It was a bright, sunny day.
“I’m back!” I called out to my mother, running through the door.
“How was fishing today?” my mother asked. “Did you catch anything?”
“Yes,” I replied, as I set my fishing rod down on the ground and put the cod in a basket
for mother to cook.
“Can you go outside to get some vegetables for dinner? Your father has gone to the
town meeting,“ she explained, and he won’t be back until dinner time.”
I jumped through the door, and ran across the yard to the vegetables. I quickly plucked
some carrots and tomatoes out of the ground and hurried back towards our house. It was
almost dinnertime, so father would be back soon, and I wanted to get back quickly so I could
hear about what father had heard and discussed at the meeting.
When I got back, I quickly washed the vegetables, threw them into the pot and sat down.
Father had just come in, and he had started talking about the meeting.
“It was the same as the last few times,” Father replied,” about the British governor asking
us to take an oath of allegiance.”
It was only a few months ago, when the British Governor had declared that in order for
us Acadians to stay in Acadia, we must swear loyalty to Britain. For the past several years, after
Britain had won the war and had now controlled the territory that we lived on, Acadia, the British
Governor had asked again and again that the Acadians must be loyal to Britain, but we
Acadians have always resisted. We would always be neutral between the French and the
British.
“We had a vote, all of us, and decided to continue to be neutral, not fighting for Britain or
France,” Father continued,” and then our leader told Governor Lawrence no.”
Mother asked,” Is he going to do anything about it, or can we remain how we are
forever?”
“After we had notified him of our decision, he stood there and thought for a while,” Father
recalled. “Then, he announced that he will come back the next day to make a decision. “
Then I wondered what the governor was going to do. I hoped that we could stay in our
land forever, without these disruptions from the British. Even though the British had won the
war, and this land was theirs, we were neutral and we just wanted to stay on our land.
The next day, everyone was anticipating the arrival of the governor and about what he
was to do with us Acadians not loyal to britain. he had called a meeting in the morning, and
everyone was to come.
Later, when he arrived, he stood at the top and announced,” Today you will make a
decision that will impact the rest of your life,” He turned and looked around the crowd.
“Today, if you do not swear loyalty to our great country, Britain, you will face severe
consequences. “
I thought about what consequences would mean for us. We had to hope that the
governor was not going to do anything bad to us。
The governor went on. “These consequences only exist because I have discovered
Acadians taking up arms against us.“
Suddenly there were shouts from the crowd. “We’ve refused to take the oath for the past
several years! Why should there be consequences this time?”
“Yeah, this isn’t fair!”
“He’s right!”
“Silence!” the governor declared.”There is another war coming. We cannot have
Acadians fighting for the French. We must have you swear allegiance to Britain so we can be
sure that you will fight for us, not the French. We cannot afford to lose a war here.”
The governor’s voice boomed across the room, as it crawled into the ears of
the Acadians, worrying as the future of their life remained in the hands of the governor’s next
words.
“I will demand once again for you to pledge allegiance to Britain. Those who refuse will
suffer serious consequences,” said the governor. “I will come back tomorrow for your decision.”
He briefly left and then the rest of us left as well. When we got back to our home, father
went to his bed and mother sat on the rocking chair, grieving.
I tried to cheer her up. “Mother, don’t worry. Everything will be alright.” But deep down, I
could feel something was wrong. I looked out the window, and the whole community seemed
darker, and sadder. People were in their homes, thinking about what they could do. We all
anxiously waited for tomorrow to come.
The next day, at the meeting, we told governor Lawrence of our decision. He had a
sinister look on his face when he heard about our choice.
“I will give you one last chance to take the oath of allegiance to Britain
For the next week everyone was thinking about what could happen. The whole
community had fallen silent, and everyone was in their homes.
Then on Friday, September fifth, the governor ordered that everyone was to gather in
the Grand Church for a message from the British Governor. It was in early morning, when the
announcement was made. We all dreaded this day, for the governor would announce what
would be done to us. Father told us to stay at home and only he would attend.
After father had left, I could hear other people walking by, also attending the meeting.
Mother and I were sitting in the chair by the fire, praying for the best for Father, and the future of
our lives. We could only wait for the return of Father. I looked outside and saw the dark clouds
roaring, closing over Acadia. Far away, ships praising the british flag were standing guard over
the coast, through the rain. The church, at the end of the road, was the only bright object
standing out of the darkness of the storm. Then, suddenly, the door to the church burst open,
with people flooding out like a plug pulled out from a pool of water. The people began to run in
all sorts of directions, scrambling away from the church, or back to their homes.
Just then, Father came into the room and announced, “We are leaving Acadia. We
cannot stay here or else there will be consequences.”
We looked at him as if he was joking, but he looked serious.
“But we can’t leave!” I shouted.
But father shook his head.
“We have to,” he said. “and if we don’t, we’ll be forced to leave by the British. We must
leave before it’s too late.”
I knew now, by the tone of his voice and the look on his face that I couldn’t argue.
“But we cannot leave by boat through the sea, when there are British ships on the shore.
They wouldn't let us leave.”
“What did the governor say?” Mother asked.
