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| July 25, 1985 The Ponchatoula Times |  |
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@ Flight of the Acadians
FROM PAGE ONE
30 years of abandonment and neglect
of the Acadian exiles by both the British
and French governments.
In 1785, Peyroux de la Coudreniere,
a native of Nantes, conceived an idea of
resettling in Louisiana the nearly 2,000
Acadians who were living in exile in
France. Peyroux had resided in
Louisiana for seven years and had met
many of the Acadians who were already
settled there. By this time, Louisiana
was a possession of Spain and the
Spanish were eager to help populate
their colony with industrious workers.
Peyroux enlisted the support of the
Count of Aranda, the Spanish Ambas-
sador to France, and together they
convinced the Acadians and the
governments of both France and Spain
to accept the plan of migration to
Louisiana. On May 10, 1785, some 35
families set sail on Le Bon Papa,
arriving in New Orleans on July 29. By
the end of the year some 1,596 had
arrived in Louisiana, bringing the
Acadian Odyssey to an end.
The Spanish were the best friends of
the Acadian exiles had in the eighteenth
century.
And this year is the bicentennial of
the Great Migration of 1785 -- the
historic event in which the Spanish
government resettled some 1,600
Acadian exiles in south Louisiana after
30 years of rejection by other countries.
The heart-warming story, titled "In
Search Of A Friendly Land," appears
in the current edition of Acadiana
Profile magazine. The article was
written by RE. Chandler of Lafayette,
former long-time head of the USL
Foreign Languages Department and co-
chairman of an up-coming special
program at USL that will call attention
to the Acadians' odyssey and the
Spanish government's help in bringing it
to a happy ending.
"It was through the generosity and
humanity of the government of Charles
111 of Spain that these weary exiles from
Nova Scotia, unwanted and abandoned
in France, were transported to south
Louisiana and settled on friendly land,
where their descendants remain to this
day," Chandler writes.
"The world little recognizes Spain's
contribution to the survival and welfare
of the Acadians. The record shows,
however, that the government of Spain
was the only friendly government the
Acadians found in the days of their
exile. The celebration of the bicentennial
of the Great Migration of 1785 should
recognize that it was Spain that brought
these Acadians to Louisiana and had
welcomed hundreds more of them to
the colony before the arrival of the
'85'ers."
Three decades of hardship and humili-
ation began for these Acadians when
they were uprooted at gunpoint from
their Canadian homeland in 1755 by
the British and shipped off to unknown
destinations, Chandler points out.
Asserting that the circumstances of
their exile "scarcely have a parallel in
human history," the author writes, "Too
few ships were provided, some of which
were unseaworthy, families were
separated by accident or deliberately,
food supplies for long sea voyages were
inadequate, and transports were so
crowded and conditions so unsanitary
that disease, especially smallpox, was
rampant among the refugees, and
death claimed an incredible number of
lives."
Three groups of Acadians eventually
found their way back to France, and
these were the ones who took part in
the Great Migration of 1785. One group
of 1,500 who landed in Virginia were
expelled by the locals and shipped off to
England. where they were held as
prisoners of war; these were rescued
and taken to France, their numbers
reduced to 866 after seven years of
misery under ghetto-like conditions in
the port cities. A second group of 2,000
was sent to France, but 1,300 died by
shipwreck, and upon arrival the
government of France refused to accept
the remainder, who were then taken to
England. A third group of 500 escaped
from various parts of the American
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colonies and went to France' after the
Treaty of Paris in 1763, Chandler
reports.
"One would think that once in France
the Acadians would have been
absorbed by the nation of their forefathers
and would have developed a respectable
and comfortable life for themselves. But
such was not the case. The great
problem for the French government was
where to settle these strangers,"
Chandler observes in the article.
For several more years the French
government made unsuccessful
attempts to settle the exiles elsewhere --
the Faulkland Islands, the islands of St.
Pierre and Miquelon, the Sierra
Morena. As the colonization efforts
failed time after time, the Acadians were
again reduced to living on insufficient
government doles.
They were "discouraged, sick at heart
and now thoroughly disillusioned that
their king had not rescued them from
the miserable conditions of their life."
"Just when the Acadians in France
reached this desperate point in their
lives and were in danger of losing their
identity, if not their lives, to want and
despair. Peyroux de la Coudrenntere, a
druggist from Nantes who had amassed
a fortune during a seven-year stay in
Louisiana, appeared with a plan to
rescue them. It was he who conceived
the idea of persuading Spain to transfer
the unhappy Acadians in France to
Louisiana, where other Acadians had
prospered.
"Back in France, Peyroux teamed up
with Oliver Terrio, an Acadian
shoemaker from Nantes, to persuade
the Acadians to go to Louisiana.
Peyroux presented his plan through
channels to the Spanish ambassador in
Paris;.the Conde de Aranda. The latter
was very favorably impressed with the
idea of moving the discontented but
nevertheless useful, hard-working
Acadians to Louisiana not only to farm
the fertile lands of that region but also to
serve as a bulwark against American or
English encroachment."
Arrangements were made for the safe
• Senator Cross
praised Sen. Cross for his truthfulness
and repeated that he is not, nor was he
ever really, the subject of his investigation.
Bush added that he "could not recall"
ever having a conference or
conversation with Clyde Mullens
concerning the case, or about Sen.
Cross.
