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A Half Century of Conflict, Volume II

F >> Francis Parkman >> A Half Century of Conflict, Volume II




La Jonquière still clung to the hope of a successful stroke at Annapolis,
till in October an Acadian brought him the report that the garrison of that
place had received a reinforcement of twelve hundred men. The reinforcement
consisted in reality of three small companies of militia sent from Boston
by Shirley. La Jonquière called a secret council, and the result seems to
have been adverse to any further attempt. The journalist reports that only
a thousand men were left in fighting condition, and that even of these some
were dying every day.

La Jonquière, however, would not yet despair. The troops were re-embarked;
five hospital ships were devoted to the sick; the "Parfait," a fifty-gun
ship no longer serviceable, was burned, as were several smaller vessels,
and on the 4th of October what was left of the fleet sailed out of Chibucto
Harbor and steered for Annapolis, piloted by Acadians. The flag of truce
from Louisbourg was compelled for a time to bear them company, and Joseph
Foster of Beverly, an exchanged prisoner on board of her, deposed that as
the fleet held its way, he saw "a great number of dead persons" dropped
into the sea every day. Ill-luck still pursued the French. A storm off Cape
Sable dispersed the ships, two of which some days later made their way to
Annapolis Basin in expectation of finding some of their companions there.
They found instead the British fifty-gun ship "Chester" and the
Massachusetts frigate "Shirley" anchored before the fort, on which the two
Frenchmen retired as they had come; and so ended the last aggressive
movement on the part of the great armament.

The journalist reports that on the night of the 27th there was a council of
officers on board the "Northumberland," at which it was resolved that no
choice was left but to return to France with the ships that still kept
together. On the 4th of November there was another storm, and when it
subsided, the "Prince d'Orange" found herself with but nine companions, all
of which were transports. These had on board eleven companies of soldiers,
of whom their senior officer reports that only ninety-one were in health.
The pestilence made such ravages among the crews that four or five corpses
were thrown into the sea every day, and there was fear that the vessels
would be left helpless in mid-ocean for want of sailors to work them.
[Footnote: _Journal historique._] At last, on the 7th of December,
after narrowly escaping an English squadron, they reached Port Louis in
Brittany, where several ships of the fleet had arrived before them. Among
these was the frigate "La Palme." "Yesterday," says the journalist, "I
supped with M. Destrahoudal, who commands this frigate; and he told me
things which from anybody else would have been incredible. This is his
story, exactly as I had it from him." And he goes on to the following
effect.

After the storm of the 14th of September, provisions being almost spent, it
was thought that there was no hope for "La Palme" and her crew but in
giving up the enterprise and making all sail at once for home, since France
now had no port of refuge on the western continent nearer than Quebec.
Rations were reduced to three ounces of biscuit and three of salt meat a
day; and after a time half of this pittance was cut off. There was diligent
hunting for rats in the hold; and when this game failed, the crew, crazed
with famine, demanded of their captain that five English prisoners who were
on board should be butchered to appease the frenzy of their hunger. The
captain consulted his officers, and they were of opinion that if he did not
give his consent, the crew would work their will without it. The ship's
butcher was accordingly ordered to bind one of the prisoners, carry him to
the bottom of the hold, put him to death, and distribute his flesh to the
men in portions of three ounces each. The captain, walking the deck in
great agitation all night, found a pretext for deferring the deed till
morning, when a watchman sent aloft at daylight cried, "A sail!" The
providential stranger was a Portuguese ship; and as Portugal was neutral in
the war, she let the frigate approach to within hailing distance. The
Portuguese captain soon came alongside in a boat, "accompanied," in the
words of the narrator, "by five sheep." These were eagerly welcomed by the
starving crew as agreeable substitutes for the five Englishmen; and being
forthwith slaughtered, were parcelled out among the men, who would not wait
till the flesh was cooked, but devoured it raw. Provisions enough were
obtained from the Portuguese to keep the frigate's company alive till they
reached Port Louis. [Footnote: _Relation du Voyage de Retour de M.
Destrahoudal après la Tempête du 14 Septembre,_ in _Journal
historique._]

There are no sufficient means of judging how far the disasters of
D'Anville's fleet were due to a neglect of sanitary precautions or to
deficient seamanship. Certain it is that there were many in self-righteous
New England who would have held it impious to doubt that God had summoned
the pestilence and the storm to fight the battles of his modern Israel.

