New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-08-31
IN ACADIA.
CRUISE IN NORTHERN WATERS

| o.. bdWrenCe btaQn5 on tle one Sluo uaWkeeDuTy
metropolis of the Bretonese. bright and bnstling
town and haven. and Oh the other Port Mulgrave.
half-deserted fishing hamlet with few fishing
schooners lying about its docayins wharves.
| Hawkesbury faunts its white wooden facades and
| steeples with fine bravery, spreading quite
an ambitious area, climbing aud rolling beyond the
crest of the hill slope from the waters edge. where
small thicket of masts clustered and the black
| hull of the Boston steamer which makes weekly
| trips thither stretches its lazy length and unfurs
| its undulating smoke banner, while its sometime
rival across the water hides modestly in cogn of
sloping and winding shore and puts forth osten-
tatious claims to attention. It's of pride and
ambition is seemingly past, and although there
was fond local expectancy that the railroad would
do something to restore its ebblng activities it
proved to be illusory. The railroad has come long
since. It's whistle screams and its plume of cloud
and fire trails along the hill slope above twice or
thrice daily, but far commercial consequences
of Importance have ensued. Its trade was probably
never of such magnitude tha6 schooner load Of
mackerel more or less would not have produced
! an almost cOnvulsive effect upon the local market.
but it cings as fondly to the remombrances of its
prosperity il they had been OF Venetian ampli-
| tude and abundance. solitary warehouse stands
upon the solitary wharf a single street winds
along the water side and climbs the neighboring
terrain rectangularty and austerity of proportion,
toward which, as get my first sight Of it funeral
procession is slowly winding. Fronting the water
! and looking out upon our anchorage is o single
mansion of pretenson, but 1t Is deserted. weather
| Drowned, its windows broken and its doors nailed
fast, and few nibblng sheep and sobery observant
geese alone pervade its narrow outlying pleas
aunces 1t seems typo of the decay here prevail
ing. which is repeated in the stranded hulk of a
vessel lying on the beach like some dead
monster washed ashore by the waves, and in tho
scattered cottages shore which lean this way and
that at odd angles and are many of them apparently
| deserted.
Yet there is life in the picturesque little hamlet
Its shops. of which there are two or three drive
modest trade in fishing outfits. twine for nets,
| hooks, snkers tobacco cloth and various knick-
nackeres; there is the musical clink of black
smiths forge the coopers dry rat-tat sounds from
some hidden place by the water slde and there are
other slight and various murmurs OF industry The
| DOst-office is at times centre OF considerable
animation and is presided Over by clipper little
postmstress whom the arrival of our craft with its
| accompanying demands upon her official attention
| threw into state of almost disorderly activity.
There is a milliners shop with two three bonnets
| OF u courageous and heretofore unknown type of
architecture balanced upon standards behind its win
! dow, where few bright-co!ored ribands are like
| wise TEN ptngly displayed. Occasionally the OK team
eighboring farmer from the back country winds
| down the hill road, and and then the light
| flying buggy of some well-to-do resident goes
| whrling by. In some Of the cottage windows are
| boxes of flowers supervising q bright outside
| picture upon the DINNER interior one, and before
| Others are climbing vines sustained on lengths OK
| fishers Irvine running from the ground to the roof,
| Boniface, burly and bearded and with q trace OF
| Scotch in his accent, stands at the door Of his
hostelry within which is a single guest, wander
ing BrtOn with check suit, cork helmet and an
| abundance of angling rods who has dlsembarked
here from some passing vessel. and conteniplates
| experiment upon the trout Of the neghboring Lake
La Bras dor, on the other side of the channel.
Inside are a table, some chairs, a few ny-blown
newspapers a few photographic pictures against the
wall. signs of tobacconists and the like, wooden
settee with a somewhat fluffy cushion on one end OF
It and on tue other ndisputaby fluffy Skye
terrier full OF slumberous barks and much molested
by the local ny which Is of peculiar activity and
| molipnancy In one corner q small rack of shelves
containing an array of bottles of cheerful and con-
| yiyial proportions. imports that the austere
customs which prevail in the contiguous territory
! of Maine have no. yet established foothold among
the more liberal and freesprited inhabitants across
the border. There are boxes of cigars likewise.
tobacco I'D CuDeo anu puPciS ahu iN" Ni"s P'PN0'
which together exhaust tue visible provision OF the
means of hospitality made by the house There are
dormitories no doubt with high four-post bedsteads
recurring ladder to got into, and a refectory in
which the guest minded might expand with the
| unknown local fare, but we had no occasion TO
| investigate either of these departments OF the
| establishments The principal anxiety Of the host
seemed TO DO in reference to the mackerel nshing,
which, having come In no nearer relation WIN .he
fleets than that involved In passing then at a
| distance or whstling Mt them through the log TO
keep out OF the way, We were not IN position to
This is the land of the Acadians. From these
bright waters Gabriel and Evangeline sailed forth
a hundred and more years ago, their Journeylngs TO
| destined to so enduring and pathetic remein-
| brance. With these Also dispersed over the wide
world no man knew WHITTIER husband ana wife.
mother and daughter father and son, to see each
othor with earthly vision no more, Went torth
almost score of thousands OF these SIMPLE pious
| folk the tale of Gabriel and Evangellne repeated
again and again in the wanderings OF their sorrow-
! ful exile, the remembrance of them yet casting
| shadow on the midsummer brightness or the hill
sides and valleys which were once their home. Yet
the root of them was not entirely torn OUT OF tne
earth into which. nurtured by prayer and labor. nc
| had 80 deeply woven itself Inc day came IN
which the oppressor's hand was relaxed, and OF the
| dispersed wanderers many came back TO their old
homes where thor descendants stu ABIDE stlll
| speaking the same language. following the Same
faith. and preserving the virtue ana s,mpncity OF
| their predecessors doubt not many New Breton
village nesting amidst its valleys or percned up9n
| the margin of its lakes. preserves unchanged the
| old Acadian character; that Evangellne, no more
plteous aud forlorn wanderer yet dwellsthere with
children about her knee and Gabriel no further to
seek than the nelghborlng fields on which he plies
] plough and sickle In my journey Of two Thousand
miles through the waters of the Gulf have found
descendants of tho Acadans settled Rt almost every
| always industrious simple and hospitable, but
seenin ely surrounded by the conditions and living
| IN the ways of century and half ago. The pollty
| of the Dominion secures TO them their own laws,
magistrates and schools, they obey their priests,
live as their fathers did, arc poor, yirtuous and
| contented and bid fair to abide long in tho land.
In the mid waters of the Gulf her lonely Antcostl
| forest-clad along it's hundred and fifty miles OF
desoaton and seen from the gnlls point OF Vision,
| would look like great emerald set on the sapphire
shield Of the waters. Once brave old Joliet held it