The Shadow of Calamity 185

of them had been armed and sent over to Acadia in the winter of 1756. They picked up a number of horses and 40 oxen near Pisquid. Here also they killed 13 Englishmen, wounded four, and captured a magazine with 300 hogsheads of wheat, 60 of flour, some lard and butter. They also burned two grana- ries of wheat, a bakery and a mill. In addition to this they aided some Acadians who were in hiding between Cobequid and Tatamagouche to migrate to Isle Saint Jean and carried 500 oxen to Louisburg.”

Gautier, son of Nicolas, the old enemy of Eng- land, was engaged as a scout for France. In the win- ter of 1756 he had made a remarkable journey to Quebec by the St. John Valley carrying messages from Louisburg. During 1757 he was busy in the vicinity of Halifax from which he and his Indian guides seldom returned without scalps and prisoners taken at the very gates of the citadel.”

In the early spring of 1757 de Villejouin directed the capture of two boats from the English, one di- rectly under the guns of Fort Gaspereaux, the other near by.

But all these exploits profited little the hungry refugees of Isle Saint Jean. They were still an object of much solicitude to the officials of Canada and Ile Royale but they could give them little assistance, while their solicitude was not entirely altruistic. They seemed to be quite as much concerned with the con-

1411 A, Vol. 102, p. 8.

15 Can, Arch. Report, 1905, Vol. I, Journal of the Formidable, pp. 1-12.