IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

4' 4v

1.0

I.I

lli|28 |2.5
lito 111112.0

1.25 1 1.4 III 1.6

».

s>:

0^-"^'

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

^f2

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

Tachnical and Bibliographic Notat/Notas tachniquaa at bibliographiqui

Tha Instituta hat attamptad to obtain tha bast
original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of thia
copy which may ba bibliographically uniqua,
which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha
raproduction. or which may significantly changa
tha usual mathod of filming, ara chaclcad balow.

Colourad covars/
Couvartura da coulaur

|~~1 Covars damagad/

Couvartura andommag6a

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurAe et/ou pelliculAa

r I Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

I I Coloured maps/

Cartes gAographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

1"^ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/

Planches et/ou Illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
ReliA avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de ia
distortion le long de la marge intArieure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear w!thin the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutAes
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans la texte,
mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 6t6 fiimAes.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires supplAmentaires:

L'Institut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire
qu'ii lui a it6 possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reprodulte, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la m6thoda normaia da filmage
sont indiqu6s ci-dessous.

D
D
D

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommagies

Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restauries et/ou peiiiculies

Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages d^colordes, tachettes ou piquAas

Pages detached/
Pages d^tachias

Showthrough/
Transparence

I I Quality of print varies/

Qualit6 inigaia de I'impression

Includes supplementary material/
Comprend du material supplAmentaire

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been ref limed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata. une pelure,
etc., ont M fiimAes A nouveau de fa^on A
obtenir ia meilleure image possible.

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est filmd au taux da rMuction indiquA ci-dessous.

10X

14X

18X

22X

26X

30X

12X

16X

20X

24X

28X

32X

tail*
I du
odifiar
una
maga

Tha copy f ilmad h'- ra has baan reproducad thanks
to tha ganarosity of:

Morisset Library
University of Ottawa

Tha images appearing hare are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

L'axemplaira filmA fut rsprodult grAce A la
gAnArositA de:

Biblioth^qub Morisset
University d'Ottawa

Les images suivantes ont AtA reproduites avac la
plus grand soin, compta tenu de la condition et
de ia nettetA de i'exemplaire filmA, et en
conformltA avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending un
the last page with a printed or illustrated Imprea-
slon, or tha back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

Les exemplairas origlnaux dont la couverture en
papier est ImprlmAe sont fllmAs en commenpant
par la premier plat et en terminant soit par la
derniAre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'Impresslon ou d'illustration, soit par le second
plat, salon le cas. Tous las autras exemplairas
origlnaux sont fllmAs en commandant par la
pramlAre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'Impresslon ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la derniAre page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol -ii»> (meaning "CON-
TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Un des symboles sulvants apparaltra sur la
derniAre Image de chaque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbols — ► signlfie "A SUIVRE ", le
symbols V signlfie "FIN".

Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to oe
entirely Included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:

Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre
fllmAs A des taux de rAduction diff Arents.
Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre
reproduit en un seul clichA, II est filmA A partir
de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite,
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images nAcessaire. Las diagrammes suivants
lllustrant la mAthode.

rrata
to

pelure,
n A

□

32X

t^-^^

ACADIEANDTHEACADIANS.

¥■'

Cs-

ACADIE

' J

AN'> J. an

ACADI ANS.

D. LUTHER ROTH.

AUTHOR OF "OUR SCHOOLMASTER," PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THK

REDEEMER, ALBANY, N. Y.

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR.

Mm A

i I

PHILADELPHIA:

luthe:ran publication society.

-:-^- -^ 1890. -

II6UOTH5CA

D. I.UTHER ROTH.

TO MY WIFE.

f""., ,

'*^.

\ .

(
I

CONTENTS.

PAOB

Introduction

CHAPTER I.
Prs-Columbian Discovery j-

CHAPTER II.

The Aborigines

CHAPTER III.
The Reugion of THE Aborigines ^q

CHAPTER IV.

The Micmacs of To-day ....

CHAPTER V.

Jim

CHAPTER VI.

Sabi,e Isi,and ,

* • • • 02

CHAPTER VII.

Eari^y History ^o

•••..... 7a

: . , (vii)

vHi CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER VIII.
End op tub Prbnch Pbriod 88

CHAPTER IX.
English CotONiZATioN — Hai.ipax 05

CHAPTER X.
The Founding ok a Church in Halifax 104

CHAPTER XI.
"Conveying" A Church . 115

CHAPTER XII.
How THB Thing was Done 131

CHAPTER XIII.
The Communion Service and the Burying Ground . . 148

CHAPTER XIV.
The Founding of Lunenburg 164

CHAPTER XV.
Proscription, Rebellion and Trouble , . . 187

CHAPTER XVI.
The French and Acadians 204

CHAPTER XVII.
The Acadians— Continued 229

CONTKNTS. j^

CHAPTKR XVIII. ''*"■
Thb I iRST German School IN I.UNENBURO 244

CHAPTER XIX.

Thb Housks and PiioPMi OF TiiK Olden Time by the
Light OF THE Fisii-oii, i,AMP ^^

CHAPTER XX.
The Books the Fathers Read . 261

CHAPTER XXI.

Bryzei,ius

270

CHAPTER XXII.
Calling a Minister .... «

* * • • • 2o2

CHAPTER XXIII.

A Letter from the Patriarch Muhlenberg and a

Manly Reply

295

CHAPTER XXIV.
Through Conflict TO Victory \ ,Qg

CHAPTER XXV.
SCHULTZ, THE FiRST MINISTER - jg

CHAPTER XXVI.
The Invasion OF Lunenburg -^

■■/

* CONTENTS. .

CHAPTER XXVII. ''^°"

SCHMBISSER, THB SECOND MINISTER 333

CHAPTER XXVIII.

On« OF TH« HesSIANS . . .

359

CHAPTER XXIX.

T«MME, THE Third Minister . .

300

CHAPTER XXX.

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER .... ,0^

••.t 300

CHAPTER XXXI. '^'

Generai, History AND STATISTICS ....

• ••••... 410

■■ ' !'- L M Mmig

,»".

INTRODUCTION.

'pHIS book has been in preparation since 1876.
The arrangement of material, the searches after
missing h'nks, the weighing of evidence and the intro-
duction of new matter, during the intervening period,,
have occupied much of the spare time in a busy life. "
As a historical work, I beheve it to be thoroughly
accurate. No pains have been spared to verify its
statements and make them perfectly reliable as to
names, dates, localities and occurrences.

Neither explanations nor apologies are needed for
the publication of this work. It should have been
accomplished long ago. As for that, the book will
speak to its readers for itself. While I am aware that
the local ecclesiastical matter must be interesting
chiefly to Lutherans, I am persuaded, nevertheless,
that the general reader will find, in the wider range'
indicated by its title, much interesting information not
given in the usual line of book-making, and not to be
found elsewhere.

My thanks are due and hereby publicly tendered to
the friends who have kindly assisted in this work

Xll

INTRODUCTION.

notably to Professor J. Liechti, of Dalhousie College,
Halifax, the Rev. Dr. Cossmann, of Lunenburg, N. S.,
the Rev. J. A. Scheffer, of Allentown, Penna., and the
good woman whose name figures in the dedication.

D. L. R.

Albany, New York, October, i8go.

CHAPTER I.
PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

ACADIE is a land full of interest, both in its natu-
ral features and local traditions. The first well-
authenticated fact in its history is preserved in the
sagas of the Icelanders. Letters and learning flour-
ished among them when the rest of Europe was intel-
lectually stagnant ; histories and annals are nowhere
more copious. While the greater part of Europe was
plunged in the intellectual night of the Dark Ages,
away in the frozen regions of the North that people
flourished, with whom freedom and enterprise were
neither dead nor stagnant ; a people who possessed
scientific knowledge and the ability to apply it to prac-
tical uses; a people simple, fearless and energetic; a
people capable of self-government, republicans at once
in name and practice. And there, in Iceland, among
these people, in the writings of Snorri Sturluson,* the
renowned author of Heims-Kringla, particular men-
tion is made of the vast Continent far to the westward, .
of which Acadie, or Nova Scotia, is a part.

* Born 1 178, -j-1241.
(»3)

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

There, in Iceland, existing to this day, is a manu-
script* of undoubted antiquity, proven to have been
written more than one hundred years before the
wonderful voyage of Columbus, when —

In fourteen hundred and ninety two
He sailed across the ocean blue ;

in which MS. is given a detailed and circumstantial ac-
count of the. voyage of Leifr Heppni,the son of Eirekr
Raudi, Icelander, the real discoverer of North America.
Eric the Red, a famous Norwegian sailor, called
" The Red," because of his red hair and florid complex-
ion, had discovered Greenland in the year nine hundred
and eighty-two, and extensive settlements had been
made there. His son Lief, who made his home in
Iceland when he was not roving the sea, was ambitious
and daring. He built a shallop after the fashion of ^
the vessels of his day, with a high prow, a dragon tail
astern, rigged with a bank of oars and one square sail, '
manned her with five and twenty seamen stout and
bold, and invited his father to sail with him and take
command. Eric thought himself too old, but finally
; allowed himself to be persuaded. Embracing his re-
imaining children, he bade them farewell and mounted .
Ihis horse to ride to the harbor, where the vessel lay

* The celebrated Codex Flathiensis.

^-^

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

ready to sail. But the horse stumbled on the way,
and Eric, full of the sailor's superstition of his age,
thought it an omen of evil. "I do not believe it is
given to me to discover any more lands," said the old
seaman, " and here I will remain." He bade his son
farewell, and returned home. .

Lief and his companions sailed away in a south-
westerly course, and soon were fighting the fogs and
storms of the North Atlantic between Greenland and
Labrador. This was in the summer of the vear one
thousand. Bravely holding their course, after long
tossing on the stormy water, they were at length driven
upon an unknown shore, a wonder-land, a land of vast
extent and marvelous beauty. That land was North
America, ihe particular locality unknown. The hardj '
Norsemen made their way in safety back to Iceland,
where the story of the grand discovery was told, be-
lieved, and written in the chronicles of the land.

In the year 1002 an expedition similar to the first
was fitted out and dispatched for further exploration.
Lief, now called " Heppni," " the Lucky," by his
countrymen, was again in command. He held his
course almost due west, and in time sighted land. It
was flat, with fearful and forbidding rocks along the
shore, and high, snow-covered mountains farther in-
land. This was Labrador. The hardy rovers of the

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

sea, in their own tongue, named it " Helliiland hin
myklal' (The Great Land of Rocks,) refused to land,
and held their course to the south by east. They soon
came to another country, flat like the first, but with a
broad beautiful beach of white sand, the interior thickly
covered with woods. Here in a little estuary the ad-
venturers cast anchor, went ashore, and regaled them-
selves with the sweet berries which they found. But
the country looked better from the ship than they
found it upon closer inspection to be, for it was very
rocky. They named it, " Helluland hiti littlal' (The
Little Land of Rocks,") rejoined their ship, and sailed
away. Soon the bold seamen sailing southward
sighted another shore. The land was slightly hilly,
mostly covered with trees, its northerly shore sheltered
by a long island. In it they found abundance of small
wild fruits delicious to the taste. Bones of fishes and
burnt wood upon the shore indicated the presence of
human beings. The air was balmy, and they would
have remained, but the desire for further discovery im-
pelled them further to the south. They named the
country " Marklajidl' (The Land of Woods,) and sailed
away, leaving behind them with its new and appropri-
ate name, the country along the south shore of the St.
Lawrence river, now known as Nova Scotia. It will
be vastly interesting to follow for a little in the wake

■if^

PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

of these bold voyagers, and learn their story ^s it is
related in the archives of their country.

They sailed across the Bay of Fundy and made
land again away to the south. Seeking a harbor,
they found one at the mouth of a river, where the ris-
ing tide bore them into a bay. There they landed.
.The air was like that of Paradise. Birds sang and
squirrels chattered in the noble oaks around them.
The waters abounded in salmon and the woods in
deer. The days and nights were nearly of equal
length when they landed. They remained all winter,
and noted that when the days were the shortest, the
sun rose at half-past seven and set at half-past four.
A young German, who was Eric's servant, was one
day missing. Search was made, and he was found
deep in the forest, where he had discovered grapes,
delicious, abundant, such as grew in his native land.
Many other vines were afterward found, and from
these Lief derived the name which he gave the land,
" Vinland hin goda " (the Good Land of Vines). The
next summer the explorers returned to Greenland,
where, ever afterward, as well as in Iceland and Nor-
way, his ancestral home, Lief was known among his
countrymen as Liefr Heppni, that is. Lief the Lucky.

A rock discovered on the bank of the Taunton
river in Massachusetts, known as the Dighton stone,

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

and marked with letters and characters, strange in
shape and of unknown signification, is supposed by

•

eminent antiquarians* to have been inscribed by these
ancient voyagers; and the time noted of the rising
and the setting of the sun at the winter solstice — the
shortest day, about Christmas time — would indicate
some point on the New England coast, in Massachu-
setts or Rhode Island. The old stone mill, or tower,
at Newport is also considered by many to have been
the work of their hands. If they did not build it, as
Professor Rafn claims, who did? It was there when
the English settlers came, and the Indians knew noth-
ir;^ of its builders. And there it stands now, with its
massive cylindrical wall resting on seven columns,
whose foundations are seven wrought spheres of
stone, mysterious as the Pyramid of Gizeh or the
Theban Sphinx.

Certain relics in the Museum of the Royal Society
of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen, Denmark,
give conclusive evidence of the early colonization of
Greenland and America, and corroborate the testi-
mony of the Icelandic sagas. Professor Rafn, the

* Finn Magnussen, Vice-president of the Society of Northern Anti-
quaries, among others, has deciphered its hieroglyphics, and has shown
that they give a condensed history of the expedition and settlement of
Thorfinn Karlsefni. >»

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

learned Secretary of the Society, dlaims the " Old
Mill" as the work of the Northmen of the eleventh
century; for after the first discoverers, we must under-
stand, as the Icelandic records s'low, that many other
colonists came and that extensive settlements were
made. A summary . f the facts with respect to this
early discover)' and settlement shows the following;
first, with respect to Greenland, that it was discovered
in 982 and its western coast settled by Icelanders and
Norwegians.* These colonists existed as a commu-
nity for four hundred years, when they numbered
thousands of people and Greenland was erected into an
Episcopal see. In 1448 a brief was issued by Pope
Nicholas " granting to his beloved children in Green-
land, in consideration of their having erected many
sacred buildings and a splendid cathedral," a new
bishop and a fresh supply of priests. At the com-
mencement of the next century, this colony, with its
bishop, its priests and people, its one hundred and

* Lief introduced Christianity soon after, by the entreaties of the
king, Olaf Trygvesson. A handsome church was soon erected, and the
mission was so successful, under the patronage of ihe royal saint, Olaf
Haraldsson, that in 1034 it became part of the Diocese of Adalbert,
Archbishop of Bremen. The first bishop of the colony was appointed
in 1 126, and he had more than /wtf«/v succeseors, while churches
opened in ail directions. ■

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ninety townships, three hundred vilLiges, its many
churches, and its grand cathedral, fades into obUvion
like the fabric of a dream. The memory of its exist-
ence perishes, and the accounts of it remaining in the
Icelandic sagas gradually come to be regarded as
poetical inventions or pious frauds. But at last, after
more than four hundred years, some Danish Lutheran
missionaries set out to convert the Esquimaux ; and
there, as Professor Rafn has demonstated and as the
collateral evidence proves, they discovered vestiges of
the ancient settlement far up in Davis' Strait. There
were remains of houses, paths in the rock, walls,
churches, tombstones and inscriptions, attesting the
previous existence of a large colony. On one of the
stones found on White Woman's Island, Baffin's
Bay, latitude 72°5$' north, written in old Runic char-
acters, is the following inscriptions :

ViGDis M. D. HviLiR Her; Gwlde Gude Sal
Hennar," /. ^., "Vigdessa rests here; God gladdens

her soul."

Another inscription discovered in 1824 reads thus:
" Erlang Sighvatson and Biomo Thordarson and
Eindrid Oddson, on Saturday before Ascension week,
raised these marks and cleared ground, 1135." That
reference to Ascension week shows that these were
Christians. The stones bearing these inscriptions,

^M^M^^

FRECOLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

together with others equally convincing, arc now in
the museum of Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen.

The second fact of interest is, that only four years
after the discove-y of Greenland, in the summer of
986, Bjorn llcrjulfsson, a Norwegian navigator, sighted
the shores of America, but tlid not land.

Then in the year 1000 came Lief the Lucky.

In 1002 the second expedition under his command
sailed, and wintered in Vinland Jiin goda.

In the year 1003 the brother of Lief, Thorwald by
name, with thirty companions, came to Vinland. They
passed the winter in the huts built by Lief and his
party, subsisting upon fish and the game they took in
the woods. They spent the summer in exploring the
islands and the shore in their neighborhood, but found
nothing of importance. The islands were sandy.
There was little trace of human beings on them. An-
other summer was spent in the same way. In the
autumn the hardy pioneers entered a large inlet with
high banks thickly wooded. " Here is a goodly land;
here I will make my home," said Thorwald. Here
they found some natives, small of stature and of dark
complexion. They were in canoes, and though
armed, seemed timid and harmless in disposition.
The Northmen, fearing treachery, put them to death,
except one, who escaped with the news of the slaughter.

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

' • I J.^

and .iroused his countrymen. The savages were angry
and sought revenge. Silently they came by night in
their canoes, and fell upon their foes. A fight ensued,
in which Thorwald was mortilly wounded. Then the
savages fled to the hills, and Thorwald's men buried
the body of their chief on the spot where he had said
he would make his home, planting a cross at his head
and another at his feet. They passed the winter in
Vinland, in constant fear of the natives, and in the
spring returned to Greenland. The spot where Thor-
wald was buried was probably somewhere in the
vicinity of Martha's Vineyard. Albert Thorwaldsen,
the world-renowned sculptor, claims this Thorwald as
one of his ancestors.

In the year 1007 a colony of one hundred and sixty
persons, led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, a rich young Nor-
wegian, sailed from Greenland to Vinland, to plant a
colony there. He remained in the colony three years,
made several voyages to Iceland, and finally settled
there, built a magnificent mansion, and lived in a style
surpassing any chieftain of the land.

About the year 1027,3 ship from Iceland was driven
out of her course by contrary winds and blown away
to the southwest, where land was found and a landing
made. Some of those who went ashore, being sur-
prised by the natives, were captured and carried away

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

into the forests of the interior. Among them was
Gudlief Gudlangsen, who wrote an account of the ad-
venture which is still in existence. There they were
met by an a^i^d white man who appeared to be a chief,
and spoke to them in the old Norse tongue. He
secured the release of the prisoners, and advised them
to depart without delay, because his dusky warriors
were unmerciful to strangers. Upon their leaving, he
brought forth a gold ring and a sword of European
manufacture, which he asked them to carry back to
Iceland, to persons whom he named. He would not
tell them who he was, but it was believed that he was
Bjorn Asbrandson, a famous poet of Iceland, who dis-
appeared from his native land in the year 998.

These interesting incidents have been thus briefly
recapitulated here in order to make our history com-
plete from the beginning. While they may not all be
sufficiently attested to form the basis of historical con-
clusions, yet no doubt some are facts not to be dis-
puted. The relics now in the museum of Copenhagen
furnish evidences of the discovery and occupation of
the New World by the Northmen which cannot be
questioned. And yet, despite all this, the significant
and sinister fact remains, significant and sinister to the
superstitious, that Pope Alexander VI. (Roderigo
Borgia), whose name is the historic synonym for ex-

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

I '

traordinary infamy, solely on the statement of Colum-
bus, deeded the Continent of America to Spain.

A monument has been erected in Boston in honor
of Lief the Lucky, the actual discoverer of the conti-
nent. Columbus never saw the continent or set foot
on it, though the discovery by him of the adjacent
West Indies really led to its re-discovery.

Prof E. N. Horsford, to whose antiquarian researches
and zeal is due the erection of the monument to Lief,
the son of Eric, has also erected a tower on the
Charles river, at a spot which his studies lead him to
identify as the site of Mie Vinland colony, and at a
later day of the lost French settlement of Norumbega.*

These form our foundation facts. Here in the rock-
bound harbors, broad bays and quiet estuaries, on their

* In Hemlandet the following interesting statement has been published:
"The first 'Christian sermon' in America, in the tongue of our fore-
fathers, was preached by Bishop Jon, who arrived in America [Vine-
land] from Iceland in 1059, and suffered a martyr's death. Green-
land's first bishop, Erik, bishop of Gardar, arrived here in 1 121. (A
reference to this visit is made in the tablet on Prof. Horsford's tower. —
Author.) He also found his death in this country. After Erik,
Bishop of Ozur, of Lund, Skane, Sweden, ordained a learned priest,
Arnold, as Bishop of Greenland. He was succeeded, in 1 150, by
Bishop Jonas Knut (Canute). "We know at present the names of 17
bishops who had been in Greenland previous to 1410, and of these sev-
eral visited the colonies of the Northmen (Nordmannen) in America.''

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY.

voyages of discovery, as early as the year one thou-
sand, came the shallops of Lief the Lucky and his suc-
cessors, bearing on their high prows the wolfs head,
and on their square, tri-colored sail, the raven sacrod to
Odin.

But after a time all positive knowledge of their oc-
cupation is forgotten, and the traces of their improve-
ments are destroyed. Only in the archives of Iceland,
and in the indestructible rock-carvings and the like,
the memory remains. What became of the settlements
of the Northmen, planted on the coast, God only
knows. Cold or starvation, hostile Indians, or the
Black Death, which ravaged the world in the four-
teenth century, may have destroyed them. But so
complete and mysterious was their destruction that
none escaped to tell the tale. Never, perhaps, this
side of eternity, shall we know more concerning their
annihilation than is known now. Of all who came,
none returned to carry back the tidings of the utter
loss. All are gone — gone to keep the long mysteri-
ous exodus of death ; no voice comes to us from the
silent land to give answer to our persistent questioning.
The waves of old Atlantic rolled in solemn grandeur
as of yore on all the many leagues of coast from
stormy Labrador to sunny Florida; the forest bloomed
and waved its sombre boughs in its primeval beauty,

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

: I

while through it roamed the swarthy Indian, once
again its undisputed lord.*

*That the Norsemen discovered America five hundred years before
the voyage of Columbus thither is testified by Ortelius as early as 1070;
by Adam of Bremen in 1072; by Torfaeus in 1075; by Arne Marson,
the Icelandic chief; by Arne Frode, in his Account of Vinland, 1097; ^Y
Gudlief Gudlangson, the Icelandic captive, whose MS. still exists; by
Snorri Sturluson and the Codex Flathiensis, as referred to above, and
upwards of a hundred modern authors of repute, among whom are
Alex, von Humboldt, Mallet, Benj. Franklin, Malte-Brun, Pinkerton,
Wheaton, Toulmin Smith, Beamish, Da Costa, Wm. and Mary Howitt,
Baldwin, Bryant, Gravier, Guernsey, Washington Irving, Lord Dufferin,
Channing, Southey, Ix)ssing, Schoolcraft, Goodrich, Thomas Carlyle,
Sinding, Rafn, Bayard Taylor, Murat Halstead, Dr. Kneeland, Cyrus
W. Field, Dr. Hayes, Holmberg, Geijer, Montelius, R. B. Anderson,
Finn Magnussen, Eric Magnussen, and Mr. Gladstone.

CHAPTER II.

THE ABORIGINES.

OF the various nations of Indians composing the
great family of aborigines inhabiting this North
American continent at the time of its rediscovery by
Europeans, the Algonquins, of whom there were up-
wards of thirty tribes, each speaking a separate dialect
of the same language, were among the most numerous
and powerful. To this great family belonged the
Micmacs of Nova Scotia. In their own dialect they
called themselves Meggaamacks, and by the early
French settlers they were known as " Le Souriquois"
or " the salt water men," which name was given to
distinguish them from *^ Le Iroquois" who inhabited
the fresh water territory. The country of " Le Souri-
quois** included a part of the present area of New
Brunswick and all of Cape Breton, Prince Edward
Island and the peninsula of Nova Scotia.

In a letter from M. Villebon to De Lagny, bearing
date September 2, 1694, the Micmac land or as he
wrote it, the " Meggumahghee'* is described as extend-
ing "from Isle Percee and even higher up the river

(27)

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

(St. Lawrence) on the way to Quebec, and through
the Baie des Chaleurs, Restigouche, Richiboucto,
Baie Verte, Cape Breton, Campseau, and all along the
coast to Cape Sable, Port Royal,, Minas and Beau-
bassin. They look on all these places as their settle-
ment at all times."

Like all the other Indians of the eastern part of the
continent, except the Esquimaux, they are tall and
well-formed. They still hold possession of their an-
cestral hunting grounds and fishing preserves by suf-
ferance of the whites, and there I have seen them in
their encampments and studied their customs, habits
and peculiar traditions.

The men often stand well upon six feet in height,
are broad-shouldered, strong-limbed, and active. They
are not, however, as we find them to-day, the Indians
of that romantic age whose fragrant memory lingers
so delightfully in the charming pages of James Feni-
more Cooper. Their pure blood has been mixed with
that of alien races, llie prevailing color among them
is the reddish-brown or copper color of their wild
ancestors, but many show traits of Caucasian or
African nationality in color and feature. They all
have the high cheek bones, long black straight hair,
large lips and mouth, and the piercing coal-black eyes
of the true Indian. Their number, on their original

THE ABORIGINES.

territory to-day, as reported by the Dominion r^overn-
ment, is about four thousand, which is probaoly not
much less than it was in the days of Lief the Lucky,
since the surprising fact shown by the Dominion re-
ports is that the Indians, instead of dying out, are
steadily increasing in that country. This is some-
thing occurring probably for the first time in the
history of the savages of any country invaded and
permanently held by the Caucasian race.

The Micmacs of Nova Scotia still build their dwell-
ings after the manner of their forefathers, from poles
and bark. In the wigwam they have a place for every-
thing, and although it looks confused to unaccustomed
eyes, everything is in its place. Every post and peg
and bar and fastening, every tier of bark and every
appendage, whether useful or ornamental, has its own
particular name and use. Every division of the cone-
shaped curious structure is well defined and strictly
kept for its appointed purpose. Each person inhabit-
ing the dwelling has his own recognized place in it.
On each side of the fire, which is built in the centre,
is the part called Kamigwonty where, to the right on
entering, sit the master and mistress, and to the left
the young people. The women sit nearest the door.
They are never permitted to sit higher than the men.
At the back of the wigwam is the place of honor.

^■1

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

\ i

r I

1 li«

IT' it 'I

When a visitor is made welcome, they say to him,
" Kuta-kuma-gnal upcha-lase^' " Come up to the back
part of the wigwam." The men sit cross-legged after
the oriental fashion, the women twist their feet around
to one side, and the young people of the family sit
with their feet extended before them. The etiquette
observed is as exact as in the most polished society;
and here the extremes meet, for your true Indian is
nothing if not a formalist, and only Indians and ladies
paint.

When a neighbor Micmac comes to the lodge at
night he never presumes to enter without ceremony.
Standing outside he salutes the inmates of the wigwam
by ejaculating the word ''KwaT "Hello!" If his
voice be not recognized, the answer comes fron with-
in, " Kzva wenin keif' '• Who art thou ?" When he
has given his name, if he be a welcome visitor, he is
at once admitted, and in due form installed at the
back part of the wigwam ; but if unwelcome, he re-
ceives only the dry question, ^' Kogwa pawo tumunf"
"What do you want?"

It is an open question whether these Indians have
gained more from the virtues than they have lost
through the vices which they have learned along with
their partial civilization. The condition of their
women has in some respects been improved. The

it i

THE ABORIGINES.

men may no longer kill them with impunity, but they
still hold them as their inferiors, treating them as
slaves and beasts of burden. The women are never
allowed, by giving advice or otherwise, to interfere in
the transaction of any business. An amusing instance
was that in which a gentleman was bargaining with an
Indian for some feathers, when his wife remonstrated
with him for giving too high a price. Indignantly the
swarthy Micmac regarded her, and then broke out,
" When Indian make bargain, squaw never speakum ! "

When on the march, as they often a-e, the man
always walks ahead, the woman behind. When they
halt at a spring, the man drinks first. In moving from
one part of the wigwam to another, the woman must
never, upon any condition, step across her husband s
feet or over his fish-spear. To do so would be to per-
petrate an outrage so great that her lord must at once
avenge his wounded honor by chastising her.

The Micmacs believe with Solomon, that he who
spares the rod hates the child, and when occasion de-
mands, are not slow to apply the birch. By this means
they maintain very commendable discipline in their
households. The treatment of children by parents
among them is, in general, marked by solicitude, gen-
tleness, and affection, though whether white babies
would live to endure the tender mercies of an Indian

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

mother, remains to be proven. They will strap a
pappoose to a board and leave it standing against the
side of a house, shivering with the cold or sweltering
under the sun for hours. One such I saw leaning
against the side of a store in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia,
while the mother was making her purchases within.
The little fellow blinked at the people with his beady-
black eyes, apparently as much interested in them as
they were in him. The mothers tie them on their
backs, and on the march they will trudge along with a
swinging stride, while the head of the pappoose sways
up and down and from side to side at every step, as
though in imminent peril of breaking its neck. The
children manifest no inconsiderable desrree of affection
for their parents, though the natural stoicism of the
Indian race prevents them from ever becoming very
demonstrative.

The rude home life of these people has its charms
for them, and it is not without its wild amenities and
pleasures; and for these they still continue in it, after
the nomad custom of their ancestors, moving from
place to place like shadows flitting upon the face of
the waters, constantly changing and leaving no im-
pression, yet always the same through the centuries
of civilization by which they have been surrounded.
They have an eye to beauty in the selection of their

<THE ABORIGINES.

camping-grounds, and generally pitch their tents by
the side of some lovely lake or limpid stream, whose
waters, while they lend life and variety to the land-
scape, at the same time supply their larder with an
abundance of fine fresh fish. .

They are passionately fond of gambling, and spend
much of their time at home in playing games of
chance. They have an instinctive craving after excite-
ment, and, under its influence, change in an instant
from their ordinary dull, stoical, stolid and almost
stupid-looking selves into a human whirlwind of life
and energy. Such a transformation has been noted
among them along the Strait of Canseau, when, as the
inhabitants of the sleepy settlement dozed in the heat
of the midsummer's sun, a shoal of porpoises came
suddenly tumbling into sight. In an instant every-
thing was uproar and action.

They are fond of music, and will listen for hours
with the keenest delight to the trumpeting of a brass
band or the grinding of a hand-organ. They seem to
enjoy the sensation of sound, without regard to its
quality. They are often found sawing on an old violin
or torturing a squeaking accordion. The music can-
not be the attraction for them, for music is not in their
performance; but the pleasurable, purely sensuous ex-
citement of the noise, delights them. „_____,,
3

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

One dark and stormy night, when the rain was
pouring and the wind blowing furiously in from the
Atlantic, I was driving homeward in the neighborhood
of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I had to pass an Indian
lodge by the way, and remarked to the friend at my
side that the poor fellows must surely suffer in such
weather. But when we came near, out over the pine
undergrowth which surrounded the wigwam shone the
hght of the blazing fire within, and, as we checked our
horse a moment to listen, there rose above the howling
of the storm the sonorous voice of a man singing in
the tent an utterly tuneless tune to the syllables :

«♦ Tra la da la la yah whoop '

Tra la da-la la yah-oop,
Tol-Iol-tol-lol-la," etc,

and accompanying the voice the wheezy tones of a
cracked violin most vigorously manipulated ; while
along with these two principal parts in the outlandish
concert arose the cackle and laughter of a chorus of
children's voices. Mingling as it did with the wild
voices of the night, the song of the wind in the mourn-
ful pines, the splash and patter of the driving rain, and
the bellowing of the neighboring ocean, it was such a
surprise, wild, uncivilized, unique, as must be met to
be appreciated; a concert with none like it, perhaps,
before or since. But the Indians were not suffering.

THE ABORIGINES.

There is a difference of opinion with regard to the
language of the Micmacs; some who understand it
describe it as flexible, copious and expressive; while
others declare the very reverse. Probably it is a case
of taste and association, in which case de gustibus non
disputandmn. An eccentric Scottish philologist in
1840 published a volume of nearly three hundred
pages in which he labored to prove that the Celtic
language "was contemporaneous with the infancy of
mankind," or irf other words that it was the language
spoken in the Garden of Eden.*

In the same year Dr. Strattan of Canada, published
a brochure tracing the aflRnities between the Greek, the
Gaelic and the Latin tongues. Had these gentlemen
compared the Celtic with the Algonquin languages,
resemblances would have been found, such as are
pointed out by Campbell, as close as those existing
between the Greek and Micmac, adduced by Dr.
Strattan. For example : Island in Gaelic is " Inis," in
Algonquin " Inis ;" water is " Uisce " in Gaelic, in Al-
gonquin it is " Isca;" soft in Gaelic is ** Bog," in Al-
gonquin " Boge."

In the Micmac language, the native or aboriginal

* " History of the Celtic Language," by L. M. McLean, F. O. S.,
second ed. London, Smith, Elder & Co.

ACAOIE AND THE ACADIANS.

tongue, the alphabet contains only twenty letters, F,
Q, R, U, X, and Z, being wanting.

The Indian name for the Province of Nova Scotia is
MEGGUMAAtiE, Micmac I^'ind, or Country of the Mic-
macs.

A few interesting names of places are : — Bras d'Or
Lake, Petoobok, a long dish of salt water.

Blomidon, Onbogfgechk, dogwood grove.

Gaspcreaux Lake, PASEP'.vJi:K, it has whiskers (re-
ferring to its numerous small islands covered with fine
shrubbery.

Strait of Canso, Tooegunuk, an outlet.

Halifax, Chebooktook, great harbor.

Liverpool, Ogomkigeal, a dry, sandy place.

Lunenburg, Aseedik, clam land.

LaHave River, Pijenooiskak, having long joints.

Newfoundland, Uktakumkook, the mainland.

Nictaux, NiKTAAK, river-forks.

Prince Edward Island, t agnit, reposing on the
wave.

Port Medway, Ulgedoo, a mushroom.

Ashmutogun (better known as Aspotogan) ; Ukpu-
DESKAKUN, " whcrc they blockade the passage way,"
viz: where the seals go in and out, in order to kill
them. Kebejo-koocht, a closing of the passage, is
another name for Ashmutogun.

-^^

THE ABORIGINES.

Chester, Menskvvaak, I go to bring him.

MiLAi'sKEGKCHT (gold mjnes), "abounding in rocks
of all shapes and sizes."

A few words are remarkable for their length as com-
pared with the English equivalent :

Poogoolooskwemoosel, the elder.

Atlasmoodegiskuk, the Sabbath.

Najumooktakunechk, a bat.

Oonokpudeegisook, the snipe.

Ukchigumooeechk, the coot.

Ellooigunuk-tasagigul, seven dollars.

Oogumoolehin-tasagigul, eight dollars.

The following are short Micmac words:

Ek, if it were there. ,

Tas at, how many times does he say it?

Wiktuk, he likes the taste of it.

Boose, I go away by water.

Pooltenech, let us all be sitting down.

Taleak ? What is the news ?

Cawosk, a blown down piece of woods.

The Numerals.

1. Naookt.

2. Taaboo.

3. Seest.

4. Naoo.

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

lit

5. Nan.

6. Usookom.

7. Ellooigunuk.

8. Oogumoolehin.

9. Peskoonaddek.

10. Mtuhi.

11. Mtuln chel naookt.

12. Mtuln chel taaboo.

20. Tabooinskaak. •

21. Tabooinskaak chel naookt.
30. Nasinskaak.

40. Naooinskaak.

50. Naninskaak.

60. Usookom tasinskaak.

70. Ellooigunuk-tasinskaak.
ICX). Kuskimtulnakun.
loi. Kuskimtulnakun chel naookt.
206. Taaboo kuskimtulnakun.
300. Seest kuskimtulnakun.
600. Usookom tas kuskimtulnakun.

1000. Betooimtulnakun.
100,000. Naookt kuskinatulnakun betooimtulnakun.

THE ABORIGINES.

Names of the Months, in Micmac, with their

Meanings.
January, Boonamooe-goos, Frost-fish month.
February, Abugunajit-goos, the snow bhndinjr
month. '

March, Segow-goos, spring month. '

April, Punadumooe-goos, egg-laying month.

May, Agese-goos, month of young seals.

June, Nibune-goos, summer month, also Sagipke-
goos, leaf^opening month.

July, Upskooe-goos, month when the sea-fowl shed
their feathers.

August, Kesagawe-goos, month when the young
birds are full fledged.

September, Majowtoogwe-goos, moose-calling month.

October, Wegawa-goos, fat month (when tame ani-
mals are fat).

November, Skools-goos (we cannot give the mean-
ing)-

December, Ukche-goos, the chief month (when
Christmas comes).

si'.

CHAPTER III.

THE RELIGION OF THE ABORIGINES.

THE religion of the ancient Micmacs was like that
of the western tribes, a commingling of the natural
with the supernatural in a vague and unsystematic
grouping around the great Good Spirit and the great
Evil Spirit. They deified the forces of nature, evolving
from each some sort of imaginary personification,
much after the manner of the ancient Greeks and
Romans, and ranged each power thus personified as
the friend or foe of man. They made a God in turn
of the sun, moon, stars, meteors, fire, water, thunder,
lightning and everything they could not fully com-
prehend, which seemed to be superior to themselves.
There were no atheists among them. They had no
written language, excepting rude picture writings
sketched on rocks, the bark of trees, or the tanned
hides of beasts. Their history, like their religion, was
recorded on the memory of the children by the parents,
and thus transmitted from generation to generation.

The most illustrious of the deities of the Micmacs,
after the Great Spirit, was Glooscap, a demigod, who

(40)

<. ,

(!•'

THE RELIGION OF THE ABORIGINES. 41

exercised omnipotence in providing human conven-
iences on a gigantic scale. His favorite dwelling-place
was Minas Basin. There he had his beaver-pond, the
dam being across the entrance at Cape Split. The
wild animals were all obedient to him and at his call
the Moose and the Caribou, the Bear and Loup Cer-
vier, with all their smaller congeners, came hastening to
his side. When he stretched forth his magic sceptre
over the sea, the fishes came to hear his words of
wisdom and to do his will, The world was largely
under his control, the elements in nature his obedient
servants. When his enemies came against him as
many as the leaves of the forest, he put out their
camp-fires, and called upon the cold to come out of
the North in the night, so that when morning dawned
they all lay stark and still in the embrace of death.
The similiarity of this legend with the history given in
the Bible (2 Kings, xix 35) will at once suggest the
idea that it has been derived from that source. It may
be so. But let them come from where they will, the
fancies which linger along the Basin of Minas have not
all been gathered by Longfellow ; and Byron's famous
recital of the Destruction of Sennacharib has here
been fairly paralleled :

■

\ .

¥\

i I i'

I
: 1

i..

43 ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

" Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with its banners at sunset was seen;
I^ike the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

" For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still."

But the mighty Glooscap was not able to cope with
tht white invaders who came into his domain. He
was vexed with the English beyond all endurance.
And the end of the matter was that once, in a mighty
storm, he broke down his beaver dam, kicked over his
camp-kettle, which is now known as Spencer's Island,
turned his two huge dogs into stone, left them stand-
ing on the mountains, and took an unceremonious de-
parture. But tradition asserts that he will one day
return, his inverted kettle will be righted, his petrified
dogs spring into life, his royal wigwam will be again
set up, and his unbounded hospitality dispensed more
freely than before

The annexed little poem, from the pew of Matthew
Richey Knight, is a summary of the Micmac legend.

, i,^/ , Glooscap is gone from Glooscapweek,

In anger he has gone :
In vain his sorrowing people seek
,:-:---r^T-r-r—^ Thcif chicf on Blomidon.

.i;-'i

BHPi

THE RELIGION OF THE ABORIGINES. 43

His kettle he has overthrown,

It is an island now ;
His faithful dogs are changed to stone

Upon the mountain's brow.

Strange ships invade his beaver-pond,
Strange wigwqms line its shore ;

The waving of his magic wand
Brings heat and cold no more.

The aged squaw who cooked for him.

The boy Abistinauch,
Are buried 'neath the basin's brim,

All turned to lifeless rock.

The moose and caribou that came

Obedient to his call,
Have felt the white man's ruthless aim
," And now have vanished all.

But Glooscap will return: at least

Such is the Micmac's faith.
As day by day he scans the east

And marks the sun's bright path.

Glooscap will come and bring again
The Micmac's golden age ;
" Wrest from the grasp of stranger man

H The Indian's heritage.

The Micmaes believed themselves to have sprung
from the ground, in which the Great Spirit planted
them as He did the flowers and trees. Lossing says.

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

'' t

"A Micmac chief in Nova Scotia said to Colonel
Cornwallis of the British army, a century and a
quarter ago: "The land you sleep on is ours. We
sprung out of the earth like the trees, the grass and
the flowers." "Who knows?" he continues. "Eth-
nology, history, revelation and reason are all dumb
before the questioner concering these mysteries. The
pious and superstitious parson Cotton Mather, of
Boston, who wrote more than one hundred and
fifty years ago, took a short method of solving the
question by guessing that " the Devil decoyed these
miserable savages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to dis-
turb or destroy his absolute empire over them."

Captain Quartier, an early adventurer on the shores
of Acadie, writes of the Micmacs : " This people hath
not belief of God that may be esteemed, for they be-
lieve in one whom they call Cudouagni, and say that
he often speaketh to them, telling them future events.
They believe also that when they die they go up to
the stars, and afterwards into fair green fields full of
flowers and rare fruits." Champlain says : "A sav-
age told me that they verily believe in one God who
hath created all things. And when I asked him, see-
ing that they believe in one only God, by what means
he placed them in this world, and from whence they

THE RELIGION OF THE ABORIGINES.

were come? he answered me, that after God had
made all things he took a number of arrows and did
stick them into the ground, from whence men and
women sprang up who have multiplied in the world
until now."

This is a variation of the Scriptual account yet
similar in that it confesses that "the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground."

Mr. Richard Brown in his history of the Island of
Cape Breton, writing on the authority of Mr. Diere-
ville, who visited Port Royal in the year 17CX), as
agent of a company of merchants of Rouen, and who
iu 17 10 published an account of his voyage, says,
" When the French first settled in Port Royal, the In-

■ dians worshiped the sun as their God, which they
called Nichakaminon, meaning * very great.' They ac-
knowledged him as their Maker. They also believed
in a devil called Mendon, whom they endeavored to

" propitiate by praying to him to protect them from evil.
The Jesuits who came among them at the beginning
of the French period of the history of the country,
succeeded in showing them the folly of these things;
but now, since they have been converted to Christianity
for more than a century, many of their old superstitions
yet remain."

If now these early historians speak truly — and who

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

can say they do not? — we may pertinently inquire
what gain has accrued to the Indians by accepting the
teachings of the Jesuits? It is true they abstain from
meat on fast days, carry their dead long distances to
lay them in consecrated ground, do penance and
pay tithes of fish and game ; but that their conceptions
of the truth are much clearer than they were in the
days of their wild forefathers, we may reasonably
doubt. Many of their ancient superstitions still sur-
vive. To this day they will not allow a dying Micmac
to breathe his last on any other than a bed of spruce
boughs, believing that no Indian can die in peace or
go to the happy hunting-grounds beyond the stars un-
less he die on the kind of bed he has been accustomed
to sleep on all his life. It was under the instruction of
their Jesuit teachers that, as the allies of the French,
they committed most of the* horrible barbarities that
stain their name. They are all Roman Catholics, but
all the good qualities they now display were shown as
well before their conversion. It is difficult to show
what good has come to them from enrollment under
the holy father at Rome. But it is from such sources
that the Roman hierarchy gathers material for statis-
tics. Yet what do the Micmacs know of the pope?
He is to them only another Glooscap.

Acadie has many memories of their former deeds of

rf^

THE RELIGION OF THE ABORIGINES.

■A

blood still lingering upon its islands, in its forests, and
along its streams. But in blaming them for their ex-
cesses we must remember that they had been taught
to look upon the English as their enemies, and insti-
gated to perpetrate their atrocities by their Roman
Catholic advisers. One night the hempen cables of
seven American schooners were cut while their crews
slept. The vessels were lying at anchor near an island
in Mahone Bay. When they drifted in with the rising
tide, the savages murdered every soul on board. Not
a man escaped to tell the story. A large number of
human bones have been disinterred there. On the
island the murderers offered a white child in sacrifice
to their Mendon, or evil spirit, and to his day the
place, with its bloody history, is known as Sacrifice
Island.

A certain locality along the shore, between Mahone
Bay and Gold River, was the scene of so much
slaughter as to fasten upon it the name of Murderer's
Point. Here the crew of a fishing-schooner once
landed, leaving a boy in charge of the vessel. From
his place on board the lad saw the savages murder his
companions. With all haste he cut the moorings of
the schooner, ran down to Clay Island where other
Americans were fishing, and thus saved his life. On
Heckman's Island, as late as 1756, a Mi;. Payzant

I; I

(

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

settled with his family. Seizing a boy on a neighbor-
ing island, the Indians forced him to guide them to the
spot, and there, when they were come they killed Mr.
Payzant, a servant-maid, a child, and the boy whom
they had compelled to act as guide. Mr. Payzant's
last words were — ** My heart is growing cold — the
Indians." Mrs. Payzant and her four children were
carried captives into Canada. The house was burned
and a happy home blotted out of existence. On their
way to Quebec the Indians killed two young French-
men, knowing that their scalps, for each of which they
were paid a fixed sum, could not be distinguished from
those of the British subjects after whom they had been
sent. Mrs. Payzant was separated from her children
for seven long months, but through the kind offices of
the Roman Catholic Bishop, who had more authority
among the Indians than the officers of the civil gov-
ernment, they were, at the end of that time, restored
to her, when "she pressed them to her bosom, cov-
ered them with kisses, and bathed them with her
tears."

In the Roman Catholic cemetery at Chester, where
many of the Indians are buried, stands a tombstone
with the following inscription — the word " call " in it,
being an allusion to the call used in hunting the
moose :

• THE RFLiniON OF THE ADORIGINES. 49

" In memory of Joseph Penal!., Indian.
By Willian Chearnley, A. D. 1859.

Gone to death's call is Indian Joe;

Moose deer, rejoice,
Here, buried, rests your deadliest foe."

Again we repeat, in censuring the Micmacs for their
barbarities, it must be remembered that they had been
taught by the Jesuits to look upon the British settlers
and all Protestants as their natural enemies, and that
they received their pay for ever>' atrocity in the silver
francs and louis d'or of a civilized and Christian
nation.

CHAPTER IV.

^-1

THE MICMACS OF TO-DAY.

''plflC age of romance, lingering as it does in the
-*- pages of Cooper, and between the yellow covers
of a lower grade of fictitious ^'^cratiire, is past, and the
reality of the facts of to-da) that with which we
have to deal. The Indians now remaining in Nova
Scotia upon the outskirts of civilization, have little,
though still something, in common w'th those of the
by-gone days. The Micmacs still retain among them-
selves their ancient tribal relations, but the authority
of their chiefs is nothing when it comes into conflict
with the white man's law. They are divided into
twenty tribes, with as many chiefs. But chieftains and
people have been alike destroyed by the curse of the
red man — rum. Over the entrance of the grand lodge
of the nation may be written "/c/icidod," for their glory
has departed forever. The fire-water of the pale-face
has made their haughty chieftains the subjects of de-
rision even among their own pco[)le. They are with-
out authority. The last vestige of it has disappeared.
The highest law of the Indian is the necessity of the

(50)

I-

->MiHiidNadMIMriMM

THE MICMACS OF TO-DAY.'

hour, and next to this the dictum of tlie Roman Cath-
olic priest. Expedience is with him the rule of life,
the end forever justifying the means.

The slight accjuaintance I had with them formerly,
gained as it was chiefly through highly and falsely
colored mediums, has given place to a more exact
knowledge, based on personal observation of them-
selves and their ways. The flaunting plumes and
gory scalps, the deer-skin robes and labored orna-
ments, are gone, and in their stead we see the Indian of
to-day clad in the r ist-off garments of the charitable,
the battered beaver and the ragged coat. The pitiful
insignia of fallen greatness, dear to his barbaric taste,
the red ribbon that encircles his hat, the epaulettes of
crimson cloth, the scarlet stripes that decorate his
nether garments, are all that remain to proclaim the
haughty chieftain's ancient nobility— his kingly descent.
He no more hunts the buffalo on barbed steed; no
more with stealthy tread pursues the object of his
sworn revenge ; no more congeals the blood of his
terror-stricken victim with the fiendish whoop of war.

His is to-day the quietest of quiet lives. The
modern Indian erects his wigwam after the manner of
his fathers, but holds no more therein the council of
war with illustrious sachem or powerful brave. He
sits down quietly in his tent to braid baskets or manu-

¥ '

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

facture simple wooden table-ware; he quietly sleeps
and dreams of happy hunting grounds, or torments his
soul with visions of an equally fantastic and imaginary
purgatory. When the baskets have been finished, he
loads them upon the backs of his wife and children,
and leads the procession to the nearest village. With
the proceeds of their sale he procures sufficient fire-
water to fill himself and his black bottle, and with a
light heart tramps back to his lodge, leaving his
partner to procure such food as she can buy with what
remains, or beg upon the way. Arrayed in the latest
style of government blanket, she returns to find her
lord in a state of hilarity or rage, as the case may be,
ready to declare war or to conclude peace, to beat her
or not, as the mad impulse may seize him ; but beyond
his own camp-fire his voice is heard no more for peace
or war. \

And when consumption and bad rum havs under-
mined his constitution and broken down his strength,
he quietly stretches himself on his bed of spruce
boughs on the floor of his damp, unwholesome dwell-
ing, coughs up his life-blood, and dies. His neighbors
gather from far and near, drink more bad rum to his
memory, and then bear his body to its last long home
in the consecrated ground. Is he better off than he
was of old ? God knows. It does not look so. And

■

THE MICMACS OF TO-DAY.

if he be worse now than then, somebody must be to
blame. But if his condition now is better than it was
of old his former life was one too sad for language to
portray. Whatever the Roman Catholic religion may
have done to benefit his soul it has standing against it
a heavy debt account, in what the vices of civilization
and the impositions of the white man have done to the
injury of his body.

Too proud to beg, the Indian throws that burden on
his squaw ; too lazy to work so long as absolute and
immediate necessity does not compel, improvident to
the last degree if ever prosperity does come his way,
he leads a miserable existence upon the ragged edge
of starvation, dies a wretched death, and the world
moves on without him, as heedless as though he had
never existed. And the prospect before his children
is that they will follow in his footsteps one degree
lower in the descending scale. Who envies the noble
red man? Not one. His glory has departed, and the
romantic tales of his wild life and valorous deeds in
the time of old, but lend a shade of deeper gloom to
the misery of his present state.

Those with whom I came in contact are such as
have been here depicted. They work a little at basket
making, at lumbering, and about the saw-mills, hunt
a little, fish in the fishing season, beg, borrow, and

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

some way find vvhatevei else they get to keep soul and
body together.

Some time ago John Barnaby, one of their chiefs,
accompanied by Alexander Marshall, another Indian,
visited the Indian Department in Halifax, in order to
lay before the proper authorities a grievance in con-
nection with their fisheries in the Restigouche river.
They complained that their nets had been seized and
their fish taken. But their mission was fruitless, as
they had unwittingly come in conflict with the Fish-
eries and Game Act of the Dominion. The untutored
natives do not have almanacs, and if they had would
not be able to read them ; beside which, not knowing
anything about the months, they could not tell when
the prohibition against fishing with nets and seines
was in force. They still compute time by the changes
of the moon as their fathers did, and learn the white
man's ways and laws, as in this instance, only by sad
experience.

But to the white man's ways and customs they do
not always tamely submit when native cunning will
secure them an advantage. One of them went into a
store in the settlement known as New Ross, Lunen-
burg county, and purchased some tobacco. Not hav-
ing the money wherewith to pay for it, he asked to
leave his gun for a short time as a pledge for its pay-

THE MrCMACS OF TO-DAV.

^1"

ment. The request was granted and the Indian de-
parted, taking the tobacco and leaving the gun. A day
or two afterward he rushed into the store apparently
under great excitement, and pointing outward, shouted
**Bcar/ bear! gt^nf gun!'' The shop-keeper, taken
off his guard, not wishing to deprive him of the means
of capturing the animal, and with visions of possible
savory bear-steaks dancing before his eyes, at once
caught the infection and made all haste to hand him
the gun. The wily red hunter took it and rushed out
but whether the bear ate him, or whether he is still
pursuing the bear, we have no means of knowing, as
neither has been seen or heard of in the neighborhood
since.

As has been already stated, the aggregate number of
Indians in the Dominion is apparently increasing; but
the increase may be due to the fact that many Sioux
and Blackfeet have recently entered Canada from the
United States. The number in the Province of Nova
Scotia varies at different limes, and is put down at from
thirteen hundred to two thousand. But they are pass-
ing away. Not many generations hence, it is safe to
predict, they will be known only in history and in the
names which they have given to the lakes and hills
and rivers where they roved. Here, as in many other
localities where they once held absolute control, they

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

are losing their hold and dropping off to fade into
oblivion. But

The memory of the Red Man,

Still lingers like a spell
On many a storm swept headland,

On many a leafy dell.

The memory of the Red Man,

How can it pass away, r

While their names of music linger /

On mountain, stream and bay ?

As we find them so we leave them, sorry that the
dreams of our youthtul days should have been dis-
pelled by such a rude awakening to the prosaic reality.

,.-; A

:•■

■I

. '

CHAPTER V.

■j

JIM.

JIM PENALL was his name. It is fair to presume,
his parents having been good Roman Catholics,
that he had been christened James ; but nobody ever
thought of calling him James, any more than they
thought of calling him Mister. The fact is nobody
would have known who James or Mister Penall was ;
but everybody who knew him at all knew just who
was meant by " Jim." His family name was, in his
native language, Agdamoncton. He came of a family
at one time numerous, and he still had brothers and
sisters many in the Gold River district.

When I saw him first he was marching at the head
of a little detachment that moved, Indian file, along
the highway — first Jim, " Indian Jim," as some called
him, tall and graceful; then his wife, with a pappoose
bundled on her back in an old shawl, with its arms
clinging to her and its head swaying to the mother's
step as though to the imminent danger of dislocating
the youngster's neck ; and then in the rear a little girl
and a little boy, straying off now and again to look for

(57)

!l!

;if:

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

daisies in the grass. There was somethinfj pleasant
in his manner and respectful in his. behavior in this
casual meeting, and I afterward often thought of him.
But I didn't know him then, and if that had been all,
would no doubt soon have forgotten him.

But in the course of a few weeks the call of duty
brought me along a lonely by-way, a narrow road
through the woods and barrens, from the harbor to the
top of the hill, and there, under thebeech-trees, I saw
a new wigwam. It was located in a pretty spot. The
land-locked harbor stretched to the eastward at the
foot of the hill, its placid waters dotted with here and
there a fishing-schooner and some smaller craft ; all
around were the white-barked beech-trees, interspersed
with dark hemlock, spruce and hackmatack; and not
far in the rear purled a brook which flowed unceas-
ingly from a lake on the other end of the hill, wherein
the wild ducks bred. The rabbits haunted the covers
of the bush on the barrens, so Jim had at his com-
mand fish, flesh and fowl : for it was Jim's new wig-
wam that curled its smoke so peacefully in the midst
of this sylvan scene. He deserved to have credit
given him for having an artist's taste and a hunter's
judgment in the selection of his location.

I then sought for a reason why I should go to
visit him. I did not wish to appear intrusive by

•^

JIM.

going without a reason, and was glad when I discovered
that there was need at home for a basket. I made
the ordering of it my excuse for caUing, I was re-
ceived with the grace of a nobleman, though there
was in the politeness of my host an admixture of Indian
hauteur that showed the blue blood of the Algonquin
chieftains, for the Agdamonctons had royal blood in
their veins.

Jim's wigwam was not large, but it was clean-— which
is more than can be truthfully said of all Indian wig-
wams; or for that matter, even of the white men's more
pretentious habitations. It boasted some modern con-
veniences in the midst of its barbarous furnishings,
notably a camp-chest which served as a chair for his
visitors, and two windows, one on each side of the
lodge, each consisting of one pane of glass eight
inches by ten, set with tacks in the birch bark. As I
sat on the camp-chest and held converse with this
citizen of the wildwood, his wife and children sat on
the floor in dutiful silence. She had been once no
doubt, a beauty, and traces of her comeliness still
lingered in her eyes and feminine features. The chil-
dren looked healthful and vigorous, but the baby in
its cot of twisted withes was evidently sick. An Ex-
quimaux dog, upon which the owner looked with
unconcealed tenderness and admiration, was playing

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

among the bushes at the entrance to the tent. He
came in once, but was not permitted to remain. He
possessed a peculiarly villainous face, and when Jim
turned him out he remarked half-apologetically, " He's
a half of a wolf, sir." After the shape and dimensions
of the basket had been agreed upon and the time of
its delivery arranged, I left.

