THE FIRST CHURCHES OF THE ISTHMUS.

THE spiritual interests of the people of old Chignecto have always been
well-looked after. One of the first white men to visit the Isthmus with
a view to settlement was a priest, and the man who wielded the largest
influence in and around Fort Beausejour during the last years of the
French occupation was a priest, the vicar-general of Canada. In more
than one instance the assistance promised to the colonists in Acadia by
the wealthy was provisional upon the conversion of the Indians to
Christianity. During the French period three chapels were erected on
the Isthmus--one at the Four Corners, Tantramar, one at Fort
Beausejour, and one at Beaubassin. These chapels were burned during the
taking of Beausejour and the expulsion of the Acadians. The bell on the
chapel at the Four Corners was buried by the Acadians at the
intersection of two lines drawn from four springs to be seen in that
locality yet. Some years after a party of Acadians, on getting the
consent of Wm. Fawcett, who in the meantime had come into possession of
the land, dug up the bell and carried it to Memramcook. The late Father
Lefebre exchanged it for a larger one. It is believed that the bell
from the Beausejour chapel is the one now used in St. Mark's church,
Mount Whatley. This bell is ornamented with scrolls and fleur-de-lis
and has the following inscription:

AD HONOREM DEI
FECIT F.M. GROS,
A ROCHEFORT,
1734.

The first Protestant ministers on the Isthmus were Episcopalians. Mr.
Woods, a clergyman of that denomination, was at Fort Lawrence in 1752,