Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/258

234 question of moment what was to be done with the French colonists, amounting, at the time, to some twelve or fifteen thousand, settled principally about Beau Bassin, the basin of Minas, and on the banks of the Annapolis. These settlers, who had doubled in number since Nova Scotia became a British province, were still French in language, religion, and attachments, and receiving their priests from Canada, were peculiarly exposed to temptations to violate the terms of the neutrality, which exempted them from bearing arms against France. Some three hundred of the young men- were taken in arms at the surrender of Beau Sejour, and as it would be highly inexpedient to send the whole population out of the country, to strengthen Canada or Cape Breton, it was necessary to dispose of them in some other way. Boscawen and others consulted as to the course to be pursued, and finally resolved upon an entire expulsion of the French colonists, and a transportation of them to the various British provinces. This, too, notwithstanding the express stipulation in the surrender of Beau Sejour that the inhabitants should not be disturbed. But honor and truth were sacrificed, and cruelty and treachery prevailed. Braddock's defeat, the news of which had just reached them, hardened the authors of this scheme in their determination. Keeping their purpose secret until the Acadiens had gathered in the harvest, the English persuaded them to assemble at their parish churches, on one pretense and another, and, having surrounded them with troops, pronounced then and there the fearful doom in store for them. At the point of the bayonet, on the 10th of September, they were hurried on board the ships assigned for their transportation. "Wives separated from their husbands in the confusion of embarking, and children from their parents, were carried off to distant colonies, never again to see each other! Their lands, crops, cattle, every thing, except household furniture, which they could not carry away, and money, of which they had little or none, were declared forfeit to the crown; and, to insure the starvation of such as fled to the woods, and so to compel their surrender, the growing crops were destroyed, and the barns and houses burned, with all their contents!" More than a thousand of these unhappy exiles were carried to Massachusetts, where the horror of popery prevented their being allowed even the consolations of the religion in which they had been trained. Every colony had to receive a portion of the ill-used Acadiens, a burden on the community which no one was disposed quietly to bear. Some made their way to France, Canada, St. Domingo, and Louisiana; but these were few in number: the greater part died broken-hearted in a foreign land.

Shirley, meanwhile, was on his march from Albany to Oswego, where he purposed embarking for Niagara. It was