The next time I came that way I called. There
was no sign of a basket or of basket-making. A
blight had fallen on the family. Jim was taciturn and
gloomy. The baby was gone. The poor little thing
had died, and he had carried its body in his arms to
the consecrated ground and laid it in the grave him-
self, while his wife repeated over it such parts of the
burial service as she could. The burial-place was
miles away, and th^re was no priest to perform the
service ; he came only occasionally.

A few days later I came that way again, and found
the wigwam deserted. A robin sat on the ridge-pole
piping a mournful song, and the crickets chirped
among the chinks of the bark. *

Nobody knew where the Indian family had gone.
Doubtless the sad memories which clung to the spot
where his babe had died, had proved too much for
Jim and caused his departure ; but where he now had
pitched his moving tent I was unable to learn. I was

AP ' ■' ',

JIM.

fit ^

sorry to lose all trace of him so suddenly, now that I
• was becoming acquainted.

But one day, some months later, I overtook a
strange procession upon the road ; a cart with two
wheels and no springs, drawn by a very lean horse,
and seated in the cart with their arms about each other
to keep from falling out, five Indian women, and the
driver my old friend Jim. Several Indian men were
walking along. As I approached them, I was busy
trying to divine the meaning of the strange demon-
stration. An idea occurred. There had been some
excitement in the town from which they were coming,
over the opening of a new railroad. So when I came
near, I accosted them, *' Been over to see the railroad,
Jim ?" " My brother is dead, sir. " It was a funeral.
Consumption was doing its work with the poor
fellow himself. His cheeks were hollow. His eyes
were sunken and bright. He had gone to the other
Indians with his family. The next I heard of him he
was dead. He had gone to his babe and his brother.
' According to the light he had, he was a believer.
Reqtiiescat in pace.

■A

(

I i

CHAPTER VI.

SABLE ISLAND.

n^ITE name has a sinister sound. It fjpgests the
^ dark emblems of woe. And no spot of similar
size upon earth's surface, unless it be perhaps the
island of St. Paul in the jaws of the gulf of St. Law-
rence, has superior claim on account of the horrors
which encompass it, to be clothed, as to its name, in
the habiliments of woe. As being the spot upon
which the first attempt at settlement in Acadie was
made, it deserves a chapter of itself

Sable Island is one of the many islands which dot
the Nova Scotia coast. Norwegian legends ascribe its
discovery to Bjorn Herjulfsson in the year 986. But
for six cenuturies after that date no mention of it
^occurs in any historical record. The first authentic
notice of the Isle of Mourning is that which comes to
notice in connection with the attempt at settlement
made by the Baron de Lery in the year 15 18. But
wheu he touched there the season was far advanced,
and as he had no time to construct shelter for his peo-
ple, he landed some cattle and returned to France.

(62)

SABLE ISLAND.

Upon this circumstance the French afterward laid
much stress, when ar<^uing with England, on their
claim to prior occupation of Acadie. Strange tales
are told of the benefit which shipwrecked mariners
have derived from this stocking of the island, and
many a perishing sailor has invoked blessings upon
those who thus provided him with the means of sus-
taining life. The Portuguese also are said to have sent
some cattle at a very early period tor the relief of
those escaping from wrecks. They increased in num-
ber rapidly, but are now extinct, having been slaugh-
tered by worthless, avaricious men for their hides and
tallow.

The situation of Sable Island is such as to make it
a constant menace to shipping in that quarter of the
ocean. The currents of wind and water which play
their titanic games about it make it at once the Scylla
and Charybdis of navigation. Almost in the main
Hne of ocean travel between Europe and America it
lies, one li ..idred and ten miles east of Halifax, be-
tween the stern Acadian shore and the Grand Bank
of Newfoundland. Norie's Navigation gives the posi-
tion of the eastern end as 43° 58' 15'' north latitude
and 59° 46' 17" west longitude. It is the great
wrecking-ground of the North Atlantic, the dread of
such as *' go down to the sea in ships," the horror of
navigators:

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

11 I

•• The Atlantic')! charnel-houw, most desolate and drear,
A place none love, though wandering thousands fear."

The island is about eighteen miles long by one and
a quarter broad in the middle. It is of a crescent
shape, tapering at each end, especially the eastern, to a
narrow point. The greater part of its interior is cov-
ered with a salt lake, from five to twelve feet in depth.
The approach from the northward gives the appear-
ance of a range of sandiiills, almost white, contrasting
finely with the deep blue of the all-surrounding sea.
From the southern approach, the coast line appears
unbroken and lying lev on the horizon at the western
end. On a closer inspection, many of the hills are
seen to be eroded by the waves so as to present steep
cliffs to the sea ; in other parts, they are covered with
coarse grass, and defended by a ' road beach. This,
however, cannot be reached without passing over
ridges of sand, covered by only a few feet of water,
and lying parallel with the shore at a distance not
exceeding one-third of a mile. These form heavy
breakers, dangerous to pass in a boat when any sea is
running. The landing is, in fact, generally impracti-
cable on the south side, excepting after several days
of northerly wind. On the north side boats can land
only in southerly winds and after several successive
days of fine weather. The hills at the eastern part of

SABLE ISLAND.

«5

the Island average sixty or seventy feet in height.
The whole area of the place is composed of a coarse
quality of white sand, coarser than the soundings in
the ocean about it, but sufficiently fine to be easily
driven by the winds, which have a wonderful effect in
altering the topographical features of the land, large
hills being rapidly formed and again as rapidly re-
moved. A few large stones are found scattered about,,
but probably only such as have been brought thece in^
ballast by wrecked vessels.

On all the island there is an entire absence of any-
thing deserving the name of soil. No cultivation
whatever is carried on. The sole productions are
those which nature brings forth without the help of
man ; namely, two kinds of grasses, wild peas, straw-
berries and cranberries. Of the latter, the quantity is
considerable. Many of them find their way into the
Halifax markets, and their quality is so fine that the
Haligonians deem cranberry sauce made from Sable
Island berries the best in the world. There are no
trees, no fields, no fences, no roads ; all is a howling
waste of sand, and when the winter storms career over
it, a bleaker spot could not be imagined. The fuel
which supplies the wants of the few inhabitants, is pro-
cured from drift-wood and the timbers of the wrecks
with which every part of the island is strewn.

u «

r| f

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

The wreck chart of Sable Island, published by the
Department of Marine and Fisheries, shows how
dangerous a spot it has been to navigators." The posi-
tion of not less than one hundred and fifty wrecks is
marked and known. The barren sands are all dotted
over with their bleaching bones. What tales of suffer-
ing, sorrow and distress those bleaching bones could
tell if they could speak ! The chart shows the last
resting-place of three " floating palaces/' together with
numerous full-rigged ships, barques, brigs, brigan-
tines and schooners ; more than one hundred and fifty
on eighteen miles of coast. Think of it !

In 1583 the first disaster occurred on Sable Island
of which there is historical record. On the twenty-
eighth of August in that year the "Delight," a vessel
belonging to an expedition sent out from England
under command of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, went ashore
in a fog on the western end of the island. By this
melancholy accident one hundred lives were lost, only
fourteen of the crew being saved. Those who escaped
made their way lo the main land, and it is to them
that we are indebted for our first accurate knowledge
of the awful spot. Attention was at that time called
to it and from then onward it began to figure in his-
tory as the graveyard of the North Atlantic. " Davy
Jcnes* Locker " is a common name for it among the

•<&

■I

fifi

SABLE ISLAND.

«7

sailors. But in history, apart from its gruesome asso-
ciations, it owes its importance to the fact that upon
its hills of sand the first settlement of Acadie was at-
tempted.

The climate is said to be healthful, in spite of t e
frequent fogs and consequent humidity of the atmo-
sphere. Notwithstanding the unstable and barren
nature of this ridge of sand-downs — for it is nothing
more — it was thought worthy of settlement by the
French before they attempted to plant a colony on
any part of the continent of America. This was prob-
ably because of its location being so advantageous for
offensive or defensive operations off the coast of the
neighboring mainland. But whether their attempt
was intended to be a permanent or only temporary
settlement, preparatory to removal to the continent,
has always been a matter of dispute among historians.
Gilbert's men, who were lost there in 1583, were in-
tending colonists from England.

In 1598, forty French convicts were landed on the
island by the Marquis de la Roche. He then pro-
ceeded to Nova Scotia proper, from which part of the
Dominion it is distant, in a straight line, about sixty-
five miles. It is probable that he intended to return
for the men, as such an inhuman act as to leave them
without any means of sustenance whatever, either to

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

I ; 1

l\\

Starve or find the means of sustaining life as best they
could on the barren sands, is almost inconceivable.
On the mainland the Marquis effected nothing; and,
being unable from stress of weather to deliver the
wretches he had left behind, he returned to France,
where he is said to have died soon after of a broken
heart. These convicts must inevitably have perished
for lack of food but for the progeny of the cattle left
by the Baron de Lery eighty years before. Seven
years after their abandonment, Henry IV. of France
sent out a vessel to convey them back, but only twelve
of the unfortunate people could be found. After their
abandonment they fought among themselves ; scurvy,
want and exposure did the rest. When they were res-
cued they more resembled wild animals than men.
They were clothed in rude coverings of seal-skins,
their beards and hair were matted in long solid masses,
and their gaunt, hungry appearance left in them but
little resemblance to human beings. On their arrival
in France, the king had them presented before the
royal court. They were allowed to relate their terrible
stoiy, which, with their haggard appearance and the
memory of what they had already endured, so moved
him that he granted them all a full pardon for past
offences and gave them each a present of fifty golden
crowns. Recent visitors to the island report that the

:fe

SABLE ISLAND.

. i.

'M'

vestiges of their former abodes, known as the " French
Gardens," may still be seen.

As the cattle were too much of a temptation to the
avarice of man to allow them to exist, each successive
stocking of the Island having been destroyed, other
animals were introduced at various times. Rabbits
were sent on, and these have multiplied with astonish--
ing rapidity. During the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries the Island was overrun with black foxes, but
as their fur is of the most valuable quality, they have
long since been exterminated. Contemporary with the
black fox was the great walrus, which have also de-
serted, though still occasionally they wander back to,
their old haunts. Their huge tusks may be seen to-
day half buried in the sand. Aquatic birds in great
numbers frequent the place, and also seals of the
species Phoras ursina^ so that the sufferings of wrecked
mariners from hunger have not been so great as might
b imagined.

J^ut the animal which gives life to the scenery and
is par excellence the lord of the downs to-day, is the
Sable Island pony. The ancestors of these ponies
were placed here, when or by whom no one knows.
In separate herds of from ten to fifty they wander
about, each herd having a separate pasture and each
marshaled by an old stallion. This chief of the band

111!

II' If

T V

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

is conspicuous by reason of the length and luxuriance
of his mane, which rolls in tangled masses over his
flashing eye and delicate ear down even to his fore-
arm. As he collects his straggling mares and foals,
keeping them well bunched on the approach of strang-
ers, his time seems to be half occupied with tossing his
mane from his eyes. He stands boldly facing the
intruder while the herd retreats at a gallop, but if
pressed by the enemy he too retreats in their rear.
He brooks no divided allegiance, and many a fierce
battle is fought by contending chieftains for the honor
of the herd. In form these animals resemble the wild
horses of all countries: being marked by the large
head, thick shaggy mane, low withers, paddling gait,
and sloping quarters of the mustang of the praries
and the wild horse of the Ukraine. The annual drive
or round-up usually results in the whole Island being
swept from end to end, and a kicking, plunging, snort-
ing, terrified mass of horse-flesh being driven into a
large pound, from which several dozens are selected,
lassoed and exported. The occasion is one which
affords fine sport, wild riding, and plenty of falls.

But the stirring life of the ponies is only a foil to
show up by contrast the marks of desolation and death
on every hand appearing. The wreck chart, beginning
with the year 1802, shows the position of the "Packet"

■

' >,

a 1

SABLE ISLAND.

■

I
r

and the " Union," two fine ships lost in that year near
the western end, and the " Hannah " and " Eliza," on
one of the bars at the eastern point. Then follows the
schooner " Dolphin " ( 1 806), the brig " Spring " ( 1 807),
the "Adamant" (1810), "Fortune" (18 11), and so on
through the long dreary catalogue. A large transport
ship, the " Princess Alice," also lies buried amid the
sand of the south coast, being lost in 1802. The
wrecks continue up to recent times. The barque
" Bolgeley " and the ship " Yorkshire," were lost off
the eastern point in 1882, while the ribs of the steam-
ships "Georgia" (1863), " Ephesus " (1866), and
"State of Virginia" (1879), are submerged close to
the western point. < -

In 1 80 1 the Parliament of Nova Scotia, to which
Province Sable Island belongs, passed an Act em-
powering the Governor to make provision for main-
taining some families on the island to afford relief to
those cast away upon its shores. This was the be--
ginning of the efficient Life Saving Station at present
established there. About 1830 the British Govern-
ment, on the representation of Sir James Kempt, added^
;^400 a year to the amount annually granted to the •
support of this humane and most necessary establish-
ment. To show how much this dreadful island is.
feared by both governments of the North Atlantic-

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

coasts, it may be stated that the American Govern-
ment, during the War of 18 12, issued a general order
forbidding its armed vessels to intercept or injure any
vessel bound to or from Sable Island.

" The Life Saving Service proposed in 1801 was be-
gun in 1804, when Edward Hodson was appointed
superintendent. He remained on the island for over
thirty years. He was succeeded by Captain Joseph
Darby, whose career as superintendent was extended
over a similar period, after which he was succeeded by
Superintendent Dodd. Captain Darby had a vast
fund of anecdote and story of the wrecks he had seen
and of his wild and dreadful experiences. He made
careful observations during the period of his official
career, and contributed an excellent account to Blunt's
Coast Pilot, which beyond doubt was the means of
saving much property and many precious lives by
making the seafaring world better acquainted with the
mysterious currents which bore the unsuspecting mar-
iner upon the shifting shoals of the island. In early
days the seamen thought there was some magnetic

. attraction about the place, because by far the greater

I number of vessels went ashore to the southward, where
the water deepens gradually out for so many miles
that it would seem almost impossible for any vessel

'.using ordinary precaution to go ashore on that side,

*f^

SABLE ISLAND.

either of the island or its bars. Vessels went on shore
in the fog as often in fine as in stormy weather. But
the solution of the curious fact is that in most of these
cases the vessels were thought to be far to the east-
ward of the island (which lies E. by S. ]/> S.) when
they ran ashore on it, having been set to westward by
the currents. The general tendency of the currents
between Newfoundland and Sable Island, though
modified by the various banks over and between which
they flow, is to the westward. The winds, both pres-
ent and at a distance, render the currents inconstant
and irregular both in strength and direction.

Captain Darby described the storms on the island
as sometimes horrible. The island trembles and
quivers as the mighty ocean strikes and breaks along
its whole length. The wind whirls the yeasty spume
of water over its highest point. The sand is swept
furiously along, and whirled round the hills. The
hills themselves are sometimes removed. The bars
shift, and the whole vibrating mass seems to be pre-
paring to flee before the violence of the wind and the
thunders of the Atlantic.

Of these bars there are two : the northwestern ex-
tends seventeen miles out to sea from the end of the
grassy sand-hills, the part above water being contin-
ued in bad weather by some eight or nine miles of

•;l \'.

' ■** i.

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

foaming breakers, and the remaining seven miles be-
ing usually shown by a great ripple or cross-sea. The
northeastern bar extends fourteen miles out from the
grassy sand-hills ; the dry part of four miles being suc-
ceeeded by eight or nine miles of breakers. At a dis-
tance of two miles out on this bar, a sand hill about
ten feet high, with some grass upon it, has accumu-
lated around the wreck of a vessel lost there in 1820.
If we add the the dry part of the bars to the length of
the island, the whole extent of dry sand is about
twenty-two miles ; and if again we add to this the still
greater length of the bars under water at either end,
the whole will form a bow or crescent, concave to the
north, extending over fifty-two miles of sea. This
mass of sand being acted upon by currents moving in
different directions, by storms and tempests, by under-
tow and tides, gives the whole island and its bars the
character of a juggler's ball — " Now you see it, and
now you don't." Within the memory of nautical men
it has assumed several shapes. It has been, like Sat-
urn with her rings among the planets, distinguished
among islands by two belts of circumjacent sand. A
gale increases or decreases the size of the belts; now
they are covered with a few feet of water, after the
next storm they may be lifted above the surface.
On one occasion, many years ago, a storm broke

""•f.--

SABLE ISLAND.

through the sandy ridge which separates the interior
salt lake from the ocean, and formed an inlet which
for some time afforded a comfortable harbor for small
coasters; but a subsequent storm, catching two small
American fishing vessels sheltering there, closed it and
shut them in. And thus this Proteus of the ocean
goes on changing its form and baffling the skill and
ocean lore of the most experienced navigator. If a
vessel strike on a bar or on the beach, she becomes
the nucleus about which the sand collects, and in a
short time she is buried in a grave from which there
would seem to be no force mighty enough to tear her.
Even the furious winds and thundering waves of the
Atlantic cannot hale her from the clinging sand in
which she is embedded, until years have reduced her
to dust and weakened her timbers, and then some
great convulsion of the elements exposes her crumbl-
ing ribs and mingled with the shattered timbers often
human skeletons.

Still further to illustrate the changes which it under-
goes, it may be mentioned that the site of the residence
of the first superintendent was in 1833 three miles out
in the sea, covered with two fathoms of water, and
since that time the island has moved out again so that
the site is once more where it was originally.

The following statements taken from the report of

\.i

ill

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

the Minister of Marine and Fisheries will show the
chanycs which have recently taken place. He says:
" It was found that fully 80 feet hail disappeared since
the erection of the light-house in 1873, thus reducing
the distance from the light-house to the edge of the
sand cliff to about half of what it was originally.
Large portions of the bank were washed away, until
finally a distance of only five feet was left from the
edge of the cliff to the buttresses of the light-house,
and in those critical circumstances, it was deemed ad-
visable to discontinue the light and 1 iiove the appa-
ratus, and arrange for tlie re-erection of the tower on
a new site 1,218 feet east from the old position. A
new solid foundation was accordingly formed of
cement, the building; taken down and erected thereon,
and the light again shown."

The latest intelligence informs us that the sea has
reduced the dimensions of the island about one-half.

" Halifax, July 19, 1890. — The Government steamer
Newfield has just returned from a visit to Sable Island.
Capt. Guilford was greatly surprised on reaching the
island to find such a remarkable change in its form
since his last visit. The western end is rapidly wash-
ing away, and the bar is making its way to the north.
The captain is of the opinion that a survey of the
island should be made at once, as it would greatly
assist vessels sailing in that direction.

SABLE ISLAND.

*' Few mariners are aware of the remarkable chang^e
that th' bar has been i/nHergoin^ in a very short time.
Since 1880 three lighthouses h.ivc been erected on the
island, two of which have been washed away by the
sea, which is now eating its way into the sand which
surrounds the third. It is not a very long time since
the island was forty miles long, while now it is only
twenty miles long."

At each end of the island there is a lighthouse, with
several wrecking stations at different points between.
The wreck chart does not show the nationality of the
vessels lost, but the names show by far the greater
number belonged to the Ui ited Kingdom of Great
Britain and to the United States. It would be only
right and just that these governments should join th( ir
forces to the efforts of Canada to prevent the continu-
ance of the growing list of horrors from shipwreck
there.

One question yet, and this account of Sable Island is
finished. What forms the aggregation of sand of which
it is composed? The current of the Gulf Stream,
broken and divided beneath the surface of the ocean,
meeting the southern and landward currents from the
St. Lawrence river and the Bay of Fundy, make this
the battle ground on which the elements clench one
another in Cyclopean embrace, -'^

CHAPTER VII.

iii . 1

EARLY HISTORY.

WHEN the Northmen ceased to visit this country,
and their colonies had been destroyed, the first
known civilization faded away from these wild north-
ern shores. But the memory of the discovery and set-
tlement still remained. In the Icelandic sagas all had
been noted with that circumstantial accuracy which
distinguishes the writings of that remarkable people.

" They led no isolated life, these Norsemen, restrict-
ing their operations and attainments to their own
national limits, for they laid their hand with a perma-
nent grasp on England, France, Switzerland, Italy,
Russia, and Iceland, impressing their national charac-
teristics upon these as well as Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway. The fleets and hosts of the north embraced
the whole coast from the Elbe to the Pyrenean penin-
sula ; they extended their expeditions to the Mediter-
ranean, while at the same time making conquest after
conquest in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

" Hence it was utterly impossible for the southern
nations, or for Rome, to be in ignorance of their

achievements, or of the fact that men of the same race

-— . (78) , :,

■^

M::

EARLY HISTORY.

who had thrown all Europe into consternation had
also discovered a new Continent in the West. The
heads of the Church, always keeping a vigilant eye on
the movements of their arch-enemy, were well aware
that the records and annals of their voyages to Amer-
rica were preserved in Iceland, whence they had set
sail, while the writings of Adam of Bremen, proclaim-
ing the fact of the Norse discovery, were already
accessible both to them and to Columbus.

" Besides all this evidence, quite sufficient to con-
vince that astute body of schemers, the holy fathers
in Rome received direct personal evidence through
the visit of Gudrid, the wife of Thorfinn Karlsefni,
who founded a colony in Massachusetts, and remained
there three years. * It is related that she was well
received, and she certainly must have talked there of
her ever-memorable trans-oceanic voyage to Vinland
and her three years* residence there. Rome paid
much attention to geographical discoveries, and took
pains to collect all new charts and reports that were
brought there. Every new discovery was an aggran-
dizement of the papal dominion, a new field for the
preaching of the Gospel. The Romans might have
heard of Vinland before, but she brought personal
evidence.'*

♦ Gabriel Gravier's Decouverte de P Amerique par les Normands,

ht-

!J9

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Hence it was deemed advisable for Columbus to
visit Iceland to gain information, which he did in
J477, meeting with the very man, Bishop Magnus
Erolfson, who had been Abbot of the Monastery of
Helzafell, the place where the oldest documents relat-
ing to Greenland and Vinland had been written, and
the district from which the most distinguished voyag-
ers had gone forth. The fact of Columbus having
gone there is confirmed by himself, for he mentions
his visit in a letter to his son, and it is mantained by
Laing, Beamish, W. Irving, Holmberg, R. B. Ander-
son, Toulniin Smith, and other authors, the latter
saying conclusively: "There can be little doubt that
he (Columbus), had gained the chief confirmation of
his idea of the existence of Urra firma in the western
ocean during the visit which he is known to have
made, before his western voyage, to Iceland."

And there it is, upon the records, that in the sum-
mer of 1477 there came to Reykjavik a long-visaged,
gray-eyed, Genoese sailor, who took an amazing inter-
est in studying everything that could be learned relat-
ing to the subject. That man was Christopher Co-
lumbus. And it was there, in the annals of the Ice-
landers, that he found the facts upon which he rested
his trustful soul, and strengthened the faith in which
he sailed away and away to find a new world and im-
mortal fame.

A ■-Vfi'iiai^!^

EARLY HISTORY.

?■

After him, in the early summer of 1497, the Cabots,
under the patronage of Henry VII. of England, sailed
over the perilous seas to find a westerly route to India
and China. They visited Newfoundland and Labrador,
and returned without accomplishing their object.
The following year Sebastian Cabot returned and ex-
plored the coast from Labrador to Florida. It is in
this secondary manner that to the Cabots belongs the
honor of discovering the continent of North America,
and upon this discovery England afterward based her
claim to the country.

Then followed the seekers after the gold and treas-
ure of the new w(yld. Ponce de Leon went to Florida
to find the fountain of perpetual youth; Cortez to
Mexico, with his red-handed band of Spanish murder-
ers; De Soto reached the banks of the Mississippi with
the broken remnant of a once-powerful expedition, only
to find lasting fame and a grave in its waters; Balboa,
crossing the Isthmus of Darien, waded into the Pacific
and claimed possession of its waters, shores and
islands in the name of the King of France.

The first European colonization made in the terri-
tory known as Acadie was almost entirely confined to
that part of the country now known as Nova Scotia.
The name "Acadie," which it formerly bore, is derived
from the Algonquin word "cadie." That word, in

H r

%
1

11. if:

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

I -'(

"I 1

7r : n

the language of the Micmacs, means " plenty of" or
" abounding in," as in the name " Shubenacadie," which
means "plenty of beech nuts." The word is found in
other combinations, either as a prefix or suffix in the
Indian names of places. The French form of the word
and the name by which the country was known during
the French occupancy was Acadie. For more than
two hundred years that was the official title of the ter-
ritory now embraced in the Provinces of Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick and a part of the State of Maine.
The name Nova Scotia, v/hich means New Scotland,
was used as early as 162 1, when King James I. gave
the country to his Scottish friend. Sir William Alex-
ander, but it did not became the officially recognized
title until the beginning- of the British period, in 17 10.

The beginning of the French period dates from the
year 1504, when an attempt at colonization was made
under the guidance of Pierre du Guast, the Sieur de
Monts, in behalf of France. Attempts at settlement had
been made previous to this date without success, but the
stirring incidents related in connection with them are
worthy of being recounted. The first of these attempts
was made by the Baron de Lery as early as the year
1518.

In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert's vessel was lost on
Sable Island. In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche

-J

,•

EARLY HISTORY.

landed his convicts there. Then in 1604 came the
expedition of De Monts, and in the following year
Port Royal was founded, from whence may be reck-
oned the beginning of the era known as the French
period in the history of Nova Scotia. Then followed
a long romance of battle and massacre. The King of
France, influenced by the rivals of De Monts, canceled
his charter. With Poutrincourt, De Monts set out for
France, leaving the colony in charge of Pontgrave
and Champlain. Poutrincourt returned the following
spring, found Pontgrave despairing, about to break up
the colony, and follow him to la belle France. He
rolled out a hogshead of wine, and they held all to-
gether a merry reunion. The following winter was
spent pleasantly. A club was formed by fifteen of the
leading men, called " The Order of the Good Time,'*
in which each man in his turn held the office of Grand
Master, provided for the table, and furnished amuse-
ment for the company. Welcome gnests at this fes-
tive board were the Indian chiefs, most honored among
whom was one called Memberton, whose span of life
had been extended past one hundred years. With
these representatives of the Micmac tribes they smoked
the calumet of peace with pipes made from the lob-
ster's claws. But the exclusive right to the fur trade
having been taken away, the colony was broken up.

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Poutrincourt, however, returned to Christianize the
Indians, and brought with him a priest for the work.
The first convert was the old chief Memberton, through
whose influence many people became Christians.
Biencourt, the son of Poutrincourt, was sent back to
France to report the success of the work to the king.
He returned the following year, and with him came
Claude de la Tour and his son Charles, both destined
to play important parts in the history of the country.

In 1607 Jamestown, on the James river in Virginia,
was founded by the English, who claimed all the
country north of them. When they learned of the
French settlement in Acadie, Captain Argall, in 16 14,
led an expedition which appeared suddenly before
Port Royal, plundered and laid it in ruins. That no
trace of French ownership might remain, it is said he
even erased the royal arms and the names of the found-
ers of the place from the rock outside the fort on
which they had been engraved. Sir William Alex-
ander now received a grant from King James I. of
England, in which charter the country is first named
Nova Scotia. He endeavored to colonize his posses-
sions, but the effort did not prosper. Biencourt, wan-
dering with the Indians, claimed the country until ^h
death, when his title as commandant devolvta ca
Charles de la Tour. .

EARLY HISTORY.

t tl

Sir William, anxious to expel the French, fitted out
a little fleet which, under the command of Sir David
Kirkt, captured severjil French vessels ; he also took
possession of Port Royal. On board one of the
vessels captured by Kirkt was Claude de la Tour.
He was carried prisoner to England where he wrested
from disaster the substantial fruits of victory, ingra-
tiated himself with his captors, married a lady of the
English court, and received from the King the title of
Knight Baronet of Nova Scotia. He secured the
same title for his son, who still held Fort Louis, near
Cape Sable, by promising that he should immediately
submit to the crown of England. Accompanied by
his wife he sailed for Cape Sable, but when he arrived
there he discovered to his chagrin that he had mis-
calculated the power of his influence over his son.
Neither entreaty nor cannon-balls moved the unyield-
ing Charles. Claude was in disgrace, a traitor to
France, discredited and without influence in England.
His only resort was to make a humiliating agreement
with Charles, who allowed him to make his home out-
side the fort, but forbade him ever to enter. Finally
in 1632 the two powers entered into a treaty at St.
Germains, whereby Acadie, with all Canada, was re-
stored to France.

The French spent the next twenty years of occupa-

;

III

i :

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

tion in quarreling among themselves. Isaar de RazilH
was appointed Governor, with Charles de la Tour
Lieutenant-Governer in the Peninsula and D'Aulnay
Charnise in the district north of the Bay of Fundy.
Razilli's headquarters were at La Have, where the
ruins of his fortifications may still be traced. When
Razilli died his two lieutenants fought for sole control.
La Tour, hard pressed, sailed for Boston, where he
hired men and vessels, returned with them and put his
enemy to flight. Madame La Tour, clever and brave,
aided her husband in peace and in war. She went to
England for supplies. Returning her vessel was
boarded by Charnise. She escaped capture by hiding
in the hold. La Tour being absent on one occasion
with many of his men, Charnise hastened to beseige
the fort. Once he had been driven otT by Madame
La Tour, but on this occasion, after a three days' fight,
the fort was betrayed by a Swiss sentry. As she saw
the enemy entering, the heroic woman rallied her
forces, and presented so bold a front that she gained
from Charnise honorable terms of surrender. Accept-
ing the terms, the men laid down their arms. But
when Charnise saw the defenceless condition of the
fort he regretted that he had given such terms as he
had, and charged Madame La Tour with having de-
ceived him. He then proceeded in the most inhuman

EARLY HISTORY.

manner to put the garrison to death. One among
them purchased his life by acting, at the command of
Charnise, as the executioner of his comrades, while
Madame La Tour, with a halter around her neck, was
compelled to stand by and witness the awful scene.
She died bicken-hearted before her husband's return.
La Tour, despairing, left the country. Charnis^, at at
fearful cost, had gained the position he desired ; but:
he did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his victory.
In about three years he died, leaving his estates heavily
mortgaged, the principal creditor being Le Borgne, ai
merchant of Rochelle. Le Borgne seized Acadie ; but
now La Tour appeared again upon the scene. He
had made his peace v/ith the King of France, and
brought with him a royal commission from the French
court as Governor of all Acadie. He healed the
old feuds in a most romantic manner by marrying the
widow of his former rival, Charnise, and made his
home henceforth at Fort La Tour, near the mouth of
the river St. John.

iOMM

I !

i ! !

CHAPTER VIII.
END OF THE FRENCH PERIOD.

OLIVER CROMWELL, at the instance of the
Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic, who were
dissatisfied with the treaty of St. Germains, in which
Acadie had been ceded to France, sent out Colonel
Sedgwick, in 1654, to recapture the country. Le
Borgne, the Rochelle merchant, intrenched at Port
Royal, with his son in command at Fort La Have,
scorned his summons t6 surrender, but he was com-
pelled to submit. La Tour then sold out his claim to
Sir Thomas Temple, but reserved his fort at St. John,
where he spent the remainder of his days in peace.

But the treaty of Breda, in 1667, restored the
country again to France, and Temple was compelled
to hand over his forts to the French governor, Le
Chevalier de Grand Fontaine. Then came Sir Wil-
liam Phipps, with eight vessels and eight hundred
men, from Boston in 1690, and captured Port Royal.
But he left the fort without a garrison, and the
French, who had taken to the woods, returned and
took possession as soon as he had departed. Ville-

bon, the new French commander, established himself

(88)

END OF THE FRENCH PERIOD.

at Nashwaak on the river St. John. Here the pirate
Baptiste found refuge and sale for hi«^ booty.

Next in this swiftly-changing panorama of events
appeared the war-like Hgure of old Ben Church.
Like a destroying angel he moved with his fleet of
whale-boats, manned by the hardy New England sea-
men, from Passamaquoddy Bay to tlie Cumberland
Basin, destroying every French settlement on the
coast. This was done in retaliation for the French
and Indian outrages on the New England settlements.

A treaty of peace was now made at Ryswick, 1697,
and Acadie was once more confirmed to France. But
war soon broke out again. Port Royal, the strong-
hold of the French in Nova Scotia, was captured in
17 10, secured to Great Britain, and its name changed,
in honor of Queen Anne, to Annapolis Royal.

In 171 3, by the treaty of Utrecht, peace was con-
cluded, and Nova Scotia again ceded to Great Britain.
Then came an era of renewed doubt and uncertainty.
The French fortified Louisbourg on the island of
Capp Breton until it was well-nigh impregnable.
Again war broke out. Louisbourg was besieged.
After a seven weeks' resistance, Duchambon, the
commandant, surrendered, and Colonel Pepperell, at
the head of his New Englanders, marched in. They
found among the stores of the garrison an abundance

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS,

of rum and, yielding to its seductive power, scores of
drunken soldiers every day staggered through the
streets. Unbridled appetite was followed by fatal
fever, and before the snows were melted by returning
spring twelve hundred of PeppercU's men had died
and were buried in the soil which they had con-
quered.

The loss of Louisbourg filled the French with rage,
and it was determined to retake it. An J it was at this
time that the question was practically settled for the
last time, as to who should rule in Acadie. Another
question of still greater importance was also decided
at the same time; that was, whether the Province, and,
indeed, the whole of the Dominion of Canada, as well
as the United States, should grow up under the influ-
ences of Romanism or Protestantism. Aside froni the
individual struggles and strifes for gain, the love of
adventure and the ambition of kings for conquest and
self-aggrandizement, the hand of the Jesuit and the
power of the Pope were waging a warfare in the inter-
est of Rome. It was in this troubled era that the
question of supreme political importance in the Old

World was whether Protestant Prussia should be

allowed to grow up strong in the heart of Roman
Catholic Europe.
All the Romish powers were leagued against Fred-

FND OF THE FRENCH PERIOD.

9»

trick the Great, and in a ring of fire he defended the
cause of Protestantism, then in its youth, on that con-
tinent. In the same great historic period the supreme
question on this continent was whether North America
should be settled under Romish or Frotestant aus-
pices. A French armunicnt of forty ships of war,
under Due D'Anville, was fitted out at Rochelle for
the recapture of Louisbourg, the subjur ' )n of Nova
Scotia, and the destruction of Boston and other New
England towns. Protestantism was to be finally eradi-
cated. Our fathers, feeling that their only safety was
in God, appointed a day of fasting and prayer in all
their churches. Thomas Prince, pastor of the congre-
gation worshiping in the 01< South Church, Boston,
offered petitions to the Almighty that His Providence
might fight against absolutism, ignorance, and all
kinds of political and ecclesiastical tyranny. As the
prayer was being offered there arose a powerful
wind, although the day had been until then clear and
calm.

**The shutters of this house, so history says, were
shaken by a mighty seaward movement of the atmo-
sphere, and the petitioner, pausing in his prayer,
looked around upon the audience with a countenance
of hope, and again commenced, with great devotional
ardor, and supplicated Providence to cause that wind

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^>^'

1.0

I.I

1.25

lana 121

40 12.0

12.2

s ■* III

1.8

U 111.6

^>.

'^ !»*'

:>>

Photographic

Sdences
Corporation

•sj

^.^

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

-V

^<L'

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

to frustrate the object of our enemies and save the
country from conquest.*

A tempest followed, in which the greater part of the
French fleet was wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Only a feeble remnant of the expedition survived.
The enterprise upon which it had been sent was aban-
doned and never resumed."

That expedition was one of the most fruitless and
ill-fated the world has ever seen. Previous to its com-
ing there had been nothing to compare with it in gran-
deur. It was the most powerful fleet that had ever
been sent to America. But it never gained a single
victory. Some of its ships were captured by the Eng-
lish while yet on the coast of France. One disaster
from that time onward followed close after another,
and fell upon it. Some of its ships were cast away on
the treacherous sands of Sable Island, and others were
driven out of their course by adverse winds and never
reached the ports for which they sailed. D'Anville,
after a three-month's cruise and suffering by wild
storms arrived with a feeble remnant of the great fleet
in Chebucto Harbor, now Halifax. Here, just a week
after his arrival, he suddenly died, whether of apoplexy
or by poison, taken in despair, no one can tell. D'Es-

* Prelude to the Rev. Joseph Cook's Boston Monday Lecture, deliv-
ered in the "Old South," Nov. 17, 1879.

END OF THE FRENCH PERIOD.

tournelle, the second in command, was for immedi-
ately returning to France. He called a council and
made his wish known, but his officers thought they
ought at least to take Annapolis. This so angered
him, being opposed in council, that he fell into a fever,
and in the delirium which seized him fell upon his
sword and killed himself. Following this tragedy the
small-pox broke out among the men. The mortality
was frightful.

La Jonquiere now succeeded to the command. He
made a feeble attempt upon Annapolis, but only dis-
aster followed. A violent storm arose, which wrought
such ruin that the remaining vessels turned home-
ward.

No doubt God interfered to disperse the hostile
fleet and bring retribution on the men of blood at the
same time, that history might be saved other dark
pages of French aggression and Romish domination
in this New World. For this was the great problem
that was being solved on Nova Scotia's rugged hills
an3 stormy waters, when the fleets and armies of
Britain and France so often met thereon in deadly
conflict. Thanks to the Ruler of nations that Pro-
testant liberty and not Roman intolerance dominates
this fair realm to-day.

Following the startling developments narrated came

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. Great Britain
and France for a while ceased fighting, and once
again the angel of peace descended upon the war-
scarred, desolated land to plume her ruffled pinions,
and to bring the benisons of heaven in her train.

li '

/,??;. .'-fx.'"

CHAPTER IX.

ENGLISH COLONIZATION-HALIFAX.

HTHREE years after D'Anville's shattered fleet
^ sought shelter in Chebucto harbor, where the
whitened skeletons of French soldiers were found
beneath the bushes beside their rusty muskets, a
new and 1 usy scene presents itself. The tri-color of
the roving Norsemen no longer floats over their rude
shallops there, and the lilies of France have gone in
their blood-stained beauty back toward the rising sun.
And now, after two nations have struggled for a foot-
hold and gone down, a third, under the proud banner
of the Cross of St. George, comes joyfully over the
sea. Mothers and children, strong men and blooming
maids, intent upon the arts of peace, not mail-clad war-
riors, make up the arriving company. Where the
boulders and the piles have failed to withstand the en-
croachments of the sea, the grass rooting and growing
in the sand will often keep it back; and thus where
the prowess of arms and the horrors of war have failed
to give security to the title, the more noble and
more natural conquest by industry and toil is to be
attempted.

./:•.-;.:::. :-,-^,;. (95) ...V ', ^ ., :.,.^^- .:.:..

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

The government of Great Britain had resolved, in
order to keep secure possession of the country, to
colonize it without delay. Accordingly the Lords of
Trade and Plantations, who had charge of colonial
affairs, had given orders for the founding of a new
capital on the shores of Chebucto harbor; and these
now arriving were the colonists, under the command
of Colonel Edward Cornwallis, two thousand five hun-
dred and seventy-six in number.

On the western side of that magnificent harbor,
which is six miles long by one mile wide, and con-
nected at its northern end with a land-locked basin
containing more than twenty square miles of water,
the site of the projected city was chosen, and in honor
cf Lord Halifax, the President of the Lords of Trade
and Plantations and most worthy patron of the colo-
nists, the place was named Halifax.

These emigrants had been embarked in thirteen
transports under the com^mand of Lord Cornwallis,
who had been appointed Governor of the Province at
a salary of one thousand pounds sterling per annum.
He sailed in the " Sphinx " sloop of war, on the four-
teenth of May, 1 749, and arrived on the coast of Nova
Scotia on the fourteenth of June following. His first
landing was in Merliguesch Bay — now Lunenburg
Harbor — where he found a small settlement of Acadian
French.

ENGLISH COLONIZATION — HALIFAX.

In a letter dated the twenty-second of June, Corn-
wallis writes: "We came to anchor in Merliguesch
Bay, where I was told there was a French settlement.
I went ashore to see the houses and manner of living
of the inhabitants. There are but a few families, with
tolerable wooden houses, covered with bark; a good:
many cattle, and clear ground more than serves them-
selves. They seem to be very peaceable ; say they
always looked upon themselves as English subjects;
have their grants ^rom Colonel Mascarene, the Gov-
ernor at Annapolis, and show an unfeigned joy to hear,
of the new settlement."

The settlers arriving with Cornwallis were English
and Germans. Many of the English were discharged
soldierj, while the Germans were principally farmers
and vine-dressers from Wiirtemburg and Saxony, and
still others were Swiss.

The reasons to be assigned for the migration of
these people from their homes in a civilized land to
the bleak wilderness which Nova Scotia then was, may
be summed up briefly as follows : that migratory in-
stinct implanted in man, which from time immemorial
has caused the jostling of races and nations against
each other upon the face of the earth ; the expansion
of the conscription lists preparatory to the increase of

•

the standing armies of all Europe induced by the
7

I I

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

rumblings of the thunder and the flash of the light-
nings which threatened and finally burst forth in the
storm of destruction known as the Seven Years* War ;
the overcrowded state in which some found them-
selves amid the superabundant populations of the old
world ; the golden promises held out to intending set-
tlers by the British Government ; and the sweet hope
of gaining a competence and a home — these were prob-
ably ihe chief r:;iuscs of their coming.

Most of these people, with a very limited knowledge
of the ne'v country, having no accurate maps and no
means of gaining reliable information, left home with
the idea that they were about to settle in the near
neighborhood of New York and Pennsylvania, where
many of their countrymen were already prosperously
established; nor did they dream of the vast wilderness
which lay between, nor of the difference in soil and
climate, until they came to land. Let their motives
and impressions, however, have been what they may,
it must be admitted that it required a highhearted
courage in them to give up their hold on the estab-
lished certainties of the Old World and go forth to
meet the dangers and brave the uncertainties of the
New. Their greeting was the roar of the breakers on
an inhospitable shore, their neighbors the savage wild
beasts and the still more savage men. Their home

ENGLISH COLONIZATION — HALIFAX.

was literally a howling wilderness. And it is more
than likely, had they known what was before them,
that nothing but stern necessity would have moved
the many to face the unforeseen and bitter trials.

After the arrival of the -first company, which was
maintained in fairly comfortable circumstances by the
government, additional settlers were sent out from
time to time by agents employed for the purpose.
Andreas Jung, a member of one of these later detach-
ments, writes in a manuscript history now in posses-
sion of the writer; "Under the guidance of the Omni-
scient God, in consequence of a public proclamation
made in our own dear Fatherland by order of His
Majesty King George II., sundry persons of our com-
pany in 1750, '51 and '52 arrived in Halifax." This
proclamation, which was published also in the London
Gazette and other English and Swiss papers, offered
to those who should avail themselves of its terms, fifty
acres of land in fee simple, free of all taxes for ten
years ; ten acres additional for each member of a fam-
ily, and further privileges in proportion to the number
of acres cleared and brought under cultivation. It
was farther agreed by the government to maintain the
settlers for twelve months after their arrival. They
were to be provided with arms and ammunition,
housekeeping ut^nsil^^ Jpols foi" clearing and cultivat-

*«««

BiBLIOTHiCA

ICX)

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ing their lands, as well as for building houses and for
prosecuting the fisheries. They were assured that the
climate was salubrious, the water pure and plentiful,
the soil fertile, yielding an abundance of everything
necessary to support life, the sea-coast abounding in
fishes of the most valuable kinds, and furnished with
secure and commodious harbors well adapted for
fishing and commerce: all of which was true, though
it was not the whole truth. Induced by these repre-
sentations, the second detachment of emigrants em-
barked at Rotterdam and arrived in Halifax, as has
been stated, in 1750, quickly to be followed by others.
The manner of their departure from their native
land, as described by one of their number,* who was
an eye-witness, and who afterward came from Ger-
many to Lunenburg, is at once interesting and pa-
thetic. They all, in the company alluded to, as-
sembled themselves in the church in their native
village of Klein Heibach. The bell had been rung
to summon them to the church, upon the eve of their
departure, to special religious services. Thither they
came, accompanied by their pastor, relatives and
friends, filling the church to its utmost capacity.
There they sang together for the last time their sacred
songs of faith and trust, united in the prayers that

* Mrs. Beechner.

ENGLISH COLONIZATION — HALIFAX.

lOI

were offered for their guidance and protection by the
power of the Almighty, listened to the exhortations
of their faithful pastor, and then, amid the tears and
farewells of their dearest friends, took their leave from
the home of their childhod, the associations of their
youth, and the land they were destined never to be-
hold again. *

The condition in which these later emigrants found
themselves after their departure from Germany was
pitiful in the highest degree. Owing to the rapacity
of the government agent at Frankfort, a man named
Dick, they were sent forth in the most extreme desti-
tution. The Governor of Nova Scotia, in a letter to
the Lords of Trades, dated from Halifax, October
i6th, 1752, writes: "The people in general who were
sent over this year by Mr. Dick, complain of his
having persuaded them at their embarking to sell
everything, even the little bedding they had; by
which means they have lain on the bare decks and
platforms during their voyage, and are still destitute
of all kinds of bedding. This has caused the death of
many both on the passage and here ashore since they
landed. * * * * It looks as if it was done to give
room, for crowding a greater number of people into
the ships that brought them."

When it is remembered that these emigrants were

102

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

now exposed to the unaccustomed rigors of the severe
northern winter; meagrely fed, poorly clad, sleeping
like the Indians on beds of pine boughs, in houses
that were mere temporary booths of bark and boughs,
and all unused to hardships such as these, it will not
be a matter of surprise that the mortality among them
was awful. Neither can the inhuman conduct of Dick,
the emigration agent, be sufficiently lamented.

But despite all hardships, the coast of Chebucto
harbor, whereon the site of Halifax was located, now
presented a busy scene. A landing was effected, stores
and provisions taken ashore, the work of chopping
down the trees which clothed the sloping hillsides to
the water's edge, erecting dwellings and preparing for
the coming winter, was at once begun. There were
no mills. The lumber for a few frame houses was
brought from Boston ; but most of the buildings were
of the most primitive construction, being built of poles
stuck in the ground or logs laid upon each other,
chinked with moss and roofed with bark. Housed
in such miserable quarters, three-fourths of the Lunen-
burg settlers died within the first year after their land-
ing. The authority for this statement is the Rev. Jean
Baptiste Morreau, minister in Halifax and Lunen-
burg, 1750-1770. ,

But it will be necessary here to make a dividing

ENGLISH COLONIZATION — HALIFAX.

103

line to separate the history of the Halifax settlers from
that of the Lunenburgers. They were one in faith
and doctrine, one in polity and discipline, yet their
history is distinct. They are separated from one an-
other as though divided by continents and oceans.

1 '

CHAPTER X.

THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH.

SOME colonists comingj to America brought their
pastors with them, but others were not so fortunate;
and among the latter were the Lutherans in the colony
at Halifax. Various mission societies were formed in
Europe among the Lutherans, Moravians, and in the
Church of England, to furnish the people of the new
world with the means of grace. One of the earliest of
these societies was that organized in England, called
"The Society for Promoting the Knowledge of Christ
in Foreign Parts," with which the Lutheran Church
on the continent must have been in some way con-
nected, having her directors in it, such as the Rev. Dr.
Ziegenhagen, Lutheran Chaplain at the Court of St.
James, London ; the Rev. Dr. Urlsperger, pastor of
St. Anna Lutheran Church of Augsburg ; and the Rev.
;Dr. Francke, son of the founder of the Orphan House
at Halle. This missionary association is noticed in
imany historical works under its Latin title, " Societas
jpromovenda cognitione Chrintil' and was exceedingly
^effective in this country.

At a very early period in the history of the newly

THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH.

105

formed Nova Scotia settlements, this Society deter-
mined to send clergymen and schoolmasters to them.
By request of the Lords of Trades and Plantations, it
was agreed to send six of each as soon as their ser-
vices should be required. The first missionaries who
came accompanied the expedition of Governor Corn-
wallis ; they were the Rev. Messrs. Anwell and Jean
Baptiste Morreau, who were followed in the symmer
of the same year by the Rev. Wm. Tutty. Mr.
Anwell was soon recalled ; but Mr. Tutty was con-
nected with the German Lutherans, whose fortunes
interest us most, by the fact that he ministered to them
in their own tongue, and administered the communion
to a large congregation. But he was no Lutheran
m mister, and why none was sent by the venerable So-
ciety, is one of the strange and incomprehensible
things. For there was a large congregation, fully
competent to support a pastor, as shall presently ap-
pear, and doubtless ardently desirous to secure one.

The Rev. Mr. Tutty, who appears to have been a
good linguist, reported to the Society that he nad, in
addition to his duties as a clergyman of the Church of
England ministering to the English colonists, also ad-
ministered to the Germans. But the first missionary
employed directly in the oversight of the Germans
was Mr. Burger, a German Swiss minister, who went

\i\'.'-

^ffam

106

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

^ f

li . i

to England in 1752, and received ordination from the
Bishop of London. He translated the communion
service of the Church of England into the German
language, and returned, bringing with him a supply of
Bibles and Prayer Books in the German tongue, for
the use of the settlers. He probably received only
deacon's orders, for Mr. Tutty still continued to ad-
minister communion to the German congregation, for
which purpose alone he appears to have studied Ger-
man. Mention is made in the Society's report for
1753 of his having converted and baptized a German
Jew, who communed with his brethren on the follow-
ing Sunday. Mr. Tutty died in 1754. The services
which he conducted were held in the building at the
corner of Gerrish and Brunswick streets.

The earliest document in existence among the re-
cords which begin with the history of that building, is
a deed from John Samuel Gross making a bequest to
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which bears date
October twelfth, 1752. This quaint old document
gives evidence of several things, the one of chief inter-
est being that there vvas at that early date an organi-
zation in existence there, known as the Lutheran
Church, and that it was competent to hold real estate.
The document runs as follows :

" Whereas I, in my present sickness, being taken

THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH.

107

dangerously ill, not knowing how long I may live, as
after my death having no heirs in this country to
leave unto them what I may have, I have Resolved to
give unto the Evangelical Lutheran Church, for their
use and own property, a Lott with a Barrack or Hutt
on it (containing 50 feet in the front, and 250 feet in
the rear), standing in the north suburbs of Halifax, in
the upper street, between the house of George Stork
and Michael Clausner; and that ye aforesaid Lutheran
Church is to have and to hold the aforesaid Lott and
Barrack to their own sole use and property forever.
Butt if it should be God's will that I should recover
of this sickness, Nevertheless the aforesaid Lott and
Barrack is to be to the use of the aforesaid Lutheran
Church as above, only granting me the Barrack to
live in this winter.

Humbly petitioning His Excellency Governor Hop-
son to grant that this my will may be granted unto ye
aforesaid Church, in confirmation of the above, have
signed with my own hand. Halifax, Oct., 12, 1752.
Witness: JOHN SAMUEL GROSS.

Charles Hagelseib,
; Jno. Adam Smith,

Matthias Ilsanger. ! ;-

Among the first buildings erected in Halifax at
public expense was St. Paul's church, held and occu-

i 1- f

io8

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

pied by Episcopalians in connection with the Church
of England. The Lutheran and Calvinistic settlers
who came with Cornwallis, and later, were compelled
by law to assist in the erection of this edifice, but the
Lutherans, at least, were not in agreement with the
doctrines therein taught. The Augsburg Confession,
and not the Thirty-nine Articles, set forth an epitome
of their belief, and between the two the difference is
not imaginary. We therefore find the Lutheran set-
tlers assembling in private houses, for the worship of
God, and later proceeding to the erection of a church
edifice of their own. In their private assemblages the
word of God was read and commented on, and the
service of singing and prayer led by the faithful school-
master, Johann Gottfried Jorpel, who accompanied the
settlers from Germany. It is not to be supposed that
in the midst of their sufferings they forgot God. The
path of trial often leads near to Him, and that path
they now were traveling. Trained in the fear and
love and trust of Him from their earliest childhood,
these pious people now clung to the God of their
fathers. Hence we find one of their first recorded acts
to have been the assemblir.g of themselves together in
the name of the Lord, and organizing as a distinctly
Lutheran congregation as nearly complete as it could
be without a regularly ordained pastor called and

THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH.

109

>■

established among them. They had their board of
officers, consisting of two elders and five deacons, who
were their recognized leaders. They held their meet-
ings for the worship of God distinct from and inde-
pendekitly of any other organization from the very
beginning of the history of Halifax. It is necessary to
be emphatic and precise in this statement because it
has been asserted with effrontery and accepted where
" the wish was father to the thought " that " the Ger-
man settlers, both Lutheran and Calvinist, were willing
to conform to the Church of England, and attached
themselves to her communion."* How this may
have been* with respect to the Calvinistic portion of
these people is at the best doubtful, while so far as the
Lutherans were concerned, the facts do not bear out
the statement as the truth. So far to the contrary do
they lead, that this particular statement must be
remanded to its responsible author as a particular
falsehood. The Lutherans did not attach themselves
to the Church of England, either willingly or unwill-
ingly, but the Church of England did use efforts of
every kind to attach them, and did succeed in attach-
ing their property.

* See Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Church of England in
the British North American Provinces. By Thos. Beamish Akins,
Esq., Halifax, 1849.

Ill

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

History shall speak in proof. After being compelled
to assist in the erection of St. Paul's, the Lutherans,
rich in faith, out of their deep poverty secured a lot
on Brunswick street whereon they proceeded to erect
a church in which, after its completion, they held ser-
vices every Sunday. This peculiar mark of their at-
tachment to the Church of England is recorded with
refreshing simplicity on page seventeen of the work
already quoted. But now, in order to historical exact-
ness in the presentation of these facts and many others,
the parish register of St. George's Church itself shall
speak. This register extends from March twenty-
fourth, 1 76 1, at which time the new church was con-
secrated and received its name, to the year 1807, when
the last annual election of Lutheran officers was held.
It opens with the statement "A. D. 1761, on second
Easter day, the German Lutheran church was conse-
ated by the Rev. Dr. Breynton, who preached from
John iv. 22. The church has been named St. George.
Jonathan Belcher, president and commander-in-chief,
was present, and also other distinguished persons.
The Lord's Supper was administered to a large con-
gregation." A further entry in the same year details
the disbanding of a certain society and the transfer of
its funds to St. George's congregation. It would ap-
pear that this association, known as "The Funeral

THE FOUNDING OF A CHURCH.

Ill

Fees and Fiiendly Society," was originally a union of
the Lutheran settlers made for the purpose of giving
proper burial to their dead. The register says : "It is
to be hoped that the respective friends or descendants
may also scatter roses on the graves of the members
of the Society, for in reality they have been the found-
ers of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church. But
honor does not belong to us, to God alone." Non
nobis ^ non nobis, sed tiio Nomine da gloriam, Domine!
The names appended were once well known in the
city of Halifax:

William Schwartz,
Carl Hagelseib,
Gottlieb Schermiller,
Fred. Becker,

Christian Peitsch,
Peter Smith,
Philip Knaut,
John Schroeder.

On the twentieth Sunday after Trinity, ten young
men and seven young women were confirmed by the
school-master in St. George's church after having been
instructed in the fundamental doctrines of this faith as
set forth in the Small Catechism of Luther. The date
of this confirmation fell on the fourth of October, 1 76 1.
Following this entry in the register appear a number
of questions put to the young people being confirmed.
' Number seventeen in the list reads thus : *' Beloved
children : do you subscribe to this Evangelical Creed
with heart and voice; will you maintain it, order your

XX2

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

: i

■ i

'■

I i< mii

t n I

wIjMc life according to it, and because in these coun-
tries so many sects and heresies exist, will you re-
nounce them all, and abide by the pure meaning of the
Word of God, and stand by it for life and for death?"
The questions continue to the number of twenty-
three, and are closed with the prayer of consecration
m these words : ** May our Heavenly Father renew and
increase in you, for Jesus Christ's sake, the gift of the
Holy Ghost, for the strengthening of your faith, for
growth in godliness, for patience in suffering, and for
the blessed hope of life everlasting. Amen."

Here, then, in honorable distinction are recorded
the names of these young Christians to whom belongs
forever the renown of having been the first Lutherans
confirmed in St. George's church, Halifax, the first in
Nova Scotia, the first in the British North American
provinces :

Michael Silver,

Caspar Haun,

Wm. Denneman,
Caspar Keller,

John August Peitsch,
Philip Pullman,
Matthew Sauer,
Andrew Bauer,

Christopher Schmidt, Philip Haasz,
Regina Kiihn, Dorothea Schmidt,

Elizabeth Moser, Catharine Baargeld,

Elizabeth Haun, Sophia Schmidt,

Elizabeth Roecklin.

