Nova Scotia Archives

Acadian Heartland

Records of the Deportation and Le Grand Dérangement, 1714-1768

ACADIAN FRENCH.

195

was to try at a peace with the Indians and to get our prisoners out of their hands. For which purpose he had frequent conferences with Le Loutre and the French Officers under a flag of Truce. La Corne sent one day a Flag of Truce by a French officer* to the waterside a small river that parts his People from our Troops. Captain How and the officer held a Parley for some time across the river. How had no sooner taken leave of the officer, than a party that lay perdue fired a volley at him and shot him through the Heart. An instance of treachery and barbarity not to be paralleled in history, and a violation of a flag of Truce which has ever been held sacred and without which all faith is at an end, and all transactions with an enemy.

Extract from a Document entitled, "A short account of what passed at Cape Breton, from the beginning of the last War until the taking of Louisburgh in 1758, by a French Officer." †

      It was very wrongfully, and with the greatest injustice, that the English accused the French of having a hand in the horrors committed daily by Loutre with his Indians. What is not a wicked priest capable of doing? He clothed in an officer's regimentals, an Indian named Cope, whom I saw some years after at Miramichy in Acadia, his hair curled, powered, and in a Bag; and, laying an ambuscade of Indians near to the Fort, he sent Cope to it, waving a white handker-

being wounded. On that occasion he attacked and carried the house occupied by Col. Noble, the English Commander, who was killed in its defence. From Grand Pre, he returned to Beaubassin, and thence proceeded to Canada, where he remained on active service, until 1749, when he was again sent to Beaubassin, to engage. in concert with Le Loutre the priest, in seducing the Acadians from their allegiance. He had directions from Jonquiere, Governor of Canada, to take possession of all Acadia north of the Bay of Fundy and the Isthmus, and to induce the Acadians to remove thither. At this time he was said to be in command of about 2500 men, some of whom were supposed to be Acadians. This step was taken by the Governor of Canada while the two nations were at peace. After the failure of this enterprise, he returned to Canada, where he appears to have been actively employed for ten years. He was wounded in the action at the Rapids, Lake Ontario, in 1759; and the same year, his name appears in the dispatches as having distinguished himself at the siege of Quebec, in command of a Battalion of Colonial troops, when he was again wounded.
    M. La Corne, like Le Loutre, possessed an intimate.knowledge of the Indian languages, by means of which he was enabled to afford valuable service to his employers at Quebec. — Nova Scotia Documents. N.Y. Colonial Documents.
    * The French officers denied this statement, and charged the crime on Le Loutre the priest.
    † French Documents relating to Acadia, among N.S. Archives.