not defined
its boundaries. The English claimed that it included the whole region
stretching northeastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the frontier
of New England. The French, however, said that Acadia meant only the
peninsula of Nova Scotia ending at the isthmus between Baie Verte and
the Bay of Chignecto; and for years a Canadian force stood there on
guard, daring the British to put a foot on the north side of the little
river Missaguash, which the French said was the international boundary.

There was much excitement among the Acadians in 1750, when an English
force landed on the isthmus and proceeded to throw up defenses on the
south side of the river. This outpost, which in due time became Fort
Lawrence, was placed on what even the French admitted to be British
territory. Forthwith on a hill two or three miles away, on the other
side of the supposed boundary, the French built Fort Beausejour. Le
Loutre was on the spot, blustering and menacing. He told his Acadian
parishioners of the little village of Beaubassin, near Fort Lawrence and
within the British area, that rather than accept English rule they must
now abandon their lands and seek the protection of the French at Fort
Beausejour. With his own hands he set fire to the village church. The
houses of the Acadians were also burned. A whole district was laid waste
by fire. Women and children suffered fearful privations--but what did
such things matter in view of the high politics of the priest and of
France?

During four or five years the hostile forts confronted each other. In
time of peace there was war. The French made Beausejour a solid fort,
for it still stands, little altered, though it has been abandoned for
a century and a half. It was chiefly the Acadians, nominal British
subjects, who built these thick walls.

The arrogant Micmacs demanded that the British should hand over to
them the best half of Nova Scotia, and they emphasized their demand
by treachery and massacre. One day a man, in the uniform of a French
officer, followed by a small party, approached Fort Lawrence, waving
a white flag. Captain Howe with a small force went out to meet him. As
this party advanced, Indians concealed behind a dike fired and killed
Howe and eight or ten others. Such ruses were well fitted to cause among
the English a resolve to enforce severe measures. The fire burned slowly
but in the end it flamed up in a cruel and relentless temper. French
policy, too, showed