Montcalm and Wolfe — Chapter 4, Part 2

[Footnote 83: _Le Ministre à Desherbiers, 23 Mai, 1750; Ibid.

, 31 Mai, 1750_.

] When Count Raymond took command at Louisbourg, he was instructed, under the royal hand, to give particular attention to the affairs of Acadia, especially in two points,--the management of the Indians, and the encouraging of Acadian emigration to countries under French rule.

"His Majesty," says the document, "has already remarked that the savages have been most favorably disposed.

It is of the utmost importance that no means be neglected to keep them so.

The missionaries among them are in a better position than anybody to contribute to this end, and His Majesty has reason to be satisfied with the pains they take therein.

The Sieur de Raymond will excite these missionaries not to slacken their efforts;

but he will warn them at the same time so to contain their zeal as not to compromise themselves with the English, and give just occasion of complaint."

[84] That is, the King orders his representative to encourage the missionaries in instigating their flocks to butcher English settlers, but to see that they take care not to be found out.

The injunction was hardly needed.

"Monsieur Desherbiers," says a letter of earlier date, "has engaged Abbé Le Loutre to distribute the usual presents among the savages, and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his hands an additional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and ball, to be given them in case they harass the English at Halifax.

This missionary is to induce them to do so."

[85] In spite of these efforts, the Indians began to relent in their hostilities; and when Longueuil became provisional governor of Canada, he complained to the Minister that it was very difficult to prevent them from making peace with the English, though Father Germain was doing his best to keep them on the war-path.

[86] La Jonquière, too, had done his best, even to the point of departing from his original policy of allowing no soldier or Acadian to take part with them.

He had sent a body of troops under La Corne, an able partisan officer, to watch the English frontier; and in the same vessel was sent a supply of "merchandise, guns, and munitions for the savages and the Acadians who may take up arms with them; and the whole is sent under pretext of trading in furs with the savages."

[87] On another occasion La Jonquière wrote: "In order that the savages may do their part courageously, a few Acadians, dressed and painted in their way, could join them to strike the English.

I cannot help consenting to what these savages do, because we have our hands tied [_by the peace_], and so can do nothing ourselves.

Besides, I do not think that any inconvenience will come of letting the Acadians mingle among them, because if they [_the Acadians_] are captured, we shall say that they acted of their own accord."

[88] In other words, he will encourage them to break the peace; and then, by means of a falsehood, have them punished as felons.

Many disguised Acadians did in fact join the Indian war-parties; and their doing so was no secret to the English.

"What we call here an Indian war," wrote Hopson, successor of Cornwallis, "is no other than a pretence for the French to commit hostilities on His Majesty's subjects."

[Footnote 84: _Mémoire du Roy pour servir d'Instruction au Comte de Raymond, 24 Avril, 1751_.

] [Footnote 85: _Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 15 Août, 1749_.

] [Footnote 86: _Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1752_.

] [Footnote 87: _Bigot au Ministre, 1749_.

] [Footnote 88: _Dépêches de la Jonquière, 1 Mai, 1751_.

See Appendix B. ] At length the Indians made peace, or pretended to do so.

The chief of Le Loutre's mission, who called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came to Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they all affixed their totems to a solemn treaty.

In the next summer they returned with ninety or a hundred warriors, were well entertained, presented with gifts, and sent homeward in a schooner.

On the way they seized the vessel and murdered the crew.

This is told by Prévost, intendant at Louisbourg, who does not say that French instigation had any part in the treachery.

[89] It is nevertheless certain that the Indians were paid for this or some contemporary murder; for Prévost, writing just four weeks later, says: "Last month the savages took eighteen English scalps, and Monsieur Le Loutre was obliged to pay them eighteen hundred livres, Acadian money, which I have reimbursed him."

[90] [Footnote 89: _Prévost au Ministre, 12 Mars, 1753; Ibid.

, 17 July_, 1753. Prévost was _ordonnateur_, or intendant, at Louisbourg.

The treaty will be found in full in _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 683. ] [Footnote 90: _Prévost au Ministre, 16 Août_, 1753. ] From the first, the services of this zealous missionary had been beyond price.

