The Portland daily press., 1874-10-19
FoRr FAIRFIELD, Ocr. a, 1874.

FORT FAIRFIELD, OcT. IA, 1874.
The peace which followed the Revolutionary
war about ninety years since, was the signal
for fresh energy in the settlement of the west.
ern and middle sections of Maine and those
parts adjacent the coast. The same years, too,
witnessed the settlement of few families on
that part of the banks of the St. John river
where it attains its most northerly point, now
known as the town of Madawaska. In the
former case the security of which peace was
the harbinger, infused new life into the set.
tlement of the state. In the other case, the
few families that struggled up the St. John
nearly three hundred miles from its source
and nearly one hundred and fifty beyond civ
ilization into the unbroken forest, were es-
Gaping from white men who had for nearly
half century hunted and prosecuted them as
if they had been wild beasts beset by cruel saw
ages. The few families have now increased to
5000 souls, scattered for seventy miles along
the river on the American side and as many
more within British territory.
The outlines of the cruel story of the expul-
sion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia is we'll
known to the general reader. In his Evange-
line, Longfellow has told the pathetic story of
this people and the unparalleled barbarity of
their English rulers in their fendish attempt
to blot out colony of $4,000 people by driving
families from their homes. sending them to
divers and distant! destinations and scattering
the members of households SO that it might be
impossible for them to meet again. For par
i'm in ~,
there can be no excuse even if the victims were
savages. That it should be perpetrated upon
the Acadians, = quiet, peaceful and frugal peo-
pie, can hardly be conceived at the present
time except as the result of the refined malice
of rulers who delight in the darkest deeds and
the greatest woe.
Among the first settlers of Nova Scotia
were the French from Normandy. They
were toiling to establish a colony on
soil of that country while the fathers
of New England were laying the foun-
dations of theocracy in Massachusetts. Then
Nova Scotia belonged to the French. A CEN
tury of wars between the British and French
crowns followed. At length the former became
masters of the country. When this came
about the British undertook to compel the Aca.
dians 10 take the oath of allegiance to their
crown. This the Acadians would not do be-
cause of their scrupulous adhesion to the idea
that once subject of the French crown was to
always be Que. After some time the matter
was adjusted by compact to the effect that
the Acadians should be regarded as neutrals.
This did not last long. The British charged
that the Acadians did not maintain their neu-
trality. In all Nova Scotia the Acadans we're
tho most flourishing colony and occupied sew
eral OF the most fertile sections of the country
by an extensive system of dikes, thousands of
acres of fertile land had been rescued from the
sea, and broad acres produced fabulous crops
and nurtured focks and herds. Their frugali-
ty, their isolation from the world
and the constant wars hal had a ten
dencJ to develop their simple tastes
and entirely absolve them from dependence up
on foreign peoples There was no need for
courts, for crimes were unknown or very rare.
Disputes were settled by the elders, and the
church ruled instead of the state Real misery
was unknown; all labored; all were contented
and happy Indeed, if we are to believe the his.
torian of the time, the Acadians were society
OF brethren every individual of which was
equally ready to give and to receive what he
deemed the common right of mankind
In 1866 the British authorities. as the result
of long deliberation, concluded to disperse the
Acadians among the British provinces all along
the Atlantic coast. Accordingly the first of
September the male inhabitants of the various
villages were notified by a vague proclamation
to meet at their churches. In some villages the
order was strictly complied with. Col. Wins
low at Grand Pre-, and his subo ordinates else
whore, at these meetings informed the i'll fated
people that their estates were forfeited to the
crown, and that in few days they would be
taken to unknown parts, permitted to carry
nothing but the little money they possessed and
very few personal effects. Six days after this
(Sept. 10th, 1861 announcement the embarka-
tion was begun. The execution of the cruel
edict was rendered more barbarous by the off,
GERS to whom it was entrusted. Families were
scattered by design that they might never meet
again. A large part of the outraged people es-
capped, and in order to force them from the
country their houses were burned. Of the 49,
900 inhabitants of Acadia about one half were
driven on board the transports and taken to va
rious ports ON the Atlantic coast from Boston to
Savannah, and there turned out into the world
without money, among strangers speaking a
strange tongue. Many of those exiled found
their way back to Nova Scotia, but the greater
part were lost forever as distinct people
Many of those who seoreted themselves in the
forests and took refuge among the Indians
found their way by degrees along the coast to
the st. John river. Step by step this i'll fated
people were driven back into the wilderness by
their foes More than hundred years since a
band of them reached point on the st. John
above Fredericton. Here settlement was
made-farms were begun and the industry of
the exies was crowned with success for sea-
sou. At length, about the time of the close Of
the war for American Independence, "a company
of discharged British soldiers claimed the land
occupied by the Acadans as their property by
virtue of grant by Great Britain, and once
more these wretched people were compelled to
leave their homes and much of their property
and seek another resting place. They toiled
up the st. John river until. as before stated,
they reached Its most northerly limit, where
the broad intervales doubtless reminded them
- S-~S~~
sides of the river the new colony was estab-
lished.
BY the Ashburton treaty of 1912, the French
settlements on the western bank of the st. John
were ceded to the United States and became q
part of the state of Maine. Along the river,
the settlement is the most dense of any of the
rural towns in the state. Indeed, from the
point ON the river where it becomes the bound
ary line, to Fort Kent, distance of 55 miles,
there is not half mile of forest along the road.
The farms have been divided by fathers to
sons until the lots are not over thirty rods on
the front but extend back mile and half
The condition and prospects of the NADIA
waska people, will be the subject for another
letter. The balance of this article will be de-
voted to brief recital of the occurrences at
tending the visit of Gov. Dingley to this inter-