Undaunted by disastrous failure, the French court equipped another fleet,
not equal to that of D'Anville, yet still formidable, and placed it under
La Jonquière, for the conquest of Acadia and Louisbourg. La Jonquière
sailed from Rochelle on the 10th of May, 1747, and on the 14th was met by
an English fleet stronger than his own and commanded by Admirals Anson and
Warren. A fight ensued, in which, after brave resistance, the French were
totally defeated. Six ships-of-war, including the flag-ship, were captured,
with a host of prisoners, among whom was La Jonquière himself. [Footnote:
_Relation du Combat rendu le 14 Mai _(new style)_, par l'Escadre du
Roy commandée par M. de la Jonquiere, _in_ Le Canada Français,
Supplément de Documents inédits, 33. Newcastle to Shirley, 30 May,
1747._]




CHAPTER XXII.

1745-1747.

ACADIAN CONFLICTS.

EFFORTS OF FRANCE.--APATHY OF NEWCASTLE.--DILEMMA OF ACADIANS.--THEIR
CHARACTER.--DANGER OF THE PROVINCE.--PLANS OF SHIRLEY.--ACADIAN
PRIESTS.--POLITICAL AGITATORS.--NOBLE'S EXPEDITION.--RAMESAY AT
BEAUBASSIN.--NOBLE AT GRAND PRÉ.--A WINTER MARCH.--DEFEAT AND DEATH OF
NOBLE.--GRAND PRÉ RE-OCCUPIED BY THE ENGLISH.--THREATS OF RAMESAY AGAINST
THE ACADIANS.--THE BRITISH MINISTRY WILL NOT PROTECT THEM.


Since the capture of Louisbourg, France had held constantly in view, as an
object of prime importance, the recovery of her lost colony of Acadia.
This was one of the chief aims of D'Anville's expedition, and of that of La
Jonquière in the next year. And to make assurance still more sure, a large
body of Canadians, under M. de Ramesay, had been sent to Acadia to
co-operate with D'Anville's force; but the greater part of them had been
recalled to aid in defending Quebec against the expected attack of the
English. They returned when the news came that D'Anville was at Chibucto,
and Ramesay, with a part of his command, advanced upon Port Royal, or
Annapolis, in order to support the fleet in its promised attack on that
place. He encamped at a little distance from the English fort, till he
heard of the disasters that had ruined the fleet, [Footnote: _Journal de
Beaujeu_, in _Le Canada Francçais, Documents_, 53.] and then fell
back to Chignecto, on the neck of the Acadian peninsula, where he made his
quarters, with a force which, including Micmac, Malecite, and Penobscot
Indians, amounted, at one time, to about sixteen hundred men.

If France was bent on recovering Acadia, Shirley was no less resolved to
keep it, if he could. In his belief, it was the key of the British
American colonies, and again and again he urged the Duke of Newcastle to
protect it. But Newcastle seems scarcely to have known where Acadia was,
being ignorant of most things except the art of managing the House of
Commons, and careless of all things that could not help his party and
himself. Hence Shirley's hyperboles, though never without a basis of truth,
were lost upon him. Once, it is true, he sent three hundred men to
Annapolis; but one hundred and eighty of them died on the voyage, or lay
helpless in Boston hospitals, and the rest could better have been spared,
some being recruits from English jails, and others Irish Catholics, several
of whom deserted to the French, with information of the state of the
garrison.

