On Nov. 30, 1758, a group
of sickly Acadians arrived in Cherbourg from Ile Royale and Ile St.
Jean. Fifty-three deaths were registered between Dec. 1, 1758 and
Feb. 22, 1759.
They were joined by 147 Acadians from on Jan. 14,
1760 who had left Halifax in mid-December 1759. Most of these Halifax
Acadians were from the Cap Sable region, though some were from the St.
John River. This second group was apparently hard hit also, with
137 Acadian deaths registered from Dec. 1758 to Nov. 1760.
A list of "rural people
and bourgeois" of Cherbourg in 1760 who could get salt without paying taxes
included 15 families (59 persons) from Louisbourg or Acadia. A similar
listing in 1761 showed 34 families (53 people). |
Though the government
was supposed to give the Acadians welfare, it was sometimes reduced or
didn't arrive at all. The local government noted the "sad situation
of the Canadians residing in the town … they continue to languish in the
most frightful misery; burdened with debts and without any resource on
which to subsist, we have the sadness to see them perish from hunger without
being able to procure for them any relief." The Duke of Choiseul
answered from Versailles with "the king, informed of their sad situation,
wished well to continue (the aid) to them." (Nov. 30, 1761)
Since the Acadians first
arrived, the Duke had promised 6 sols a day to the Acadians of "low condition"
and 20 sols a day to missionaries and nuns. Fathers Cassiet, Coquart,
Desenclaves, Girard, and Manach received from 200 to 400 pounds each.
Le Loutre got 600 pounds in April 1759. The navy also gave funds
to retired military (ie. Joseph Bellefontaine, former rich major at the
St. John River who was paralyzed & died at Cherbourg 12/14/76 age 80),
the d'Entremonts, and the infirmed. |
|
The head d'Entremont was
Charles, a former fisherman who was crippled (in 1 leg) and had an invalid
wife.
At the beginning of 1773, there were 228 Acadians
at Cherbourg. But commissioner general of the navy, LeMoyne, recruited
163 of them to attempt the settlement at Poitou. LeMoyne recruited
2566 Acadians in all for the Poitou settlement. (From
Nantes to Louisiana, Braud) |
