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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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