The defence of Acadia was left to Shirley and his Assembly, who in time of
need sent companies of militia and rangers to Annapolis, and thus on
several occasions saved it from returning to France. Shirley was the most
watchful and strenuous defender of British interests on the continent; and
in the present crisis British and colonial interests were one. He held that
if Acadia were lost, the peace and safety of all the other colonies would
be in peril; and in spite of the immense efforts made by the French court
to recover it, he felt that the chief danger of the province was not from
without, but from within. "If a thousand French troops should land in Nova
Scotia," he writes to Newcastle, "all the people would rise to join them,
besides all the Indians." [Footnote: _Shirley to Newcastle, 29 Oct.
1745._] So, too, thought the French officials in America. The Governor
and Intendant of Canada wrote to the colonial minister: "The inhabitants,
with few exceptions, wish to return under the French dominion, and will not
hesitate to take up arms as soon as they see themselves free to do so; that
is, as soon as we become masters of Port Royal, or they have powder and
other munitions of war, and are backed by troops for their protection
against the resentment of the English." [Footnote: _Beauharnois et
Hocquart au Ministre, 12 Sept. 1745._] Up to this time, however, though
they had aided Duvivier in his attack on Annapolis so far as was possible
without seeming to do so, they had not openly taken arms, and their refusal
to fight for the besiegers is one among several causes to which Mascarene
ascribes the success of his defence. While the greater part remained
attached to France, some leaned to the English, who bought their produce
and paid them in ready coin. Money was rare with the Acadians, who loved
it, and were so addicted to hoarding it that the French authorities were
led to speculate as to what might be the object of these careful savings.
[Footnote: _Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre_, 12 Sept. 1745.]

Though the Acadians loved France, they were not always ready to sacrifice
their interests to her. They would not supply Ramesay's force with
provisions in exchange for his promissory notes, but demanded hard cash.
[Footnote: _Ibid_.] This he had not to give, and was near being
compelled to abandon his position in consequence. At the same time, in
consideration of specie payment, the inhabitants brought in fuel for the
English garrison at Louisbourg, and worked at repairing the rotten
_chevaux de frise_ of Annapolis. [Footnote: _Admiral Knowles à ----
1746._ Mascarene in _Le Canada Français, Documents_, 82]

Mascarene, commandant at that place, being of French descent, was disposed
at first to sympathize with the Acadians and treat them with a lenity that
to the members of his council seemed neither fitting nor prudent. He wrote
to Shirley: "The French inhabitants are certainly in a very perilous
situation, those who pretend to be their friends and old masters having let
loose a parcel of banditti to plunder them; whilst, on the other hand, they
see themselves threatened with ruin if they fail in their allegiance to the
British Government." [Footnote: Mascarene, in _Le Canada Français,
Documents_, 81.]

This unhappy people were in fact between two fires. France claimed them on
one side, and England on the other, and each demanded their adhesion,
without regard to their feelings or their wrelfare. The banditti of whom
Mascarene speaks were the Micmac Indians, who were completely under the
control of their missionary, Le Loutre, and were used by him to terrify the
inhabitants into renouncing their English allegiance and actively
supporting the French cause. By the Treaty of Utrecht France had
transferred Acadia to Great Britain, and the inhabitants had afterwards
taken an oath of fidelity to King George. Thus they were British subjects;
but as their oath had been accompanied by a promise, or at least a clear
understanding, that they should not be required to take arms against
Frenchmen or Indians, they had become known as the "Neutral French." This
name tended to perplex them, and in their ignorance and simplicity they
hardly knew to which side they owed allegiance. Their illiteracy was
extreme. Few of them could sign their names, and a contemporary well
acquainted with them declares that he knew but a single Acadian who could
read and write. [Footnote: Moïse des Derniers, in _Le Canada
Français_, I. 118.] This was probably the notary, Le Blanc, whose
compositions are crude and illiterate. Ignorant of books and isolated in a
wild and remote corner of the world, the Acadians knew nothing of affairs,
and were totally incompetent to meet the crisis that was soon to come upon
them. In activity and enterprise they were far behind the Canadians, who
looked on them as inferiors. Their pleasures were those of the humblest and
simplest peasants; they were contented with their lot, and asked only to be
let alone. Their intercourse was unceremonious to such a point that they
never addressed each other, or, it is said, even strangers, as
_monsieur_. They had the social equality which can exist only in the
humblest conditions of society, and presented the phenomenon of a primitive
little democracy, hatched under the wing of an absolute monarchy. Each was
as good as his neighbor; they had no natural leaders, nor any to advise or
guide them, except the missionary priest, who in every case was expected by
his superiors to influence them in the interest of France, and who, in
fact, constantly did so. While one observer represents them as living in a
state of primeval innocence, another describes both men and women as
extremely foul of speech; from which he draws inferences unfavorable to
their domestic morals, [Footnote: _Journal de Franquet_, Part II.]
which, nevertheless, were commendable. As is usual with a well-fed and
unambitious peasantry, they were very prolific, and are said to have
doubled their number every sixteen years. In 1748 they counted in the
peninsula of Nova Scotia between twelve and thirteen thousand souls.
[Footnote: _Description de l'Acadie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et le
Nombre des Habitants_, 1748.] The English rule had been of the
lightest,--so light that it could scarcely be felt; and this was not
surprising, since the only instruments for enforcing it over a population
wholly French were some two hundred disorderly soldiers in the crumbling
little fort of Annapolis; and the province was left, perforce, to take care
of itself.

