CHAPTER X THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR AND THE STORY OF THE ACADIANS HAVE any of my young readers read the beautiful poem of "Evangeline," written by the poet Longfellow? Very likely it is too old for you, though the time will come when you will read it and enjoy it greatly. Evangeline was a pretty and pious woman who lived in a French settlement called Acadia, on the Atlantic coast. You will not find this name on any of your maps, but must look for Nova Scotia, by which name Acadia is now known. The story of Evangeline tells us about the cruel way in which the poor Acadians were treated by the English. It is a sad and pathetic story, as you will see when you have read it.

It was one of the wicked results of the war between the French and the English. There were many cruel deeds in this war, and the people who suffered the most were those who had the least to do with the fighting. In one place a quiet, happy family of father, mother and children, living on a lonely farm, and not dreaming of any danger, suddenly hear the wild war-whoop of the Indians, and soon see their doors broken open and their house blazing, and are carried off into cruel captivity—those who are not killed on the spot. In another place all the people of a village are driven from their comfortable homes by soldiers and forced to wander and beg their bread in distant lands. And all this takes place because the kings of England and France, three thousand miles away, are quarreling about some lands which do not belong to either of them. If those who brought on wars had to suffer for them they would soon come to an end. But they revel and feast in their splendid palaces while poor and innocent people endure the suffering. The war that began in the wilds of western Pennsylvania, between the French and Indians and the English lasted seven years, from 1754 to 1761. During that time there were many terrible battles, and thousands of soldiers were killed, and there was much suffering and slaughter among the people, and burning of houses, and destruction of property, and horrors of all sorts.

It is called the French and Indian War, because there were many Indians on the side of the French. There were some on the side of the English, also. Indians are very savage and cruel in their way of fighting, as you already know. I shall have to tell you one instance of their love of bloodshed. One of the English forts, called Fort William Henry, which stood at the southern end of Lake George, had to surrender to the French, and its soldiers were obliged to march out and give up their guns.

There were a great many Indians with the French, and while the prisoners stood outside the fort, without a gun in their hands, the savage men attacked them and began to kill them with knives and tomahawks. The French had promised to protect them, but they stood by and did nothing to stop this terrible slaughter, and many of the helpless soldiers were murdered. Others were carried off by the Indians as prisoners. It was the most dreadful event of the whole cruel war.

I must now ask you to look on a map of the State of New York, if you have any. There you will find the Hudson River, and follow it up north from the city of New York, past Albany, the capital of the state, until it ends in a region of mountains. Near its upper waters is a long, narrow lake named Lake George, which is full of beautiful islands. North of that is a much larger lake named Lake Champlain, which reaches up nearly to Canada.

The British had forts on the Hudson River and Lake George and the French on Lake Champlain, and also between the two lakes, where stood the strong Fort Ticonderoga. It was around these forts and along these lakes that most of the fighting took place. For a long time the French had the best of it. The British lost many battles and were driven back. But they had the most soldiers, and in the end they began to defeat the French and drive them back, and Canada became the seat of war. But let me tell you the story of the Acadians.

Acadia was a country which had been settled by the French a long, long time before, away back in 1604, before there was an English settlement in America. Captain John Smith, you know, came to America in 1607, three years afterwards. Acadia was a very fertile country, and the settlers planted fields of grain and orchards of apples and other fruits, and lived a very happy life, with neat houses and plenty of good food, and in time the whole country became a rich farming land.

But the British would not let these happy farmers alone. Every time there was trouble with the French, soldiers were sent to Acadia. It was captured by the British in 1690, but was given back to France in 1697, when that war ended. It was taken again by the British in the war that began in 1702, and this time it was not given back. Even its name of Acadia was taken away, and it was called Nova Scotia, which is not nearly so pretty a name.

Thus it was that, when the new war with France began, Acadia was held as a province of Great Britain. To be sure the most of its people were descended from the old French settlers and did not like their British masters, but they could not help themselves, and went on farming in their old fashion. They were ignorant, simple-minded countrymen, who looked upon France as their country, and were not willing to be British subjects.

