The expulsion at so late a period as this of two hundred Acadians from the Valley of the River St. John, where they had vainly hoped to remain in peace, is an incident of some importance. There is an unpublished letter of the Jesuit missionary Germain to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, written at Aukpaque on the River St. John, under date February 26, 1760, which is of some interest in this connection. "I arrived at the River St. John," writes Father Germain, "on All Saints Day (Nov. 1, 1759), where I unfortunately found all the inhabitants had gone down to the English fort with their families, which made me resolve to go and join them, as I did eight days afterwards, with the intention of accompanying them wherever they might be sent in order to help them--some to die as Christians in the transport ships and others to be of good cheer in the calamity that has befallen them as it did their brethren who are exiles in New England. But by a stroke of Providence, Monsieur Coquart, missionary to the French, arrived, and I desired the commandant to give me leave to retire which he granted together with a passport permitting me to remain at the priests' house in my mission where I am now."[46] [46] I am indebted to Placide P. Gaudet for the above extract. Father Germain was the missionary of the Indians, while Coquart seems to have ministered to the Acadians. The latter was a "secular priest," or one not connected with any religious order.--W. O. R. Colonel Arbuthnot had reported to Governor Lawrence that the Acadians begged leave to remain upon their lands on their promise to be faithful and true to His Majesty's Government. To this he made answer that they must come down to the Fort and remain there till he could apply to the Governor to know what should be done; they came down accordingly, and were to remain at the Fort until his excellency's pleasure should be known. The poor Acadians were represented to be in a starving condition. Their case came before the Governor and Council for consideration on the 30th November, at a meeting held at the Governor's house in Halifax, and the decision arrived at was this: "The Council are of opinion, and do advise that His Excellency do take the earliest opportunity of hiring vessels for having them immediately transported to Halifax, as Prisoners of War, until they can be sent to England; and that the two Priests be likewise removed out of the Province." The resolve of the council seems to have been carried into effect. In the month of January, Lawrence sent to the River St. John for the French inhabitants who, to the number of 300, were brought to Halifax until he could send them to England. Colonel Arbuthnot was the agent employed in collecting these unfortunate people and sending them to Halifax, and being a gentleman of a humane disposition he doubtless found his task a most uncongenial one. Among his assistants was Joseph