To the inhabitants of the districts above named, as well ancients
     as young men and lads.

Whereas His Excellency the Governor has instructed us of his last resolution respecting the matters proposed lately to the inhabitants, and has ordered us to communicate the same to the inhabitants in general in person, His Excellency being desirous that each of them should be fully satisfied of His Majesty’s intentions, which he has also ordered us to communicate to you, such as they have been given him.

We therefore order and strictly enjoin by these presents to all the inhabitants, as well of the above-named districts as of all the other districts, both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the church in Grand Pre on Friday, the fifth instant, at three of the clock in the afternoon, that we may impart what we are ordered to communicate to them; declaring that no excuse will be admitted on any pretence whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting goods and chattels in default.

     Given at Grand Pre, the second of September, in the twenty-ninth
     year of His Majesty’s reign, A.D. 1755.

A similar summons was drawn up in the name of Murray for the inhabitants of the district of Fort Edward.

Captain Adams made a reconnoissance of the rivers Canard and Des Habitants, and reported “a fine country and full of inhabitants, a beautiful church, and abundance of the goods of the world.”  Another reconnoissance by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among the settlements behind Grand Pre brought reports equally favorable.  On the fourth, another letter came from Murray:  “All the people quiet, and very busy at their harvest; if this day keeps fair, all will be in here in their barns.  I hope to-morrow will crown all our wishes.”  The Acadians, like the bees, were to gather a harvest for others to enjoy.  The summons was sent out that afternoon.  Powder and ball were served to the men, and all were ordered to keep within the lines.

On the next day the inhabitants appeared at the hour appointed, to the number of four hundred and eighteen men.  Winslow ordered a table to be set in the middle of the church, and placed on it his instructions and the address he had prepared.  Here he took his stand in his laced uniform, with one or two subalterns from the regulars at Fort Edward, and such of the Massachusetts officers as were not on guard duty; strong, sinewy figures, bearing, no doubt, more or less distinctly, the peculiar stamp with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted the features of New England.  Their commander was not of the prevailing type.  He was fifty-three years of age, with double chin, smooth forehead, arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round, rubicund face, from which the weight of an odious duty had probably banished the smirk of self-satisfaction that dwelt there at other times.[276] Nevertheless, he had manly and estimable qualities.  The congregation of peasants, clad in rough homespun, turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious and intent; and Winslow “delivered them by interpreters the King’s orders in the following words,” which, retouched in orthography and syntax, ran thus:—­