Prévost testifies that, though Cornwallis does his best to induce the Acadians to swear fidelity to King George, Le Loutre keeps them in allegiance to King Louis, and threatens to set his Indians upon them unless they declare against the English.

"I have already," adds Prévost, "paid him 11,183 livres for his daily expenses; and I never cease advising him to be as economical as possible, and always to take care not to compromise himself with the English Government."

[91] In consequence of "good service to religion and the state," Le Loutre received a pension of eight hundred livres, as did also Maillard, his brother missionary on Cape Breton.

"The fear is," writes the Colonial Minister to the Governor of Louisbourg, "that their zeal may carry them too far.

Excite them to keep the Indians in our interests, but do not let them compromise us.

Act always so as to make the English appear as aggressors."

[92] [Footnote 91: _Ibid.

, 22 Juillet_, 1750. ] [Footnote 92: _Le Ministre au Comte de Raymond, 21 Juillet_, 1752. It is curious to compare these secret instructions, given by the Minister to the colonial officials, with a letter which the same Minister, Rouillé, wrote ostensibly to La Jonquière, but which was really meant for the eye of the British Minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to whom it was shown in proof of French good faith.

It was afterwards printed, long with other papers, in a small volume called _Précis des Faits, avec Pièces justificatives_ which was sent by the French Government to all the courts of Europe to show that the English alone were answerable for the war.

The letter, it is needless to say, breathes the highest sentiments of international honor.

] All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or another, seem to have used their influence to prevent the inhabitants from taking the oath, and to persuade them that they were still French subjects.

Some were noisy, turbulent, and defiant; others were too tranquil to please the officers of the Crown.

A missionary at Annapolis is mentioned as old, and therefore inefficient; while the curé at Grand Pré, also an elderly man, was too much inclined to confine himself to his spiritual functions.

It is everywhere apparent that those who chose these priests, and sent them as missionaries into a British province, expected them to act as enemies of the British Crown.

The maxim is often repeated that duty to religion is inseparable from the duty to the King of France.

The Bishop of Quebec desired the Abbé de l'Isle-Dieu to represent to the court the need of more missionaries to keep the Acadians Catholic and French; but, he adds, there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be required to take an oath to do nothing contrary to the interests of the King of Great Britain.

[93] It is a wonder that such a pledge was not always demanded.

It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of Girard, priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of instigating his flock to disaffection, had been sent prisoner to Halifax, but released on taking an oath in the above terms.

Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at Quebec that his parishioners wanted to submit to the English, and that he, having sworn to be true to the British King, could not prevent them.

"Though I don't pretend to be a casuist," writes Longueuil, "I could not help answering him that he is not obliged to keep such an oath, and that he ought to labor in all zeal to preserve and increase the number of the faithful."

Girard, to his credit, preferred to leave the colony, and retired to Isle St. Jean.

[94] [Footnote 93: L'Isle-Dieu, _Mémoire sur l'État actuel des Missions, 1753_ (1754?

).

] [Footnote 94: _Longueuil au Ministre, 27 Avril, 1752_.

] Cornwallis soon discovered to what extent the clergy stirred their flocks to revolt; and he wrote angrily to the Bishop of Quebec: "Was it you who sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs?

and is it for their good that he excites these wretches to practise their cruelties against those who have shown them every kindness?

The conduct of the priests of Acadia has been such that by command of his Majesty I have published an Order declaring that if any one of them presumes to exercise his functions without my express permission he shall be dealt with according to the laws of England."

[95] [Footnote 95: _Cornwallis to the Bishop of Quebec, 1 Dec.

1749_.

] The English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians the exercise of their religion, at length conceived the idea of replacing the French priests by others to be named by the Pope at the request of the British Government.

This, becoming known to the French, greatly alarmed them, and the Intendant at Louisbourg wrote to the Minister that the matter required serious attention.

[96] It threatened, in fact, to rob them of their chief agents of intrigue; but their alarm proved needless, as the plan was not carried into execution.

[Footnote 96: _Daudin, prêtre, à Prévost, 23 Oct.

