the Colonial difficulties
between England and France, there existed, in a remote section of Nova
Scotia, about fifteen thousand Acadians. Aristocratic French blood
flowed in their veins, and they were a peaceful and industrious race of
husbandmen. Even after the Government of England had become established
in Canada, they cherished a secret attachment for the laws of their
native country. But this was only a feeling; and they continued in the
peaceful cultivation of their lands. In process of time, however, three
titled Englishmen, named Lawrence, Boscawen, and Mostyn, held a council,
and formed the hard-hearted determination of driving this people from
their homes, and scattering them to the four quarters of the globe.
Playing the part of friends, this brotherhood of conquerors and heroes
sent word to the Acadians, that they must all meet at a certain place on
business which deeply concerned their welfare.
Not dreaming of their impending fate, the poor Acadians met at the
appointed place, and were there informed of the fact, that their houses
and lands were forfeited, and that they must leave the country, to
become wanderers in strange and distant lands. They sued for mercy, but
the iron yoke of a Christian nation was laid more heavily upon their
necks, in answer to that prayer, and they were driven from home and
country; and as they sailed from shore, or entered the wilderness, they
saw in the distance, ascending to heaven, the smoke of all that they had
loved and lost. Those who survived, found an asylum in the United
States, and in the more remote portions of the British Empire; and when,
after the war, they were invited to return to their early home, only
thirteen hundred were known to be in existence. It is a remnant of this
very people who, with their descendants, are now the owners of the
Madawaska settlement; and it is in an Acadian dwelling that I am now
penning this paper.
But, owing to their many misfortunes (I would speak in charity), the
Acadians have degenerated into a more ignorant and miserable people than
are the Canadian French, whom they closely resemble in their appearance
and customs. They believe the people of Canada to be a nation of knaves,
and the people of Canada know them to be a half savage community.
Worshipping a miserable priesthood is their principal business; drinking
and cheating their neighbours, their principal amusement. They live by
tilling the soil; and are content, if they can barely make the provision
of one year take them to the entrance of another. They are, at the same
time, passionate lovers of money, and have brought the science of
fleecing strangers to perfection. Some of them, by a life of meanness,
have succeeded in accumulating a respectable property; but all the money
they obtain is systematically hoarded. It is reported of the principal
man of this place, that he has in his house, at the present moment, the
sum of 10,000 dollars, in silver and gold; and yet this man’s children
are as ignorant of the alphabet as the cattle upon the hills. But, with
all their ignorance, the Acadians are a happy people; but it is the
happiness of a mere animal nature.
The scenery of this place, which does not seem to possess a name, is
most agreeable, but its attractive features are of an architectural
nature. The first is a block-house, and the second a Catholic church.
The block-house occupies the summit of a commanding and rocky knoll, and
was built at a cost of nearly five thousand dollars, for the purpose of
defending this portion of New Brunswick, during the existence of the
late Boundary difficulty. The edifice is built of stone and timber, and
may be described as a square box, placed upon another and a larger one,
in a triangular fashion; the width may be thirty feet, and height one
hundred and fifty. It is well supplied with port-holes; entered by a
wooden flight of stairs, and covered with a tin roof. It contains two
stories, besides a well-filled magazine. It is abundantly supplied with
guns and cannon, and almost every variety of shot, shells, and balls. It
was once occupied by three military companies, (about all that it could
possibly hold) but the only human being who now has anything to do with
it is a worthy man who officiates as keeper.
The panorama which this fortress overlooks is exceedingly picturesque,
embracing both the valley of the Madawaska and that of St. John, which
fade away amid a multitude of wild and uncultivated mountains. When
first I looked upon this block-house, it struck me as being a most
ridiculous affair; but, on further examination, I became convinced that
it could not be taken without the shedding of much blood.
Of the church to which I alluded, I have only to remark that it is a
very small, and apparently a venerable structure, built of wood, painted
yellow, with a red steeple. It is pleasantly situated amid a cluster of
rude cabins, on the margin of the St. John, and in the immediate
vicinity of a racecourse. It was my fate to spend a Sabbath in this
Madawaska settlement. As a matter of course, I attended church. The
congregation was large, and composed entirely of Acadians, decked out in
the most ridiculous gew-gawish dresses imaginable. I noticed nothing
extraordinary on the occasion, only that at the threshold of the church
was a kind of stand, where a woman was selling sausages and small beer.
The services were read in Latin, and a sermon preached in French, which
contained nothing but the most common-place advice, and that all of a
secular character. At the conclusion of the service the male portion of
the congregation gradually collected together on the neighbouring green,
and the afternoon was devoted to horse-racing, the swiftest horse
belonging to the loudest talker and heaviest stake-planter, and that man
was—a disciple of the Pope, and the identical priest whom I had heard
preach in the morning. It will be hard for you to believe this; but I
have written the truth, as well as my last line, about the Acadian
Settlement on the Madawaska.