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History - Beaubassin (con't)
Conflicts with the English people began long before the deportation in the
region of Beaubassin. This was because the borders of this region were never
definitively determined; while the Acadians held that Beaubassin belonged
to them, the English held it was theirs. The first attack on the Acadians
of Beaubassin was in September of 1696, when Anglo-Americans arrived and
killed their cattle, destroyed the harvests, and burned their homes. Fortunately,
most of Beaubassin's population had enough time to take refuge in the forest.
In May 1704, when Beaubassin counted 200 inhabitants, The English Americans
advanced to this region once again. On July 28th of this year the English
set fire to about twenty houses and killed all the animals in the fields.
The English did not advance, and in 1710 the terms of the surrender applied
to 500 inhabitants of Port-Royal only; French Acadians in Beaubassin were
safe from the English for the time being.
April 11th, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht terminated the war between France
and England, leaving Acadia and Newfoundland to the English. All the region
of Beaubassin and Chignectou isthmus was now situated on French territory.
While the English tried to win the Beaubassin over, the Acadians continued
to resist. They refused to lend to the new sermon of allegiance, demanded
by Cornwallis. The governor Cornwallis prohibited Acadians to transport
anything outside the province, not even allowing them the right to destroy,
nor to transport their houses. In 1750, the French officers and Canadians
of Fort Beauséjour foresaw that the English were possibly going
to return to take-over Beaubassin. Father LeLoutre set fire to the church,
and to all the houses of the village of Beaubassin, so as to force most
of the one thousand inhabitants to abandon their homes, and to go to Fort
Beauséjour (Prince-Edward-Island). Finding only ashes and ruins,
the English returned to Halifax, only to return in the autumn of 1750
to build Fort Lawrence some miles of Fort Beauséjour. Many of the
Acadians who had escaped this attack on Beaubassin re-established themselves
at l'île Saint-Jean (P.E.I).
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