THE POUNDING OF A CHURCH.

October nineteenth, 1761, the quarterly congrega-
tional meeting was held and the appended resolutions
were adopted :

•' I. That at the Ho'y Communion common bix:ad.
shall be used, and no wafers.

" II. That those who attend the Lord's Supper shall!
have their names written down by the school-master,,
or sexton, or by any one else who may be appointed
thereto.

" III. That as long as we have no minister, printed
sermons are to be read aloud by the school-master, or
any one else who may be appointed thereto.

" IV. That funerals occurring on Sunday shall not
take place before four o'clock, or when the ordinary
services, whether English or German, shall have been
concluded. •

" V. That the school-master or some other person
appointed thereto shall register the name of the de-
ceased in a book provided for the purpose, with the
date.

"VI. If any of the officials should die while in of-
fice, he shall have the pall gratis." ^

To these rules were subscribed the names of the
officers: Peter Bergman, Otto Wm. Schwartz. Gott-
lieb Schermiller, Freiderich Kohl and Geo. Hohl.

On the ninth of December 1761, the German
8

114

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

people of the colony met with a heavy loss in the
death of their faithful and devoted school -master,
Johann Gottfried Jorpel, who entered into his rest
after a short illness, at the age of fifty- five. He had
been appointed to his responsible position on the
twenty-ninth of June, 1760, and had discharged his
duties with all possible fidelity. The fact that he
should have framed and put such a question to the
young people whom he confirmed as that above re-
corded is a signal proof of his excellence of mind
and devotion to the truth, and entitles him to a place
of honor here as well as in the Church Register,
where an affectionate minute of his death is thus re-
corded :

" We insert as a memorial in our church book that
our much-loved school- master, Johann Gottfried Jor-
pel, died on 9 December, 1761. He attended to his
duties with all his heart. To his credit be it said
that he was beloved by everybody on account of his
integrity, and is generally lamented, but especially by
his young pupils, who have shed tears at his depart-
ure. May the Lord cause his soul to rejoice through-
out eternity!"

CHAPTER XI.

"CONVEYING" A CHURCH.

NOW that the fact has been established that the
Lutherans had formed an independent organiza-
tion, and were owners of property in the city of
Halifax, it remains to be shown how they were dis-
possessed. Although they at first had no minister of
their own, yet their organization was compact, their
discipline strict, their theological basis correct, and
their financial affairs administered with discretion. As
a congregation they grew and increased in numbers,
wealth and influence. Harmony prevailed in all their
counsels, and their worldly affairs prospered. But
they had no minister. They were a body without a
visible head. The Church of England clergy officiated
upon special occasions, administering the communion
and performing official acts among them; for which
services they were always promptly and liberally paid,
but not salaried. Their pay was always given as a
present. This left the Lutherans free from the juris-
diction of the Church of England.

But now the faithful schoolmaster, around whom

they rallied, was dead. Other old members were

("5)

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

passing away, each as he went weakening the bonds
which bound the congregation to the traditions of the
ciders, and loosening the attachment to the fatherland ;
each as he departed decreasing the hold of the con
gregation upon the faith of the fathers. The younger
members were rapidly becoming Anglicized, losing
by degrees their German language and German ways,
and losing also their hold upon the doctrines of the
Church, in which none of them had been so thoroughly
taught as those who had enjoyed the ministration of
pastors over the sea. And yet in the face of all th*e
difficulties the congregation not only lived, but grew
and flourished. The old church would no longer ac-
commodate the increasing numbers. It was resolved
to build a new and larger one. The foundations were
laid, the work well under way, and then, strange to re-
late, the Lutheran congregation, the Lutheran name,
and the property of the Lutherans, together disappear
as mysteriously, as completely as though the earth .
had opened and swallowed them, or the clouds had
received them out of our sight. True, the little old
church on Brunswick street still stands, and the Round
church, founded by the Lutheran congregation to
serve in its stead, remains, and the people lived; but
people and churches alike had lost their Lutheran
name and identity. They were no longer Lutheran

CONVEVINO* A CHURCH.

It;

people nor Lutheran churches. Why? A cloud had
indeed receiver' them, and between them and us that
cloud still rolls. Histor>* has not pierced its enfolding
gloom. The transactions by which the conjurers' trick
was effected, like other transactions in the black art,
choose darkness rather than light. To them mystery
is more congenial than history. But recourse to the
old Parish Register will throw some light upon them.
To it therefore we again resort.

October nineteenth, 1 76 1, as we have read, it was
resolved: " i. That at the Holy Communion common
bread shall be used, and no wafers." Here was an in-
novation of high churchmen resisted. Who were
they ? Presumably the ministers officiating. At the
same time it was resolved : " HI. That as long tis we
have no minister of our faith, printed sermons shall be
read aloud by our schoolmaster or any one else ap-
pointed thereto." This denotes dissatisfaction with
the preaching they had heard, presumably on account
of either language or doctrine, as handled by the
Church of England clergy. At a meeting held De-
cember third, 1 76 1, the mode of elect- i^^ officers was
discussed, and balloting decided on. The minute
reads thus : " It is thonght desirable that each year at
Christmas new church-wardens should be chosen from
among the congregation. The choice is not to be

Ii8

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

obligatory, and is to be quietly made. Each one is to
hand in a ticket with all the names on it of those who
are to be proposed. The elders and church-wardens
are to be present, also the members of the church may
be present, that it may not be said that any deception
has been practiced. Half of those chosen shall be
from the the town and south suburb, the other half
from the north suburb, all to be members of this con-
gregation. Only men of good report are to be cho-
sen." This shows us where the Germans were
located in the growing city, and we may infer from it
also that an effort had been made to have members of
some other congregation, probably St. Paul's, chosen
as officers of St. George's. It is added, " Also we ap-
prove that William Schwartz shall for certain reasons
retain the office of deacon as long as it may please
him." Otto William Schwartz was a pillar, doubtless,
and a fine Lutheran ; but what could one do alone !
He died one hundred years ago, but his sepulchre is
with us unto this day. A tablet sacred to his memory
has been inserted in the wall of the new St. George's,
commonly called the " Round Church," which he
'helped to build, at the left of the pulpit, just above the
place where he sat as long as he was able to attend.
He was a man of strict integrity, of good business
qualifications, and among his brethren possessed of
the most wealth.

"conveying" a church.

119

The Register specifies the duties of the officers.
They shall be " called together every quarter to count
the money collected on Sundays and enter the amount
in the Register; to pay all expenses, if sufficient; to
consult together about any disorders which may have
crept in and to remedy such ; to take care that the ser-
vices of the church be properly conducted, the sacra-
ments administered at stated times, the school prop-
erly supported, the church kept in good fepair, the
records faithfully kept, and accounts in good order.
They shall discharge their duties with a desire only
for God's glory, not expecting reward." * * * " The
congregation is not to suppose that the officers are
bound to enter into all manner of disputes. They may
do so as friends and neighbors, but not in their official
capacity. With regard to the church, however, and
what belongs thereto, they are in duty bound as
parents and guardians, as elders and officers, to care
for the same with all fidelity. Thus have we, accord-
ing to the best of our ability, approved and agreed to
do, and hereunto subscribed our names."

"On New Year's Day, 1762, the officers resigned,
and the following persons were elected: Andreas
Schenck, George Beyer, Adam Isler, Ernest Peiper;
Otto William Schwartz held over."

"On Easter Monday, A. D. 1762, the Holy Supper

120

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

! I

Ij i

iK.ii ^H

IMK

v/as administered by the Rev. Drs. Breynton and
Wood, to a large congregation; and again by the same
reverend gentlemen on the seventeenth Sunday after
Trinity." '

In 1763 the officers elected were Peter Schmidt,
George Marlin, Christoph Keyser. The Holy Com-
munion was celebrated on Easter Monday and on the
nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

In lydij. the officers elected were Peter Bergmann,
Johann Pfanndorfer, Reinhardt Jacob and George Jost.
The Lord's Supper was administered by Drs. Breynton
and Wood, the former preaching from Heb. xii. 1-2
in the English language.

Thus the Register continues to give the dates of Dr.
Breynton's ministrations, and the account book, kept
in German, always notes that after these services a
present was made to the Herr Prediger.

At the communion on Easter Monday, 1765, Dr.
Breynton officiated and again preached in the English
language, our notes say from 2. Cor. 5th verse, (prob-
ably 2. Cor. xiii. 5), after which "The officers of the
German Lutheran Evangelical church resolved that
no setting forth of the Gospel should be made in our
I church contrary to the doctrine of the Evangelical

"conveying" a church.

121

Signed by
the Deacons

Lutheran Confession, and not in the English language.
To this article we subscribe :

Otto William Schwartz

Philip Brehm

Gottfried Jairch

Peter Artz

Conrad Fosseler." *

Here, in all probability, the proselyting tendency
became too manifest to be overlooked, and aroused the
suspicions of the confiding Germans. Well would it
have been for them had they seen more clearly and
resisted more steadfastly the hidden design which was
being so cautiously pursued by their dear English
friends. Had they then known what we now know,
they would have been justified in regarding the friend-
ship manifested by the clergy of the Church of England
with suspicion and distrust. It was the friendship
of the hawk for the dove, covering and devouring it.
Why the people of this large and flourishing congre-
gation did not secure the services of a clergyman of
their own faith, here becomes a pertinent query. The
number of communicants was at that date large
enough to maintain a pastor ; they owned their own
church, school-house and burial ground ; they might
have supported a minister. But Lutheran ministers
were scarcer then than they are now, and even now

^\ .a

122

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

they are fewer in proportion to the Lutheran popula-
tion of the New World than those of any sect or de-
nomination. On this account many a Lutheran con-
gregation in the United States, as well as Canada, must
live long without a pastor. The demand far exceeds
the supply.

Those people, moreover, had difficulties in commu-
nicating with the other provinces (now States) and with
Europe, where Lutheran ministers were, of which we
know little. Another reason was doubtless that they
were dissuaded by the English friends whose services
were so freely given ; and at the same time they may
have been secretly hindered and thwarted in any effort
toward procuring a clergyman of their own faith by
the same peculiar friends, as the Lutherans were being
hindered and thwarted at Lunenburg about the same
time. There is a chapter of unwritten history in con-
nection .with this whole subject, which, if it were made
known, might even yet make some cheeks mantle
themselves with shame. Where are the descendants
of these Lutherans ? Where is their property ? Lost
to the Church of their fathers through the shrewd and
treacherous manipulation of the party in power.
Shakespeare says of stealing :

"'Convey' the wise it call."

"conveying" a church.

123

" Conveyed " let it be called, by processes crooked
and conscienceless, into the hands of that denomina-
tion noted for its zealous and often impudent attempts
to proselyte Lutherans. There may be many to take
offense at a statement like this. If so, let them rise
and explain the facts away. Let these wrongs be
made right. Let them remove the cause of offense,
and nothing further will be said to disturb their com-
placency. The Lutherans themselves are not to be
exonerated from censure. Had they exercised more
foresight, had they but closed their church at this
juncture against the officious intermeddling of the
worthies whose actions called forth the resolutions
quoted, and denied themselves the sacraments until
they could have received them from a minister of
their own faith, the record of the Lutheran Church in
the city of Halifax would have been vastly more hon-
orable. '• '

At a time when the life of the congregation was be-
ing secretly undermined, the Register of St. George's
church is taken up with petty and trifling details
about petty trifles. At a time when the foundations
of the historic confessional Lutheran faith and reli-
gion should have been laid deep and strong and
broad for the descendants of these people to build
upon, not alone in the city, but also in the outlying

-•IT"

124

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

!' }

settlements which they were forming, those who
should have been laboring to lay them were being
lulled to slumber, their time and attention given to
affairs of the very least importance. Nothing worthy
this body of Lutherans, with the opportunities pre-
sented them in the opening and development of the
new country, has been recorded of them. Like D'An-
ville's fleet, " they never gained a victory." The bulk
of the Register is made up of entries trifling as the fol-
lowing:

"Jan. 1st, 1766. — The officers found it expedient
that 50 shillings quarterly be paid Mr. Hagelseib for
reading and singing and ringing the bell."

"June 24th, 1770. — Paulus Stukitz has made a pres-
ent to St. George's church of an excellent Book of
Homilies, by Dr. Henry Muller."

"Jan. 23, 1773. — Mr. Gottlieb Milch presented the
church a large chest, suitable for keeping the records
and monies in."

Perhaps this may be that wonderful, old, triple-
locked, iron-bound coffer which ornaments the pastor's
study in Lunenburg, a sort of indestructible ecclesias-
tical heirloom passed down from the " conveyed" con-
gregation to their more fortunate and faithful brethren
there. If so, it is at least something saved out of the
general wreck, and as such, a prize to be treasured ; at
any rate, it is a curious relic.

"conveying" a church.

125

But here the Rev. Dr. Breynton re-appears upon
the scene, with a sermon April 12th, in the same year,
on Matt. xxii. 2, 3. To the entry recording this is
attached the significant observation : " N. B. — In the
English language." Pity the poor, single-minded Ger-
mans of the olden time, who thought all men, at least
in religion, were as honest as themselves. They saw
their faith and their language going together. Who
can censure them for their tenacious adherence to the
language of their fatherland ? In holding it fast they
believed lay their only hope of retaining and perpetu-
ating among themselves their religious faith. Could
they have been assured that their religion would not
suffer through the decadence of the Gtrman language,
they would have given it up more readily. But to
this day there are Germans in plenty who think there
can be no true preaching or setting forth in other kind
of Lutheran doctrine, except it be in the German lan-
guage. Some even more radical, one especially very
dear to me, declared German to be the language used
in heaven. Another identified the Lutheran religion
with the German language, and declared there was
" no religion so good as this German religion." The
former has fathomed the mystery now. He is in
heaven. It is to be hoped that there he will meet
Otto William Schwartz, that they may converse in

126

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

M [.

the German language of the things that are written
here; but if Drs. Breynton and Wood are there, they
will no doubt hear some vigorous English too. "That
Dr. Breynton could, and did, preach sometimes in both
languages," says the present incumbent of St. George's,
" is testified to by an old resident of the city, now liv-
ing, who says that his grandmother related how she
plodded up the cart-road at the dedication of St.
George's church in 1 761, when Dr. Breynton preached
first in English and afterwards in German." So in
heaven they can all talk the matter over together.

The Register continues : "As in the year 1759 an
article concerning interments was made, so it is now
agreed, on April loth, 1774, that if any one is to be
interred, the school-master or the sexton is to be paid
for his trouble in unlocking the church and pointing
out the place for burial, for each funeral 2s. 6d., and
for children 2 shillings."

In 1776, the new officers chosen were Anthony
Hanery and Conrad Pentz. The name of Anthony
Hanery first appears on the records in 177 1. He
came to Halifax after the fall of Louisbourg, where
he had served as a musician, carrying a fife in one of
the King's regiments. He was a printer by trade, is-
sued, in January, 1769, the first newspaper that ever
appeared in Nova Scotia,* and for many years was

*« The Nova Scotia Chronicle^^ see Murdoch, p. 234, Vol. II.

"conveying" a church.

127

King's printer and published the Royal Gazette. He
died in 1800, and his tomb-stone is one of the few in
good preservation in the church-yard attached to the
old German church.

"On April 30th, 1777, the congregation had a valu-
ation of the lot which John Tritler had rented for
seven years for the sum of £1 11, which sum the said
Tritler promises to pay each New Year's day,, and in
case of his death his heirs are bound to continue the
same." The new officers chosen this year were Bal-
thazar Gebhard and Daniel Marlow.

"Jan. 1st, 1778. — To-day a church meeting was
held, and it was found expedient that Mr. Ludwig
Hagelsieb should have £2 10 quarterly for reading
and singing and ringing the bell. Two church
wardens resigned, and in their place the congregation
appointed Philip Palmer and Richard Jacob. It was
found expedient that Mr. Christian Metzler, the or-
ganist, should have a quarterly recompense for play-
ing the organ — say £0 17 6."

"Jan. 1st, 1779.— Two church wardens resigned,
and in their places were appointed Mr. Melchoir Lip-
pert and Mr. George Schaffer."

"June 28th, 1780. — Church meeting held and a
written agreement made, to which Caspar Laun sub-
scribed, namely, to hire a church lot and yearly 20

128

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

1» !

Spanish dollars to pay to the church, and for his heirs
after him to do the same." •'

" Signed by Caspar Laun."

In this year, at the same date, " it was agreed upon
that some of the church wardens of St. George should
go to those of St. Paul and let the so-called estate of
Melchoir for a certain term of some years. The church,
St. Paul's, is to receive 20 Spanish dollars, according to
agreement, and the remaining profits should be given
to St. George's. The estate is to be let for seven
years, as was agreed upon on the 20th of March. In
order that the estate might be kept in good condi-
tion and its profits duly collected, a church warden,
namely, Richard Jacob, has been appointed to that
office. He is to appear at the annual church meeting
to give an account of the income and expenditure of
the estate ; at the request of the whole meeting to re-
sign his office, and another is to be chosen in his
place, which office he is to perform gratis (without
expense to the church).

" Otto William Schwartz,
" Peter Artz,
" Richard Jacob."

Here is an item of interest to those who study the
relation of cause to effect in the transfer of this Luth-

"conveying" a church.

129

cran property to Episcopalian hands. An estate is
mentioned upon which St. Paul's, without owning, ap-
pears to have gotten a claim worth 20 Spanish dol-
lars per year, but of which St. George's appears to
have control. It is known as " the so-called estate of
Melchoir." Melchoir, an aged German of some
means — and it did not require so large an amount to
constitute a man of wealth then as now — is about to
die. But in this new country he has not an heir kin
to himself to whom he shall leave his property. He-
consults with his fellow-members of St. George*s.
church, of which he has been a faithful member since
its organization. With their approval he determines
to make God his heir in the disposal of his property,
and prepares to give it to St. George's church. Tho
Episcopal minister, hearing of this resolution, visits the
old man on his death- bed, is present when his will is
drawn, and has inserted, with or without the consent
of the dying man, Melchoir, that clause by which St.
Paul's is placed on such footing as to give it the pre-
text of a legal right to share with St. George's the
emoluments derived from the property devised. How •
easy to make " 20 Spanish dollars," to the dull senses
of a dying man, read " 20 Spanish dollars per annum."
No doubt a pretty tale of Jesuitical intermeddling
would here be laid bare if all were known. Well, in

130

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

the day of judgment all things secret shall appear
openly. Let us wait and be patient.

" March 27, 1779. — Church meeting was held, and
it was agreed, funds being in hand, that a silver com-
munion service should be purchased. On the loth of
October, 1779, ^^^c service was made use of at the
Lord's Supper for the first time by the Rev. John
Breynton, rector of the English church of St. Paul.
The service consisted of a silver flask, a silver chalice,
one large and one small plate, in all four pieces, which
altogether cost £$7 2 id., fifty-seven pounds, 2 shil-
lings and i penny. And it has /urther been concluded
that this service should always be kept in the house
of one of the elders. Such sum has been duly paid
out of the church funds on January ist, 1790, to Mr.
Richard Jacob, as may be seen in the church ac-
counts.

" Otto William Schwartz,

" Peter Artz."

CHAPTER XII.
HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

THE German congregation did not enjoy, in the
colonial government, the same legal status as
St. Paul's. This, incredible as it may appear, was
made the basis of action whereby the Lutherans were
deprived of their property by the Episcopalians, to
whom it was confirmed with due solemnity and ver-
biage of the law by the civil courts. A piece of
property at the cast end of the German burial-ground
bequeathed to the German church, was seized upon
by St. Paul's church on the plea that it alone repre-
sented " the church." This property was retained in
spite of the efforts of St. George's to hold it, by the
authorities of St. Paul's church, as being the only
representative of the established church in Halifax.

These were now the times of that remarkable
movement in contemporary civil history which re-
sulted in the independence of the thirteen Provinces
under the name and title of The United States of
America. Canada had been solicited to join the
revolutionists, and had refused. More conseivative
eyen than Canada and more haughty in her treat-

(131)

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ment of the rebels, as she regarded them, the Pro-
vince of Nova Scotia declined, by the failure or
refusal of her Provincial Parliament, even to answer
the letter asking her to join in the movement. And
most conservative of all British America was the
city of Halifax. She stood upon her dignity. She
legislated, at that time, for the whole Province: in
fact, Halifax was the Province. For awhile there
was revolution outside the city, where the sparks
from the fire burning in the States had caught, in-
somuch that in Cumberland a band of revolutionists
attacked the fort, and in all Londonderry, Onslow
and Truro, only five persons could be found who
would take the oath of allegiance, and the members
from these important districts were not allowed to
take their seats in Parliament. Still Halifax was
loyal, the very pink and perfection of loyalty.

And now Great Britain, having failed to reduce the
thirteen colonies to subjection, in 1783 was obliged to
declare and acknowledge their independence. But in
the new States were the many disbanded soldiers of
the British army, also the open and secret friends of
the lost cause and opponents of the men and measures
instrumental in the hands of God in working out the
independence 0/ the United States. Fearing God,
honoring the king, hating rebellion, and being as

[1 ! ]

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

133

heartily hated by their neighbors, these persons found
it expedient to remove from the States to the more
congenial Provinces yet remaining loyal. And of this
class of people, no city of British America received a
larger proportionate quota than Halifax, unless it may
have been Shelburne. The reputation of Halifax had
gone abroad, and whether deservedly or not, her name
stood as synonymous with unswerving adherence to
king and country, that is the country over the sea,
Merrie England. The population of Nova Scotia,
previous to this influx, was about twenty thousand ;
but suddenly it sprang up to double that number.
This had much to do with the affairs of the congrega-
tion whose history is being traced here.

Among the incoming settlers was one to whom,
perhaps, the congregation owes more than tc any
other the loss of its original Lutheran name and
faith, and one who should have been its strongest
human bulwark and defense in its isolated and de-
fenceless position, the Reverend Bernard Michael
Houseal. He had been pastor of a Lutheran church
in New York City, but on account of his loyalist pro-
clivities had resigned, or perhaps had been dismissed
from his charge, and with others like-minded with him
self upon matters political, had gone to take up his
residence in the ultra-loyal city of Halifax. Concern

i'J ' ■

134

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ing him and his early history, the following has been
published in his defense by the Rev. Mr. Partridge,
his successor as " Rector " of St. George's.

" The Reverend Bernard Michael Houseal was born
at Heilbronn, Wiirtemburg, in the year 1727. His
father was a clergyman of the Lutheran church.
Nothing is now known of his early years. But he in-
herited a vigorous constitution, a commanding pres-
ence, and a manner that carried him through the most
aristocratic society, and proclaimed beyond doubt his
good birth. His early years were spent in study, his
education being received it is probable in the Univer-
sity of Tubingen, in Wiirtemburg. His diligence in
study and powers of mind gave him at an early age an
erudition which stood him in good stead all his life.
During his college career he fell in love with the
daughter of a man of considerable standing and influ-
'ence in the town of Ulni, viz., Christopher Mayer, de-
scendant of a well-born and useful family of that name,
whose members had been public men in Ulm since
1545, when the founder of the family was Stadthaupt-
man, or stipendiary magistrate. We can fancy the
handsome student going, during his vacation, and per-
haps oftener, the 40 miles that separated him from the
scenes of his studies and the residence of his beloved.
We may picture to ourselves the stimulus given to his

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

135

midnight researches by the prospect of an early mar-
riage. His enterprise did not at this period lead his
mind beyond the confines of his native province. But
other forces were at work, which led him finally to
these shores. In the earlier part of the i8th century
more than 30,000 persecuted Salzburgers, expelled by
the wicked prince — Archbishop Leopold Anthony —
because they would not abjure their faith, fled to
Prussia, Holland and England. Of those who went
to England, 78 selected men, women and children,
were sent to America free of cost by the trustees of
the young colony of Georgia. They formed the nu-
cleus of the ecclesiastical settlement of Ebenezer,
Georgia. In 1752 this town was in the full tide of
successful promise. Persons who had emigrated there
sent home letters full of enthusiasm, which kindled
the hearts of many to seek such a " land of pure de-
light." The settlement, apparently, was a pure theo-
cratic Lutheran settlement of Germans, simple in life
and law, but rigid in religious discipline.

" This town is long since dead, destroyed by war.
But at the period of which we are writing it was pros-
perous. There were many in overcrowded Germany
who believed that their lot might be improved by an
emigration to a virgin soil in a new country. Thus it
happened that Christopher Bartholomew Mayer,

136

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

father of the wife of the first German minister of St.
George's, made up his mind to seek his fortune in the
Eldorado of the southern American province of
Georgia. Early in the year, he left his paternal home
in Ulm, and started on his journey from Ulm to
Ebenezer, Georgia. Among those who accompanied
him (it reads like a romance), was of course his
daughter Sybilla Margaretha, before this betrothed to
the young student, Bernard Michael Houseal. This
gentleman had now completed his college course, and
had received his degree of M. A. Vows of eternal
affection had doubtless been exchanged between the
two young people, when the desire of the lady's father
to emigrate to America became known. With tears
and sighs, the daughter had made it known to her
lover that she must depart to alien shores, and that
separation dark, dreary, and unknown, lay before
them both. The young man now informed the object
of his affections, that having been ordained to the
sacred ministry, he had made up his mind to engage
in missionary work, and that nothing would please
him better than to proceeil to the N. A. colonies,
there to win his spurs as a missionary, and to gather
;a rich harvest of souls into his Heavenly Master's fold.
" Thus it came to pass that early in the year 1752,
^Christopher Bartholomew Mayer, of Ulm, his wife, and

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

137

four children, stood on the wharf at Rotterdam, with
their faces set towards the new world. The marriage
of Sybilla Margaretha Mayer with Rev. Bernard
Michael Houseal had just been celebrated, and the
two young people, so lately made one, were going
hand in hand on the voyage of life. But, from some
unexplained cause, they were detained in Holland for
a whole year before setting sail for the land of their
adoption. During this year, the ecclesiastical influ-
ence of young Houseal, brilliant, energetic and learned
as he was, and in communication with the authorities
of the Consistory of Stuttgart, under whose auspices
he was going to labor in America, caused a change in
Christopher Mayer's intentions. Instead of proceed-
ing to Georgia, as he at first intended, he, with his
family, took his passage to Annapolis, Maryland. On
their arrival there in safety, they were met by a cer-
tain Daniel Dulany, a large land-owner, who induced
the thrifty Germans to look at his lands in and about
Fredericktown, in that state. This conjecture is
strengthened by the fact that the ground for the
church subsequently begun at that village by Mr.
Houseal, was given to him for that purpose by Du-
lany. No doubt the fertile soil of Maryland com-
pared most favorably with the swamps of Savannah.
And with equal probability the ecclesiastical aspira-

IT-

ill

138

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

.,1
I 'I -ill

ii >

I ml

tion of young Houseal led him in the direction of
the converging valleys of the Shenandoah and Poto-
mac rivers, where a community from the Fatherland,
speaking a common language, and devoted to Luther-
anism as a common faith, was already established to
welcome the new-comers. And so, in spite of the
frontier of their home being thronged with savages
and bordering on the wildest parts of the state, the
immigrant family of Mayer and Houseal planted
themselves on the ground, rich in soil and healthy in
climate, which within three years beheld Braddock's
defeat.

"Thus bravely did the first German minister in
Halifax begin his career. Here Mr. Houseal, at the
age of twenty-five, began his work as a minister of the
Evangelical Lutheran church. The deed of the land
on which the church was begun by Houseal, was
given by Daniel Dulany to B. M. Houseal, as pastor.
But the work, zealously begun, was stopped by the
outbreak of the hostilities between the English,
French, and Indians. Mr. Houseal's father-in-law
only survived his emigration from his native land six
months, dying in November 1752. His widow, sons,
and daughter, removed to Pennsylvania, principally to
Philadelphia. Mr. Houseal, however, did not leave
his flock in Fredericktown until the year 1759, when

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

139

he took charge of a congregation in Reading, Penn-
sylvania. There he remained until 1768. From
thence he went as clergyman to Easton, Pa., and
occasionally, while there, officiated in Philadelphia.
For a short time he was in South Carolina; but as his
brother had lately emigrated there, it may have been
only on a visit. In the year 1770 he was transferred
to New York, then the leading province in America.
His talents and industry procured him here the high
position of senior minister of the ancient Lutheran
church in that city. Here his sphere of influence
continually increased, and his ability and address
gave him an eminent position among the people. He
appears to have been a man of much culture and
scholarship. He was one of the Governors of New
York college, and one of the corporators of the New
York hospital. When the revolutionary troubles
began, Houseal warmly espoused the cause of the
king. There was a common bond of lineage between
him and his sovereign. This, added to his naturally
aristocratic temperament, made him an ardent de-
fender of the rights of the monarchy. 'From the
historical records of New York, we find him to have
been loud in his declarations of loyalty to England, as
one of the addressors of Lord Howe and Sir Wil-
liam Howe, after the occupation of New York in 1776.

t I
« i

140

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

When the British took possession of that capital in
that year, Houseal's house and church were burnt, in
all probability by the retreating rebels, who did not
forget that the tory preacher had, with his customary
boldness, denounced the revolutionists in no measured
terms. During the war of independence Mr. Houseal
remained in New York. At the peace of 1783, not
being able in company with many others to reconcile
his conscience to the American rule, he came in that
year, accompained by many of his congregation, as
loyalist refugees to Halifax, long known as a place of
safety to those who still adhered to their allegiance to
the British crown. He was warmly welcomed by the
British authorities. His family at this time consisted
of three sons and seven daughters.

" The coming of Mr. Houseal was a great boon, as
may well be supposed, to the German congregation
of St. George's. Their church had been completed now
for 22 years. They had heartily and sturdily kept up
their services in their mother tongue, depending on
occasional help from the rector of St. Paul's or any
minister whom he might send. Not once during 34
years had their hearts been gladdened by the sound
of a native minister speaking their own language. Dr.
Breynton had with great kindness, which we are
bound to say was duly appreciated, done for them all

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

141

that lay in his power. Now there had come to Hali-
fax one born and educated in Fatherland, one who
was not only an accomplished gentleman, but who
could minister to them in their own beloved tongue.
But here was the difficulty. Their school-master had
been assisted by the English church, as the foster
mother of the German mission. The Germans had,
many of them, become warmly attached to that church,
which had befriended them in the day of their loneli-
ness. They were a poor and struggling community
though they had a few men of means among them.
The congregation in short was no longer Lutheran,
though still German.

" Mr. Houseal had had many opportunities, during
his sojourn in New York, of intercourse with the
Episcopal clergy. He had seen their honest and
manly support of the king's cause, and had sympa-
thized with it. He equally with them had suffered,
for his loyalty, the loss of all his possessions. He
had known Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity church,
had seen and admired the noble .stand made by him
against rebellion and bloodshed. He had stood by
his side at the period when the troops of the conti-
nentals had overrun New York, and came in to intim-
idate the staunch royalist from praying for his king.
A common danger cements an extraordinary friend-

142

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

( i

h I

ship, and common sympathies, especially political
sympathies, are apt to sway the whole man. So
when Houseal came to Halifax, a loyalist refugee,
who had left all for his adherence to the cause of the
king, and was received as a brother and friend by the
loyal population of this city; when he found a con-
gregation to his hand, German in nationality yet
English by adoption, Lutheran by birth yet drawn to
the Church of England by the strong and irresistible
cords of love ; he soon began to seriously consider
whether he could not conform to the church to which
his German compatriots were so powerfully attracted.
It was no unimportant step he was called upon to
take. It involved his whole ecclesiastical status. If
he conformed to the Church of England, he must
admit the invalidity of his previous ordination, and
^ submit to the imposition of Episcopal hands. He
must, after an expatriation from the land of his
maturer years, again cross the stormy ocean, not in a
palatial steamship, but in a small sailing vessel, and
risk the greater danger of the return voyage. On the
whole, it was a great sacrifice of principle and of per-
sonal comfort and ease, which he was called upon to
make.

" From what is known of Mr. Housears previous
career, of his erudition, accomplishments and personal

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

143

character, we may rest assured that any step taken by
him would only be dictated by the purest motives, and
carried out by a self-sacrificing integrity.

" In the course of a year he sailed for England; no
doubt furnished with letters from the highest circles in
Halifax. Preaching in a popular London chapel, he
was heard, it is said, by a member of the royal family,
probably Prince Edward, father of our present beloved
queen. Soon after, this he applied to the bishop of
London for deacon's orders in the Church of England.

*' He then received the chaplaincy of a regiment
which was a favorite of the Duke of Kent. With this
regiment he returned to Halifax, and there began his
services to the Germans, leaving his regimental chap-
laincy. He is described as a man of commanding
stature, stately manner and dignified address, thor-
oughly educated in ancient and modern languages, as
well as theology, and speaking Latin especially with
remarkable fluency. In the British provinces which
revolted from England, he served for thirty-one years
as a minister of a Lutheran church, preaching in New
York for fourteen years in English, German, French
and Dutch. The sixteen years of his after life in Nova
Scotia were devoted to God as a clergyman of the
Church of England. His body lies in a vault under-
neath the old Dutch church. It is probable that Mr,

ACADIE AND TriE ACADIANS.

l?i

fi.*

Ilouseal had been a student of medicine in his early
life, and that he took the degree of Bachelor of Medi-
cine bjcfore leaving Germany. Of this it is impossible
to be quite sure, but the balance of evidence points
that way."

Here, then, we find the old St. George's church,
after having been built twenty-two years, with a new
pastor in it, and the congregation, after more than
thirty years of waiting, gathering around that pastor
as one man. What a noble opportunity here was to
found the Church of the Augsburg Confession! But
Houseal was not the man to resist the blandishments
of those in power. lie took the gold of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, and acquiesced in
the scheme whereby the Lutherans were robbed of
their property. He sacrificed his principles, as his
reverend apologist and beneficiary of the act informs
us. How much or how little he is to be censured,
only God knows. He shall be the Judge. Houseal
may have been a good man, although he evidently
had no faculty for forecasting the probable effects of
the causes which, at this juncture, he was the chief
instrument in the hands of the Church of England
people in helping to set in motion.

Many things must be considered in making up our
estimate of the man and his work. The civil power

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

145

v^as entirely vested in the hands of the Church of
England people. A man could not be so much as an
overseer of roads, or constable, or tax-gatherer, unlci>s
a member of the Established Church. This member-
ship was the sine qua non to social, as well as political
preferment. And the desperate attempt was made on
the part of those in power to so bind and coerce
men's consciences, by making it the first essential to
ecclesiastical existence. And in this sad case the at^
tempt succeeded. Hous nl fell before it.

Other religions than that of the Church of England
were tolerated solely by reason of necessity. And no
means were considered too despicable, no flattery too
contemptible, to lure or to drive men from their own
faith into conformity. The Provincial Council, con-
sisting of twelve men, clothed with legislative and
executive power, holding office for life, in no way ac-
countable to the will of the people, with the Episcopal
Bishop and Chief Justice as members, sitting with
closed doors, could, and doubtless would, and prob-
ably did, legislate with the approval of the Governor
in such a manner as to give the appearance of a legal
sanction to the transfer of the property of the Luth-
eran congregation, growing more valuable and hence
more desirable year by year, to the friendly congrega-
tion of St. Paul's. Such legal, judicial, ecclesiastical,
10

i?.

If)
•Hi

illil!

146

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

and doubtless also social and political pressure was
brought to bear upon the Germans and their pastor,
that it remained but a matter of time as to when the
transfer should be effected. Nevertheless, the form of
transfer was not yet formally made public. The Ger-
man congregation, lulled into fancied security, occu-
pied itself with trifles and slumbered in peace.

" Whitsuntide, June ist, 1782," the old register
goes on, " Mr. Otto William Schwartz presented the
church a red altar and pulpit covering, on which was
his name in golden letters."

"January ist, 1784. Church meeting was held, and
after due consideration the lot belonging to Mr. Ham
was separated from the estate, because Mr. Casper
Ham does not keep house and can make no use of the
same, therefore all the church-wardens have con-
cluded to take the same and let it as well as they can."

"January ist, 1785. Two church- wardens resigned
and four have been chosen in their places, so that in
the .future the number of church-wardens will be six
and that of the elders three. Anthony Hanery,
Charles Right, Daniel Hail, Philip Palmer.

"October 9th, 1785. To-day a church meeting was
held, and it was agreed upon that because of the death
of Otto William Schwartz another elder should be
chosen. Mr. Peter Schmidt."

HOW THE THING WAS DONE.

147

From this date onward to January ist, 1807, the h'st
of incoming officers is kept with uneventful smooth-
ness, the names of another Schwartz, of a doctor or
two, and of many new ones appearing, until at that
date there comes a pause —

** An awful pause, prophetic of the end."

m
I,

F ''

H #H -

CHAPTER XIII.
THE COMMUNION SERVICE AND THE BURYING GROUND.

THE unwritten history is no doubt quite as interest-
ing as that which has been presented. There may
be other records in existence which would throw new
light upon the darkness; there may be persons inter-
ested who have access to those records, but doubtless
they will see to it that what is not creditable to their
antecedents in them shall be suppressed. The ques-
tion of the ownership of St. George's church is by no
means a settled question. No question is settled until
rightly settled. And this, as it stands, is not right.
Man may propose to have it settled so, but God dis-
poses of events, and this question, if not arranged
differently on earth, shall be taken on appeal to the
Court of Heaven. There is a day of reckoning to
come. For the alienation of this congregation from
the pure truth of the Word of God as those Lutheran
people had been taught it, as they held and believed
it; for the act of robbing the Lutheran church of an
I unknown amount of property ; for appropriating, under
the pretext of a legal right, lands, churches, houses,
communion service and instruments of music, there

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. I49

may be, for aught we know, a day of retribution as
well as reckoning.

At all events, it is to be regarded as a matter of
wonder how this most questionable transaction is re-
garded by the honest and upright members of the
Church of England. What sort of psychological
phenomena must be presented by the pure minds of
the worthy people of that denomination when they
endeavor to honestly contemplate these hard facts,,
and make them conform with the simple principles of
equity and justice ! What, for example, can be the
feelings which move in the mind of a devout com-
municant in St. George's church while receiving the
consecrated elements of the Holy Communion from
those stolen vessels ! It would certainly be unfair to
institute any comparison between their thoughts and
those of Belshazzar reveling amid the sacred vessels
stolen from the temple ; for his father stole those ves-
sels, while their fathers tried to keep these from being
stolen. But no person of honor will question that it
would be more in accord with the golden rule of our
Lord Jesus, "Do unto others as you would have
them do to you ;" more conducive to clean hands and
a pure heart; more in harmony with the love of God
and Christian virtue, if the Church of England, as a
matter of ordinary morality, were to relinquish its use

ISO

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

IfH

and fraudulent claims of the Lutheran church of St.
George forever.

But that any intention qf so doing exists does not
appear. As an example of the feelfng, it may be
noted that of those now in possession one carried
the communion vessels before the Nova Scotia His-
torical Society, and there put them upon exhibi-
tion. The taste which permitted such a display is on
a level with the defense made and the tone and spirit
in which it was given, as the unprejudiced reader may
judge for himself. Appended is the defense in ques-
tion, made by the reverend exhibitor, Mr. Partridge :

" The plate was sent for from England. It is curi-
ous that upon it is an inscription in English, and that
the Royal Anns should be found engraven upon the
front of it. This may have been either because the
order was forwarded through the government, of
which Mr. Richard Jacob may have been an official, or
because the silversmiths in England, being ignorant of
anything beyond an Established Church in England,
thought that the Royal Arms, surmounting so many
pieces of communion plate of a previous period, were
the only suitable emblem for engraving upon these.
This plate, duly arriving from the old country, was
used for the first time by Rev. Dr. Breynton on Octo-
ber loth, 1779. It is described as consisting of a

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. I5I

'silver can, a silver cup, one large and one small
plate' — in all four pieces. The cost was £$y 2s. id.
The plate, which I here exhibit to you, was massive
and suitable, and has been used continuously from
that time to this. It was further ordered that the
said * silver plate should always be kept in one of the
wardens' houses.* The amount of the cost of the
plate was paid to Mr. Jacob from the funds on Jan-
uary 1st, 1780 — and an entry to that effect was duly
made in the account-book of the parish. A vio-
lent and absurd letter appears among those before
mentioned as having been written by Rev. D. Luther
Roth, a Lutheran minister, formerly of Lunenburg
and at present (1887) residing in the United States.
He draws a picture highly creditable to his imagina-
tion, however, but to nothing else, representing the
perjured and abandoned Christians of St. George's
receiving the sacrament from plate stolen from the
Germans, and handed down from generation to gener-
ation of sacrilegious thieves. This plate was pur-
chased by the German congregation for use in the
communion service of the Church of England. It
was never used for any other service. It was never
handled by any one save an ordained priest of the
Church of England. At the time when the old
Church of St. George became too small for the in-

152

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

creasing population, and the new St. George's was
erected, it passed from the dying hands of the first
German ministers, (of whom more anon,) to the first
regularly appointed English minister, to be used by
him, and no one else.

"The congregation was by this time (1800) more
than half English ; and those who still retained their
German predilections were inclined to the English
Church, which alone had cared for their souls during
a period of half a century; and when at last the con-
gregation of George's, Germans and all, became con-
formed to the English Church and fully constituted of
their own free will and accord after its model, this
plate was handed over to the Rev. Robert Fitzgerald
Uniacke (honored name in this city), and has passed
from him to his successors. The uncalled-for and
cruel attempt of this truly Christian minister, Mr. D.
L. Roth, to stir up strife and create bitter feeling
about the communion plate used in the holy mysteries
of the Prince of Peace for one hundred and eight
years, can only recoil on its pugnacious, untruthful
author. The plate is consecrated by the hallowed
use of more than a century, and one cannot envy the
pious pretensions of one who would create ill-feeling
and unchristian controversy over the sacred remains
of the sainted dead. It cannot be too strongly em-

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. 1 53

phasized that, from the earliest coming of the Germans
to the present, no ordained minister has ever officiated
in the German church, or its offshoot 4he present St.
George's, save a true and regular priest of the Church
of England. It is correct, of course, to admit that of
late years services have been held by a German Luth-
eran minister, Rev. Theodore Cossman, D. D., in the
Dutch church, to German Lutherans in Halifax. But
such services have been allowed solely by the Chris-
tian courtesy of the rectors of St. George's, in a build-
ing once occupied by German Lutherans, but for
three-quarters of a century past the property of the
Church of England. The communion plate here ex-
hibited has never been used by other than Church of
England priests, not even in the occasional services of
the Dutch church by Lutheran ministers."

As will be observed, the whole question at issue as
to the right of ownership is here admitted. The fact
so emphatically reiterated and insisted upon, that "no
one but a true and regular priest of the Church of
England " has ever officiated in the church or handled
the vessels, is just where the wrong lies, for those
priests have no fight before God and never had a
right to do so. That plate was purchased in 1779 for
the use of the Lutherans: yet here it is gravely as-
serted that it was " for use in the communion service of

154

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ill

the Church of England." The records of St. George's
disprove the claim. For if that claim be worth any-
thing, it must <»ver the whole period; but as no such
attempt has been made, the whole absurd, untruthful,
and insolent fabric falls. The highest claim made is
for "three-quarters of a century past," but whose
building and communion plate were these before?
That church was built and consecrated as a Lutheran
church. What right have priests of the Church of
England to hold it in possession? That the Germans
called in a priest of that denomination to officiate for
them is doubtful^ That those priests took advantage
of their shepherdless condition to have their services
accepted is probable That the Lutherans ever per-
mitted them to officiate was less their fault than their
misfortune. And the consequences as they now
appear should serve as a warning against the officious
intermeddling of all sectarians, among the Lutheran
people who know them, for all time to come.

The old church, the first one b.illt by the Germans,
still stands. It was on a lovely Sunday morning in
the month of June when I visited it. On that Sunday
morning I walked out Brunswick street in search of
it. The ubiquitous small boy was there, playing
marbles on the sidewalk. Him I accosted :

" My boy, is there an old church out here some-
where?"

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. I $5

" No."

"Are you sure?"

*'Do you mean the Round church?"
No, a little old church."

Oh, you mean the Chicken-cock church, don't
you?"

*' Probably that is it. Can you tell where it is ? "

" Why, right down there," and he pointed with his
finger to the little steeple rising in the distance, bear-
ing on its apex the effigy of the historic bird which
startled Peter, and gave the boy sufficient reason for
the irreverent name which he had applied in pointing
it out. I approached the building and standing be-
neath its shadow, uncovered. Nothing in its appear-
ance was suggestive, by even the remotest hint of
architectural beauty, magnificence of design, or
splendor of detail. While this was all, it was not
worth attempting to " convey." Yet here the fathers
met and worshiped, and reverence for their memory
caused me to feel as though I stood on consecrated
ground, and to stand uncovered regardless of the in-
quiring looks of the passers by. The building is a
small frame structure about twenty feet wide by thirty
in length. It stood on the north-east corner of the
intersection of Brunswick and Gerrish streets. Over
the entrance to the little sanctuary is the inscription

H fl

IS6

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

" ST. George's church, 1755."

The lot on which it stands is enclosed by a fence ol
rough flagstone, badly broken down and exceedingly
ragged in appearance. It has been used as a place of
burial in times past, but shows no evidence of recent
interments. Stepping over the broken wall, the visi-
tor will at once observe that it is utilized for other
purposes now. It has the appearance of being the
general receptacle for the old tin cans, ragged baskets,
brushwood, collapsed stove-pipes, broken bottles,
wrecked hoop-skirts, and common rubbish of the
whole neighborhood.

Of the several hundred graves in it, one-fourth, per-
haps, are marked by sandstone tablets ; of these stones
more than nine-tenths are broken ; not half a dozen
among the whole number stand upright. Such a
dilapidated cemetery cannot be found, perhaps, in any
other city in Christendom. The like of it I never
looked upon before, and I hope I never shall see again.
Yet how we Lutherans would prize that old church
and cemetery if we might call it ours! Entering the
Gottcs Acker as I did, with the heart full of solemn
reverence, who can describe the revulsion of feeling
which swept over me as I stood among the graves in
that hallowed spot, defiled by the accumulated filth of
generations, and so shamefully neglected by those who

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. 1 5/

claim to own it? The whole history of their connec-
tion with it, from the manner in which they got it to
the manner in which they keep it, is alike shameful,
and a standing disgrace to the would-be high-toned
Episcopalians who now claim it. In fact, the condition
of that old cemetery, inc jiuiu e^ is a disgrace to the
city.

From there, with a sad heart, I went to the new St.
George's church, called from its circular form the
'• Round church," built by the Lutherans, as the old
one had been, and from them " conveyed " (it is
Shakespeare who says, " Men stealing call 'convey* ")
to the Episcopalians of the Church of England, and
there, fortunately, found the people assembling for
worship, with whom I entered. In sincerity I en-
deavored to worship God there, but it was out of the
question. Staring me in the face, in the conspicuous
position to which I had been assigned, was the mural
tablet sacred t(> the memory of that steadfast dea-
con, that Lutheran of the Lutherans, Otto William
Schwartz; meek faces of women and kind eyes of men
of evident German origin and antecedents around me,
in unconscious acquiescence with the dishonor of the
name and faith of their ancestors; a humdrum preacher
droning in the pulpit ; and vivid in my mind's eye the
picture of that desecrated burial ground, I was in no
fit mood for worship.

158

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

l!!l

ill!

And now, upon the publication of these things, the
self-styled " Rector of St. George's church " rushes
into print with this explanation, the further circulation
of which he now has, like the churches he claims, from
Lutherans, gratis. Please God, the feathers shall fly
from this bird, if he tear them out himself! Hearken
unto him. • *

"the LUTHERANS OF HALIFAX.
" To the Editor of the Herald:

" Sir. — I have been trying to imagine what can be
the purpose of a gentleman, living in the United
States, and signing himself Luther D. Roth, and who
says he speaks as a Lutheran, when he writes to your
valuable journal a series of letters on the early history
ot the Germans in Halifax. Can e really be so ig-
norant of human nature as to suppose that any one
would seriously reply to what can only be described
as a mass of unchristian, uncharitable insinuations
against the memory and action of a number of gentle-
men of highest integrity during their useful and hon-
ored lives, and against whom not the shadow of sus-
picion has ever been suggested by any one but Luther
D. Roth? It is now more than one hundred years
since the Rev. Bernard Michael Houseal, a gentleman
of good family, and of whose honor and unblemished
reputation no one except Luther D. Roth has hitherto

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. I $9

entertained the slightest doubt, whose dust lies now in
the old German burying- ground, came to Halifax, and
having received ordination at the hands of the then
Bishop of London, entered upon his duties as a
clergyman of the Church of England to the Germans
in Halifax. All that now remains to Luther D. Roth
equally with the present representatives of the Ger-
man church of St. George, is the plain fact that for
reasons best known to themselves, and inscribed at
length upon the later records of St. George's church,
the Germans joined, of their own free will and accord,
the Church of England. Why this should arouse the
violent and unreasoning rage of Luther D. Roth, at
so long an interval of time, and for what reason this
very Christian and Lutheran minister should, under
shelter of a foreign country, take pleasure in heaping
obloquy upon the honored dead, is best known to his
virtuous self. Should he, at any time, change his
mo.st ungentlemanly and uncalled-for attack upon St.
George's church — repudiated, I am thankful to say, by
the most prominent German Lutherans at present liv-
ing in Halifax — into a reasonable inquiry into the facts
of history, I shall be most happy to supply him with
the information of which he now confesses himself
ignorant. Until then, we can only preserve an indig-
nant silence. The whole spirit and tone of his com-

I 60

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

munications to your journal are quite unworthy of
any other treatment. Luther D. Roth asserts that he
speaks for the Lutherans. If this be so, the Luth-
erans are not to be congratulated on their spokesman.

"Francis Partridge,
" Rector of St. George's Church^

Who would have believed, upon any less trust-
worthy authority than this, that the dust of that so
highly honored man of God, the Rev. Bernard Michael
Houseal, rests in that old German burying ground?
And those other gentlemen of unimpeached integrity,
of useful, honored lives — lies their dust, too, in that so
horribly desecrated spot ? High honor this, indeed !
And must the pen of the wayfarer be stayed because
the lapse of time has been so great ! We trow not.
There are some deeds of monumental wickedness
which time never can make right. There are some
scenes once gazed upon which no distance can efface.
The shelter of no foreign land is needed for their de-
nunciation, nor were it the Antipodes, could it be far
enough away to cover the memory of that masterly
de*ed of " conveyancing," nor yet blot out the sight of
that dishonored place of dead men's last repose.

To the reverend gentleman who protests with such
vehemence against allowing the light to shine upon
the deeds of the past and the derelictions of the pres-

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. l6l

Ih
In

ent, I have to say, I seek no controversy. The " in-
dignant silence" into which he lapses suits well his
purpose, and he is welcome to maintain it. Far be it
from me to compel him to speak. I have made no
wanton attack upon St. George's Church in particular,
nor upon the Church of England in general. I now,
publicly profess for that body what I have ever pri-
vately entertained, that is, the highest esteem. She
has much that I reverence and honor. Among her.-
ministers and people are many whom I reckon as my
very dear friends. And yet, to quote the language of
one of the most eminent divines of the Lutheran
Church of the United States: "It (the Episcopal
Church) is not without its spots and besetting sins.
We have often been struck with its facile and impudent
proselytism, especially of Lutherans. Having obtained
nearly everything of value in its Articles and Book
of Common Prayer from Lutheran hands, it has ever
shown a particular penchant for getting our people also.
Nor are the means employed always in harmony with
the civility, high tone and apostolic purity to which its
people are apt to make rather undue pretensions. The
adroit injustice by which the old Swedish Lutheran
churches on the Delaware and Schuylkill were wrested
to the Episcopalians and are held by them, is a matter
of history which will not admit of justification."

■BBW«

162

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

The history of the despoihnent of St. George's, Hali-
fax, stands in the same category as "adroit injustice."
And the time has gone by for Lutherans to stand by
with closed lips or to open them to condone these
offences. We denounce the whole proceeding as the
act of a villain, perpetrated under the gown of a priest.
It is prelatical piracy, and those who are guilty of it
and live by it should haul down the banner of the
Cross, and hoist the black flag of the pirate. And so
long as they refuse to make every restitution in their
power, let them bear before the world the odium of
their deeds. In the case under consideration they
have to give answer to the charge ot unlawfully se-
questering two Lutheran churches with all their pro-
perty to their own uses. And the world shall know
it, though it be a thousand years after the perpe-
tration of the deed; for it is an act which can never be
justified as an act of righteousness, either in time or in
eternity.

When the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Cossmann went to
hold Divine service in Halifax — as he has done at in-
tervals for more than fifty years — he was obliged to
go first to those having control of the old German
Lutheran church and ask their permission before using
it. It is due to them to state that (to my knowledge)
the request was never refused. But let the humiliation

to
lin-
to
laii
ing

Ige)
lion

COMMUNION SERVICE AND BURYING GROUND. I63

of such a proceeding be considered. Who but one
filled with the grace of God, could have the meekness
and lowliness to do it! The bitter irony of fate is in
it. And when I learned that fact, I determined to sift
the history to its depths, God helping me, if it lay in
my power to do so. I accordingly addressed a re-
spectful request to the Rev. Mr. Uniacke, then rector
of St. George's, for light upon the subject. He referred
me to another gentleman. Him I likewise respectfully
addressed, but my communication was treated with
contemptuous silence. But with God's help I found
the light I needed in the parish register itself. And
now, if the reverend rector in charge will come out of
the " indignant silence" into which he lapsed, and will
give me to see that it can be right, in the sight of God
and man, to requ'^e of an honored Lutheran minister
that h " should be obliged to ask permission of Church
of Engl id authorities to hold Divine service in a
Lutheran hurch, I shall remain silent and satisfied.
I have spoken.

,i— "f"=:H--<:"-'*r->'

I 11

lil

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

THERE are few persons who have not a weakness.
Some, to be sure, have many; but while they
lament them in general they cherish that special one
in particular. To such a particular weakness I plead
" guilty in the first degree." And as open confession
is good for the soul. I may as well confess here and
now that my weakness is for old books. An anti-
quated volume covered with the regulation hog-skin,
black with the gathered stains of time, clasped with
ponderous clasps of brass, stamped with half-oblit-
erated designs which once shone resplendent upon its
broad back, discolored as to its pages, worm-eaten,
printed in black letter, and bearing upon its title-page
the honorable imprint of some long-forgotten pub-
lisher, regardless of its subject matter, I ever hail as a
treasure. When in the course of human events one
becomes possessed of such a treasure, a venerable
relic, not printed but written, written by the living
hand of a fellow-man, a strong hand skilled to toil, as
well as to the use of the pen, a hand long moldered
away, the value of the volume is efnhanced. But

" ('64) •■■■ '

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

i6s

when the subject matter of the book is that in which
one is deeply interested ; when it comes from the hand
of one whose position was most advantageous for know-
ing what one wants to know ; and when the garnered
knowledge in no other book on earth is to be found,
then is its value more than treasure-trove. Tischen-
dorf discovering the MSS. of the New Testament
among the recluses of Mt. Sinai, Luther finding the
Bible in the monastery of Erfurt, were not filled with
greater or more genuine joy than I in the acquisition
of one such ancient volume.

Among the people with a history of more than a
century behind them, but without any authentic re-
cord of the past save the dull chronicles of the parish
register, while the air is filled with the whispers of
traditions that are growing more dim as the rumor of
them becomes less audible, in the very nature of things
it would appear that there must be such a hog-skin-
covered volume somewhere. I felt the inevitable
necessity for the existence of such a volume, felt it in
my bones, and proved my faith by my endeavor to
find it. I made inquiry wherever I went. I ques-
tioned in particular the old people, and ran up any
clue, however slight, with such persistency that to
more than one grandfather, dozing in the chimney-cor-
ner, I became an object of suspicion and distiust.

.'/ij^f

i66

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

A seeker after the fabulous treasures of Captain Kidd
could not have been more pertinacious. I hunted
through old chests, I found strange things, old
deeds, letters, family records, emigrant passes and cer-
tificates, in out-of-the-way places, and finally that
queer old locked, bolted, iron-bound money-chest, for
which there was no key, stored away in a closet in the
tower of the church in Lunenburg. The chest con-
tained something, but before it was opened only Infin-
nite Wisdom could tell what that something was. I
said in my heart it was the long-sought volume, pro-
cured a file, laboriously filed the lock on and opened
the chest. I confess to a sense of guilt in doing
this. It was accomplished surreptitiously. And
when it was done I found — tell it not in Gath, and
publish it not in the streets of Askelon — sundry copies
of a book of "church forms," published by a long de-
parted predecessor: "only this and nothing more."
And I came down from that high tower humbled and
ashamed. But that very hour a man was waiting in
my house, with that very hog-skin-covered book, to
place it in my hands, and that book contained the
substantial facts concerning the history of the people
and settlement, whose history I so much desired to

know.""' ''"""■""'^^^'"- ■■""■■■■ '--'-'

In what is here to be written, particular attention

t-st.:

to
le
kle
to

Ion

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

167

shall be given to the founding and development of the
Lutheran church in the town and county of Lunen-
burg. My residence there for almost a decade, and
the familiar intercourse enjoyed with the present ven-
erable pastor, Charles E. Cossmann, D. D., as well as
with many aged inhabitants of the place, together with
continual and painstaking reference to all records
available, has given me an opportunity for acquiring
the information I shall present, and enabled me to
make out a reasonably clear chain of history from the
beginning until now. And, moreover, in the narration
of the events to be brought forward, I shall not allow
anything to swerve me from telling without fear or
favor what I believe to be the historical truth. Malice
toward none and charity toward all shall actuate me
in this labor of love.

