Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/44
ordered by a proclamation of the 12th of July preceding. They had hidden these small crafts at Chute's Bay, as we have seen, and taken them afterwards to French Cross port. These were now very useful to them. Having embarked on board of them, they coasted the shore of the Bay of Fundy as far as the end of Digby Neck, and then entered, by Petit Passage, nearly opposite Ste. Anne College, at Church Point, into St. Mary's Bay, which they ascended as far as the entrance of Belliveau's Cove, five miles from Petit Passage. Here there was then a small island, and they decided to land and encamp on it for the rest of the winter. I believe it must have been in the evening of the 11th of December they arrived there. Thomas, in his diary, tells us that it snowed that night at Halifax, and in all probability it is what caused these poor fugitives to choose this lonely spot, for here there was an Indian camp, and they could take shelter in the wigwams of the children of the forest during that night.
I shall not endeavor to portray the sufferings and miseries they endured during the winter. They are easier to be conceived than to be described. One of their first cares was to build rough huts. This I know by family tradition.
I have already mentioned that Joseph, the young lad of eight years, and the only son of Pierre Belliveau, who wintered at Piau's Island, died at Memramcook in 1840. He was twice married, and François, his youngest child by his second wife, was born on the and of January, 1802. This François was possessed of a wonderful memory and a very bright intellect. I called on him in January, 1885, at his son's house at Memramcook, to get information from him regarding his ancestors. I might add that he was a brother to my father's mother, and therefore a grand uncle of mine. He related to me many sad things of the past, and it is