CHAPTER XVIII
THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG OF IT
"For my own part," said Martine, "I am just as firmly on the side of theAcadians as ever. They may have been stupid about the oath, and probablythey were too easily influenced by Le Loutre, but they had been handedfrom England to France and from France to England so often that I don'tsee how they could consider themselves English when really they wereFrench."
"You must have had Irish ancestors as well as French," said Amy, with alaugh. "Your remark sounds almost like a bull."
"Well, I mean to take the bull by the horns," replied Martine; "you canblame any one else for the deportation, but not the poor Acadians. Theycertainly did not in the least know who they were. But I am glad," sheconcluded, "that you have taken so much trouble to explain it all to me,Miss Amy Redmond, for I have never before understood why the Englishwere so cruel."
"It is surely a fact"--Amy spoke decidedly--"that the English Governmentwould have preferred to keep the Acadians their subjects. They neededthem to supply provisions, and to man their garrisons. With theirknowledge of woodcraft, and of the Indians, the Acadians would have beeninvaluable on the English side."
"But you couldn't expect them to fight against the French, who weretheir own flesh and blood!" and Martine cast a glance of reproach at herfriend.
"That, of course, was the chief point in the dispute. The Acadiansclaimed to be neutrals, when really they were sending their produce toLouisbourg, or to the French in other places, to help them continuetheir war with the English. Yet they expected the protection of theEnglish when in trouble, and they always had it, although their only taxwas the tithe that they spent for the support of their own church."
Amy and Martine were sitting on the broad sands of Evangeline's beach,looking toward Blomidon, and waiting for Priscilla, who had strolledsome distance away. They had driven over from Wolfville in the omnibus,and were to have an hour or two at the edge of the Basin before theyneed return. In the midst of the discussion Priscilla rejoined them.
"More Acadians!" she cried with a smile. "Let me ask you a favor--"
"To say no more about them?"
"No, not that. When we leave the neighborhood of Wolfville we shallthink of other things; so, once for all I, for one, should be glad tohave the whole story straightened out. We know what happened after theexpulsion, for we've been at Clare, and we know about the earliestFrench; we heard all that at Annapolis. But now, my dear Miss AmyRedmond, you have been looking into this thing thoroughly, and if--"
"Yes," urged Martine, "if you'll please tell us what happened in theyears between, it will save our reading, and you will make it muchclearer to us than any book."
"Down with your flattery," rejoined Amy; "yet as there's no time likethe present, I will tell the story briefly. We might as well pass overthe various transfers of Acadia from France to England, and from Englandto France, before 1710. But the conquest of Annapolis by GeneralNicholson in that year gave Acadia finally to England. The change ofGovernment was confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and allAcadians who did not wish to be subject to England were given time toleave. Those who remained were required to take an oath of fidelity toKing George, and England on her part agreed to let them exercise theirown religion under their own priests. In spite of these arrangementsmany of these simple-minded Acadians still considered themselvessubjects of the King of France, even up to the time of the expulsion.Perhaps the priests encouraged them in this and delayed their taking theoath of allegiance. By 1730, however, nearly all had signed the oath,and if war had not broken out later between France and England theremight have been no further trouble. But when it was found that many ofthe Acadians, instead of remaining neutral, were joining with French andIndians in attacks on the English, Lord Cornwallis, the Governor atHalifax, required them to take the oath again. This was necessarybecause a new generation had grown up who had been encouraged by thepriests and politicians in enmity to England. Most of them would nottake the new oath, because it required them to defend Acadia against theenemies of England, and this, they said, would oblige them to fightagainst the French, their kinsmen. In 1751 there was a large immigrationof Acadians to Ile St. Jean, then in the hands of the French. Theseexiles suffered much, but they were encouraged to hope that when Francereconquered Acadia they could go back to their deserted homes.
"Cornwallis continued firm, and at last the Acadians were informed thatall who would not take the oath must leave Nova Scotia. In the verybeginning deputies from the Acadian villages had gone to Halifax to saythat it would be impossible to take the oath and ask permission todispose of their farms and leave the country."
"Why didn't they go? It would have been so much better in the end."
"It is hard to say, Martine. Friends of the Acadians claim that theEnglish put all kinds of obstacles in their way, first refusing themtransportation in English vessels, then preventing their buying riggingat Louisbourg for vessels of their own. But, as I have said, more than athousand did eventually pass over to the Ile St. Jean, and some of thesetook part in the defence of Beausejour."
"Well, they were surely very conscientious," said Martine, "for theyknew that by taking the oath and becoming British subjects they couldlive in comfort on their farms. It was very brave in them to choosepoverty and exile."
"It might seem braver, if behind it all they had not had the feelingthat the time was near when the French would drive the British from NovaScotia and so restore them to their own."
"It was all that Le Loutre, I suppose," commented Priscilla; "he wasresponsible for so much."
"Whether he was really as bad as some represent him would be hard tosay; but this missionary to the Micmacs had great influence, and it wasall used against the English. We pity the Acadians, but we ought to pitythe innocent English settlers on the outskirts of Halifax, and at otherplaces, who were tortured and murdered by the Indians whom Le Loutre andother French had stirred up. Now, to keep to our story without making ittoo long, the Acadians dallied and dallied. They did not take the oathof allegiance, and they did not seem to be preparing to leave thecountry. At last Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence gave them only a shorttime to decide.
