BETTER LATE....: The Region Evangeline: The Bottle Houses of Cap Egmont, Prince Edward Island

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Cap Egmont

The Western End of Prince Edward Island is know as the Region Evangeline. The official flag of the region is the French tricolor with the Acadian Star in the upper left. I saw more tricolors flying in front of houses in the region than Canadian flags. If the French flag is the emblem, Evangeline is the still very much present symbol of the region. Evangeline Bellefontaine is the fictional heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Evangeline.

In the poem, Evangeline and Gabriel are betrothed. They become separated during The Great Acadian Upheaval, Le Grand Derangement, the forceable deportation of the Acadians by the British beginning in 1755. To quote the Wikipedia plot summary:

The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him, at some times being near to Gabriel without realizing he was near. Finally she settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a Sister of Mercy among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, and he dies in her arms.

I don't know where, when or how I acquired the dual false notions that the emigration of the Acadians from what are now the Maritime Provinces to New Orleans was somehow voluntary and prompted by the beginning of the French and Indian/Seven Years War. I suppose I imagined the British posting notices to vacate the premises by such and such a date. I was only disabused of these notions after seeing the memorial (see below) at Port-La-Joye which very graphically commemorates the forceable deportations of 1755 to 1762 (red arrows) and the waves of immigration which continued at least until 1816 (blue). Those Acadians deported south to the Thirteen Colonies arrived in terrible physical condition and were further mistreated and even sold into slavery. Several Colonies didn't want them at all. More than 3000 Acadians were imprisoned and sent to England aboard ships that rivaled for inhumane conditions those of the Middle Passage which brought brought Africans to America during the slave trade. England certainly didn't want the Acadians though several thousand were sent there. Even France didn't want them. And so the migrations continued with often fatal consequences. It is estimated that of approximately 14,000 to 18,000 Acadians taken in Le Grand Derangement more than 8000, or half, died.

The British only got around to acknowledging the wrongs committed during Le Grand Derangement and their illegality under English law of the period in a Proclamation signed by The Queen in 2003. This is not a history conducive to a "Let bygones be bygones" or a "forgive and forget" disposition.

The Region Evangeline seemed to me topographically a little wilder than the rest of the island; more sparsely populated and economically less prosperous.

The memorial to Le Grand Derangement looking toward Charlottetown

The Plaque commemorating Le Grand Derangement at Port-La-Joye, a Canadian National Historic site across from Charlottetown.

Here are some photos of The Bottle Houses, built by Edouard Arsenault, as well as the surrounding gardens. Read the plaque for the back story. This was an amazing place to visit, even on a cloudy, gloomy day.