lO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Chignecto. It does not ai)]ic'ar that more tlian six thousand ]iersons were 

 actually deported by the Kiii^lish in 175.'). and of this number at least 

 two-thirds were seized in the district of Grand Pré and Mines. It is 

 believed that nearly one thousand sought refuge in the woods, and found 

 their way to the southwestern coast. Probably three tiiousand, during 

 the six years before the actual expulsion, went to the upper district of 

 the river St. John, to the sheltered parts of the eastern coast of New 

 Brunswick, and to the islands of St. John and Cape Hreton. Parties of 

 these refugees at Cape Sable, St. John River, and Bay of Chaleurs were 

 also seized and deported at a later time — a fact, showing the relentless 

 character of the persecution which dogged the movements of this hapless 

 ])eople. In the later times, when there was a considerable British popula- 

 tion in Nova Scotia, and no fears of this hapless people were entertained, 

 many of them were allowed to return to the peninsula and settle in the 

 western part, where the township of Clare still gives illustrations of the 

 thrift, industry., sobriety and piety of the descendants of the old pro- 

 prietors of Acadia. For forty yeai-s after the treaty of Utrecht they 

 increased and prospered, and had England treated them from the com- 

 mencement with firmness, and kept in the province sufficient force to 

 show them she was not to be trifled with, and there was no prospect of 

 France regaining her old dominions by the sea, they might have been 

 gradually won from their tidelily to the land of their origin, and taught 

 to pay willing allegiance to their new masters, who, under all circum- 

 stances, had treated them with great consideration and at the same time 

 with an obvious weakness. Had they been allowed to remain in the 

 countr}', under the checks of a sufficient militaiy foi'ce and populous 

 English settlements, the ten thousand Acadian French, that occupied the 

 fertile districts of the province in the middle of last century, would even- 

 tually have increased to a very large number, and exercised most impor- 

 tant influence on the social, religious, and political conditions of Nova 

 Scotia, even while remaining loyal to England. In other words. Nova 

 Scotia might have been another French Canada. 



As it hap])ened, however, an inexorable Fate destroyed their 

 happiness at one fell blow, and placed them among the most unfortunate 

 of God's creatures. The remnant of the French Acadian race never 

 exercised any influence on the destiny of the maritime provinces, when 

 their institutions were being moulded and established. British influences 

 eventually dominated in ever}' section, and made the Acadian provinces 

 what they have always been — most loyal dejiendencies of the Crown, even 

 in those troublous times when the flag of revolt was raised in the valley 

 of the St. Lawrence. 



At the present time there are a hundred thousand people of French 

 Acadian descent living in the maritime provinces, principally on the 

 gulf shores of New Brunswick, in the western parts of the peninsula of 



