270 J. G. BOTJEINOT 



storm-swept coast, in many a landlocked harbour and sequestered bay, or by the side of 

 some lonely river linger a large and thriving body of the people who once owned 

 Aoadie and He Royale. War and its miseries, the animosity of the English government, 

 the trials and privations of a pioneer life and all the difficulties of a rigorous climate com- 

 bined for years to drive the French Aeadiaus from Cape Breton and leave it entirely to the 

 English settlers, but despite all the unfavoirrable circumstances that have surrounded 

 them they continue to increase in numbers and have attained a considerable degree of 

 prosperity. In the days when peace reigned and the people were able to follow their 

 industry and commerce with some vigour, the total population of He Eoyale was estim- 

 ated at between three and four thousand souls, men, women and children, — the greater 

 proportion of whom lived at Louisbourg. When the fortress fell, the garrison and the 

 French and the people of the island for the most part were removed to France there still 

 remained on He Madame, on the Bras d'Or, on the northw^estern coast, and in some remote 

 parts of the island a few people who were left undisturbed in their humble settlements, 

 probably forgotten or, if remembered at all, not considered dangerous to English dominion 

 on the island. It is impossible to give the exact figures, but it is estimated by competent 

 authorities on the subject that at the time of the deportation of the French from Louis- 

 bourg at least 700 were left undisturbed in other parts of the island.' Here they lived 

 uneventful lives, for years, " the world forgetting ; by the world forgot." It does not 

 appear that the Acadian people of Nova Scotia before or after their cruel expatriation in 

 1755 ever gave any large accessions to the inhabitants of the island. The French govern- 

 ment could not induce any number of them to come to Cape Breton, as it may be seen by 

 the complaints from time to time of the officials in the island.' The population of Louis- 

 bourg was almost entirely composed of people from old France, and the only Acadians 

 were a few persons employed for the most part as servants in families. The Acadians 

 were found chiefly on the northwestern coast and in some sequestered spot by the Bras 

 d'Or. Of the remnant of French population that remained in Cape Breton after 1758, 

 however, the Acadians formed a large proportion, so far as I can judge from the meagre 

 facts available. For some years after 1758 this little population remained without any 

 additions to their number worth mentioning. In 1766 a considerable number of Aeadiaus 

 who had gone to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon a year or two before 

 became dissatisfied with the dreary prospect in those barren spots, and settled principally 

 on He Madame and by the little Bras d'Or. The total number of this immigration how- 

 ever did not reach 400 souls — 300, in fact, is the number generally given. In 1775 a few 

 Acadian families — 14 or 15 in all — came over from the mainland of Nova Scotia and settled 

 in the vicinity of Oheticamp on the rugged northwestern coast of the island. Already 

 there were some French families at Port Hood, which was formerly known as Just-au- 

 Corps, where the quarrying of stone for building was still carried on as in former times 

 of French occupation. Driblets of population flowed in from year to year from Nova 

 Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the English government appear always to have 



' See App. XIV at end of this work, where statistical details of the dovelopment of the Acadian population in 

 Cape Breton since 1758 are given, witli references to works on the sidyect. 



'' See " Can. Archives " for 1887, cclxxxvi. It appears that the British government after their occupation of 

 Acadie refused to permit the Acadian Fronch to remove to Cape Breton and " strengthen our enemies when occa- 

 sion serves." See Akins, ' Nova Scotia Archives,' 6-9, 41, etc. 



