The Acadians who settled on Belle- 
lie were at least able to negotiate a 
temporary exemption from the 
French taxes, but they suffered a 
variety of other unfamiliar 
constraints. There were restrictions 
on hunting, on fishing, on moving 
about without passports. French 
court records of the time report the 
prosecution of Acadians found in 
ports and cities other than those to 
which they had been assigned and 
without the documents of 
identification that the French 
officials wished them to carry. Even 
the stiff official prose of the records 
cannot disguise the challenge that 
these second-, third-, and in some 
cases, fourth-generation North 
Americans made to the conventions 
of the France of Louis XV and 
Madame de Pompadour. 
By 1772 three-quarters of the more 
than four hundred Acadians who had 
come to settle on Belle-Ile had left 
the island. Homeless once again, they 
tended to follow one of three routes. 
Some continued to wander, searching 
for a secure home in the Falklands, 
Santo Domingo, or Corsica, but all of 
their efforts failed to establish a 
central community for the refugees. 
A number of the Acadian families 
from Belle-Ile settled in other parts 
of France, slowly becoming absorbed 
in the life of the villages where their 
fortunes had led them: their 
descendants would be French, having 
perhaps a more romantic past than 
most of their neighbors. But the route 
by far most traveled by the newly 
displaced Acadians led back to the 
The Acadian heritage of Belle-Ile 
links the island's people to surviving 
Acadian communities in Canada and 
to the related Cajun population of 
Louisiana. In recent years, 
friendships have been established 
across the Atlantic as Acadians have 
traced their genealogical ties. 
New World. 
In 1783 a group of Acadian 
refugees living in the ports of 
Brittany sent a petition to Louis XVI, 
which read in part: “After twenty- 
eight years, after the loss of our 
property, we find ourselves in poverty 
and misery. The landlords daily 
refuse to house us, and without His 
Majesty’s pay we cannot live. We are 
grieved that we are a burden.” At 
this point, circumstances brought 
forward a sympathetic Frenchman, 
Peyroux de la Coudreniere. Peyroux 
had spent seven years in Louisiana, 
which was still a Spanish colony, and 
he had met the few Acadians who 
had settled there after passing 
through the British possessions in 
North America. He suggested that 
the Acadians remaining in France 
could also prove useful in Louisiana, 
a place where they might be much 
happier. 
With considerable effort, Peyroux 
convinced the Acadians, the French 
officials, and the representatives of 
the Spanish government to adopt his 
plan. In need of settlers, the Spanish 
government agreed not only to pay 
the Acadians’ transportation costs 
but also to subsidize them during the 
early years of their resettlement. 
Finally, in 1785, seven “Acadian 
expeditions” set sail from Nantes for 
New Orleans to join those Acadian 
refugees who had already settled in 
the parishes of Saint-Landry des 
Openousas, Saint-Gabriel d’Iberville, 
Saint-Louis de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 
and Saint-Martin des Atakapas. 
About 2,000 Acadians landed in 
Louisiana, and it is largely from this 
group that the distinctive Cajun 
population found there today 
developed. Although other 
immigrants also helped to form this 
people, the name “Cajun” 
emphasizes this Acadian origin. 
The minority of Acadian families 
that remained on Belle-Ile after 
1772, despite the initial setbacks, 
succeeded in adapting to the new life, 
eventually becoming bellilois. A 
census of the Acadians of Belle-Ile 
taken during the French Revolution 
identified 285 Acadians, 197 of 
whom had been born on the island. 
Rene Daligaut, the local antiquarian 
who in 1964 established a newsletter 
about the history of Belle-Ile, is 
convinced that there is no island 
family today that cannot claim an 
Acadian ancestor. 
Today the Acadian communities of 
the Maritime Provinces of Canada, 
as well as the Cajun population of 
Louisiana, show an ever growing 
interest in the history of Belle-Ile-en- 
Mer. During the last thirty years 
delegations have crossed the Atlantic 
in both directions as Acadians have 
sought to trace genealogies and to 
establish friendly relations. The 
legacy of the Acadian refugees 
remains sufficiently vibrant for Belle- 
Ile-en-Mer to have held a festival 
celebrating the bicentennial of their 
arrival. Their sojourn is 
commemorated by a bronze plaque 
affixed to the archway of the town 
gate of Le Palais. And in the 
cemetery of Sauzon, weathered, 
lopsided headstones bring the names 
of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
to the eye. □ 
56 
