Acadians
The first permanent settlers were those who came with De
Razilly in 1632, and from these the Acadians of to-day are descended.
Other French immigrants were brought by d'Aulnay de Charnisay from 1639
to 1649, and by La Tour and Le Borgne in 1651 and 1658 respectively.
There were also small immigrations at divers later dates. The first
general nominal census was taken in 1671, and gave a population of 392
souls. In 1686
here were 885 persons in Acadia. Seven years later the
inhabitants numbered 1018. When Acadia was ceded to Britain in 1713, the
Acadian population was 2500. Although from 1713 to 1745 a number of
families had escaped to the new French colonies of Isle Royale and Isle
St. Jean (now Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island), still in 1749, when
the British settled Halifax, there were about 12,500 Acadians in the
province. Another large influx of population to the same colonies, and
to the St. John River, took place between 1749 and 1755, yet there
remained in the latter year in the peninsula and in the Isthmus of
Chignecto some 10,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 7000 were deported in
1755. The rest escaped to the woods; some went to Miramichi, and later
to Baie des Chaleurs; others crossed over to the Isles Royale and St.
Jean, and quite a number found their way to St. John River, and from
thence to the province of Quebec. The whole population of Acadians in
the peninsula, the Isthmus of Chignecto, the St. John River, Isle
Royale, and Isle St. Jean, at the time of the expulsion, is computed at
16,000. =Bib.=: Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia; Campbell, History of
Nova Scotia; Haliburton, Historical and Statistical Account of Nova
Scotia; Hannay, History of Acadia; Raymond, St. John River; Gaudet,
Acadian Genealogy (Report on Dominion Archives, 1905, vol. 2).