80 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
The idea of re-peopling the lands which the French had abandoned 
at Beaubassin! suggested itself to Shirley’s fertile brain, and he wrote 
to the Secretary of State that the defection of the Acadians of Chignecto 
had left a large tract of rich arable land vacant, upon which there was 
room for perhaps a thousand families to settle. He recommended that 
settlers should be procured from Great Britain, New England or the 
north of Ireland, “persons of Industry and Sobriety and acquainted with 
Husbandry, whose fidelity and attachment to His Majesty’s Govern- 
ment might be depended upon.” Such settlers, he considered, would 
form “an exceeding good barrier to the Peninsula by securing the 
Isthmus, and serve as a curb to the French inhabitants of Mines and 
Annapolis River. 
The Acadians of the peninsula failed to realize the seriousness of 
the situation in which they were about to be placed. Lawrence and 
Shirley were men of action and they now had a sufficient force at 
their disposal to enforce submission. Their first move was to get 
possession of Beauséjour, which surrendered to General Monckton on 
the 16th of June, 1755. The next step was to demand from the Aca- 
dians an unqualified oath of allegiance to the British sovereign. The 
unfortunate people were placed in a serious dilemma. They had for 
some time attempted to steer a middle course—not absolutely to break 
with their compatriots of Canada and Cape Breton, yet at the same 
time to show some deference to the government under which they lived; 
not to forsake their lands at the instigation of La Corne and Le Loutre, 
but at the same time not to swear unqualified allegiance to the King 
of England. Their attempt to please two masters pleased neither, 
and in the end lost them their country. 
A few extracts from the correspondence of those who were most 
directly concerned in their deportation will suffice to show that little 
confidence was felt in the professed neutrality of the Acadians by either 
Lawrence or his subordinates. Colonel John Winslow wrote on July 3, 
1755, “as to how far the Mean Submition Made by ye French (to say 
no worse) Fickel Inhabitants, commonly cal’d the Nutrals, or their 
brethren the Indians are to be Trusted, I submit in My opinion Litle 
Stres is to be laid on their ever being Good.” 
Lawrence’s profound distrust appears in his instructions to Captain 
Murray, dated August 9th, in which that officer is instructed to “take 


‘ Upon the arrival of the expedition under Lawrence at Chignecto, in April, 
1750, the Indians, acting, as was supposed, under the direction of La Corne, re- 
duced the settlement of Beaubassin to ashes. It comprised about 140 houses 
and two churches. The inhabitants crossed the river Misseguash and threw them- 
selves under the protection of the French commander, who not long after established 
Fort Beauséjour for their defence. 
