through the woods on the arrival of English transports. When the Treaty of Paris was signed, many exiles returned from the colonies and formed settlements feeble enough then, but a joyful refuge for these wanderers fleeing back to the land which had banished them and away from the malice of their unwilling hosts.
In December, 1767, Governor Franklin presented to his Council the petition of the Acadians of Nova Scotia that a grant of land be made them along the edge of St. Mary's Bay. In addressing the Council, Franklin made known that he had "received the order of His Majesty to give the Acadians ample assurance of his royal favour and protection. On his own part he disavowed any intention of compelling them to bear arms outside of the province; he gave his word that they should be treated at all times with the same degree of indulgence and protection that His Majesty manifested toward his other subjects, and that they should not be disquieted on the subject of their religion." In July, 1768, John Morrison was commissioned to survey the lands between Sissiboo and the northern border of the County of Yarmouth; this tract was to form a communal territory bearing the name of Clare. Behold, says an Acadian historian,[1] the birth certificate of the French municipality of la baie Sainte-Marie. Only such brief ref-
- ↑ Les Français du Sud-Ouest de la Nouvelle Écosse, by Father Dagnaud of the College of St. Anne, Church Point.
