Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/141

There is no denying the fact that in point of antiquity the French Acadians of the Maritime Provinces antedate all the inhabitants of British origin. They are our "first families," and are entitled to whatever consideration naturally attaches to that distinction. They occupy the same position with regard to this land that the descendants of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower hold to the people of New England, or the first Dutch settlers of New York to the present inhabitants of that state. They have been here for more than two hundred and sixty years, and during that time they have clung tenaciously to the soil of their beloved Acadia, that land of forest and stream to which their fathers came so long ago, and in whose soil ten generations of their race are buried.

The first French census of Acadia was taken in 1671, the year after the restoration of that colony to France under the terms of the treaty of Breda. It was drawn up by Laurent Molin, a grey friar, who was performing the functions of a curé at Port Royal, and was forwarded to the French government by the