The appearance of D'Anville's fleet caused great excitement among the
Acadians, who thought that they were about to pass again under the Crown of
France. Fifty of them went on board the French ships at Chibucto to pilot
them to the attack of Annapolis, and to their dismay found that no attack
was to be made. When Ramesay, with his Canadians and Indians, took post at
Chignecto and built a fort at Baye Verte, on the neck of the peninsula of
Nova Scotia, the English power in that part of the colony seemed at an end.
The inhabitants cut off all communication with Annapolis, and detained the
officers whom Mascarene sent for intelligence.

From the first outbreak of the war it was evident that the French built
their hopes of recovering Acadia largely on a rising of the Acadians
against the English rule, and that they spared no efforts to excite such a
rising. Early in 1745 a violent and cruel precaution against this danger
was suggested. William Shirreff, provincial secretary, gave it as his
opinion that the Acadians ought to be removed, being a standing menace to
the colony. [Footnote: _Shirreff to K. Gould, agent of Phillips's
Regiment, March, 1745._] This is the first proposal of such a nature
that I find. Some months later, Shirley writes that, on a false report of
the capture of Annapolis by the French, the Acadians sang _Te Deum,_
and that every sign indicates that there will be an attempt in the spring
to capture Annapolis, with their help. [Footnote: _Shirley to Newcastle,
14 Dec. 1745._] Again, Shirley informs Newcastle that the French will
get possession of Acadia unless the most dangerous of the inhabitants are
removed, and English settlers put in their place. [Footnote: _Ibid., 10
May, 1746._] He adds that there are not two hundred and twenty soldiers
at Annapolis to defend the province against the whole body of Acadians and
Indians, and he tells the minister that unless the expedition against
Canada should end in the conquest of that country, the removal of some of
the Acadians will be a necessity. He means those of Chignecto, who were
kept in a threatening attitude by the presence of Ramesay and his
Canadians, and who, as he thinks, had forfeited their lands by treasonable
conduct. Shirley believes that families from New England might be induced
to take their place, and that these, if settled under suitable regulations,
would form a military frontier to the province of Nova Scotia "strong
enough to keep the Canadians out," and hold the Acadians to their
allegiance. [Footnote: _Ibid., 8 July, 1747._] The Duke of Bedford
thinks the plan a good one, but objects to the expense. [Footnote:
_Bedford to Newcastle, 11 Sept. 1747._] Commodore Knowles, then
governor of Louisbourg, who, being threatened with consumption and
convinced that the climate was killing him, vented his feelings in
strictures against everything and everybody, was of opinion that the
Acadians, having broken their neutrality, ought to be expelled at once, and
expresses the amiable hope that should his Majesty adopt this plan, he will
charge him with executing it. [Footnote: _Knowles to Newcastle, 8 Nov.
1746._]

