Free Jeanne Dugas of Acadia by Cassie Deveaux Cohoon Page A

siege of Louisbourg and at its cavalier attitude in using Île Royale as a mere pawn in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Would the mother country treat its colony any better now?
    In October, to Jeanne’s dismay, Joseph’s father-in-law Joseph Leblanc dit Le Maigre arrived in Port Toulouse. For all his cabotage activities before and during the war, he was now penniless.
    In fact, his activities on behalf of the French in 1745 had led to his capture and imprisonment by the British. He had apparently been held in chains in a terrible dungeon for six months, and his attempts to engage in business activities after his release from prison had all failed miserably. The man once considered the wealthiest man in Acadia now accepted the stipend the French crown was still offering to Acadians to settle on Île Royale.
    Now in his fifties, Joseph Leblanc arrived with his wife, Anne Bourg; their three youngest children, Alexandre, Paul and Anne; his eighty-one-year-old father-in-law; a young nephew, Joseph; and a niece, Marie-Josée Alain. As well as being very large in his person, everything about Joseph Leblanc dit Le Maigre seemed larger than life. He was expansive and disruptive. Or so it seemed to Jeanne.
    Joseph gave his father-in-law one of the habitations on the property for his use, and Joseph’s family began to share with the Leblancs the provisions they had brought with them from Grand-Pré. Jeanne said nothing, but of course Joseph knew how she felt. One day he said, “Well, what do you expect me to do?” Jeanne just shrugged.
    There was not much time for petty grievances. The necessities of life were not as abundant here as in Grand-Pré. They managed to get through the winter, using the stock of provisions they had brought with them, supplemented by hunting small animals such as hare, partridge and woodcock. In the spring, they planted a kitchen garden and started to clear more land. Eventually, Joseph would have two arpents planted with turnips he hoped to sell – but crops were meagre. In the summer, fish was plentiful in both the lakes and the sea, and they managed to salt enough codfish for their own use. Their farm animals grew to include an ox, two cows, two pigs and twelve chickens.
    The children adapted themselves, as children do. Jeanne and Marie worked hard and Joseph did his best to be a good father. But in the evening when the children were asleep, he became silent and brooding. Jeanne knew that her brother was preoccupied with the political situation and frustrated with his life as a farmer at Port Toulouse. He had done little coastal trading since the unpleasant incident at Tatamagouche when the Mi’kmaq had attacked his boat and menaced him. Jeanne wondered how long he would go on this way.
    The Mi’kmaq had left their summer encampment near Port Toulouse soon after the Dugas arrived in the fall, so Joseph had not had much contact with them. When they returned in the spring, they brought with them one of the former scouts at Louisbourg, Jean Sauvage. Joseph was very happy to see him again, not only for news but also because they were friends in the years leading up to the defeat of the fortress. Jean Sauvage had heard of Joseph’s encounter with the angry Mi’kmaq at Tatamagouche, but now told him not to worry about it. He also reported that life was only slowly returning to normal for the French at Louisbourg and he warned that there was still a fair amount of activity by British privateers around Île Royale. He promised to keep Joseph informed of any events around the island.
    There were incidents with British privateers. The summer after their return, Joseph Leblanc dit Le Maigre was captured by privateers and held prisoner for eight days. The British privateers released him and his several companions unharmed, but they lost the shallop they were travelling in and all the goods it contained.
    Jeanne was aware of the long discussions that Joseph and his