Acadians

   The first permanent settlers were those who came with De Razilly in 1632, and from these the Acadians of to-day are descended. Other French immigrants were brought by d'Aulnay de Charnisay from 1639 to 1649, and by La Tour and Le Borgne in 1651 and 1658 respectively. There were also small immigrations at divers later dates. The first general nominal census was taken in 1671, and gave a population of 392 souls. In 1686 there were 885 persons in Acadia. Seven years later the inhabitants numbered 1018. When Acadia was ceded to Britain in 1713, the Acadian population was 2500. Although from 1713 to 1745 a number of families had escaped to the new French colonies of Isle Royale and Isle St. Jean (now Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island), still in 1749, when the British settled Halifax, there were about 12,500 Acadians in the province. Another large influx of population to the same colonies, and to the St. John River, took place between 1749 and 1755, yet there remained in the latter year in the peninsula and in the Isthmus of Chignecto some 10,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 7000 were deported in 1755. The rest escaped to the woods; some went to Miramichi, and later to Baie des Chaleurs; others crossed over to the Isles Royale and St. Jean, and quite a number found their way to St. John River, and from thence to the province of Quebec. The whole population of Acadians in the peninsula, the Isthmus of Chignecto, the St. John River, Isle Royale, and Isle St. Jean, at the time of the expulsion, is computed at 16,000.

   Bib.: Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia; Campbell, History of Nova Scotia; Haliburton, Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia; Hannay, History of Acadia; Raymond, St. John River; Gaudet, Acadian Genealogy (Report on Dominion Archives, 1905, vol. 2).