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This letter was sent from Halifax, by a party under Captain Coxton on August 2nd, and from the Journal of Colonel Monckton it is clear that it was received by him at Fort Cumberland on August 5th. If not the first intimation to him of the Expulsion, it was certainly the first instructions to him to deport the Acadians. In the meantime, on the 4th, Lewis in pursuance to Monckton’s orders had with one hundred and fifty men and twenty-two men of the Rangers, (a body of irregular half-breed Indians recruited in Massachusetts and brought to Nova Scotia especially to combat the Acadians and the Indians friendly to the French) left for Cobequid. It is not known just what route Lewis and his party took to reach Cobequid. As we shall see later, he had reached there, sometime before the 13th. Other officers with him were Captain Malcolm, who was in charge of the Rangers, Lieut Archibald and Lieut. Brown. The purpose of the expedition was to cut and to improve a road from Cobequid to Fort Cumberland, but just what road or its location is not known. Lewis had had a wide experience in military operations in the wilderness and in woods craft, and evidently had some knowledge of surveying, for his map of the Cobequid area which he made from the knowledge obtained on this visit to Cobequid was the best map, up to that time, of that area. Later on we shall have occasion to refer to it. Colonel Monckton as we have seen, received Lawrence’s letter of instructions on the next day, the 5th, and he immediately communicated his orders to the Commanders of the Battalions which comprised the Colonial forces at Beausejour. In effect these orders were that from each Battalion one hundred men were to be detached, placed under the command of Captain Abijah Willard of the 2nd Battalion and with eight days' privisions immediately to march to Cobequid to join Lewis’ detachment, when Willard was to have command of the combined forces. Back |