1753. Prévost au Ministre, 24 Nov.

1753_.

] The French officials would have been better pleased had the conduct of Cornwallis been such as to aid their efforts to alienate the Acadians;

and one writer, while confessing the "favorable treatment" of the English towards the inhabitants, denounces it as a snare.

[97] If so, it was a snare intended simply to reconcile them to English rule.

Nor was it without effect.

"We must give up altogether the idea of an insurrection in Acadia," writes an officer of Cape Breton.

"The Acadians cannot be trusted; they are controlled by fear of the Indians, which leads them to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclinations are English.

They will yield to their interests; and the English will make it impossible that they should either hurt them or serve us, unless we take measures different from those we have hitherto pursued."

[98] [Footnote 97: _Mémoire à présenter à la Cour, 1753_.

] [Footnote 98: _Roma au Ministre, 11 Mars, 1750_.

] During all this time, constant efforts were made to stimulate Acadian emigration to French territory, and thus to strengthen the French frontier.

In this work the chief agent was Le Loutre.

"This priest," says a French writer of the time, "urged the people of Les Mines, Port Royal [_Annapolis_], and other places, to come and join the French, and promised to all, in the name of the Governor, to settle and support them for three years, and even indemnify them for any losses they might incur; threatening if they did not do as he advised, to abandon them, deprive them of their priests, have their wives and children carried off, and their property laid waste by the Indians."

[99] Some passed over the isthmus to the shores of the gulf, and others made their way to the Strait of Canseau.

Vessels were provided to convey them, in the one case to Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward Island, and in the other to Isle Royale, called by the English, Cape Breton.

Some were eager to go; some went with reluctance; some would scarcely be persuaded to go at all.

"They leave their homes with great regret," reports the Governor of Isle St. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid, "and they began to move their luggage only when the savages compelled them."

[100] These savages were the flock of Abbé Le Loutre, who was on the spot to direct the emigration.

Two thousand Acadians are reported to have left the peninsula before the end of 1751, and many more followed within the next two years.

Nothing could exceed the misery of a great part of these emigrants, who had left perforce most of their effects behind.

They became disheartened and apathetic.

The Intendant at Louisbourg says that they will not take the trouble to clear the land, and that some of them live, like Indians, under huts of spruce-branches.

[101] The Governor of Isle St. Jean declares that they are dying of hunger.

[102] Girard, the priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than break his oath to the English, writes: "Many of them cannot protect themselves day or night from the severity of the cold.

Most of the children are entirely naked; and when I go into a house they are all crouched in the ashes, close to the fire.

They run off and hide themselves, without shoes, stockings, or shirts.

They are not all reduced to this extremity but nearly all are in want."

[103] Mortality among them was great, and would have been greater but for rations supplied by the French Government.

[Footnote 99: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_.

] [Footnote 100: _Bonaventure à Desherbiers, 26 Juin, 1751_.

] [Footnote 101: _Prévost au Ministre, 25 Nov.

1750_.

] [Footnote 102: _Bonaventure, ut supra_.

] [Footnote 103: _Girard à (Bonaventure?

), 27 Oct.

1753_.

] During these proceedings, the English Governor, Cornwallis, seems to have justified the character of good temper given him by Horace Walpole.

His attitude towards the Acadians remained on the whole patient and conciliatory.

"My friends," he replied to a deputation of them asking a general permission to leave the province, "I am not ignorant of the fact that every means has been used to alienate the hearts of the French subjects of His Britannic Majesty.

Great advantages have been promised you elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that your religion was in danger.

Threats even have been resorted to in order to induce you to remove to French territory.

The savages are made use of to molest you;

they are to cut the throats of all who remain in their native country, attached to their own interests and faithful to the Government.

You know that certain officers and missionaries, who came from Canada last autumn, have been the cause of all our trouble during the winter.

Their conduct has been horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience.

Their aim is to embroil you with the Government.

I will not believe that they are authorized to do so by the Court of France, that being contrary to good faith and the friendship established between the two Crowns."

What foundation there was for this amiable confidence in the Court of Versailles has been seen already.

