rown upon his own resources. At the age of 12 he made his
way to Geneva, where he was educated. Afterwards he went to England,
became a British subject and entered the army. He was present at the
taking of Port Royal by General Nicholson and, after serving with
credit in various capacities, was appointed Lieut.-Governor of Nova
Scotia in 1740. He eventually rose to the rank of a major general in
the English army.

Mascarene preserved his love for his native tongue and was always
disposed to deal kindly with the Acadians. Two very interesting
letters written by him in French to Madame Francoise Bellisle
Robichaux have been preserved. This lady came of rather remarkable
ancestry. She was the granddaughter of the Baron de St. Cactin, and
had as her great-grandsires on the one hand the celebrated Charles la
Tour, and on the other the famous Penobscot chieftain Madockawando.

In view of the fact that the Belleisle family lived for a considerable
time on the St. John river, where their name is preserved in that of
Belleisle Bay, it may be well to trace the lineage in fuller detail.

The eldest daughter of Charles la Tour by his second wife, the widow
of d'Aulnay Charnisay, was Marie la Tour, who was born in St. John in
1654.[19] She married when about twenty years of age Alexander le
Borgne de Belleisle, who was eleven years her senior. Their son
Alexander, born in 1679, married December 4, 1707, Anastasia St.
Castin, a daughter of the Baron, de St. Castin by his Indian wife
Melctilde, daughter of Madockawando, and as a consequence of this
alliance the younger le Borgne obtained great influence over the
Maliseets. Lieut.-Gov. Armstrong alludes to this circumstance in a
letter to the Lords of Trade, written in 1732, in which he observes,
"Madame Bellisle's son Alexander married an Indian and lived among the
tribe, being hostile to the British government." This statement is
hardly fair to Anastasie St. Castin, for, while her mother certainly
was the daughter of an Indian chief, her father was the Baron de St.
Castin and she herself a well educated woman. The genealogist of the
d'Abbadie St. Castin family, however, uses rather grandiloquent
language when he styles the mother of Anastasie St. Castin, "Mathilde
Matacawando, princess indienne, fille de Matacawando, general-en-chef
des indiens Abenakis."[20]

[19] Marie la Tour, widow of Alexander le Borgne was living at
Annapolis Royal in 1733 at the age of 79 years.