Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/128

N these days of friendly intercourse between New England and the Maritime Provinces, it may not be out of place to look back and consider how the acquaintance began one hundred and fifty years ago. Now we have large and well-equipped steamships running at frequent intervals from Boston to St. John, Yarmouth, Halifax and Cape Breton, and express trains with sleepers, parlor cars and diners running daily from Boston to St. John, Halifax and Sydney.

The summer tourists and sportsmen of New England seeking health and recreation find no more attractive regions than the St. John River, the Annapolis Basin and the Bras D'or Lakes; and the enterprising young men and women of Acadia find their best chances of employment in the cities and towns of Massachusetts Bay.

In those early days the intercourse was different, and the civilities exchanged were of a far different character. In 1740 Acadia, or Nova Scotia, according to the claim of its inhabitants, embraced not only all the country surrounding the Bay of Fundy, but all the main land as far west as the Kennebec River.

The year 1745 witnessed events which did much to familiarize the Yankee settlers on Massachusetts Bay, not only with the natural beauties, but also with the exceptional features of the harbors and shores of Cape Breton viewed from a military and naval standpoint. I refer to the siege of Louisburg. It is said that the expedition against Louisburg was projected by a tanner, planned by a lawyer and executed by a merchant at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics. But to the surprise

98