THE 'ANCIENT BOUNDARIES'
By the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the question
of the limits of Acadia had been referred to a commission
of arbitration, and each of the powers had agreed to
attempt no settlement on the debatable ground until such
time as the decision of the commissioners should be made
known. Each, however, continued to watch jealously over
its own interests. The English persisted in their claim
that the ancient boundaries included all the country
north of the Bay of Fundy to the St Lawrence, and Cornwallis
was directed to see to it that no subjects of the French
king settled within these boundaries. The French, on the
other hand, steadily asserted their ownership in all land
north of a line drawn from Baie Verte to Chignecto Bay.
The disputants, though openly at peace, glowered at each
other. Hardly had Cornwallis brought his colonists ashore
at Halifax, when La Galissoniere, the acting-governor of
Canada, sent Boishebert, with a detachment of twenty men,
to the river St John, to assert the French claim to that
district; and when La Galissoniere went to France as a
commissioner in the boundary dispute, his successor, La
Jonquiere, dispatched a force under the Chevalier de la
Corne to occupy the isthmus of Chignecto.
About the same time the Indians went on the war-path,
apparently at the instigation of the French. Des Herbiers,
the governor of Ile Royale, when dispatching the Abbe Le
Loutre to the savages with the usual presents, had added
blankets and a supply of powder and ball, clearly intended
to aid them should they be disposed to attack the English
settlements. Indians from the river St John joined the
Micmacs and opened hostilities by seizing an English
vessel at Canso and taking twenty prisoners. The prisoners
were liberated by Des Herbiers; but the Micmacs, their
blood up, assembled at Chignecto, near La Corne's post,
and declared war on the English. The Council at Halifax
promptly raised several companies for defence, and offered
a reward of 10 pounds for the capture of an Indian, dead
or alive. Cornwallis complained bitterly to Louisbourg
that Le Loutre was stirring up trouble; but Des Herbiers
disingenuously disclaimed all responsibility for the
abbe. The Indians, he said, were merely allies, not French
subjects, and Le Loutre acted under the direction of the
governor of Canada. He promised also that if any Frenchman
molested the English, he should be punished, a promise
which, as subsequent events showed, he had no intention
of keeping.
In November 1749 a party of one hundred and fifty Indians
captured a company of engineers at Grand Pre, where the
English had just built a fort. Le Loutre, however, ransomed
the prisoners and sent them to Louisbourg. The Indians,
emboldened by their success, then issued a proclamation
in the name of the king of France and their Indian allies
calling upon the Acadians to arm, under pain of death
for disobedience. On learning that eleven Acadians obeyed
this summons, Cornwallis sent Captain Goreham of the
Rangers to arrest them. The rebels, however, made good
their escape, thanks to the Indians; and Goreham could
only make prisoners of some of their children, whom he
brought before the governor. The children declared that
their parents had not been free agents, and produced in
evidence one of the threatening orders of the Indians.
In any case, of course, the children were in no way
responsible, and were therefore sent home; and the governor
described Goreham as 'no officer at all.'
When spring came Cornwallis took steps to stop the
incursions of the savages and at the same time to check
the emigration of the Acadians. He sent detachments to
build and occupy fortified posts at Grand Pre, at Pisiquid,
and at other places. He ordered Major Lawrence to sail
up the Bay of Fundy with four hundred settlers for
Beaubassin, the Acadian village at the head of Chignecto
Bay. For the time being, however, this undertaking did
not prosper. On arriving, Lawrence encountered a band of
Micmacs, which Le Loutre had posted at the dikes to resist
the disembarkation. Some fighting ensued before Lawrence
succeeded in leading ashore a body of troops. The motive
of the turbulent abbe was to preserve the Acadians from
the contaminating presence of heretics and enemies of
his master, the French king. And, when he saw that he
could not prevent the English from making a lodgment in
the village, he went forward with his Micmacs and set it
on fire, thus forcing the Acadian inhabitants to cross
to the French camp at Beausejour, some two miles off.
