The proceedings in connection with the expulsion were carried on simultaneously in different parts of the province; and the circumstances varied according to the temper or situation of the people. It will be convenient to deal with each group or district separately.
On July 31, 1755, Lawrence ordered Colonel Monckton, who lay with his troops at the newly captured Fort Cumberland, to gather in the inhabitants of the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Chepody, on the north shore of the Bay. The district of Minas was committed to the care of Colonel Winslow. Captain Murray, in command at Fort Edward, was to secure the inhabitants of Pisiquid, and Major Handfield, at Annapolis Royal, the people in his district.
It is regrettable that we do not find in the instructions to these officers any discrimination made between the Acadians who had persistently refused to take the oath and those who had been recognized by the governor and Council as British subjects. Monckton was advised to observe secrecy, and to 'endeavour to fall upon some stratagem to get the men, both young and old (especially the heads of families)' into his power, and to detain them until the transports should arrive. He was also to inform the inhabitants that all their cattle and corn were now the property of the crown, and no person should be allowed to carry off 'the least thing but their ready money and household furniture.' [Footnote: Nova Scotia Documents, p. 267.] On August 8 Monckton was advised that the transports would be available soon, and that in the interval he would do well to destroy all the villages in the vicinity of Beausejour or Cumberland, and to use 'every other method to distress as much as can be, those who may attempt to conceal themselves in the woods.' Monckton promptly conceived a plan to entrap the people. He issued a summons, calling upon the adult males to appear at Fort Cumberland on the 11th. About four hundred responded to the call. The proceedings were summary. Monckton merely told them that by the decision of the Council they were declared rebels on account of their past misdeeds; that their lands and chattels were forfeited to the crown, and that in the meantime they would be treated as prisoners. [Footnote: Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. iv, Journal of Colonel John Winslow, part i, p. 227.] The gates of the fort were then closed.
Less successful was Captain Cobb, who had been sent to Chepody to capture the Acadians there. Before his arrival the people had fled to the woods. Three other parties, detached from Fort Cumberland to scour the country in search of stragglers, reported various successes. Major Preble returned the next day with three Acadians, and Captain Perry brought in eleven. Captain Lewis, who had gone to Cobequid, had captured two vessels bound for Louisbourg with cattle and sheep, and had taken several prisoners and destroyed a number of villages on the route.
The more energetic of the Acadians still at large were not easily caught. The pangs of hunger, however, might tempt many to leave the security of their hiding-places, and Monckton determined to gather in as many more as possible. On August 28 Captain Frye sailed from Fort Cumberland for Chepody, Memramcook, and Petitcodiac, on the north shore, with orders to take prisoners and burn the villages on the way. [Footnote: 'Major Frye with a party of 200 men embarked on Board Captain Cobb Newel and Adams to go to Sheperday and take what French thay Could and burn thare vilges thare and at Petcojack.' —Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. i, p. 131. Diary of John Thomas.] Captain Gilbert was sent to Baie Verte on a similar mission. Finding the village deserted on his arrival at Chepody, Frye set fire to the buildings and sailed toward Petitcodiac. On the way the appearance of a house or a barn seems to have been the signal for the vessels to cast anchor, while a party of soldiers, torch in hand, laid waste the homes of the peasantry. On September 4, however, the expedition suffered a serious check. A landing party of about sixty were applying the torch to a village on the shore, when they were set upon by a hundred Indians and Acadians, and a general engagement ensued. The British, though reinforced by men from the ships, were severely handled; and in the end Frye regained the boats with a loss of twenty-three killed and missing and eleven wounded. This attack was the work of Boishebert, the Canadian leader, whom we met some time ago at St John. On the capture of that place by Rous in the summer Boishebert had taken to the woods with his followers, and was assisting the settlers of Chepody to gather in the harvest when Frye's raiders appeared. Frye did not attempt to pursue his assailants, but retired at once to Fort Cumberland with twenty-three captured women and children. He had, however, destroyed over two hundred buildings and a large quantity of wheat and flax. Meanwhile Gilbert had laid waste the village at Baie Verte and the neighbouring farms. [Footnote: 'A Party Likewise from ye Bay of verte under ye comand of Capt. Gilbert who had bin and consumed that vilige and the Houses adjasent.'—Diary of John Thomas.]
