The Acadian Exiles | Page 3

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France. [Footnote: See The Jesuit Missions in this Series, chap. iv.]
The Baron de Poutrincourt died in 1615, leaving his estate to his son
Biencourt. And after Biencourt's own death in 1623, it was found that
he had bequeathed a considerable fortune, including all his property
and rights in Acadia, to his friend and companion, that interesting and
resourceful adventurer, Charles de la Tour. This man, when a lad of
fourteen, and his father, Claude de la Tour, had come out to Acadia in
the service of Poutrincourt. After the destruction of Port Royal, Charles
de la Tour had followed young Biencourt into the forest, and had lived
with him the nomadic life of the Indians. Later, the elder La Tour
established himself for trade at the mouth of the Penobscot, but he was
driven away from this post by a party from the English colony at
Plymouth. The younger La Tour, after coming into Biencourt's property,
built Fort Lomeron, afterwards named St Louis, at the place now
known as Port Latour, near Cape Sable. This made him in fact, if not in
name, the French ruler of Acadia, for his Fort St Louis was the only
place of any strength in the whole country.
By 1627 the survivors of Biencourt's wandering companions had
settled down, some of them in their old quarters at Port Royal, but most
of them with La Tour at Cape Sable. Then came to Acadia seventy
Scottish settlers, sent hither by Sir William Alexander, who took up
their quarters at Port Royal and named it Scots Fort. The French
described these settlers as 'all kinds of vagabonds, barbarians, and
savages from Scotland'; and the elder La Tour went to France to
procure stores and ammunition, and to petition the king to grant his son
a commission to hold Acadia against the intruders. But the elder La
Tour was not to come back in the role of a loyal subject of France. He
was returning in 1628 with the ships of the newly formed Company of
One Hundred Associates, under Roquemont, when, off the Gaspe coast,
appeared the hostile sail of the Kirkes; and La Tour was taken prisoner
to England. There he entered into an alliance with the English, accepted
grants of land from Sir William Alexander, had himself and his son
made Baronets of Nova Scotia, and promised to bring his son over to
the English side. Young La Tour, when his father returned, accepted
the gift, and by some means procured also, in 1631, a commission from

the French king as lieutenant-general of Acadia. Later, as we shall see,
his dual allegiance proved convenient.
The restoration of Acadia to France in 1632, by the Treaty of St
Germain-en-Laye, was to Cardinal Richelieu the signal for a renewal of
the great colonizing project which he had set on foot five years earlier
and which had been interrupted by the hostile activities of the Kirkes.
[Footnote: See The founder of New France, chap. v, and The Jesuit
Missions, chap. iv.] Richelieu appointed lieutenant-general of Acadia
Isaac de Razilly, one of the Company of One Hundred Associates and
commander of the Order of Malta, with authority to take over Acadia
from the Scots. Razilly brought out with him three hundred settlers,
recruited mainly from the districts of Touraine and Brittany--the first
considerable body of colonists to come to the country. He was a man of
more than ordinary ability, of keen insight and affable manners. 'The
commander,' wrote Champlain, 'possessed all the qualities of a good, a
perfect sea-captain; prudent, wise, industrious; urged by the saintly
motive of increasing the glory of God and of exercising his energy in
New France in order to erect the cross of Christ and plant the lilies of
France therein.' He planned for Acadia on a large scale. He
endeavoured to persuade Louis XIII to maintain a fleet of twelve
vessels for the service of the colony, and promised to bring out good
settlers from year to year. Unfortunately, his death occurred in 1635
before his dreams could be realized. He had been given the power to
name his successor; and on his death-bed he appointed his cousin and
companion, Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay Charnisay, adjuring him
'not to abandon the country, but to pursue a task so gloriously begun.'
Years of strife and confusion followed. Razilly had made La Heve his
headquarters; but Charnisay took up his at Port Royal. [Footnote:
Charnisay built his fort about six miles farther up than the original Port
Royal, and on the opposite side of the river, at the place thenceforth
known as Port Royal until 1710, and since then as Annapolis Royal or
Annapolis.] This brought him into conflict with Charles de la Tour,
who had now established himself at the mouth