Here La Corne had set up his standard to mark the boundary
of New France, beyond which he dared the British to
advance at their peril. At a conference which was arranged
between Lawrence and La Corne, La Corne said that the
governor of Canada, La Jonquiere, had directed him to
take possession of the country to the north, 'or at least
he was to keep it and must defend it till the boundaries
between the two Crowns should be settled.' [Footnote:
Canadian Archives Report, 1906, Appendix N, vol. ii, p.
321.] Moreover, if Lawrence should try to effect a
settlement, La Corne would oppose it to the last. And as
Lawrence's forces were quite inadequate to cope with La
Corne's, it only remained for Lawrence to return to
Halifax with his troops and settlers.
Meanwhile Boishebert stood guard for the governor of
Quebec at the mouth of the river St John. In the previous
year, when he had arrived there, Cornwallis had sent an
officer to protest against what he considered an
encroachment; but Boishebert had answered simply that he
was commissioned to hold the place for his royal master
without attempting a settlement until the boundary dispute
should be adjusted. Now, in July 1750, Captain Cobb of
the York, cruising in the Bay of Fundy, sighted a French
sloop near the mouth of the St John, and opened fire.
The French captain immediately lowered his boats and
landed a party of sailors, apparently with the intention
of coming to a conference. Cobb followed his example.
Presently Boishebert came forward under a flag of truce
and demanded Cobb's authority for the act of war in
territory claimed by the French. Cobb produced his
commission and handed it to Boishebert. Keeping the
document in his possession, Boishebert ordered Cobb to
bring his vessel under the stern of the French sloop,
and sent French officers to board Cobb's ship and see
the order carried out. The sailors on the York, however,
held the Frenchmen as hostages for the safe return of
their captain. After some parleying Cobb was allowed to
return to his vessel, and the Frenchmen were released.
Boishebert, however, refused to return the captain's
commission. Cobb thereupon boarded the French sloop,
seized five of the crew, and sailed away.
So the game went on. A month later the British sloop
Trial, at Baie Verte, captured a French sloop of seventy
tons which was engaged in carrying arms and supplies to
Le Loutre's Indians. On board were four deserters from
the British and a number of Acadians. Among the papers
found on the Acadians were letters addressed to their
friends in Quebec and others from Le Loutre and officers
of Fort St John and of Port La Joie in Ile St Jean. From
one of these letters we obtain a glimpse of the conditions
of the Acadians:
I shall tell you that I was settled in Acadia. I have
four small children. I lived contented on my land. But
that did not last long, for we were compelled to leave
all our property and flee from under the domination of
the English. The King undertakes to transport us and
support us under the expectation of news from France.
If Acadia is not restored to France I hope to take my
little family and bring it to Canada. I beg you to let
me know the state of things in that country. I assure
you that we are in poor condition, for we are like the
Indians in the woods.
[Footnote: A. Doucet to Mde Langedo of Quebec,
August 5, 1750.]
By other documents taken it was shown that supplies from
Quebec were frequently passing to the Indians, and that
the dispatches addressed to Cornwallis were intercepted
and forwarded to the governor of Quebec. [Footnote:
Cornwallis to Bedford, August 19, 1750.]
These papers revealed to Cornwallis the peril which
menaced him. But, having been reinforced by the arrival
from Newfoundland of three hundred men of Lascelles's
regiment, he resolved to occupy Chignecto, which Lawrence
had been forced to abandon in April. Accordingly Lawrence
again set out, this time with about seven hundred men.
In mid-September his ships appeared off the burnt village
of Beaubassin. Again the landing was opposed by a band
of Indians and about thirty Acadians entrenched on the
shore. These, after some fighting and losses, were beaten
off; and the English troops landed and proceeded to
construct a fort, named by them Fort Lawrence, and to
erect barracks for the winter. La Corne, from his fort
at Beausejour, where he had his troops and a body of
Acadians, addressed a note to Lawrence, proposing a
meeting in a boat in the middle of the river. Lawrence
replied that he had no business with La Corne, and that
La Corne could come to him if he had anything to
communicate. Acts of violence followed. It was not long
before a scouting party under the command of Captain
Bartelot was surrounded by a band of Indians and Acadians.
