OF

NOVA-SCOTIA

OR

ACADIE.

BY

BEAMISH MURDOCH, Esq., Q. C.

VOL. II

HALIFAX, N. S.:

JAMES BARNES, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER,

1866.

PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on this Thirteenth day of March, 1865, Beamish MURDOCH. of the City of Halifax, Esquire, has deposited in this Office, the title of a Book, the Copyright of which he claims in the words following:"A HISTORY OF NOVA-SCOTIA OR ACADIE, BY BEAMISH MURDOCH, Esq., Q. C."

PREFACE.

THE first volume of this work, delineating the career of a French colony, has probably less to engage the attention of some readers than the present portion. After the peace of Aix la Chapelle, (1748), our history begins to have an English aspect, and actors appear upon the stage whose names are familiar, and from time to time the founders of families still existing among us attract our attention. The stir and excitement of wars and sieges,-the convulsions of revolution among our neighbors, pass on like the shifting scenes of dissolving views. The beginnings of agricultural and commercial enterprize appear, and the institution of representative government is firmly established in the land, bringing into active play many of the exciting passions. Meanwhile, emigration draws in skill, talent and industry, and by almost imperceptible degrees the people acquire habits, sentiments and pursuits suited to the land in which they live-to its climate and circumstances, and thus the Nova Scotian character is gradually developed. In the third volume I hope to bring down the narration to comparatively recent times. I have endeavored to reduce the materials I had collected into a brief space, but there were many things that tended to exhibit and illustrate the peculiarities of the place, the times and the people, and some biographical particulars, that I felt were worth preservation. I might have followed a stricter, perhaps more classical

model; but it seems to my mind that as the varied details of Gothic or Saracenic architecture produce a powerful effect in their combination, so the chronicler may, by diligence, unite many smaller features and occurrences, that, taken separately, might be disclaimed by some, as below the dignity of history to record, and by this mode transport the reader, as it were, back to the actuality of past times, and make our forefathers live and move again as in life, by rendering us familiar with their ideas and habits. A stern and statuesque rule of composition will not admit of such a course, but I feel justified in the endeavor to re-produce the past, as far as possible, in its own forms and colors and language, and, whenever I can, to make the very expressions (ipsissima verba) of the men who lived before us, exhibit their opinions and show their natures, and when I am able to insert a description of an occurrence of old in the identical words of the actors and contemporary observers, I believe I am laying a better and more workmanlike foundation for true and abiding history, than if I could expand into floridity of style or most vivid declamation. I am very far from claiming to have attained the power of delineating events in the way I could wish. The very necessity of abridging and linking together the annals of centuries, for the first time collected into any moderate compass, requires expedition. I only refer to this to shew the ideal I have formed, and aimed at, the execution of which must, I know, fall far short of the theory. I shall think I have attained all the success I could in reason hope for, if my narrative obtains the esteem of my compatriots, as a useful repertory of the past affairs of Acadie, and if intelligent and thinking men shall hereafter compare my work with the histories of Hutchinson, Belknap and Williamson, of New England, and with Garneau, Ferland and Christie, of Canada, and assign me a place by the side or at the feet of those venerable writers.

In naming those to whom I am much indebted for kindness in promoting my undertaking, I find I had omitted, unaccountably, to thank my valued friend Charles W. H. Harris, of Kentville, Q. C., who displayed a warm interest in it. I should also mention the kindness of Norman Rudolf, esq., of Pictou, in lending me important mss.; and many favors and suggestions from John Bourinot, esquire, M. P. P. for Cape Breton, Henry I. Morgan, esq., of Ottawa, a young man of much promise, and P. S. Hamilton, esq., commissioner of gold mines of Nova Scotia.

HALIFAX, May, 1866.