The neutral French;

Front matter

THE

NEUTRAL FRENCH;

OR,

Dedication

To the Hon. John Fairfield, late Governor of Maine, this work is most respectfully dedicated by his grateful friend, the Author, not only as a tribute of esteem for his public and private virtues, but a small acknowledgment of his politeness in facilitating her inquiries into the history of the interesting people of whom it treats.

The Author indulges the hope; that the deep sympathy in their wrongs and Unmerited afflictions, domestic as well as national, expressed to her by one who is an enemy to oppression in every form, and an example in all the endearing relations of social life, will not be lessened by the perusal of the story in which she has attempted to embody their history.

Preface

In the following traditionary Tale, a very imperfect narration of which has come to the author of this, the reader will perceive the attempt to embody the history of a people long since extinct as a nation, though found still, in scattered fragments, in various parts of the British provinces in North America, in the " disputed territory," and sometimes incorporated with the Indian tribes.

In giving a history of the forcible expulsion of the Acadians, or Neutral French, from the province of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, we shall be compelled to dwell upon scenes to which the history of the civilized world affords no parallel. The cruel sufferings of the modern Greeks, under the ruthless Turks, bear no affinity to it. The Greeks were tortured and almost exterminated by Mahomedans, persons professing a creed that sanctions deeds of blood, that despises all other of every form of religion, and that classes Christians with dogs. The Turkish government, too, were dealing with subjects in open rebellion, and the outrages were perpetrated in the heat of battle.

In the late history of Poland, Russia dealt with an ever-threatening foe, a people hostile and implacable to them ; a people who, though possessed of many noble characteristics, were yet fierce and warlike, brave and persevering ; and who, taking the sword, had to perish with the sword. Not so the hapless Acadians, the peaceful, gentle, and long-enduring inhabitants of Nova Scotia. The injuries they sustained were inflicted in cold blood — in open and shameless violation of treaties, most solemnly guaranteeing to them protection, their liberties as freemen, the free exercise of their religion, and the protection of their property.

1*

VI PREFACE.

It is painful to dwell upon such scenes, though perhaps salutary. If there is no gratitude in republics, there is no good faith or honesty in monarchies. The throne, it appears, is constantly surrounded by a set of cormorants, whom nothing can satisfy, and Grant after Grant is obliged to be dispensed until there is nothing more to give, except the privilege of plundering one another ; that is, the privilege to the strong to plunder the weak. The rapacity of the colonists had not only, in many instances, obtained large Grants of land in the new world, but was still desiring more; and the credit of plundering and dispersing the people we are speaking of, for the purpose of obtaining their lands, is very generally accorded them. No possible excuse can, however, be made for the British Government in permitting such an outrage, such a violation of all rules of justice, equity, and humanity.

It is useless, at this time of day, to pretend that a few interested and avaricious individuals were alone culpable in the affairs of the Neutral French, for full proof even yet exists, that they did what was done by the authority of the English King, George the Second, and under his hand and seal ; and that when, after the deed was completed, and the remnant of those who survived drew up a memorial of their sufferings in the land whither they were banished, and sent it on to his successor, George the Third, it was rejected with cool indifference, and they left to perish, or exist by the charities of those they were among, as chance might direct.

In collecting the facts given in the historical part of this book, the author has been much assisted by reference to the manuscript papers in the library of the " Massachusetts Historical Society," to which she had access, and was politely permitted not only to peruse, but take notes from, and for which she takes this opportunity of tendering them her very sincere thanks. Some facts have been gained from William Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester, who has lately lectured on this subject before the " Rhode Island Historical Society." His lectures contained a vast deal of information, and some excellent remarks. Some other facts, also, have been obtained from the kindness and research of Mr. Williamson, author of the " History of Maine." From Halliburton we have

PREFACE. Vll

drawn largely ; and by the politeness of Mr. Bigelow, Secretary of State for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have been assisted to obtain from the papers in his office some of their later history.

In treating of the Indian character in our story, it will be seen that we have looked but little on the dark side of the picture; the story did not require it, and their deeds of blood are too well known to need the recital of them here. The fact that they were almost uniformly kind to the French, the Indians accounted for by saying " it was because they never cheated them, and always fulfilled their contracts."

