Page:The history of Grand-Pre by Herbin, John Frederic.djvu/146

128 were removed. Of these at least eight thousand perished through grief, destituton, disease and other causes.

The only instance found where any arrangement had been made to receive the Acadians on their removal from Nova Scotia is in the Records of Connecticut; a resolution passed in October, 1755, to receive, take care and dispose of the people. The Governments of the other provinces complained that they had not been apprised of the intention of Lawrence to quarter on them the deported people.

On the arrival of several vessels in Boston harbor, a committee appointed to learn the condition of the Acadians, reported of two vessels that the people were sickly, one from being too crowded with forty on deck, and the other from very bad water. Another had forty lying on deck, and all the vessels too much crowded. They had too small an allowance of food to carry them to their destination. A few were permitted to land.

Only a small portion of the people were put ashore in the northern ports of New England, except at Boston, where two thousand were landed. New York and Connecticut received, respectively, two hundred and three hundred. The remainder were distributed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia. In Philadelphia they were at first forbidden to land, but after being over two months on the vessels, the three overcrowded ships gave up their unhappy freight. The last reference to these is in the city records of 1766, when a petition was tabled which asked for the payment for coffins provided for the