[Footnote: La Valliere, one of the French officers on
the spot, says that the Indians and Acadians were encouraged
by Le Loutre during this attack.--Journal of the Sieur
de la Valliere.] Forty-five of the party were killed,
and Bartelot and eight men were taken prisoners. A few
weeks later there was an act of treachery which greatly
embittered the British soldiers. This was the murder of
Captain Howe, one of the British officers, by some of Le
Loutre's Micmacs. It was stated that Le Loutre was
personally implicated in the crime, but there appears
not the slightest foundation for this charge. One morning
in October Howe saw an Indian carrying a flag of truce
on the opposite side of the Missaguash river, which lay
between Fort Lawrence and Fort Beausejour. Howe, who had
often held converse with the savages, went forward to
meet the Indian, and the two soon became engaged in
conversation. Suddenly the Indian lowered his flag, a
body of savages concealed behind a dike opened fire, and
Howe fell, mortally wounded. In the work of bringing the
dying officer into the fort ten of his company also fell.
Meanwhile an event occurred which seemed likely to promote
more cordial relations between the French and the English.
Early in October Des Herbiers returned to Halifax thirty-
seven prisoners, including six women, who had been captured
by the Indians but ransomed and sent to Louisbourg by
the Abbe Le Loutre. It is difficult to reconcile the
conduct of the meddlesome missionary on this occasion
with what we know of his character. He was possessed of
an inveterate hatred of the English and all their works;
yet he was capable of an act of humanity towards them.
After all, it may be that generosity was not foreign to
the nature of this fanatical French patriot. Cornwallis
was grateful, and cheerfully refunded the amount of the
ransom. [Footnote: Des Herbiers to Cornwallis, October
2, 1750.--Public Archives, Canada. Nova Scotia A, vol.
xxxix, p. 13.]
But the harmony existing between Des Herbiers and Cornwallis
was of short duration. In the same month the British
sloop Albany, commanded by Captain Rous, fell on the
French brigantine St Francois, Captain Vergor, on the
southern coast. Vergor, who was carrying stores and
ammunition to Louisbourg, ran up his colours, but after
a fight of three hours he was forced by Rous to surrender.
The captive ship was taken to Halifax and there condemned
as a prize, the cargo being considered contraband of war.
La Jonquiere addressed a peremptory letter to Cornwallis,
demanding whether he was acting under orders in seizing
a French vessel in French territory. He likewise instructed
Des Herbiers to seize ships of the enemy; and as a result
four prizes were sold by the Admiralty Court at Louisbourg.
Open hostilities soon became the order of the day. During
the winter a party of Canadians and Indians and Acadians
disguised as Indians assembled near Fort Lawrence. They
succeeded in killing two men, and continued to fire on
the British position for two days. But, as the garrison
remained within the shelter of the walls, the attackers
grew weary of wasting ammunition and withdrew to harry
the settlement at Halifax. According to the French
accounts, these savages killed thirty persons on the
outskirts of Halifax in the spring of 1751, and Cornwallis
reported that four inhabitants and six soldiers had been
taken prisoners. Then in June three hundred British troops
from Fort Lawrence invaded the French territory to attempt
a surprise. They were discovered, however, and St Ours,
who had succeeded La Corne, brought out his forces and
drove them back to Fort Lawrence. A month later the
British made another attack and destroyed a dike, flooding
the lands of the Acadians in its neighbourhood.
And during all this time England and France were
theoretically at peace. Their commissioners sat in Paris,
La Galissoniere on one side, Shirley on the other, piling
up mountains of argument as to the 'ancient boundaries'
of Acadia. All to no purpose; for neither nation could
afford to recede from its position. It was a question
for the last argument of kings. Meanwhile the officials
in the colonies anxiously waited for the decision; and
the poor Acadians, torn between the hostile camps, and
many of them now homeless, waited too.