We cannot, however, leave the subject of the Indians without reverting to the expressions of pity and sympathy so often bestowed upon them by our neighbors on the other side of the border, in view of the late arrangement for removing them to the West by the Government of the United States. Whether the arrangement may prove wise or unwise, as respects the safety of the white inhabitants, time alone can show. But as it respects the humanity of the measure towards themselves, we have ever been satisfied of its principle. The tribes in the vicinity of white settlements were fast degenerating, and seemed, in most instances, to have adopted all the vices, without any of the virtues, of their white neighbors. Those who were about half civilized, were, in general, some of the most slothful, filthy, and disgusting part of the population. It was thought, by most people, that the Indian character had fast deteriorated, and as their numbers seemed to dwindle in proportion, that, unless some plan could be contrived to preserve them as a people, and where they would not be abridged of all their former pleasures and habits, they must inevitably be extinct in a few centuries. Hundreds of poor white families would have rejoiced to have been the subjects of such a provision as was made for them in their removal. They were not robbed of their possessions, as the full value of them was given in good lands in the 'fertile valleys of the West. They were conducted to then] by a safe escort, every facility offered them for cultivating them, and a year's provision found on lands that, with slight labor, would produce two crops a year. The greatest

Vlll PREFACE.

care was taken to have all the members of families go together, and for their personal comfort while on the road. They are allowed to govern themselves in their respective tribes, and yet are under the protection of the General Government. Every facility is given the benevolent missionary to minister among them, and to all others whom kindness and humanity impel to aid them.

And for all this, shall we be accused of barbarity ? And by those, too, who have driven an innocent, confiding, and unoffending people into banishment, stripped of their property without remuneration, separated wantonly from each other, driven among a strange people, lighted from their native shores by the blaze of their own dwellings, and left unsuccored and unprovided for, either to perish with want or be relieved by the charities of strangers 1, We think for one that the charge, though baseless in itself, would come better from some other quarter.

" But/' say my English readers, " there are your slaves." True, and who made them slaves in the first place 1 Who entailed this curse upon our land, and taught us we could not do without it ? Who resisted the remonstrances of the people of Virginia, and other colonies, not to impose them upon the white population, and continue to inundate them by fresh importations, many, many years since ? It is hard to compel people to adopt customs, and when habit has made them almost indispensable, to compel them to drop them, and that too because those who first introduced them, afterwards, in some freak of benevolence, forbid them, and begin to call them hard names; by the way, the very worst way ever taken to convince any one of their errors.

We are not advocates for the principle of slavery ; on the contrary, we think the first man that ever brought slaves here, yea, the second and the third, ought to be condemned ; but we cry the mercy of our English neighbors, who have so much to say on the subject, and entreat them not to compare our southern slaveholders to theirs of the West Indies, from whose ruthless and bloo 1-stained hands (by their own account) they have just taken the lash. There is a difference in the people of the two regions. The one, proud, aristocratic, and domineering by nature, and from precept and example. The other,

PREFACE. IX

highminded and gentlemanly indeed, but altogether different, from cherishing the principles of liberty, and feeling that every other gentleman is his equal. The southern planter of the United States resides on his plantation, among his slaves, entirely surrounded by them, and considering himself as the head of a great family, between whom and himself he wishes there should be a bond of affection as well as of interest. Now it stands to reason, that, exposed as they must be to the revengeful passions of their slaves, if ill used, that they would endeavor to use them well, and make their bondage easy, and their yoke light: the lives of the whole family would not be safe an hour were it otherwise. The West India planter, on the contrary, seldom resides on his plantation, leaving the direction entirely to mercenary overseers; and when, for a term of years, they sometimes consent to remain -there, it is to hurry the business of amassing property, that he may return and spend it in England, while the overtasked and overworked slave derives no benefit from the visit, and consequently feels no gratitude, no tie of affection. The slaves of the United States, for the most part belonging in a family from generation to generation, have the same kind of feelings for the families of their owners, that they describe the old servants and retainers on an estate in England to fp*l for the owners. The name of slave is, to be sure, very shocking; but names do not alter things, and it is a certain fact, that in the amount of time bestowed in labor, they do not work as many hours in the twen>y-four as our mechanics, or those who work in manufactories; and as respects their "state of moral degradation," their morals, as a body, are much better than those of the free colored population at the North ; and it takes about a dozen house-servants, who are slaves, at the South, to do what one good white servant performs at the North. Thus much is true ; the inference, of course, every one is at liberty to make.

