THE BRITISH IN ACADIA
Almost from the first England had advanced claims, slender
though they were, to the ownership of Acadia. And very
early, as we have seen, the colony had been subjected to
the scourge of English attacks.
Argall's expedition had been little more than a buccaneering
exploit and an earnest of what was to come. Nor did any
permanent result, other than the substitution of the name
Nova Scotia for Acadia, flow from Sir William Alexander's
enterprise. Alexander, afterwards Lord Stirling, was a
Scottish courtier in the entourage of James I, from whom
he obtained in 1621 a grant of the province of New Scotland
or Nova Scotia. A year later he sent out a small body of
farm hands and one artisan, a blacksmith, to establish
a colony. The expedition miscarried; and another in the
next year shared a similar fate. A larger company of
Scots, however, as already mentioned, settled at Port
Royal in 1627 and erected a fort, known as Scots Fort,
on the site of the original settlement of De Monts. This
colony, with some reinforcements from Scotland, stood
its ground until the country was ceded to France in 1632.
On the arrival of Razilly in that year most of the Scottish
settlers went home, and the few who remained were soon
merged in the French population.
For twenty-two years after this Acadia remained French,
under the feudal sway of its overlords, Razilly, Charnisay,
La Tour, and Nicolas Denys, the historian of Acadia.
[Footnote: He wrote The Description and Natural History
of the Coasts of North America. An edition, translated
and edited, with a memoir of the author, by W. F. Ganong,
will be found in the publications of the Champlain Society
(Toronto, 1908).] But in 1654 the fleet of Robert Sedgwick
suddenly appeared off Port Royal and compelled its
surrender in the name of Oliver Cromwell. Then for thirteen
years Acadia was nominally English. Sir Thomas Temple,
the governor during this period, tried to induce
English-speaking people to settle in the province, but
with small success. England's hold of Acadia was, in
fact, not very firm. The son of Emmanuel Le Borgne, who
claimed the whole country by right of a judgment he had
obtained in the French courts against Charnisay, apparently
found little difficulty in turning the English garrison
out of the fort at La Heve, leaving his unfortunate
victims without means of return to New England, or of
subsistence; but in such destitution that they were forced
'to live upon grass and to wade in the water for lobsters
to keep them alive.' Some amusing correspondence followed
between France and England. The French ambassador in
London complained of the depredations committed in the
house of a certain Monsieur de la Heve. The English
government, better informed about Acadia, replied that
it knew of no violence committed in the house of M. de
la Heve. 'Neither is there any such man in the land, but
there is a place so called, which Temple purchased for
eight thousand pounds from La Tour, where he built a
house. But one M. le Borny, two or three years since, by
force took it, so that the violence was on Le Borny's
part.' The strife was ended, however, as already mentioned,
by the Treaty of Breda in 1667, in the return of Acadia
to France in exchange for the islands in the West Indies
of St Christopher, Antigua, and Montserrat.
Nearly a quarter of a century passed. France and England
were at peace and Acadia enjoyed freedom from foreign
attack. But the accession of William of Orange to the
throne of England heralded the outbreak of another
Anglo-French war. The month of May 1690 saw Sir William
Phips with a New England fleet and an army of over a
thousand men off Port Royal, demanding its surrender.
Menneval, the French governor, yielded his fortress on
the understanding that he and the garrison should be
transported to French soil. Phips, however, after pillaging
the place, desecrating the church, hoisting the English
flag, and obliging the inhabitants to take the oath of
allegiance to William and Mary, carried off his prisoners
to Boston. He was bent on the capture of Quebec in the
same year and had no mind to make the necessary arrangements
to hold Acadia. Hardly had he departed when a relief
expedition from France, under the command of Menneval's
brother Villebon, sailed into Port Royal. But as Villebon
had no sufficient force to reoccupy the fort, he pulled
down the English flag, replaced it by that of France,
and proceeded to the river St John. After a conference
with the Indians there he went to Quebec, and was present
with Frontenac in October when Phips appeared with his
summons to surrender. [Footnote: See The Fighting Governor
in this Series, chap. vii.] Villebon then went to France.
A year later he returned as governor of Acadia and took
up his quarters at Fort Jemseg, about fifty miles up the
St John river. Here he organized war-parties of Indians
to harry the English settlements; and the struggle
continued, with raid and counter-raid, until 1697, when
the Treaty of Ryswick halted the war between the two
crowns.
The formal peace, however, was not for long. In 1702
Queen Anne declared war against France and Spain. And
before peace returned the final capture of Acadia had
been effected. It was no fault of Subercase, the French
officer who in 1706 came to Port Royal as governor, that
the fortunes of war went against him. In 1707 he beat
off two violent attacks of the English; and if sufficient
means had been placed at his disposal, he might have
retained the colony for France. But the ministry at
Versailles, pressed on all sides, had no money to spare
for the succour of Acadia. Subercase set forth with
clearness the resources of the colony, and urged strong
reasons in favour of its development. In 1708 a hundred
soldiers came to his aid; but as no funds for their
maintenance came with them, they became a burden. The
garrison was reduced almost to starvation; and Subercase
was forced to replenish his stores by the capture of
pirate vessels. The last letter he wrote home was filled
with anguish over the impending fate of Port Royal. His
despair was not without cause. In the spring of 1710
Queen Anne placed Colonel Francis Nicholson, one of her
leading colonial officers, in command of the troops
intended for the recovery of Nova Scotia. An army of
about fifteen hundred soldiers was raised in New England,
and a British fleet gathered in Boston Harbour. On October
5 (New Style) this expedition arrived before Port Royal.
