Page 22 - A Tourist in Louisbourg, 1858

ISSUE : Issue 36

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1984/6/1

drove back the French artillerymen, and turned their cannon upon these mighty walls. Here the great seventy-four blew up; there the English boats were sunk by the guns of the fortress; day and night for many weeks this ground has shuddered with the thunders of the cannonade. And what of all this? we may ask. What of the ships that were sunk, and those that floated away with the booty? What of the soldiers that fell by hundreds here, and those that lived? What of the prisoners that mourned, and the captors that tri? umphed? What of the flash of artillery, and the shattered wall that answered it? Has any benefit resulted to mankind from this brilliant achievement? Can any man, of any nation, stand here and say: "This work was wrought to my profit?" Can any man draw such a breath here amid these bur? ied walls, as he can upon the humblest sod that ever was wet with the blood of patri? otism? I trow (think) not. A second time in possession of this strong? hold, England had not the means to main? tain her conquest; the fortification was too large for any but a powerful garrison. A hundred war-ships had congregated in that harbor: frigates, seventy-fours, transports, sloops, under the Fleur-de-lis. Although Louisburgh was the pivot-point of the French possessions, yet it was but an outside harbor for the colonies. So the or? der went forth to destroy the town that had been reared with so much cost, and cap? tured with so much sacrifice. And it took two years with gunpowder to blow up these immense walls, upon which we now sadly Religion in Life at Louisbourg 1713-1758 A.J.B. Johnston Three religious groups served the French stronghold of Louisbourg during the eighteenth century' • the Recollets of Brittany, who acted as parish priests and chaplains; the Brothers of Charity of Saint John of God, who operated the King's Hospital; and the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame, who conducted the local school for girls. Johnston traces the mixed fortunes of each of these groups in the first comprehensive study of the religious aspects of life in this outpost of France's overseas empire. He notes the groups' remarkable persist? ence in the face of personnel shortages, financial burdens, and conflicts with secular authorities and rival religious bodies. He also shows that despite the profound parsimony of the Louisbourgeois who declined to build a parish church or pay a compulsory tithe, religion was at the centre of family and community life. $30.00 McGill-Queen's University Press 5201 Dufferin St., Downsview, Ontario M3H 5T8 Stand, 0 gentle reader! Turf, turf, turf covers all! The gloomiest spectacle the sight of man can dwell upon is the deso? late, but once populous, abode of hiomanity. Egypt itself is cheerful compared with Louisburgh! "It rains," said Picton (Cozzens's travel? ling companion). It had rained all the morning; but what did that matter when a hundred years since was in one's mind? Picton, in his mackintosh, was an impervious representative of the nineteenth century; but my clothes were as fully saturated with water as if I had been living in the place under the old French regime. "Let us go down," said Picton, "and see the jolly old fishermen outside the walls. What is the use of staying here in the rain after you have seen all that can be seen? Come along. Just think how serene it will be if we can get some milk and pota? toes down there." There are about a dozen fishermen's huts on the beach outside the walls of the old town of Louisburgh. When you enter one it reminds you of the descriptive play-bill of the melo-drama--"Scene II; Interior of a Fisherman's Cottage on the Sea-shore: 0- cean in the Distance." The walls are built of heavy timbers, laid one upon another, and caulked with moss or oakum. Overhead are square beams, with pegs for nets, poles, guns, boots, the heterogeneous and grotesque tackle with which such ceilings are usually ornamented. But oh! how clean everything is! The knots are fairly scrubbed out of the floor-planks, the hearth-bricks red as cherries, the dresser- shelves worn thin with soap and sand, and white as the sand with which they have Lakeview Restaurant Open 24 Hours a Day Homemade Pies Home Cooking Trans-Canada Highway at Little Bras d'Or ATLANTIC SPRING & MACHINE CO.. LTD. 564-5559 - 40 Kings Road, Sydney - 564-5550 General Machine Shop & Forge, Mining Equipment, Mar? ine Repairs, Welders, Automotive Springs, Fasteners LOCAL HISTOR GENEALOGIE S G AE Lie BOOK WE ACCEPT ORDERS BY MAIL OR PHONE WE MAIL ORDERS ANYWHERE

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