We have wandered from our subject, and we beg pardon. We were going to say that our readers are at perfect liberty to believe any part of the Tale here narra* ted, embellished, if they choose, it is a matter of great indifference to us; but not so with the historical facts .connected with it. We shall give in it a true, though

X PREFACE.

faint description of that people whose sufferings and virtues we are about to commemorate — of their oppressions, persecutions, privations, exactions, and so forth, previous to, and at the time of, their banishment from their beloved and beautiful Acadia, and as far as we can come at the particulars of their desolation, suffering, and abandonment after their arrival in the States, the thousandth part of which can never be known. Their stories, for the most part, have gone down to the grave with them, and will never be rescued from oblivion.

Alas ! alas ! for a people once so happy, so comfortable, so innocent and unoffending ; for a people w ho, since the days of the patriarchs, have been the only families of believers who have lived in perfect simplicity, without any of those cravings after riches that mars the peace, distracts the mind, and sullies the conscience of all other people upon the civilized earth. The goadings of ambition and envy, as a necessary accompaniment to he thirst for gain, were unknown to them. Blessed privilege! happy people ! could it be possible that in such a corrupt place as our earth, you could have flourished long ? Could he, who looked upon the Garden of paradise, when our first parents were innocent and happy, with an envious eye, have bo™e to look on you'?

There is, however, a prevailing belief, and a very gratifying one, that the author of this will be a pioneer in hunting up the history of this much-injured people; and she cannot but flatter herself that some Paulding perhaps an Irving, whose means of information mav ie more extensive than her own, may drag forth from toe lumber of ages, some important facts connected with Jiem, as yet unsung, and present them in a fairer form.

y

LIBRARY | gggmowj TRODUC

Perhaps there is not a place on the habitable globe, where the foot of civilization ever trod, of which mankind in general have such an erroneous idea as of the province of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland. Within a very few years, indeed, it has been a more fashionable trip than formerly. The few strangers who go there, however, usually go by water to Halifax, and back again, during the period of midsummer, and generally know as much about the country after their return as before they started.

With the exception of its inhabitants, or rather the more cultivated and intellectual part of them, who have taste to admire the beauties of natural scenery, patience to investigate, and judgment to appreciate its internal riches and immense resources, and a few casual visiters from the mother country, and the knowledge possessed by the banished Acadian, Nova Scotia has as yet been an unknown land, a place which the ignorant of every country seem to consider as the extremity of the north pole ; and hence the saying, " cold as Nova Scotia," u barren as Nova Scotia ; " and when some poor, houseless vagabond is seen to pass, that " he looks as though he were bound to Nova Scotia;" or of some hardened villain, who is a nuisance to the community, that " he ought to be banished to Nova Scotia."

Even in this enlightened age, when the facilities of travelling and voyaging have brought us nearer and made us familiar with almost every people under heaven, the ignorant prejudice respecting this province still remains ; and the bare mention of it, in most companies, will set their teeth to chattering.

Whether the first word, Nova, (new,) being translated north, as we are confident it very generally is, is the cause of the chilling associations connected with it, we are unable to say. Perhaps the stern despotism which has always been exercised there, since the English sat foot upon the soil, has had some share in producing them.

The memory of the thousands of our brave countrymen who have perished in the dungeons and prison-ships at Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, during the war of the Revolution, is yet rife in the mind of every American; and there is nothing in prison discipline remembered with so much abhorrence, unless it is the accaldama of Dartmoor, or the black-hole of Calcutta.

The enactment of the cruelties practised in Nova Scotia, however, towards the French or our own helpless citizens, who have been so unfortunate as to be dragged into bondage, has not made the place bleak or sterile. The grandest scenes in nature have sometimes been the theatre of the most horrible tragedies ; and though, by association, they may in a measure lose their charms, yet the face of the country is not changed : and this province is, for the most part, eminently beautiful in its scenery.

But, though there is much to exasperate the feelings of an American in the history of Nova Scotia, since the period of 1775, and of the French prior to that time, yet there is that of its history in relation to the Acadians, that, if it could all be told, would strike the whole world with horror. The sufferings of imprisoned Americans, cold, starving, and expiring from disease and filth and noxious air, would be almost forgotten, if once the whole story of the former inhabitants, the rightful owners of the soil, the much-injured Acadians, could be told.

To tell that story, in all its revolting details, is not in our power ; nor is it in the power of any person now living. The actual sufferers have long since, it is believed, all gone to the shades. The people, as a people, are extinct ; the records of them, in what was their country, industriously destroyed ; and, as far as possible, all knowledge of their former state and possessions suppressed. We speak of the public records of the British provinces. It was not until within a very few years that they have found a place in history.

