[Footnote 31: This story was related by the late Titus Smith, who
received it from his father.]
In the spring of 1751, nine hundred and fifty-eight Protestant German
settlers arrived, and in the following year 1000 more.[32] The latter
were from Montbeliard, of the Confession of Augsburgh, and were placed
under the spiritual charge of the Rev. J. B. Moreau. They had been
induced to emigrate by promises from King George II, which it is said
were never realized. Considerable difficulty appears to have been
experienced by the Government in providing a suitable situation for
settling so large a number of persons. The original design with regard
to the foreign Protestants was to place them in the interior of the
country, on the lands unoccupied by the French Acadians, it being
supposed that their proximity to and intercourse with the French, would
be the means of lessening the bad feeling which had been fostered by
emissaries from Canada. The project was unfavorably received by the
Acadians. There were, however, other difficulties in the way of its
accomplishment, of a particular nature, which compelled the Government
to abandon the object. The want of sufficient provisions to maintain so
many settlers through the winter, the lateness of the season, and the
helplessness of a large portion of the Germans, who were unfit for
labour, induced the Government to place them in the neighbourhood of
Halifax. It was at first proposed in Council to send them to the
opposite side of the harbour over against George's Island, and Captain
Morris was sent to survey the grounds. The mouth of Musquodoboit River
was also suggested, and a survey of that part of the country ordered,
but the distance from Halifax and the danger of the Indians, rendered
the scheme impracticable. "All I could do," says the Governor, "was to
build boarded barracks for them. They must be sustained by Government
until they are capable of raising something of their own; most of them
are poor and wretched, and have scarce a farthing of money among them."
[Footnote 32: The names of the settlers who arrived after June and July,
1749, are not to be found among the records of the country.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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