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On July 31, 1755, Lawrence ordered Colonel Monckton, who lay with his troops at the newly captured Fort Cumberland, to gather in the inhabitants of the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Chepody, on the north shore of the Bay. The district of Minas was committed to the care of Colonel Winslow.

Even while the conferences were carried on for ascertaining the limits of Nova Scotia, the governor of Canada detached M. la Come, with some regular troops, and a body of militia, to fortify a post on the bay of Chignecto, on pretence that this and a great part of the peninsula belonged to his government.

The next most striking feature in the geography of Eastern North America is NOVA SCOTIA. AS you look at it on the map this province seems to be a long peninsula connected with the mainland by the narrow isthmus of Chignecto; but its northernmost portion Cape Breton really consists of two big and two little islands, only separated from Nova Scotia by a very narrow strait the Gut of Canso.

On the hill of Beausejour, one April morning in the year 1750 A.D., a little group of French soldiers stood watching, with gestures of anger and alarm, the approach of several small ships across the yellow waters of Chignecto Bay. The ships were flying British colors.

Thus ruffled in spirit, he embarked with his men and sailed down Chignecto Channel to the Bay of Fundy.

Lawrence now began to consult with the Governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Shirley, about the removal of the Acadians from Chignecto and the River St. John. He proposed that two thousand troops should be raised in New England, which with the regular troops already in Nova Scotia would be sufficient for the business, the command of the expedition to be given to Colonel Robert Monckton.

In front lay the Bay of Chignecto, winding along the fertile shores of Chipody and Memeramcook. Far on the right spread the great Tantemar marsh; on the left lay the marsh of the Missaguash; and on a knoll beyond it, not three miles distant, the red flag of England waved over the palisades of Fort Lawrence, while hills wrapped in dark forests bounded the horizon.

These papers revealed to Cornwallis the peril which menaced him. But, having been reinforced by the arrival from Newfoundland of three hundred men of Lascelles's regiment, he resolved to occupy Chignecto, which Lawrence had been forced to abandon in April. Accordingly Lawrence again set out, this time with about seven hundred men.

What special part these men took in the investment and capture of the formidable fort of Beau Sejour, or in the assaults upon the minor forts, neither record nor tradition tell, and we are equally uninformed respecting their participation in the pitiable scenes enacted along the shores of Minas and Chignecto Bays.

Indians from the river St John joined the Micmacs and opened hostilities by seizing an English vessel at Canso and taking twenty prisoners. The prisoners were liberated by Des Herbiers; but the Micmacs, their blood up, assembled at Chignecto, near La Corne's post, and declared war on the English.