They had been settled in the low grounds, forcing back, by dint of dikes, the sea and rivers wherewith those plains were covered.  The drained marshes produced wheat, rye, oats, barley, and maize.  Immense prairies were alive with numerous flocks; as many as sixty thousand horned cattle were counted there.  The habitations, nearly all built of wood, were very commodious, and furnished with the neatness sometimes found amongst our European farmers in the easiest circumstances.  Their manners were extremely simple; the little differences which might from time to time arise between the colonists were always amicably settled by the elders.  It was a band of brothers, all equally ready to give or receive that which they considered common to all men.”

War and its horrors broke in upon this peaceful idyl.

The Acadians had constantly refused to take the oath to England; they were declared guilty of having violated neutrality.  For the most part the accusation was unjust; but all were involved in the same condemnation.

On the 5th of September, 1755, four hundred and eighteen heads of families were summoned to meet in the church of Grand Pre.  The same order had been given throughout all the towns of Acadia.  The anxious farmers had all obeyed.  Colonel Winslow, commanding the Massachusetts militia, repaired thither with great array.  “It is a painful duty which brings me here,” he said.  “I have orders to inform you that your lands, your houses, and your crops are confiscated to the profit of the crown; you can carry off your money and your linen on your deportation from the province.”  The order was accompanied by no explanation; nor did it admit of any.  All the heads of families were at once surrounded by the soldiers.  By tens, and under safe escort, they were permitted to visit once more the fields which they had cultivated, the houses in which they had seen their children grow up.  On the 10th they embarked, passing, on their way to the ships, between two rows of women and children in tears.  The young people had shown a disposition to resist, demanding leave to depart with their families:  the soldiers crossed their bayonets.  The vessels set sail for the English colonies, dispersing over the coast the poor creatures they had torn away from all that was theirs.  Many perished of want while seeking from town to town their families, removed after them from Acadia; the charity of the American colonists relieved their first wants.  Some French Protestants, who had settled in Philadelphia after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, welcomed them as brothers, notwithstanding the difference of their creed; for they knew all the heart-rending evils of exile.