282 The Story of The Bronx 



so feelingly described in Longfellow's poem of Evangeline. 

 These poor unfortunates seem to have been treated with 

 the utmost rigor and unkindness in every colony into which 

 their wanderings took them; and New York was no different 

 from the others. They were called by the colonists "French 

 Neutrals." Between May and August, 1756, there is a rec- 

 ord of sixteen of them being sent to Eastchester, and of nine 

 of them being in the Westchester jail, where they had been 

 placed by the authorities for no other crime than that of being 

 Acadians. The women and children of the party were thus 

 thrown on their own resources and became a burden to the 

 town, so that the latter were separated from their parents 

 and bound out to service. As the French war was in 

 progress at the time, there might have been some excuse 

 for their harsh treatment for fear of their giving assistance to 

 their countrymen in Canada; and there is no doubt that, in 

 the popular mind, these simple peasants were imbued with 

 the intent as well as the desire to injure their oppressors. It 

 is hard to account for popular delusions, as the Salem witch- 

 craft and the vogue of Titus Oates show. The New York 

 Mercury of July 11, 1757, contains the following item: "We 

 hear that a party of French Neutrals, who had been for some 

 time past at or near Westchester, made their escape from that 

 place, and were taken up at or near Fort Edward on their 

 way to Crown Point." 



These poor wanderers were, of course, Catholics; and it is 

 stated that Father Farmer, an alias for Father Steinmeyer, 

 passed through Westchester in disguise and visited them in 

 their captivity and gave to them the consolations of their 

 religion. ' He was a Jesuit priest attached to the Pennsylvania 

 and New Jersey missions; and, as the laws were very strict 



1 See the author's novel, A Princess and Another. 