My principal authority for this history is the unpub-
lished German MS. previously mentioned, written by
the faithful, exact and reliable chronicler Andreas
Jung, of blessed memory. He was one of the original
settlers, a man of fair education, and a devoted church-
man. For a period extending from 1753 to 1808 he
was one of the leaders among the Lutherans, an elder
and the church treasurer from the formation of the
congregation to the time of his death. His descend-
ants are still to be found in connection with the con-

i )'

1 68

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

gregatlon. And it was from the hands of one of these
descendants, Mr. Francis Young, of Martin's Brook,
that this MS., which he wrote, came into my posses-
sion. With this, by way of introduction, let us to the
story.

The name Lunenburg, applied to the town and
county which they settled in Nova Scotia, shows the
affectionate regard of the Germans for the land of
their birth. Many of them came from the Duchy of
Liineburg, in Lower Saxony, the capital of which is a
fortified town of the same name, on the river Ilmenau.
In the Agende, or Book of Church Forms, prepared
for the use of the Church in the Province by the late
Rev. Dr. Temme, published in Philadelphia, 1816, as
also in the Lutheran hymn-book, issued in London,
1820, for the same body, the name is spelled Liine-
burg; but having become Anglicized, the proper or-
thography calls for two n's in the name.

Lunenburg was erected into a county by Act of
Assembly, August 7th, 1759. Next to Halifax, it is
.the oldest settlement formed by the English govern-
)ment in the Province of Nova Scotia. The first re-
icord of that part in which the shire town is located
• dates back to 1630, when it occurs in a grant from Sir
^Wm. Alexander to Claude and Charles La Tour, dated
'April 30th, in which grant is a description of the

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

169

boundaries of the French settlement at and near La
Have. It is spoken of in a grant from Oliver Crom-
well to Charles La Tour and others, dated August
9th, 1656, under its Indian appellation of " Mcrli-
guesche," a word in the language of the Micmacs,
meaning Milky Bay. In 1686, it is again referred to
in the census returns of De Muelles under the same
name. There were then at La Have and Merligucsche
nineteen souls, three arpents tilled (nearly three acres),
nine fusils and one pig. Governor Phillips in 1720
recommends that a settlement be made there, and de-
scribes it as a place conveniently situated for the seat
of government.

In 1722 it again appears in connection with a
tragedy partly enacted and partly averted. This
tragedy, like a stain of blood almost effaced by the
lapse of time, has passed away from the recollection
of man. Not a dozen people in the province to-day,
perhaps, so much as know it ever occurred, although
at the time of its occurrence all who heard it shud-
dered. The fishing fleet, not then the large and well-
appointed body it is now, blocked by untoward
weather and head winds, lay peacefully at anchor in
the Strait of Canseau. The thought of danger did not
enter the minds, of the hardy and jovial sons of the
sea. Seventeen vessels, with their seventeen crews,

lli:

170

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

lay idly in the passage, waiting for the favorable winds
to blow and speed them on their way. But an enemy
hovered round, secret, silent, vindictive as Nemesis.
And when in the unguarded hour of the night the yells
of painted savages burst upon the startled ears of the
fishermen, not a soul of them was ready for the fray.
Ihey fought like heroes, but their enemies over-
powered them, outnumbering them three to one.
Those who were not tomahawked and murdered on
the spot were taken prisoners and th' '• vessels seized.
A large number of prisoners were taken by the sav-
ages, reserved for torture, and carried away. But re-
prisal followed attack with swift and vengeful step.
Some of the vessels were retaken by Captain Robin-
son, together with many of the prisoners, and many of
the Indians killed. Twenty of these prisoners, how-
ever, had been already carried to Merliguescho, which
at that time would appear to have been the seat of an
Indian village, and there, bound hand and foot, were
under the guard of their savage captors, awaiting the
slow lingering death by torture at the stake. The
pow-wow had been held, preparations had been com-
pleted, and the fires of death were ready to be lighted,
when, in the midst of their barbarous revelry, the In-
dians were surprised by the arrival of an English
sloop -of war under the command of Captain Blin. He

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

171

had been at one time himself »i prisoner, and while in
the hands of the Indians a signal had been agreed
upon which should be a protection to him. He made
this signal and S'^veral (^f the Indians went ofi to the
sloop. Proposals were made by him for the ransom
of the captives, and the Indians, though loath to ^We
up the anticipated scalp-dance around their intended
victims, nevertheless accepted the proffered ransom ;
the prisoners were set free and carried away on board
the sloop, rejoicing in th(Mr unexpected escape from
torture and death.

In 1745, Messieurs Beauharnais and Hocquart, in a
letter to Count de Maurepas, be iring date September
1 2th, write: "At Merliguesche, a small harbor five
leagues east of La Have, are only eight settlers;
among the rest is Paul Guidry alias Grivois" (jovial
or jolly) "a good coast pilot." The Micmacs of 1722
had now departed from their village and the French
Acadians were in peaceable possession.

The next recorded mention of the place is that to
which reference has already been made, being that of
the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, in 1749, at which time
the original eight French Acadians had increased to
upwards of fifty families. He says in his report:
*' They seem to be very peaceable ; say they always
looked upon themselves as English subjects; have

172

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

their grants from Colonel Mascarcnc, the Governor
of Annapolis, and showed an unfeigned joy to hear of
the new settlement. They assure us the Indians are
quite peaceable and not to be feared. There arc none
hereabouts."

It was now determined by the authorities at Hali-
fax to form a new settlement, and steps were taken to
locate it. At a meeting of H. M. Council, at Halifax,
August 23d, 1750, the following localities were named
as suitable for the projected colony:

La Have, Malagash, Head of Chcbucto Bay, North-
west River and opposite side of Halifax harbor. We
have no details of the discussion.

At a meeting of the same. May loth, 1753, '^ w*^s
" Resolved that the Settlement to be made at Mer-
ligash be called the Township of Lunenburg, the
District thereof to be hereafter ascertained."

There is further proof that the name Lunenburg
was not at first applied to the settlement merely; in
Colonel Lawrence's commission, dated May 28th,
1753, we find that he was deputed "* * * to settle a
Township by the name of Lunenburg, lying on the
harbor of Merligash in this Province."

Malagash was chosen on account of its nearness to
Halifax, its good harbor, and its productive fisheries ;
though there is little doubt the choice of location was

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

173

a mistake, Tor had the town been located at La Have,
it would in all probability have been more populous,
important and larger than it is. At the mouth of that
finest river in the Province there is room for several
towns and the harbor is safe, commodious and easy
of access. Lumbering and manufacturing would then
have been combined with fishing and commerce to
make Lunenburg what it never can be where it is.

"A short time before the sailing of the expedition,
Governor Hopson received intelligence of an alarming
nature, as the following letter to the Lords of Trades
and Plantations explains:

"Halifax, May 25TH, 1753.

"My Lords: I last night received an express from
the officer commanding at Pisiquid (Windsor) advising
me that he is credibly informed that there are three
bodies of Indians disposed of in those parts, amount-
ing to about three hundred, who lie there in readiness,
as they give out, to oppose the settlement of Merle-
gash, and intend to begin their march there as soon as
they have information when the settlers are to sail,
which information they propose to get by intercepting
our courier; but as I had intelligence before the couri-
ers were despatched, I have sent letters by them cal-
culated to fall into the hands of the Indians, acquaint-
ing the officer that I have sent a large party to Cobe-

! =

HTMIil

174

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

■1,- .

quid to see how the Indians are disposed, and that I
had deferred the expedition until their return.

" However, the first embarkation of them will sail as
soon as the wind is fair, and will consist of about 450
persons armed and fit for service, the troops included;
the rest will follow as '^s soon as I hear these have got
a footing.

" The only vessel of force we have here is the " Al-
bany," Sloop of War, Capt. Rous commander, whom I
have been obliged to request to countenance the new
settlement, which he has most heartily undertaken."

The desired effect was produced. No Indians ap-
peared to oppose the landing, but very shortly after it
they became numerous.

The expedition was ready to sail on the 28th of
May. It consisted of fifteen transports, varying from
60 to 98 tons, and the sloop "York," Captain Syl-
\Hnus Cobb.

The following is an extract from a letter written by
Governor Hopson to the Lords of Trade and Planta-
tions, dated July 23d, 1753.

***** I pitched upon Merlegash for the out-
settlement of the Foreigners, It was preferable to
Musquedoboit, as there is a good harbor, which is
wanting ac Musquedoboit. Had it been possible to
have sent the settlers by land, it would have been a

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

175

great satisfaction to me to have saved the expense of
hiring vessels, but on enquiring found it absolutely
impossible, not only as they would have had at least
fifty miles to go through the woods, but there is not
any road. . . "

The expedition, under command of Captain Law-
rence, afterward Gov^ernor of the Province, and best
known as the officer who gave Colonel Winslow his
orders and authority for the removal of the French
Acadians, sailed on the day specified, and arrived at
its destination June seventh, 1753, from which date
forever the founding of Lunenburg is to be reckoned.

There were in the company one thousand four hun-
dred and fifty-three emigrants, Germans, Swiss, and
Montbeliards, as stated above. The ship "Albany,"
Capt. Rouse, acted as convoy. Colonel Lawrence
was the commander of the expedition. Other promi-
nent men were Capt. Patrick Sutherland, Lieutenant
John Creighton and Mr. Sebastian Zouberbuhler, who
had been appointed Justices of the Peace for the new
settlement.

On entering the harbor, they came to anchor, and
sent scouts ashore to ascertain whether any Indians
were about. None being observed, they disem-
barked at the mouth of a small brook on the north-
east side of the harbor. The hill adjoining and the

176

ACADIE ANTl THE ACADIANS.

'ir i

p*'

^uHi

brook were named in honor of Capt. Rouse. The
name is still retained.

Immediately after landing the settlers proceeded to
cut a road from the shore to the top of the hill which
overlooks the harbor, and to erect a block-house
thereon. The hill has since been known as " Block-
house Hill," and is now known by no other name, al-
though at one time it was called "Windmill Hill."
A story is told of a woman who was obseryed leaning
against a hemlock tree near the landing place and
weeping bitterly at the hard prospect before them.
They next cleared away the woods, principally spruce
and hackmatack, from the town plot. This was laid
out in six divisions, which were named after the offi-
cers appointed to comm:..id each — Zouberbuhler's,
Creighton's, Moreau's, Rudolf's, Strasburgher's and
Steinford's. The first of these is the furthest west.
Huts and log houses were erected as the ground was
cleared, but owing to want of accommodations, the set*
tiers must have had a hard time of it for a few days.
Now-a-days, "camping out" is great fun, but we may
be sure that the unfortunate emigrants got but little
fun out of their " tenting on the cold ground." What
a change it must have been for them! How their
hearts must have yearned for their dear Fatherland,
never perhaps dearer than when they found them-

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

^77

selves in the lonely spot that was henceforth to be
their home! ^

Each settler was allowed a town lot, a garden lot,
and a three-hundred-acre lot. These were assigned
by drawing lots, and the owner was required to en-
close his town lot and erect suitable buildings. Each
head of a family building a house was assigned 700 ^
feet of boards, with nails proportionate, and 500^
bricks. As it was expedient to make the settlement'
as compact as possible, for fear of the attacks of the
Indians, no buildings were allowed to project beyond
a certain limit, and for the same reason a picket fence
was run across from the harbor in front of the town to .
that at the back, and a chain of nine block-houses was.
built; one at Mush-a-Mush (Mahone Bay), one at
Upper La Have — on a high hill about eight miles,
from Lunenberg, where one of the guards was killed 1
by the Indians — one at Lower La Have, and one
about two miles from Mush-a-Mush, which district hass
since been known as " Block-house."

Very soon after the landing, the Indians made their <-
presence felt by murdering every settler who happened :
to get beyond the line of defence. A militia regiment;
was organized, with Patrick Sutherland, Esq., as Lieu-
tenant Colonel, Leonard C. Rudolf, Esq., as Major, ,

and Wiederholtz, as Adjutant. The men were

t >l

178

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

armed, and guards were kept day and night. The In-
dians kept them constantly on the alert, as scarcely a
day passed without either some encounter with the
savages, or some alarm of their presence.

Where the sleepy little French settlement had stood
through so many years undisturbed, except by the
occasional visits of the neighboring friendly Indians, a
scene of busy activity was now presented. The forests
encroaching on the little area of cleared land by the
sea had to be cut away, mills for converting the luxu-
riant growth into building material had to be erected,
and out of the scanty means at their command the
settlers had to make for themselves such houses as
they could. But first they must know where they
should erect their habitations, and what particular spot
each man should call his own. The town was accord-
ingly laid out in six divisions, named after the officers in
charge: Zouberbuhler's on the extreme west, Creigh-
ton's, Moreau's, Rudolf's, Strasburgher's, following
in order, and Steindorf's farthest east. The town lots
were then disposed of by the casting of the lot, and
each settler was allowed in addition a three hundred-
acre tract of woodland in the vicinity and a thirty-acre
field adjoining. More than five hundred town lots
were drawn, and upon these, huts of bark, houses of
logs, and such other structures as the means of \hf^

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

179

proprietors would allow, were hastily erected. By the
end of the t'oUowing year five saw-mills were in opera-
tion, and three hundred and sixty houses, cabins and
huts were erected. - * '

A glance at the plan of the town, as it stands to-day,
shows the power that governed at its inception.
Through the centre, from east to west, extends a space
one block in width, devoted to public uses. In the
centre of this space, where the middle point of the
original town plot lay, is located the Church of Eng-
land church. Although the settlement was composed
of people, the great majority of whom were not in ac-
cord with the religious teachings of that body, never-
theless its building had the preferred location, because
that body had the power.

The squares into which the town was laid out are
exact, but the streets are exceedingly narrow, and
being destitute of sidewalks, are a continual perplexity
and wonder to the visitor accustomed to that luxury,
and unused to walking on the middle of a street, on a
common level with the patient ox. But it was for
good reasons that the streets were mac^ narrow, rea-
sons valid at the time, no doubt, and hence not to be
criticised with undue severity. Wide streets would
spread the town over more ground and separated the
people, when, for mutual defense and friendliness, their

>;s ! i

i8o

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ill

1 1,

first aim was to draw near together. And, moreover,
in those early days sidewalks were not in vogue.

The sufferings of the inhabitants of the new town
were terrible to contemplate. From insufficient food,
scanty clothing, and the exposure incident upon the
enterprise in which they were engaged, from dwelling
in poor houses, and being unused to the rigors of the
climate, sicknesses that were fatal, and sufferings that
were dreadful, prevailed among them. Small-pox,
fevers, and other contagious diseases broke out among
them, and thinned their falling ranks. The mortality
among them was awful. The Rev. Mr. Moreau, in a
letter to the corresponding committee of the S. P. G.
in Halifax, makes the statement, now almost incredi-
ble, that by the end of the year 1753 three-fourths of
the people had died. That is, in seven months, out of
one thousand four hundred and fifty-three, one thous-
and and eighty-nine were in their graves; only three
hundred and sixty-four remained.

It was not alone disease and exposure that brought
death. The Indians, with whom the feeble French
settlements of ,the Acadians here and elsewhere had
always cultivated friendly relations, now saw with
alarm their hunting grounds encroached upon by the
establishment of the English, and they hung upon the
outskirts of the new-born Lunenburg, ready at any

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

I8l

moment to swoop down, murder and destroy. A cor-
don of block-houses was built around the town for its
defence. These were structures in the shape of square
houses, made of thick logs, entered by means of a lad-
der, without windows, but with loop-holes to see
throp.gh and shoot from, provisioned to stand a short
siege, and garrisoned in times of special alarm. Nine
of these buildings were erected upon the hills which
commanded the most extensive view of the neighbor-
hood. The central part immediately around the town
was enclosed with a stockade of high pickets, sharp-
ened at the top, and securely fastened in the ground.
But despite all precaution and the employment of
every available means of defence, many of the settlers
lost their lives at the hands of their dusky foes. An
awful glamour hangs round many a spot in the vicin-
ity where their barbarous deeds were done. Sacrifice
Island and Murderer's Point received their sinister
names from murders committed there. ..

The Hon. Judge Des Brisay, in his valuable history
of the county, gives the following sketch of one of
their deeds of blood. Two men, named Tanner and
Wagner, were swimming in the La Have, near where
now stands Tlirtle's mill. Hearing a dog bark, and
seeing Indians approaching, they dressed with all
speed and attempted to escape. Wagner was killed,

I
I

ill

182

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

and a musket-ball passed through Tanner's waistcoat
and shirt. The name of the Indian who shot Wagner
was Labrador. Years afterward, when Tanner lived
on Heckman's Island, Labrador encamped there for
the purpose of catching mink, and went to Tanner's
house, where he boasted of the large number of men
he had killed. After the occurrence at the river Tan-
ner naturally felt aggrieved at this, and several times
went with his gun to shoot Labrador; but his con-
science would not allow him. To the end of his days
he never could look on a red man with equanimity,
and whenever he spoke of one it was by the name of
TeufeL

Two of the guard, on duty at the block-house near
where Wagner was shot, were sent to Lunenburg for
provisions. Reaching Dare's Lake, around which a
foot-path had been made, they were tracked by the
dogs of the Indians, and having climbed into trees,
were shot down by the savages. The firing was heard
at the block-house, and a party going out found their
comrades, from whom life had just departed. They
buried them, and passed on to Lunenburg. On their
return they found that the bodies had been disinterred
and scalped.

The following extract from the Parish Register of
St. John's church speaks for itself:

^^Mu^m^iiM^I^.

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

183

••Buried by Rev. Jean B^.ptiste Moreau, Augxist 27th, 1758.
Joitph I/ye,

Conrad Natty, • Scalped."

Hosina, Ms wife.

The following is a literal copy of an old Journal of
the same date.

"A Journal Book kept when gon hounting after
the Indians, September 8th, 1758, under the command
of Capt. Christopher Jessen, and Lieut. Campbell of
the regular troops :

"1758. Sept. 8th. — This morning a party of
twenty-three men, regular troops and one Lieut.
Campbell, and one Capt. Lieut., four Lieuts., six
sergeants, eight corporals, and sixty-one private men
of the militia, being in the whole one hundred and
four, under the command of the officers, Lieut. Camp-
bell, of the regulars, and Capt. D. Christopher Jessen,
of the militia, went away in the morning at six o'clock,
to La Have block-house, and came there about ten
o'clock and a half Out about four miles from the
block-house, close to the road, we found two soldiers
scalped, and bare naked, except one coat lying upon
them. They were going to town for provisions,
and about seven of the clock in the morning, they
hearing two guns firing off, and this finder poor fel-
lows where scalped. From the block-house we stood

!<■

If!f

184

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

W. by N. About ten miles from the block-house
we encamped. Nothing extraordinary. About five
o'clock we found the place where the Indians had
rest jd themselves for about two hour.

"9th. — We steered away from hence N. E. about five
miles, then made a halt to breakfast, but in the morn-
ing made some tracks of Indians, and the different di-
visions were ordered to be ready to. At ten o'clock
we steered E. N. E., and about 1 1 o'clock we found a
place where the Indians encamped, but could discover
nothing. A little after 5 o'clock we came to encamp-
ment. Nothing extraordinary, except we found the
place on La Have river where the Indians got over,
and the road was to be seen at the other side.

" lOth. — At six o'clock we went away from our en-
campment, steered E. S. E., and about 8 o'clock we
came down to Mush-mush river, eight miles from
block-house, and from thence we went down by the
river, and arrived at 1 1 o'clock at the block-house
Mush-mush, and about two o'clock we went to Baker's
in Oakland, and was rainy weather, but we met noth-
ling extraordinary.

" nth. — From the loth in the afternoon, to the nth
day, rainy weather. Encamped by Baker's till about
12 o'clock, when, clearing up went to Mush-mush, and
from thence to N. W. Range block-house, where we

THE FOUNDING OF LUNENBURG.

185

got intelligence from Pierre Jean, who sent his son last
Friday, to No. 24 L. B., between 8 and 10 o'clock,
and in coming back he was carried off by the Indians,
bein[j ten years old. From the block-l uuse we stood
South-west for about three miles, then stood S. S. E.,
where we encamped. Nothing ext-aordinary.

** 1 2th. — About eight o'clock went fr^m our en-
campment, and steered E. S. E., about six miles, and
from thcnre stood W. S. W. about five miles, where
we encamped between La Have and Centre, about five
miles from the block-house * * * * Iq^ guard
before wc came to Centre, at the back of N. \V.
Range, we found a ladder four steps hi^^h. Nothing
extraordinary.

" 13th. — From our encampment between or at the
back of Centre and La Have, and stood through the
woods at the back of La Have settlement. Came
there about four o'clock. Nothing extraordinary.

" 14th. — From La Have we marched to the head of
Rose Bay, to old Meyer, and from hence to old
Miller, * * * * and encamped behind F. Hey-
berger's lot, but nothing extraordinary.

" 15th. — We went away from our encampment
about six o'clock in the mornini^, and about twelve
o'clock arrived at town in Lunenburg, and dismissed
our men, and gave them thanks for their good ser-

» V

•4# I

8 "'ii

Vices.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

.V"

1.0

■^ 1^ 12.2

I.I

2.0

1.25

1.8

U i 1.6

'^ >

'•^

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(7; 6) 872-4503

,-\

-b

•^ - --

i!^

1 86 ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

This somewhat confused account of one of the
many expeditions sent out from the infant settlement,
with its queer nautical terms and precision of detail,
will serve as the history of the others, different as to
particulars, but similar in outline; for the settlers and
soldiers many a time " gon hounting after the In-
dians," while they were laying the foundations of the
town in their blood.

I'D

;%:■'

^4^-

CHAPTER XV.
PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE.

THE Indians continued their depredations, and em-
boldened by their success, threatened the extinc-
tion of the settlement. In the first seven years the
population barely made up the losses of the first.
Incited by the missionaries of the French sent down
from Quebec, chief among whom was the Jesuit La
Loutre, and paid for every murder of an English set-
tler by the silver francs and louis d' or of the Christian
Frenchmen, the heathen red men reveled in blood and
massacre. Dartmouth, opposite Halifax, at that time
fc;t their hostile hand. The cries of her citizens per-
ir/aing under the scalping-knife and tomahawk, reached
and pierced the heart of the governor. The flames of
her burning dwellings cast their lurid glare across the
dark waters of Chebucto Bay, and through the mid-
night gloom his excellency, by their aid, saw the
need of stern dealing untempered with mercy if the
colony were to be saved from its relentless foes.

Accordingly it was proclaimed that for every male
Indian prisoner taken above sixteen years of age, a
reward of ;^30 should be given ; for the scalp of such

■mi

\nm

i88

AC A DIE AND THE ACADIANS.

an one the bounty was to be £2$, and for women and
children the reward was to be in proportion. Think
of it ! To set these men to slay their fellow-men ! To
fill the woods with hunters after Micmacs ! To aid,
abet and by legal proclamation sanction and reward
murder! To encourage by the highest civil authority
that which in all civilized governments has been dealt
with as the highest crime !

But when it is remembered what horrible atrocities
called forth such awful reprisals, the inhumanity ap-
pears less inexcusable. Those were perilous times,
" the times that tried men's souls ; " the times of sow-
ing in tears which as their fruit have given us the
peaceful hours we now enjoy. And while the thought
of shedding human blood must ever be abhorrent to
the good, yet to those whose only choice lay between
death to themselves, their wives and children, or the
death of their savage foes, the natural alternative to
choose would be the latter.

It would be interesting at this period in the history
of the colony to have had a census of its settlers tab-
ulated according to their religion. There were among
them adherents of the Church of England, Roman
Catholics, German Reformed and Lutherans; but of
the exact number adhering to any particular confes-
sion we must ever remain in uncertainty. The civil

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. 1 89

and military power was vested in the hands of the
Church of England people. " True to their traditions,
they exercised it to their own advantage, without re-
spect to the rights of others. To expect from them
that even in this reign of terror, and under the shadow
of death through which the infant settlement was pass-
ing, they would forego the opportunity presented ior
dragooning people into the Established Church, would
be to ignore all that history teaches concerning their
peculiar methods and tactics.

About the time the proclamations were being issued
for the Indian scalps, other proclamations appeared,
high-sounding proclamations from the authorities at
Halifax, making it known abroad that " no declaration
or measure should at any time be used to disturb or
prevent dissenters from the full exercise of their re-
ligious principles and mode of worship." The very
fact that such a proclamation was necessary shows that
it was useless. The very words in which it was issued
prove that it meant nothing. " Dissenters," for ex-
ample. Dissenters from what?

But there was method in this madness. The Eng-
lish character was simply asserting itself It always
will assert itself The English nation is great. It has
great good qualities and noble traits, which have raised
it to its deservedly high eminence. But what is hu-

! i
i I

7--.- '

r# i

.;, ■

■V'

190

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

man has its weak points. And the very excellencies
of the Fnglish character, pushed beyond their proper
limit, become its vices. There may be too much of a
good thing. And of this, as history shows, the Eng-
lish have given the world some striking instances.
An Englishman, a thoroughbred, blue-blooded Briton,
loves authority. Born to command, his destiny is
upon him. And, though often ungraciously, he com-
monly commands well. But the peculiarity of an
Englishman in authority is to believe that whatever
accords with his own interests, or what he considers
his interests, is the right thing, and nothing in all the
world will make him believe that it will not be, if it be
not at the time, the best arrangement for everybody
else. Your vivacious Frenchman will submit to a
change in his plans, shrug his shoulders and laugh the
memory away. Your patient German will ponder the
evidence and submit, when he sees the balance of tes-
timony against him. But your bold Briton, never.
And there is really no selfishness in this. It is not for
a moment to be supposed that there is anything more
than the self-love enjoined in Scripture in the tenacity
which he exhibits in holding fast to what suits him
and falls in with his plans. He holds it quite hon-
estly, and commonly without affectation of either
concealment or display, as he would hold an axiom

'x:

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. I9I

which needs no demonstration, which in point of fact
will admit of no demonstration, because it has no other
side — that what he holds to be right must necessarily
be so because he holds it to be so.

From this unreasoning habit, which is simply the
virtue of self-confidence overstrained, the English
people have been accustomed to bind upon the backs
of others burdens that were heavy and grievous to be
borne. As proof of this, let the history of the colo-
nies now forming the United States bear witness.
Let Ireland, ground between the nether mill-stone of
Roman Catholic priestcraft and the upper mill-stone
of English intolerance, be also summoned. Let the
summary disposal of the Acadians by our self-same
Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, bear further wit-
ness. And when the evidence has been summed up
the fact will stand patent to the eyes of all but Eng-
lishmen, that in the exercise of authority they do not
merely not know that there are two sides to every
question, but they are likely to resent as an insult any
attempt to inform them of their ignorance.

This little critique on English character is given
with a free hand and the best intentions, with the ex-
pectation that it will find its way to the minds of
many English people in Nova Scotia, not to offend
them, but to furnish a little wholesome reading of a

192

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

li I

■11

kind they are not accustomed to, which will be Inter-
esting to them by way of variety, and to enable them
to see the other side of the history of the large body

of Germans among them as others see that history.
In the chronicles of Andreas Jung, that unique

writer says that when the German Lutherans were
brought from Halifax to Lunenburg they petitioned
the Governor to secure for them a minister of their
own faith, which the Governor graciously promised he
would do. But that was the en J of the matter. No
minister came. The Germans, nevertheless, felt that
their numbers entitled them to some consideration at
the hands of the authorities, if their faith did not,
wherefore they still leaned upon the hope that some-
thing would soon be done to supply their spiritual des-
titution. They had not yet, poor people, learned the
spirit and the temper of their rulers. They were " dis-
senters," innocently holding in all simplicity of heart
the truth as they had been taught it in their youth
and childhood, and it was not to be expected of them
that they should know of state-craft and intrigue and
compulsion in matters of conscience, nor yet that they
should appreciate the beauties of " conformity." They
were simply expected to conform. The English rulers
supposed themselves called to regulate the conscience
of the community, and the "Dutchmen" must give

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. I93

way. And thus it came to pass that occurrences quite
remote from the matter of religion were dragged in to
do duty in shaping consequences in religious affairs, as
shall presently appear.

But before I proceed to that, I observe that the
infant settlement had its incidents and accidents giving
variety to the life of its inhabitants. Of one of these:
tradition speaks on this wise. During the first year,,
when the ice was breaking up in the spring, some-
boys were amusing themselves by pushing the floating;
pieces from the shore and taking short excursions om
them for pleasure. Two of them, however, ventured
too far, got out into deep water, and could not return.
Away they went, " outward bound," with a fair wind.
There were no boats at hand, few had yet been built,
but logs were hastily fastened together to form a raft,
and with this frail, unwieldy craft, propelled by pieces
of boards in strong hands, the boys were overtaken
near Battery Point, and safely brought to land.

The people of Lunenburg at the time of its settle-
ment may be classified in two general divisions ; the
one being composed of men of military training and
habits, the other of farmers, vine- dressers and me-
chanics. The former, unused to labor, but skilled in
organizing and commanding bodies of men, assumed
direction and control of affairs ; while the latter, ac-
J3

:^.|/

* It

'. i

194

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

customed to obey, fell naturally into the position
assigned them as hewers of wood and drawers of
water. This arrangement began as the natural out-
growth of the British love of supremacy, as well as of
the European customs, manners and habit of thought
which the other settlers br »ught with them. It was
continued by the force of circumstances, chief of which
was the lack of education and the repression of free
speech and thought among the people of the second
class long beyond the time when in a free country
such a state of affairs would have been tolerated. The
caste feeling rose high and higher. Those in author-
ity asserted their dignity with a spirit which would
have done credit to a Chinese Mandarin, or a Rajah
of Hindoostan. The line of demarcation between the
aristocracy and the plebs was as clearly drawn in that
frontier settlement as ever it was in London,. St.
Petersburg, or Berlin. And the servility with which
the plebeians waited upon the will of their untitled
lords was equalled only by the condescension with
which their services were received.

But hunger and distress know little of the things
which savor of affectation. Petty adulation, in times
of famine and nakedness, speedily gives way before
the advance of disease and death. In the face of such
sombre threatenings, the stern hand of necessity is

■w

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. I95

raised to tear away^he mask of hypocrisy and break
down the lines of arbitrary distinction between man
and man. All this received forcible illustration in the
remarkable change which swept suddenly across the
face of affairs in the infant settlement. From a state
of apparent quietude, albeit one of great and general
distress from lack of provisions, the town at once be-
came the scene of wild commotion. The quiet game
of life was being played along beneath a smooth sur-
face, which revealed nothing of the concealed abyss
of feeling and passion which suddenly yawned and
burst forth in an event which, as the unfolding page
of history declares, proved nothing less than a catas-
trophe for the German inhabitants of the town.

Jung says: "According to what we have been in-
formed, our patrons and well-wishers, whom we know
as dearly beloved fathers in Christ, the royal court-
chaplain of the High German court chapel of H. R.
H. the king of Great Britain, the Reverend Frederick
Michael Ziegenhagen, the Reverend Dr. Phillip David
Kreuter, and the sainted Pastor Pritius, in the begin-
ning of the year 1754, upon our representations, had
taken much trouble to supply us with a faithful minis-
ter. But the unexpected outbreak of a rebellion,
which was caused by a Frenchman named Peterquin,
and of which we were not guilty in the least — as is

»;

.J.i/

196

ACADIE AND THE /CADIANS.

known by Him who searcheth the hearts and trieth
the reins of the children of men — frustrated all their
good intentions." With the explanatory remark that
the seeming inconsistency of the dates given is cleared
up by the fact that a long time was consumed in the
transmission of news at that period, we go on to pre-
sent the official record of the outbreak to which allu-
sion has been made.

MEMO. OF THE REBELLION.

"15th December, 1753. A report was circulated
that Jean Peterquin, a Frenchman, had received a Icttei
from London, wherein it was stated that Parliament
had directed that each person should receive a pound
of bread, meat, pease, rice, hulled oats, molasses, and
also instruments of agriculture, and five pounds each.
On hearing this, the people went in search of Peter-
quin, to get the letter, and when they found him they
imprisoned him in the cellar of the blockhouse.
When this came to the ears of Col. Sutherland, he
went with Mr. Zouberbuhler, Mr. Strasburg, and
Major Rudolf, and released Peterquin, but he was
rescued from them by the mob, and again confined in
the blockhouse under a guard of ten men within the
building and a number outside. Here he was detained
until Sunday, when he endeavored to effect his escape,

■

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. I97

but having been discovered by the guard, he was
removed from the cellar into the body of the block-
house, bound hand and foot, and threatened if he did
not produce the letter. On Sunday morning he de-
clared that Mr. Zouberbuhler had received the letter
from him. In consequence of this the inhabitants
were required to assemble on the parade at nine
o'clock, to take measures for getting the letter from
Mr. Zouberbuhler, or to imprison him too. Then the

people deliberated the whole day, and sent hourly
messengers to the colonel for the letter or Mr. Zouber-
buhler, and this state of things continued for several
days.

" There was a variety of opinions, and a great uproar,
some desiring one thing and some another. They
wished to force the soldiers to compel Mr. Zouber-
buhler and the Frenchman to appear on the parade,
and undergo a public examination. At the same
time it was reported to the colonel that the Indians
were near the town, and in consequence he took the
precaution of providing the store-house with large
guns. But the messengers from the inhabitants im-
mediately repaired to him, and demanded to know
whether he would remove the guns or not. In fine, it
is evident that they had taken the command into
their own hands. On Wednesday, the nineteenth of

I )4l *

I] :

198

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

this month, Peterquin was examined by the colonel,
and declared that he had given the letter to Mr.
Zouberbuhler, and the time and circumstances of the
delivery, and professed that he had nothing against
the colonel, but entertained for him all due honor and
respect. The people were somewhat pacified when
Peterquin made* this declaration. All possible pains
were taken by Colonel Monckton, to ascertain the
rights of this affair ; and Peterquin made a disclosure
of the whole transaction to the colonel, by which it
appeared that a Mr. Hoffman showed a letter of sim-
ilar import to that first mentioned, to Peterquin on
the parade, and told him he had received it from a
sailor,, and that Hoffman gave Peterquin directions
how to proceed. In short, from Peterquin's declara-
tion, Hoffman was the instigator and cause of the
whole mischief The colonel, hearing that Hoffman
was at Harshman's house, sent an officer with a party
of soldiers, who immediately arrested and carried him
to the block-house. The following day he was
brought before the council, and from thence sent on
ship-board, under a guard of twelve men commanded
by Capt. 1 ricket."

Hoffman, it may be of interest to some to know,
had been a justice of the peace in Halifax, whither he
was carried. He was there indicted for high crime

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE.

199

and misdemeanor, found guilty and sentenced to pay
a fine and undergo two years' imprisonment. The
" Memo, of the Rebellion," word for word, letter for
letter, and point for point, has been given as it stands
in the original. It is of special interest, first, because
of the collateral evidence it furnishes of the distress
of the people at the time it occurred. They were
dying of starvation, perishing from want of the means
of life. Their tumult over the imaginary letter and
its reported promises of meagre supplies, meant bread
or blood. They were desperate ; yet how forbearing
in their conduct, how mild in their demands ! In
many a community similarly driven by want, blood
would have been shed, as it often has been upon
lighter provacation.

The importance given to the whole transaction,
which in itself was but a trifling afifair, is due to the
fact that in government circles at that particular period
a deep feeling of insecurity and uneasiness prevailed.
The Acadians were supposed to be growing hostile; in
fact, they, at that time, were withholding supplies from
the garrison at Annapolis when it was ir distress from
the want of provisions ; they allowed a British vessel
to be plundered at their very doors by a party of
eleven savages, without rendering any assistance to
the owner ; they furnished information to the French

is. '4

?-: !

200

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

in arms, traded systematically with the enemies of
Britain at Louisbourg and Quebec, and when the fort
at Beausejour was taken, three hundred of them had
been found with arms in their hands in open rebellion
against the British crown.*

The Indians, too, continued to be troublesome, as
has been shown, and the very life of the settlements of
the English, both at Halifax and Lunenburg, was
threatened if any dissension or civil discord broke out
among the inhabitants themselves. It was, therefore,
the critical state of affairs at the time it occurred,
rather than the enormity of the act itself, that made the
rebellion important. And, in fact, it may be readily
inferred that the vagrant Frenchman Peterquin, as well
as Hoffman, who enkindled the fires of discord among
the suffering people, both were secret emissaries of
the hostile Frenchmen, the Count de Maurepas, com-
mandant at Quebec, and the Jesuit priest La Loutre,
his spy in the Annapolis valley.

But let the inferences be what they may, the second
jpoint of interest in the account of the rebellion shows
.that the severest punishment fell upon the Germans.
Jung declares them innocent. Whom he intends to
i include in his dec aration he does not precisely state,
'.but as he is writing the chronicles of the Lutheran

* See Nova Scotia Archives, p. 277.

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION ANI) TROUBLE. 201

)

„

congregation there, it is to be presumed that he means
the members thereof. Guilty or innocent, however,
they had to suffer, and the cruel punishment which
they had to bear for the outbreak, was to be reported
to the home government as rebellious, and condemned
to endure the withholding of the supply they longed
to have for their spiritual needs. The plans of their
friends at court for sending them a minister of their
own faith, were, by a refinement of cruelty as unneces-
sary as it was severe, frustrated by the representations
of their participation in the rebellion. So far as they
were concerned, being truly loyal to the British king
and government, little importance could have been at-
tached to their proceedings, but there appears, in fur-
ther developments, grave reason to believe that they
were used as a pretext for hindering an effort wholly
distasteful to English Episcopalians in authority — that
was the effort to establish a Lutheran church. The
sentence passed on Hoffman was doubtless a righteous
judgment, but wherein the justice or reason appears for
making this trouble the pretext for depriving these
Lutherans of religious instruction, and the presence of a
teaching pastor of their own faith, is by no means clear.*

* In comparing the date of the " Rebellion" with that of the efforts
made in London by Ziegenhagen, Kreuter and Pritius for sending a
a minister, it must not be forgotten that in those days it took months to
send a message across the sea.

202

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

5"
'■ 1

IN*

MAKING THE ROAD FROM LUNENBURG TO HALIFAX, IN

1757.

In October, 1756, three years and four months after
the settlement of Lunenburg, the Governor and Coun-
cil at Halifax discussed the advisability of making a
road from Halifax to Lunenburg " as being of great
advantage to both places."

" EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF HIS MAJESTY's
COUNCIL AT HALIFAX.

''February I gth, I J SI'
"Appeared before the Council a number of the Ger-
man inhabitants of Lunenburg, who proposed to
undertake to cut the intended road from Lunenburg
to Halifax, and who had marched hither by land in
order to view the country through which the said road
is proposed to be cut.

" They were informed that they were to make the
road a rod wide, and were offered to be paid at the
rate of six pounds per mile, which they would by no
means accept of, but on the contrary insisted on so ex-
horbitant a price that no agreement could possibly be
made with them. , .

" Wherefore the Council did advise that the Lieu-
tenant-Governor should write to Colonel Sutherland
at Lunenburg, and direct him to endeavor to agree

icr

PROSCRIPTION, REBELLION AND TROUBLE. 203

with those men or any other of the said Germans, for
the cutting of the road at the said rate of six pounds
per mile, which the Council did esteem a very hand-
some recompense for their labor."

"Majy 20th, lysj-
" Mr. Pernette appeared before the Council and
undei took the work. The road was to be ten feet
wide. The Government was to provide a guard for
the workmen, who were also to have their arms with
them. The price was to be six pounds per mile. The
contractor was given an advance of fifty pounds, and'
he was to be paid afterwards as each ten miles wis
cut."

CHAPTER XVI.
THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

WHILE Lunenburg has been considered almost
entirely as a German settlement, it must not be
forgotten that a large percentage of its inhabitants
were French. That intrepid people, noted everywhere
for dash and enterprise and love of adventure, had
. already begun a settlement there when the first Eng-
lishman rounded Cross Island and sailed into the har-
bor of Merliguesche. There already in 1745 Paul
Guidry, the jolly coast pilot, with seven of his country-
men, had his home. On the opposite shore of the
harbor, at a spot known as the Fire Cove, others
dwelt, and the vestiges yet remain to tell of their early
occupation. Cornwallis found them on the present
site of Lunenburg in 1749. When the town was
founded, among the settlers were a number of people
of French descent. Among the names of persons
praying for the confirmation of original land grants
occur such as Veinot, Pernette, Dauphinee, Morreau,
and others of evident French ancestry.

In 1754 twenty-five persons of the same nationality

left Louisbourg to escape from death by starving, came

(204)

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

205

to Halifax, and from there were sent to Lunenburg,
The names of the men in this party were Paul and
Charles Boutin, Julien and Sebastian Bourncuf, Joseph
and Pierre Gedri, Pierre Erio, Francois Lucas, and
Claude Erot. The following order accompanied them
from the Governor's Secretary in Halifax :

*' Secretary s Office, 2ph Ajtgttst, 1734.

"Dear Sir : The bearers hereof being in all twenty-
five persons are just arrived here from Louisbourg,
from whence they made their escape to avoid starving.
Some of them were formerly inhabitants of this coun-
try, and are nearly related to old Labrador; they
have all taken the oath ; the Colonel desires you to
treat them kindly, ordered them to be victualled, to
have tools given them, and land laid out for them
where you shall see most convenient.
" I am, Dear Sir,

"Yours, &c.,

" Wm. Cotterell.
"To Col. Sutherland, Commanding at Lunenburg y

Andreas Jung makes mention of the arrival of a
large number of French Lutherans from the Rhine
Province, from Alsace and Lorraine. Thomas Beanish
Akins, the learned author of "The Rise and Pro-
gress," says, p. 17: "In 1752, five hundred Protestants
of the Confession of Augsburg arrived at Halifax,

-?k

206

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

I..

from Montbclliard, etc." Jung says some of these
French Lutherans came to Lunenburg. They were
known among the Germans as " Mumpolgarter." It
would appear that the names Montbclliard and Mum-
polgarter are identical.*

Of the Frenchmen, it is said by Mr. Akins, " They
joined themselves to the Church of England, and de-
sired to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Sup-
per." Fifty families of them were among the colo-
nists sent to Lunenburg. "These fifty families of
French, or Mumpolgarter," says Jung, "were imme-
diate! - supplied with a French missionary and school
teacher; while we Germans, who numbered more than
two hundred and fifty families, were obliged to live all
along upon the hope that our large numbers would
gain for us a like consideration, and that we also
would be supplied with a minister and school-teacher,
so that our young people woul^ at least be able to
gain a little instruction. Several times we handed in

* My friend, Prof. J. I.iechti, Professor of Modern Languages in
Dalhousie College, Halifax, says : " Mtimpolgirter is the German
name of Montbclliard, capital city of an arondisseraent in the French
department of Doubs, on the Rhine-Rhone canal, near the railroad
from Miilhausen to Lyons. It belonged from 1 395-1 793 to the house
of Wurtemburg, was taken by the French in 1793, formally ceded to
France in the peace of Luneville, in 1801, and reunited to Germany at
the close of the late Franco-Prussian war."

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

207

petitions to the authorities (obrigkeit)^ but, alas! we
were put off with empty promises, and all our good
intentions were frustrated."

The missionary to the French settlers in connec-
tion with the Established Church was the Rev. Jean
Baptiste Morreau. He had been a Roman Catholic
priest and prior of the Abbey of St. Matthew at
Brest, but was received into the Church of England,
and came as a member of that body to Halifax in
charge of the French and Swiss Protestant settlers,
and received the usual grant of £yo a year for his ser-
vices. He was the father of the first white male child
born in the city of Halifax. This baby boy was
named in honor of the governor, Cornwallis, and ac-
companied his father to Lunenburg in 1753. Mr.
Morreau died in Lunenburg in 1770. He was an
accomplished man, being able to minister in three
languages, and even becoming acquainted with the
language of the Indians, several of whose children he
baptized. That he was a man of extraordinary firm-
ness and personal influence, is shown by the following
episode, which occurred during his pastorate at Lun-
enburg. One of the leaders of his congregation
having been detected in a treasonable conspiracy
against the government, Mr. Morreau, in spite of the
offender's rank and station, publicly excommunicated

208

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

>:'

i V

him. After a time, the offender being desirous of re-
admission to his lost privileges, humbly prostrated
himself in the church ; then rose and asked pardon of
God, the king, and Christian brethren whom he had
offended by his ill conduct and disobedience. He
then received an exhortation from the pulpit to a sin-
cere repentance and amendment, and was afterward
admitted to communion.

The French element is still plainly noticeable in the
town of Lunenburg and the surrounding country.
The names have suffered changes and distortions
which in many cases make identification with their
originals difficult — as for example, Dares has become
Dory, Dumont has been changed to Demon, Le
Boutillier to Butler, and so on, but the genuine Gallic
type of man and maid is found among the inhabitants,
with feature, form and movement identical with those
of the pure-blooded citizen of Paris or Marseilles.
There are descendants of the Baron Longueiuel, form-
erly of Montreal and later of La Have, now a numer-
ous family in and about Lunenburg, spelling the name
Langille; the most of them are decidedly French.
There are the original Joudries spelling their name
Jodry or Jodrey, Wilneuf has been changed to Wool-
nough, Emeneau to Emeno, and Contois has been
Anglicized to Countaway. Many other French names

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

209

are common, as* Robar, Gilfoy, Pernette, and Dcs
Brisay, while another class like Barrie, Fancie, Baillie,
and Sarti?, may probably be of the same rationality.

Many of these descendants of the French immi-
grants are yet in connection with the Church of the
Augsburg Confession, that is the Lutheran Church.

In the very early history of the settlement we findi
references to Paul Laurent, chief of the Indians on the
La Have, who was in all probability a half-breed
French-Indian. The missfonary who oflficiated among
the Micmacs about Lunenburg under the control of
the Roman Catholic church, was M. Maillard, another
Frenchman. Later, M. Jean Perin was a maker of
wooden shoes or sabots for the inhabitants. Old
French drains and cellars have been uncovered at
various places in the town. And the old French cem-
etery by the seaside, within the corporation limits, still
remains as a mute witness of the departed and depart-
ing people of that enterprising race.

These remarks concerning the people of this nation-
ality in the settlement, have been set in order here for
the satisfaction of their descendants, and because in-
quiry has been made from widely divergent places by
persons seeking any possible clue to their ancestry.
It should yet be stated that many family names once
appearing upon the church records and other ancient

310

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

documents of the town have entirely disappeared. Of
these some have died out absolutely, others have been
lost to the place by their bearers removing to other
localities, and there is yet another class which has
been swallowed up by admixture with the native
American Indians, a kind of miscegenation to which
the French people, in every latitude and under the
common circumstances attendant upon frontier life in
all parts of the hemisphere, whether in the south, the
cast, or the northwest, appear to have been particu-
larly inclined.

These Frenchmen all were Acadians, in the ordinary
and legitimate sense of the word ; but by reason of an
event which now transpired in the western part of the
Province, the name has been restricted to a different
body of Frenchmen. One little circumstance alone
connects those Acadians, as to their history, with the
Lunenburg settlers. But as a matter of interest, upon
which much has been written and said, it will not be
out of place to devote the remainder of this chapter,
begun about the French, to the history of those who
were deported from their homes.

The author of a recent Roman Catholic history of
the United States * says, " Of all the plan of Braddock,

* " The Story of a Great Nation ; or, Our Country's Achievements,
by John Gilmary Shea, LL. D.," pp. 347-8.

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

211

but one part had succccdcij, and that was one of the
greatct crimes in American history; this was the
seizure of the Acadians." Braddock had about as
much to do with their removal as the man in the
moon. It is wtll known that these people, from the
conclusion of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 171 3, enjoyed
all the privileges of British subjects, beld their lands
without being subjected to any direct tax, had never
been called upon to fight for the power that protected
them, and were asked only to take an oath not to take
up arms against it. But they made a very ungrateful
return for this kindness. As has been shown, tbey
traded with the French at Louisbourg and Quebec,
carrying their produce thither and refusing supplies to
the British garrison at Annapolis when it was in dis-
tress for provisions, furnished information to the
enemy, paid rents for their lands to the lords of
manors in Cape Breton, although refusing to remove
thither when invited by the French Government to do
so ; and even took up arms against the British Govern-
ment at the battle of Beausejour.

For almost half a century these Acadians, professing
to stand as neutrals, bad been held as a reserve, in
constant menace to Briti^li interests, by the hostile
French of Upper Canada. They had full religious
liberty, and it was the misuse ot this, or the trading

212

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

upon the religious instinct and devotion of these un-
happ)' people, that brought them between the mill-
stones of Jesuit intrigue and British severity and
ground them to powder.

They were a simple peasantry, ignorant, industrious
Ht'ter a fashion, and economical to parsimony. They
had lost the genuine French esprit and love of adven-
ture which characterized their forefathers ; they did a
little fishing, taking herring in Digby basin, and hunt-
ing a little on the mountain sides ; but their chief oc-
cupation was mowing and curing the wild grass which
grew on the natural mcadov/s along the Annapolis
river, or on the rich marshes reclaimed from the Bay
of Fundy, and caring for the cattle to which they fed
the hay in the winter. This most quiet and unevent-
ful life they had pursued for more than a century.

They raised flax and kept sheep, spun and wove
materials from these for their clothing. Their caps
were peaked affairs of cloth, bright in color and set off
with a tassel ; their shoes, or moccasins, of raw-hide or
moose skin. They raised considerable quantities of
barley, oats and potatoes, and their orchards furnished
an abundance of small apples of excellent flavor.
Their drink was cider on ordinary occasions ; for
higher festivals they brewed spruce beer, and for the
chiefest of all celebrations they indulged in West India

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

213

rum. Messieurs Beauharnais and Hocquart, in a let-
ter from which an extract has already been made,
state that " the Acadians have not extended their
plantations since they have come under English do-
minion ; their houses are wretched wooden boxes,
without convenience and without ornament, and
scarcely contain the necessary furniture."

In these straw-roofed houses two or more families
lived together, and their mode of life, though simple
and unsophisticated, was by no means distinguished for
cleanliness. But they were contented, non-progress-
ive and undisturbed by the strifes and contentions
rolling all around them. They married early. Chil-
dren multiplied and the population grew rapidly.

They were much given to petty strifes, quarrels
about boundaries and litigation about trifles. Gossip-
ing, jealousy, backbiting and tale-bearing were the
pastime of their monotonous existence. The officials
of the British government looked with complaceny
upon the continual wranglings over boundary lines,
regarding them as good evidence of the value which
the people set upon their possessions. Among them
were a few violent persons who dared at times to
resist even the supreme authority of the priest, who
was, in fact, the ruler, both temporal and spiritual, of
his submissive flock.

ai4

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

These priests were the bane and curse and final
ruin of the Acadians. We are told that subjection to
the pope does not conflict with allegiance to any
alien power opposed to his temporal authority. Let
history speak on this. Here were these simple peo-
ple used as the tools of Rome. Kept in subjection
for so long that their enfeeblement had become hered-
itary, they hung upon their priest, followed his coun-
sel like little children, and depended upon him for
guidance as to the affairs both of this world and the
next. They were in subjection to him, held by the
twin emotions of love and fear, with a deference that
was almost slavish. They did not dare to disobey him.
He was their true authority and real government.
And whither did he lead them, and how ?

He kept them in stolid ignorance, for " is not ignor-
ance the mother of devotion ?" He founded their faith
upon the rites of the Roman Church, taught them a
little about the Lord Jesus Christ, and much about
saints, saints' days, and the Virgin Mary ; insisted that
they should be faithful in attendance at mass and con-
fesson, and diligent in the use of the rosary. But dan-
gerous as all these teachings were as coming between
Christ and their spiritual welfare, they were equaled
in their destructiveness by the Instructions which were
interposed between their loyalty and their king. He

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

215

taught them to hate heresy and King George, to be
true to the Roman Church and King Louis of France.
The priest was always in spiritual matters the agent
of the pope through the Bishop of Quebec; in tem-
poral things of King Louis through the Governor of
Canada. And this is what wrought their ruin.

The settlements of the British through all the early
occupation ot the Acadians, were few and weak until
the founding of Halifax. Up to this time the priests
ruled the Acadian people. They had their chief cen^
tres of population along the Annapolis river, at Grand
Pre, Cobequid, Piziquid and around the Basin of
Minas. After the country was finally ceded to Eng^-
land, the British authorities required of the Acadians
that they should take the oath of allegiance to the
new sovereign, which the authorities had a perfect
right to demand, and to which it was but right that the
subject should submit. After a delay of many years,
the oath was at last taken, but, as they alleged, with a
reservation that they should never be forced to take up
arms against their former countrymen, the French.

"When the war broke out in 1745," says an emi-
nent American authority, who has made a study of
their case,* " many of them broke their oath, and some-
times openly, sometimes in the disguise of Indians,

* Dr. Francis Parkman.

2l6

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

joined the French in attacks on British garrisons —
while others acted as spies, or aided the enemy with
information and provisions. When, in 1748, the war
ended, the French officials prophesied some signal act
of vengeance on the part of the British against the of-
fending Acadians. On the contrary, they showed
great forbearance, and insisted only that all the adult
male population should take an oath of allegiance,
without any reserve or restriction whatever. This
they would have done if they had been let alone; but
they were not let alone. Another war was plainly at
hand, and France meditated the reconquest of Acadia.
To this end the Acadians must be kept French at
heart, and ready, at a signal given, to rise against the
English. France had acknowledged them as British
subjects ; but this did not prevent the agents of Louis
XV. from seeking by incessant intrigue to stir them into
bitter hostility against the British Government. Be-
fore me are two irge volumes of papers, about a
thousand pages in all, copied from the archives of the
'Colonial Department at Paris. They relate to these
JFrench efforts to rouse the Acadians to revolt ; and

• they consist of the journals, despatches, reports and
Uetters of officers, military, civil and ecclesiastical, from

• the Governor of Canada to a captain of bushrangers,
and from the Bishop of Quebec to the cure of Cobe-

'■

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

217

■

quid. They show by the evidence of the actors them-
selves, the scope and methods of the machination, to
which the king himself appears, in his languid way, as
an accessory. The priests of Acadia were the chief
agents employed. They taught their parishioners that
fidelity to King Louis was inseparable from fidelity to
God, and that to swear allegiance to the British crown
would be eternal perdition. Foremost among these
apostles of revolt was Le Loutre, missionary to the
Micmac Indians, and Vicar-General for Acadia under
the Bishop of Quebec. His fanatical hatred of the
English and the natural violence of his character im-
pelled him to extremes which alarmed his employers,
and drew upon him frequent exhortations to caution.
He threatened the Acadians with excommunication if
they obeyed the King of England. In connection with
French officers across the line, he encouraged them to
put on the disguise of Indians and join his Micmacs
in pillaging and killing English settlers on the out-
skirts of Halifax when the two nations were at peace.
He drew on one occasion from a French official 1,800
livres to pay his Indians for English scalps. With a
reckless disregard of the welfare of the unhappy peo-
ple under his charge, he spared no means to embroil
them with the government under which, but for him
and his fellow- conspirators, they would have lived in

2l8

ACADI£ AND THE ACADIANS.

t if

peace and contentment. An entire heartlessness marked
the dealings of the French authorities with the Aca-
dians. They were treated as mere tools of policy, to
be used, broken, and flung away."

And if the verdict of history, thus impartially given,
or as. summed up by Bancroft in the tearful words:
'• I know not if the annals of the human race keep the
record of sorrows so wantonly inflicted, so bitter, and
so perennial as fell upon the French inhabitants of
Acadia," be true, what execrations can sufficiently
anathematize the authors of their misery ! Priest and
soldier are alike to blame.

And on a larger scale, if the signs of the times be
not deceiving, the emissiaries of Rome are preparing
the Frenchmen of Quebec for some similar resistance
to British power, to be followed by some like fearful
retribution. Since Cardinal Taschereau has enthroned
himself in Parliament as a Prince of the Church, on
an equality with the representative of the Crown, and
since that subservient body has given hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the public treasury to the
Jesuits, what can follow but stern reprisal, full of sor-
row to the people of the Roman faith ? History may
speedily repeat itself in some sense by bringing pun-
ishment for this madness upon the priests who mis-
lead and the people whom they betray.

