France in America 14971763 Author:Reuben Gold Thwaites General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: Harper Subjects: Canada History / Canada / General History / Canada / Pre-Confederation (to 1867) History / Europe / France History / United States / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustration... more »s and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II THE ACADIAN FRONTIER (1632-1728) ANOTHER wave of foreign war reached the shores /. of Acadia in 1654, when Port Royal, Fort St. Jean (the St. John of our day), and other little strongholds on the Bay of . Fundy, fell victims to a New England force under Major Robert Sedgwick, a sturdy Cromwellian soldier who held a commission from the Protector. Thirteen years later (1667) the peninsula was restored to France by the treaty of Breda, the white population at that time being only about four hundred souls, of whom less than a fourth lived beyond cannon-shot of Port Royal.1 Isolated, neglected by France, having but slight communication with Canada, and constantly exposed to naval assaults from the English colonies to the south, the little band of Acadians had by this time acquired characteristics all their own. They had become toughened by the harsh conditions of a protracted civil war, the frequent struggles now imposed upon them by English invaders, and the roving character of their life, to an independence of thought and action seldom met with elsewhere in New France. Affairs were discussed and decided in public meetings, much after the fashion of New England, and the habitants were accustomed to the necessity of thinking for themselves. The frugal habits and simple tastes and manners of their forebears were tenaciously retained; bookishly ignorant, they were easily satisfied as to material things; they held ...« less