Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-27
THF LAND OF ACADIA.

THF LAND OF ACADIA.
The Garden Spot Which Was Laid Waste by
the Engiish.
TIE srMPLE-NrNDKD PEOPLE WHO WIRE DRAGGED
FROM THEIR HoMKs-FAMI11Rs AND FRIENDS
WERE sKPARArKD-THE SAD STORY OF LONG,
FELLOWS EvASGELISE.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
GRAND PRE, N. g., Dec. IA.
THIS IS THE SPOT where one October
Il morning, $50 years ago, the English gov
eminent committed the crime Of the eighteenth
century, plot which for villainous concep-
ton and cold-blooded treschery and cruelty
has scarce parallel in history. Nova Scotia
was discovered by Cabot in 1897, only seven
years after Columbus discovered the West In
dia islands. The first settlement made was ct
Port Royal, now Annapolis. by Frenchman
named De Monts, in 1908, fourteen years before
the settlement at Plymouth. Civilization in
this valley is older than in Massachusetts,. The
present population Of Nova Scotia is about
100000. The principal business is growing
lumber, potatoes and fruit, the most Of which
find their way to the United States.
About 200 years ago q few enterprising Nor
man peasants noted for their progressive ideas,
industry and peaceful habits came over from
France and settled at the east end Of the An
napolis valley, fronting the great Minas basin.
a sheet OF water that makes in from the Bay of
Fundy, sixty miles long by twenty miles wide
and at high water 200 feet deep. This valley,
which is seventy miles long BY twelve miles
wide, is the garden Of the world, possessing
natural advantages that are rarely equaled.
with the Bay OF Fundy on the north, along the
n WI Inh oalo as ,tory,
tend the whole length Of the valley, sheltering
1t from the cold north winds, a range Of high
hills on the south, surmounted by table lands
that slope away to the ocean, where, short
distance out, the warm waters of the gulf
stream flow, this valley is made unequaled in
the mildness and healthfulness of its climate
and fertility Of its SOIL While Maine has laid
under foot of snow for fortnight the first
snow OF the season has Just come here. the
weather being but little colder than in Wash
ington.
Rivers. through which flow from forty to fifty
feet OF salt water at every tide set far back into
the country, large vessels being able to load
with lumber and potatoes six miles inland from
the basin. When the tide goes out these YES
sells, which. at low water. rest on subwharves,
present a singular spectacle as they hang sus.
pended to the wharves thirty feet above the
water.
THE HAPPY LAND OF THE BLHsr.
1t was in this lovely valley, in a climate tenn
pered by the gulf stream and the Bay of Fundy,
that the old French colony lived and prospered.
They gave to it the fond name of Acadie-'The
happy land of the blest." They made friends
Of the Indians and, like William Penn, refused
to take any part in the Indian wars. Having
seen how Holland had grown rich by means of
Its dykes they went down into the mud with
their shovels and. after years of patient toll,
succeeded in reclaiming many thousand acres
of rich lands that. without ferti!izing, for 200
hpan txrS, 70 p,,y tpvoc
OF hay to the acre As they saw their labors re-
warded by beautiful green fields, on which,
after the grass was cut their cattle roamed and
grew fat, they exclaimed in their delight:
Grand Pre- THE French for ''Grand Prasie
and the place took that name and has been
known by 1t ever since.
The prosperity Of these people who refused
to take any part in the wars England was waging
excited the envy and hatred of the English
government and so plan was devised for their
determination.
ALL THE PEOPLE MADE PRISONERS.
One day during the autumn of 1755, Just as
the farmers had finished the harvesting Of their
crops and were ENJOYING the long Indian sum-
mer that pre- cedes winter in this climate, fleet
OF English war ships rounded Cape Blomidon
and anchored in the basin in front of the little
colony: Before making known the object of
their visit armed men were sent from house to
house and disarmed every settler. not even
VI.
Then the men were all requested to meet the
admiral for conference in their little church on
the knoll in front of the fleet. Every man was
required to he there. No sooner had these
honest unsuspecting people assembled than the
doors were turned upon them and they found
themselves prisoners of war, where they were
kept under guard Of soldiers until
the women and children, with such of their
effects as could be moved, were transferred to
the ships. Then the men we're liberated and
N~A4 -AA 49, u.
sion OF the embarkation husbands were sep
arated from their wives, mothers from their
children and lovers from each other.
THE STORY OF EvANGELINE.
The fair Evangeline, whose name Longfellow
has made immortal, was separated from her be-
trothed lover. The shock was too great for
her aged father, who fell dead upon the beach,
and the young Evangeline was borne an or
phan to a different ship from that containing
her lover. When the last of the little colony
had been transferred to the ships the torch was
applied to .heir homes and to the little Catholic
church where they had been accustomed to as
semble and to receive instruction from their
priest the faithful Father Felicias.
As the condagration extended the cattle and
horses broke loose and made wild stampede
over the dikes, looking in wonder upon the
strange spectacle. The ships then weighed an
Choir and stood down the bay. Thus departed
the Acadians from the homes they had made
by honest toll and that they loved so we'll.
''Sailed into the frey sunset
Sailed into the dark of evening,
Sailed into the purple vapors,
Sailed into the great hereafter"
It would be difficult to conceive what must
have been the feelings of those people when as
night came on they looked back upon the east
ern sky, made lurid by their burning holaes,
and then looked forward into the darkness of
despair. They were separated and dropped all
along the coast from Boston to the West
Indies.
THE LONG, LONG SEARCH.
Louisiana and the great northwest being
then under the dominion of France the exiles
naturally sought protection under the French
flag. Some took up plantations in Louisiana,
among them Gabriel, the young lover of Evan
geline. with his father. Basil, the blacksmith,
while others went west among the Indians
Evangeline, under the protection of her ever
faithful priest, kept up the search for her lover,
| floating down the Ohio river and through the
bayou Of Louisiana in a fiat boat, reaching the
plantation of Basil, the blacksmith to find that
Gabriel her lover, had left the day before in
pursuit Of her. Year after year she continued
the. search, often near her lover, and vet never
able to meet him. This was before the DAYS
of newspapers, railroads, steamboats, and teie-
graphs, her means of procuring information
being mostly confined to the various tribes of
Indians with whom she was accustomed to
winter during the many years of her weary
iOurneyinQ and fruitleaa aearch