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

219

The manner of the deportation of the Acadians may
be remarked upon. It was cruel and unnatural. It
can be justified only under the plea of military neces-
sity. On the third of July, 1755, a memorable council
was convened at the house of Governor Lawrence, in
Halifax. Jonathan Belcher, Benj. Green» Wm. Cot-
terell and John Collins, members of the Legislative
Council, were in attendance. Bold Englishmen these
were, upon whom devolved the grave responsiblity of
the public welfare in the Province, and deeply sensible
of their trust

Before the Council were summoned the commis-
sioners from the French inhabitants of Minas and
Piziquid; little SAvarthy men, with fierce moustaches
and keen black eyes, likewise deeply sensible of their
own responsibility as spokesmen for their people. The
memorial which they had brought was read before
them. Its terms were rejected, its spirit impugned,
and the whole document assailed and denounced as
absurd and treasonable. Particular dissatisfaction was
expressed with one manly passage which said, refer-
ring to the order which had been issued that the
Frenchmen should give up their arms, " It is not the
gun which an inhabitant possesses that will induce
him to revolt, nor the privation of the same that will
make him more faithful, but his conscience alone must
induce him to maintain his oath."

220

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

The commissioners were then asked to take the
oath of allegiance without reservation. This they re-
fused, on the ground that under its terms they would
be liable in the event of war to a call to take up arms
against the French, their countrymen. For this faith-
fulness to nationality above duty, to France above
Britain, they were placed in confinement.

On the fifteenth of July another convention of
Council was called. Vice-Admiral Boscawen and
Rear-Admiral Mostyn were present. This was the
court of final jurisdiction. This court approved the
actions of former councils, and determined that the
time had arrived when the French Acadians must
take the oath or leave the country. To the Lords of
Trade Governor Lawrence wrote, reporting this de-
cision and declaring his purpose to bring the habitans
to compliance, or rid the province of such perfidious
subjects.

Further 'correspondence was held with the Acadians
to induce them to take the oath. Other commission-
ers appeared with other memorials, announcing to the
Council the unanimous resolution of the people to de-
cline taking any oath of allegiance to Britain which
did not expressly provide for their exemption from
bearing arms. On the 28th of July, these commission-
ers all were brought before the Council, finally refused,

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

221

for themselves and their constituents, to take the oath,
and were thrown into prison. At this meeting the
supreme decision was reached to send the French in-
habitants to the Colonies and Provinces, scattering
them from Massachusetts to Florida, around the Gulf
of Mexico, and up the Mississippi. Instructions were
sent to Colonel Monckton, commanding at Fort
Beausejour, to Colonel VVinslow, at Minas, and to
Major Handfield, at Annapolis, informing them of the
resolution of Council, and asking that they hold them-
selves in readiness to carry it into effect in their re-
spective parts of the Province. Transports were
engaged at Boston, and all possible expedition was
used to get together vessels. suflRcient for the purpose.
The Governor issued a circular letter to the Governors
of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, North Caro-
lina, Maryland and Virginia, stating the reasons for
the deportation of the people, and expressing the hope
that they would dispose of them in such a manner as
best to prevent their re-union. In the instructions to
the post commanders they were ordered, if peaceful
means failed to induce the inhabitants to leave, to
adopt the most vigorous measures, not only in com-
pelling them to embark, but also in depriving them,
should any escape, of all refuge, shelter or support, by
burning their houses, and destroying everything

322

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

which might furnish means of subsistence in the
country.

The thunderbolt was well prepared. The muskets
of the soldiers were glittering in the summer sunshine
at Beausejour, Minas and Annapolis. Favorable
breezes brought the chartered vessels peacefully to-
ward their appointed places of rendezvous. The busy
life of the Acadian villagers and farmers was running
along in its accustomed uneventful course. The
wide, level meadows, with their diked boundaries, had
been mowed, the hay had already been cured, the flax
bleached and housed, the orchards laden with their
fragrant harvests bent their boughs to the eager hand
of the picker; peace, plenty, happiness and joyful
contentment reigned over all the beautiful and se-
cluded valley. The one sinister ray of light that fell
upon it was the gleam of the bayonets in the hands
of the soldiers. The harvest was about completed.
The barns were full. The golden season of early
autumn, which in that country is like Paradise, had
just begun, when on these thousands of peaceful
homes, with aH their happy hearts and humble lives,
the thunderbolt fell.

No intimation had been given the people of the in-
tentions of the authorities. They were as utterly un-
prepared for the great catastrojihe as they would have

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

223

been for an earthquake or a strolce of lightning^. The
manner in which the stroke fell and was received in
all the villages was similar to that at Grand Pre. To
the inhabitants of that and surrounding districts,
Colonel Winslow, on the second of September, issued
an order that they should assemble in the church at
the ringing of the bell and the beat of the drum, to
hear the instructions of his Majesty, the King of
Great Britain. With no thought of the impending
calamity, the people came. The white Normandy
caps of the women mingled with the gray homespun
of the men as they came to the church. Bulronly
the men were allowed inside. The women waited
in the church-yard. It was to all a holiday. As-
sembled in orderly array in their church, made holy
not only by its solemn consecration, but by all the
holy memories of almost fifty years which clustered
round its sacred precincts, Winslow addressed the
men in these words:

" Gentlemen : I have received from his Excellency,
Governor Lawrence, the King's commission, which I
hold in my hand; and by his orders you are convened
together, to manifest to you his Majesty's final resolu-
tion to the French inhabitants of this, his Province of
Nova Scotia, who, for almost half a century, have had
more indulgence granted to them than any of his Ma-

224

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Jetty's subjects, in any part of his dominions; what
use you have made of it, you yourselves best know.
The path of duty I am now upon, though necessary,
is very disagreeable to my natural make and temper,
as I know it must be grievous to you, who are of the
same species; but it is not my business to animadvert,
but to obey such orders as I receive, and, therefore,
without hesitation, deliver to ybu his Majesty's orders
and instructions, namely, that your land and tene-
ments, cattle of all kinds and live stock of all sorts,
are forfeited to the Crown, with all your other effects,
saving your money and household goods, and you
yourselves to be removed from this his province.
Thus, it is peremptorily his Majesty's orders that the
whole French inhabitants of these districts be re-
moved; and I am, through his Majesty's goodness,
directed to allow you liberty to carry off your money
and household goods, as many as you can without
discommoding the vessels you go in. I shall do
everything in my power that all these goods be se-
cured to you, and that you are not molested in carry-
ing them off; also, that whole families shall go in the
same vessels, and make this remove, which I an» sen-
sible must give you a great deal of trouble, as easy as
his Majesty's service will admit: and hope that in
whatsoever part of the world you may fall, you may

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

22$

be faitliful subjects — a peaceable and happy people.
I must also inform you that it is his Majesty's pleas-
ure that you remain in security under the inspection
and direction of the troops that I have the honor to
command."

The thunderbolt had fallen. They were prisoners.
The soldiers with glittering muskets surrounded the
church. For this its bell had summoned them. For
this the rattle of the drum had echoed over their ver-
dant meadows, to gather them to their doom.

*' As when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of summer^
Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones
Beats down the farmer's corn in the field, and shatters the windows,
Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the house-
roofs ; ,
Bellowing By the herds, and seek to break their enclosures :
So on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker. *
Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then rose
Louder and ever louder a wail uf sorrow and anger.
And by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to the doorway.
Vain was the hope of escape, and cries and fierce imprecations
Rang through the house of prayer."

No language can describe the feelings of the miser-
able people. They could not for a time realize their
hard fate, so suddenly and unexpectedly had it been
developed ; but finally they awoke to their situation.
Anger succeeded apathy, and apathy was followed by
'5

226

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

resignation, but it was the resignation of despair.
Some, who had not heeded the summons to the
church, escaped to the woods, but only to behold
from their covert the smoke rising from their burning
homes. On the tenth of September all who had been
seized were driven aboard the transports at the point
of the bayonet and embarked for their unknown
destination. Then they broke down. Nature could
not endure the strain. Their feelings found vent in
tears, and in weeping, cries and lamentations loud and
long.

At Cumberland and Annapolis the inhabitants fled
from their homes, and hid in the woods. The soldiers
detailed to burn the houses and destroy the harvests
met with opposition ; but it was unorganized and inef-
fectual. A body of French and Indians attacked them,
killed half a dozen, and wounded several others. But
resistance was useless. They were forced to submit
to stern necessity. The unhappy captives were carried
to the various ports along the Atlantic and Gulf shore.
Some were disembarked here and others there — scat-
tered, separated and abandoned in the various colonies
wherein their language was unknown, their religion
deemed heresy, themselves a burden on the com-
munity, and altogether unwelcome.

One of the transports carrying thirty-six families

THE FRENCH AND ACADIANS.

227

from Annapolis, was seized by the French on board
and sailed into the river St. John, whence the refugees
escaped into New Brunswick and made their way back
to Nova Scotia. Another through stress of weather
was driven to the West Indies, where her passengers
were disembarked. The total number deported has
ever been a question of dispute. The Abbe Raynal,
who magnified the prosperity and possessions of the
Acadians to the utmost degree, has stated that there
were in Annapolis twelve or thirteen hundred, and
that the entire French population was eighteen thou-
sand. He says they had on their " immense meadows
sixty thousand cattle." Murdoch gives the number
of cattle at the time of the removal at seven thousand,
eight hundred and sixty-three. And Governor Law-
rence, when the order was issued for the'r deportation,,
in the circular letter to the other Governors, says of
the people: "Their number amounts to near seven
thousand persons." This latter statement seems to me
to be correct and conclusive.

Their later history is involved in the shadows of
oblivion and lighted by the torch of imagination.
Their descendants may still be found where their un-
fortunate ancestors were landed. The best portrayal
of their fate is that which the pen of Longfellow has.
wrought in the exquisite poem called after one of the

228

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

victims, " Evangeline." As to the culpability of the
act itself, the manner of its execution, and the actual
necessity which constrained those who were its re-
sponsible authors, I have naught but this to say.
The reader, from the facts presented, can make up his
opinion for himself. The act itself stands there, boldly
outlined on the canvas of history, sombre, dark and
dreadful, without a parallel in the annals of North
American peoples — a crime against humanity.

!•

CHAPTER XVII.
THE ACADIANS-CONTINUED.

A SLIGHT link in the long-drawn chain of cir-
cumstance connecting the people of Lunenburg
with the memory of their neighbors, the unfortunate-
Acadians, is mentioned by our truthful annalist,,,
Andreas Jung. He was himself one of the party that
made the long and toilsome march through trackless-
forest and almost impenetrable morass to their desolate
homes. In the year 1756 a party of fifty men under
Captain Steignford went from Mush-a-Mush to the.
Basin of Minas, where they gathered up one hundred)
and twenty head of cattle and a number of horses, part'
of the confiscated property of the French Acadians.
They reached Lunenburg with only sixty cattle, the
remainder having perished by the way. An old doc-
ument giving the names of all who took part in « the
expedition, reads thus : " This people have been to>
Minas, what went there from this town, 1756, the 30
day of July, and returned * the 3 day of Sept., and
brought about 60 odd head of cattle, beside horses
hurlong with ; the which cattle was the next day even

divided under the said people, and did draw for the

(229)

230

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

same in the gaol yard in the Presence of the Com-
manding officer and other Gentlemen usefull thereto."
A little more history, of a more cheerful nature,
respecting these people, will not be taken amiss in this
connection. Principal Cameron, of Yarmouth, from
whom I condense the subjoined facts, is my authority.
He says: Of the Acadian settlements in Yarmouth
county the most easterly is Pubnico. A marriage was
celebrated there a few days ago. The bride was Marie
Rose D'Entremont, the groom was Henri Leondee
D'Entremont ; and half a dozen of the principal aiders
and abettors were D'Entremonts. How many more
D'Entremonts ate, drank and danced in honor of the
happy event I cannot tell ; but, as there are over four
hundred of them in the settlement,, the number prob-
ably was large. One hundred and eighty years ago—
and that is a long step backward in the history of
Nova Scotia — nearly fifty years before the British
came over to found Halifax — there was another D'En-
tremont marriage, and the name of the bride was also
Marie. But the course of true love did not run sa
smoothly with the Marie of 1705 as with her name-
sake of 1885. The marriage was opposed by her hus-
band's family, the Du Viviers, and by his superior
officers — for the young gentleman was attached to the
garrison at Port Royal. The commandeuit of the port

■'

THE ACADIANS — CONTINUED.

231

said some very impolite things about poor iftarie, but
she got married in spite of them all, thanks to the
kind offices of the priests.

Go back one hundred years more, and Acadian his-
tory is just beginning. Pontrincourt, Lescarbot, and
the other well-born, well-bred, and well-educated
French gentlemen who founded the first permanent
settlement in the northern part of North Americay
were enjoying the good things provided for them by
the Grand Master of Le Bon Temps, dining on fish,
flesh and fowl, washing them down with the choicest
of French wines, and then spending the evening in
literary conversation and in the composition of French
and Latin verses. Among these Knights of The Good
Time who so pleasantly passed their first winters at
Port Royal — though not one of those who came out
with De Monts in 1604 — was Claude Turgis St.
Etienne Sieur de La Tour, and with him, very likely,
was his son Charles, then a boy of about thirteen.

Here then are three bits of social life, one from each
of the three centuries of Acadian history ; first, the
merry-making of La Tour and his companions in
1606 ; second, the hasty and furtive marriage of Marie
D'Entremont in 1705 ; third, the bright and joyous
marriage of Marie and Henri D'Entremont in 1885.
The connection between the three events, for they

232

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

have a connection, is this : the Marie of 1705 was the
great-granddaughter of Claude de La Tour, and the
father of Marie was the great-great-grandfather of
Henri's grandfather. Thus the hero of Z^ Bon Temps
at Pubnico on the 1 6th of last November, is a direct
descendant of one of the heroes of Le Bon Temps at
Port Royal almost three hundred years ago. The
younger La Tour, Charles, brought with him from
France, about 1650, a gentleman of Normandy, who
claimed kinship with the Bourbon family, and whom
Louis XIV. created Sieur de D'Antremont. To him
La Tour gave the siegneurie of Pubnico — then called
Poubomcoup — and the title of Baron.
. This Philippe D'Entremont, Baron of Pubnico, was
the first of the Nova Scotian D'Entremonts. He had
been an early friend of La Tour, and on coming to this
country was made his major. And it came to pass in
coursQ of time that the sons of D'Entremont saw the
daughters of La Tour that they were fair, and they
took them wives of such as they -chose. The eldest
son Jacques married Anne de La Tour. One of their
daughters was the Marie who married Du Vivien
Their son Jacques was carried to Boston at the time of
the expulsion of the Acadians, and it is from his son
— who returned in 1767 — that are descended all the
D'Entremonts of to-day, whose names may be found

THE ACADIANS — CONTINUED.

233

along the Pubnico district of the county map strewn
"thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa." In the
D'Entremonts, then, Yarmouth county possesses four
or five hundred of the lineal desceridants of two of the
bluest-blooded of the French gentlemen who figured
in the early history of the province, one of whom,
Charles La Tour, at one time owned nearly the whole
province, and at another time was governor of it; and
the other, Philippe D'Entremont, held an official posi-
tion second only to that of governor, and whose name
appears in the first census ever taken in the province
as one of the only two with an "Esquire" after it.
One of your Colchester correspondents was boasting
not long ago that his father, his grandfather and his
great-grandfather had all been residents of that county.
Here is a family in Yarmouth county whose ancestors
owned and occupied the district they now live in a
hundred years before that Colchester man's great-
grandfather plucked his first mayflower. Great-grand-
father, forsooth ! if you wish to get the proper term for
the relationship of the first D'Entremont, of Pubnico,
to the younger D'Entremont of to-day, you will have
to square a great-grandfather and then add a couple
of " greats " to the product. That's the kind of a most
great-grand patriarch that the first Baron of Poubom-
• coup was. There is no Baron of Pubnico now, but I

234

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

am told there is a venerable resident of that district
who holds a patent for the higher title of Duke of
Pubnico.

The first baron was for a time deputy-governor of
the province during the absence of La Tour. This
was in 1653. Eighteen years later he was living on
his estates at Pubnico, for he and his family and his
stock and his cultivated arpents of land figure there
in the census taken in that year. This was the census
of 1671, the first taken in the province, and, if you
count out those taken by Moses and David and those
of the Chinese and Romans, one of the first in the
world. Nothing of the same kind was done by any
European nation at any rate until the next century.
The population of the province at that time was 394.
Of the seventy heads of families, fifty-four were farm-
ers. There were four coopers, two carpenters, and
two armourers; one cutler, one farrier, one mason,
and one tailor ; and two were esquires and sieurs, one
of them being D'Entremont. One of the coopers
told the census man that he was " pretty well, thank
you," but did not wish to give his age, and so stands
the record in the paper to this day, in the archives at
Paris. This was a man, observe, not a woman. But
then note also that the ages of the ladies are not given
at all.

THE ACADIANS— CONTINUED.

235

Among the seventy Acadian families in the province
at this time, there were only forty-seven diflerent
family names ; many of the families had been here for
a generation or two already, and had inter-married a
good deal. Hence the small number of family
names. From the forty-seven original families who
came from France between 1604 and 1 671, four-fifths
of all the Acadians of to-day are descended, — not only
those that still inhabit Nova Scotia and the neighbor-
ing provinces, but all the scattered descendants of the
" debris " of the expulsion (as Rameau calls them)
living in Maine, Louisiana, the West Indies, Guiana
and France. And this explaii ^ why it is that the
same few family names are almost the only ones still
found among them, and enables us to understand the
enigmatic statement of the ex- Yarmouth priest, who
told a Chicago audience that he had the cure of 2,000
souls in Nova Scotia, and could count their names on
the fingers of his hands. To such an extent has
inter-marrying gone on among them that everybody
is related to everybody else nearly, and here in Yar-
mouth their priests find it necessary to get a dispensa-
tion for almost every marriage-knot they tie.

From what has just been said, it will be seen that
there must have been but very little French immigra-
tion into Nova Scotia after its first settlement. And

236

ACADIF. AND THE ACADIANS.

such indeed was the case. There was perhaps never
another colony founded by any European nation that
was more severely let alone by the mother country
than was the French colony of Acadia. And this re-
mark holds good of many other things than the send-
ing out of new batches of colonists. Under these cir-
cumstances the increase of the Acadian population is
something remarkable. The 394 of 167 1 had become
at the time of the expulsion 18,000, and that, too, in
spite of persecution, and famine, and sword. In this
respect the Acadians of to-day compare favorably with
their ancestors. In Yarmouth county they average
six to a family, and single instances far surpass that.
The late James Doucett, of Tusket Forks, had twenty-
seven children. The assistance of two wives was
found necessary for the accomplishment of this feat ;
but at Bloomfield another of our Acadians managed
to increase the population by twenty-four, with the
aid of a single helpmeet.

What part of France the Acadians came from seems
not to have been fully decided yet. Some say that
those of Yarmouth came from Bretagne and those of
Clare from Normandy. Rameau, the historian of La
France aux Colonies^ conjectures on philological
grounds that the D'Entremonts belonged to Bretagne,
but the traditions of their family and other historical.

THE ACADIANS — CONTINUED.

237

evidence point to Normandy as their ancestral home.
Prof. Lake, of Harvard, has lately shown that the New
Englandcrs are the descendants of the old English
gentry, who were subdued by the Normans. As the
first English settlers of Yarmouth and other parts of
western Nova Scotia were New Englanders, and as
they took possession of the lands from which the
Acadians had been expelled, some Freeman of the
future may find in these circumstances the materials
for an ethnologico-historical contrast between the
Norman conquest of England and the New England
settlement of Acadia. But we must hark back again
from the future to the past.

By comparing that old census of 1 67 1 with others
taken in 1686, 1693 and 1703, it appears that Pubnico
was the oldest of all of the old Acadian settlements
except Port Royal, and that therefore it is to-day the
oldest Acadian settlement in the world. Grand Pre,
Canard, Piziquid, Cobequid, Beaubassin, etc. — all
those that have been most written and sung about in
history and fiction and poetry — do not put in an ap-
pearance until one or other of the late censuses men-
tioned. Of settlements near Pubnico, Port Razoir
appears for the first time in 1693, and Chebogue — the
only Yarmouth one mentioned except Pubnico — not
until 1748, when it had twenty-five families, and was

338

ACADJE AND THE ACADIANS.

the largest and most important village in the county.
Port Razoir was the earliest name of the place which
has since been known as Port Roseway and New
Jerusalem, and which is now known as Shclburne.
While bearing the august name of New Jerusalem, it
was offered for sale at public auction. Just fancy the
New Jerusalem being knocked down at Law's on a
Saturday afternoon, between a barrel of apples and a
second-hand stove I

According to the census of 1686 Philippe D'Entre-
mont was then living at Port Royal, and ranked hird
among the aristocracy of the day, next aft he
seigneur of the district and the lieutenant-general.
Though seventy-seven years old at this time, he was
acting as attorney-general under Governor Menneval.
His seigneurie at Pubnico was ruled over by his eldest
son, Jacques, he who married Anne De La Tour.
After the capture of Port Royal by Nicholson, and
the final cession of the province to England, most of
the French gentry left the country, but the D'Entre-
monts remained. They seem to have taken no part in
the plots and intrigues that were carried on against
the English government from 17 13 to the expulsion.
Indeed it stands recorded in history that through all
the acts of open and underhand hostility of this period
" the D'Entremonts had been peaceable." Yet at the
expulsion they were not spared.

♦

THE ACADIAN&— CONTINUED.

239

Besides Pubnico and Chebogue there were Acadian
settlements in this county at Chegoggin, at Eel Brook,
and along the Tusket river and the lakes, but little
seems to be known of them except their names.
Most of their inhabitants were carried o(T to Boston
by Major Jedediah Prcbble in 1756. Such of them as
escaped to the woods and those who were allowed to
return settled down afterwards as near their old homes
as they could get.

Of th' life of the Yarmouth Acadians in past days,
we know, unfortunately, very little. But there seems
to be no good reason for supposing that it differed
much from that of their brethren in the province gen-
erally. That they were engaged chiefly in farming,
fishing and fur-trading — of this much at least we may
feel quite sure. And of these occupations, farming —
the earliest and most honorable of all —was no doubt
the principal one.

The founders ot the Acadian colony intended from
the beginning that its chief industry should be agri-
culture. Many colonies founded about the same time
gave their chief attention to searching for the precious
metals. But Lescarbot told the first Acadians that
the best mine he knew of was a mine of corn and of
wine, and Poutrincourt set them to ploughing the soil
the very next day after they landed. From that time

• (

240

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

until their expulsion, agriculture was their one predom-
inant industry. And they seem to have been very
successful at it. Rameau says that at the time of
the expulsion " they were incontestably the most in-
dustrious people and the most advanced in agricul-
ture, of all America." Their best work in this line,
he says, was done after 17 1 3 under the English
regime. But some of the Englishmen who lived
among them at that time formed a less favorable
opinion of their industry and agriculture. Governor
Phillips, writing to the Board of Trade in 1734, calls
them "a proud, lazy, obstinate and untractable people,
and unskilful in the methods of agriculture;" and he
continues, " they have plenty of dung for manure,
which they make no use of, but when it increases so
as to become troublesome, then, instead of laying it
on their lands, they get rid of it by removing their
barn to another spot." Truly, a heroic remedy for a
nuisance!

However true this may have been of some of the
Acadians of the Annapolis river in Phillips' time, it
will not be accepted as true of the race as a whole by
any one who has studied their history. It would be
quite as reasonable to accept as historical truth those
hyper- poetical and super-fanciful pictures of the bright
side of their life given us by the Abbe Raynal and

THE ACADIANS — CONTINUED.

241

Longfellow. Rameau, a Frenchman himself and
soaked through and through with enthusiasm and
sympathy for the ill-fated race, tells us that Raynal's
work is rather ''une pastorale de fantaisie" than- a
sober history, and even admits that Longfellow's de-
scription of the golden age in Acadia is "w;/ peu'
embelliey And yet it seems difficult for writers to.
keep outside the realm of poesy and fancy when treat-
ing of this people. There is some strange, bewitching
fascination about them and their history that carries,
away less romantic imaginations than those of abbes
and poets.

Even newspaper men can't always resist it. In an
article on the Pubnico Acadians of to-day, published
in the Yarmouth Herald a few weeks ago, after enu-
merating the many flourishing industries of the place
— their fifty-five fishing vessels and $22^^000 annual
catch of fish ; their paint and oil stores ; their furni-
ture and tailoring establishments; their boat, dory,
door, sash and blind factories ; their boot and shoe ard
sail- making; their hide tanning, etc., etc. — the writer
gives the following description of a beautiful scene,
which he witnessed in one of the Pubnico homes:
"A fair Acadian lady was playing and singing the
touching melody of " Home, Sweet Home ;" the well-
known picture of Evangeline hung on a wall close by
16

242

/.CADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

the singer. With such surroundings the most callous
heart could not fail to be impressed. The melodious
notes of the tune, the spirit of poor Payne, in his
Algerian exile, breathing in the words of the song, the
sad, plaintive look of Evangeline, and the living de-
scendant of the exiled race in the person of the singer,
all conspired to form a scene of grandeur and sub-
limity long to be remembered." Then, speaking of
the dismal prospect for the Pubnico fishing industry
should no satisfactory arrangement be made with the
United States government, he concluded, " Neverthe-
less, we believe this enterprising people will devise
ways and means to compensate themselves for any
loss." And that is just what the Acadians have been
doing all through their history. When turned adrift
from one home, or deprived of one means of livelihood,
they have always been ready to turn to a new country
and to apply themselves with unflinching courage and
unflagging industry to new conditions of life.

It is a mistake to suppose that Colonel Winslow
and his troops burnt and destroyed all the buildings
belonging to the French in Horton, Cornwallis, or
Cobequid. As a matter of fact, the Acadians were not
all removed from Grand Pre until December, 1755, and
during the time that elapsed between September and
December of that year, many of the houses were oc-

THE ACADIANS — CONTINUED.

243

cupied by the Acadians themselves; and when the
Connecticut settlers first arrived at Horton, in 1760,
and in Cornwallis, in 1 761, many of them moved into
the French houses and put their cattle in the barns.
Old Barns, near Truro, on the Cobequid Bay, is
named from French barns that long stood there,
and until about 1866 an old Acadian barn with a
straw-thatched roof stood on a knoll opposite Ross
Chipman's house on Church street, Cornwallis. For a
long time it was used by Colonel Kerr. In Horton
many of the houses of the village of Grand Pre were
standing long after the New England settlers came,
and minute descriptions of the church or mass-house
have been transmitted to our own time.

What a glamour Longfellow has thrown around
these people by the magic of his pen ! We are sensible
to it, and freely acknowledge the fascination; yet
ever with it, deep in the sympathetic heart, must re-
main the anger, which is not sin, against the false
priests who led them to their ruin, and the heartless
soldiers who so ruthlessly expelled them from their
homes: f

"Many a weary year has passed since the burning of Grand Pr6,
When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed,
Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile,
Exile without an end and without an example in story."

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FIRST GERMAN SCHOOL IN LUNENBURG.

HAVING made this long diversion in the inquiry
after the French element in the community, we
return to the Germans of Lunenburg. As we have
seen, Jung puts their number at two hundred and fifty
families. An average of five to a family would give a
population of twelve hundred and fifty. But at the
time these figures were put down by Jung, Mr. Mor-
reau reports the number of his German, French and
English communicants to have been reduced from
two hundred to between fifty-four and sixty. Many
of them were in their graves, but there was another
reason than death for the reduction. The Germans
had withdrawn from any seeming connection with the
Church of England, and were meeting in private
houses. They were also faithfully endeavoring to se-
cure a pastor of their own faith. They were working
hard to provide for their daily temporal wants, and, at
the same time, striving to meet the mental and spirit-
ual necessities of themselves and their children. It
was not because they were dull and stupid, as some

supposed, that they remained so long uncared for and

(244)

THE FIRST GERMAN SCHOOL IN LUNENBURG. 245

untaujrht. The German mind is deep. The spiritual
nature of the race is sympathetic and profound. The
religious German would rather starve the body than
neglect the soul. The spiritual needs are of greater
moment to him than the wants of body or mind. But
in the case of these settlers, accustomed as they had
been all their lives to looking to their civil rulers for
the supply of their mental and spiritual needs, by the
appointment of schoolmasters and clergymen, we need
not be surprised to find them looking to them still.
They waited on them long, before making an inde-
pendent effort to supply their wants themselves.

" Because we could no longer endure to see the pit-
iful condition of our children, growing up as they are
in ignorance, we determined to wait no longer upon
our superiors. We accordingly made the necessary
arrangements among ourselves, without governmental
aid, and finally succeeded in securing the services of a
German school-teacher in the year 1760." This was
ten years after they left Germany. The chronicle con-
tinues: "He had a large number of children to
instruct, and everything was going well with the
school; but here, to our sorrow, trouble was occa-
sioned and hindrances were laid in our way by those
who should have given us aid. At this time the Rev.
Robert Vincent came into our settlement as English

246

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

missionary. The services were conducted ty him in
the English language. He took our German school-
master under his patronage and control, paying him
a salary of five pounds per annum.

" All this was no better than it had been heretofore
with respect to our church affairs, and in regard to our
school quite different intentions soon became mani-
fest. The German language was entirely abolished
from our school, and the order was issued that those
who would not study the English language would not
be allowed to attend the school. (Our schoolmaster
himself was not able to speak or understand the Eng-
lish language, and was obliged to study hard from
day to day to gain a little knowledge of the lessons he
professed to teach.) Through this the school was
broken up."

That is the plain, unvarnished tale as told by Jung.
The name of the school-master who sold his services
so cheaply, and probably drew all the salary his ser-
vices v/ere worth, has been lost in friendly oblivion.
But the history of the founding and destruction of the
first school of the Germans remains, a pathetic inci-
dent in the annals of the town. The good intentions
of the people were hindered, their efforts at self-help
thwarted, their loving endeavors, amid distress and
poverty, to educate their children, thrown back upon

THE FIRST GERMAN SCHOOL IN LUNENBURG. 247

themselves, whether by good intent or evil intent the
sequel may explain. At present it looks like another
case of the hawk protecting the dove.

Jung says : ** Because the parents could not under-
stand the English language, they wanted their children
to be first instructed in German, that they might teach
them the principles of their most holy religion, after
which they were satisfied to have them learn English."
This was a natural desire, highly creditable to the
devout and faithful people, and also a reasonable con-
cession to those who were endeavoring to Anglicize
their children. It shows that in their hearts religion
had the first place, and language the second.

" When Mr. Vincent saw that the school was broken
up and the consequences not what he anticipated, he
allowed that English instruction should be confined to
the forenoons, and the afternoons devoted to German.
This he did in the hope of resuscitating the school.
But the condition was attached that whoever would,
not send their children to the English school should;
not send them to the German. The plan would have
been a good one, but the confidence of the people in
him and the school was gone."

These are candid statements of the old historian.
The school was broken up because they refused to
send their children to it. That looks badly. Did not

248

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

they wish to have their children educated ? Certainly.
They had moved in the matter themselves. But there
had been unsolicited interference, which they were
manly enough to resent. Their holy religion stood
first in their affections. Everything in their history
revolved around it. Everything was made secondary
to it. And rather than allow their children to be edu-
cated in a language which they could not understand,
and in a system of doctrine which they did not believe,
they chose to deprive them of the benefits of all edu-
cation, save such as with the limited time and qualifi-
cations at their disposal they could bestow on them in
their homes. This shows the heroic mettle of these
ancient worthies ; but, unfortunately, those in author-
ity did not understand their motives, or were not capa-
ble of appreciating their self-sacrifice for the sake of
their religion, set them down as obstinate, intractable
boors, and treated them accordingly.

Of the Rev. Mr. Vincent the record in Halifax says:
" 1761, August 7. Advised that the Rev. Robert Vin-
/cent be appointed to minister at Lunenburg, salary
seventy pounds, and twenty pounds per annum as
.schoolmaster there." " August 13. Advised that the
iRev. R. Vincent be admitted to celebrate divine ser-
•vice in the church at Lunenburg, and there perform
. all rites and ceremonies, according to the usages of the

THE FIRST GERMAN SCHOC 1n LUNENBURG. 249

Church of England, alternately with the Rev. Mr.
Morreau ; and that Colonel Sutherland be requested
to adjust all matters relating to the church between
them." He commenced his duties as minister and
teacher in 1762. It has been stated that *'he was re-
markable for indefatigable application and moderate
conduct in the course of his mission," and it was be-
lieved that ** persevering in his duties even beyond his
strength shortened his days." He disappears in a
short time, his successor coming upon the scene in
1768.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE HOUSES AND PEOPLE OF THE OLDEN TIME, BY THE
LIGHT OF THE FISH-OIL LAMP.

Tl^E leave the educational affairs of the people at
' ' this point, to gather up some reminiscences of
their times, and the manner in which they lived.
Their houses were log cabins, chinked with moss, or
daubed with clay. Most of them were built of round
logs with the bark on. The more pretentious had
two sides of the timbers hewed. The roofs were
first made of bark, then of straw thatch, and later of
split shingles several feet in length, kept in their
places by long poles weighted with stones. Shingles
were sometimes put on with wooden pins; those nailed
with wrought-iron nails were a later development.

We know whereof we speak when we aver, concern-
ing some of these old houses, that they were substan-
tially built and very comfortable. We passed several
happy years in one of a little later date, 'which was
one hundred and twelve years old when it was shoved
around the corner to make room for something more
modern. It is still in use.

Across the street was another even older, which is

(250)

HOMES AND PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

251

Still inhabited. What talcs these old houses could
tell if they could speak ! How they have looked out
from the little dormer windows in the roof upon the
changing world! The former was the parsonage,
standing in the odor of sanctity beside the church ;
the latter a brewery facing its clerical neighbor, in no
wise abashed so long as its beer was good ; for did
not the pastor and the brewer fraternize and walk to-
gether in peace in those good old times? And did not
the little brewery send forth many a gallon imperial of
sparkling, honestly compounded drink to cheer the
hearts and slake the thirst of the laborers who built
that parsonage and church? Nay, is it not of tradi-
tion that the exhausted choristers between the hymns
erstwhile did find it convenient to step across and
lubricate their thirsty pipes from foaming mugs in the
cosy tap-room of that same ancient hostelry? Why
should it be ashamed, forsooth ?

What gallant grooms and blushing brides ascended
the steps which. led into that antique parsonage, and
promised within its venerable walls to take each other
for health or for sickness, for prosperity or'^adversity,
for better or worse, until death should them part !
And with the blessing of the man of God and the
smile of the Father upon their union, have they not
come down glad that the ordeal was safely passed !
What christenings, too, and funerals, were there !

252

ACADIE AND THE ACADIAN8.

And across the way mine host of the Dolphin — the
hostelry must have had a name, and that, perforce, a
nautical — rubicund and jolly, brewed and malted and
sent forth the effervescing draughts with which each
feast was crowned. And in the long winter nights
what gatherings were there beneath his hospitable
roof! Here came together the even-tempered farmers
from the plains of Saxony, and met the vivacious vine-
dressers from the sunny hills of France. What mus-
cular and gallant calves those stockings of grey en-
robed ! What glorious buckles of steel or brass or
even costlier metals shone upon and for the adorn-
ment of their knees at each recurring holiday ! And
those round jackets and short breeches — who will say
they were not more '^omfortable than the Ijng-tailcd
coats and French trousers now in vogue ? Nor \vere
the extremities left without their proper furnishing.
The tall hats of Brabant were en mode ; small as to
the crown, wide-spreading in the rim, and rising heav-
enward to unrecorded heights; while sabots, scooped
from blocks of birchen wood, made fast with leathern
thongs and ornamented with broad buckles, gave the
necessary covering to the feet. Long plaits of hair,
bound in with ribands of black, the which were known
as " queues," a name which brought down many a fair
speller in disgrace in our boyhood's days, descended

HOMES AND PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

353

from their heads. Such were our forefathers In ap-
pearance in those palmy days of eld.

And our foremothers, too — the women, Heaven
bless theml — were they not also there in all the proper
glory of their sphere? Did not bright eyes sparkle
from beneath the gay kerchiefs within which were
prisoned their abundant tresses? Were they of old
not held in mind by him who crowned the Book of
Proverbs with the description of a virtuous woman ?
For these sought wool and flax, and worked willingly
with both their hands; these laid their hands to
spindle and distaff, and threw the flying shuttle to
weave the web from which their own clothing was
made; these were not afraid of the snow for their
households, seeing they were clad with double gar-
ments.

We have in our possession now a silhouette, of
shadow picture, of one of the ancient worthies of the
town, in high collared surtout, stiff stock and plaited
queue. This picture, cut with the scissors before the
science of photography was known, is a genuine relic
of the olden time. From it we form an idea of the
appearance of the people upon state occasions; and it
must have been, to our way of thinking now, an ap-
pearance marvelous to behold.

The household and kitchen utensils in use among

254

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

them were commonly few and simple. Benches
ranged around the walls did duty as chairs. Tables
of home manufacture, without spreads or napkins, held
their frugal meals. Some articles of china-ware and
crockery remained of those which had been brought
from fatherland. Occasionally at birthday celebration?
or at christenings, the hoarded spoons and other little
articles of plate were solemnly brought forth to grace
the board and shine with awe-inspiring luster for the
time. '*

The daily fare was simple and healthful ; potatoes
or other vegetables grown at home, and fishes from
the sea in all abundance and variety. A pot, swung
from a hook on the iron crane in the throat of the
huge, cavernous chimney which took up one end of
the house, served for many purposes beside the cook-
ing of the family meals. The little teapot of brown
glazed earthenware simmered on the embers of the
hearth and mingled the delicate aroma with the more
stalwart odors of saur kraut, potatoes and fish, or
pork and beans. Sugar was a^uxury indulged in by
the few; the many ate the brown molasses of the West
Indies on their barley bread, or sweetened their cup of
tea therewith, and poor, indeed, was he who at any
time within ten years after the founding of the town,
for any cause was obliged to forego the pleasure of
using that staple commodity ad libitum.

HOMES AND PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

255

Once in the course of my travels I fell in with an
old, old man, no matter who, or where, or when, who
had a grievous complaint to lodge against the persons
upon whom in his helplessness he was dep n.^-nt for
his daily bread. He had enough substar ial r:»od to
eat, had bread and butter and eggs and meat, had
milk and coffee and tea to drink, tobacco to chew, and
everything else but " sweetening." And bitter in his
soul was that poor old man, avowing his desire to die,
and darkly hinting at the fell determinantion within
his heart to hasten that departure because he had no
"sweetening." He, who once had been the independ-
ent owner of farms and stock, who had built saw-
mills and owned them and controlled men, who had
never in those days known what it was to be short in
it, was now without " sweetening." Ruefully he mur-
mured, in his dotage, the refrain of his standing griev-
ance, " not a drop of sweetening." It had been the
one standing luxury of his life ; it was now forbidden
by the physician ; he had " no sweetening," and earth
and this life had no further charm.

Wald-thee was a favorite beverage in many a home.
It was compounded from the leaves of wintergreen, or
mountain-tea, steeped or boiled in the sap of the
sugar maple. The sugar and molasses from this tree
was extensively manufactured and used where it

256

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

t 1

'I
i

! •

grew. And just here occurs an incident of later date.
Before the town of Bridgewater was founded, an ad-
venturous spirit pushed out into the wilderness, and
built for himself a little cabin on the farm which was
to be, on the hills looking down the La Have. His
drink was water from the wildwood springs, but once
while in town he riotously squandered two and six
pence in the purchase of "store tea." But he had no
wife to draw it for him. Following his own judgment,
as a man must sometimes do in unaccustomed straits,
he boiled it thoroughly in his camp-kettle, threw the
water away, and endeavored to eat the leaves. He
did it heroically, but like the Scotchman's haggis, " a
little of it went a great way." His intense disgust
while going through the martyrdom led him to make
complaint to others when opportunity presented, and
so the story came out, and is repeated even unto this
day.

And this, as the lamented Lincoln would say, re-
minds me of another, which happened to some Ice-
landers, of the Musquodoboit settlement in Halifax
county. They had been accustomed in their own
country to seethe pottage from the Iceland moss, and,
on their arrival in this country, looked about them for
something of the same kind. Their search was re-
warded by finding something that looked like it.

HOMES AND PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

257

. They gathered and prepared it in due form. They
boiled it long and furiously, but it would not soften,
nor would it become sweet. The longer it was cooked
the Rougher it grew. The harder they boiled it the
more tasteless it seemed. They were obliged to give
up the attempt in despair. And when I inquired
what they had been cooking, they gravely informed
me it was the mosses and lichens which grew upon
the trunks of the forest trees. And, God knows, they
were to be pitied, for they were in a state bordering
on starvation. It was no joke for them. But how I
wander!

Stoves in the early days of Lunenburg were quite
unknown. The cooking was done on the open fire,
and the bread-baking in the oven. ' An utensil in
vogue in those days, which has now been relegated to
the garret, was the " Dutch oven." It was a circular
plate of iron, about eighteen inches in diajneter, with
three long feet beneath, and a rim perhaps two inches
or less in height above, having holes in it for the bail
or handle. The barley dough for the Johnny-cake
. was rolled out and spread on this ; glowing coals were
raked in a heap to the edge of the hearth ; on this
heap the oven was placed, the iron cover was put on,
and the whole surmounted and crowned with a layer

of bright embers. And many a heartsome cake was

. 17

2^8

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

t '

I I

baked therein ! The nearest approach to a stove for
heating purposes was a sort of brazier made of tough
clay, about a foot in height, hollow in the centre to
receive the charcoal or the embers from which the
heat was derived. As there were no closed stoves,
there was no burnt air with all the moisture and all
the oxygen exhausted from it, and no deadly super-
abundance of sulphurous gas to inhale ; and hence
there were none of the peculiar diseases generated or
fostered thus, to be found among the people of those
primitive times.

But they were compelled to contend with another
prolific source of annoyance, discomfort and disease,
from which the advances of science and discovery
ha\^e happily freed their descendants. That annoy-
ance arose from the difficulty which they had in
obtaining light. In their houses they had no light
except the flickering gleams which sprang from the
fire of logs upon the hearth. But lamps, shaped like
a saucer pinched together at one side, in which was
laid a strip of cotton cloth, were made of earthenware
or iron. These were hung from a nail in a beam
overhead, and fed with fish-oil or lard. The fish-oil
was manufactured for the purpose from the liver of
the dog-fish. Any one who has ever passed within
half a mile to windward of a string of these malodor-

HOMES AND PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME,

259

ous denizens of the sea in process of curing, needs not
be told how vile the smell of the burning must have
been. To abate the punishment of being compelled
constantly to inhale the horrid odor, a large funnel-
shaped canopy was hung above the lamp. From the
apex of this a pipe or conductor was led through any
convenient opening out at the roof or window to the
outer air ; and later, when stoves came into use, this
conductor of smoke from the lamp was carried into
the stove-pipe. Many of those stove-pipes with the
little branch by which this conductor of lamp-smoke
was attached, now unused and covered with a sheet-
iron cap, may still be seen in the houses of the people
thereabout — a thing of mystery to the uninitiated. I
found one of these mysterious openings through the
ceiling of the old parsonage-home, with an arrange-
ment in the attic over it for retaining the smoke and
collecting the soot, which was afterward converted
into lamp-black.

Thus words originate. Never, until after long,
puzzling search I had fathomed the myster}' of this
contrivance for disposing of the smoke of the fish-oil
lamp, did I know why the soot from the smoke of oil
was called lamp black, rather than stove-black, or any
other kind of black. Shakespeare, whom I have
already had occasion to quote, says:

! <•,

260 ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

" A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,"

yet there commonly is, and if not there ought to be,
a reason for, and something in, a name. And this is
what there is in the name of lamp-black. And lamp-
black is not a thing to be despised. It has become a
potent factor in the world's progress. Printer's ink is
made from it.

; ^ ? »Ka ? rvw -: — ^

CHAPTER XX.

. THE BOOKS THE FATHERS READ.

"TITE may wonder what need those pioneers had for

'* lamps and lamplight in the days when news-*-

papers were almost unknown, and books so rclativelji-

few. The person with that query in mind shouldl

stand right here, where these words are being penned,.

that he might see a sight which would satisfy his>

mind upon that score. Here are some of the books

they read in those by-gone days. Not a family

among them that did not have its library. Two

wooden pins, driven into auger-holes in a log of the

wall, with a board laid on them, held the precious

volumes. They were not many. The range of variety

was not extensive. A dozen, or, at most, a dozen and

a half, comprised the whole assortment of different

works. Outside the Herr Ffarrers library, the books

beyond that range were few and far between. But

what books they were ! The very cream and essence

of the devotional literature of the age !

Each little collection had one copy of the Book of

Books. Here is one in my collection. The covers

are of half-inch boards encased in leather, once bril-

(261)

a6p

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

liant with embossed and gilded filigree-work and corner
pieces of figured brass; now black with age and bat-
tered and worn by reason of much using. Ten inches
wide, fifteen inches high, and five inches through from
cover to cover, by actual measurment with the accur-
ate piece of carpenter's rule in that drawer, is this ven-
erable book. Open it with loving hand. Here, inside,
upon the broad back is the former owner's name:

Leonhart Jung.

And following, the Name of the Holy Trinity:

(jOTT der Vater.

GoTT der Sohn.

GoTT der Heilige Geist.

Following that is a quotation from the Gospel of
St. Mark, xvi. i6. " He that believeth and is bap-
tized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be
damned." That was the summary of that man's faith;
and who shall declare that he was not orthodox in his
belief? The fly-leaf of his Bible bears quotations in
German manuscript from favorite hymns and passages
of Holy Writ. The title-page is illuminated, the alter-
nate lines being printed in crimson. A statement
made in the context to the title explains that the
translation of the Bible as it is here given in the Ger-
man mother-tongue, was begun by Doctor Martin
Luther in the year of Christ 1522 and completed in

BOOKS THE FATHERS READ.

263

the year 1534. The pubh'sher was Johann Andres,
Nurnberg in Bavaria, 1 747. Further than this into
the sacred volume now we cannot go. Despite the
temptation to dwell upon the wonderful wood-cuts
with which its broad pages are so liberally embel-
lished, we reverently close the book and lay it away.
Following in the order of merit and in the esteem
of the old Germans everywhere is IVahres Christen'
thum, that is, the collected writings of the venerable
John Arndt upon True Christianity. This copy was
printed at Frankfort-onthe-Main, by John Boerlin,
1707. No devotional book ever written, so far as we
know, excepting Luther's Catechism and, of course,
the Bible, has had a wider or more deserved circula-
tion. Here, beside this old copy, it stands in its ele-
gant English dress, translated by the Rev. Dr. Charles
F. Schaeffer; Philadelphia, Smith, English & Co.,
1868. It has been translated into Latin, Danish,
Swedish, Bohemian, Polish, Low Dutch, French,
Turkish, Malabar, Tamul, and many other languages.
During the reign of Queen Anne of England large
numbers of German emigrants passing through that
country on their way to New York and Pennsylvania,
were furnished by the Rev. Anthony William Boehm,
a German Lutheran clergyman, court chaplain to
Prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen

I ^(

264

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Anne, with copies of this noble work. I do not know
of any similar donation having been made to our
Nova Scotia pioneers, but I expect soi:ie time to find
a record to that effect. The similarity of the book-^ in
the possession of the people — I found the same kindj^
in every collection — leads to the supposition that not
literary or devotional taste alone, but the liberality of
some good Christian heart, had somewhat to '1 > with
the uniformity.

Here, again, are sam-^les of the hymn-books in use
among them : First, and most popular, is " Das Mar-
burger Gesang-Buch^' with a frontispiece devof'^d to a
full-length wood-cut of Dr. Luther in gown and bands,
with the apocryphal Bohemian goose behind him. It
is a horrible piece of art ; printed by Christopher
Sauer, in Germantown, Pa., 1 770. Next, the Halle
Hymn-Book, edited by the Director of the Orphan
House, John Anastasius Freylinghauscn, one of the
ancestors of ex President Arthur's Secretaiy of State,
and one time Governor of New Jersey : printed at the
Orphan House, Halle, 1758. Following this, the
Nurnbcrg Hymn-Book; name of the compiler not
given ; printed by Lorenz Bieling, Nurnberg, 1733.
The two latter have, in connection with the hymns,
collections of prayers suitable for various occasions.
Another of these hymn-books, supposed to have been

BOOKS THE FATHERS READ.

265

compiled by Dr. Johann Lorcnz Jati, but minus the
title-page, is vakiiblc on account of the biographical
register of authors which it contains, as well as for the
large number of valuable hymns ; printed at Ocbringen,
#Iay I, 1626.

Here is a collection of prayer-books : The first is
the well-known Starke's Hand-Buch in the original,
Stuttgart, 1797. This hooV has been reprinted in
many editions, in English and in other languages.
Another little volume is one that had been given out
under the patronage of the Duke of Saxony, by an un-
known author. Nuremburg, 1676. Prayers for every
conceivable occasion and state of mind are found in it.
One is said durin^j the raging of a storm, another in
fine weather, another, that ought to be offered more
fervently and more frequently than proi ibly it is by
those contemplating marriage, is for the gift of a be-
lieving wife or husband. Here is a book of medita-
tions by Sigismund Sebcrantz, Lunenburg, 1648.
Another volume is composite in character, containing
hymns, prayers and meditations, by Balthazar Bey-
schlag, Ni'irnberg, i'^qq.

The well-known Huebner's Bible Stories follows, by
John Huebner, Rector at Hamburg, printed in Leip-
zig, 1 72 1. This has been frequently translated, and
was immensely popular. Here, also, are copies of

N ^1

266

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Luther's Small Catechism in variety ; one issued in
Magdeburg, 1732; another in Stuttgart, 1746; another
in Philadelphia, 1782; another in Germantown, from
the press of Christopher Sauer, 1752 ; and yet another
printed in Halifax by our old friend Anthony Hanery,
the Louisbourg fifer, in 1798.

One of the finest specimens of the printer's art to be
found anywhere is a copy of John Amdt's Paradeis
GacrtU'in, issued at Frankfort-on-the-Main by the
heirs of Anthony Hummen, 1664, with edges worn
and brown, the cover repaired by some hand unskilled
in the use of the wax-end and awl with which the
work was done ; with altogether a most uninviting
exterior, its pages present a continual succession of
surprises. The impression must have been one of the
first taken from the type. Every line, point and letter
is as clear as a copper-plate engraving. No modern
press-work can surpass it. Arndt was fortunate in his
publishers. Here is another copy, in miniature, of the
same work, Niirnberg, 173 1, in which the engraved
frontispiece is certainly creditable to the age in which
it was put forth ; but its typography is not equal to
that of the Frankfort edition of 1664. In fact, I have
never seen anything in the printer's art superior to it.

Books of sermons on the Epistles and Gospels for
the Sundays and Festivals of the Church Year were

BOOKS THE FATHERS READ.

267

numerous. Heic are Reden von Gottfried Arnold^
Leipzig, 1773 ; Cabinet- Predigtcn, von Gottlieb Cobern^
2 vols., under the patronage of Frederick, Prince of
Saxe-Gotha, 1768; a Commentary on the New Testa-
ment, by Carl Heinrich von Bogatzky, 2 vols., Halle,
printed at the Orphan House, 1755. Here also in
classical hog-skin are Postiile^ von Spangenberg, with
a preface by Dr. Martin Luther, printed at Wittenberg,
1599. And finally, a ponderous tome by Nicolaus
Selnecker in explanation of the Psalms of David.
The opening page is embellished with a woodcut of
the Psalmist, with a crown on his head, a harp in his
hands, singing we know not what; while the opposite
page is devoted to an introduction to the whole Psalter
in the form of a rhymed lyric by Hans Sachs. The
explanation of the first Psalm, which is entitled " Eine
kiirtze Auszlegungl' takes up just eighteen pages in
that book, thirteen inches long by eight inches wide ;
which gives a fair idea of the ancient German estimate
of brevity. The other psalms are elucidated with
similar conciseness. At the conclusion of the one
hundred and fiftieth, the publisher, Christophorum
Hauszler, devotes a page, Soli Deo Gloria ; printed
in Niirnberg, 1565. One of the woodcuts shows Sel-
necker playing the organ : the boy who manipulates
the bellows is looking at David, who is still clinging

268

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

to the harp, ith an expression which might be inter-
preted to mean that himself, Selnecker and the organ
are rather an improvement on David and the harp.
At any rate, the cut gives us an idea of what a first-
class pipe-organ was three hundred and twenty odd
years ago, for the book is at least so old.

And all these books above enumerated and de-
scribed have been collected from the descendants of
the Lunenburg settlers. They tell us what the fathers
{^6. their souls upon in the days of their terrible trials.
These of which the sketch has been presented, are
almost a complete catalogue of the books our ances-
tors read by the light of the log fire or the flaming
fish-oil lamp. As compared with the wish-wash,
milk-and-water literature of the average reader of to-
day, they were the strong meat upon which men are
nourished. These books the fathers treasured, used
and transmitted as sacred heirlooms to their children.
They esteemed them, as they are indeed, worth their
weight in gold. Out of the archives of the Lutheran
church in Lunenburg was sent, recently, a copy of the
first edition ever issued of the Lutheran Confessional
Books, to the Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
It is a question whether there is another in Canada
or the United States. We treasure those wonderful
old volumes now even more than the fathers did;

BOOKS THE FATHERS READ.

269

although some persons there be yet, even as there
were in Lunenburg one hundred years ago, who
wonder why. It would be useless to explain. A
blind man cannot understand colors, nor can a deaf
man appreciate the harmony of sweet sounds.

CHAPTER XXI.

i [

BRYZELIUS.

AFTER the death of Mr. Vincent, which Jung says
took place in October 1765, the Rev. Paulus
Biyzelius came to Lunenburg as English and German
missionary. As this gentleman has taken a prominent
position in the early history of the town, I have been
at some pains to trace his previous career and inquire
into his antecedents, the result of which inquiry is here
appended. The Rev. Dr. W. J. Mann, Archivarius of
the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsyl-
vania, and Professor of Ethics and Hebrew in the
Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, writes thus of
him: " In Pennsylvania he appears first as a Moravian
minister whom the Swedish Provost, Von Wrangel,
convinced that he had to leave the Moravian connec-
tion. This was in 1760." It will be remembered here,
in speaking of the Moravians, that their practice at
that time was marked by many extravagances which
at a later period were completely removed. They
were known as " Zinzendorfers " from their leader
Nicholas Louis Count Von Zinzendorf, and were at

'' '-—'- -■-- "• ■--- (270) -...---..-.--.:-,-.-..-,■::._ :i..:..:

BRYZELIUS.

271

that time the occasion of much trouble to the Luth-
eran pastors in Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Dr. C. W. Schaeffer says* : " A certain
Paul Bryzelius, a young man, a native of Sweden, well
educated, of good parts and of upright character, hav-
ing been brought under the influence of some who
were not friendly to the Lutheran Church, appeared to
be acting as their instrument in an attempt to draw off
the Swedish Church at Racoon, in New Jersey.
Von Wrangel had approached him in the Name and
Word of the Lord. Bryzelius saw his error, was con-
vinced, repented of it, and under the advice of Von
Wrangel, appeared before the Conference with a
prayer for admission into the fellowship of the Lu-
theran Church. After a thorough examination of the
case before the Ministerium, Bryzelius declared, in
writing, that, having been thoroughly convinced of his
error, and having heartily abandoned it, he solemnly
bound himself, upon his admission into the Minister-
rium of the Swedes and German Lutherans of Penn-
sylvania, to teach nothing but what was based upon
the Word of God, to conform, in all his ministrations,
to our Symbolical Books, and to comply with the
order of said Ministerium. This document was signed
in the presence of the Ministerium, by Bryzelius him-

* Early History of the Lutheran Church in America, pp. 38, 39.

272

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

self, and by Muhlenberg, Von Wrangel and Gerok
as witnesses. The whole ceremony was appropriately
terminated with prayer that the brother thus restored
to the Church might, by the grace of God, be an in-
strument for bringing many souls to the Saviour of
the world. • .

From the result it might be argued that the divine
blessing rested upon these measures. Bryzelius went
to the church in New Germantown, New Jersey,
labored with much acceptance amongst his people,
and was held in honor both by his Swedish and Ger-
man brethren, for his faithfulness."*

In the list of clergymen at the meeting of the Penn-
sylvania Ministerium, held at Philadelphia June 27,

1762, his name appears — Rev. Pastor Bryzelius, of
Raritan, New Jersey, f

Dr. Mann says: "A passage on page 1 1 34 of the
Halle Reports indicates that he had been in former
years acquainted with Whitefield, to whom, Nov. 9,

1763, at Philadelphia, he, with Muhlenberg, paid a
visit. They were kindly received by him. Bryzelius
had known Whitefield in England and Ireland. I
suppose at that time he was in those countries serving
the Moravians as one of their missionaries,"

* Halle Reports, p. 853.
f Halle Reports, p. 716.

