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
For twenty-two years after this Acadia remained French,
under the feudal sway of its overlords, Razilly, Charnisay,
La Tour, and Nicolas Denys, the historian of Acadia.
[Footnote: He wrote The Description and Natural History
of the Coasts of North America. An edition, translated
and edited, with a memoir of the author, by W. F. Ganong,
will be found in the publications of the Champlain Society
(Toronto, 1908).] But in 1654 the fleet of Robert Sedgwick
suddenly appeared off Port Royal and compelled its
surrender in the name of Oliver Cromwell. Then for thirteen
years Acadia was nominally English. Sir Thomas Temple,
the governor during this period, tried to induce
English-speaking people to settle in the province, but
with small success. England's hold of Acadia was, in
fact, not very firm. The son of Emmanuel Le Borgne, who
claimed the whole country by right of a judgment he had
obtained in the French courts against Charnisay, apparently
found little difficulty in turning the English garrison
out of the fort at La Heve, leaving his unfortunate
victims without means of return to New England, or of
subsistence; but in such destitution that they were forced
'to live upon grass and to wade in the water for lobsters
to keep them alive.' Some amusing correspondence followed
between France and England. The French ambassador in
London complained of the depredations committed in the
house of a certain Monsieur de la Heve. The English
government, better informed about Acadia, replied that
it knew of no violence committed in the house of M. de
la Heve. 'Neither is there any such man in the land, but
there is a place so called, which Temple purchased for
eight thousand pounds from La Tour, where he built a
house. But one M. le Borny, two or three years since, by
force took it, so that the violence was on Le Borny's
part.' The strife was ended, however, as already mentioned,
by the Treaty of Breda in 1667, in the return of Acadia
to France in exchange for the islands in the West Indies
of St Christopher, Antigua, and Montserrat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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