Cross, now in his first full term in the
Louisiana Senate, having served a
partial Senate term, after serving as
Mayor of Baker and city councilman,
has enjoyed a reputation in Baton
Rouge of being an honest and truthful
pdlttlclan with an apparently rosy future
at the polls.
The young senator said in an interview
this week that even though he says
Bush privately told him he was sorry for
even questioning him in the chemical
company case, and that he is in no way
being investigated by the prosecutor, that
his reputation has suffered as a result of
media reports about the case.
Cros characterized Mullens, who sells
products in competition with the firm
Cross used to work for until the current
controversy arose and he resigned, as
someone who in the past has tried to
blacken his reputation, though he says
he does not even know the man.
Arman M. Melikyan, owner of
Chemtex Inc. and its major owner Eltek
Inc., said of Mullens: "He has a far-
fetched imagination. I am a Turk and
the worst thing you can call a Turk is an
Iranian. His statement (that Charity
Hospital favored Chemtex in buying
products from Cross outside of normal
hospital purchasing procedures) is
completely false. It took six months for
the hospital to study the product before
buying it." Melikyan and others at
Chemtex said Chemtex is an American
corporation registered in Louisiana,
with no foreign subsidiaries.
In answer to the charge made by the
representatives of a competing firm,
Mullens, that Hammond State Hospital
was coerced by Cross to buy from
Chemtex, Melikyan said, "We did a lot
of business with Hammond State
School long before Senator Cross
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transport of the Acadians to New
Orleans, and the first of seven ships set
sail for Louisiana on May I0, 1785,
with 125 Acadians aboard.
The first ship made tbo ',n¢¢in'.:R1
days, and because of the humane car
taken by the organizers of the"
expedition there was no sickness of any
kind on board. Furthermore, they
encountered only favorable weather.
The last ship arrived at the mouth of the
Mississippi River on Dec. 12, 1785.
Martin Navarro. the Intendant in the
Spanish colonial government in charge
of the newcomers, prepared special
shelters for the Acadians to use during
their stay in New Orleans before
transporting them to lands given to
them elsewhere, erected two hospitals
to care for the sick, provided them with
medicines and money, gave them tools
and firearms, and allowed them to
choose freely the place in Louisiana
where they would like to settle,
Chandler writes.
Somehow the exiles managed to
retain their identity through the ordeal.
"The Acadians never lost their
identity as a people, clinging tenaciously
to their religious faith and stubbornly
refusing to forget who they were. This is
the miracle which the late Dudley
LeBlanc wrote about in his book, 'The
Acadian Miracle,' " Chandler notes.
Copies of the issue of Acadiana
Profile containing the article on the
Acadian exile are on sale at
supermarkets and newsstands
throughout south Louisiana. They can
be obtained also by sending $2 per copy
to Acadiana Profile. P,O. Box 52247,
Lafayette, La. 70505.
The Spanish government's role in
helping the Acadian exiles is being
recognized in a series of public events
this year. The events are being directed
by the Acadian Odyssey Bicentennial
Commission, created and funded by the
Legislature. Chairman is Gerald
Breaux, director of the Lafayette Parish
Convention & Visitors Bureau, (318)
232-3737.
FROM PAGEONE .
joined Chemtex's staff."
He said that Mullen's statement
linklng Senator Mike O'Keefe to the
Chemtex payroll was far-fetched.
Melikyan said he has never met O'Keefe.
In an interview just prior to presstime
with Senator Mike Cross, Cross said
that D.A. Bryan Bush of East Baton
Rouge told him Tuesday he would this
week publicly issue a statement
exonerating Cross in relation to the case
involving Chemtex.
THE PONCHATOULA TIMES, JULY 25, 1985, PAGE FOURT1F-,
• Ole Hardhide
FROM PAGE ONE
Hood caps with feathers in them? Are we to all learn to play accordian and
yodle? Did you bring back the wonders of the Old World, and a corkscrew to
get at them?)
The Care Girls may not have made it to Gay Paree, but they seem to have
gotten in head over high heels in the growing movement called Wednesday
Ladies Night Out. a stimulating ritual more and more of the local ladies are
getting involved with, judging by the crowd of merrymakers grouped around
ringleaders Ann and Marie at Le Shucks this week.
Boo and bad beer forever to the scoundrel who ripped off the local eatery
and ddnkery last week and cracked the safe smack in the middle d
downtown Ponchatoula.
How many folks are aware that the best brick deals in Louisiana are bei
offered just clown the road from my cage at Francis Williams BrickAmerk ? 1
swear, the way things are going, with some folks sitting on their hams and not
appreciating what we've got here won't be long before we re overwhel 1
by Canadians from Alberta looking for the real Bourbon Street and a grcal
deal in brick! (You never see an alligator sitting on his hams. now do you?)..
Who says Gateway Ford and Wolfe Lumber are moving out to Hwy. 51t
(Annexation anyone?)
Wait. Before we get into any other questions, how about the unanswered
riddles of two editions ago? Do you know not a single reader knew the
modern-day place name for what was called Gessen in the 1800's. Rosary"
ville is the answer, of course.
And do you not really know where a Celtic Cross (that's a cross Irish-style
with a circle tying together the crossed pieces) is on public display in Poncha"
toula, easily visible as I said from the top of the new flagpole? Next time
you're at the corner of N. Seventh and W. Pine, look up.
Congratulations to my buddies at Sanders Archery and Outdoor Ouffitte-'
now in their new location near Jackson's Pharmacy. for sporting that super
looking patriotic window that won top prize in the torch parade downtoWO
window competition.
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