BRYZELIUS.

273

Quoting H. M. Muhlenberg,* Dr. Mann continues:
" He was a man of considerable erudition, good talent,
and honest purpose. In July, 1 76 1, he left Pennsyl-
vania for the congregations at New Germantown and
Bedminster in New Jersey. Synod sent him there for
a year as a period of probation. H. M. Muhlenberg,
Praeses, furnished him with a letter of introdnction to
the vestries. He had proved himself already quite
useful. There, also, his wife is commended as a;
person of good Christian character.

In March, 1762, he, with the Rev. N. Kurtz, came
X.r\ Philadelphia, to confer with the Revs. H. M.
Muhlenberg and Von Wrangel about the spiritual
condition and n( cessities of the Lutheran congrega-
tions in New Jersey and New York.f

" In the * Papers relating to the Church in Pennsyl-
vania,' privately printed by the late Bishop Perry,
1 87 1," says Dr. Mann, " I discover that Rev. Bryzelius,
A. D. 1766, Dec. 18, was recommended, by the Rev.
Dr. O. Smith, as 'a worthy man who had had Luth-
eran ordination,' to the Bishop of London, * in pur-
suance of the desire of the Society directed to Mr. .
Peters and myself to send some person capable of
officiating in English and German, in Nova Scotia. .

* Halle Reports, p. 853.

\ Halle Reports, p. 887.
18

•J,M7

'^X'

274

ACADIE AND THE ACADlANS.

His credentials are signed by the Rev. H. M. Muhlen-
berg, the head of the numerous body of Lutherans in
this province, and by the Rev. Von Wrangel, co-
missionary to the Swedish congregations; both men
worthy of all credit from your Lordship. Bryzelius
has often preached among our English congregations
to their satisfaction.' "

The Society above mentioned is the " Societas Pro-
movenda Cognitione Christi^'* London ; the Rev.
Peters spoken of was then Rector of the Philadelphia
Episcopal Christ's Church.

With this light upon the past career of the Rev.
Mr. Bryzelius, we are now in a position to understand
better the later developments of his history. But in
the meantime, 1765, Jung says, ** We began to hew
timbers in order to build a church, in connection with
the Reformed {Reformirt) ; but as bO m as our enviers
discovered this, they began to use all the means in
their power to hinder us. And they succeeded in
again frustrating our efforts." Not a word of com-
plaint.

From the Reports of the Society we learn that " the
Rev. Paulus Bryzelius, a Lutheran minister, was
ordained by the Bishop of London to the charge of
the German mission at Lunenburg, in 1767. At
Easter, 1768, he brought forty-six young persons for

T. - m ^ i ^ . ^s stmaiaiet^sm

BRYZELIUS.

275

the first time to the Holy Communion. Every Sun-
day he conducted services three times, preaching in
English at ten o'clock, in French at twelve, and in
German at two. At his request a supply of the Book
of Common Prayer in the German language was sent
out by the S. P. G., for the use of his congregation."
One of these books is now before me; printed by W.
Faden and E. Heydinger, London, 1 77 1. He also
translated Luther's Catechism, probably into English
or French. Whether this translation was ever pub-
lished I do not know, as I have never seen a copy.

I now return to Jung's manuscript, which says of
Bryzelius, " He was by birth a Swede. He adminis-
tered the Holy Sacrament for the first time according
to the doctrine and usage of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church as given in our Agendae^

We cannot fail to be mindful here of the emotions of
joy and gratitude which must have been stirred in the
hearts of these pious Germans, when, after a period of
eighteen years, they now for the first time had an
opportunity to receive the Lord's Supper, which was
to them the dearest treasure and the crown of their
faith, at the hands of one whom they were given to
regard as of like faith with theaiselves, in the order
and manner to which they had been trained from their
youth. As the celebration of the Holy Communion

276

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

was to them in itself the holiest act of fellowship with
God and with each other, this day would be to them
the gladdest of all their sojourn in the wilderness, and
would be marked by emotions too deep for words,
I have no doubt tears of thanksgiving flowed around
the altar of God that day. For the really pious
German, deep, sympathetic, trustful, clings with a
tenacity at once touching and heroic to the eternal
verities of his most holy religion. The severest blow
that can be dealt him is the one that strikes his faith
in God and the sacred ordinances of the Scripture.
And when once he is thoroughly enlightened as to
what the true doctrin'^s of God's Word are, and fully
convinced of their divine authority, he would rather
die than desert them. Such was the mind of the
faithful in the little band at Lunenburg. For this
they had waited and prayed and contended these
eighteen long years. And for this they now hailed
the newly-come pastor with unfeigned delight and
rallied round him to a man, for his teaching was pure
and his doctrine in accord with the truths of God's
Word as set forth in the Augsburg Confession and
the other Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church,
And this was only what they had a right to expect
from him as from a Lutheran pastor, for as such in
name and intention he made bis appearance among
them.

BRYZELIUS.

27;

"Then,"' says Jung, " he took our children for in-
struction preparatory tr confirmation and communion,
from both Lutheran and Reformirt, but instructed
them in the Church of England doctrine, and admin-
istered to them the Sacrament after the Church of
England's form. That gave immediate cause for
complaint and occasic ed an open rupture in the
congregation."

It has long been the custom with a certain class of
writers, in the Luthefan Church and out of it, to con-
done such offences against doctrine in the supposed
interests of peace, and to cry out against any one lift-
ing up the voice to expose, deno*uncf^ and protest
against them. But is that wisdom ? " The wisdom
that is from above \s, first pure, then peaceable." Bry-
zelius had betrayer' these Lutheran people. He did it
in the interest of union, that they might conform to
the established church for the sake of convenience, as
he had done.

And because they did not throw to the winds their
convictions of right and their clear perception of the
truth of divine revelation, again they are accounted
bigots forsooth, and obstinate " Dutchmen-," fit to re-
ceive only maledictions and outrage from their self-
constituted superiors in religious affairs. The Ger-
mans would not " conform." This was the sum of

^ii

378

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

their offending. And for this, although they were
made to suffer in many ways, their descendants ought
to be always thankful.

Had they then and there submitted to the ecclesias-
tical yoke so skillfully placed on their necks by the
artful Bryzelius, there would have been union, but
ther? would not have been unity. It would have been
uniformity made possible only by the sacrifice of prin-
ciple. A union based on the fundamental principles
of the Christian faith, brought about by a general con-
sent to the laws of right and justice; a true, hearty,
doctrinal unity, in which all agree that the revelation
of God and not human opinion shall be the final ar-
biter; wherein all parties concerned are of one accord
and of one mind, holding one Confession of Faith with
one understanding of that Confession, is a union that
will endure and bring unending blessing to all gath-
ered into its embrace. But the so-called Alliances,
Associations and Unions of our day, wherein people of
widely divergent views on fundamental things meet on
platforms so broad that Jews, atheists, infidels, Mo-
hammedans, and Turks can stand with them as Christ-
ians, posing in the name of religion and in the attitude
of brotherly love, are mere ecclesiastical combinations,
in which each one hopes to gain some selfish advant-
age over the others ; a sham, a fraud, a delusion and a

BRYZELIUS.

279

snare. Let us, as Christians, have unity of ductrine;
then we are one, never before. Let us, hke these
stern old Lutiierans of Lunenburg, stand fast in our
day and pfencration, and li^hly honor the heroic for-
titude with wli- h they separated themselves from one
who, for the petty rewards of positicm and worldly ad-
vantage, proved himself a t/aitor to the faith and
practice which he had sworh to maintain.

Bryzelius, true to nothing but the inconsistency of
his former record, had deserted and denied the Luth-
eran faith, if ever he fully held it, and was now lending
himself to lead these Lutherans of Lunenburg away
with him. But they knew what the true teaching of
God's Word was, and as they valued their souls and
hoped for their salvation, they could not give it up.
They had been rooted and grounded in that most holy
faith in the days of their childhood and youth, and the
harsh experiences of their later years had taught them
its value and made them esteem it all the more.
They loved the soul-saving truths of their Confession
of Faith with the love that was dearer than life. And
chief among the articles of that Confession was that of
this very doctrine concerning the Holy Corrmunion.
Around it gather the doctrine concerning the Per-
son 0'' Christ, which are the heart and life of the
Christian religion. With hearts fixed upon this truth

'.^

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

'/..

1.0

I.I

1.25

M 125

2.0

iS.

U IIIIII.6

Sciences
Corporation

^N^

^.^

- ■5.

23 WEST MMN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. I't^SO

(716) 872-4503

f^\

280

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

as the veritable gift of God, they could not give it up,
and they did not give it up. They clung to it with a
tenacity of purpose that is beyond all praise.

Says Jung: "Immediately after Bryzelius had
thrown off the mask under which he had come among
us — for he had been onh^ masquerading as a Lutheran
minister — we began once more to hold our meetings
in private houses as we had been doing before. We
met together in the house of Mr. Melchoir Broome in
the Northwest Range, where we engaged in de-
votional exercises, which consisted in reading a ser-
mon, singing and prayer. Then we consulted to-
gether among ourselves as to what should be done.
This meeting for consultation was held on the third
Easter day of the year 1768."

Observe the almost inconceivable deception quietly
set down here as an assured fact, that after Bryzelius
had gone to London and taken ordination in the
Church of England, he should be represented to these
German people as a Lutheran minister: it is mon-
strous! Observe further that the date of this meet-
ring of the Lutherans at Melchoir Broome's is signifi-
, cant. It was held just two days after the confirmation
; and communion above noted as forming part of the
'flattering report to the London Society; just time
enough for them to realize their position, get the
word out among themselves, and come together.

BRYZELIUS.

281

We now hasten to conclude what part of our history
centers about ihis gifted, strangely constituted man.
He was struck with apoplexy in the pulpit while
preaching, on the ninth of April, being Good Friday
1773, aged sixty. Of his interment the record states
that " he was buried under the pulpit, wherein, in-
deed, he died." At the time of his death he resided
where the late Matthew Ernst lived, in that suburb of
Lunenburg now known as Newtown. Of his descend-
ants we know nothing, except that he probably left a
son named Paul, which fact we glean from the fol-
lowing entry in the records of the Lutheran Church
of Lunenburg, Vol. II., 1803, No., S^ : ' Edward, son
of Paul Bryzelius and Sophia his wife, born August
18, 1803, baptized by the Rev. J. G. Schmeisser;
Sponsors, Ed. Molk and Dorothea his wife." It is
my conjecture that the aforesaid Dorothea was a
daughter of Bryzelius.

He has gone to his Maker and Judge, and his
works do follow him; a minister either without clear
convictions of doctrinal truth or without a conscience.

,, '■■■:(■

^uh

CHAPTER XXII.

CALLING A MINISTER.

JUNG'S record continues ; " There were present at
this meeting some twenty men. They resolved to
select six of their number to present their case to the
Government. They were instructed to set forth that
we have now waited eighteen years for a minister;
that our youth are now grown up; that some were
even married and the parents of children, and yet have
not been confirmed, nor ever received the Lord's Sup-
per. For this we cannot answer to God, that our chil-
dren are growing-up like wild men and heathens.
We want a minister. We ask permission to write for
one. We will pay him. We want assistance from
the Government only in procuring a minister."

This application to the authorities, it would appear,
was made in due form and according to their instruc-
tions by the commissioners appointed; for the writer
goes on at once to say : " But instead of assistance and
encouragement, they threw all manner of hindrances in
our way, and pressed us hard for an explanation as to

what we did believe, that we must have a minister of

(282)

,''ih

CALLING A MINISTER.

283

;-'.

• r i

our own faith. Then one of our number" (probably
Jung himself) " was obliged to repeat before the au-
thorities our Confession of Faith, i. e. that we believe
we take in the Lord's Supper, in with and under the
consecrated bread and wine, the true body and blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The highest officer in the
Government declared this could not be — but wc held
firmly to our faith." How naturally, in view of a
scene like this, the mind of the Christian reverts to the
words of our Saviour in the Gospel by St. Matthew —
" Yc shall be brought before governors and kings for
My sake, for a testimony against them."*

"Then we received as our answer that they would
not assist us, nor would they sign (endorse) our call
as we desired. We then held another meeting, at
which were present nine and thirty men. These
bound themselves together to write to the Rev. H. M.
Muhlenberg of Philadelphia, for a pastor. This we
did immediately, but we never received an answer.
On the twenty-ninth of March, 1769, we again wrote
to Philadelphia, but again received no answer. Let-
ters did come here from Philadelphia, but we never
could find out anything, because these letters always
fell into other hands." , ,

"In 1770 we began, with the help of God, to hew

(Matt x: 16-20.))

( i

284

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

timbers for our new church, and brought them into
town. We engaged workmen, and the frame was
raised on the twenty-second of May in the same year,
after which it was roofed and weather boarded."

The same year Mr. Umstatt removed from here to
New York, and we gave him authority in writing to
find a minister, and send him to us. He represented
our forlorn condition to the Rev. Mr. Gerock, who had
compassion on us and wrote to us. His letter here
follows and reads thus:

gerock's letter.

" ' Honorable Sirs and Dearly Beloved Brethren in the
Faith: — Your authorized messenger for obtaining an
Evangelical Lutheran minister, Mr. George Umstatt,
came to me the day before yesterday with his letters
of inquiry after an Evangelical High German minister
needed for Lunenburg, in Nova Scotia, and to get ad-
vice from me thereon. According to his assurances
and letters, the congregation there is helpless, and
without an authorized minister or competent teacher.
Therefore you have repeatedly approached the Rev.
Muhlenberg with your petitions. Neither answers
nor the wished-for help followed your petitions.
Now many of your best settlers seem to be tired of
the life there without the preaching of the Gospel,

CALLING A MINISTER.

285

and without any proper instruction in religious
matters. The aged are not edified nor the youth in-
structed according to the tenets of our holy religion as
set forth in the Augsburg Confession.

*' I therefore consider it my duty and office, upon
the representations and pleas of your authorized
messenger, to interest myself and take measures in
behalf of your congregation. If now the ' Mr. Eng-
lishmen' (meaning the Government officials in the
Church of England), permit it, and it is your liberty
and privilege to have a minister of our most holy
Evangelical religion, and if you wish it, so that your-
selves and your descendants, for the welfare of your
souls, may be instructed and improved, I think it ad-
visable and in place for me to make you this offer: I
will, according to your idea, wish and desire, help
you to secure a thorough, able, well-experienced,
upright, suitable Evangelical Lutheran pastor, either
from Pennsylvania or from the Duchy of Wiirtemburg,
whichever you prefer. I will try to secure a man of
from thirty to forty years of age, with a small family.
Next Spring, if he will accept the call, he shall go to
Lunenburg and begin his labors among you.

"If now, the enclosed conditions seem reasonable
and right to you, you shall first have a meeting of the
whole Evangelical Lutheran congregation, and after

..., ,j«-_..-. —

286

ACADIE AND THE ACADI^NS.

due deliberation and consideration in the sight of God,
you shall draw up a legal, Christian call for the Evan-
gelical Lutheran minister whom I, according to your
desire and request, shall conscientiously recommend
and send to you. The place for his name (in the call)
shall be left blank, so that I can myself put it in and
fill up the blank. I make this arrangement because
there are two whom I have in view. The conditions
shall be set forth in the call. Tiie six, eight, or ten
deacons shall sign it for themselves and in the name
of the congregation, for a time indefinite; or, so long
as the minister shall teach true Christian doctrine, and
faithfully, according to his ability, discharge the duties
of his office. In case he fail in this (from which may
God in His mercy preserve us !) an Evangelical, Right
Reverend Ministerium or Consistory shall adjudicate
to maintain or restore peace and order.

" It would be well to have the call witnessed by a
couple of Justices of the Peace, and attested with their
signature and official seal. You can send your letters
to Mr. Frederick Kiihl, merchant, in Philadelphia, or
to Mr. Wm. Hoffinan, merchant, in the same place.
The sooner you write the better. As soon as I can
learn the decision of one or the other of these minis-
ters to accept such a call, I will inform you. In the
mean time leave the whole matter to the merciful

CALLING A MINISTER.

287

kindness and good providence of God. Trust in the
Lord, and all will be well.

"With my kindly Greetings, T am
" Your most willing

" Friend and Servant,

" JoHANN Siegfried Gerock,
"Pastor of the High German Evangelical congrega-
tion of Christ's Church. /

^'New York, Aitgiist ijth, 1770.

"The conditions specified in this letter here follow:

" I. Each year £^0 Nova Scotia lawful money; each
pound to be equal in value to four Spanish dollars.

" 2. Forty bushels of grain — half corn, half wheat.

"3. A decent, comfortable and commodious par-
sonage, free of rent.

" 4. Twenty cords of good firewood delivered at the
house.

" 5. The produce of a cultivated thirty-acre lot; and
in the event of his death, the free use of the same for
his widow and orphans, together with a charitable
donation from a grateful congregation, for their Chrisr
tian maintenance.

" 6. The perquisites shall be discussed and verbally
agreed upon.

"7. The moving and traveling expenses shall fall
upon the congregation; which we promise honestly
to pay. - - -r^

fsn

28S

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

i 1

" 8. In case the minister who shall be called, find the
salary and means of living too scanty for himself and
family, or if, perhaps, on account of war or other visi-
tation sent from God, the times should become harder
than now, we promise, as grateful children to our
Reverend Pastor, and as honest men, according to
Christian equity in such exigency, to increase the
yearly salary in the same proportion; so that our
Shepherd and Teacher shall not with us and on our
account be obliged to suffer want, but that he who
sows to us the seed of spiritual things shall reap of
our temporal things. Thus may we be pleasing to
God and to all his people. To this may God help us 1*

" The foregoing letter we received on the first day
of November, 1770, and we called together our congre-
gation — now increased to seventy-five families — before
whom the letter was read. They unanimously agreed
to draw up a call immediately, and send it to che Rev.
Mr. Gerock. We drew it accordingly, and showed it
to the Justices of the Peace, as Mr. Gerock had re-
quested, asking them at the same time for their
attestation and signature or endorsement, which they
refused. They did not only not sign our call, but
made other opposing presentations to hinder us. We,
however, sent the call to the Rev. Gerock, without
their attestation, on the 7th of November, 1770.

CALLING A MINISTER.

289

THE CALL.

"The Call is as follows :

" Whereas we, the assembled inhabitants of Lunen-
burg, Nova Scotia, adherents of the Evangelical Luth-
eran religion, have assembled ourselves together with
an earnest desire to secure the services of a faithful
minister, and fervently calling upon God that He would
supply us with such an one, a confessor of the afore-
mentioned Evangelical Lutheran religion ; and to the
accomplishment of which there has been recommended

to us the Rev. Mr. , we do hereby extend to

the Rev. Mr. , an unanimous, very respectful,

hearty and earnest petition, and beg that, in consider-
ation of the fact that we are without the pure teaching
of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sac-
raments, and find ourselves thus forsaken, he would
come to Lunenburg and accept from us the office and
discharge among us the duties of a faithful preacher
and pastor in our congregation.

" We live in the steadfast hope that our request will
not be refused, but rather that our heartfelt, sincere
petition will be heard. We pray that you will accept
this offered position, and take upon yourself faithfully
to care for the welfare of our souls, and upon these
representations, in answer to our petition, come to us :
for which may God's blessing rest upon you.

290

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ill

" In order to this we do, by this instrument, agree,
promise, and bind ourselves to the above-mentioned,
the Rev. Mr. , to furnish the means of main-
taining an orderly and respectable livelihood so long
as he shall among us teach, live, and according to his
ability, faithfully discharge the duties pertaining to the
office of a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church ; and will agree to promptly pay, deliver and
allow the following specified recompense and emolu-
ments year by year during his ministry among us :

" I. £$0 Halifax currency per annum: a pound to
be reckoned at four Spanish dollars.

" 2. Forty bushels of grain : halt rye and half
barley.

" 3. A commodious and comfortable parsonage, free
of rent.

" 4. Twenty cords of good firewood, delivered at the
house.

" $. The perquisites shall be discussed and verbally
agreed upon.

" 6. The expenses of moving and traveling we agree
faithfully to pay.

"7. If the minister having been called shall find this
salary and means of living too scanty for himself and
his family; or if, on account of War or other judgment
sent from God, the times should be more stringent than

CALLING A MINISTER.

291

now, wc promise as grateful children to our Reverend
Father, and as honest men, according to Christian
equity, in such exigency, to increase the yearly salary
in the same proportion; so that our Shepherd and
Teacher shall not with us, and on our account, be
obliged to suffer want, but that he who sows to us-
the seed of spiritual things shall reap of our temporal
things. Thus may we be pleasing to God, and all His,
people. And to this may our Heavenly Father help*
us!

" To give further assurance of the keeping of our
promises, we with due consideration, by the authority
and in the name of all the assembled church members,
do hereunto annex our names with our own hands, in
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on this 7th day of November,
•1770.

"I. Friederich Arenberg.

" 2. Jacob Maiirer.

••3. Michael Hauptmann.

"4. Andreas Jung.

"5. Heinrich Ernst.

"6. George Conradt.

"7. Melchoir Bromm.

" 8. Wendell Wust.

"9. Phillip Rodenheiszer.

" 10. Leonhardt Anton Tauber.

*J*.4/

292

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

"II. Christoph Naasz.

"12. Heinrich Vogler."

On the eighteenth of April 1 77 1, we received a let-
ter from Mr. Umstatt, which was written on the twenty-
eighth of January, announcing that the call which we
sent to the Rev. Mr. Gerock had safely arrived, and
that Mr. Gerock himself had traveled to Hackensack
to get a minister for us. He gave Umstatt authority
to write to us, directing us to send to him (Rev. G.) a
bill of exchange for ;^io or ;^I2. We were unable to
get a bill of exchange here, but made up the sum of
;^iO, and sent it to Mr. Henry Kiihn in Halifax. He,
however, had no safe opportunity to send the money,
so it was left lying in his possession. We received no
further tidings from there until Mr. Umstatt removed
to Philadelphia, when he wrote back to us that when
he left Mr. Gerock, he promised to send a minister,
but it was not done ; perhaps because the money did
not come as directed.

We were now obliged to send a man to the Rev.
Mr. Muhlenberg of Philadelphia, and to the Minis-
terium of Pennsylvania. The man who was sent was
Lorenz Conradt. He took with him letters and a
call. He arrived in Philadelphia, July twenty-third,
1 77 1, and in company with Mr. Umstatt waited on
the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg and presented our case

CALLING A MINISTER.

293

to him. After long pleading and many entreaties,
several ministers were recommended, with the under-
standing that they should fulfill their own wish and
inclination. They then had to make a journey of
seventy miles to Lancaster, with letters from Mr.
Muhlenberg to the minister who had been proposed.
He refused, urging as his excuse that he could not
leave without the consent of his congregation, which
was not granted. He then promised, along with Mr.
Gerock, that he would present our case to the meet-
ing of Synod and send us a minister. Our messenger
could not wait for the meeting of Synod, as it was
already late in the season: so he returned to us, bring-
ing several letters with him. After his departure the
Most Reverend Ministerium assembled on the twenty-
sixth of September, before which body Mr. Umstatt
appeared in our behalf; and it was at that meeting
resolved to send us a minister in the spring of 1772.
On the thirtieth of October, 177 1, we received from
the Ministerium an extract from the record of their
proceedings, which here follows:

•'Philadelphia, 28 Sept., 177 i.

" In the beginning, Our Greetings and Blessing !

« Whereas, a number of Germans living in and around Lunenburg, .
Nova Scotia, loyal subjects of His Royal Highness, Geo. HI., King of;
Great Britain, by their accredited representative Mr. Umstatt, appearing
before the meeting of the United Reverend Ministerium of the Evan-

i'l

r""

it i

-94

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

gelical Lutheran Congregations in Pennsylvania and adjacent Prov*
inces, and having represented to them both in writing and verbally,
that they, by legal enactment, had liberty to maintain and extend their
evangelical religion based upon the foundation of the Apostles and
Prophets as set forth in the Augsburg Confession; to which end they
had, out of their own means, built a church, and now desired to obtain
from this Reverend Ministerium an Evangelical Lutheran minister ; be
it hereby known to whom it may concern that in the above-mentioned
meeting, on the twenty-sixth inst., it was unanimously

Resolved : "That at the expense of the aforesaid congregation a min-
ister should be sent to them next spring (1772) on trial.

" It was futher ordered that tne above extract should be taken from
the protocol of Synod and forwarded to the congregation at Lunenburg.

" Signed, Friederich Schmidt,
" D. G., Clerk of the Ministerium.

« With the Approval of the Reverend President."

CHAPTER XXIII.

A LETTER FROM THE PATRIARCH MUHLENBERG AND A

MANLY REPLY.

AS soon as this letter was received a consultation
was ordered, and on the following day, October
thirty-first, a letter was written and sent to the Rev.
Mr. Muhlenberg. To this was returned the following
answer, received December twenty-second, 177 1.

Muhlenberg's letter.

Philadelphia, Nov. 15th, 1771.
Honored and Esteemed Sirs.

Dear Brethren in the Faith. — Your favor of the 8th
October, 1 771, and the accompanying 3 Salmon I duly
received through Mr. Riibel, for which I tender my
hearty thanks, regarding them as tokens of love.

" Concerning the condition of your religious affairs

I have been fully informed by your messenger. I

have been laboring now 30 years in this American

wilderness, not having come upon my own authority,

but being regularly sent to gather up and bring into

order the scattered Lutherans in Pennsylvania. In

this work I was obliged to endure a great deal and

(295)

296

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

i ^ f

pass througli many trials, and must still suffer daily
until such time as it shall please the Good Lord to
take the harness from me.

"We have here in Pennsylvania and the adjacent
Provinces, about 70 large and small evangelical con-
gregations, living, in a measure, in harmony with each
other, so far as is possible in their widely scattered con-
dition. We are surrounded by many different envious
sects and parties, who wish and would rather see the
ruin than the edifying of our evangelical congregations.

"Our nearest and best friends and well-wishers are
the upright, pious teachers, elders and members of the
English Established Church. They love, protect and
stand by us wherever they can, and we in turn do for
them, out of love, whatever lies in our power. They
favor us and give us perfect liberty, according to the
Word of God, both to teach and to live according to
the Articles of our Faith. We accord to them, cheer-
fully, the preference, because they have the Mother
Church which is established by law. Their Articles
of Faith have been extracted from the Word of God,
as well as ours ; their Church prayers are taken from
the Holy Bible, as well as ours; they have the two
Holy Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as
well as we; their explanations of their Articles of
Faith are as good Evangelical Lutheran as one could

LETTER FROM MUHLENBERG.

297

wish them to be : in a word, the doctrines of the
English Established Church are more closely allied to
ours than those of any other denomination in the
whole world. We, therefore, have always studied to
live in harmony with them. They allowed the
Swedish Lutheran minister, as being the oldest
Lutheran, and myself also, to preach in their church,
and ve allowed them to preach in ours. There has
been no effort on their part nor on ours to alienate
any of the other's members, because of our close
relationship.*

" One must not judge a Church by one or another
unworthy minister, but by its Articles of Faith. For
example : we have in our Church both in this country
and in Europe, many a preacher who preaches false
doctrine and lives a godless life; but one must not
blame the whole Church for that. 2 Tim. ii. 20.
In a great house there are many vessels ; some to
honor and some to dishonor. One must not reject or
despise a whole field or garden because it brings forth
weeds along with the grain ; one must not cast away
a good new net because bad and worthless fishes are

* Sie haben die Schwedische Herrn Prediger als die elteste Luth-
eraner und Mich in ihren, wir sie in unsern Kirchen predigen lassen.
Sie haben uns keine Glieder und wir ihnen keine abgespannt, weil
wir so nahe verwand sind.

I? ;

298

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

taken along. A person does not cut down a good
tree because it sends forth here and there wild shoots.
• "My candid opinion is this: (i) Neither His
Gracious Majesty, the English Constitution, nor the
law of the land at Lunenburg, intends to compel any
one to join the Established Church. They favor and
give our Lutherans, as well as other Protestants, full
freedom to build their own churches and sustain their
own ministers.*

(2) " Now, then, if there are one hundred families,
as it is said, who have separated themselves from the
English Mother or High Church, built their own
church and want a regularly ordained Lutheran minis-
ter from our Lutheran Ministerium, the kind authori-
ties, whom we must honor according to the command
of God, will have no objection, if only it be done in a
judicious and orderly manner: namely —

"3. We are willing, so far as is possible in an orderly
manner, to interest ourselves in your behalf and send

* Jung's comment on this opinion is : " Nevertheless our gentlemen
have schemed to rob us of our rights and Christian liberty and bring
us into the Establishment by artifice and cunning. But it is written :
* They are dead which sought the young child's life.' " This last sen-
tence in ihe MS. is stricken out with the pen and almost illegible, as {
though later developments had shown the application of the expression
in this case to have been premature. They were not all dead yet who
sought the young congregation's life.

LETTER FROM MUHLENBERG.

299

to the aforesaid congregation, next spring, a minister
on trial. But you must not on this account despise
the English Mother or High Church, and her minis-
ters and missionaries must be held in just and proper
esteem; do not judge them, but be friendly and re-
spectful toward them. And as all good government
is ordained of God and instituted for the protection of
peace-loving subjects, it would be very proper and
becoming on the part of the venerable elders of our
new congregation if they would dutifully and respect-
fully wait upon the kind authorities, inform them that
the Evangelical Ministerium would interest itself in
their behalf and send them a properly ordained
Lutheran minister, and they might add a few lines to
the Ministerium in your favor.

" (4) In this way there can be no suspicion that you
are trying to originate a new sect, or plotting clandes-
tinely and in the dark; because our Evangelical Luth-
eran Church is the nearest relative to the English
Mother or High Church. If we are to interest our-
selves in your behalf, it must be done openly and with
the knowledge of the kind authorities.

I hope my brethren in the faith in Lunenburg do
not think a respectable and properly-ordained minister
should not have the liberty to associate with other
orderly ministers in a Christian, neighborly and gen-

li^; I'

300

ACADIB AND THE ACADIANS.

teel manner. An orderly minister who wants to win
souls must have familiar intercourse with the high
and low, the rich and the poor, the educated and the
uneducated; when he has proper experience and a
• Christian mind.

" Our Dear Redeemer left us an example in this, by
going among people of all classes and conditions, and
always presented something for good and blessing.

"Your messenger, Mr. Conradt, perhaps misunder-
stood me in something. Before I had the pleasure to
see him and judge of his writings, I dropped a hint as
if some unfavorable reports had come in concerning
hi n, and that he was not a properly authorized mes-
senger from a congregation consisting of a hundred
families. This was done mainly to test him, because
I did not know him. Within these 30 years that I
have been here, I have been frequently rapped over
the knuckles and taught wisdom by experience, when
I trusted before I was sure. As soon as I spoke with
him myself and had seen his credentials, all suspicions
vanished, and along with him I undertook to do all for
the enterprise that lay in my power. The honest man
had trouble enough. He certainly might have had
ten for one, if he had not been too honest, sensible and
shrewd to trouble and ruin the poor congregation with
a false-teaching and bad-living preacher. After what

LETTER FROM MUHLENBERG.

301

I have now said, I beg that nothing more will be
thought concerning these false and unfavorable re-
ports. There must be neither hatred, envy, quar-
reling, nor the like, springing up among you; but
love, peace, meekne. , humility and obedience toward
God; and the good rulers must reign so that under
them we can live a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty. Amen !

"I wish to see a few lines in reply to this; or if the
Dear Lord allow me to live, I would like to come to
you on a visit, if you conduct yourselves well.

" Please extend my kindly greetings to Knaut and
other known friends in Christ.

"In humility I remain your well wisher in all things.

HEINRICH MUHLENBERG.

ANSWER TO MR. MUHLENBERG S LETTER.

"Most Honorable, Learned and Worthy Inspector and
Minister of St. Mickaets.

" On the 22d day of December your letter to us was
duly received, and from it we learn that we should in-
form the authorities of our intentions. We have
therefore followed the advice of your Reverence, and
lived in obedience with it.

" First, as we did once, and have already informed
your Reverence, we again waited on the authorities

302

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

and announced to them our intention to send for an
Evangelical Lutheran minister. They held up to us
our inability to do so, and urped us to wait ten or fif-
teen years.

"Secondly, as we began to hew timbers for our
church, we presented our case to them again and asked
for a building site upon which to erect our church.
To this request we received no answer.

"Thirdly, we gave notice to them that we intended,
at a certain specified time, to raise our church on a lot
which we had bought for that purpose and invited the
authorities to be present, but not one of them was to
be seen.

" Fourthly, we, in a body, did them the honor to
notify them that it was our intention to hold service in
our newly-built church. They tried to hinder us with
the threat that we must have bail; but when they saw
we were ready to let it come to law, they wished us
luck and blessing.

"And now, at the last holy Christmas holidays, hav-
ing waited on them with the utmost deference and re-
spect, we begged them most humbly to be so kind as
to give us, as a favor, a few lines to a praiseworthy
Ministerium in Philadelphia, that the Ministeriufn
might see that we were not doing this without the
knowledge of our authorities. Our chief magistrate

LETTER FROM MUHLENBERG.

303

as
hy
jm
the
ite

(who is by birth Swiss) gave us the answer that he
did not do it for the Reformirt and he would not do it
for us; and that, while he could not hinder us, because
the law gave us perfect liberty, he would do nothing
to assist us. The other Honorable Justices might
have done it, but they did not wish to go beyond their
superior lest he should bear them ill-will for so doing.

"As for the rest, you give us heartfelt joy that your
Reverence now considers us a new congregation and
will interest yourself in our behalf; for this we tender
to you our hearty thanks. In the meantime it will be
a great pleasure to us — if God grant life and health—
to have your Reverence come with the minister who
shall come here next spring; and the sooner the
better, wind and weather permitting.

"And now we commend your Reverence and your
Venerable Ministerium to the care of the Most High
God, remaining, under Divine direction, true and
steadfast, the

" Board of Elders.

** Lunenburg, January i, 1772."

"F. A.
"J. M.
"M. H.
"A. J.
"H. E.
" G. C."

$04

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Already, in 1775, Muhlenberg, through the in-
fluence of the Rev. Michael Schlatter, then a chaplain
in the English army, had received a call from the
Governor of Nova Scotia to the congregations at
Lunenburg and Halifax, to serve among the Germans
and English at a salary of seventy pounds sterling,
and twenty pounds in addition provided he would
devote some time to the instruction of the youth. He
says: "All natural feelings did not disincline me to
spend my last hours in a locality where I would have
opportunity to serve the Church and her schools, to
bring up my seven children in a respectable way, and
would be released from this never-ceasing being on
horseback, which injures the vigor of body and soul ;
but, not being able to reach a hasty resolution in
such important matters, I petitioned for time to con-
sider and pray over this proposition, to ponder well all
the circumstances, so as to recognize the gracious will
of God. It was subsequently made clear to me that
it was not according to the will of God."

The Rev. Daniel Schumacher, who labored in the
years 1755-58, at Reading, Pa., but who was not a
member of the Penna. Ministerium, could not prove
his ordination, and, as Muhlenberg states in his diary,
was anything but exemplary in his walk and conver-
sation ; said that before his arrival in Pennsylvania, he

LETTER FROM MUHLENBERG.

305

oul ;

n in

con-

lall

will

that

served at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where at that time
the congregation had been too poor to sustain him.*
This stat( rnent we must regard as apocryphal. No
record, at least, of any such person as Schumacher, has
bwcn found to show that he had ever been pastor at
Lunenburg. And if he had been there previous to 1758,
he certainly found the people in the depths of poverty
and few in number. But if he were a man of evil
life, as Muhlenberg intimates, then the most wealthy
and powerful congregation in existence would have
been too poor to keep him. But if he ever were
pastor at Lunenberg, his presence and his work were
like the passing of a cloud across the sky: he came,
he went, and left no mark behind.

* Life and Times of Henry Melchoir Muhlenber^ff p. 32^.
20

CHAPTER XXIV.
THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

AIR. AKINS says* "The Rev. Peter De La Roche
^^^ was ordained to the cure of Lunenburg in 1771.
About this time, a large body of Germans had sepa-
rated themselves from the Church, and built Calvinist
and Lutheran meeting-houses ; and had applied to the
Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg, President of the Lutheran Synod
of Philadelphia, to supply them with a missionary.
That gentleman, it appears, discouraged their design,
and recommended them to the care of the Church, as
being better able, ^t the time, to provide for their
spiritual necessities. This drew forth a vote of thanks
to Mr. Muhlenberg from the corresponding com-
mittee in Halifax, and a request that he would en-
deavor to obtain a deacon or schoolmaster, qualified,
as expressed in the letter, to assist Mr. Bryzelius in
the German mission." x

The worthy corresponding committee of the S. P.

^G. at Halifax might have reserved their thanksgiving;

.and Mr. Akins, too, had he seen the letter of Dr.

♦Rise and Progress of the Church of England*in the British

North American Provinces, pp. 19, 20.

(306)

MMHMI

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

307

Muhlenberg, would have been spared the odium of
having placed a false construction upon its contents.
Nowhere does the Reverend Doctor, with all the
pressure of his associations upon him, " recommend
them to the Church." He recommends them to be
and remain what they always have been; Lutheran
Christians. He recognizes the helplessness of their
condition, isolated as they are, and counsels prudence
and moderation. He regards them and calls them a
"new congregation." The people thank him for so
regarding them. The official action of the Minis-
terium so regards them. Yet this published misrep-
resentation of this important fact has been circulating
unchallenged, for almost a generation, among the
people whom it was designed to lead astray, as an
established truth. Henceforth let its established un-
truth be fully known ; and let the honored memory of
Muhlenberg, the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in
America, be free from the implication.

Deeply as he may be honored, and however much
the sincere sentiments of Christian love which appear
in his letter must be admired, there are yet in it some
things against which the strange afterglow of ^he.
light of history shining makes needless a protest.
Thoroughly alive as he is to the interests of the Luth-
eran Church in the new land, he does not hesitate to

308

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

say: "We are surrounded by many different envious
sects and parties, who wish and would rather see the
ruin than the edifying of our Evangelical congrega-
tions." But from this category of "envious sects and
parties " he makes haste to except the " English High
or Mother Church." In making that exception he
made the mistake of his life. It was also the grand
mistake of his honored co-laborer, Von Wrangel.
But how did they know that after all their love and
union with " the English High or Mother Church,"
we of this generation should see what we see as the
result. After allowing the dear brethren of " the
English High or Mother Church" to preach in their
pulpits and commune at their altars the logical and
, historical sequence has been this : that in those very
churches where these dear brethren of "the English
High or Mother Church" officiated, they stand to-day
as owners and masters, denying that Lutherans have
therein any right, title, interest or claim. The very
church edifices and property, with many of the people
before whom the example of unionism was set by
trusted pastors, were " conveyed "* to the Episcopal
Church.

* It may be necessary here to recall Shakespeare's definition of the
word convey. He says of stealing

" * Convey,' the wise it call."

■Bi

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

309

They are gone along with St. George's two
churches in the city of Halifax; gone with Gerock's
church and another one in New York city; gone with
the first Lutheran church in America, consecrated on
Trinity Sunday, 1699, at Christiana, Delaware; gone
with the first church in which ever Muhlenberg
preached in America, old "Gloria Dei," the oldest
church edifice in Philadelphia, Von Wrangel's own
church; gone by the scheming, duplicity and ingrati-
tude of these friends, of "the English High or Mother
Church," with the Lord only knows how many
others elsewhere, into the Episcopal fold. They
were not only lost in name but in fact from the fellow-
ship, as well as the faith of the Lutheran Church.
And the time for Lutheran writers to keep silence
about these things has gone by. The Lutheran
Church must no longer allow her people to be
proselyted and their property stolen without a protest.
And if the law of God, the demands of Christian
equity, and the dictates of common morality, do not
move those people to make restitution of the stolen
property, then the powers of the civil law should be
invoked. Had these churches been dedicated for the
preaching of the doctrines set forth in the Thirty-nine
Articles of Episcopalianism, no fault could be found
with Episcopalians holding them; but they were

310

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Lutheran Churches. Their charters provide for the
preaching of the Gospel according to the Augsburg
Confession.

Had Dr. Muhlenberg and Provost Von Wrangel
known what we now know, their attitude toward the
Episcopalians certainly would have been different.
" When unable to worship in a house of their own, the
Lutherans had permitted the Episcopalians to hold
services regularly in their church ; and Lutheran min-
isters who had command of the English language had
repeatedly served them for considerable periods, both
in the pulpit, and in pa-^toral ministration."*

These services not only were rendered without com-
pensation, but often, as Acrelius states,f without any
return to the Lutheran pastors of expenses incurred in
this extra service.J The ingratitude of these people
certainly was exceeded only by their meanness. The
old German Lutherans of Halifax, if they were " only
Dutchmen," and if their place of worship was only a
*' meeting house," did better by the Rev. Drs. Wood
and Breynton than those good people of " the English
High or Mother Church." *. i

But now, to return from this natural diversion to the

* Prof. Dr. Jacobs' Essay in the Lutheran Diet, 1877.
f Acrelius, 219, 220, 361.
X Ibid., p. 141.

HMMMi

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

311

-if,

little band of Lutherans, fighting, against open and se-
cret foes, for thtir existence as an independant congre-
gation in Lunenburg; how fared it with them? It is
now more than twenty years since they have been
without a teaching pastor of their own faith. Can
faith survive ? Let us see.
I . It may be readily conjectured that their hearts were
/ filled with joy when they learned that but a few short:
months must yet elapse until their prayer, which alii
these years had been ascending, was at length to be-
answered and a minister sent them. But with all'
their former sad experience it will not be unnatural if
doubt should yet remain. Taking up Jung's MS.
again we read : " After all our much corresponding,
which we have neither space nor time to transcribe,
new difficulties arose, so that the promises made to us
were not fulfilled, and all our efforts were in vain.
Mr. Umstatt left Philadelphia without doing as he
had promised; nor did he leave behind him a very
good reputation, since he departed secretly. On ac-
count of this, the Ministerium became indignant.

" But now another has arisen to speak for us and
take charge of our affairs there, namely, Mr. Kaul-
bach, who was sent from here by the German Re-
formed congregation, to Philadelphia. He has written
to us that our affairs there are not in a prosperous

312

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

condition; that little interest is manifested, and that
nothing is being done. He writes under date Decem-
ber 26, 1 77 1, that he intends to go himself and see
and speak with the minister who is to come here. He
informs us that letters have been sent to those who
are opposing us here, who all the time have kept up
a secret correspondence with persons in Philadelphia,
with a view to frustrate our intentions.

"We wrote to him again the 26th of February, 1772.
He received our letter in Philadelphia the 8th of May
following, and answered immediately. He tells us
that he went to visit the minister, and slept in his
house two nights. He (the minister) promised that
he would come to us, alone, for a trial, by the first
opportunity in the month of June. On the 22d of
May he wrote us that the Conference (Ministerium)
had resolved that the minister should hold himself in
readiness to come with the first vessel that sailed."

And thus again we find these poor people raised to
the joyful heights of hope, from whence the future
looked all rosy, and where the sweet birds of promise
were singing in their ears. The faithful Andreas had
written to his relatives in Germany ten years before
that "all that he 'and his people then wanted, was an
Evangelical Lutheran minister."* They wanted him

* History of the County of Lunenburg, Des Brisay, p. 32.

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

313

then, they wanted him before, and wanted him ever
since." And now he was coming, "with the first
vessel that sailed." The dearest wish of these stead-
fast hearts was now to be fulfilled. Their long-con-
tinued prayer was to be answered.

"But," proceeds the chronicler, "instead of the
minister, we received, on the 19th of July, the sad in-
telligence that the Rev. M. Wildbahn, who was to
have come here from New Hanover, in Pennsylvania,
could not come because his congregations, of which
there are nine, were unwilling to allow him to leave
them. '^

" Now arose mourning and lamentations again from
old and young; that we are so forsaken in this
American wilderness, and must live like the Indians.
There was no end of raillery and mockery either
among our enemies, who would rather witness the
ruin than the building up of our congregation. But
the Lord, who rules in heaven and on earth and holds
the destiny of all men in His hands and can lead them
as He will, has chosen for Himself the time in which
He will surely help us.

"We again began to write to Philadelphia to the
Rev. Muhlenberg, and to New York to the Rev.
Gerock.

" Our letter to Mr. Muhlenberg is as follows :

;■ ii

314

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

*** Reverend and Honored Sir: — We trust your Rev-
erence will not think' hard of us when we take the
liberty to remind you of the Resolution of Synod,
passed the 28th of September, 1771, and sent to us,
and for which we have not yet expressed our grati-
tude as shall in time be done. We have from time to
time expected our promised minister, and have re-
ceived three letters from Mr. Kaulbach concerning
him. In the first two letters he informed us that we
could be expecting him, as he would start on his
journey by the loth of June. This announcement
awakened great joy among our people, both old and
young. But as we received, on the ipth of July, not
our minister, but the sad tidings that the Rev. Mr.
Wildbahn, according to his writing, could not keep
his promise; we therefore beg your Reverence, for
our Dear Saviour's sake, that you would be so kind
as to furnish us with a minister. We are in danger
here. With sorrowful hearts we are obliged to see
our Evangelical Lutheran congregation scattered.
Not only are our youth growing up like dumb cattle,
but there is a large number of young married men
and women who are not yet confirmed and have
never been to the Lord's Supper, although the most
of them are hungering and thirsting for it. We there-
fore beg again that your Reverence will on no account

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTORY.

3»5

.■•(■■

become weary of our importunity and frequent peti-
tions. Our sore need compels us. The love of
Christ constrains us. Our reverence for the Lutheran
Church and her pure doctrines leads us. We cannot
do otherwise.

"* We now take the liberty, in closing, to subscribe
ourselves, your obliged Servants and Children in the
Lord. We pray for your Reverence and the Honored
Ministerium in our public prayers, every Sunday in
our church. We now await with deepest anxiety, a
favorable response, and remain,

"'With friendly salutations,

"'Your Honor's.

'** Lmienburg, July 26th, iyy2.

" * P. S. There is one thing to be added, namely: that
the person who is to come here need have no fear.
He will surely, after being here, not wish to go away
again. Circumstances will be found very different
from the reports whereby we have been misrepre-
sented. We hope, also, that we must not suffer be-
cause Mr. Umstatt did not conduct himself as he
should have done, and was untrue to us. If the min-
ister who is to come is afraid, we will give bonds for
any amount he may require.

"'We have had a bond executed by a Justice of the
Peace, who wrote it in English and signed it as a wit-

• jj

3i6

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ness. It was drawn upon the four undersigned elders
and sent to Philadelphia.

"*A. J.

"'H. E.

"'G. C.

"'M. B.'
" The letter to the Rev. Mr. Gerock, in New York,
contained in substance about the same as the one
above to Mr. Muhlenberg. But it now occurred that
Mr. Kaulbach, having finished his affairs in Pennsyl-
vania, was returning without waiting for any further
information from us. We had written to him again
on the 1 2th of October, 1772, and also to the Rev.
Mr. Muhlenberg; but he had already left Philadelphia
and gone to New York. He went to the Rev. Mr.
Gerock on his own responsibility, and reported to him
our situation and desire. But the Rev. Gerock did
not know of any minister to propose. Finally, how-
ever, he thought of an unmarried man, a minister, the
Rev. Mr. Hartwick, and wrote to him at once, asking
whether he would accept a call to come here. Before
sufficient time had elapsed for a reply to be returned,
another man was proposed to Mr. Kaulbach, from the
Province of New York. His name was the Rev.
Freiderich Schultz, a minister from Wiirtemburg.
He went at once to the Rev. Mr. Gerock and con-

THROUGH CONFLICT TO VICTOR V.

317

suited with him concerning this Rev. SchuUz. The
Rev. Gerock wrote to him and as soon as he received
the letter he came to New York, where a consultation
was held as to whether he should accept the call. He
was willing to come along with Mr. Kaulbach to
Lunenburg on a trial, and they accordingly set out
together and arrived here in safety on the 27th of
October, 1772. On the twentieth Sunday after
Trinity, being the first day of November, 1 772, he
preached the first sermon in our new church, and the
following Sunday, November 8th, he dedicated it and
gave it the name ZiONk Church. The first Sunday in
Advent he administered for the first time the Holy Com-
munion to one hundred and fifteen communicants, and
at the same time confirmed thirty-five catechumens."
We may readily imagine the joy of this occasion.
The long-deferred hope of this faithful and long-suffer-
ing little flock at length was realized. Well might they
now extol the Name of the Lord who had lifted them
up and had not left their enemies to triumph over them.
They had cried to the Lord in the day of trouble; He
had heard and graciously answered their appeal. " Sing
unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at
the remembrance of His holiness. For His anger en-
dureth but for a moment; in His favor is life: weeping
may endure for a night, but j^oy cometh in the morning."

CHAPTER XXV.

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER.

CONCERNING the antecedents of the newly ar-
rived minister not very much is known. The
Rev. Dr. Mann, in a letter bearing date June 4th,
1880, writes as follows: "About Rev. Fr. Schultz,
unfortunately little is known. I find some remarks
about hini in the Evangelical Reviciv^ vol. xv., p. 172-3,
but they are unsatisfactory. The light which the
Halle Reports throw on the man is equally dim. I
wrote to Dr. B. M. Schmucker, and he gave me a syn-
opsis of all the Halle Reports say, at various places;
but it is by no means what we should like to know.

Friederich Schultz was born at Konigsberg in
Prussia, studied at the University in that city, and at
Halle, and for a time was employed in the celebrated
Orphan House of that place. The call to America
having been offered to him, he was ordained at Wer-
nigerode, July nth, 1751, with the Rev. J. D. M. '

Heitzelmann, and both started by the way of Ham-
burg and London (Sept. 2d) for America. They ar-
rived in Philadelphia December 12th. Fr. Schultz

now for some time was H. M. Muhlenberg's assistant,

(318)

wmemm

BiPPM

SCHULTZ, THE FIKST MINISTER.

319

and also 5iervcd the New Goshenhopp>cn congregation,
once every two weeks. In 1752, September, he was
present at the meeting of Synod. He removed to
New Hanover, one of Muhlenberg's charges, and
from there to New Goshenhoppen, and at the same time
*®y '753~54. ^^^o served the Indianfield congreg.ition.
And now l\e disappears from the Halle Reports. In
1759, '" ^hc list of congregations under the care of
the Ministerium, his name is not mentioned.* He
must have left his two congregations for some cause
or other, and therefore no trace of him is found until
he appears, 1772, in f^unenburg. Already the Rev.
Mr. Roth (Jacob Roth, formerly a Roman Catholic
Stiidiosits), preached, 1761, to the Indianfield congre-
gation, and had for some time occupied the place there
formerly filled by Friedcrich Schultz. What field
Schultz occupied until he appears in Nova Scotia,
seems to be unknown. There is no notice of him in
Pennsylvania, New York, or other places."

Having seen it recorded as a matter of history, that
Muhlenberg's son-in-law was named Schultze, the
question arose, and was placed before Doctor Mann,
as to whether the Lunenburg Schultz might be the
same person. The foUovv'ing reply disposes of the
question :

* Hallische Nachrichten, p. 843.

320

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

** Now to the historical question. There were three
ministers Schultz or Schultze, during the last century,
in the Lutheran Church in North America. The first
one, of a doubtlul character, went, in T733, with sev-
eral other delegates from New Hanover, Providence
and Philadelphia congregations to Europe, to raise
funds for these three congregations, but did not return.
About the time of his death nothing is now known.
• "The second one, in fact as to time the latest, was
the son-in-law of Dr. H. M. Muhlenberg, and pastor
at Tulpehocken ; at one time received a call to the
Philadelphia congregation, but did not enter upon that
field ; labored at Tulpehocken for thirty-eight years,
and died March 9, 1809. He married a year after his
arrival in this country, which took place in October,
1765, Miss Eva Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
Muhlenberg. At first he was the doctor's colleague
in the Philadelphia congregation for five years, then
he followed the call to Tulpehocken. The next call to
Philadelphia came in 1784, but Schultze refused to
come. He was at various times made president of
the Ministerium, and died as its senior. His name
was Christopher Emmanuel Schultze.

"The third one, Fredericlc Schultz, your Lunenburg
man, was born at Konigsberg, Prussia, as previously
stated, received there his classical education, studied

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER.

321

theology at Halle University and was for a time em-
ployed in the Orphans' Home of that city. He came
to this country with J. D. Matth. Heinzelmann, 175 1,
both having been ordained at Wernigerode, labored
for a few years as Muhlenberg's adjunctus at New
Hanover, and entered upon the pastoral work at New
Goshenhoppen and Indianfield in 1753. Now he dis-
appears. In a list of congregations united with the
Ministerium in 1757 his name does not appear," *■
and in 1762 we find that the Rev. Jacob Roth was
pastor of those congregations. A. D. 1772 Schultz
was called to Lunenburg, etc. In the Ev. Review, xv.,
p. 173 it is stated that there he labored with success
till his death in 1809. (This resis on no testimony..
As to the year 1809 I think he is mixed with Christ- -
opher Em. Schultze.)"

In the year 1772 the Lunenburg Church Records^
are begun in Schultz's handwriting, with all those-
little accessories of neatness and method which mark,
the work of a trained scholar. The opening antedates^,
his arrival a few weeks (Aug. ist), but is evidently the
work of his hand. Everything in the book is arranged
with scrupulous exactness, the writing in English
characters, the captions in Latin, all in clear running
hand. The first, after the title page, contains a list of<

( * Hallisctie Nachrichten^ § lo, p. 843)

322

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

P;!

;

names of elders or deacons, and the second a list of
one hundred and twenty-five men, members of the
congregation. Gathering up all the marks in order
which throw further light upon the history of the Rev.
Mr. Schultz, they sum up the following: On the 5th
of December, 1774, Friederich and Maria Schultz stand
sponsors for Johannes, the son of Christian Schreiber
and his wife Elizabeth. This informs us that he was
married and brought his family to Lunenburg after his
trial trip.

In April 1773, work was begun on the Parsonage,*

♦transcript from treasurer's accounts.

1773. 446 days' labor were spent upon building the Parsonage, and

out of these were paid 1 23 days as follows :

Pounds. Shillings. Pence.
14 by Mr. Hand @ 3 shillings per day . . .

20 by Andreas Jung @ 3 shillings per day . .

5 by Wm. Haiisler @ 3 shillings per day. .
13 by Nicolaus Schmidt @ 3 shillings per day
13 by Ludwig Spindler @ 3 shillings per day.
16 by And. Bolivar @ 2 shillings and 6 pence
6^ by George Frank @ 2 shillings and 6 pence

I by Conrad Nau @ 2 shillings and 6 pence
Z9}4 by members of the congregation who have
worked more than five days at i shilling and
6 pence per day 2

The other expenses together amount to .
Total 49

At ^4 to the pound, this amounts to 5197.81. '

«i

'■■ ""O

£^5

.A'

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER.

323

(the one removed in 1883), and one item in the Treas-
urer's accounts gives the Rev. gentleman himself
credit for nine days* labor at chopping in the woods
on the timbers used in its construction. A list of the
families in connection with the church September ist,
1775, shows the number to be one hundred and
eighty-five. The congregation was evidently increas-
ing and enjoying prosperity under his care. In the
list of deaths and burials for the year 1777 appears
the following: "August 22nd, Samuel Schultz, aged
17 years, 5 months and 12 days, was buried in the
Lutheran church in Lunenburg, under the pulpit.
He is the first thus in the church interred." The last
recorded act of his ministry is a baptism dated Novem-
ber 19, 1780. The only collateral evidence of his
doings after that, yet discovered, is in the form of a
deed for one thousand acres of land on Port Medway,
given by John Creighton, Esq., to Frederick Schultz,
Minister, and bearing date August 8th, 1777. He
disappears for the present from Nova Scotia as com-
pletely and mysteriously as from Pennsylvania.

Our trusted annalist Andreas Jung gives us all we
have now to add to his history. He says: "After
having discharged among us the duties of his office
for several years, he became displeased, and demanded
an increase of salary above what had been promised

324

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

to him. As this was not paid, he several times pre-
sented his resignation, became discontented and
threatened to leave. We, therefore, very quietly, in
1776, made known our situation, through the Rev.
Mr. Baumgarten, of Liitter on the Barrenberg, to the
Consistory of Wernigerode in the Earldom of Stol-
berg. This Consistory gave us this advice: that if our
minister should leave us we should send our petition
to the Rev. Friederich Wilhelm Pasche of the High
German Court Chapel in London, and also to the
Rev. Anastasius Freylinghausen, praying them to
send us a minister. With this request they complied,
and promised to send us one as soon as possible.

