Show jf BAYOU 1 by ELMO SCOTT VATSON HE otylior day several thousand people gathered in the little town 0 st la to participate in a ceremony which rolled back the pages of history to events that took place more than years ago the ceremony was the unveiling of a statue and when it stood revealed there was recalled once more a great tragedy in american colonial history and one of the kenderest ten derest love stories in american literature the story of the quest of evangeline for ler lover gabriel immortalized in a poem by henry wadsworth longfellow for the statue was a life size image of the famous maid of grand pre and most of who had gathered there to pay her honor were her own people louisiana descendants of the eighteenth century Acad iaus and a delegation of several hundred acadians Acad ians from moncton grand pre montreal and other canadian cities and loans who made a pilgrimage to this shrine for aliis occasion and who were also repaying a made by the louisiana acadians Acad ians to canada last year erecting the statue over the spot near the left w ins ot the old st martin church in st martinville where the real Evane linc lies hurled Is one of the steps in the project of establishing a national reservation there to be known as the longfellow Kv angeline national memorial par a labile recreation center which will perpetuate the memory of the american poet and the acadian girl in particular and the acadians Acad ians their sufferings their romance and their faith in general the name of alie real evangeline was labiche the faithless gabriel was louis arceneaux and life story is a part of the tragic tale of the simple folk of awadla who were deported by british soldiery from their homes away back in 1753 the acadians Acad ians were french colonists who had settled in what Is now nova scotia in and who lived a happy contented existence in their homes in the new world until caught lu the maelstrom of world politics stirred up by the contest between england and france to decide which nation was to dominate alie north american continent in alie beiles of wars between the two countries which began in acadia was a pawn on the international chessboard chess board cow held by the french and now by the british aa for the acadians Acad ians themselves they were in alie main neutral in fact flioy were often referred to in the official papers of the time as alie neutral french while the sympathies of most of them doubt leaned toward their own countrymen and some of them supported alie french cause tor the most part they to be left alone in their peaceful pursuits as farmers and fishermen in that year the british who alien held awadla decided that the aca deans were an enemy encamped in the heart ot the province and determined to get rid of them accordingly this was done by methods beem to have been unnecessarily harsh the principal responsibility tor this tests upon the lieutenant governor of nova scotia charles lawrence who was acting governor until the lords ot trade in london should pick a successor to gov peregrine II opson who lidid resigned by harvest time in 1755 the expulsion lot the acadians Acad ians began when colonel monckton acting under law bences instructions gathered in ot the inhabitants of chignecto colonel john winslow will live in history as the officer sent to the little village of grand pre on the shore of the of alnas arrived at grande pre on auguet 19 september 2 colotel win ilow issued a proclamation informing the people that the I 1 JM I 1 r ill nor had a communication to impart to them the men were ordered therefore to appear ID the church at grand pre at 3 in the afternoon of friday september 5 on atiat fateful friday a strange sight greeted the men as they filed slowly into the church that had been familiar to them from their youth stern faced soldiers with gleaming bayonets and red coats guarded the door and in the middle of the church a table had been placed and around it other armed soldiers were drawn up As colonel entered attended by his stair a deep hush fell upon the people without nuy preliminaries limin aries he proceeded to deliver his address in english immediately afterward it was interpreted to the assemblage sem blage la french with the pronouncement 0 the terrible words that your lands and tenements cattle of all kinds and live stock of all sorts are forfeited to the crown with all your other effects saving your money and household goods and that you yourselves are to be removed from this his maje province a murmur of anguish escaped the dumfounded dum founded acadians Acad ians until aroused by the sharp command of an officer the bewildered inhabitants sat mute and staring as though unable to comprehend the significance ance of the fate aliey were consigned to recovering from alie shock of words the acadian s first thoughts were of their families with whom flioy had no means of communication muni cation and who would stand the reason for their detention after a lengthy conference colonel winslow permitted the prisoners to choose 20 of their number to break the news to the families and to bring in food for the prisoners they were to ba held accountable for the behavior and sate return of the 20 an effort was made to keep families intact cut a lack of transports the natural contusion and terror that necessarily essa rily followed fears that ills force greatly outnumbered by the Acad lans might be overpowered and the barrier of language all contributed to alie separations that made the sufferings of the exiled Acad lans so tragic three ships the first to sail left the basin of minas october 13 bound for maryland virginia and pennsylvania the last ship to leave awadla sailed southward december 20 to prevent any stragglers that escaped ato the forests a place of refuge squads of soldiers attended to the work of burning every house barn or building that would in any way furnoh shelter in all from grand pre and other places more than Acad lang were deported they were scattered in alie english colonies from maine to georgia and in both france and ang land many died many helpless in new surroundings sank into decrepit pauperism sume reached people of own blood in the french colony of louisiana and canada among who came to louisiana wag young louis arceneaux who biad become separated from hla sweetheart emmerline and who settled on bayou a stream which ands in and out like a anake hence its name which is the indian term for snake here too ten years later came labiche who had been mourning the loss of her lover at last emmerline found him and tradition says that the meeting took place beneath the historic Evangel lne oak on the bayou where she learned that her faithless lover had married another there Is some variation in the accounts 0 how longfellow came to write the story of evangeline according to one story it was nathaniel hawthorne who first gave the poet the hint of alie romance which he oe into his poem under the date of october 24 1838 we find the following memorandum in hawthorner Haw american note cooks 11 II L C heard from a french canadian a story of a young couple in on their marriage day all men of the province were summoned to assemble in the church to hear a proclamation when they assembled they were seized and shipped off to be distributed through new england among them the bridegroom hiis bride set oft in search of him wandered about new england all her lifetime and at last when she was old she found her bridegroom on his deathbed alie shock baa so great that it killed her likewise II 11 L C wag horace lorenzio Loren iiO conoly then a neighbor of hawthorne at salem lie had been rector of st matthews protestant episcopal church in south boston but hawthorne was probably in error in stating hat con oily obtained the story directly from a french canadian at any rate some time later hawthorne took conolly to dine with longfellow at cambridge during the dinner the clergyman told longfellow that he had been trying in vain to get hawthorne to write a story based on an incident told him by airs george M haliburton a former who had formerly lived in nova scotia conolly then related the story briefly longfellow said to hawthorne it you really do not want ihla incident let me have it tor a poem his friend willingly consented and evangeline was the result the other account and this Is the one which you will hear in the acadian country of louisiana is that longfellow he ans an instructor at harvard was told the story by a handsome young acadian then a student at harvard edward simon later a judge in louisiana who had learned it from his friend judge felix judge voorhies had been told the story by his grandmother madame anne Bastar leche who brought Evangel lne to the country madame died in 1830 at the age of it was madame Bastar leche who told of how sprang forward with a glad cry the met her former lover and of how alie faithless lover told her that he had married another and waa happy on the lands of the ancient duke dabols blanc louis arceneaux bet tied with hla bride and there many of his descendants live today the heartbroken girl madame Bastar leche told her grandson lost her reason and until death came to her she wandered about the banks 0 the gathering alie water hyacinths and weaving wreatha of theiu G by delro |