Acadian Exodus
[2] Le Loutre acted in conjunction with Governor of New France, Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière, who encouraged the Acadian migration.
Atlantic Canada witnessed more population movements,[dubious – discuss] more fortification construction, and more troop allocations than ever before in the region.
[4] Primarily due to natural disasters and British raids, the Exodus proved to be unsustainable when Acadians tried to develop communities in the French territories.
Acadians left peninsular Nova Scotia to protest Edward Cornwallis' demand that they take an unconditional oath.
[6] The French were invested in having Acadians migrate to the Chignecto region, in part, to protect the only land route between Louisbourg and Quebec.
On some occasions, in conjunction with the French policy, Le Loutre and the Mi'kmaq had to force some reluctant Acadians to join the exodus.
Groups from both Beaubassin and Annapolis Royal also requested Governor-General La Jonquiere at Quebec to support them in leaving for the St. Lawrence River.
[13] The French made considerable efforts to transport refugees to Île Saint-Jean and by early October six or seven hundred had arrived there.
To guard against attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were immediately erected in Halifax, Dartmouth, Lawrencetown, Bedford, and Lunenburg.
Cornwallis ordered, for example, Captain John Handfield and two companies of troops to Fort Vieux Logis in Grand-Pré with instructions to patrol the roads to prevent Acadians from leaving.
This action precipitated Doiron leaving Noel, Nova Scotia for Point Prime, Île Saint-Jean in the spring of 1750.
During the winter of 1749–1750, Louis La Corne was dispatched from Quebec and arrived at the settlements near the Isthmus of Chignecto, along the rivers Petitcodiac, Chipoudie, and Memramcook.
Instead, he encouraged them to grow more grain, which they did in record quantities sufficient to support the large French, Acadian, and Mi'kmaq population otherwise occupied in the service of France.
[24] Le Loutre immediately sought help from Quebec and then France to support re-building dykes in the area.
He returned with success in 1753 and work began on the grand dyking project on riviere Au Lac (present day Aulac River, New Brunswick).
[26] Unfortunately, the following year storm tides broke through the main cross-dike of the large-scale reclamation project, destroying nearly everything the Acadians had accomplished in several months of intense work.
(Despite the hardships they faced, most Acadian refugees had some validation of their choice to leave the British colony of Nova Scotia once the deportation began.)