"When you declared your desire to submit yourselves to another Government," pursues Cornwallis, "our determination was to hinder nobody from following what he imagined to be his interest.

We know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that a subject compelled to be so against his will is not far from being an enemy.

We confess, however, that your determination to go gives us pain.

We are aware of your industry and temperance, and that you are not addicted to any vice or debauchery.

This province is your country.

You and your fathers have cultivated it; naturally you ought yourselves to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Such was the design of the King, our master.

You know that we have followed his orders.

You know that we have done everything to secure to you not only the occupation of your lands, but the ownership of them forever.

We have given you also every possible assurance of the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion.

But I declare to you frankly that, according to our laws, nobody can possess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse to take the oath of allegiance to his King when required to do so.

You know very well that there are ill-disposed and mischievous persons among you who corrupt the others.

Your inexperience, your ignorance of the affairs of government, and your habit of following the counsels of those who have not your real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to seduce you.

In your petitions you ask for a general leave to quit the province.

The only manner in which you can do so is to follow the regulations already established, and provide yourselves with our passport.

And we declare that nothing shall prevent us from giving such passports to all who ask for them, the moment peace and tranquillity are re-established."

[104] He declares as his reason for not giving them at once, that on crossing the frontier "you will have to pass the French detachments and savages assembled there, and that they compel all the inhabitants who go there to take up arms" against the English.

How well this reason was founded will soon appear.

[Footnote 104: The above passages are from two address of Cornwallis, read to the Acadian deputies in April and May, 1750. The combined extracts here given convey the spirit of the whole.

See _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 185-190. ] Hopson, the next governor, described by the French themselves as a "mild and peaceable officer," was no less considerate in his treatment of the Acadians; and at the end of 1752 he issued the following order to his military subordinates: "You are to look on the French inhabitants in the same light as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the protection of the laws and government; for which reason nothing is to be taken from them by force, or any price set upon their goods but what they themselves agree to.

And if at any time the inhabitants should obstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's service may require of them, you are not to redress yourself by military force or in any unlawful manner, but to lay the case before the Governor and wait his orders thereon."

[105] Unfortunately, the mild rule of Cornwallis and Hopson was not always maintained under their successor, Lawrence.

[Footnote 105: _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 197. ] Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia and missionary to the Micmacs, was the most conspicuous person in the province, and more than any other man was answerable for the miseries that overwhelmed it.

The sheep of which he was the shepherd dwelt, at a day's journey from Halifax, by the banks of the River Shubenacadie, in small cabins of logs, mixed with wigwams of birch-bark.

They were not a docile flock;

and to manage them needed address, energy, and money,--with all of which the missionary was provided.

He fed their traditional dislike of the English, and fanned their fanaticism, born of the villanous counterfeit of Christianity which he and his predecessors had imposed on them.

Thus he contrived to use them on the one hand to murder the English, and on the other to terrify the Acadians; yet not without cost to the French Government; for they had learned the value of money, and, except when their blood was up, were slow to take scalps without pay.

Le Loutre was a man of boundless egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intense hatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped at nothing.

Towards the Acadians he was a despot; and this simple and superstitious people, extremely susceptible to the influence of their priests, trembled before him.

He was scarcely less masterful in his dealings with the Acadian clergy; and, aided by his quality of the Bishop's vicar-general, he dragooned even the unwilling into aiding his schemes.

Three successive governors of New France thought him invaluable, yet feared the impetuosity of his zeal, and vainly tried to restrain it within safe bounds.

The bishop, while approving his objects, thought his medicines too violent, and asked in a tone of reproof: "Is it right for you to refuse the Acadians the sacraments, to threaten that they shall be deprived of the services of a priest, and that the savages shall treat them as enemies?"

[106] "Nobody," says a French Catholic contemporary, "was more fit than he to carry discord and desolation into a country."

[107] Cornwallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel," and offered a hundred pounds for his head.

[108] [Footnote 106: _L'Évêque de Québec à Le Loutre_; translation in _Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, 240. ] [Footnote 107: _Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_.

]