About ten years since, Judge Halliburton, of Nova Scotia, son of Doctor Halliburton, formerly of Newport, Rhode Island, published a history of Nova Scotia, in which he has made mention of them, and given something of their political history, with more truth, candor, and independence, than could have been expected from such a loyal subject of the crown of Great Britain. Much credit indeed is due him for thus dragging forth from the lumber of ages, the interesting particulars he has given, as well as for the manner of relating it. The manner in which he became possessed of most of the facts, proves most incontestably, that it was the design of the British Colonial Government at least, that all memory of this nefarious and dark transaction should be forgotten. Hence he himself avers he could find no existing records of them in the whole country. That scattered remnants of them still exist in different parts of the province, where they have sometimes wandered back from the States, or emerged from the deep recesses of the forests, where they had been concealed for a term of years, he affirms; and indeed mentions one of the original stock, an aged female, whom he had seen, and who being of an age to remember the transactions attending their expulsion, and the almost superhuman sufferings of those who remained, thus concealing themselves, of whom she was one, gave him a most affecting oral account.

But the principal means of information was the manuscript now in possession of the " Massachusetts Historical Society," where, as we before mentioned, we drew much of our own.

It is worthy of remark, that Halliburton is far from attempting any thing like a justification of the government for their persecution of this unoffending people, though he appears to seek most industriously for some palliating circumstances, and takes care, in his censures of the government, to always specify " the colonial government." But we will not anticipate him. All that is important to our story will be found in its proper place.

Nor is it in our place to give, in detail, a history of the conquest of the country, or a minute description of its features. Suffice it to say, that Nova Scotia was, for the most part, a beautiful though sterile tract, until the superior training of the French had brought the low lands into a state of cultivation, with a number of excellent harbors, exceedingly well watered with lakes and rivers; not mountainous, the highest hills in no part exceeding six hundred feet, with beautiful intervals on the rivers, and diked lands on the coast ; that the climate is much like that of New England, the winters a little longer perhaps, and in the interior rather more severe ; that the' heat of summer is allayed by refreshing seabreezes, and that most of the fruits of the temperate zone attain the same perfection as in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and also the other products of the soil ; that the country now abounds with fine gardens, orchards, and productive fields, and the rivers yield plenty of excellent fish. There are also many very valuable mines. The coal mines, particularly, appear inexhaustible, and are an immense source of revenue. And most of the comforts of life, we believe, may be enjoyed there in as" great a degree as in most other portions of the globe. We speak of the country, without any reference to the government, of course. The climate is proverbially healthy, except for consumptive persons, many of the diseases fatal in warm latitudes being unknown here.

It will be recollected by those acquainted with the early history of the continent of North America, that the province of Nova Scotia was originally settled by the French. William Lincoln, Esq. observes, that " the settlements of the nations here, French and English, were almost simultaneous." It does appear, however, that the French had the precedence, and were in reality the first that had the honor of planting a colony in North America.

Halliburton treats the account of a French settlement being formed by the Baron de Lery in 1518, as questionable; but, by reference to Goodrich, the author of American Geography, — and the greatest author of his class now perhaps existing, — the reader will perceive the fact established of a "French settlement on the St. Lawrence as early as the year 1524 by James Cartin, and that settlements were soon after formed in Canada and Nova Scotia." And although Queen Elizabeth granted in 1579 a patent " for discovering and occupying such remote heathen countries as were not actually possessed by any Christian people," we cannot perceive how such grant could trench upon the possessions of the French in America. Novertheless, it was upon the ground of this patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and landing at the harbor of St. Johns fifty-nine years after the country had been actually settled by the French, that the English principally grounded their absurd claim to the continent of North America! though they couple with it the discovery of Cabot in 1497, and the residence of Sir John Gilbert on the coast of Maine in 1607, who claimed the country in behalf of, or as heir to Sir Humphry Gilbert.

In addition to the claims of the French, it appears they were trading and fishing at Newfoundland many years previous to their settlements in America, and although there is no authentic account of any settlements on the coast, yet the presumption is vSry strong.

