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Our main source of present information as we try to reconstruct the story of Acadian Tatamagouche is from the Journals of Captain William Pote, Captain Abijah Willard, and Abbe Loutre. Willard’s is of the greatest importance for from it we were able to learn, for the first time, the occurrences at Tatamagouche in August 1755. Before its publication the end of Acadian Tatamagouche was mere surmise. LeLoutre’s diary affords long looked for corroboration of the early traditions of the Acadian Chapel. Pote’s diary, picked up in a book store in Switzerland and published in 1895 is for its factual details, accuracy and quaint humor, unsurpassed in the literature of Colonial diaries, and contains the best known account of the engagement in Tatamagouche Harbour in 1745, between the forces of Marin and of Donahew in their fierce but bloodless sea fight. For the details of DeVillier’s remarkable exploit in marching from Beaubassin in midwinter via Tatamagouche to successfully attack the New England forces of Nobel at Grand Pre, we are indebted to the diary of Captain Beaujeau, who accompanied the expedition. This diary is preserved in the Archives de la Marine and published in "Le Canada Francaise", Vol 2. In this, the story of the Acadians at Tatamagouche, I have tried to embody all facts of interest, which I have been able to gather during the intermittent searches of the last thirty years. But the quest of the historian is never over. And so, it is not possible to say that the rest of the story of Acadian days at Tatamagouche must be forever mystery. For in the years to come there well may be discoveries, accidental or by search, of other documents which will add to our present knowledge of Acadian Tatamagouche. Nor is the publication and indexing of the now known contemporary Military, Marine, State and Ecclesiastical documents, nearly complete. Only a small part of the material contained in these papers is yet available in a practical form to the students of History. Back |