"Well, the French and Indian War continued, and the English weregenerally more successful than the French. At last Beausejour wascaptured, chiefly by the help of a body of troops commanded by ColonelWinslow. These men were New Englanders,--sturdy, conscientious men fromcountry towns, a large number of whom had been farmers and smalltradesmen.
"Beausejour fell the middle of June, and it may interest you, Priscilla,to know that Le Loutre, rather than fall into the hands of the English,fled to Quebec, where he was coldly received. Later he went to France,and died in obscurity.
"In July, 1755, a memorial was sent to Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence,signed by twenty-five leading Acadians, on the subject of the oath, andrequesting the return of their guns that the Government had obliged themto give up on account of their sympathy with the French. When GovernorLawrence sent for the signers to come to Halifax, fifteen appearedbefore them. He pointed out the insincerity of their memorial, and whenhe desired them to sign the oath they flatly refused. Finally, on thetwenty-eighth of July, these deputies and others from Annapolis appearedbefore the Governor and Council, and although warned that theconsequences would be serious, they declined to take any oath differingfrom that taken under Governor Phillips; that is, they were unwilling tobear arms for the English against the French."
"That, I must say, seems noble to me, since they knew what risks theywere running," cried Martine.
"That is to an extent a matter of opinion. But their refusal decidedGovernor Lawrence what to do. He immediately wrote to Colonel Moncktonthat enough transports had been ordered up the Bay for the Acadians, andthat he must remove them. He was told that all the property of theAcadians was now forfeited to the Crown, and that they would be allowedto take on board ship only their money and their household goods."
"It is a wonder he left them
anything," said Martine, sarcastically.
"He wasn't absolutely heartless, and he gave careful directions forprovisioning the transports for their long journey."
"I am sorry that it was a New Englander who had to carry out these cruelorders," said Priscilla.
"Yes, it fell on Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, and a detachment of thoseNew England troops that had fought at Beausejour to attend to thedeportation at Grand Pre. It was Tuesday, the second of September, whenhe ordered all the male inhabitants from ten years upwards to assembleon the following Friday in the church at Grand Pre, to hear what hisMajesty had to say to them. Then--but really I think one gets the storybetter from Longfellow. It is from this point that we have oursympathies so deeply touched, and we are willing to forget that thesimple-minded Acadians had brought much of their trouble on themselves."
"It doesn't make their sufferings less, even if they were to blame,"interposed Martine.
"That is true. They may have been less peaceable and amiable than theyhave been represented by the poet, and their homes and their ways ofliving may have been less--less--"
"AEsthetic," suggested Priscilla, with a smile.
"Well, aesthetic, then. But all this does not alter the fact that theydeserved the greatest pity. Many of them, indeed, honestly believed thatthey were still the subjects of Louis XV, and that to take the oathrequired by the English would be a great crime."
"What they needed was a really good and disinterested man to advisethem; some one like Paul Mascarene, who was partly French, and yet couldget the English point of view," said Priscilla. "Some way I can't feelthat the English were altogether disinterested--although," she concludedhastily, "I am more on the English side than the French,--and I am verysorry that it was a man of Plymouth descent who carried away theAcadians from Grand Pre."
This, in view of Priscilla's previous prejudice against the Acadians,was really a very liberal statement, as the others realized.
"It should console you, then, to remember that Colonel Winslow wassimply a soldier acting under orders, and we have no reason to thinkthat he used needless cruelty. 'It hurts me to hear their weeping andwailing,' he said in his journal, and this shows that he had a tenderheart."
"But I can't see why families were separated, and why all these Acadianscouldn't have been sent up to Upper Canada to the other French;" andMartine sighed deeply.
"You forget that France and England were still at war, and to have putso many able-bodied men at the service of France would indeed have beenmadness. Governor Lawrence explained all this in letters to thegovernors of the different colonies to whom he sent the Acadians. Theywere sent to as many different colonies as possible, and broken up intosmall groups, so that they could not unite in any plan for return."
"I suppose that Governor Lawrence thought it better for them to becomepublic charges,--people who had always been perfectly independent."
"Oh, well, there is a bright side. Many of them never lost hope for aminute, and even those who went to the French West Indies soon began toplan to get back to Acadia. In the end, after the Peace, they began totake the oath, and receive their new grants of land, and since thenEngland has had no more devoted subjects--as we saw for ourselves inClare."
"All the same," said Martine, "this must be a haunted region aroundhere, and I can tell you I should hate to walk through Grand Pre aloneafter dark, or even drive through."
"Speaking of haunted regions," said Priscilla, "though I don't know whyI think of him just now, what do you suppose has happened to Mr. Knight?No one has seen him since our adventure."
"_We_ haven't seen him," responded Amy, "but I sincerely hope that he isin the land of the living. I must have forgotten to tell you that mammahad a letter from him the day after our drive, telling us that he hadbeen suddenly called to New Brunswick, and expressing his regret thatprobably he should not see us again."
