the most profane uses." The building had been standing for fifty
years and was much out of repair. The ornaments and furnishings,
together with the chapel bell,[91] were brought to Aukpaque.

[91] This chapel bell was most unfortunately destroyed by fire when
the chapel at French Village was burned early in March, 1904.
An illustration and some account of the bell will be found in
a previous chapters. See pages 75, 76 ante.

For some reason the presence of the Acadians at Aukpaque and its
vicinity was not acceptable to the authorities of Nova Scotia, and
Richard Bulkeley the provincial secretary, wrote to John Anderson and
Francis Peabody, Esqrs., justices of the peace for the county of
Sunbury, under date 20th August, 1768: "The Lieut. Governor desires
that you will give notice to all the Accadians, except about six
Families whom Mr. Bailly shall name, to remove themselves from Saint
John's River, it not being the intention of the Govern-ment that they
should settle there, but to acquaint them that on their application
they shall have lands in other parts of the Province."

It is remarkable with what persistence the French clung to the
locality of Aukpaque in spite of repeated attempts to dispossess them.
The New Englanders under Hawthorn and Church tried to expel them as
long ago as 1696, but Villebon repulsed the attack on Fort Nachouac
and compelled them to retire. Monckton in 1759 drove the Acadians from
the lower St. John and destroyed their settlements, but the lowness of
the water prevented his ascending the river farther than Grimross
Island, a little above Gagetown. A little later Moses Hazen and his
rangers destroyed the village at St. Ann's and scattered the Acadians,
but some of them returned and re-established themselves near the
Indian village at Aukpaque. The governor of Nova Scotia apparently was
not willing they should remain, hence his orders to Anderson and
Peabody in 1768.

What these magistrates did, or attempted to do is not recorded, at any
rate they did not succeed in effecting the removal of the Acadians for
we find that the little colony continued to increase. The missionary
Bailly wrote from Aukpaque, June 20, 1768, to Bishop Briand, "There
are eleven Acadian families living in the vicinity of the village, the
same ones whom your Lordship had the goodness to confirm at St. Anne.
* * It is a difficult matter to attend to them for they live apart
from one another