Mouth Of The Gaspereau River, Where The Acadians Embarked.

Mouth Of The Gaspereau River, Where The Acadians Embarked.

"This affair," wrote the commander," is more grievous to me than any service I was ever employed in." The whole number thus removed from the Province was about six thousand; and in the vicinity of the Basin of Minas alone two hundred and fifty-five houses, two hundred and seventy-six barns, and eleven mills were burned, and more than twenty-two hundred persons shipped away. The orders had been most explicit, and were to the effect that all the dwellings should be burned, and everything destroyed that could afford the few who might escape the slightest means of shelter or subsistence. Hence, for the next five years, the fertile fields of Grand Pre, recently covered with rich crops and grazing cattle, lay neglected, and some of the other depopulated districts were for twice that length of time without a British settler. Seventeen ships were used to take the wretched people from their ruined homes, and though, as far as possible, families were not separated, numerous tragic scenes undoubtedly occurred, like that which Longfellow has immortalized. Five hundred were conveyed to North Carolina, one thousand to Virginia, others to Maryland and elsewhere; but all were taken far enough to make return in those days very difficult, and thrown upon the charity of people who did not understand their language, hated their religion, and looked upon them with aversion.

Where Evangeline Lived.

Where Evangeline Lived.

Grand Pre, From Harris Hill.

Grand Pre, From Harris Hill.

"Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed ; Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland. Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city. From the cold lakes of the north to sultry southern savannas, -From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the Father of Waters Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the ocean".

Great hardships, too, were endured by the exiles on account of the overcrowding of the transports, many of which were late in coming. "It hurts me," wrote the commander, Winslow, "to hear their weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth." Strange, is it not? The men who managed this expatriation, and left behind them charred and blackened ruins, as well as the poet who from that mass of carbon crystallized the literary diamond, "Evangeline," were alike residents of New England; for while Old England sanctioned the procedure, New England officers and soldiers carried it into execution. The best that can be said of it is that it was a war measure, and war is always inhumane.

To visit, either from St. John or Halifax, the scene of this expulsion of a simple and industrious race, is now an easy undertaking. The railway actually traverses a part of Grand Pre, and on the locomotives that convey the trains through this romantic region one reads such names as Gabriel, Evangeline, and Basil. Nor are the inhabitants so lacking in imagination and archaeological enterprise as to neglect to indicate the places mentioned in the poem. Thus, an "Acadian Smithy" is supposed to occupy the site of Basil's forge; "Evangeline's Well" relieves the thirst of visitors; and the foundation of the historic church is also shown, as well as several grass-grown cellars of Acadian houses. Far surer relics of the exiles are, however, the apple-trees and willows which they planted, the fields which they reclaimed and cultivated, and the stout " Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant," to shut out the tremendous tides of the Bay of Fundy.

Evangeline's well, and site of the church, grand pre.

Evangeline's well, and site of the church, grand pre.

Diked Lands, Basin Of Minas.

Diked Lands, Basin Of Minas.

Despite the fact that Longfellow presented only one side of this tragedy, no traveler when standing here can fail to recognize the debt of gratitude he owes to him. The genuinely historic novel and poem are often as useful to the reader as they are attractive. They fix within our memories and sympathies the events which they recall, as a mere presentation of the unembellished facts would never do. The difference may be likened to the contrast between the effects produced by stained glass windows seen from the outside and the inside of the building they adorn. Viewing them from without, we can indeed perceive the separate panes of glass, distinguish the designs, and gain some vague idea of what is there portrayed; but looked at from within the pictures glow with life and beauty, and are transfigured by the sunlight, as the creations of the poet are made luminous by emotion.