The Abbe Le Loutre ceased work on his "abateau" and set his men to assist at the fort.
Scouting parties from either camp met once or twice, and the Indians captured an English officer named Hay, who was passing from Fort Lawrence to the English camp.
On the 13th the English threw a few shells into the fort, 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.
