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228 GEOBGIA AND GEORGIANS
prohibition of Catholics was still unrepealed. To send these immigrants
adrift in the dead of winter would be an act of inhumanity; but Georgia
was in no condition at this time to assume the care of destitute sufferers.
However, Governor Keyiiolds determined to give them temporary
quarters.
There is nothing sadder in the Colonial annals of America than the
story of the unf ortunate Acadians: the original French settlers of Nova
Scotia, some of whom sought refuge in Georgia when driven out of
Canada by the cruel edict of the English. • These Acadians called the
country in which they settled Acadie. It was a bleak region, in the cold
latitudes of the far North, but to them it was home, and by industrious
cultivation they gave to it many of the charms of beauty. But, in 1713,
under the treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians were forced, after various
wars and changes, to relinquish these lands to the Crown of England;
and, though speaking the French language and professing the Catholic
faith, they were required at its cession to Great Britain to take the
oath of allegiance to the English monarch. It was a harsh exaction.
But the Acadians consented to take this oath, provided they were not
required to sever relations with friendly Indian allies or to take up
arms against France. The governor acquiescing in this proviso, the
oath was registered in due form; but the action of the local authorities
was overruled by the court, a decision of which required an uncondi
tional oath or immediate expatriation. The Acadians refused to coin-
ply with these demands, but, as a body, maintained a neutral position; *
and, thus matters remained unsettled until 1755, when radical measures
were adopted.
Bishop Stevens * has given us a graphic picture of these Acadians.
Says he: "They were an agricultural and pastoral people—tilled the
lands with great art and industry—reared large flocks and herds—dwelt
in neat and convenient houses—subsisted upon the varied stores gathered
from sea and land, and, with few wants and no money, lived in peace
and harmony under the mild jurisdiction of elders and pastors. The
Abbe Eaynal has described them in terms too eulogistic for human na
ture, representing a state of social happiness more consonant with the
license of poetry than with the fidelity of truth. It cannot be denied,
however, that they presented • a picture, full of charming scenes and
lovely portraits, simple manners, guileless lives, scrupulous integrity
and calm devotion. But the eye of English envy was upon them. The
uprooting of this people was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow,
commanding the Massachusetts forces, a gentleman of great moral and
military worth, whose strict ideas of obedience alone induced him to
consent to undertake the task.
"By a proclamation, so artfully framed that its design could not be
discovered, yet requiring compliance by penalties so severe as pre
vented any absence, the attendance of the male Acadians was required
at a specified time and in a specified place. At Grand Pro, where
Colonel Winslow commanded, over four hundred men met on the ap
pointed day, September 5, 1755, at 3 p. m., in the village clrureh, when,
going into their midst, he revealed to their astonished ears, the startling
''"Win. Bacon Stevens, M. P., D. D., in "History of Georgia," Vol. I.