The troops landed and laid siege once more to the
much-harassed capital of Acadia. The result was a foregone
conclusion. Five days later preliminary proposals were
exchanged between Nicholson and Subercase. The starving
inhabitants petitioned Subercase to give up. He held out,
however, till the cannonade of the enemy told him that
he must soon yield to force. He then sent an officer to
Nicholson to propose the terms of capitulation. It was
agreed that the garrison should march out with the honours
of war and be transported to France in English ships,
and that the inhabitants within three miles of the fort
should 'remain upon 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 Her Sacred Majesty of Great
Britain.' Then to the roll of the drum, and with all the
honours of war, the French troops marched out and the
New Englanders marched in. The British flag was raised,
and, in honour of the queen of England, Port Royal was
named Annapolis Royal. A banquet was held in the fortress
to celebrate the event, and the French officers and their
ladies were invited to it to drink the health of Queen
Anne, while cannon on the bastions and cannon on the
ramparts thundered forth a royal salute.
The celebration over, Subercase sent an envoy to Quebec,
to inform Vaudreuil, the governor of New France, of the
fall of Port Royal, and then embarked with his soldiers
for France. A few days later Nicholson took away most of
his troops and repaired to Boston, leaving a garrison of
four hundred and fifty men and officers under the command
of Colonel Samuel Vetch to hold the newly-won post until
peace should return and Her Majesty's pleasure concerning
it be made known.
As far as he was able, Vetch set up military rule at
Annapolis Royal. He administered the oath of allegiance
to the inhabitants of the banlieue--within three miles
of the fort--according to the capitulation, and established
a court to try their disputes. Many and grave difficulties
faced the new governor and his officers. The Indians were
hostile, and, quite naturally in the state of war which
prevailed, emissaries of the French strove to keep the
Acadians unfriendly to their English masters. Moreover,
Vetch was badly in want of money. The soldiers had no
proper clothing for the winter; they had not been paid
for their services; the fort stood in need of repair;
and the military chest was empty. He could get no assistance
from Boston or London, and his only resource seemed to
be to levy on the inhabitants in the old-fashioned way
of conquerors. The Acadians pleaded poverty, but Vetch
sent out armed men to enforce his order, and succeeded
in collecting at least a part of the tribute he demanded,
not only from the inhabitants round the fort over whom
he had authority, but also from the settlers of Minas
and Chignecto, who were not included in the capitulation.
The first winter passed, in some discomfort and privation,
but without any serious mishap to the English soldiers.
With the month of June, however, there came a disaster.
The Acadians had been directed to cut timber for the
repair of the fort and deliver it at Annapolis. They had
complied for a time and had then quit work, fearing, as
they said, attacks from the Indian allies of the French,
who threatened to kill them if they aided the enemy.
Thereupon Vetch ordered an officer to take seventy-five
men and go up the river to the place where the timber
was being felled and 'inform the people that if they
would bring it down they would receive every imaginable
protection,' but if they were averse or delayed to do so
he was to 'threaten them with severity.' 'And let the
soldiers make a show of killing their hogs,' the order
ran, 'but do not kill any, and let them kill some fowls,
but pay for them before you come away.' Armed with this
somewhat peculiar military order, the troops set out.
But as they ascended the river they were waylaid by a
war-party of French and Indians, and within an hour every
man of the seventy-five English was either killed or
taken captive.
Soon after this tragic affair Vetch went to Boston to
take a hand in an invasion of Canada which was planned
for that summer. This invasion was to take place by both
sea and land simultaneously. Vetch joined the fleet of
Sir Hovenden Walker, consisting of some sixty vessels
which sailed from Boston in July. Meanwhile Colonel
Nicholson stood near Lake Champlain, with a force of
several thousand colonial troops and Six Nation Indians,
in readiness to advance on Canada to co-operate with the
fleet. But the fleet never got within striking distance.
Not far above the island of Anticosti some of the ships
ran aground and were wrecked with a loss of nearly a
thousand men; and the commander gave up the undertaking
and bore away for England. When news of this mishap
reached Nicholson he retreated and disbanded his men.
But, though the ambitious enterprise ended ingloriously,
it was not wholly fruitless, for it kept the French of
Quebec on guard at home; while but for this menace they
would probably have sent a war-party in force to drive
the English out of Acadia.
The situation of the English at Annapolis was indeed
critical. Their numbers had been greatly reduced by
disease and raids and the men were in a sorry plight for
lack of provisions and clothing. Vetch could obtain
neither men nor money from England or the colonies. Help,
however, of a sort did come in the summer of 1712. This
was in the form of a band of Six Nation Indians, allies
of the English, from the colony of New York. [Footnote:
Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol.
iv, p. 41.] These savages pitched their habitations not
far from the fort, and thereafter the garrison suffered
less from the Micmac and Abnaki allies of the French.
The Acadians were in revolt; and as long as they cherished
the belief that their countrymen would recover Acadia,
all attempts to secure their allegiance to Queen Anne
proved unavailing. At length, in April 1713, the Treaty
of Utrecht set at rest the question of the ownership of
the country. Cape Breton, Ile St Jean (Prince Edward
Island), and other islands in the Gulf were left in the
hands of the French. But Newfoundland and 'all Nova Scotia
or Acadia, with its ancient boundaries, as also the city
of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal,' passed to
the British crown.