CHAPTER II

THE NEW ENGLAND IMMIGRATION 1755-1770.

The expulsion of 1755 left the population of old Acadia so depleted
that the Governor and Council felt that something must be done at once
to add to its numbers. The first move in this direction was to offer
exceptional advantages to the New England soldiers, who constituted the
largest part of the force at the taking of Beausejour, if they would
remain in the country. Very few, however, accepted the offer, and as
the unsettled state of the country between 1755 and 1760 was most
unfavorable to immigration, but little progress was made till the next
decade.

During these years wandering bands of Acadians and Indians harrassed
(sic) the English, shooting and scalping whenever opportunity offered.
At Bay Verte, in the spring of 1755, nine soldiers belonging to a party
under Lieutenant Bowan, were shot and scalped while out getting wood
for the fort. Colonel Scott, commandant at Cumberland, immediately sent
two hundred of the New England men to Bay Verte with a sergeant and ten
men of the regulars. The sergeant replaced the men who were killed, and
caused three weeks' supply of wood to be laid in. Shortly after this
one of the regulars was killed, and one of the New England men was
taken prisoner. These men had strayed in the woods down as far as the
Tantramar with these unfortunate results.

In 1759, Governor Lawrence wrote from Halifax to the Board of Trade
that "five soldiers had been killed and scalped near Fort Cumberland,