As early as the year 1603, we find a settlement commenced by the French in Nova Scotia, admitted by the English, they having discovered it in some of their fishing expeditions to the Banks of Newfoundland. The French the name of " Acadia" to all the land lying east of the Penobscot ; consequently Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and a part of the now State of Maine, constituted the country called Acadia. M. Demonts was appointed Governor-General by Henry IV. It was not until five years after that the English commenced their settlement in Virginia, which was the first place, it will be remembered, where they attempted a colony. And now began the disputes between the Powers, as to who had the prior claim to this continent ; a contention that has repeatedly deluged the country in blood, almost before it was reclaimed from the wilderness. France resisting the encroachments of the English, believing she had the best right to the country ; and England protesting her own claim upon the ridiculous assumption that they had the right of discovery, and that one * John Cabot, or his sons, they could not exactly tell which, had discovered the continent about one hundred years before. This Cabot was a Venitian, in the employ of the British Government, who received a commission from King James to sail on a voyage of discovery, and who professed to have discovered land, which was afterwards supposed to be the eastern coast of America. The accounts of this discovery were, in the first place, very vague and contradictory. The English sometimes asserting it was the father, and sometimes that it was the son ; but, at all events, they were positive (more than a hundred years after) that it was one or the other of them. The discovery, real or pretended, was made, they asserted, in 1497. And although, if their assertion were undeniable, it was a most preposterous claim, and of no sort of consequence, being more than one hundred years before its occupancy by them ; yet, ridiculous as it was, it was the only thing they could think of upon which to found a plea of justification for a series of aggressions disgraceful to any civilized nation.

The commission to this John Cabot and his three sons is still to be seen in the British archives, and being so infinitely diverting in itself, and withal edifying to us of plain republican capacities, we cannot forbear transcribing the heads of it.

His Majesty's commission, then, gave to this " John Cabot and his three sons, permission to sail to all countries east, west, and north, under British colors, with five ships of any burden he might choose, on their own (the Cabots') proper cost and charges, to seek and discover all the islands, regions, and provinces of'heathens unknown to Christians. His Majesty reserving to himself the dominion of all, and requiring one-fifth of the gains after the expenses of the voyage should be deducted."

This. was royal patronage with a vengeance. The question naturally arises, gains of what ? Why, of the plunder of those heathen nations, if they found any, to be sure.

It appears that the two Powers continued to increase their settlements in a prosperous manner ; and one would have supposed that the distance from Virginia to Nova Scotia was quite sufficient to have kept them asunder. But the enterprise of the French, and the avarice of the English, soon annihilated time and space. The English monarch, too, had given to two companies the grant of land in America from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and this grant actually trenched upon prior grants made by the King of France. To go back.

The settlements of Acadia continued to progress for a period of about ten years after the coming of the English. The inhabitants devoted themselves principally to agricultural pursuits, and lived in the most friendly manner with each other, and with the savage nations by whom they were surrounded. They had employed no means to subjugate them, but observed the strictest integrity in their dealings with them, and strove to civilize them through the medium of the gospel. In their attempts to christianize the savages, they were eminently successful. True, they were Catholics; they erected the standard of the cross wherever they planted their footsteps, and they attended to most of those outward observances so obnoxious to Protestants ; but their zeal for the salvation, as well as for the temporal comfort of their savage neighbors, was worthy of all praise. And who shall dare to say their labors were not acceptable ? Many of those savage warriors, upon the first proclamation of the gospel there, at once laid down the weapons of war, confessed their sins at the foot of the cross, received baptism, and sought absolution and forgiveness through a crucified Saviour, and at the hands of the priest whose authorized ambassador they humbly conceived him to be.

The island of Mount Desert, where one of those happy settlements of the Acadians was established, was destined to be the first object of British rapacity.

In the year 1613, a commander of a British ship, whose name was Argal, had accompanied a fleet of eleven sail upon a fishing and trading voyage to the coast, having heard of these French settlements. Although the two nations were then at peace, he immediately resolved to attack them. Proceeding along the coast, he at length discovered the settlement at Mount Desert. Tradition says it was a beautiful little place, and that the air of quiet and serenity, and feeling of security that reigned within, might have disarmed savages. They had a little fort, for in those days, as now, there were pirates, and such a defence was deemed necessary. In the harbor quietly lay a ship and bark at anchor, unsuspicious of danger. Into these the English commander fired, the first salutation, and then seized all alive on board as prisoners ; destroyed their fort, and shot the priest, who, finding them attacked in this unheard-of and remorseless manner, endeavored to arouse the inhabitants to defend themselves. 2*

They shot him immediately, and the affrighted inhabitants finding them landing, fled to the woods. The island was then taken possession of by the British in the name of the King of England, and the cross broken to pieces.