Shirley's energetic nature inclined him to trenchant measures, and he had
nothing of modern humanitarianism; but he was not inhuman, and he shrank
from the cruelty of forcing whole communities into exile. While Knowles and
others called for wholesale expatriation, he still held that it was
possible to turn the greater part of the Acadians into safe subjects of the
British Crown; [Footnote: Shirley says that the indiscriminate removal of
the Acadians would be "unjust" and "too rigorous". Knowles had proposed to
put Catholic Jacobites from the Scotch Highlands into their place. Shirley
thinks this inexpedient, but believes that Protestants from Germany and
Ulster might safely be trusted. The best plan of all, in his opinion, is
that of "treating the Acadians as subjects, confining their punishment to
the most guilty and dangerous among 'em, and keeping the rest in the
country and endeavoring to make them useful members of society under his
Majesty's Government." _Shirley to Newcastle, 21 Nov. 1746._ If the
Newcastle Government had vigorously carried his recommendations into
effect, the removal of the Acadians in 1755 would not have taken place.]
and to this end he advised the planting of a fortified town where Halifax
now stands, and securing by forts and garrisons the neck of the Acadian
peninsula, where the population was most numerous and most disaffected. The
garrisons, he thought, would not only impose respect, but would furnish the
Acadians with what they wanted most,--ready markets for their produce,--and
thus bind them to the British by strong ties of interest. Newcastle thought
the plan good, but wrote that its execution must be deferred to a future
day. Three years later it was partly carried into effect by the foundation
of Halifax; but at that time the disaffection of the Acadians had so
increased, and the hope of regaining the province for France had risen so
high, that this partial and tardy assertion of British authority only
spurred the French agents to redoubled efforts to draw the inhabitants from
the allegiance they had sworn to the Crown of England.

Shirley had also other plans in view for turning the Acadians into good
British subjects. He proposed, as a measure of prime necessity, to exclude
French priests from the province. The free exercise of their religion had
been insured to the inhabitants by the Treaty of Utrecht, and on this point
the English authorities had given no just cause of complaint. A priest had
occasionally been warned, suspended, or removed; but without a single
exception, so far as appears, this was in consequence of conduct which
tended to excite disaffection, and which would have incurred equal or
greater penalties in the case of a layman. [Footnote: There was afterwards
sharp correspondence between Shirley and the Governor of Canada touching
the Acadian priests. Thus, Shirley writes: "I can't avoid now, Sir,
expressing great surprise at the other parts of your letter, whereby you
take upon you to call Mr. Mascarene to account for expelling the missionary
from Minas for being guilty of such treasonable practices within His
Majesty's government as merited a much severer Punishment." _Shirley à
Galissonière, 9 Mai 1749._ Shirley writes to Newcastle that the Acadians
"are greatly under the influence of their priests, who continually receive
their directions from the Bishop of Qeubec, and are the instruments by
which the Governor of Canada makes all his attempts for the reduction of
the province to the French Crown." _Shirley to Newcastle, 20 Oct.
1747._ He proceeds to give facts in proof of his assertion. Compare
_Moncalm and Wolfe_, I. 106, 107, 266, _note_.] The sentence was
directed, not against the priest, but against the political agitator.
Shirley's plan of excluding French priests from the province would not have
violated the provisions of the treaty, provided that the inhabitants were
supplied with other priests, not French subjects, and therefore not
politically dangerous; but though such a measure was several times proposed
by the provincial authorities, the exasperating apathy of the Newcastle
Government gave no hope that it could be accomplished.

The influences most dangerous to British rule did not proceed from love of
France or sympathy of race, but from the power of religion over a simple
and ignorant people, trained in profound love and awe of their Church and
its ministers, who were used by the representatives of Louis XV. as agents
to alienate the Acadians from England.

The most strenuous of these clerical agitators was Abbé Le Loutre,
missionary to the Micmacs, and after 1753 vicar-general of Acadia. He was a
fiery and enterprising zealot, inclined by temperament to methods of
violence, detesting the English, and restrained neither by pity nor scruple
from using threats of damnation and the Micmac tomahawk to frighten the
Acadians into doing his bidding. The worst charge against him, that of
exciting the Indians of his mission to murder Captain Howe, an English
officer, has not been proved; but it would not have been brought against
him by his own countrymen if his character and past conduct had gained him
their esteem.

