The Acadians were quick to see the benefits that would arise from reclaiming the rich river valleys, and they drew their revenues chiefly from this land.They did not readily take to the cutting down of the forests and preparing the upland for growing crops; they were more at home with the dyking-spade than the axe.A description of their methods of dyking and constructing aboideaux, written in 1710, is interesting to those who are doing the same work now.
The writer of 1710 says: "They stopped the current of the sea by creating large dykes, which they called aboideaux.The method was to plant five or six large trees in the places where the sea enters the marshes, and between each row to lay down other trees lengthways on top of each other, and fill the vacant places with mud so well beaten down that the tide could not pass through it.In the middle they adjusted a flood-gate in such a way as to allow the water from the marsh to flow out at low water without permitting the water from the sea to flow in at high tide." The writer adds that the work was expensive, but the second year's crop repaid them for the outlay.This is more than can be said for present-day experience in the same kind of work.
The land reclaimed on the Aulac was confined principally to the upper portion of the river.The Abbe Le Loutre saw that the benefit would be great if this river were dammed near its mouth, and he was at work at a large aboideau, for which he had received money from France, when the fall of Beausejour forever put a stop to his enterprise.
Wheat seems to have grown very abundantly on the marsh when it was first dyked, judging from the census reports of those days and the traditions handed down.
The old French maps of 1750 and earlier show settlements at Beaubassin (Fort Lawrence), Pont a Buot (Point de Bute), Le Lac (Jolicure), We-He-Kauk (Westcock), We-He-Kauk-Chis (Little Westcock), Tantramar (Upper Sackville), Pre Du Bourge (Middle Sackville), We-He-Kage (Amherst Point) and Amherst or Upper Amherst, Vill-La-Butte, and La Planche.
There were settlements also at Maccan, Nappan and Minudie.The statement that the village of Beaubassin, in 1750, contained a hundred and forty houses, and a population numbering a thousand, seems improbable under the circumstances.
Fort Lawrence, the site of old Beaubassin, contains to-day less than forty houses, and not more than three hundred inhabitants, yet more land is under cultivation now than in any previous time in its history.
It is highly probable that the whole population on the south side of the Isthmus was reckoned as belonging to Beaubassin.
There is good reason for saying that the population of the district embraced in the parish of Westmoreland, excepting Port Elgin, was much larger from 1750 to 1755 than it has ever been since.
The Seigneur La Valliere was, no doubt, the most prominent man, politically, on the Isthmus during the French period.He was appointed commandant of Acadia in 1678, by Count Frontenac, and just missed being made governor.He was a man of broader views than most of his contemporaries.He encouraged trade, and was willing that others beside his own countrymen should reap the benefits if they were ready to pay the price.He anticipated the MODUS VIVENDI system now in force between this country and the United States in dealing with the fisheries, and instead of keeping a large fleet to patrol the coast and drive the English from the fishing ground, he charged them a license fee of five pistoles (about twenty-five dollars) for each vessel, thus giving them a free hand in the business.
La Valliere's farm was probably on the island marked on the old maps, "Isle La Valliere," and here he lived when not in other parts of the colony on public business.He had a son called Beaubassin, who was always ready to take a hand in any expedition that required courage and promised danger.In 1703, this Beaubassin was the leader of a party of French and Indians that attacked Casco and would have captured the place but for the timely arrival of a British man-of-war.
On the 11th April, 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed.This gave all Nova Scotia, or Acadia, comprehended within its ancient boundaries, as also the city of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, to the Queen of Great Britain.The English claimed this to include all the territory east of a line drawn from north of the Kennebec River to Quebec, taking in all the south shore of the St.Lawrence, Gaspe, the Island of St.John, and Cape Breton.The French contended that Acadia only included the southern half of the present Province of Nova Scotia.
Views so divergent held by the contracting parties to an agreement, could scarcely fail to produce irritation and ultimately result in war.
In 1740, the Abbe Le Loutre, Vicar-General of Acadia under the Bishop of Quebec, and missionary to the Micmacs, came to Acadia to take charge of his mission.It soon became apparent that the Rev.Father was more anxious to advance the power and prestige of the King of France than he was to minister to the spiritual elevation of the benighted Indians.
The course pursued by the Abbe defeated the end he had in view.His aim was to make Acadia a French colony; but in reality he helped to make it the most loyal British territory in North America.
The successful raid of de Villiers, in the winter of 1747, convinced the English that so long as Chignecto was in possession of the French, and was used as a base of operations to defy the English Government, there could be no lasting peace or security for settlers of British blood.Taking this view of the matter, Governor Cornwallis determined to take measures to drive the French from the Isthmus.The unsettled state of the French population through the Province contributed to this decision.
