The French fort of Beausejour, mounted on its hill between the marshes of Missaguash and Tantemar, was a regular work, pentagonal in form, with solid earthern ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of twenty-four cannon and one mortar.  The commandant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in the colony regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful character.  He owed his place to the notorious Intendant, Bigot, who it is said, was in his debt for disreputable service in an affair of gallantry, and who had ample means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by defrauding the King.  Beausejour was one of those plague-spots of official corruption which dotted the whole surface of New France.  Bigot, sailing for Europe in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his confederate:  “Profit by your place, my dear Vergor; clip and cut—­you are free to do what you please—­so that you can come soon to join me in France and buy an estate near me."[248] Vergor did not neglect his opportunities.  Supplies in great quantities were sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrant Acadians.  These last got but a small part of them.  Vergor and his confederates sent the rest back to Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, and sold them for their own profit to the King’s agents there, who were also in collusion with him.

[Footnote 248:  Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.  This letter is also mentioned in another contemporary document, Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie.]

Vergor, however, did not reign alone.  Le Loutre, by force of energy, capacity, and passionate vehemence, held him in some awe, and divided his authority.  The priest could count on the support of Duquesne, who had found, says a contemporary, that “he promised more than he could perform, and that he was a knave,” but who nevertheless felt compelled to rely upon him for keeping the Acadians on the side of France.  There was another person in the fort worthy of notice.  This was Thomas Pichon, commissary of stores, a man of education and intelligence, born in France of an English mother.  He was now acting the part of a traitor, carrying on a secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort Lawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed at Beausejour.  It was partly from this source that the hostile designs of the French became known to the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the proceedings of “Moses,” by which name Pichon always designated Le Loutre, because he pretended to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage.[249]

[Footnote 249:  Pichon, called also Tyrrell from the name of his mother, was author of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton,—­a book of some value.  His papers are preserved at Halifax, and some of them are printed in the Public Documents of Nova Scotia.]