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Presently they came to anchor near the mouth of the Missaguash, a narrow tidal river about two miles to the southeast of Beausejour. There the ships lay swinging at their cables, and all seemed quiet on board.
John, with whom, aided by the garrison of Beauséjour, they could easily take Fort Lawrence; that should they succeed in this, the whole Acadian population would rise in arms, and the King would lose Nova Scotia. We should anticipate them, concludes Shirley, and strike the first blow. Ibid., 24 Jan. 1755. The Record Office contains numerous other letters of Shirley on the subject.
The officer stationed there was Vergor, one of the Bigot gang and a great friend of Vaudreuil's. Vergor had disgraced himself by giving up Fort Beausejour in Acadia without a fight.
His letter to the Chevalier de Drucour, who commanded at Louisbourg, is of interest in this connection. "At the River St. John, 10 October, 1755. "Monsieur, As the enemy has constantly occupied the route of communication since the fall of Beausejour, I have not had the honor of informing you of the state of affairs at this place.
Orders had been sent from Quebec that a strong fort should straightway be built at Beausejour, as an offset to Fort Lawrence. And this fort was to be built by the ill-fated Acadians. The labor of the Acadians was supposed to be voluntary.
The French built the forts of Beauséjour and Gaspereau the latter a mere palisade on the Isthmus of Chignecto, which became the rendezvous of the French Acadians, whom the former persuaded by promises or threats to join their fortunes.
All the story of a day's warfare was written in the spectacle of that endless silent flow to the front: and we were to read it again, a few days later, in the terse announcement of "renewed activity" about Suippes, and of the bloody strip of ground gained between Perthes and Beausejour. NANCY, May 13th, 1915
One morning in October Howe saw an Indian carrying a flag of truce on the opposite side of the Missaguash river, which lay between Fort Lawrence and Fort Beausejour. Howe, who had often held converse with the savages, went forward to meet the Indian, and the two soon became engaged in conversation.
Three small frigates, the "Success," the "Mermaid," and the "Siren," commanded by the ex-privateersman, Captain Rous, acted as convoy; and on the twenty-sixth the whole force safely reached Annapolis. Thence after some delay they sailed up the Bay of Fundy, and at sunset on the first of June anchored within five miles of the hill of Beauséjour.
In order to keep the symbol of French power and authority ever before Acadian eyes, and to hinder the spread of English influence, a force had been sent from Quebec, under the officers La Corne and Boishebert, to hold the hill of Beausejour, which was practically the gate of Acadie.
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