Of the
transports permitted," they were "to be allowed to carry their household
goods with them." They were also promised that families should not be
separated, and that the transportation should be made as easy as
possible.
Then they were declared prisoners, and the church became the guardhouse.
Ten men at a time were allowed to leave the building, to pack their
goods and assist in the preparations for departure; and when they
returned ten others were also permitted to leave for a time. While
Moncton was destroying Remsheg, Shediac, and other towns on the Gulf
coast, Handfield gathered up the French Annapolitans, and Murray those
about Windsor, putting them on shipboard; and on the 21st of October the
ships, with their wretched passengers, set sail. In the confusion and
hurry of embarkation some families were separated; and it is on this
fact that the story of Evangeline is founded.
Most of the exiles were scattered among the towns of Massachusetts; and
in the State House in Boston some curious old records relate to them,
one town desiring compensation "for keeping three French pagans", from
which it seems that there was still prejudice against them because of
their religion.
"From the cold lakes of the north to sultry southern Savannahs,"
to the region where
"On the banks of the Teche are the towns of St. Maur and St Martin,"
to the parish of Attakapas
"and the prairies of fair Opelousas"
