United States or Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Nay, nay, mother!" said he, rising and passing his gnarled hand over his forehead, "it is even as Pierre has said. We must be the first to do the bidding of the abbe, and must seem to do it of our own accord. It will be hours yet ere the English be among us, and long ere Le Loutre will have had time to work his will upon those who refuse to do his bidding. Do thou get the stuff together.
The young officer's face grew very stern at the mention of the abbe, whom he knew to mean Le Loutre. "Ah!" he muttered, "I see it all now! We might have expected as much from that snake! But tell me," he continued to Pierre, "what is going on over on the hill this morning? They are not going to attack us, are they? We are on English soil here. They know that!"
The French officers, indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge it upon Le Loutre; "for," says one of them, "what is not a wicked priest capable of doing?"
Le Loutre was continually among them working in his shirt sleeves, and urging everyone to his utmost exertions. But as the winter dragged on the Acadians became so weak and heartless that even the threats of the abbe lost their effect, and the fort grew but slowly. Upon this it became necessary to increase the rations and even to give a small weekly wage.
He organized the few Acadians on the river into a militia corps, the officers of which were commissioned by Count de la Galissonniere. Meanwhile the Abbe Le Loutre was employing his energies to get the Acadians to leave their lands in the Nova Scotian peninsula and repair to the St. John river and other places north of the isthmus.
But Beaubassin had not had the experience with Le Loutre that had fallen to the lot of other settlements, and the unwise ones hardened their hearts in their decision. As Le Loutre, with his little party, entered the village, he met Antoine Lecorbeau setting out for Beausejour with a huge cartload of household goods, drawn by a yoke of oxen.
The Council at Halifax promptly raised several companies for defence, and offered a reward of 10 pounds for the capture of an Indian, dead or alive. Cornwallis complained bitterly to Louisbourg that Le Loutre was stirring up trouble; but Des Herbiers disingenuously disclaimed all responsibility for the abbe.
The right hand of French influence in Acadie at this time was the famous Abbe Le Loutre, missionary to the Micmac Indians at Cobequid. To this man's charge may well be laid the larger part of the misfortunes which befell the Acadian people. He was violent in his hatred of the English, unscrupulous in his methods, and utterly pitiless in the carrying out of his project.
Most of his subordinate officers shared his feelings, and in a few minutes, to the pleasant astonishment of the English, and in spite of the furious protests of Le Loutre and of two or three officers who were not lost to all sense of manhood, a white flag was hoisted on Beausejour. The firing straightway ceased, on both sides, and an officer was sent forth to negotiate a capitulation.
For example, sixty years later we find the following note in the statement prepared by the missionaries Le Loutre and de L'Isle-Dieu for the use of the commissioners engaged in the attempt to settle the boundaries of Acadia : "The River St.
Word Of The Day