The Acadian Exiles : a Chronicle of the Land of Evangeline — John Shaqi
The Acadian Exiles : a Chronicle of the Land of EvangelineDoughty, Arthur G. (Arthur George), Sir
History
The Acadian Exiles : a Chronicle of the Land of Evangeline
Doughty, Arthur G. (Arthur George), Sir
Acadia; Nova Scotia -- History
By 1627 the survivors of Biencourt's wandering companions
had settled down, some of them in their old quarters at
Port Royal, but most of them with La Tour at Cape Sable.
Then came to Acadia seventy Scottish settlers, sent hither
by Sir William Alexander, who took up their quarters at
Port Royal and named it Scots Fort. The French described
these settlers as 'all kinds of vagabonds, barbarians,
and savages from Scotland'; and the elder La Tour went
to France to procure stores and ammunition, and to petition
the king to grant his son a commission to hold Acadia
against the intruders. But the elder La Tour was not to
come back in the role of a loyal subject of France. He
was returning in 1628 with the ships of the newly formed
Company of One Hundred Associates, under Roquemont, when,
off the Gaspe coast, appeared the hostile sail of the
Kirkes; and La Tour was taken prisoner to England. There
he entered into an alliance with the English, accepted
grants of land from Sir William Alexander, had himself
and his son made Baronets of Nova Scotia, and promised
to bring his son over to the English side. Young La Tour,
when his father returned, accepted the gift, and by some
means procured also, in 1631, a commission from the French
king as lieutenant-general of Acadia. Later, as we shall
see, his dual allegiance proved convenient.
The restoration of Acadia to France in 1632, by the Treaty
of St Germain-en-Laye, was to Cardinal Richelieu the
signal for a renewal of the great colonizing project
which he had set on foot five years earlier and which
had been interrupted by the hostile activities of the
Kirkes. [Footnote: See The founder of New France, chap.
v, and The Jesuit Missions, chap. iv.] Richelieu appointed
lieutenant-general of Acadia Isaac de Razilly, one of
the Company of One Hundred Associates and commander of
the Order of Malta, with authority to take over Acadia
from the Scots. Razilly brought out with him three hundred
settlers, recruited mainly from the districts of Touraine
and Brittany--the first considerable body of colonists
to come to the country. He was a man of more than ordinary
ability, of keen insight and affable manners. 'The
commander,' wrote Champlain, 'possessed all the qualities
of a good, a perfect sea-captain; prudent, wise,
industrious; urged by the saintly motive of increasing
the glory of God and of exercising his energy in New
France in order to erect the cross of Christ and plant
the lilies of France therein.' He planned for Acadia on
a large scale. He endeavoured to persuade Louis XIII to
maintain a fleet of twelve vessels for the service of
the colony, and promised to bring out good settlers from
year to year. Unfortunately, his death occurred in 1635
before his dreams could be realized. He had been given
the power to name his successor; and on his death-bed he
appointed his cousin and companion, Charles de Menou,
Sieur d'Aulnay Charnisay, adjuring him 'not to abandon
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