crown had promised the Acadians as 
aid, and second, that the Acadians 
who went to Belle-Ile were granted 
exemption from all taxes for the first 
five years of the settlement. And it 
was through Le Loutre’s efforts that 
in the fall of 1765 seventy-eight 
Acadian families were persuaded to 
set out to begin a new life on Belle- 
Ile. In a letter dated November 2, 
1765, de Warren was able to write of 
the success of the venture, although, 
as he recounted, the last two 
boatloads of refugees, arriving from 
Morlaix, had to be rescued. The first 
boat had actually sunk, and the 
second had drifted dangerously close 
to the rocks at the harbor’s edge. 
Fortunately, there had been no loss of 
life. 
The Acadians were divided up 
pounds of tobacco was also delivered 
monthly for the Acadians’ use. 
The refugees were placed on Belle- 
Ile according to the personal plan of 
de Warren, who in correspondence 
with the abbe Le Loutre argued the 
question of how the Acadians should 
be organized. The abbe felt that, 
above all, the Acadians should be 
allowed to live as they had always 
lived, not mixed up with the bellilois, 
but as neighbors in a homogeneous 
community. The governor, however, 
replied that he found it “to the 
benefit of the service of the King and 
the interest of the provinces to 
distribute [the Acadians] equally in 
the four parishes on the island,” 
pointing out that the refugees would 
“profit from both the advantages and 
disadvantages that each parish has.” 
before it could be tested any hope of 
establishing Belle-Ile as a center for 
Acadians in France was destroyed. 
The crippling blows that were 
dealt the experiment came from both 
nature and French officials. To begin 
with, there was the climate. No 
sooner had the Acadians arrived on 
Belle-Ile than the island was faced 
with a drought that was to last six 
years, a drought of such severity that 
each year’s crops barely yielded 
enough food for the current year, let 
alone seed for the next. Moreover, 
about the same time, the island’s 
animals were struck with foot-and- 
mouth disease. The very basis of the 
new life was destroyed. Then came a 
major piece of bureaucratic bungling. 
In 1768 the office of the French 
comptroller-general demanded 
among the four parishes of the island: 
twelve families went to Le Palais, 
north of the center of the island; 
thirty went to Bangor, to the south; 
twelve went to Locmaria, at the 
eastern end of the island; and twenty- 
four went to Sauzon, the parish at 
the western tip that later became 
Sarah Bernhardt’s favorite summer 
retreat. As had been agreed, Louis 
XV paid each family for the building 
of a house; provided each with a 
horse, a cow,« and various other 
livestock; and made available to the 
families of each parish a bull and a 
stallion. Further, so that the 
Acadians might begin life on Belle- 
Ile under the best possible 
circumstances, on their arrival each 
Acadian family was given three 
months’ rations. One hundred ten 
De Warren believed that only in this 
way would it be possible to establish 
“that unity and good harmony that 
must exist between the new settlers 
and the old, so that all come together 
with one spirit and make one 
people.” 
In 1765 Belle-lie’s native 
population was made up of some 375 
families who worked the land and 
another 108 whose lives were more 
closely linked to the sea. De Warren 
reasoned that the Acadians would be 
more easily accepted and would be 
able to learn the local customs and 
pick up Breton — the common 
language on the island — if they were 
not permitted to retreat to the 
isolation of separate villages. His 
plan for the assimilation of the 
refugees was sensible enough, but 
54 