During this time, the Rev. Mr. Schultz was for six
months without any salary. We met together in our
church every Sunday, and read a sermon. He then
offered of his own accord, on the 24th of May, 1 78 1,
that he would preach again if the congregation were
satisfied. This offer was laid before the congregation,
and it was resolved that if he would be satisfied to re-
ceive as his remuneration the free-will ofiferings of the
people, he might do so until the other minister would
come. Thereupon he preached again, for the first
time, the Sunday before Pentecost or Whitsunday,
and continued until the fourth Sunday after Easter,
April 28, 1782."

^mrmmi^^mm

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER.

325

Here the curtain falls upon the history of the Rev.
Mr. Schultz, leaving him, it must be confessed, in no
enviable position. Dr. Mann says : " It may be that
in Pennsylvania something went wrong with the man;"
here we may be sure something went wrong with him.
That the church should remain closed, or opened for
services by laymen only, while an ordained minister
was at hand and idle, is abundant evidence that some-
thing was wrong. But there may be circumstances of
which we cannot judge, as there are others which we
do not know, explaining, in part at least, the abnormal
condition of affairs at this particular juncture. It was
a time of general depression. Alarm followed alarm,
and deep anxiety pervaded the whole country. War
stalked grim-visaged through the land. The mother
country, to which Nova Scotia ever remained loyal,
was engaged in a hopeless effort to subjugate the
United Colonies of the New World. Indeed, the fires
of that conflict were even then kindled in the streets
of Lunenburg and bloodshed was begun. So let not
hasty or uncharitable judgments be pronounced; for
those were troublous times.

That the Rev. Mr. Schultz was not inactive, we may
judge from the part he took in building the parsonage.
During his pastorate also the bell was bought and
placed in position. The history of this bell is pecu-

326

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

liar. It was originally brought from France and hung
in the chapel of the Fort at Louisbourg. Upon the
dismantling of that stronghold in 1758, it was taken
out and carried to Halifax. There it lay stored away
with other spoils of victory until 1776, when it was
purchased from the Government by the Lutherans at
Lunenburg and hung in their new church. It was
rung there for the first time on the tenth of August,
1776. It has a peculiarly sweet and sonorous tone.
That it was intended for Roman Catholics by its man-
ufacturers there is no doubt, since on the one side
is a large Latin cross and on the other a bas-relief
full-length representation of the Virgin Mother with
the Infant Saviour in her arms. It has been said,
though upon what authority it is impossible to de-
clare, that when the town was invaded in 1782, this
bell was taken down, carried to the Back Harbor, sunk
in the water and left there until all fear of having it
seized was over.

As an interesting relic, the list of subscribers for the
purchase of the bell is here presented, with the
original spelling of their names:

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER

327

Received, 1776, July 28, for the Bell.

Collected in Halifax.

Mr. Friederich Ott presented a
small bell for the school-house.

Rudolf Spindler ....
Thomas Wagner ....

Mr. Boehmish

Andreas Bauer

Jacob Burckhardl . . .
John Hofimann ....
Elizabeth Brand ....
Catharina Barbara Brand,
Anton Henrich* ....

Henry Kiihn

Nicolaus Anspang . . .

Barbara Gaxel

Mrs. Winn

Catharina Shelly ....
Mr. Newton

5
10

2
I

Collected in Lunenburg.

Herr Pastor Schultz
Friederich Schultz .
Samuel Schultz . .
Friederich Arenberg
Andreas Jung . . .
Heinrich Ernst. . .
Melchoir Bromm. .
Wendel Wust . . .
George Boehner . .
Maihes Blysteiner .
John Schwartz. . ,
Lorentz Conradt . .
L. A. Tauber . . .
Caspar Conradt . .
Caspar Meiszner, Jun.
John Wm. Blysteiner
Conradt Wentzel .
Andreas Haasz .
John Rehfus. . ,
Heinrich Meisser
John Arenberg. .
Peter Arenberg .

5
10

5
15
IS

10
10

5
5
5
5
5
5
4
5
5
5

George Arenberg. .
Leonhart Arenberg .
PVeiderich Rigolo,butche
Peter Schliiter .
Mathias Ernst .
Caspar Ernst .
Rudolf KUhn's Eldest

Daughter

Jacob Hirtle

Catharina Bargeld . .
Nicolaus Berghausz. ,
Augustin Wegschriter.
Georg Conradt.
Jacob Maurer .
Christoph Naasz
John Bargeld .
Philip Wagner.
Adam Ailer . .
Nicolaus Conradt
Daniel Hiltz. .
Heinrich Lantz.
George Deuthof
Peter Klettenberger. .
Heinrich SchaufFelberge
John Seeburger
Caspar Jung. .
John Jung. . .
Philip Hauszler.
Valentine Diehl
John Uiehl . .
Eli Kedy . . .
John Gerhardt .
Michael Morash
Anton Halter .
John Lantz . .
John Milller . .
Peter Mauszer .
Heinrich Vogler
Mr. Knaut . .
Thomas Schmitt
Heinrich Ochsner
Albrecht Mauszer
George Kaiser ♦^:,-

d.
6

5
I

5
5
3
3

5
2

5
II

•2

5
I

5
10

5
5

8
6
6

* This is our old friend Anthony Henry, the Musician and Printer.

If f

328

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Philip Schmeltzer
Peter Schmeltzer.
Adam Phieiro . .
George Mauszer .
Elizabeth Callicot
Peter Schnarr . .
Friederich Hahn.
Caspar Zinck . .
Jacob Moszer . .
Jacob Speitel . .
Jacob Rehfus . .
Peter Klettenburger, Jun
Phili[> fierghausz .
Christian Ernst. .
Urbanus Meiner .
Lorentz Wentzel .
Friederich Lott .
John Besancon. .
Mary Loeszle . .
George Bolleber .

Nicolaus Schmitt. . .

John Heiler

John Freydenberg . .
Conradt Diehl ....
Martin Goetz ....
Gottlieb Harnisch . .

Jacob Se'iig

Rudolf KUhn ....
Eberhart Hauszler . .
Georg Michael Schmitt,

Jun
n Rehfus, Jun. . .
Caspar Meiszner, Sen.
Christian Gr&ft . . .
Nicolaus Schmitt, Jun.
William Kedy ....
Michael Hauptman . .

£,

5
I

5
4
3
5

6
6

STATEMENT.

1770, the 7th of April, I began under an article of agree-
ment to work on the church and worked until the
church was raised : 22^ days @ 3 shillings .... 3

Further, from July until November, I worked in the
church 29^ days 4

Further, I paid in gold for the lot and other expenses . i

1773, the 27th April, I began to work on the parsonage

and worked ^y^ days. Again on the house, 15^1
making together 25 days. From this I threw off 5
days, as the other members of the congregation did,
leaving 20 days 3

1774, I framed the stable in connection with the parson-
age property, 3 days o

L 8. d.

6 9

8
o

6
o

12 4 3

d.
6
6

SCHULTZ, THE FIRST MINISTER. 329

Upon this I have received :

June 21, 177a * o O,

December 7 * o o

>773.July7 * * ^

Further, my share which I am indebted to pay on the

parsonage '3 O

Also, from Caspar Conradt and Conradt Wentzel, for

their share on the parsonage I 4 O

Further, for the church, for my share of the church debt. an o

996

The congregation remains indebted to me * 14 9

la 4 3

Reckoned Jan. 7, 1775.

Andreas Juno.

CHAPTER XXVI.
THE INVASION OF LUNENBURG.

TN 1780 the American brig "Sally," from the French
"■■ West Indies, bound to New England, laden with
rum, sugar, and molasses, having been driven out of
her course by stress of weather, came to anchor near
Lunenburg, February 24th, and sent a boat's crew
ashore. The men were made prisoners, the vessel was
attacked and taken as a prize.

March 15th, 1782, a privateer sloop of six guns
from Boston, Capt. Potter, took the schooner " Two
Sisters," off Green Island, and extorted a ransom of
;^8o and some provisions.

In the same year, the last day of June, Capt. Wied-
erhold, who had arrived at Lunenburg from Halifax,
gave the warning, "The Yankees are coming to-mor-
row," and when the morrow came the Yankees were
there. How Capt. Weiderhold gained his information
is not stated, nor is it known why it should have been
maintained by those in authority that no warning had
been received. ■. , ,

However, on July ist, six of the ever unwelcome

privateers appeared off Eastern Points, where they

(330)

ir ^1

THE INVASION OF LUNENBURG.

33 «

seized three men and compelled them to pilot the
vessels into Lunenburg harbor. They were a brigan-
tine, the " Scammel," Capt. Stoddart ; a large schooner,
the "Jessie/* Capt. Babcock, two small schooners, a
sloop, and a row-galley. Ninety men, well armed,
were landed near Redhead, a prominent headland
about two miles east of the town. They were under
the command of Capt. Babcock and Lieut. Bateman.
"A narrative, written at the time, by Leonard C.
Rudolf, Esq., gives a good account of the affair.

"MINUTES OF THE INVASION AND SURPRIZE OF THE
^ TOWN OF LUNENBURG, ON MONDAY,

s/. JULY 1ST, 1782.

"At the rising of the sun, the town was alarmed by
the firing of a number of small guns near the Block-
house and Mr. Creighton's. The case was that Mr.
Creighton's servant, having perceived a large company
of armed men coming on the road from the Common,
had acquainted his master thereof. The night guard
being already gone off, Colonel Creighton with only
5 men got into the Block-house, and at the approach
of the enemy they fired at and wounded three men of
the enemy.

"The rebels directly divided in several parties, 2 of
which ran to our 2 Batteries, spiked the guns, broke

332

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ii. I

n :'}

everything, turned the guns and balls down to the
water; some remained at Mr. Creighton's, spoiled and
burnt his house and effects; they took himself with the
5 men, and their vessels being now come round the
Point, they carried the Colonel with the others prison-
ers on board their vessels. In the meantime, other
parties had over-run all the town, entered every house,
seized all arms which they either beat to pieces or
kept them particularly the silver-hilted swords and
regimentals, to themselves.

"When their vessels were in, which were in all 6,
viz.: one brigantine, a large schooner, a row-gr •/, a
sloop, and 2 small schooners, they landed moiv, men
with some small carriage guns, which they carried up
and placed them near the old fort, with a main guard
to secure themselves against our country people that
might come in that way. -,

" Now they fell a plundering the chief houses and
the shops, which they cleared all ; the sufferers are
chiefly :

" Mr. Creighton's house robbed and burnt.

" Do. the store on the wharf cleared.

" Mr. Forster's store.

" Mr. Jessen's house spoiled and robbed.

" Knaut's heir's stores robbed.

" Mr. Bolman's store do.

THE INVASION OF LUNENBURG,

333

" Mr. Wollenhaiipt*s stores.

** Mr. Donig's shop.

" John Christopher Rudolfs shop.

*• Mr. Munich's and several other small shops.

" These are to my certain knowledge, but there are
many more robberies and damages done, whereof I
am not yet informed. I am not able to value the
whole loss, but think it will amount to £ .

" In town we are at present almost without arms,
ammunition, provision, and merchandise ; besides I
hear they ha\ carried off from some houses money,
gold and silver.

*' The surprise was so sudden that we had no alarm
(except by the report of the firing at the blockhouse.

" When I saw that Colonel Creighton was carried
off, I ventured to expose myself by going from house
to house to see matters, and if anything could be done;
I was also with Mr. Delaroche to beg his advice, who
afterwards ventured, with some principal inhabitants,
to go on the vessel to try what he could do for Mr.
Creighton or the town, but without success."

On the morning of the invasion, four men started
for Halifax in a boat by way of the back harbor, and
arrived there in the evening. A man-of-war was sent
after the privateers, but was unable to catch them,
A message was also sent to Major Joseph Pernette,

■f

^'J.

334

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS,

ll! 1 I

LaHave Ferry. He immediately set to work collect-
ing men, and a party of 90 or lOO reached town in the
evening, too late to be of any assistance. We have
often thought there would have been some " fun " if
they had arrived before the invaders left, but it was
just as w^fl, perhaps, that they did not. They would
not have been able to drive the " Yankees " away, and
in all probability the town would have been set on fire,
and much valuable blood shed. .

The blockhouse which Col. Creighton so bravely
endeavored to defend was situated on the hill just
above Mr. David Smith's shipyard, and his house was
close to it. His colored servant, old Sylvia, ran across
from the house to the blockhouse with an apron full
of musket balls and cartridges. It is said that she
aided in the defence by loading some of the guns and
even firing them. When the blockhouse was taken,
she was allowed to escape. She went up to Mr. Jes-
sen s house, where she packed up the money and
plate in a small chest. She had been in the habit of
wearing very long skirts, and when a party of men
came to the house to search for valuables, she sat on
the chest and completely hid it from their sight. She
pretended to be terribly frightened, and cried very
loud. One of the men said, " See what's under the
old thing." She redoubled her crying and lamenta-

THE INVASION OF LUNENBURG.

335

tions, whereupon the leader said, " Let the black hag
go." After their departure, the chest was put into
the well, which had already been examined. Thus,
by old Sylvia's shrewdness, much valuable plate was
prevented from falling into the intruders' hands, and
all they got in that house was a small silver cream-jug
and a few other articles.

This party afterwards went to the house which
stood on the site of the one occupied by Robert
Scott, Esq., and sat down. One of them took his
coat off, and replaced it with a militia coat belonging
to the master of the house. In one of the pockets of
the cast-off coat was the silver cream -jug above men-
tioned, and the soldier, forgetting to take it out, left it
behind. It is now in possession of J. J. Rudolf, Esq.

Mr. Jessen, being in the house now occupied by
Mr. Lewis Hirtle as a hotel, fired at a small party of
privateersmen in the street above. The fire was re-
turned, and two holes were made by the bullets in the
rear of the house, one of which we saw a few years
ago.

The privateersmen took out of the shops and dwell-
ing houses almost everything of value. Whatever was
useful to them they carried on board their vessels, es-
pecially provisions, firearms, and gunpowder; what
they, did not want, they either destroyed or left on the

';4*«*BS«*)i(MB*»,.

336

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

streets. An e>e-witness has stated that the streets
were strewn with laces, ribbons, cottons, and many
other kinds of shop-goods. They were very generous
to the boys of the town, giving them raisins, cakes,
and other good things. They themselves must have
presented a very ludicrous appearance. Some had on
red militia coats, others clothing of various descrip-
tions, purloined from the owners. Still more fantastic
was the head-gear. Militia and other caps and hats,
women's bonnets and caps, were assumed as chance
gave possession. What a spectacle the town must
have presented !

About five o'clock the show ended. The farce was
played, and the players left the scene. We may be
very sure that they left it without any regrets on the
part of the townspeople, except, perhaps, the boys.

With regard to the bond for ;^ 1,000 given, or said
to have been given, to the privateersmen for the safety
pf the town, we wish that we could present a copy of
it for our readers' perusal.

An application was made to the Governor of Hali-
fax for troops and military stores. Some cannon and
ammunition were sent, but no troops, as none could
be spared at that time. In October, however, a de-
tachment of soldiers was sent down under Captain
Bethel, and lodged in the " Windmill Battery." .

BBHS

THE INVASION OF LUNENBURG.

337

The people of the town and country were kept in
constant fear of attack by the presence of American
privateers on the coast, but the town was not again
molested. The close of the war finally relieved the
people from their apprehension.

The evident attempt, in the account given, to glorify
the commander, is throughout characteristic. The
consternation of the inhabitants no doubt was intense.
To them Lexington and Bunker Hill, Valley Forge or
Trenton, were nothing; the ransacking of the town
was, from their point of view, the great event of the
war. While revolution shook the continent, and the
hand of Omnipotence was shaping with momentous
strokes the rough-hewn destiny of America in the in-
terest of human liberty and the elevation of the race,
Lunenburg fished and slumbered. The foray just de-
scribed was the only waking up the town received to
the events then transpiring. * ' •

;:M-;

mH-

It!

CHAPTER XXVII.
SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

N interested spectator, who became an involuntary
actor in the foregoing episode, was the successor

of the Rev. Mr. Schultz, the newly arrived Johann

vGottlob Schmeisser, whose silhouette portrait is here-

(338)

im'-3^

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

339

with presented. Jung says, April 28th, 1782: "We
then received the intelligence that our minister, Gottlob
Schmeisser, born in Weissenfelds in Saxony, who had
been sent from Halle, was in Halifax. He arrived
here safely the 1st of May 1782, and the following
Sunday, Rogate, he preached his initiatory sermon to
a very large audience, there being present beside our
own people a great many of the German Preformed and
English." . |v

By a comparison of the foregoing dates, it will be
observed that precisely two months had elapsed from
the time of Mr. Schmeisser's arrival, until the ransack-
ing of the town took place. Doubtless, he would be
moved to think this new country a place dangerous to
locate in, and all the more would he think so if the
incident yet current concerning his part in the contest
be correct. It is stated that when the Americans
were engaged in plundering the town, some of the
inhabitants fled, some endeavored to defend their
property by armed resistance, and others hid; but
Schmeisser with imperturbable coolness walked about,
his tall and slender form made conspicuous by his
clothing of foreign cut, looked on the operations of
the marauders, and expostulated with them upon the
evil of their ways. But he spoke the German tongue,
which they unfortunately could not understand, so

: 1%

340

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

that his good advice was wasted. But this was not
the worst, for, meeting a squad of the Yankees as he
crossed the parade, they resented his continual inter-
ference and seized him. He resigned himself, as he
supposed, to imprisonment or death, but it was not so
bad as that: they merely bound him hand and foot
and left him lying on the parade unhurt, but
thoroughly disgusted with the indignity put upon
him; and there he lay helpless until some of his
friends ventured forth and released him.

The following letters, presented to his parishioners
by Mr. Schmeisser, explain themselves:

FREYLINGHAUSEN S LETTER.

*^ Highly Esteemed Gentlemen and Well Beloved Friends
in Christ.

"From your letter of the 8th November, 1780, I
see that your minister, Friederich Schultz, has left you
or is about to do so, and that you, together with the
Rev. Pasche of London, beg me to choose another to
serve you in his stead ; a man suitable to your circum-
stances. I am well pleased to know of your endeav-
ors to preserve the Evangelical faith, to build a
church, to call a minister, and to gather a congrega-
tion. The Lord will reward you for this, because

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

341

that amid the cares of this life you have not neglected
your spiritual welfare, as many have done.

" Because I now see that you are earnestly bent
upon the edification of your souls through the minis-
try of the Word, I have given myself much trouble
and have offered many prayers to God for help to
find a man devoted and sincere and qualified to serve
you. It gives me particular pleasure, therefore, that
in the bearer of this, Johann Gottlob Schmeisser, I
can send to you the man called for you, and regularly
ordained by an orthodox {prdentlicK) Evangelical Lu-
theran Consistory. I can give you this assurance
that he is firm in the doctrine of our Evangelical Lu-
theran Church, as it is grounded in the Holy Script-
ures and from them set forth in the Augsburg Confes-
sion, and the other Symbolical Books of our Church;
and from the departures from the faith, now so com-
mon in Germany, he is far removed. As I have ob-
served, he is zealous to preserve the mystery of the
faith in pure minds in order that both himself and his
future hearers may be saved ; also, that he is free from
avarice, because he founds his trust not upon the un-
certain riches but upon the Living God. I, therefore,
entertain the good hope that he will not only preach
the Word of God in its truth and purity, but also that
he will strive to live a blameless life ; so that both by

342

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

his teaching and example he will edify the congrega-
tion. In particular it is my hope that he will exercise
the most scrupulous care in the training of your
children, that he will zealously instruct them in our
most holy religion, so they may be brought up in
the fear and love of God from their earliest youth.
He understands very well how important a matter it
is to have the foundation of true doctrine laid in
youth, and has had good practice in teaching in the
orphan-house in this place.

" I have no doubt, therefore, that the whole worthy
congregation will receive him with love, that they will
be not only faithful hearers of the preached Word but
also doers of the same, and moreover assist him in
the discharge of his duties and in the preservation of
good order; so that what good he may teach their
children they will help on and encourage at home, as
right-doing parents, by Christian life and good admoni-
tion and in this manner, through such faithful training
of the youth, the pure doctrine and right living in
Christ may be perpetuated among your descendants.
But God, who works every good thing in us, must add
His blessing to all planting and watering; and also
take the Rev. Mr. Schmeisser upon his dangerous
journey, under His gracious protection, so that he will
arrive in safety among you. And now let the shepherd

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

343

and the flock be given into His particular care. This
I wish with all my heart — and remain with sincere
love and friendship.

" Your ob't serv't.
" GoTT. Anastasius Freylinghuysen."
''Halle, Dec. 8th, 1781."

Pasche's Letter.

Honorable and Worthy Sirs.

" Elders and members of the German Evangelical'
Lutheran congregation at Lunenburg in Nova Scotia.

"Your kind letter to me bearing date 12 Nov. 1781,
per Messrs. Watson and Rashleigh, was received im-
mediately upon the arrival of their ships.

" Our faithful Chief Shepherd Jesus has allotted to
you an intelligent and beloved Evangelical Minister in
the Rev. Mr. Schmeisser, the bearer of this writing —
for which I join with you in returning heartfelt thanks
to the Lord, praying Him that He will bring to you
in safety and health your new pastor, teacher and
shepherd of souls, and that He will allow to you for
many years the enjoyment of his ministrations with
abundant blessings.

"You will upon his arrival receive him with alii
confidence, as your regularly called and properly au-
thorized minister, and bestow upon him with willing,

344

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

and faithful hearts, all due love, honor and assistpnce.
You will, in all proper ways, aid him in the discharge
of his duties, both in the congregation and among the
youth, so that his labors may be both lightened and
sweetened; thus will the name and fame, both of the
minister and of the congregation, come over the
ocean from time to time as a sweet fragrance, to
quicken and revive others to good works for the
glory of God.

"I sincerely regret that your esteemed friend
Knaut has been taken from you by death last
December, and as truly hope that this great loss has
been made good to you, or soon will be. That you
among yourselves practice and sustain the worship of
God according to the Lutheran faith, and bring up
your children and descendants in the same way, no
sensible Englishman will disapprove of; nor will they
from you, as a congregation separate and distinct from
the English High Church, either from yourselves or
your pastor, withhold due honor and respect, provided,
always, that you grace the pure Evangelical faith with
a true Evangelical Christian walk and life — and, at
every opportunity, show yourselves loyal subjects of
Great Britain. Of this you can be the more fully
assured, since here, in England, our German Luther-
ans showing these qualities have the esteem of both
the people and the clergy.

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

345

"The expenses of the journey {und heisigc pflcge
Kosten)^ of your Pastor Schmeisser, I am unable to
state, because there will be a number of items attend-
ing his departure yet to be added, and, moreover, I
do not have the bill from our dear Rev. Prof Dr.
Freylinghausen. He has been here in Londtn for
five weeks, and the ordinary expenses amount to
about one guinea a week. The Messrs. Watson and
Rashleigh are willing to advance the money to pay
all his expenses upon your account; I will, therefore,
draw on them for the whole amount, and by the first
opportunity send to you an itemized bill. You,
esteemed gentlemen and friends, will then, with your
dear paste r, agree concerning these and other neces-
sary expenses, and in love and equity arrange it all.
He is of an amiable and peace-loving disposition, and
I have all confidence in the goodness of your inten-
tions. In consideration of the great blessing which is
falling; to you and to your children in securing the
services of a pure Evangelical and true-hearted
teacher and pastor, you will, I am confident, take no
exception to these few extra expenses; particularly as
you have already had the sad experience of having a
worldly-minded minister instead of one holding the
pure faith.

" I now commit you all, with your worthy pastor,

-I

346

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy
Ghost, and remain

"Honored Gentlemen and Highly Respected Breth-
ren in Christ,

" Willing ever to Pray and to Serve,
" Friederich Wilhelm Pasche."
"Kensington, London, February 25th, 1^82^

The preceding letters give an idea of the previous
history of the Rev. Mr. Schmeisser, more clear than
anything at this late day remaining. But other evi-
dences remain to corroborate the history furnished by
these. Here, for one thing, is the "itemized bill"
promised by the Rev. Mr. Pasche. By happy acci-
dent it has been preservec. /rom the ravages of f.ime,
and as an interesting relic of the past is here inserted
without change.

Account of sundry expences attending the Revd. M. Schmeisser,
from Germany to Halifax, 1782.

;^ 8. d. ;^ s. d.
March l. To Paid Bill for his Expences

from Germany . . . 30 i '

31. Paid M. Pasche, sundry ex-

pences for him when in town. 21
-^.,.:„.,yi: Paid M. Schmeisser , . , . 23

17
6

8
8

45 4 4

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

347

Paid duty on hi* Bed tnd

Bound Books

«7

Warehouse Expences . , , ,

Waterage and Wharf . . . .

•

Paid his Passage from London

to Halifax

•

;t 93 i6 4

It is quite likely that the Rev. Mr. Pasche wrote as
he did concerning this bill, because he had some fear
in his mind that its presentation might occasion
trouble. By a comparison with the call sent from
these poor people to the Rev. Mr. Gerock, it will be
observed that this bill for traveling expenses was a
very little short of the amount agreed upon as two
years' salary. But so happy were they in securing the
services of a trusted and worthy minister, that they
paid the bill of almost ^500 without a murmur, and
probably out of their poverty would have doubled
the amount, if necessary, just as willingly. And in this
they were right. If he left behind him all that was
dear, in order to sow to them spiritual things, it was
not wrong that he should reap of their temporal
things. He was, in leaving Germany for Nova Scotia,
leaving the privileges, opportunities and amenities of
the Old World civilization, for the privations and as-
perities of the New. What he would see of the world

348

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

on the way, was in all probability, as events showed it
in reality, all that he would ever see of it outside of
his parish. He therefore came to London and tar-
ried there for a few weeks, in order to see the sights
of the great city. His experience while there would
furnish him with much that would broaden his views,
enlighten his mind and help him in his after work
throughout life. While he was sojourning in London
he came into contact with several distinguished per-
sons whose autographs are in his album.

This autograph album, entitled " Deinen Freunden",
is a most interesting memento. It was found in pos-
session of one of the descendants of its former owner.
The dedication runs as follows : — " Nobilissimis, Rever-
endissimiSf Doctissimis nee non Honor atissimis, ac Praes-
tantissimis DominiSy Patronis, Fautoribus et Atnicis
Plurimum Colendis Album hocce dedicat et commendat
Joannes Gottlob Schmeissery*

The first page contains a quotation in Greek text
from Epictetus, written in Leipsic, September 14,
1778. Then follows, on the next three pages, a cer-
tificate in the German language, which translated reads
thus : — " We, the Burgomaster and Town Council of

* To the most noble, reverend, learned, as well as most honored and
distinguished Lords, patrons, favorers and friends most highly revered,
Joatmes Gottlob Schmeisser dedicates and commends this album.

SCHMEISSEK, THE SECOND MINISTER.

349

Weissenfelds, do hereby offer to all of whatever stand-
ing in society unto whom this shall come, our respect-
ful greetings.

*' By this writing it is made known that Johaim Got-
lob Schmeisser canie to us for a certificate of hi? iio..?
orabie birth, in order that he might have the sati:'- iw
case it should be needed. We have, therefore, ex-
tracted from the Church Records of the place, the fol-
lowing properly attested facts, namely : — That the
father of Johann Gottlob Schmeisser, Meister J.
Schmeisser, late citizen tailor of this town, after a due
proclamation, was united in holy wedlock with Eva
Dorothea, the daughter of the late Meister Barthel
Bauer, citizen tailor, on the 2 2d of November ,1735, and
as the fruit of this union, above named, was born a
free, honorable German, owing bodily service to no
man, the 22d of March, 175 1. The witnesses to his
baptism were, specially invited, the following : Herr J.
Christian Schleusz, Burgomaster and watchmaker to
the court ; Frau Joanna Sabina, wife of John Gottfried
Reichardt Brand, Exciseman to H. R. H. the Elector
of Saxony ; and Meister Gottfried Batz, citizen baker.
He was presented to the Lord Jesus in holy baptism
in the town church of Weissenfelds, and received the
name of Johann Gottlob.

" We furnish the foregoing testimonial, in the hope

350

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

ill

d! I

that each one to whom it shall be presented may give
it due credence, value it as authoritative, and upon the
strength of it receive Mr. Schmeisser into their society
and companionship with all confidence ; and we have
the hope that he will ever acknowledge such favor
with all proper thankfulness, by proving himself wor-
thy of the same.

" This certificate we do hereby attest as being made
out, signed and sealed by the Burgomaster in office,
Weissenfelds, 31st of August, 1764."

To this is appended the great seal of the town —
" Sigillum Civitatis Weissenfeldensis" — with the signa-
tures : '
*' The Council of the Town.
Lie. Anthon Daniel Brascha.
L. E. Burgomaster.^'

Following this in the book appears the Great Seal
of the University of Halle, attached to a Latin testi-
rrionial signed by Joh. Christian Tressler, Pro-Rector
and Professor of Philosophy. The next page bears
the autograph and private seal of D. Jo. Fridericus
Burscher, Rector of the University of Leipsic. The
following page has the great seal of the University
attached to a Latin testimonial from the same digni-
tary. Pages 13 and 14 bear a certificate which reads
in translation as follows: „ _. -^^ ,

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

351

" We the Burgomaster and Council of Sorau do
hereby certify that Johann Gottlob Schmeisser, who
for several years has attended the Lyceum here, having
relinquished his studies is desirous of entering the
University, for which he is now prepared. But as he
has no fortune of his own and can expect little assist-
ance from his family, in order to aid him in securing
the means of subsistence and for defraying the ex-
penses of his academic course we furnish him with this
testimonium paupertatis.

This testimonium we deem the more necessary and
the better deserved because he was a beneficiary
whilst here. Having now qualified himself ad altiora^
he wishes to press on. He has led an industrious,
quiet, and systematic life, tnd by his good behaviour
has won the praise of his teachers and of the town.
For these reasons we believe him well worthy to re-
ceive the benefice set apart for those preparing for the
University. We have therefore, upon his application,
granted to him this testimonium paupertatis. Under
our hand and the seal of the city of Sorau, April 9th,

^777-' . .'^^

Here follows the ^'Sigill. Civitatis Soravicey

^^ Burgomaster and Council of the City!' ,-.

Page 16 has the autograph — ^^Loewe — Examinateur

des Compts des Finances y de S. A, S. d' Electe de

352

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

SaxeT Following is the autograph of Prof. Dr.
Forster. Further on appears an extract from a letter
from Director Freylinghausen of the Orphans' Home,
Halle, to which is appended his autograph. It would
appear from this extract that this distinguished divine
found time amid the multiplied duties of his office to
remember the lonely missionary, whom he had been
instrumental in sending forth. His brief note is
full of thoughtful solicitude. Doubtless, coming from
such a source, it was held as a particular treasure and
as such thus carefully preserved. It reads as follows :
"As* it appears that under the good hand of God
the affairs of tl;e new station in New Scotland will
now go well, I wish in a few lines of my own writing
to express my joy thereat. The ways of the Lord
are goodness and truth, even if our short sight may
behold in them but crooked and misleading paths.
God's ways are above criticism, perfect. I preached
upon this subject day before yesterday, in the Orphans'
Home, from the text Ps. xxv. lO. I did so because I
wanted to impress our orphan children in particular
with this blessed truth; and, moreover, because our
superintendent. Pastor Weissen, who died in his 85th
year, was a remarkable proof in point, his whole life
bearing special witness to the truth. In like manner,
the good Lord will always lead you in the way that is

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

353

best, if you but resign yourself in childlike confidence
to His guidance. The earth is everywhere His —
West where he has called you, as well as here in the
East. Wherever good human thought moves He
Himself goes before. Wherever you yourself go He
goes before. He guides. He rules and he will conr-
tinue to rule with fatherly, loving hands, andi
strengthen you for every good work with the power.-
of the Holy Ghost. G. A. Freylinghausen."'

We now behold this faithful pastor laboring for the^
edification of the church to which he had devoted his
life. He was far away from the home and the friends
of his youth, but near to God. Every trace left behind
by him on life's journey proves him to have been a
heavenly minded fellow-worker together with Christ
The same sweet spirit which ruled in love over the
mind and through the life of the sainted Freylinghausen
appears to have governed him. And from this, and
perhaps from this alone, we can judge concerning the
state of matters in the spiritual life of the congregation; .
for "there shall be like people, like priest." * h

The records show that faithful attention, during the
period of his ministry, was given to the celebration of
the sacraments. Holy Baptism was commonly admin-
istered to infants a week or ten days after birth, and 1

the Lord's Supper was given very regularly and with.
23

354

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

but short intervals of time intervening. As many as
twenty celebrations of this Holy Sacrament are re-
corded in a single year.

After Mr. Schmeisser's arrival it would appear that
his first proceeding was to secure for himself a help-
meet, according to the Scripture which declares that
** it is not good for a man to be alone." He had re-
spect also for St. Paul's injunction that "a bishop then
must be blameless, the husband of one wife." In the
town was the worthy elder of the church, Wendel
Wiist, a master blacksmith, married to the widow
Biehler. This good woman had brought with her into
her second husband's house several bright and engag-
ing daughters. Scarcely had the young minister set
foot within the precincts of his parish ere he began the
short courtship which eventuated in securing for him
a faithful wife and loving companion in the person of
Sophia, the eldest of these daughters. Accordingly
we find, in the album referred to previously, the fol-
lowing entry: "Sophia Biehler was married to me, J.
G. S., in the Evangelical Lutheran Zion church of this
place, in 1782, July 3. The Rev. Mr. Brawn (Re-
formed minister) preached the sermon on this occasion
in our church from the text. Song of Solomon iv. 7, 8."
His wife at the time of her marriage was in her twenty-
fifth year, having been born in 1757.

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

355

:iy

Speaking of his family affairs, it may be here stated
that this union was blessed of God; the fruit of it be-
ing six children, whose descendents even now are
with us, honored of all. On the 30th of April, 1783,
the first daughter was born, and baptized on the 4th
of May following. In the record of her baptism, the
statement is made " In memory of the peace this day
proclaimed here betweaff Great Britain and the
United Provinces of America, she was named
Friederica Renata." The peace alluded to was
that of the general treaty signed in Paris on the 20th
of January. This is a fair illustration of the olden-
time slowness in the transmission of intelligence.
January 20th, the treaty was signed which gave in-
dependence and sovereignty to the United States;
March 23rd, the tidings reached Philadelphia; Con-
gress transmitted the news to General Washington,
by whom it was received April 17th, and here it was
proclaimed in Lunenburg May 4th, three months
and a half after the event had occurred.

The other children of Pastor Schmeisser were
Christopher Traugott, born i6th October, 1784;
Ehrenfried, April 6th, 1787; Gotthold, 7th Novem-
ber, 1789; Maria Barbara, 9th October, 179 1 ; and
Sophia Amelia, 27th April, 1795.

Still following the order of things in the album, we

1 I

3S6

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

pass the autographs of sundry student friends in Halle
and Leipsic, until on page ninety we find the follow-
ing : " It is a good thing, to have a clear head as well
as a clean heart. — Whitefield." Below this is written
in a different hand, "I hope you will not forget a
Friend and Brother, who is nothing, but whose all is
Christ. — Burckhardt."

"London, in the Savoy, the 2ist February, 1782, be-
fore your departure to North America."
Page 1 10 contains the well-known saying of B. de
Verulam quoted by M. Wolfifg. Ulrici, Consistorial
Assessor, Pfortenac, April 1777: '' Philosophia obiter
libata a Deo abducit, sed penitus exhausta ad eundem
reducit."

Page 143 is filled with a water-color painting rep-
resenting a youth descending to an old man lying on
the ground, bearing to him a legendary device, " Tu-
gend ist eine Tochter des Himmels und uberlebet das
Grab. Die wdhle." " G?/*^/?^^ Johann Gottlob Haupt,
pinx" The following page bears the sentiment:
" From different regions, different climes we come.
We are Brothers still, and Heaven is our Home."
Page 199 reads thus:

Upsia cum quondam Juvenem TE docta tenerat.
Tunc TIBI cum Reliquis ipse Magisier eram.

SCHMEISSER, THE SECOND MINISTER.

357

Jamque doces Populos medio sub sole calentes^
Indorumque greges ad Sacra nostra vocas.

Is Ziegenbaldus fuit et PliUscJiavius olim ;
In messes horum TE pia fata ferunt.

Gratia sancta DEI TE concomitetur euntem^
Atque Evangelium vindicet ipsa suum.
Lipsiae M. Georgius Ernestus HebenstreiU

d. 2y, Martii S. Theol. BaccaL

1779.
Page 205 : La lagesse de Vhomme fait reluire saface,

et son regard farouche en est change,

Leipzig, >; Angefy,

le 2^ May, L.and C,

1778. de VEglise Reformice,

Besides these samples from this interesting old book
there are many others of equal interest, the whole
number of pages being 358; all being, as a matter of
course, more interesting to those occupying relations
nearer the former owner than those of the general
public. Wherefore we close the book with a notice
of page 297. Here appears a water-color painting,
simple but expressive; a new-made grave, beside it a
tree in full leaf broken to the ground. Above this is
written in Hebrew, " I know that my Redeemer liv-
eth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth." „ ^..:.. .-

358

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS,

It would appear from a notice of the Rev. Mr.
Schmeisser's death, entered by some unknown hand
in the church records, that during the greater part of
his pastorate he was laboring under some bouly ail-
ment which finally brought him to the grave. The
brief record is:* ** 1806, December 21st, Johann Gott-
lob Schmeisser, Evaigelical Lutheran Minister, died,
after an illness of _7 years, aged 55 years and 9
months, less one day. He had joyfully served in his
office 24 years and 8 months, and lived in happy wed-
lock 24 vears and 6 months. A^ his funeral a sermon
was preached from Ps. ciii. 13-19, which passage he
himself had chosen. His last admonition to his
friends was from the hymn, * See/en Bfautigam^ Jesu,
Gottes-Lamm.* 13-15." Jung says: "He died the
2 1st of December, 1806. He baptized in the 24 years
and 8 months of his ministry 1729 children, confirmed
yoQ persons, married 201 couples, and buried 380."

♦Church Recosds, Vol. II., p. 222.

v-t:

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ONE OF THE HESSIANS.

A T the close of the Revolutionary War, the Loyal-
^^ ists together with many disbanded soldiers went
to Nova Scotia and Canada, where they were made
welcome. In many cases the Government issued sup-
plies, gave bounties in money, and title-deeds for lands
to these refugees. A large number of these people
settled in Shelburne, in the southwest part of Nova
Scotia. There, behind rocky and forbidding shores,
lies a surface of level lan^!. The harbor is nine miles
long by two miles wide, and is considered one of the
best in the Province. At the entrance is McNutt's
Island. Here, at the head of this magnificent harbor,
before the Loyalists came, was a small settlement made
by the Acadians and called Port Razoir. With the
advent of the newcomers a change took place. The
population sprang up from perhaps one hundrec: to
twelve thousand. A bustling city, with the most in-
habitants of any in the Province, more even than the
capital, had arisen like the creation of a dream.
Many persons of wealth and dignity were among the
citizens. Some had brought with them their servants,.

(359)

'l!

ACADIE AND THE ACAOIANS.

and others their negro slaves. Governor Parr visited
the town in 1783 and gave it its name. But unfortu-
nately for its people there was no employment from
which they might gain the means of subsistence.
Idleness tempted to evil, drinking and gambling were
resorted to as pastime and the decline of the town
was as rapid as its rise. The Government supplies
were, after two or three years, withdrawn ; many
of the Loyalists returned to the United States, and
others removed to other parts of Nova Scotia.

Among these disbanded soldiers who found their
way to Shelburne, was one who afterward filled in
honorable position in the Lutheran Church at Lunen-
burg. His Autobiography, translated from the origi-
nal German MS. for this work by the Rev. J. A.
Schcffer, former pastor of St. John's Evangelical Luth-
eran Church, Mahone Bay, N. S., as will be observed,
gives us another glimpse of our early acquaintance,
the Rev. Frederick Schultz, and presents a brief but
clear outline of an eventful life.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN PHILIP AULENBACH.

I, John Philip Aulenbach, was born at Goettingen
iin the Electorate of Hanover, A. D. 1755. My father
'Was a Jurist (Counsellor at Law), born at Zweibriicken.
!Hy parents dying when I was quite young, I was

ONE OF THE HESSIANS.

361

brought up in the fear of the Lord by two of my
mother's unmarried sisters. In my fourteenth year I
was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Religion
by the Sui)erintcnclcnt Fried'^rici, in St. James' Church,
in which I had been baptized and wherein I received
the Lord's Supper on the Second Easter Day, 1769.

Soon afterward I traveled in the service or went
from place to place as the attendant of a prominent
and distinguished gentleman. I learned to play sev-
eral musical instruments. I was united in marriage
March twenty-eighth, 1776, by the Superintendent
Balhorn in the Ncustadt on the Seine (about three or
four hours or between nine and twelve miles from
Hanover), with Dorothea Magdalena, the youngest
daughter of John Henry Herbst, blacksmith, at that
time living in the town of Grunde along the Hartz
Mountains. >

Then I proceeded with the Hessian troops, bought
by King George III., to England. There I was chosen
Trumpeter of the Seventeenth Regiment of Light
Dragoons and sailed with them to America, where
we arrived afte^ a long voyage, October eighteenth,
1776, near New York Lighthouse. During the eight
years that followed I served as Trumpet Major in the
campaigns in the Provinces of New York, New Jersey,
Philadelphia or Eastern Pennsylvania, Louisiana,

n r.

, I

V I

362

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Georgia, and through the whole of South Carolina.
I received my dischr rge in 1783 at New York, and
went to the newly-founded town, Shelburne, in Nova
Scotia. -„

Since now in the Spring of 1784, the Lutheran min-
ister Frederick Schultz came to Shelburne and gath-
ered a congregation, I, with five others, was elected
an elder and to lead the singing. But as the minister
left us in the autumn, after five months' stay, I con-
ducted the services. Also through a memorial or pe-
tition to Governor Parr, I secured two lots of one
hundred and twenty feet square ^or church purposes.
We also had collected money from the citizens to
build a church. And as we expected Chaplain Wag-
ner of Naples to come to Shelburne, I urged that the
church be built at once. Then the elder whom we
had elected treasurer absconded with the money that
had been collected. Three of the other elders had
already moved away. Then I and the other one
rented a house at our own expense in which to hold
service.

, Now a man by the name of Blysteiner from Lunen-
burg informed us that the elder who had run away
with the money was at Lunenburg. Blysteiner also
advised me to go with him to Lunenburg, where I
might probably be elected schoolmaster, especially as

ONE OF THE HESSIANS.

363

they wanted a good precentor. And as many people
had moved away from Shelburne, the royal supplies
were being discontinued, and there was no way for
earning anything, I went with him and arrived at
Lunenburg, August fifteenth, 1785. I was soon ap-
pointed teacher of the parochial school and leader of
the singmg in 'he Lutheran congregation.

August sixteenth, 1 801, it pleased God to take from
this world my beloved wife, aged about fifty-two years.
Since I was left alone in the school-house, which was
bought on my account in 1786, I was married again
November twelfth, 1801, with Catharine Barbara, the
youngest daughter of the late Frederick Hahn, inhab-
itant and blacksmith of* Centre Range. By this mar-
riage we had two sons and four daughters, all of
whom are living as long as the Lord will. The oldest
daughter u married to Matthias Naas, and the oldest
son Philip is married and has four children. (The
translator's note here says this Philip has now living
four sons and four daughters.) ■ <f

In 1789 Pastor Schmeisser's health began to fail
and his disease increased in severity every year.
Hence I was obliged frequently to officiate in holding
public divine service and to give catechetical lectures
in the Lutheran church, especially during the last
years of his life, and I had to attend nearly all the

364

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

funerals out in the country. After the death of the
Rev. Schmeisser of blessed memory, December 21st,
1806, until May ist, 1808, when the Rev. Mr. Temnie
landed, I conducted the services in the church and
buried the dead. And as Pastor Temme was often ill,
I was frequently called upon to read the service and
sermons in the church, and to bury the dead in the
country, and a number in town. But upon my return
from La Have, after burying an aged Mrs. Fancie or
Vanzie, February eighth, 1 8 19, I fell and badly broke
my right leg. I had already been for a long time
lame in the left one, and was now a poor cripple who
could earn little or nothing any more. My hearing I
lost through ringing the bell, having to stand too near
it. Yet I still taught the school for a few years after
my unfortunate accident,

I served the congregation thirty-four years. Dur-
ing the Rev. Schmeisser's pastorate, I buried fifty, and
after his death seventeen. In Pastor Temme's time I
buried seventy-five: total, one hundred and forty-two;
of which fourteen were German Reformed (because
the aged Pastor Comingo, on account of infirmities,
could not attend to the funerals), and six of the
Church of England. Baptized nine sick children. I
wish my funeral text to be i Tim. i. 1 5 : " This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that

ONE OF THE HESSIANS.

365

Jesus Christ ca^ne into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief."*

* Note by the Translator. — The successor of the Rev. Pastor Temme
faithfully visited the sorely afflicted subject of this autobiography.
Malignant cancer in the face caused his death. Pastor Cossmann ex-
horted him to steadfastness in the faith in the Lord Jesus whom he had
served so long, and administered to him the Holy Communion and the
consolations of our blessed religion. He preached his funeral sermon
from the text he had chosen. A large number of grandchildren and
some great-grandchildren of John Philip Aulenbach are members of
the Lutheran congregations of the Mahone Bay parish, in the bounds
of which, by a peaceful lake, his son John Philip still resides, an hon-
ored office-bearer in the Church. Because the ringing of the bell had
made him deaf, the aged schoolmaster requested that it should not be
tolled at his funeral, a request that was not denied.

'-•'^r'

CHAPTER XXIX.
TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

THE congregation, deprived of its pastor, immedi-
ately made application to the Ministerium of Penn-

sylvania to have a successor sent them. The difficul-
ties which beset them in their earlier efforts t » com-

(366)

^jja^iijai^fejc i:i ;>i:^i!

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

367

municate with that body appear at this time to have
been all ov«rcome. The time intervening until an-
other minister arrived was not long, at least it will not
appear to be so when compared with the many years
of weary waiting which marked their feeble first en-
deavors, and when the isolated position of the congre-
gation is considered. They were obliged to wait only
a year and four months until God sent them another
leader. His portrait, in the powdered hair fashionable
in those days, is herewith presented. Jung says, " On
the 28th of April, 1808, our minister the Rev. Ferdi-
nand Conrad Temme arrived and preached on the ist
of May following and each subsequent Sunday; but
owing to some hindrances he did not preach his initia-
tory sermon until the 29th of May, the Sunday
Exaudi."

To the facile pen of Colonel J. W. Andrews C. E., a
grandson of the Rev. Mr. Temme and great-grandson
of the Rev. Mr. Schmeisser, we are indebted for the
subjoined translation of an autobiography written in
the old family Bible. '

Translation. " Ferdinand Conrad Temme, the only
son of the late Daniel Temme, Evangelical Lutheran
minister of Lunenberg in the Dukedom of Brunswick,
and his wife Marie Antionette, was born the 12th of
March, 1763, and baptized the 1 5th of March following.

W ;|

368

ACAUIE AND THE ACADIANS.

%%\

His sponsors were: 1st. His Grace the Duke Ferdi-
nand of Brunswick and General Field Marshal to the
King of Great Britain. 2nd. The child's grand-
mother, the widow of the late Prior and ' Siifts-predi'
gersl Jacob Albrecht Temme.

" He was confirmed with" other young people of his
father's congregation on the Sunday Quasimodogeniti,

^777-
" After three and a half years* study ot" theology at

Helmstaedt and Gottingen, he was, on the 1 2th of

May, 1783, examined in the Consistory of Wolfen-

buettel and in 1787 ordained an Evingelical Lutheran

minister.

"In 1790, by request of His Grace the Duke Ferdi-
nand, as Professor of Philology and Philosophy, he
publicly discussed and defended the * Programme de
le gibus divinis hand quaquam arbitrariisl which thesis
was afterward transmitted to the University of
Gottingen, whence he received the honorary title
Doctor PhilosophicB.

"By permission of the then reigning Duke, Carl
Wilhelm Ferdinand, he founded a private academy
for the education of fourteen noblemen's sons and at
the same time served the Church as vacanz minister
for nearly 17 years.

"As in the year 1806 the French troops, under

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

369

Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded his fatherland and were
quartered in his native town, the vicissitudes of
war compelled the disbandment of his academy, his
pupils were scattered abroad, and himself forced to
dispose of his effects and flee the town.

** By special permission of the Government he was
allowed to leave his country and travel for two years
in Switzerland and the United States of America.

"In November, 1807, he came to Philadelphia in a.
ship from Amsterdam, the "Minerva," and in the month
of February or March intended to return to his Father-
land, which would then be evacuated by the French
troops. The old government in the meanwhile was
transferred from the Crown Prince of England to the
Young Duke. But unexpectedly an embargo was^
laid upon all vessels from America and Germany's
harbors were closed for seven years ; he was therefore
obliged to accept a vacancy in the ministry in Penn-
sylvania, from which he was called by the Lutheran-
Church at Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, which church was
then vacant by reason of the death of the Rev. Johann ■
Gottlob Schmeisser.

" He says, * I reluctantly accepted this call, for reasons-

to myself to this day unaccountable and unknown,.

and on the 5th of February, 1808, commenced the-

voyage to this Siberia of America. On the 28th off
24

i lis

370

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

N|i

April in the same year, I first trod the soil of Nova
Scotia at 2 o'clock at night.

'"In December, 1809, I was united in marriage with
Maria Barbara Schmeisser, the daughter of my pre-
decessor, and I now wait for the redemption of the
body.' "

After the Rev. Mr. Temme took charge of the con-
gregation it entered upon a new era of prosperity ;
everything flourished and harmony prevailed. But
alas I for the bright hopes of the well-wishers of Zion,
there arose ere long certain disturbers of the peace
who wrought harm to the full extent of their power.
These were dealt with according to the laws of Scrip-
ture and of the Church, as the subjoined extract from
the records of the congregation shows.*

EXCOMMUNICATION I

Pronounced according to the Holy Scriptures, first
Sunday after Trinity, 18 12. In the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen.

Know all men by these presents, and in particular,
the members of the Lutheran Church in Lunenburg,
N. S., that the four below-mentioned members of this
congregation through their disorderly and un-Christian
conduct have made themselves liable to excommuni-

* Church Records, Vol. II, pp. 122 sq.

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

371

Jova

with

pre-

f the

con-
irity ;

But
Zion,
peace
lower.
Scrip-
I; from

s, first
Jesus

icular,
iburg,

f this
ristian

muni-

cation. Having been called upon a few weeks since
and urged to acknowledge and repent of the wrong
they have done the Church and congregation, they re-
fused to do so, and in the four weeks intervening since
then seem rather to have grown more hardened.
Therefore, it was resolved, that the ban of excommun-
cation, which belongs to the clergy, should be publicly
pronounced upon them.

(Here follow the names.)

The accusations brought against them by so many
and trustworthy witnesses are as follows :

I. They are impious blasphemers of the holy
office of the ministry, as here upheld after the com-
mand and example of the Lord Jesus, having endeav-
ored to make the office itself ridiculous and its labors
fruitless among the members of the congregation.
They have all (and one in particular) made themselves
guilty of reviling with outrageous language the doc-
trines of our most holy Church, and the true Christian
faith, thereby committing a grievous sin against God
and man, and making themselves an offense and
nuisance to the whole congregation.

II. They are open and acknowledged disturbers of
the peace, both as between the minister and the con-
gregation, and between the congregation and the offi-
cers ; as also by unsettling the faith of the people and
disturbing the public worship.

iti

ill

372

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Hi I

i '

Jill

III. They are inciters of rebellion and ringleaders
to the same, seeking to cause the people to fall away
from the pure faith as set forth in God's Word, and on
this account are faithless members of the congrega-
tion.

The justification of this proceeding against the
above named convicts, in the name of the church and
congregation, and in the power of the ministerial
ofifice, is founded upon the following passages of Scrip-
ture: I Cor. V. 6-9, II, 13. 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14,
Gal. V. 10. Luke X. 16. Matt, xviii. 15-18.

Therefore: i. According to this Scripture, the
names of these persons will be stricken from our
Church Register and the accompanying remarks, set-
ting forth their wicked conduct, written therein.

2. Tijey have from this day forth no part or lot in
the Church, and are excluded from the rights and
privileges thereof, from the use of the Sacraments,
from the right of being sponsor to a child, and from
Christian burial.

3. If they, without giving heed to this, continue to
come to our services as blasphemers and disturbers of
the peace, then shall admission be denied them. If
necessary for the preservation of order, they shall be
arrested and dealt with according to the civil law.
And in case they continue their wicked and blasphe-

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

373

Lie to
rs of
. If
fell be
law.
sphe-

mous expressions and slanders, then the highest de-
gree of the law of excommunication, according to
which, upon the autl >rity of Holy Scripture, they
shall be delivered over to Satan, shall be pronounced
upon them.

. 4. This excommunication from our fellowship has
reference to their persons alone, not to their families,
so long as they do not follow them in heir evil ways.

5. Although they are excomniunicated from our
Church fellowship, yet they shall not thereby be ex-
cluded from the common offices of humanity, and the
mercy of nature. We will, therefore, ever pray for
them that God will have mercy on them, and deliver
them from their blindnes and from the snares of the
devil. And may the punishments which God sends
on them in this life, be so blessed to their good that
they may be spared from everlasting punishment, that
their souls may be saved. And now, O Lord, hear
us when we pray for them in the words of our
Saviour, *Our Father, who art in heaven/ etc."

The names in the record have been suppressed in
this transcript, yet it is due to the truth of history to
furnish that of the leader in sin. His name is on the
record as George Orth. A few words will suffice to
show his previous and subsequent history. He was a
school-master at Mahone Bay, previous to his ex-

' ti

■•1

ii.

% 3ti

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^.C

1.0

I.I

ISO

us 1^

2.0

1.8

1.25

1.4 1.6

^ ^

6" ■

►

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

,-\

5rv

«>

r\^

C)\

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4303

374

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

communication. After being excommunicated, he
began to preach. Des Brisay says (p. 53), "The
Methodist church at Lunenburg was built in 181 3.
Rev. George Orth, who preached in German, was the
first settled minister. He built the mission house
with his own means, and, assisted by others, secured
the erection of the church." Whether he assumed
the title of " Reverend " or had it bestowed upon him
by some one equally worthy, we have no means of
knowing. He is a character still well remembered by
the older inhabitants of the vicinity. He is described
as a "burly, bushy-headed man, with a powerful voice,
and the mani^rs of a bear." He walked all over the
country, organizing prayer-meetings and getting up
revivals; and, finally, having been taken in adultery
with one of the sisters, eloped with his servant-girl to
the United States, leaving his wife to die of a broken
heart. A pretty founder of a church, indeed ! A pity
it is he wasn't hung first! Yet fools are always to be
found to follow the leadership of such scoundrels, and
they are not all dead yet.

Seeing the need of placing in the hands of the
people greater facilities for the study of pure doctrine
— since now the population had far outgrown the few
books brought from the old country, and the supply
of reading matter being far below the need — the Rev.

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

375

1, he
'The
1813.
IS the
house
icured
iumed
n him
ins of
red by
icribed
voice,
/er the
ng up
iultery
-girl to
Droken
A pity
to be
Is, and

of the
octrine
he few
supply
le Rev.

Mr. Temme at once set about the preparation of the
two books which remain as his best memento. They
are both in the German language. The one is en-
titled — " Evangeiisch-Luthcnsche Kirchen-Agcnde, oder
Formtdare iind Gebcte, zur Taufi\ Trauiing, Confirma-
tion, Administration des heiligen Abctidmals ; nebst den
allgemeinen Kirchcn-Gebcien an Sonn-und Bitstagen, in
der Lutherischen Kirche, zu Luneburg, iti Noz>a Sco-
tia." " Philadelphia, Gcdruckt bey G. und D, Bill-
meyer^ 1816!' The title is explanation in full of the
book, which was circulated widely among the people
of the congregation.

The other work is Dr. Martin Luther's Catechism,
explained with Scriputre texts. Published in Philadel-
phia, 18 16. It has a double title-page, the first one
bearing the name of the writer : " Conrad Ferdinand
Temmey Prof, und Pastor zu Lunebiirg, in Nova
Scotia, nnd wirklichen Mitgiiede der Societat in Eng-
land'^ What society is referred to in his title is not
known, unless it be the " Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." This work is dedi-
cated to " The Theological Faculty of the Academy of
Helmstadt in the Dukedom of Brunswick in Ger-
many." .