“When everyone had gathered, the governor announced that because of not agreeing to
the oath of allegiance, all of our property, money, livestocks, and goods are forfeited to the
state, and we, ourselves will be removed from the province. Then the governor issued an order,
and the soldiers standing in the sides started rounding up men and arresting them. I was able to
run away from the soldiers, but lots were arrested by the soldiers. I ran away with lots of soldiers
chasing us and arresting us.”
Then we were all quiet, thinking what to do. then father spoke out. “We need to get
ready now. Pack all your things and we’ll get out of here as fast as we can.”
We quickly took some things and put it into a bag, and then I quickly hurried out to the
garden and grabbed everything I could and hurried back, with the bag full of food. It was really
sad for me to leave my home right now, this quickly, but I knew that if we didn’t leave, the mean
British would make us leave.
Father had already got the horse loaded with our belongings, and his tools, and mother
was already in the wagon. Far away, in the darkness, there were silhouettes of soldiers
rounding up families, and there were people lined up to board ships for unknown destinations.
I turned and saw dozens of soldiers running around, rounding up families to board ships,
and forcing them off their land. They were also searching in houses, stealing and gathering
belongings and then, one of them made a clicking sound, and then a light began to shine at the
base of the walls. It began to creep up towards the sky, licking the walls, and soon the house
burst into a wall of fire. The flames jumped around, burning the other houses, driving people out
of their homes, forcing them into the nasty, grabby hands of the British.
We rushed out into the darkness, and hurried to the path through the forest. We had
almost reached the edge of the forest when a dark figure appeared on the path.
“Hey! Stop right there!”
Father angrily rammed into the soldier with the horse, hopped over, and then kept going.
Suddenly a shot rang out from the forest and a crowd of enraged red-faced men started to run
towards us, screaming. But our horse ran faster, and soon we lost them and they gave up. So
we thought about what we could do, after we stopped in a clearing to rest.
“Maybe we could hide from them in the forest,” Mother suggested.
“But then they could easily find us,” Father replied, “ if they search the forest for us, then
they could easily find us and we would get caught.”
“Maybe we could go someplace far away, where they will never find us,” I suggested.
Then, we kept going along the river, trying to find our way to the coast. After two days of
riding on the horse, following the river to the ocean, the river opened up its mouth to the Atlantic,
and we could see a big island far away. We ended up beside a long stretch of beach. We all
stared at it, like it was a dream, where we could stay and live happily.
“I don’t think that they'll ever find us there!” Mother exclaimed, breaking the serene
silence.
Father got up from where he was sitting and peered at the somewhat distant island.
“The only problem is that we can’t get there. we need to cross the water to get to the
other side.”
“I am going to build a boat,” Father replied, "so we can travel to the other side, and get to
the island, where we can start a new life."
There was nothing else to do, so Father started chopping down trees and then started to
shape the wood into a boat. I could see that he shaped to wood with ease and dexterity, as he
was a boat builder it was not too hard. So mother and I were sitting down on a rock, watching
him carve the boat as we ate our dinner. Soon I fell asleep, after Father told us that we would be
ready to leave in two days.
The next day, while Father was still carving the boat and preparing it for departure,
Mother and I were gathering berries to eat, when we heard a sound of rustling feet against the
dead leaves. Swiftly but silently, we hurried back to the beach where Father was almost done
carving the boat. While we ran back, I could see two red uniforms of soldiers among the trees,
looking around. When we told Father of the news, he quickly finished up with the boat and
turned around and looked at his work.
“I think that it's ready enough to use, so lets get going before something bad happens,
and hopefully they will not see us as we leave..”
We all got into the boat, and put our very few belongings on the bottom of the cramped,
miniature boat. Then, Father climbed aboard and thankfully, the boat didn’t sink, and then he
slowly and cautiously started to row the boat. We had just came out of the opening to the ocean
when five red soldiers armed with muskets came dashing out of the forest, trying to chase us.
But we were already long gone, far away, and as they came nearer, father rowed the boat
faster.
“Hey, you! You just get back here right now, or we’ll shoot!” he screamed at us.
He took a shot from his musket but it hopelessly missed, we were all too far away to be
shot, or to be seen. Defeated, the soldiers marched back inland, and were soon out of sight.
We then continued on towards the island, and after about an hour we arrived. When we
arrived, it was still daytime, but the sun was slowly starting to set. Father carried the boat onto
the island, while Mother and I looked around the island, hoping there was good farmland
available to use on this island. We looked if there were any people around the area, but we
found none. But then, far away, we could see a small village. we walked toward it , and saw that
there were people living there. As we entered the village, people looked out of their windows
and some came down to greet us. But some were carrying weapons, and had a threatening look
on their face.
Suddenly a strange fat figure appeared. he walked up to us.
“Who you be?” the man asked. “Are you French or British?”
Father responded,” We’re neutral, we don’t fight for either. And can we have this land
over there to farm? We were pushed off our old land, and we need some. We need a good
place to live and farm.”
“Sure,” the man replied,”because we have no good use for that land anyways.”
“Thank you,”Father said, then before we left, he said,”You can have this boat, as a gift.”
Then we started to make our way to our new land.
Father found a good place to start a farm then he started to chop down trees, and build a
new house, that would soon be our home. When the evening came, the man came at us and
invited us to come join them for a feast for dinner. Now I finally felt happiness again, as we were
welcomed in a new land, now our homeland.