That is the way with the French. It is the same to-day in Canada, which has been a colony of Great Britain for nearly a century and a half. The descendants of the former French still speak their old language and love their old country, and now sometimes fight the British with their votes as they once did with their swords.

The British did not hold the whole of Acadia. The country now called New Brunswick, which lies north of Nova Scotia, was part of it, and was still held by the French. In 1755 the British government decided to attempt the capture of this country, and sent out soldiers for that purpose. Fighting began, but the French defended themselves bravely, and the British found they had a hard task to perform.

What made it worse for them was that some of the Acadians, who did not want to see the British succeed, acted as spies upon them, and told the French soldiers about their movements, so that the French were everywhere ready for them. And the Acadians helped the French in other ways, and gave the British a great deal of trouble.

This may have been wrong, but it was natural. Every one feels like helping his friends against his enemies. But you may be sure that it made the British very angry, and in the end they took a cruel resolution. This was to send all the Acadians away from their native land to far-off, foreign countries. It was not easy to tell who were acting as spies, so the English government ordered them all to be removed. They were told they might stay if they would swear to be true subjects of the king of England, but this the most of them would not do, for they were French at heart, and looked on King Louis of France as their true and rightful ruler.

Was not this very cruel? There were hundreds of boys and girls like yourselves among these poor Acadians, who had happy homes, and loved to work and play in their pretty gardens and green fields, and whose fathers and mothers did no harm to any one. But because a few busy men gave news to the French, all of these were to be torn from their comfortable homes and sent far away to wander in strange lands, where many of them would have to beg for bread. It was a heartless act, and the world has ever since said so, and among all the cruel things the British have done, the removal of the Acadians from their homes is looked upon as one of the worst.

When soldiers are sent to do a cruel thing they are very apt to do it in the most brutal fashion. The Acadians did not know what was to be done. It was kept secret for fear they might run away and hide. A large number of soldiers were sent out, and they spread like a net over a wide stretch of country. Then they marched together and drove the people before them. The poor farmers might be at their dinners or working in their fields, but they were told that they must stop everything and leave their homes at once, for they were to be sent out of the country. Just think of it! What a grief and terror they must have been in!

They were hardly given time to gather the few things they could carry with them, and on all sides they were driven like so many sheep to the seaside town of Annapolis, to which ships had been brought to carry them away. More than six thousand of these unhappy people, old and young, men, women and little ones, were gathered there; many of them weeping bitterly, many more with looks of despair on their faces, all of them sad at heart and very likely wishing they were dead.

Around them were soldiers to keep them from running away. They were made to get on the ships in such haste that families were often separated, husband and wife, or children and their mothers, being put on different ships and sent to different places. And for fear that some of them might come back again their houses were burned and their farms laid waste. Many of them went to the French settlements in Louisiana, and others to other parts of America. Poor exiles! they were scattered widely over the earth. Some of them in time came back to their loved Acadia, but the most of them never saw it again. It was this dreadful act about which Longfellow wrote in his poem of Evangeline.

Now I must tell you how the French and Indian War ended. The French had two important cities in Canada, Montreal and Quebec. Quebec was built on a high and steep hill and was surrounded by strong walls, behind which were more than eight thousand soldiers. It was not an easy city to capture.

A large British fleet was sent against it, and also an army of eight thousand men, under General Wolfe. For two or three months they fired at the city from the river below, but the French scorned them from their steep hill-top. At length General Wolfe was told of a narrow path by which he might climb the hill. One dark night he tried it, and by daybreak a large body of men had reached the hill-top, and had dragged up a number of cannon with them.

When the French saw this they were frightened. They hurried out of the city, thinking they could drive the English over the precipice before any more of them got up. They were mistaken in this. The English met them boldly, and in the battle that followed they gained the victory and Quebec fell into their hands.

General Wolfe was mortally wounded, but when he was told that the French were in flight, he said: "God be praised! I die happy."

Montcalm, the French general, also fell wounded. When he knew that he must die he said: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."

The next year Montreal was taken, and the war ended. And in the treaty of peace France gave up all her colonies in America. England got Canada and Spain got Louisiana. All North America now belonged to two nations, England and Spain.

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