The other Acadian priests were far from sharing Le Loutre's violence; but
their influence was always directed to alienating the inhabitants from
their allegiance to King George. Hence Shirley regarded the conversion of
the Acadians to Protestantism as a political measure of the first
importance, and proposed the establishment of schools in the province to
that end. Thus far his recommendations are perfectly legitimate; but when
he adds that rewards ought to be given to Acadians who renounce their
faith, few will venture to defend him.

Newcastle would trouble himself with none of his schemes, and Acadia was
left to drift with the tide, as before. "I shall finish my troubleing your
Grace upon the affairs of Nova Scotia with this letter," writes the
persevering Shirley. And he proceeds to ask, "as a proper Scheme for better
securing the Subjection of the French inhabitants and Indians there," that
the Governor and Council at Annapolis have special authority and direction
from the King to arrest and examine such Acadians as shall be "most
obnoxious and dangerous to his Majesty's Government;" and if found guilty
of treasonable correspondence with the enemy, to dispose of them and their
estates in such manner as his Majesty shall order, at the same time
promising indemnity to the rest for past offences, upon their taking or
renewing the oath of allegiance. [Footnote: _Shirley to Newcastle, 15
Aug. 1746._]

To this it does not appear that Newcastle made any answer except to direct
Shirley, eight or nine months later, to tell the Acadians that so long as
they were peaceable subjects, they should be protected in property and
religion. [Footnote: _Newcastle to Shirley, 30 May, 1747._ Shirley had
some time before directed Mascarene to tell the Acadians that while they
behave peaceably and do not correspond with the enemy, their property will
be safe, but that such as turn traitors will be treated accordingly.
_Shirley to Mascarene, 16 Sept. 1746._] Thus left to struggle unaided
with a most difficult problem, entirely outside of his functions as
governor of Massachusetts, Shirley did what he could. The most pressing
danger, as he thought, rose from the presence of Ramesay and and his
Canadians at Chignecto; for that officer spared no pains to induce the
Acadians to join him in another attempt against Annapolis, telling them
that if they did not drive out the English, the English would drive them
out. He was now at Mines, trying to raise the inhabitants in arms for
France. Shirley thought it necessary to counteract him, and force him and
his Canadians back to the isthmus whence they had come; but as the ministry
would give no soldiers, he was compelled to draw them from New England. The
defence of Acadia was the business of the Home Government, and not of the
colonies; but as they were deeply interested in the preservation of the
endangered province, Massachusetts gave five hundred men in response to
Shirley's call, and Rhode Island and New Hampshire added, between them, as
many more. Less than half of these levies reached Acadia. It was the
stormy season. The Rhode Island vessels were wrecked near Martha's
Vineyard. A New Hampshire transport sloop was intercepted by a French armed
vessel, and ran back to Portsmouth. Four hundred and seventy men from
Massachusetts, under Colonel Arthur Noble, were all who reached Annapolis,
whence they sailed for Mines, accompanied by a few soldiers of the
garrison. Storms, drifting ice, and the furious tides of the Bay of Fundy
made their progress so difficult and uncertain that Noble resolved to
finish the journey by land; and on the 4th of December he disembarked near
the place now called French Cross, at the foot of the North Mountain,--a
lofty barrier of rock and forest extending along the southern shore of the
Bay of Fundy. Without a path and without guides, the party climbed the
snow-encumbered heights and toiled towards their destination, each man
carrying provisions for fourteen days in his haversack. After sleeping
eight nights without shelter among the snowdrifts, they reached the Acadian
village of Grand Pré, the chief settlement of the district of Mines.
Ramesay and his Canadians were gone. On learning the approach of an English
force, he had tried to persuade the Acadians that they were to be driven
from their homes, and that their only hope was in joining with him to meet
force by force; but they trusted Shirley's recent assurance of protection,
and replied that they would not break their oath of fidelity to King
George. On this, Ramesay retreated to his old station at Chignecto, and
Noble and his men occupied Grand Pré without opposition.

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