FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  
minent part in Acadian history, though there are persons still in the maritime provinces of Canada who claim a connection with his family. His name clings to the little harbour near Cape Sable, where he built his post of Lomeron, and antiquaries now alone fight over the site of the more famous fort at the mouth of the St. John, where a large and enterprising city has grown up since the English occupation. About the figure of this bold gentleman-adventurer the romance of history has cast a veil of interest and generous appreciation on account of the devotion of his wife and of the obstinate fight he waged under tremendous disadvantages against a wealthy rival, supported by the authority of France. He was made of the same material as those brave men of the west coast of England who fought and robbed the Spaniard in the Spanish Main, but as he plundered only Puritans by giving them worthier {109} mortgages, and fought only in the Acadian wilds, history has given him a relatively small space in its pages. Acadia remained in possession of England until the Treaty of Breda, which was concluded in July of 1667, between Charles II. and Louis XIV. Temple, who had invested his fortune in the country, was nearly ruined, and never received any compensation for his efforts to develop Acadia. In a later chapter, when we continue the chequered history of Acadia, we shall see that her fortunes from this time become more closely connected with those of the greater and more favoured colony of France in the valley of the St. Lawrence. [1] See _Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada_, vol. x., sec. 2, p. 93. [2] This story of the capture of Fort La Tour rests on the authority of Denys (Description Geographique et Historique de l'Amerique Septentrionale, Paris, 1672), who was in Acadia at the time and must have had an account from eyewitnesses of the tragedy. The details which make D'Aunay so cruel and relentless are denied by a Mr. Moreau in his _Histoire de l'Acadie Francaise_ (Paris, 1873). This book is confessedly written at the dictation of living members of the D'Aunay family, and is, from the beginning to the end, an undiscriminating eulogy of D'Aunay and an uncompromising attack on the memory of La Tour and his wife. He attempts to deny that the fort was seized by treachery, when on another page he has gone so far as to accuse some Recollets of having made, at the instigation of D'Aunay himself, an attempt to win the garrison from
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Acadia
 

history

 

fought

 

England

 

account

 
Acadian
 
family
 

Canada

 
authority
 

France


capture

 

Lawrence

 
chequered
 

garrison

 
fortunes
 

continue

 
chapter
 
efforts
 

develop

 

closely


Description

 

valley

 

greater

 

connected

 

favoured

 

colony

 

Amerique

 

beginning

 

members

 

undiscriminating


Recollets

 
living
 

dictation

 

confessedly

 

written

 
eulogy
 

uncompromising

 
treachery
 

seized

 
attack

memory
 

attempts

 
instigation
 
attempt
 

compensation

 

eyewitnesses

 
tragedy
 

Historique

 
accuse
 

Septentrionale