le stream
as far as Bayou Plaquemines, in Louisiana, where we landed. Once more
we were treading French soil, and we were freed from English dominion.

"As the tidings of our arrival spread abroad, a great number of
Acadian exiles flocked to our camp to greet and welcome us. Ah!
petiots, how can I describe our joy and rapture, when we recognized
countenances familiar to us. Grasping their hands, with hearts too
full for utterance, we wept like children. Many a sorrowing heart
revived to love and happiness on that day. Many a wife pressed to her
bosom a long lost husband. Many a fond parent clasped in rapturous
embrace a loving child. Ah! such a moment repaid us a thousandfold for
all our sufferings and privations, and we spent the day in
rejoicing, conviviality and merriment.

[Illustration: _Interior, Catholic Church, St. Martinsville, La._]

"The sequel of my story will be quickly told, petiots. Shortly
afterwards, we left for the Teche region, where lands had been granted
to us by the government. We wended our way, to our destined homes,
through dismal swamps, through bayous without number and across lakes
until we reached Portage Sauvage, at Fausse Pointe. The next day, we
were at the Poste des Attakapas, a small hamlet having two or three
houses, one store and a small wooden church, situated on Bayou Teche
which we crossed in a boat.

"There, the several Acadians separated to settle on the lands granted
to them.

"You must not imagine, petiots, that the Teche region was, at that
time, dotted all over like nowadays with thriving farms, elegant
houses and handsome villages. No, petiots, it required the nerve
and perseverance of your Acadian fathers to settle there. Although
beautiful and picturesque, it was a wild region inhabited, mostly, by
Indians and by a few white men, trappers and hunters by occupation.
Its immense prairies, covered with weeds as tall as you, were the
commons where herds of cattle and of deer roamed unmolested, save
by the hunter and the panther. Such was the region your ancestors
settled, and which, by their energy, they have transformed into a
garden teeming with wealth.

"The Acadians enriched themselves in a country where no one will
starve if he is industrious, and where one may easily become rich if
he fears God, and if he is economical and orderly in his affairs.

"Petiots, I have kept my promise, and my tale is told. Your Acadian
fathers were martyrs in a noble cause, and you s