/6 PAST AND PRESENT OF setts, urges the fortifying of the neck of land between the Bay of Fundy and Bay Verte, to secure the province (of Nova Scotia ) against sudden attacks of the French from Quebec , * * * "not to mention St. John's Island, which is so very near a neighbor to the pe¬ ninsula, and from whence danger may arise to it when the Island shall be settled by the French." "It would likewise prevent the French from making any considerable settlements upon St. John's Island, from whence further danger might arise, in time, to the peninsula, and from carrying on any fishing there." Numbers of Acadians did leave Nova Scotia , and sought to make new homes in and the Island of St. John's. They suffered much hardship and privation in their new abode, and were even in want of food, with which those already settled there were little able to supply them. This can be gathered from a pregnant reference in a let¬ ter from M. Loutre , the missionary priest among the Nova Scotia French and the In¬ dians, whose name so frequently appears in the Acadian records of this time. Writing on the 15th August, 1750, from Bay Verte to M. Bigot , commissary of New , he says: " M. de Bonaventure is to write you by this opportunity, to ask you for provi¬ sions, not being able to get any from Louis- burg, for the subsistence of the refugee fami¬ lies. If the four vessels that you promised had arrived, we would have sent some flour to Isle St. John; but for the present we can not do so." M. Loutre was a stormy petrel for the inhabitants of Nova Scotia , and much of the misery which fell to the lot of the French population was due to his machina¬ tions. He ever fomented strife and ill-will between the two nationalities in Nova Scotia . Wielding vast influence over the Indians, he was able to cause much trouble, by incit¬ ing them against the English, and he kept his own compatriots, who looked to him for guidance, embroiled in the same way. From the records printed in Murdock's Archives, it seems clear that, in the course he adopted in this respect, he was acting directly con¬ trary to the wishes of his ecclesiastical supe¬ riors, if not against their express instruc¬ tions. Though a hollow peace had been patched up in Europe, war never really ceased out here. The French had erected two forts, one at Beausejour and a smaller one at Bay Verte. In 1755 these were captured by Colonel Monckton , after whom the town of is named, who attacked them with a force of regulars and colonials, prin¬ cipally the latter. A number of French Acadians were captured. Le Loutre was there, but, at the time of the surrender, he effected his escape. He sailed for in 1756, but the ship on which he took pas¬ sage was captured at sea, and he was made prisoner by the English, who sent him to the Island of Jersey, where he remained for some years until the Treaty of Paris, when he was released, and thenceforth does not appear in our history. The Island of St. John's received a con¬ siderable accession of population in 1755-6, upon the capture of the French posts on the mainland. The inhabitants of this neigh¬ borhood retired to St. John's Island for safety, and as offering a basis for continuing the struggle. The French authorities in had now for a long time recognized the importance of their Island colony as a -tnce of supplies for and their forces in . The great fertility of the soil, and its adaptability for raising vegetables, cereals, cattle and other live stock would render the Island invaluable as a place