[ganong] ORIGIXS of SETTLEMENTS IN NEW BRUNSWICK 39 



tied upon the best lands and formed the farming settlements to be 

 considered below. The traders dealt with the Indians) chiefly for furs, 

 and, as their posts frequently contained goods of much value, these 

 posts were commonly fortified, and they were built at the foci of the. 

 converging lines of Indian travel in localities to be noted below. The 

 fishery did not rise into any great importance at this period, though 

 the taking of cod and walrus (sea-cow) helped to create some of the 

 minor settlements. 



c. Racial character. The character of the French is not favourable 

 to success in pioneering. They have much love for adventure in strange 

 parts, and hence have made good explorersi, but it is not combined with 

 that passion for greater material prosperity, or that strong individualism 

 and initiative, necessary for genuine pioneers- They, and especially 

 the peasantry, are rather a home-loving and sociable people. This 

 tended in Acadia, in conjunction with religious influences, to act con- 

 centratively on their settlements, and to keep them in compact villages. 

 This was a marked feature, as it isi to this day, of the Acadian settle- 

 m'mts. The love of home so strongly developed in the Acadia is, had 

 another very important consequence upon settlement in New Brunswick, 

 since it led so great a number of them, during the repatriation, to 

 return from their foreign places of refuge to their beloved Acadia, thug 

 greatly increasing the French population, especially on the North Shore, 

 a subject later to be noted in detail. 



d. Religion. The French in Acadia, especially the Acadian people, 

 were devout Eoman Catholics, closely attached to their church, and very 

 obedient to the priests. This had a tendency to keep the Acadians in 

 compact communities centering about the churches', and, in conjunction 

 with the social and home-loving disposition of the people, made Acadia 

 a land of agricultural villages, without that Ijroad fringe of pioneer 

 outposts so characteristic of Anglo-Saxon communities. 



t 



C. Environmental Factors. 



a. Accessibility. As to case of access from France, there is littl? 

 difi^erence between the Bay of Fundy and the North Shore, and it was 

 historical circumstances, already considered, which made the Bay of 

 Fundy the theatre of French activity in Acadia. The diflficult access 

 of the north from the south coast played an important part after the 

 expulsion, since it ma-de the North Shore relatively safe from the 

 English, who were established at Annapolis, and hence the French 

 refugee settlements were largelv made in the former region. 



