The French revolutionary period did not pass without incidents. In 

 17 92 there were many riots. In the course of one of these a woman was 

 accidentally killed. She was the only victim, the local Committee of Pub- 

 lic Safety having pronounced no other condemnation than the expulsion of 

 some nobility. In 1783, a number of families of Acadian origin voluntarily 

 emigrated to the Madeleine Islands under the leadership of their priest, 

 Abbe Allaire, who had refused to preach the constitutional sermon. The 

 descendents of these families form one of the principal elements of the 

 population of this little archipelago in the Saint Lawrence. 



A few days after their departure, May 5, 1793, the long-boats came 

 from the French Shore carrying the first news of the opening of hostilities 

 between France and England. May 14 an English flotilla commanded by 

 Vice-Admiral King, appeared before Saint-Pierre. Two vessels of the 

 line, two frigates, troups commanded by a Brigadier General on four trans- 

 ports from Halifax, were opposed to the small garrison of men guarding 

 the colony. 



All resistance being futile, Saint-Pierre was occupied without a gun 

 being fired. The colonists, numbering 1502, were transported to Halifax 

 and from there to France. Among these, some old Acadians underwent, 

 since the great exile of 1755, their fourth deportation. 



The English abstained from destroying the town of Saint- Pierre as 

 they had done in 177 8. Newfoundland fishermen came to take over the 

 property of the dispossessed. In this circumstance, it was a French flo- 

 tilla which, after having ruined many English fishing settlements on the 

 Avalon peninsula, came in 17 96, to destroy the ancient French establish- 

 ments at Saint-Pierre which had passed to the hands of the enemy. 



The peace of Amiens, signed March 27, 1802, restored to France the 

 islands of Saint- Pierre and Miquelon. Bonaparte, first consul, officially 

 took repossession August 20 of the same year; but renewal of hostilities 

 led to a new abandonment in March, 1803, before any effective re- establish- 

 ment had been accomplished. 



The Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814, confirmed the following year by 

 the Treaty of Vienna, returned the old colony to France, at the same time 

 restoring the rights on the French Shore. 



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