SOME OLD FORTS BY THE SEA. girl 
Under these circumstances the erection of Fort Beauséjour, in the vicinity of Beaubassin, 
one of the most important French Acadian settlements, near the site of the flourishing 
town of Amherst, induced Major Lawrence to send a British force to the Isthmus of 
Chignecto and build another fort on the opposite side of the river, which was named 
after the governor himself. Then in the course of a few months ensued a series of hosti- 
lities between the French and the English, but the final result was the destruction of the 
village of Beaubassin and the capture of Beauséjour, which was then named Fort Cum- 

given to a-large and prosperous county, the birth- 
place of Sir Charles Tupper. With the history of every French fort in Acadia the name 
of some famous Frenchman is intimately associated. The heroism and perseverance of 
DePoutrincourt and LaTour throw a halo of romance around the early annals of Acadia. 
The name of LeLoutre, for some years one of the French missionaries, can never be 
forgotten in any sketch of the history of Beaubassin and Beauséjour. His enemies 
describe him—and no man in Acadia had more enemies among the British—as a compound 
of craft and cruelty, and it is quite certain that he hated the English and resorted to 
every means, whether fair or foul, to prevent their successful settlement of Acadia. That 
beneath his black robe beat the courageous heart of a soldier, the following incident of 
the siege of Beauséjour shows full well:—When the commandant, Vergor, was almost 
driven to despair by the perils that threatened him, LeLoutre alone appears to have 
preserved that composure which, to do him justice, never deserted him in the hour of 
danger ; and the day after, he walked on the ramparts, smoking his pipe, and urging the 
men to renewed exertions, though the bullets whistled all around him. It is truly said 
that, had the spirit of the habitans been always equal to that of their priests, Beguscjous 
would not have fallen as soon as it did. 
The country around the old forts presents a charming combination of pastoral and 
water scenery. Here too is a large expanse of marsh-land, where some of the fattest cattle 
of America find a bounteous pasture, and the farmers grow rich in the course of a few 
years. The landscape presents a vast sea of verdure, relieved by the Cobequid mountains 
in the distance, by glimpses of the sea, by clusters of white houses, and by placid rivers 
which wind through a country where nature has been most lavish in its gifts. No traces 
now remain of Fort Lawrence ; a little cottage is said to stand on its exact site; but we 
can still see ruins of Fort Cumberland, a short distance off, across the stream. It is in the 
shape of a pentagon, or fort of five bastions, which once mounted thirty or forty guns of 
large calibre. We can see the remains of the old barracks, and the cannon which did 
service for both the French and English in the old times. The casemates were very 
recently in a good state of preservation, for they were made of solid brickwork. Every 
spot of ground has its historic associations. As we passed, a few summers ago, into one 
of the casemates, we recollected the story of the havoc made by a British shell which 
came directly through the opening and killed several French officers, as well as an 
Englishman, while they were seated at breakfast. Treachery, according to tradition, was 
at the bottom of this tragedy. The tradition is that a Frenchman, haying some design of 
vengeance to carry out againt his officers, had directed the British in the fort opposite 
how to aim directly into the casemate, and gave the preconcerted signal with a hand- 
kerchief, when all the officers were at breakfast. The shell was aimed, as I have shown, 
with unerring precision. 