The following favorable notice of this work appears
at the close; "Under the title 'Dr. Martin Luther's

376

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Catechism explained and proven by the best Scripture
texts — for the Evangelical Lutheran Christians in
British North America, by C. F. Temme, Prof, and
Pastor at Lunenburg N. S./ a text-book of Christian
religion was sent us in MSS. with a request for our
opinion. With great pleasure we notice throughout
this work, that in the newly-opened countries of the
world, through the guidance of Divine Providence, the
true Christian religion is beginning to dawn even more
clearly than in some of the old countries of Europe.
The author, who is favorably known to us through ar-
ticles contributed to German literature, remains faith-
ful to the title of his book, in that he keeps close to
the doctrines of Scripture as set forth in Luther's
Catechism: wherefore this can be with good right
called a " Lutheran Catechism." This notice is ex-
tracted from the " Hamburg Correspondent," and is
signed " G r, Fr n, D r."

"L n, Sept. 14, 1 8 14."

This little manual of 220 pages was circulated ex-
tensively, and being made the text-book in the par-
ochial school, as well as in the classes preparing for
confirmation, no doubt had much to do in the great
work of indoctrinating the people. Rev. Temme is
yet spoken of by his catechumens as a strict disci-
iplinarian and a teacher who strenuously insisted on a

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

377

careful preparation on the part of all his pupils.
Well it is for the youth of any congregation,
when they are thus taught the great duty of being
faithful to their own souls in learning rightly to under-
stand the saving truth of the Word of God. In this
blessed work, no book outside of the Bible itself is
more useful than the Catechism of Luther. Let it be
honored and studied as it richly deserves. Its doc-
trines are precious and saving to the soul. So
thought this worthy pastor in preparing this edition
of the book for his people, and God's blessing was
with him in the good work.

He was a faithful and painstaking minister, com-
manding the affection of his parishoniers and the re-
spect of all who knew him. Of all his journeyings
and trials, his labors and devotion, slight record has
been kept. That he had adventures which would be
well worth relating there is little doubt. Only one of
these has come to our knowledge. It was on this
wise. The Reverend gentleman upon one occasion
endeavored to cross Mahone Bay at a point near the
Island known as Hobson's Nose. He was driving on
the ice in one of the covered two-wheeled gigs or
sulkies, which at that time had just begun to come
into use. The wind freshened and began to blow a
gale from the west, which caught his craft, drove it

■»

378

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

out of its course in spite of all he could do, and was
hurrying horse, gig, and man away toward the open
ocean. The perilous position of the Reverend Doctor,
then far advanced in years, was seen by the people
from both shores. Fleet skaters made all possible
haste, came to his aid, and rescued him from the cer-
tain death and watery grave to which he was being
carried.

Not much remains to be added. The Rev. Mr.
Temme died on the ninth of January 1832,* in the
seventieth year of his age, having filled with an
honorable record the allotted three score years and
ten; of which twenty-four were spent in the service of
the Church at Lunenburg. In that time, as the re-
cord shows, he officiated at the baptism of nearly
thirteen hundred (1291) children, instructed and con-
firmed over eight hundred (816) youth, united in
marriage three hundred and eighty couples, and com-
mitted four hundred and eleven bodies to the tomb.

His widow, who was by many years his junior, for
a long period, with their two daughters, survived him.
The place of his burial, in the upper cemetery at
Lunenburg, was marked, in 1880, by an appropriate
monument. It was erected by the Nova Scotia Con-

* Church Record, Vol. iv. p. 8.

TEMME, THE THIRD MINISTER.

379

ference of the Pittsburgh Synod, and consists ot a
massive stone of native granite, bearing on its front a
polished shield with the inscription :

ZIT MEMOZlZilM.

Vlx« Il«v. Z^aa.dixi»xid Coxxxad T«:

For Nearly Twenty-flve Years

Pastor of Zion's Ev. Lutheran Church.

Natus 1703, Obit 1832.

Jtequiesclt in pace.

CHAPTER XXX.

*■ 1

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

A FTER the death of the Rev. Dr. Temme, the
-^^ church at Lunenburg was without a pastor until
the seventeenth of January, 1835, when the Rev.
Charles Ernst Cossmann, arrived from Halle. He
entered at once upon his duties, preaching his first ser-
mon on the Sunday iii. p. Epiph., from the text Rom.
xii!. 8. At the time of his arrival there was but one
church edifice in his parish and to it all the church
members came, on foot or in boats, from all the out-
lying districts within a radius of twenty miles. But
Orth, who had been excommunicated in 18 12, had be-
gun operations already in 18 1 3, as a Methodist
preacher, and was leading the people astray. In order
to protect the Lutheran fold it soon became evident
that the Lutheran pastor must go to all its boundaries,
which accordingly he did. But as he went among the
people the work grew. With God's blessing on his
labors, he now has the joy to see, instead of one soli-
tary church and congregation, a whole Conference,

(380)

rie, the
Dr until
e Rev.
e. He
irst ser-
t Rom.
but one
church
le out-
But
lad be-
hodist
n order
evident
ndaries,
ong the
on his
ne soli-
ference,

1^1

I m

382

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

with six pastors, more than a score of churches, and
thousands of church members, in its bounds.

But all this increase has not been effected without
struggles, tears and prayers. And in order that those
who read may know something of the man who, by
the grace of God, has been the chosen instrument for
effecting the principal part of this work, I shall intro-
duce the venerable Dr. Cossmann, the honored servant
of God, whose praise is in all the churches, and allow
him to speak for himself. In further explanation, I
would state that it was only after much urging on the
part of his brethren in the ministry, that the subjoined
autobiography was written and read before the Nova
Scotia Conference, in whose archives it was filed.

Nobody who has the pleasure of being acquainted
with Father Cossmann will regret having his autobio-
graphy in his own language. To the thousands who
know him personally it would be a decided loss to
have another pen thrust into it. But many who may
read it may not appreciate the unconscious charm of
his manner and may be disposed to criticise his diction.
To such readers I commend it with the explanation
that Dr. Cossmann is a German of the Germans, born,
brought up and educated in Germany — and highly
educated too; a pupil of Gesenius, a thorough Hebraist,
having had the honor to labor together with his great

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

383

C5?, and

vithout
,t those
'ho, by
lent for
I intro-
servant
d allow
lation, I
r on the
ibjoined
le Nova
id.

^uainted
autobio-
ids who

loss to
^ho may
harm of
; diction,
ilanation
IS, born,
highly
Hebraist,

lis great

preceptor in the preparation of the Hebrew Grammar
which bears his name, and which has kept its place at
the hdad of the first rank in its department even until
now; but still more a German by reason of his educa-
tion. He preached exclusively in the German lan-
guage until, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, he ex-
posed himself to the sneers of godless fools, did the
best he could, sacrificed his natural and almost en-
forced preference; for the German mother-tongue, and
in his seventieth year began to preach in the English
language. His first English sermon was delivered
with fear and trembling on the occasion of the dedica-
tion of the new church at Ellershouse, N. S., 1876.
Give Father Cossmann the honor he deserves. Any
man who has made such sacrifices and has had such
trouble with the language as he, who in so great
measure has overcome its diflRculties and who has a
life like his behind him, needs no apology for his Ger-
man idioms; but if after this explanation any persons
wish to laugh at them, no doubt they have the privi-
lege. He received the honorary title Doctor Divinitatis^
from Thiel College, 1882.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARL ERNST COSSMANN.

/;/ the Name of the Father ^ and of the Soft, and of the
Holy Ghost! Amen.

According to the wish of my English Lutheran

1 '

■'%p,;.,i^sw

■*••

• »l

384

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

brethren in tniftistcrio, the Revs. D. Luther Roth, J.
A. Schcffcr and A. L. Yount, I, Charles E. Cossmann,
German Missionary of the Evangelical Lutjieran
Pittsburgh Synod, write down the following autobiog-
raphia.

My flither was John Ernst Cossmann, born on the
3rd of August, 1765, and my mother Maria Elizabeth
Richter. In the time of my birth, March 1st, 1806, he
was Cantor in Sachsenberg in Thuringen, but on the
24th June, 1808, he was removed by the Government
to Gorsleben, where his salary was a better one. My
mother was not alone an excellent housekeeper, but
also a Christian woman, who endeavored to lead her
then six living children through Christ to the
Heavenly Father and to implant in our hearts, very
early, love toward our Saviour and reverence for all
spiritual gifts from above. Every Sunday I walked at
her hand to the church, and so my dear mother laid the
ground to my resolution as a little boy that I would
be a pastor and nothing else. I recollect plainly
that one of our neighbors, who sometimes visited my
parents, had his joke with me in a time when I could
not speak plainly, asking me: "Charlie, what will
you be ? " My answer was always : " Ein P/atrer"
but to tease me, the then young boy, he said " Ein
Narre" which misunderstanding vexed me very
much.

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

385

This, my good mother, was called home to heaven
from God on the 4th November, 181 1, and when my
oldest sister was married 18 1 2 my father had to look
out for another mother for his young children. My
step-mother Susannah Catherine Volger wa:> a very
kind woman, making not the least difference between
us and her own children. '

The education of children is, in Germany, more,
strict than in America. I recollect that I was not at£
home at dinner time and when I came home after din*
ner my father asked me, "Charlie, where were you ?"
My answer was: " I played," and he always said: "and
we ate, and you can have nothing until 4 o'clock," the
time when we got always a piece of butter bread.
But that was too much for my kind step-mother.
Commonly she told me secretly: "Charlie, go out in
the kitchen; I will give you something to eat, but let
not father find it out."

From the time that I had my right mother, I can
recollect only first that I walked at her hand to church,
proud of my Sunday's dress; second, that I disliked
to be washed and that it was told me the cat made me
dirty (probably that I had played with the cat), and
that I threw our cat out of the window high on the
gable of our two-story house, to kill her, in order not
to be washed so often ; and third, that I wept with the

Min

If!

386

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

others when my dear mother was buried, but I was
paciiied in the following manner:

The ceremonies of funerals are different in the vil-
lages in Germany from those in America. The bell is
rung, the people gather together as friends of the de-
ceased, and also the minister, the schoolmaster and
all the school-boys. Before the procession starts a
man with a plate-full of cents goes along the rows of
school-boys, and distributes them to the boys; and
when the cents were given to the school-boys by the
funeral of my dear mother, I recollect that I would go,
too, in the row of the boys to receive a couple of cents;
but my father gave me a couple of cents and I was
satisfied, going on my father's hand to the burying-
ground, where I wept with them that wept.

When the cents to the school-boys are distributed,
the cantor, z. e., schoolmaster for the boys, gives out
the number of a hymn, full of consolation, and now
they start singing from the house of mourning to the
open grave in the following order : ahead goes a
grown-up school-boy with a crucifix, on a narrow
block of pine board, about six or eight feet high ; the
next are the smaller school-boys, always two and two
in the row, the larger boys following according to
their classes in school, each with a hymn-book ; then
come the minister and cantor. Afler them follows

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

387

the coffin, and after that the relatives and friends of
the deceased. There is sometimes a funeral service in
the church, and sometimes the minister has only pray-
ers on the grave.

. Easter 181 8, then twelve years old, brought me my
father to the Latin School in Frankenhausen, where
already my oldest and second oldest brothers were;
my third brother was at that time already at the Latin
School in Halle a. d. G., and I was pleased to leave
home, because I liked to study ; and there was an-
other reason for which I liked to leave home.

The people of our village were at my boyhood full
of superstition, and in the long winter evenings they
amused themselves by relating ghost stories. We
had always a ser\'ant-girl in our family, and to any
new servant my father gave the strict order that she
never should tell us children a ghost story, and
nitimiir in vetitum, nothing did we children like bet-
ter than such a tremendous ghost story. The only
chance to hear such a story from our servant-girl, was
when both my parents spent now and then an evening
with their friends, and we cnildren were an evening
alone with the servant-girl. As soon as our parents
; were gone, we commenced to coax the girl to tell us
such an interesting ghost story, but she commonly re-
fused, and only when we two boys promised not to

H"^ I

388

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

tell father anything about it, and to bring from the
woodhouse fire-wood in the kitchen for a certain
length and the like, then her heart was softened, and
she told us ghost stories to our hearts' delight.

There was a ruin of a church on the south end of
our village, which church was destroyed in the Thirty
Years' War, and nothing was left there any more ot it
but one side and the two ends of the walls, serving as
a part of a fence of a large orchard. The girl told us
that where the altar stood could be seen a ghost
every night between eleven and twelve o'clock, and
pictured the same from top to toe so vividly that the
ghost stood plain before us; but still the mere picture
of the ghost did not satisfy us boys; we would see
him face to face.

As already mentioned, the education of children is
more strict in Germany than this side of the ocean.
It was an unchangeable rule in our house exact at
nine o'clock we must be at home when it was once al-
lowed to spend an evening with another playfellow ;
and so we had no chance whatever to see that ghost
at *he ruins of the St. John's church between eleven
an 1 twelve o'clock. Ardently wishing to see that
ghost, we both boys came to the conclusion to make
use of the following trick: At nine o'clock, our family
prayer hour, we bade the parents good-night. Then

]l!{l

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

389

e
n

of
-ty
tit

us
lost
and

the
ture

see

sn is
:ean.
ct at
:e al-
llow;
host
leven
that
make
ainily
Then

we went as usually once more in the yard, but instead
of returning in the house, we slammed the house-door
very loud from outside, and instead of going to bed
we went in the barn on the hay, to wait there till
eleven o'clock, and then go and see that ghost in the
St. John's ruins. In the barn we were about one hour,
and at once we heard the house-door opened, and my
father cried out with a loud voice : " Christian and
Carl!" and I never can forget how terrified we were
hearing our father call us, because we were sure and
certain for such a trick we would be punished heavily.
As poor sinners we answered, crawled at the house-
door, where our father questioned us: "Where were
you?" We answered, "In the barn." "What could
you do there?" "We would wait there till eleven
o'clock and then we would go and see the ghost in the
St. John's ruin." If my father smiled about our
trembling confession, we could not see in the dark
night, but the punishment we received was very leni-
ent. He struck my older brother light on the head
and then me too by passing the door, and said: "Go
to bed, you stupid boys ! " We were extremely glad
that we were not punished severely. My brother was
sent to Halle at the Latin School when he was twelve
years old, and that happened before he was sent to
Halle, so therefore before his twelfth year, and before
I was nine years old.

390

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

'HI!

" k -I

il L

I stated already that I liked to leave home because
I loved my books and besides that I hoped lo get
more liberty, so that I could have a chance to see a
ghost if any could be seen; what the people in our vill-
age affirmed and my father denied. I would find out
the truth. '

Frankenhausen was two-and-a-half-hour's walk from
Gorsleben, and almost every fortnight I went to see
my parents, and commonly I traveled the road in the
night to see once a ghost, but never saw one, because
it was my strict rule, when I thought to see a thing
extraordinary, I went close to the spot and examined
the thing, and found always that it was nothing extra-
ordinary.

But how strict a person should be in examining
such things which seem to be extraordinary, shows
the following fact. From Gorsleben I had to go to
Sachsenberg, (one half hour), then to Oldisleben, (one
half hour), Seehausen, (one hour), Frankenhausen,
(one half hour). The village Oldisleben is situated in
a valley close to a steep hill. On the side of this hill
above the village is a small spot of flat land from
which we have the finest view over a broad and
several miles long valley, with three towns and a great
many villages. A beautiful stream ilows quietly
through the well cultivated fields and rich meadows.

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

391

se
ret
: a

ill-

3Ut

see

the
ause
hing
lined
xtra-

ining
Ihows
go to
(one
Lusen,
Led in
IS hill
from
and
great
quietly
idows.

This valley is called " the golden Aue." This beauti-
ful spot was in olden times selected to build a nunnery,
of which only ruins remained. There was a narrow
foot-path on the one side up the hill, passing close to
the ruin, and on the other side of the hill down in the
valley. Near the ruins the hill went still higher up, a
very rocky place, overgrown with trees and bushes
here and there, and the story was that we could hear
in the ruins and in the rising hill above the ruins the
crying of babies killed by the nuns, and to hear babies I
commonly left Gorsleben for Frankenhausen, and vice
versa, in such an hour that I reached the haunted
spot between eleven and twelve o'clock at night.

I had passed this, indeed, very dreary spot many
times without hearing the cry of babies : but once,
middle in the night, I heard on the very spot a
baby cry bitterly, and, I must confess, I trembled.
Cold shivering ran through my back. I took it for
granted that it was a baby's cry which was murdered
by the nuns, and I intended to go on my way toward
home. But at once I made up my mind to investigate
and although trembling all over, I left my foot-path
and searched the ghost in the bushes and rocks. The
deeper I came in the woods, the plainer I heard the
cry of the baby, and at once, turning round a bush
stood a large woman before me with a child in her

Hi ■I.I 'A
I. i

Jr'V^r

392

ACAD 11: AND THE ACADIANS.

arms, which cried so bitterly. I was struck and
trembHng all over. I asked her: "Who are you?"
and with a trembling voice she answered: "A woman
from Oldisleben." When I found this woman still
more afraid than I was, my courage returned at once,
and the result of a close examination was that the
woman had paid a visit to her relatives in Giinzerode,
a distance of about two hours walk, and in returning
home she had missed the narrow footpath in the
woods, and did not know where she was. I showed
the poor woman the way to her near home. I made
her march before me because to make it sure that this
woman was not the ghost of a nun with her murdered
baby. I followed her to her house, she knocked at
the door, it was opened, and woman and baby went
in. I am sure and certain that I would have believed
and perhaps would still believe, with the supersti-
tious people of ** the golden Aue," that I heard the
cry of a baby murdered by nuns near the ruins of
the nunnery, if I went off my way home without a
close examination. So even in this case nothing

.supernatural.

Only one fact I never could understand, and since I

.' speak of such things I may relate it.

Frankenhausen lies on a rising hill called, since the
fifteenth of May, 1525, "the battle hill," because

'i ^i

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER. 393

Thomas Munzer and his adherents were slain there.
At five o'clock every Sunday morning during the
summer months, we scholars of the Latin school had
to make our appearance at divine service or had to
pay a certain sum of money as punishment for miss-
ing the service. Not to over-sleep myself, I was
dressed often already at four o'clock for church.
*Then I took commonly a walk hearing the delightful
nightingales. Once I took my walk up the hill out-
side the wall of the town, and when I came almost to
the top of the hill I saw in one of the grottos or caves,
in a sitting position, a beautifully dressed girl, accord-
ing to appearance about twenty years old, without
bonnet or cap, her fair hair made smooth, a fine white
neck collar, black velvet jacket tight and neat-fitting,
and a bright colored skirt of fine material She
looked friendly in my face, but I was so struck to find
in such early morning hour, so unexpected, such a
beautiful girl in that grotto, that I bashfully passed by
without speaking one word to the girl ; but I was and
am still sure that she belonged not to Frankenhausen.
In that time the lower classes did wear a quite differ-
ent dress than the richer class of people. I lived in
that time at least six years in that town, which is not
large, and was well acquainted with every face of the
richer class of people, and therefore, I can say for cer-

394

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

tain that this young lady was not an inhabitant of the
town. Nor could she come from another place, be-
cause she had no bonnet or cap in the cave, which was
small, and nothing else in it besides her person. Be-
sides was the place so dreary and the road (if we
could call it a road) so rough that I had never seen
walk up the hill a female.

Perhaps I would have forgotten the whole affair if
not for one event. In the later years of my being at
the University of Halle, there was a spiritualist in the
kingdom of Wiirtemburg, whose statements and works
in his books were the common talk of whole Germany.
There were some student friends one day in my room
and among them a young man from Frankenhausen,
his birth-place, and the matter of all the newpapers in
that time was touched upon, and we heard the different
opinions about spiritualism. Mansfeld, the young
man born in Frankenhausen, declared that he was not
a believer in such supernatural affairs, " but," he added,
" one thing happened to me, what I cannot solve."
And now he told us his story, that he had seen the
same young lady, in the same cave, at the same hour
in the morning before divine service, in the same sit-
ting position and in exactly the same dress from head
to foot, only about six years later than I had seen her.
All my friends were astonished when I told that I had

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

395

seen the same girl, in the same dress, etc, etc., only
six years earlier. Mansfcld, born and grown up in
Frankenhausen, and therefore well acquainted with all
the inhabitants, affirmed as I do, that this young lady
did not belong to Frankenhausen. A pity it was that
he did lose .he presence of mind like myself, and that
he passed the cave without speaking one word to the
young lady. I have the full belief that even that
riddle will be solved in the other world.

Frankenhausen belongs to the Duke of Rudolstadt,
and not to Prussia, and nothing was done for the im-
provement of the gymnasium. The teachers them-
selves were not able to speak the Latin language, or
to write Greek, and the teacher of the Hebrew lan-
guage was so little acquainted with it that he tried to
show us a visible difference between Kamctz and
Kajtietz-chatuph. But still I was as far advanced in
Latin and Greek and all the other branches of knowl-
edge, as any of the other young men who left the col-
lege for the University. I received my testimonium
maturitatis and went to Halle as student. But here
my eyes were opened soon. I found that my knowl-
edge of old languages was so imperfect, that I would
not profit much by hearing the professors. Always
hating half work, I came to the conclusion to frequent
a Prussian gymnasium, and I chose Gorlitz, in Silesia,

396

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

II! I

the best in its renown, flourishing under the Director
Prof. Dr. Anton; and well prepared went I with the
best certificate to the University again, Easter, 1829,
which university flourished under Gesenius and Tho-
luck. I received from the professors during the four
years at the university in consequence of my good
certificate from Gorlitz, a stipendium yearly of ^lOO,
and 520 from the government.

The custom of young theologians in Germany is,
that after they have finished their course as students,
they take a f'ltorship in a family, commonly of noble-
men, or else they take charge of a school until they
are ordained and installed as pastor of a parish. But
whoever can do it, tries to get a place at a school in
Halle, so that he remains in connection with the uni-
versity, and has still chance to hear lectures of the
professors.

I was fortunate enough to get such a place at the
Real school in Halle, where I spent my happiest time
with my intimate friends, nine at the number ; one of
them was the late Dr. Pohlmann of New York.

In that time came from the Lunenburg Lutheran
congregation a petition for a German Lutheran minis-
ter, and although this petition was so ardently ex-
pressed and hundreds of young thedlogians could
have accepted the call, not one would go because

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

397

Nova Scotia was so far, such a dreary land and only
a salary of ,$400 was offered ; less than a common
school-master has in Germany. The P'-ofessors tried
the utmost to find a man who would, for the Lord's
sake, accept the situation, but in vain. Since the
elders of the Lunenburg Lutheran congregation, in a
so pitiful manner, stated that they had no German
preaching, that they could not understand the English,
and that they were a flock without a shepherd, we
persuaded at last one of our club, Schlicke, to accept
the call, because he had no parents any more, no
brother nor sister, nor any other relative except an old
uncle, and they both were not on good terms. He
objected at first, but at last he declared his willingness
to go. We others of the club were quite pleased that
the Lunenburg Lutheran congregation should have
soon a pastor. But at once Schlicke declared he
could not go. We tried the utmost to persuade him
that he should fulfil his promise to us and the Prof.
Gesenius, but all in vain : and only to make him cour-
age to accept the call I told him : "Schlicke, if you are
not willing to go, I go." He said : " Well, Cossmann,
you should go. You will do good to the people. I
would not be the man." And although my books, etc.,
were at that time already packed in chests, and I was
with them about to go as assistant teacher to a flour-

398

E AND THE ACADIANS.

i i,

! !.'

ishing institute of my oldest brother in Coblcnz, the
finest pcirt of the Rhine, I considered it my duty to
give up the finest pros|X!Cts for the future at home and
to serve my Lutheran brethren in dreary Nova Scotia.
Although by asking my old father his advice in the
matter he had answered me : " If you think you can
do good to the people, go in the Lord's name," the
parting from him and my dear brothers and sisters
was heart-breaking. I left Germany after my ordina-
tion, which took place on the sixteenth of September,
1834, by the Consisioriairath Haascnritter, D. D., in
Merseburg.

Under the protection of the Lord I arrived safe in
Lunenburg, September 17th, 1835, and was kindly
received by the whole congregation. My bond stated
that I had to preach every Sunday morning in our
Lunenburg church, and to instruct the young people
for confirmation during the summer months, Sunday
afternoons ; and the church rule added, that if any man
wanted me in the country, he must fetch and return
me in a convenient wagon. But I soon found out that
that never could build up our Lutheran Zion, and I
soon commenced to preach in the country; the far-
living members of our Church, not able to keep horse
and wagon, should not be without the Bread of Life.
In February, I administered the Lord's Supper for

^ ^"^^^

COSSMANN, THE FOUKTH MINISTER.

399

the first time, and only one of the twelve elders ami
fifteen of the congregation made their appearance at
th T^ord's table ; so dead I found our Lutheran
Zionlll

In May 1837, I left for Germany and returned at
the twelfth December, a. ej. to Lunenburg with my
beloved wife Caroline Luisa Brcssel, the mother of
our nine children, five sons and four daughters, of
whom one son died in his infancy. My dear wife de-
parted this life on the twenty-third August, 1879. Soon
I shall be united with her again and then forever and
ever. Amen!

After my return from Germany, I preached regu-
larly twice every Sunday and on the week days
on such places as I could not reach Sundays : as Mait-
land, Northfield, Fr. Weil's now Sebastopol, Branch,
New Germany, Cornwall, Tancook, Blandford, Con-
querall, Feltzen-south, Rose Bay, La Have, etc., etc.
On the most populated places I preached commonly
once a month, besides the funeral sermons and the
visiting the sick, and administering the Lord's Supper
to many on their sick and often dying beds. I traveled
annually about four thousand miles for many years,
and the most part in the saddle. But I was sometimes
so fatigued that my children stood plainly before my
eyes but I could not recollect their names, and if I

400

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

'I I

could have saved my life. The same weariness I have
several times observed by dying persons ; they know
their children, but in consequence of their weakness
they cannot recollect their names any more. The
most trouble made me the present Bridgewater parish.
I had to pray without ceasing and very hard to work.
But it is a great satisfaction that I have not lost one
single member of our over-the-whole-country-spread-
congrcgation so long as I stood alone. But I could
tremble by thinking that here or there v/as a screw
loose, because I considered it always one of the great-
est sins a man can commit when a Lutheran, having
the true Word and the Holy Sacraments, as Christ our
Saviour instituted them, was fickle-minded enough to
join another denomination.

After Mr. Geo. Weil in Waterloo had spoken to me
about an assistant who could preach English, I called
immediately my elders together, and the result of the
meeting was that we would try to get help for me. I
was delighted when the Rev. W. W. Bowers arrived,
who was called as my assistant, and I told him that he
should assist me and I would assist him, and so we
lived and worked together in the closest harmony, as
Christian brethren always should do. Rev. Bowers
was loved by everybody, and our Lutheran Zion
flourished after his arrival 1855. But in 1859 he ac-

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

401

cepted a call from the Bridgewater parish, which sepa-
rated then from us.*

Since my arrival 1835 until i860, we Lutherans
lived as a large family in undisturbed harmony and
peace, and the rich blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ
dwelled in the whole congregation. Our Lutheran.
Zion was for the denominations around us a pattern,
of Christian love and unity. But in April i860 came.-
the Rev. J. J. Stine, a man of the Mel£\nchthon Synod,,
as our new English Lutheran minister, who would i
not answer our true Lutheran people. He would

* The following obituary appeared in The Lutheran and Mission'
ary, October, 1873.

«' Bowers. — Rev. W. W. Bowers was bom in Montgomery Co., Pa.,
near Philadelphia, April i6th, 1827, and died in Concord, North Caro-
lina, October 17th, 1873, aged 46 years, 6 months, and I day.

He pursued his studies at Gettysburg and studied theology under the
late Dr. Anspach at Hagerstown, Md. In the autumn of 1855, he ac-
cepted a call to Lunenburg and Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. He con-
tinued to reside there until sometime last August, when he resigned
the field in Nova Scotia and accepted a call to Concord N. C. The
disease from which he died was typhoid pneumonia. His remains
were sent to White Marsh, Montgomery Co., Pa. The deceased
leaves a wife and four children to mourn his death. The wife and
three of the children are in Nova Scotia, the oldest son having accom-
panied his father for the purpose of attending the North Carolina Col-
lege." His wife was Louisa, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. .
Cossmann. R.

I' '

402

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

force the congregation to introduce the Methodistical
prayer-meetings, and finding resistance he scanda-
lized the elders and congregation. It came according
to his own wish to a vote of the congregation in
Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Rose Bay churches,
and the result was that he was discharged from the
congregation. But a few of his friends kept him the
year out, and the following year, holding their meet-
ings in the temperance hall. After his departure, his
friends joined the Methodists, and he himself was ex-
communicated from the Lutheran Church for ill
behaviour in the United States.* •

*The Rev. J. J. Stine took his theological course at Princeton
Presbyterian Seminary. It was reported, after his departure from
Lunenburg, that he had been arrested for stealing books from the
City Library in Boston. All that is known further of his career is
contained in the following extract from the Philadelphia Times of
April 7th, 1886.

«♦ BREAKING STONE IN A WORKHOUSE.

"A man who claims to be a Clergyman, but is a Swindler. Indian-
opolis, Ind. April 7. (Special.) — Among the prisoners who were
brought into the Mayor's Court this morning was a man 60 years old,
with the appearance of a clergyman, who registered at the Grand Hotel
last night as Rev. Isaac J. Brinton, of Pittsburgh, Pa. The charge
against him was that he is known as a thief and a felon. In his valise,
which was opened by fhe police, was found 15 no in cash, and a few
theological books, together with a hat-full of clippings from Chicago
and New York newspapers giving a fragmentary history of some of his

cal
da-
iing
in
hes,
the
I the
leet-
;, his
s ex-
)r ill

Indian-
lo were
lars old,
Id Hotel
charge
Is valise,
Id a few
(Chicago
le of his

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER. 4O3

After this sore affliction we had to send for another
English Lutheran minister, and we received an indi-
vidual whom I will leave unnamed, who, although in
another way, finished what Rev. Stine commenced.
Qui viilt vitare Chary bdim incidit m Scyllam. Misled
by Rev. Hutchinson at Bridgewater, he tried the
utmost to expel me from my dear church, which was
locked before me for a couple of years. Hutchinson's
and the other man's aim was it to bring the whole
Lutheran congregation under the Episcopal bishop,
and a bridge was introduced by them in the form of a
prayer-book, most part of it extracted from the Epis-
copal Common Prayer Book. The first step must

criminal exploits, while others told of his connection with the Evangel-
ical Lutheran ministry, and his wonderful eloquence as a lecturer.

" Among the clippings was one stating that he had swindled a bank
of Rochester, N. Y., by raising a check from $39 to J553900. He also
had testimonial letters from some of the most prominent people in the
country, including the Rev. David Swing, the late Gen. George B.
McClellan, Robert Snodgrass, deputy attorney- general of Pennsylvania,
Congressman Atkinson, of the same State, and in fact, from almost
every quarter, many of them directed to President Cleveland, recom-
mending his appointment as consul at Kingston, Can. The trial de-
veloped that some of his reverend aliases were J. J. Stine, Jacob Stim-
son, G. T. Hart and George Brinton. Although there was not sufficient
evidence to convict him on the charge of being a known thief, he was
fined $1^ and costs, and sent to the workhouse for thirty days, where
he is now breaking stone in felon's garb."

404

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

naturally be to remove me, the chief stumbling-block,
from the church; and now began a time full of horror
for our poor congregation. The whole congregation
was more a battlefield than a Christian Church!
After the church was locked before me* a division
of its members took place and by far the majority
signed for me ; but there was probably no Lutheran
family in the Province what discussed not the matter
vehemently; often the wife against the husband, child-
dren against parents, brothers and sisters quarreling
against each other.

To end this quarrel and fighting, could I resign with
good conscience? Could I leave the over three hun-
dred families of my congregation, whom I loved so
dearly, without a shepherd? Had I not to answer for
such a step before God on the Judgment Day? The
wolf attacked the flock, and I as a Lutheran minister
and according to Dr. Martin Luther's advice consid-
ered it my duty to protect my people, my friends, my
children in Christ. If I had resigned then, the most
of my people would have rather joined some of the
denominations, and Hutchinson and the other man

* This was the new church, built on the site of the first one by the
efforts of Father Cossmann among his people, in 1840 and 1841, at an
expense of $^fioo, exclusive of labor and materials given and not
reckoned. R.

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER. 405

would themselves and their friends have united with
the Episcopal Church, and Nova Scotia would by this
time be without a Lutheran Zion, our joy and crown.

When the church was closed before me, the elders
were highly in my debt. Asking the elders for pay-
ment, one in the presence of the other elders told me
that I had to sue for it; and thus I was forced to sue,
because what the elders owed me I owed other
people. A congregational meeting was called by
the other man, who stated my case in the blackest
manner before the people, and I made an offer to take
;^200, if they would not force me to go to law.

It was now moved by Mr. Nathaniel Strumm,
seconded and unanimously carried, that the elders
should sell the so-called school-house, and the mem-
bers of the church would be taxed for the remainder
of the ;^200, but the law should be avoided; what is a
clear proof that the people would act honest towards
me; and, indeed, it would have been an easy matter
to settle in peace, because for the school-house they
received jCi^St ^5 they received as a legate of the
late Caspar Zink in Blandford, and at least £12 they
had in hand from a "bazaar," in all ;^I52, so that only
;^48 were to be raised, and some offered from £^ to
;^5 towards payment of this debt, only to avoid the
scandal.

4o6

ACAUIE AND THE ACAUIANS.

The elders, misled .by that man, refused to pay me
and thus 1 was compelled to sue them. After I had
deducted £20 for a wagon from the elders' debt due
me, which wagon was presented to me from the con-
gregation, the elders owed me still over ^^^400, but
hoping that ;{i"300 would pay my debts, I sued them
only for that sum ; and although clearly stated by the
Chief Justice after hearing my witnesses, that every
sixpence was due to me and must be paid, I settled
and received only ^200. I received in average, not
the promised ,^550 marked down in my bond, but a
little less than ;$500.

Another suit I had against the elders for locking up
the church doors before me and the majority of the
Lutheran congregation, and it was only after the Chief
Justice, in the Lunenburg Court, declared that he had
read, studied and admired our Church's rules, and
found that this church was built by Germans and
surely for Germans, and that my elders could claim
the whole church and exclude the English (which we
never intended to do), that the church doors were
opened for us. But since we had no right or title to
the church or its property in the House of Parliament
in Halifax, and since my people, having no claim
whatever on the church property, would nothing pay
to keep the church in repairs, and finding that thus the

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

407

church would go to ruin, the old ciders had more
trouble to give the church and church property back
in the hands of my members and elders than they had
had to exclude us from the church.

After having done a great deal of mischief to our
congregation, the other man's salary could not be
raised any more, and he returned home, after having
been the means of increasing our church debt from
i^ii to ii'500. *

Besides this was spent in his time the ;^I35 received
from the schoolhouse, ^12 from the "bazaar," 5 from
the late Caspar Zink in Blandford, and the money for
a thirty acre lot lying in Waterloo, Bridgewater parish.

For all this trouble and scandal that man has to
answer on the judgment day before God. May God
have mercy upon him!

After that man came Rev. English in September,

1866, and left the congregation already in March,

1867, because, as he said to me, he was forbidden by
my opponents to live on friendly terms w'ith me.

The situation as English Lutheran minister occupied
since April, 1868, Rev. Cornman and his opponent, a
discharged Methodist minister. The friends of Rev.
Cornman sued the other brother elders for introducing
this discharged Methodist minister in the Lutheran

* (About ;p2,ooo.)

iim I

408

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

church as a Lutheran minister. The Methodist min-
ister had to clear out of our Lutheran church, and the
Judge in the District Court advised Rev. Cornman to
resign, and for peace sake he did, and went home to
the United States.

Very sorrowful years were these, but at last the
Lord heard our prayers and sent us in the Rev. Pro-
fessor Roth, from Pittsburgh Synod, that man who
was able and willing to settle all our difficulties. Him
we have to thank that he did send us in his brother,
the Rev. D. Luther Roth, a true and able Lutheran
minister, under whose guidance our Lutheran Zion
flourishes again. The sore wounds inflicted to us by
Stine and the other man heal from year to year more
and more.

Thanks be to God, that Mahone Bay and Bridge-
water have likewise true and able English Lutheran
ministers in the Rev. J. A. Scheffer and the Rev. A.
L. Yount. May God bless them all and their congre-
gations.

Seeing our people in good hands, I resigned on the

:17th day of October, 1876. Towards my support for

;the short remainder of my life, the three parishes pen-
sioned me with ;^200, and our Pittsburgh Synod made

I me a missionary for Nova Scotia with a salary of ^200.

Through the mercy of God I am healthy, but my

COSSMANN, THE FOURTH MINISTER.

409

strength is exhausted so that T cannot perform any
more a great deal of work. Whatever is in my power
to do for the welfare of our Lutheran congregations, I
do it with heart's delight.

At one time it had the full appearance, and I
trembled at the thought, that all my prayers and my
hard work for so many years would have been in vain,
and that our Lutheran churches would perish away
entirely , but since the Lord our God has spared my
life so long as to see our Lutheran congregations pros-
per again in good hands, I exclaim with Simeon :
" Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace."
Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost. Amen.

Charles E. Cossmann,
Missionary of the Ev. Lutheran Synod
of Pittsburgh, for Nova Scotia.

Lunenburg, April ij, 1880.

CHAPTER XXXI.
GENERAL HiSTORY AND STATISTICS.

II I AVE been asked by the pastors of the Nova Scotia
Conference to prepare for insertion in this volume,
a short summary of the early history and present
statistics of the Lutheran Church in general. In
obedience to that request I have assembled and here-
with present the followinpr facts;

As to the origin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
it is not to be disputed that she has her primitive
sources in the doctrines and teachings of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the holy Apostles. In this respect
she traces her connection to the early Christian
Church. She accepts with all Christians of whatever
name, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the
Athanasian Creed. But as their own particular dis-
tinction, those believers in Christ who compose the
Lutheran Church, receive the Augsburg Confession
as a correct statement of the great doctrines of God's
Word, and that Confession is their only visible bond
of union. Their unity is solely in faith and doctrine.
The great principle of religious liberty asserted in
the Augsburg Confession, although repeatedly put
- ,-..--.-- -^ (410) -- .-.-.-.--. —..-

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

411

forward by bold men was as often crushed, until
about 1530, it first began to agitate the pubUc mind
of Europe. At that time the pope of Rome claimed
for himself the spiritual and temporal power over all
the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Although
guilty of the grossest wickedness and darkest crimes
he avowed himself free from all liability to err. When
men protested against his assumed power and infalli-
bility, they were put to death. His adherents con-
tinued to uphold his monstrous claims and kings and
nobles, clergy and people quietly submitted.

Wickliffe, in England, however, about 1325, vigor-
ously attacked the papal abuses. Thirty years after
his death, which he accomplished in peace because
the pope was prevented from seizing him, the Council
of Constance solemnly anathematized him. This
sapient Council then proceeded to depose the three
popes who at the same time had been ruling, fighting
and issuing bulls against each other for forty years,
and elected another. Huss, in Bohemia, was burnt
at the stake July 6th, 141 5, for protests similar to
those of Wickliffe. May 30th, 1416, his friend
Jerome of Prague suffered a martyr's death for
similar causes and in a like manner. Savonarola, in
Italy, and two others, for the same cause, were put to
death May 24th, 1498, and their bodies burned by the

412

ACAUIE AND THE ACADIANS.

executioner. Hosts of less celebrated martyrs were
publicly burned for expressing opinions deemed by
the pope heretical. In the south of France, the Albi-
genses, a people holding the doctrines of the early
Christians, were butchered to the number of hundreds
of thousands, by an army sent out by the pope and
called " the army of the cross."

But in spite of fire and sword the truth made head-
way, and the power of the pope declined. The avar-
ice of Leo X., led him now to issue "indulgences,"
which were worthless checks drawn on the bank of
salvation, professing to remit the punishment of sin, even
before the contemplated crime had been committed.
These were sold by thousands among the peasants of
Germany. The form in which they were drawn was as
follows: "I re-establish you in the innocence which
you received at your baptism, so that if you die soon
the gate of punishment will be shut, and the gate of
happiness open to you, and if you do not die soon
this grace will be reserved and secured for you."
This was signed by the monk who sold it, with the
authority of the pope. The schedule of prices for the
different crimes was graded thus : fo** polygamy, six
ducats, (III 2.42); for a common murder, seven ducats,
($14.49); *of ^^^ murder of a father, mother, brother
or sister, eleven ducats, (^22.77) ; for witchcraft and

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

413

sorrery, two ducats, (54.14); for perjury, nine ducats,
($18.03); for church robbery, the same; for sodomy,
twelve ducats, and so on through all the crimes for-
bidden by the Commandments of God.

Martin Luther, a man of great learning and puio
life was at this time a priest and teacher of theology
at Wittenberg in Germany. He had been to Rome.
What he saw there led him to say : " It is impossible
that matters can remain in this state; things must
change or break down." Later and more emphatically
he declared: " If there be a hell Rome is built on
the top of it. Whoever has been at Rome knows
well that things are worse than can be expressed in
words or believed." But he did not feel himself
called to attack these abuses publicly. He was but a
poor and unknown priest. He had too much rever-
ence for authority to attack it lightly. How should
he reform a world? " That was far from his thoughts.
A humble, solitary man, why should he at all meddle
with the world? It was the task of quite higher men
than he. His business was to guide his own footsteps
wisely through the world. Let him do his own ob-
scure duty in it well ; the rest, horrible and dismal as
it looks, is in God's hand, not in his.

It is curious to reflect what might have been the
issue, had Roman popery happened to pass this

'" jf

1 i

414

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

Luther by; to go on in its great wasteful orbit, and
not come athwart his little path^ and force him to as-
sault it. Conceivable enough that in his case, he
might have held his peace about the abuses of Rome;
left Providence, and God on high, to deal with them!
A modest quiet man; not prompt he to attack irrever-
ently persdTis in authority. His clear task, as I say,
was to do his own duty; to walk wisely in this world
of confused wickedness, and save his own soul alive.
But the Roman Highpriesthood did come athwart
him : afar off at Wittenberg he, Luther, could not get
lived in honesty for it; he remonstrated, resisted, came
to extremity; was struck-at, struck again, and so it
came to wager of battle between them." *

Pope Leo sent out a ttionk, Tetzel by name, to sell
the indulgences. With public outcry throughout Ger-
many in the market-places, at fairs, and in the public
assemblies of the people, this loud-tongued friar auc-
tioned-ofif his wares. "Buy! buy! buy!" he cried.
"Come, come here; by the will of the Holy Father
and the Holy Curia at Rome, I visit this place to give
to you, O citizens, the benefit of these glorious indul-
gences." People came, and bought, and went away to
sin. In the confessional Luther learned from them
whaf they had done. He demanded of them repent-

* Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 95.

lit, and

to as-
ise, he
Rome;

them !
irrever-

I say,
s world
il alive,
athwart
not get
d, came
id so it

to sell

)ut Ger-

public

ar auc-

cried.

Father

to give

s indul-

iway to

them

repent-

. £...

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

4IS

ance in God's name. They refused repentance for
their sins, relying on the indulgences they had bought.
Luther's indignation was aroused. He appealed to
his bishop to stop the sale of the indulgences. The
bishop advised him to keep quiet. He sought for
help from his fellow-priests. They feared to assail the
gigantic evil. Tetzel drove a flourishing trade.
" Please God," said Luther, " I will make a hole in
this drum." He denied the efficacy of the indulgences.
He protested, and his protest shook the world. His
word, by the grace of God, was heard. It broke the
spell of Roman supremacy.

In 15 17, he made public his famous Ninety-five
Theses. He affirmed the liberty of conscience. He
openly avowed that no man, be he priest or pope,
could come between a soul and God. He asserted
that God alone had power to forgive sin, and that re-
pentance and faith in Jesus Christ were necessary to
forgiveness. He rejected, along with the indulgences,
the pope's assumed infallibility ; the idolatrous mass ;
auricular confession ; the worship of images; adoration
of relics; invocation of saints; worship of the Vir-
gin Mary; the doctrine of purgatory; Romish fast-
ings; and many other abuses. He declared that
priests should marry, and himself, later, took a wife,
Catharine Von Bora, who had been a nun. By so

! !l

i
i

4i6

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

doing, he restored to the Church and the world, that
bright spot in human society, the pastor's home.

In 1520 the pope anathematized Luther, declared
his writings heretical and solemnly pronounced upon
him the ban of excommunication. Luther, in the
public square of Wittenberg, in the presence of a
great company of students, professors and citizens
burned the pope's decree. The Sorbonne (which was
the great Academy of Paris), under Ron ish i fluence,
declared "that flames, and not reasoning, ought to be
employed against the arrogance of Luther." The
papal ban included not only Luther and his writings
but all his protectors and followers and commanded
that he be seized forthwith, and delivered up for pun-
ishment. But God and his friends protected him.

King Henry VIII. of England wrote a volume
against him. This pleased the pope. He decorr^^d
the King with the title defensor fidei, " defender 01 ' i ^
faith." The title is still retained by the sovereigns o^
England. The first letters of it may yet be seen on
the coins of Great Britain and elsewhere. England
was at that time wholly under the pope of Rome, but
ready for the Reformation which soon followed.

Printing had now been discovered. The doctrines

, which Luther taught flew as though on angels' wings.

North, south, east and west the Reformation spread.

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

417

ume

ns o^
en on

land
e, but

Men accepted readily the Gospel truths it promul-
gated. They died for them. The first martyrs were
two young Augustinian monks, who were burned at
Brussels, July ist, 1523; John Esch and Henry Voes.
Luther celebrated their heroic sufferings in the beauti?

ful hymn :

'' Ein neues Lied wir heben anr

Their example was followed by the friar of the-
monastery, Lampert Thorn, who was suffocated in
prison. George Buchfiihrer was burnt in Hungary,
the next year. And then followed countless execu-
tions in Austria, Bavaria and Swabia. Caspar Tauber
was burnt in Vienna, Leonard Kaiser at Passau,.
George Carpentarius in Munich ; John Hiiglin at Con-
stance ; George Winkler, a priest, murdered at An-
schaffenberg for having administered the Communion
under both kinds — that is, he gave the communicants
the bread and wine as Christ did, and not the bread
only as the Roman Catholics do, and they killed him
for it.

It was a revival of the persecutions suffered by the
first Christian martyrs, and for holding the same faith:
for in all the Reformation Luther never introduced a
new doctrine. Upon those who accepted the restored
faith, which though called "new" was only the old!
" faith once delivered to the saints " by Christ and the
-M ...

4i8

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

h>l

IT'

■ ,1

I n\

\m\

'li '

!1 '■

? '*.

Apostles, the name of Lutherans was fixed. It was in-
vented by the Roman Catholics as a term of reproach.
The church accepted it and has borne it so nobly
that it has become a name of honor. To-day we are
proud to be Lutherans and not ashamed of our name.

A good illustration of how we receive and reject the
name of Luther, was given in the magnanimous utter-
ance of the Margrave of Brandenburg, who, when re-
proached with being a Lutheran, said: "I was not
baptized in the name of Luther ; he is not my God and
Saviour; I do not rest my faith in him as my Lord;
and so, in this sense, I am no Lutheran. But if I be
asked whether, with my heart and lips, I profess the
doctrines which God restored to light by the instru-
mentality of His blessed servant. Dr. Luther, I do not
hesitate to call myself a Lutheran, and am not
ashamed of it. In this sense I ani a Lutheran, and,
as long as I live, will remain a Lutheran."

Luther himself said : " I neither am, nor will be,
any man's master. I hold with the Church the one
only common doctrine of Christ, who alone is Master
of us all, as we read in Matthew xxiii. 8."

The doctrines of the Lutheran Church are set forth
in the Augsburg Confession. This Confession, which
is but an amplification of the ecumenical creeds, was
prepared by Luther with the assistance of Philip Mel-

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

419

anchthon and their co-workers, and presented before
the Emperor Charles V., in 1530, at Augsburg; hence
the name. In addition to this, the Apology or Expla-
nation to the Augsburg Confession, the two Cate-
chisms of Luther, the Smalcald Articles, and the
Formula of Concord are accepted as a correct sum-
mary of the faith of the Church.

By reference to them it will be seen, that we Luth-
erans believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy
Ghost ; we believe in the complete sinfulness of man,
and the complete atonement wrought by the vicarious
obedience, sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, the
God-man, for all men; we believe in Justification before
God by Faith in Christ; in Repentance; in Sanctifica-
tion completed in the believer at death ; in the Resur-
rection of the body; in the Second Coming of Christ;
and in the Eternity of Hell and Heaven. We believe
the only appointed Means of Grace to be the Word of
God and the Holy Sacraments, and that the Grace of
God is to be obtained ordinarily only through the Means
of Grace. We hold Baptism and the Holy Eucharist or
Lord's Supper, as the only divinely established sacra-
ments. Of the former, we believe " that it is neces-
sary to salvation, that through baptism the Grace of
God is offered, and that children are to be baptized,
who, being by baptism offered to God are received

420

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

:il

into His favor." But we also believe that in case bap-
tism cannot be received, God's mercy and power are
not limited. He may save without it. Of the Holy
Communion we believe that the true Body and Blood
of Christ are in, with, and under the bread and wine,
communicated to all who receive the Sacrament
How, we know not. To the believer they secure the
remission of sin and "are made a savor of life unto
life ;" to the unbelieving and unworthy they bring an
increase of guilt and " become a savor of death unto
death." We deny that the bread and wine are changed
as to their substance and hence reject the Romish
doctrine of Transubstantiation. We likewise reject
the kindred doctrines of consubstantiation, impanation^
companation, and subpanation ; as well as the Calvin-
istic and Zwinglian heresies, which make of the bread
and the wine in the Sacrament only a sign, symbol, or
representation of the body and bloojJ of our Saviour.
The polity of the Lutheran Church admits the right
of congregations to govern themselves, as weli as the
expediency of union among them for the general
good. In Scandinavia she has bishops who have
oversight by consent of the churches, but claim no
superiority by divine right. All Lutheran ministers
are equal in authority. In Germany a Board of
Supervision with a Superintendent is appointed by the

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

421

Emperor. In America, Canada, and other parts of
the world, the general government is by Conferences,
Synods and Councils.

The Lutheran Church was first planted in America,
by Admiral Coligni, in June, 1564. These first
American Lutherans \\ ere Frenchmen. Scarcely
were they settled in their new home on the bank
of the St. John river in Florida, until they were hailed
by a squadron which had pursued them from Spain.
"What are you doing in the territories of King
Philip?" was the query of the Spaniards. "Begone!"
Then came the question; "Are you Catholics or
Lutherans?" "Lutherans of the new religion," was
the reply. The horrible announcement was then
made: "I am Pedro Melendez, commander of this
armament, which belongs to the King of Spain, Don
Philip the Second. I have come hither to hang and
destroy all the Lutherans whom I shall find either on
land or sea, according to my orders received from the
king, which are so precise as to deprive me of the
power of saving any one whatever; and these orders I
shall execute to the letter ; but if I meet with any
Catholic, he shall receive good treatment. As for the
heretics, they shall die." The dreadful threat was
awfully fulfilled.

Landing his soldiers, Melendez marched upon the

422

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

peaceful settlement. With the ferocity of tigers they
fell upon their victims. No person was spared upon
whom they could lay their hands. In their beds, in
flight, in prayers for mercy, they were slaughtered.
About nine hundred persons were slain. According
to Mendoza, the priest who accompanied Melendez as
chaplain, the Spaniards did not lose a man. A few of
the men were hanged upon trees and over their bodies
was placed the inscription :

Not AS Frenchmen, but as Lutherans.
' The women and children were butchered. None
escaped except a few who found a hiding-place in the
forest. Thus the sun of the first Lutheran settlement
went down in blood. The priest, Mendoza, says : " the
Holy Spirit enlightened the understanding of Melen-
dez, to enable him to gain so great a victory." God
save the mark ! That was a glorious Roman Catholic
victory. And the spirit of the Roman Catholic
Church is always the same.

The first body of Lutherans to come to America
after this butchery, arrived from Holland in 162 1.
Then came the Swedes, in 1637, and made their settle-
ment on Delaware Bay. In 1642, the Rev. John Cam-
panius, the first Lutheran minister, arrived and dwelt
among them. Many Germans followed. In 1742
came Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, the great organ-

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

423

izcr of the Church in the New World. Six years after
his arrival, the first Synod was formed ; the Pennsyl-
vania Ministerium. The Old World now began, in
earnest, to pour the great stream of emigration on the
American shores. In 1820 there were in connection
with the General Synod, which was organized in that
year, one hundred and seventy ministers and thirty-
five thousand communicants. The civil war in the
United States broke up intercourse between the North
and South, and led to the formation of the General
Synod South in 1863. The General Council, on ac-
count of certain theological tendencies, was formed in
1868. The Synodical Conf rence was established in
1872. Other large bodies exist without connection
with the general organizations. The annexed table
will show the growth and numerical standing of the
Church in America, 1889.

Name.

Years.

Minis,
ters.

Congre-
gations.

Communi'
cants.

General Council I

1869
1889

497
889

913

1.557

I29,55»
264,235

General Synod <

1869
1889

598
95 »

1,022
1.423

1,348
1,811

90,928
157.365

Synodical Conference ....•<

1872
1889

82/1

1,291

187.873
365,620

Independent Synods . . . . <

1869
1889

687
1,276

1,183
2.730

1 50,640
269,743

Summary <

1869
1889

1.933
4.612

3.417
7.9"

387.746
1,086,048

424

ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

These statistics deal with communicants. This ag-
gregate 1,086,048, is short of the grand total by hun-
dreds of thousands, as every pastor in active service
especially in the larger cities, knows well. Multiply-
ing the reported number by five, which is the average
taken by the Roman Catholics as the basis of calcula-
tion, though they deny that Protestants have any right
to claim so high an average, we find the grand total of
the Lutheran population in the United States to be
five millions four hundred and thirty thousand two
hundred and forty, and this I firmly believe to be be-
low the actual number.

The latest statistics show the number of institutions
for higher education under the control of the Luth-
eran Church in the United States to be :

Theological Seminaries. ... 25; Professors, 73; Students, 800

.Colleges 26; " 219; « 3,435

Academies 39; «« 131 ; " 2,313

Young Ladies' Seminaries . . . 12; •« .94; ** 95 1

102

5«7

7»499

The figures for one Theological Seminary, one College,

.and nine Academies, are wanting.

Our institutions of mercy comprise : *

♦ Orphans' Homes 32

.Asylums for the Aged 3

JVsylum for the Deaf and Dumb i

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS. 425

DeaconesMt' Homes and Hospitab 15

Immigrant Missions 9

Our church papers number:

English 44

German • . . 51

Norwegian 18

Swedish 15

Danish 4

Icelandic 3

Finnish » A

French I

The General Statistics of the Lutheran Church, as
published in the Minutes of the General Council for
1889, are as follows :

Africa.

1. Egypt 2,000

2. Cape Colony 5,000

3. Mission Stations 10,000

4. Madagascar 25,000

Total 42,000

',',,-,\ America. ■,'.■•:'■ ^'^:-;/ /;■'■'.. : '■^'^"_t■'^:,.

1. Greenland 8,000

2. United States and Canada I>955i090

3. West Indies 2,500

426 ACADIE AND THE ACADIANS.

4. Brazil 40,000

%. Other Provinces of Sooth Amerirt 1,000

Total a,oo6,590

Asia.

I. Siberia I,ooo

a. India 180,000

3. Other Countries in Asia 5.000

Total 186.000

Australia and Polynesia.

I. New South Wales 3.000

a. Victoria 15.000

3. South Australia . 35.000

4. Queensland 20,000

Total 63,000

EVROPS.

1. Denmark 2,083,000

2. Germany 29,800,000

3. France 80,000

4. Great Britain and Heligoland 52,000

5. Holland 75,000

6. Italy 5,000

7. Norway 1,825,000

8. Austria, with Hungary and Siebenburgen ...... 1,550,000

9. Roumania 4,500

10. Russia ..,,,,„ 5,060,000

II. Sweden 4,600,000

Total 47,412,090

II •

GENERAL HISTORY AND STATISTICS.

427

Correcting this aggregate by statistics for popula-
tion, herein given for communicants only, in the United
States and Canada, we have a grand total of fifty miU
lions, eight hundred and eighty-*seven thousand, two
hundred and forty.

More than fifty millions of Lutherans are in the
world. The Lutheran Church is great indeed, and
great in more than numbers. Her millions of adher-
ents are the human bulwark, not only of Protestantism
but of Christianity, in the world to-day. They are
amc ^ the noblest and best of the inhabitants of earth.
They shine as lights which God has kindled, wherever
they be, conspicuous by reason of honesty, virtue and
faith in Him whose they are and whom they serve.
As in the Lutheran Church Christ's pure religion was
restored to man, so in connection with that Church her
people yet uphold and live by that religion. And he
who unites with them to serve the Lord will find in
the Lutheran Church a home wherein he will have
ministered unto him of the riches of Christ; he will
find friends in the time of trouble, consolation in the
hour of death, and safe direction to the Christian's
everlasting home in heaven.