Acadia

Acadia, by Frederic S. Cozzens

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Title: Acadia or, A Month with the Blue Noses
Author: Frederic S. Cozzens
Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23409]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: "This, with the antique kirtle and picturesque petticoat is
an Acadian portrait." PAGE 56.]
[Illustration: "There is nothing modern in the face or drapery of this
figure. She might have stepped out of Normandy a century ago." PAGE
40.]

ACADIA;
OR,
A MONTH WITH THE BLUE NOSES.
BY
FREDERIC S. COZZENS,
AUTHOR OF "SPARROWGRASS PAPERS."
This is Acadia--this is the land That weary souls have sighed for; This
is Acadia--this is the land Heroic hearts have died for: Yet, strange to
tell, this promised land Has never been applied for!
PORTER.
NEW YORK:
DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU STREET.
1859.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
FREDERIC S. COZZENS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
W.H. TINSON, Stereotyper.
GEO. RUSSELL & Co., Printers.

PREFACE.
As I have a sort of religion in literature, believing that no author can

justly intrude upon the public without feeling that his writings may be
of some benefit to mankind, I beg leave to apologize for this little book.
I know, no critic can tell me better than I know myself, how much it
falls short of what might have been done by an abler pen. Yet it is
something--an index, I should say, to something better. The French in
America may sometime find a champion. For my own part, I would
that the gentler principles which governed them, and the English under
William Penn, and the Dutch under the enlightened rule of the States
General, had obtained here, instead of the narrower, the more penurious,
and most prescriptive policy of their neighbors.
I am indebted to Judge Haliburton's "History of Nova Scotia" for the
main body of historical facts in this volume. Let me acknowledge my
obligations. His researches and impartiality are most creditable, and
worthy of respect and attention. I have also drawn as liberally as time
and space would permit from chronicles contemporary with the events
of those early days, as well as from a curious collection of items
relating to the subject, cut from the London newspapers a hundred
years ago, and kindly furnished me by Geo. P. Putnam, Esq. These are
always the surest guides. To Mrs. Kate Williams, of Providence, R. I., I
am indebted also. Her story of the "Neutral French," no doubt, inspired
the author of the most beautiful pastoral in the language. The
"Evangeline" of Longfellow, and the "Pauline" of this lady's legend, are
pictures of the same individual, only drawn by different hands.
A word in regard to the two Acadian portraits. These are literal
ambrotypes, to which Sarony has added a few touches of his artistic
crayon. It may interest the reader to know that these are the first, the
only likenesses of the real Evangelines of Acadia. The women of
Chezzetcook appear at day-break in the city of Halifax, and as soon as
the sun is up vanish like the dew. They have usually a basket of fresh
eggs, a brace or two of worsted socks, a bottle of fir-balsam to sell.
These comprise their simple commerce. When the market-bell rings
you find them not. To catch such fleeting phantoms, and to transfer
them to the frontispiece of a book published here, is like painting the
burnished wings of a humming-bird. A friend, however, undertook the
task. He rose before the sun, he bought eggs, worsted socks, and

fir-balsam of the Acadians. By constant attentions he became
acquainted with a pair of Acadian women, niece and aunt. Then he
proposed the matter to them:
"I want you to go with me to the daguerreotype gallery."
"What for?"
"To have your portraits taken."
"What for?"
"To send to a friend in New York."
"What for?"
"To be put in a book."
"What for?"
"Never mind 'what for,' will you go?"
Aunt and niece--both together in a breath--"No."
So my friend, who was a wise man, wrote to the priest of the settlement
of Chezzetcook, to explain the "what for," and the consequence
was--these portraits! But these women had a terrible time at the head of
the