“Ah, boys,” said the doctor, mournfully, “how much of human anguish may
we read there! how many broken hearts! how much despair appears before
us in those remorseless figures! Think of the name of Hancock being
associated with a thing like that. “Neutralls” they were--two hundred
and thirty “neutralls” at so much per head. Perhaps among those poor
exiles, contracted for at so much per head by that Boston firm, there
was some Evangeline looking over the sea, with her white lips and her
eyes of despair.
“Still,” continued the doctor, after some silence, “the English didn’t
have it all their own way. There were several occasions in which the
Aca-dians were able to baffle them. One place was at the head of the Bay
of Fundy, the River Pelilcodiac. Here the French were in league with the
Indians, as indeed they were throughout the whole of Canada and Acadie;
and when a detachment of troops was sent there to capture them, they
retreated to the woods. The troops made a descent at one place, where
they found twenty-five women and children. These they were merciless
enough to make prisoners. Then they went through the country devastating
it, and seeking thus to ruin the poor fugitives. It was villanous work.
They burned more than two hundred and fifty houses and a church. At last
the French made an attack on them, and they were forced to retreat. Had
the French shown a little more enterprise, they could have destroyed
them; as it was, the troops got off without much loss. There was another
instance when the French got the better of their enemies. It was a
vessel that was carrying over two hundred of them from Annapolis to
Carolina. The French rose, and got command of the vessel, and put into
the River St. John. The English heard of it, and sent a vessel after
them with British soldiers disguised as French. But the fugitives
discovered the trick, and not being able to cope with their enemies,
they set fire to the vessel, and escaped to the woods.