"That must have been a great relief to him," murmured Martine, "thatcall to New Brunswick. Otherwise he might have had to see us again."
"Oh, he expressed great regret at having to go without doing so."
"That was kind in him, even if it wasn't quite sincere. It is my ownopinion that he went away on purpose. He couldn't bear to see us againwhen he remembered how his hair was tumbled--not a sign of theparting--and his cuffs wet. But _we_ remember, don't we, and I hardlyblame him for running away."
"Martine, my dear child, you are very absurd. No man could possibly beso vain."
"Especially, my dear Miss Amy Redmond, one whose business is theinstruction of youth," rejoined Martine, flippantly.
"I had a letter from Eunice this morning," interposed Priscilla, "andshe said that Balfour had had a letter from Mr. Knight, who thanked himfor the introduction he had given him to us. She said that he hadwritten about our trip to Grand Pre, and was surprised to find Americansso much interested in Acadian history."
"That is all very well. People always write that way after a letter ofintroduction; they feel that they must. You cannot persuade me that Mr.Knight had any other reason for running to New Brunswick except to avoidus."
"Perhaps he wished to escape our thanks for the rescue."
"Rescue!" Martine's tone was scornful enough. "We weren't in the leastlittle bit of danger."
"We weren't exactly comfortable," responded Priscilla. "I was thankfulenough, I can tell you, when Mr. Knight and the dory came in sight. Why,we might have had to stay there for hours."
"Oh, no; there would have been some way. The tide goes out as rapidly asit flows in."
"Well, leaving out individuals, who certainly have been very kind tous," interposed Amy, "considering that in their hearts many of themthink of us as 'those Yankees,' Wolfville has been fairly worth while."
"Yes," replied Martine, "though I haven't been able to paint Blomidon, Ihave captured the Grand Pre willows. The subject may be trite, but I'vemanaged to give it a touch of individuality by adding a tree or two andlopping off a branch or so, here and there, and this will set somepersons guessing as to what my view is."
"Oh, Martine!"
"But the artistic reputation of the party is kept up by your mother'ssketches. That one of the marshes is simply perfect. No one who had notseen the colors could believe that nature up here in the north is sobrilliant. The water is so blue,--and she has caught it exactly,--andthe bright red of the shore at low tide, and the vivid green of the dykegrass, varied here and there with clumps of yellow--"
"Stop, stop; you make me fairly dizzy."
"But it's a true picture, isn't it? and your mother has reproduced it toperfection, and if she doesn't sell it before Christmas I shall get papato buy it for me."
So the three friends sat and chatted on this their last afternoon inEvangeline's land, half regretting that the time was near when they mustbid good-bye to Acadia.
Though they had not tried to do all the things possible for the tourist,they had gone to the Look-off, the highest part of the Blomidon ridge,and from this spot had had a magnificent view of the Annapolis andCornwallis valleys, and the six rivers flowing into Minas, and thehundreds of fertile farms and the picturesque seaports lying almost attheir feet; and they had made also several side trips.
Priscilla had slaked her thirst for information by setting down in hernote-books many facts about the productiveness of the region, anddeclared that in future if she should meet a boy anxious to become afarmer she would send him to Nova Scotia rather than to the unknownWest.
"Ah, but there's no government land for him to take up here, and farmsdon't go for a song. Every inch is cultivated," rejoined Amy.
Thus at last, when Amy with her mother and her friends were ready toleave Wolfville and Grand Pre and their neighborhood, their minds werefilled not only with the history of Acadia and the memories of the past,but with pictures of the present that seemed likely to be lasting.
Mrs. Redmond, moreover, in balancing her accounts,--not a reckoning ofmoney, but of something more precious--counted as the greatest gain theimproveme
nt in health made by Priscilla and the improvement indisposition made by Martine.
Priscilla's gain was easily recognized. Even she herself could see itwhen she looked in the glass, and she was daily growing more and moreconscious of it. But Martine's gain,--perhaps she herself did notrealize it. Perhaps she had not known in the beginning how much sheneeded improving. Yet Mrs. Redmond, realizing it, had observed withpleasure that Martine was not nearly as self-willed, was not nearly asready to ridicule the foibles of others as at the beginning of the trip.Just as the angles of Priscilla's disposition were rounding off to acertain degree, so Martine was much less likely than formerly to fly offin a tangent. Although it could hardly be said that the two girlsunderstood each other perfectly, it was yet the fact that wishescollided far less often than in the past. When Priscilla yielded, shedid so with a smaller show of helpless resignation than had been herwont, and Martine no longer thought it clever to laugh at everysuggestion made by Priscilla.
As to Amy, her mother saw with pleasure that to her the summer had beenone of real refreshment. If she had been absolutely idle she could nothave been half as happy as now, with the sense of responsibility thatwas hers in having the care, or at least the partial care, of Martineand Priscilla; moreover the trip itself, opening as it did to her acountry of which previously she had known so little, was in every way adelight to her. It had shown to her a world of history and poetry withwhich she had not been familiar, even though she had known somethingabout it, and this in itself was worth much to her.