Chignecto Isthmus; First Settlers | Page 8

and continued to shell the place on the 14th, without
much apparent result. On that day Vergor received tidings that no help
could be sent from Louisbourg. This news was more disastrous to the
French than the English shells. The Acadians lost all heart and began to
slip away into the woods and the settlements to the northward.
The next day, the 15th, larger shells were thrown, some falling into the
fort. One shell killed the English officer, Hay, who was a prisoner, and
several French officers, while they were at breakfast. This decided the
matter. Vergor sent an officer to Monckton asking for a suspension of
hostilities. That afternoon the following terms of surrender were agreed
upon:
"1st. The commandant, officers, staff and others employed for the King
and garrison of Beausejour, shall go out with arms and baggage, drums
beating. 2nd. The garrison shall be sent to Louisbourg at the expense of
the King of Great Britain. 3rd. The Governor shall have provisions
sufficient to last them until they get to Louisbourg. 4th. As to the
Acadians, as they were forced to bear arms under pain of death, they
shall be pardoned. 5th. The garrison shall not bear arms in America for
the space of six months. 6th. The foregoing are granted on condition
that the garrison shall surrender to the troops of Great Britain by 7 p.m.
this afternoon. Signed, Robert Monckton. At the camp before
Beausejour, 16th June, 1755."
As soon as the British were in possession at Beausejour, Monckton sent
a detachment of three hundred men, under Col. Winslow, to demand
the surrender of the fort at Bay Verte. Capt. Villeray accepted the same
terms as Vergor, and on the 18th of June, 1755, the Isthmus passed for
ever out of the possession of the King of France. A large amount of
supplies was found in both forts.
Monckton changed the name of Fort Beausejour to Fort Cumberland, in
honor of the Royal Duke who won the victory at Culloden, and as it
was a much better fort than the one on the south side of the Missiquash,
the troops were ordered to remain at Fort Cumberland.

This fort stands in a commanding position on the south-west summit of
the high ridge of upland that separates the Missiquash from the Aulac
valley. It was a fort of five bastions, with casemates, and was capable
of accommodating eight hundred men. It mounted thirty guns. After it
fell into the hands of the English it was great improved. A stone
magazine (a part of which is still standing) was built outside the
southern embankment. The moat was excavated to a much greater
depth. Of late years the place has been shamefully neglected. On
account of its historic associations many yearly visit the "Old Fort,"
and efforts have been made to enclose the grounds and make them
more presentable.
The Acadians were still to be dealt with. Whether they should remain
in the country and in the possession of their lands depended entirely on
whether they would take the oath of allegiance to the Crown of Great
Britain. This one condition accepted, they would be guaranteed all the
privileges and immunities of British subjects. They refused, and the
Expulsion followed. It was a hard and cruel measure, but they had had
forty years of grace, and those who had thus long borne with them now
decided their day of grace had ended.
One hundred and fifty years have since passed, but we find the
Acadians are still here and are exercising an influence in Canada that is
felt in all its Provinces. They are British subjects now, however, and
while they have not lost their love for the country from which they
sprang, nor for the flag for which their ancestors sacrificed so much,
they are ready to stand by the Empire of Britain in war as well as in
peace.
CHAPTER II
THE NEW ENGLAND IMMIGRATION 1755-1770.
The expulsion of 1755 left the population of old Acadia so depleted
that the Governor and Council felt that something must be done at once
to add to its numbers. The first move in this direction was to offer
exceptional advantages to the New England soldiers, who constituted

the largest part of the force at the taking of Beausejour, if they would
remain in the country. Very few, however, accepted the offer, and as
the unsettled state of the country between 1755 and 1760 was most
unfavorable to immigration, but little progress was made till the next
decade.
During these years wandering bands of Acadians and Indians harrassed
(sic) the English, shooting and scalping whenever opportunity offered.
At Bay Verte, in the spring of 1755, nine soldiers belonging to a party
under Lieutenant Bowan, were shot and scalped while out getting wood