late as on
August 13, 1755, Lawrence was counseled to act with caution, prudence,
and tact in dealing with the "Neutrals," as the Acadians are called even
in this official letter. Meanwhile, without direct warrant from London,
Lawrence and his council at Halifax had taken action. His reasoning was
that of a direct soldier. The Acadians would not take the full oath
of British citizenship. Very well. Quite obviously they could not be
trusted. Already they had acted in a traitorous way. Prolonged war with
France was imminent. Since Acadians who might be allied with the savages
could attack British posts, they must be removed. To replace them,
British settlers could in time be brought into the country.

The thing was done in the summer and autumn of 1755. Colonel Robert
Monckton, a regular officer, son of an Irish peer, who always showed
an ineffable superiority to provincial officers serving under him, was
placed in charge of the work. He ordered the male inhabitants of the
neighborhood of Beausejour to meet him there on the 10th of August. Only
about one-third of them came--some four hundred. He told them that the
government at Halifax now declared them rebels. Their lands and all
other goods were forfeited; they themselves were to be kept in prison.
Not yet, however, was made known to them the decision that they were to
be treated as traitors of whom the province must be rid. No attempt was
made anywhere to distinguish loyal from disloyal Acadians. Lawrence gave
orders to the military officers to clear the country of all Acadians,
to get them by any necessary means on board the transports which would
carry them away, and to burn their houses and crops so that those not
caught might perish or be forced to surrender during the coming winter.
At the moment, the harvest had just been reaped or was ripening.

When the stern work was done at Grand Pre, at Pisiquid, now Windsor, at
Annapolis, there were harrowing scenes. In command of the work at Grand
Pre was Colonel Winslow, an officer from Massachusetts--some of whose
relatives twenty-five years later were to be driven, because of their
loyalty to the British King, from their own homes in Boston to this
very land of Acadia. Winslow issued a summons in French to all the male
inhabitants, down to lads of ten, to come to the church at Grand Pre on
Friday, the 5th of September, to learn the orders he had to communicate.
Those who did not appear were to forfeit their goods. No do