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Newspaper
Year
1899
Month
1
Day
19
Article Title
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Author
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Page Number
03
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
Responding to the request of a large number of our readers to publish in L'EVANGELINE the Acadien Controversy, now going on in the Weymouth Free Press, between its proprietor and Mr. Harry Piers, of the Legislative Library, Halifax, we preface its publication by quoting passages from Mr. Piers’ article which gave rise to this discussion, and was published in the September number of the Educational Review Supplementary Readings in Canadian History’………………………………………………………. “Fresh provisions were supplied in abundance by the Acadians, who, it seems,had a pathway across the province. There is little doubt that the trench priest Le Loutre visited Chebucto and conferred with the commander regarding the condition of the fleet and the assistance that would be furnished by the French of Minas and other parts of the province. Ramesay with a force of nearly seven hundred men had been sent from Canada, under orders to co-operate with d’Anville, and his presence in the country tended to embolden the Acadians, whose animosity to the English had been stimulated to the utmost by Le Loutre and his emissaries. ”………………………………………………….. “On board the ships were fifty Acadians from Minas who were to act as pilots when the fleet approached Annapolis.” ………………………………………………….. “On November 26th, after a voyage of forty-four days, a portion of the fleet reached Port Louis on the west coast of France, and found there several ships of the squadron that had earlier made port. One of these latter ships was the frigate “La Palme,” of whose homeward voyage a horrible tale was told …….The suffering on this homeward voyage was terrible……….Death by starvation seemed almost certain. Finally, in sheer desperation, the crew demanded of M. Destrahoudal, the captain, that five British prisoners should be butchered and their flesh given to the starving seamen. The captain consulted with his officers, who seeing it was impossible to restrain the frantic crew, ordered the ship’s butcher to kill one of the prisoners and serve out the flesh in bits of three ounces each. Fortunately, before the horrible deed was done, a sail was sighted upon the horizon. It proved to be a Portuguese ship, which sent five sheep to the starving erew, who devoured the flesh uncooked.” “Such is the tragic story of d’Anville’s ill-fated expedition…………Naval history furnishes few such striking instances of disastrous failure.”