By August 31 the transports had arrived at Beausejour, and early in the month of September the embarkation began. The work, however, was tedious, and in the interval the English met with another misfortune. On October 1 eighty-six Acadian prisoners dug a hole under the wall of Fort Lawrence and, eluding the vigilance of the guards, made good their escape in the night. [Footnote: 'Stormy Dark Night Eighty Six French Prisoners Dugg under ye Wall att Foart Lawrance and got Clear undiscovered by ye Centry.' —Diary of John Thomas.] But on October 13 a fleet of ten sail, carrying nine hundred and sixty Acadian exiles, left Chignecto Bay bound for South Carolina and Georgia. After the departure of the vessels the soldiers destroyed every barn and house in the vicinity and drove several herds of cattle into Fort Cumberland. [Footnote: We Burnt 30 Houses Brought away one Woman 200 Hed of Neat Cattle 20 Horses … we mustered about Sunrise mustered the Cattle Togather Drove them over ye River near westcock Sot Near 50 Houses on Fyre and Returned to Fort Cumberland with our Cattle etc. about 6 Clock P.M.'—Diary of John Thomas, pp. 136-7.]
Lawrence was now rid of nearly a thousand Acadians. It was less than he expected, to be sure, and yet no doubt it was a great relief to him. About this time he should have received Sir Thomas Robinson's letter of August 13, conveying to him the king's wishes in effect that the Acadians were not to be molested. [Footnote: The date of the receipt of this letter is uncertain; but it is evident that he received it before the 30th of November, as on that day he replied to a letter of the 13th of August.] This letter received in time would no doubt have stopped the whole undertaking. But now that some of the people had already been deported, there was nothing to be done but to go on with the business to the bitter end.
At Annapolis Royal, more than a hundred miles south of Monckton's camp, matters proceeded more slowly. Handfield, the commandant there, had decided to wait for the arrival of the promised transports before attempting to round up the inhabitants. Then, when his soldiers went forward on their mission up the river, no sound of human voice met their ears in any of the settlements. The inhabitants had hidden in the woods. Handfield appealed to Winslow, who was then at Grand Pre, for more troops to bring the people to reason. [Footnote: Winslow's Journal, part ii, p. 96.] But Winslow had no troops to spare. Handfield does not appear to have relished his task, which he described as a 'disagreeable and troublesome part of the service.' What induced the inhabitants to return to their homes is not clear, but early in the month of September they resumed their occupations. They remained unmolested until early in November, when a fresh detachment of troops arrived to assist in their removal. On December 4 over sixteen hundred men, women, and children were crowded into the transports, which lay off Goat Island and which four days later set sail at eight o'clock in the morning.
Meanwhile Captain Murray of Fort Edward was doing his duty in the Pisiquid neighbourhood. On September 5 he wrote to Winslow at Grand Pre, only a few miles distant: 'I have succeeded finely and have got 183 men into my possession.' [Footnote: Winslow's Journal, part ii, p. 96.] But there was still much to be done. Three days later he wrote again: 'I am afraid there will be some lives lost before they are got together, for you know our soldiers hate them, and if they can find a pretence to kill them, they will.' Of the means Murray employed to accomplish his task we are not told, but he must have been exceedingly active up to October 14, for on that date nine hundred persons had been gathered into his net. His real troubles now began; he was short of provisions and without transports. At last two arrived, one of ninety tons, and the other of one hundred and fifty: these, however, would not accommodate half the people. Another sloop was promised, but it was slow in coming. He became alarmed. 'Good God, what can keep her!' he wrote. 'I earnestly entreat you to send her with all despatch… Then with the three sloops and more vessels I will put them aboard, let the consequence be what it will.' [Footnote: Ibid., p. 173.] He was as good as his word. On October 23 Winslow wrote: 'Captain Murray has come from Pisiquid with upwards of one thousand people in four vessels.' [Footnote: Ibid., p. 178.]
Colonel Winslow arrived on August 19 at Grand Pre, in the district of Minas. After requesting the inhabitants to remove all sacred objects from the church, which he intended to use as a place of arms, he took up his quarters in the presbytery. A camp was then formed around the church, and enclosed by a picket-fence. His first action was to summon the principal inhabitants to inform them that they would be required to furnish provisions for the troops during their occupancy, and to take effective measures to protect the crops which had not yet been garnered. There was danger that if the object of his visit were to become known, the grain might be destroyed. He was careful, therefore, to see that the harvest was gathered in before making any unfavourable announcement.