36 THEISLAND ACADIANS

Chaleur and Quebec in their own boats or on French vessels that came to their rescue. Some families managed to hide from the enemy and stay on the Island.

What was the fate of the estimated three thousand deportees? Approximately seven hundred of them were crowded on board the Duke William and the Violet and perished during the transatlantic crossing when both vessels sank during a storm. Many others died on board ship. The survivors were disembarked in French ports. France welcomed them and gave them pensions until they were able to resettle with the help of the State.

The Acadians did not feel at home in France. It was of course the land of their ancestors, but for the majority of them it was not their birthplace. Their homeland was Acadia, that seacoast their forefathers had colonized a century before and where they had de- veloped over several generations a way of life that was very different from that in France. Within a short time most of the Acadians wanted to return to Acadia or to settle in the new French colonies, rather than stay in France.

In the twenty-five years that followed the expulsion, these exiled Acadians were forced to move numerous times. In addition to several relocations within France, where some families settled permanently’, many Acadians crossed the ocean again in search of their lost country. A certain number returned to Acadia, others sailed to the West Indies and some as far as the Falkland Islands. Many of these attempts to resettle failed. These wandering Acadians went back to France but in the 1780s quite a large number left for Louisiana.

THE FISHERY

Throughout the French regime the life of the inhabitants of fle Saint Jean revolved mainly around fishing and farming. As we have mentioned, the Comte de Saint Pierre was interested above all in the codfish industry which constituted a very important part of the French economy in the eighteenth century. Cod was highly valued commer- cially, especially in Portugal, Spain and Italy**. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, French fishermen fished mainly on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, a territory controlled by France. Without