HISTORY OF NOVA SCOTIA, 
twenty-seven years of absentee rule, the duties of the 
governor were performed by the President of the 
Couneil, acting as Lieutenant-Governor. The first 
Lieutenant-Governor was Colonel Armstrong, who 
held the office for seventeen years, when, in a fit of 
insanity, he killed himself with his sword. Then 
Paul Mascarene, a French Protestant, whose family 
had been driven from France by religious persecution, 
succeeded, anıl remained in office until the arrival of 
Governor Cornwallis. 
How the Laws were made,— There was no House of 
Assembly in these early times. The Governor chose twelve of the 
leading eitizens of Annapolis Royal a8 a Council to act with him 
in making the laws and in governing the country. "The Governor 
and Council also acted as a court of justice to try offenders, 
Some of their modes of punishment would seem curious enough 
at the present time. It is related that, for the offence of slander- 
ing her neighbour, Mary Davis, one Jean Picot was sentenced t0 
be ducked at high water. But the generous-hearted plaintiff, 
moved with pity, interceded for the offender, who was let off 
With asking pardon at the church door on Sunday morning. 
The Acadians.— At this time there were six 
or seven thousand Acadians in the Province. "Their 
Chief settlements were in the most fertile parts of the 
country along the Annapolis River, at Canard, Grand 
Pr6, Piziquid, Cobequid, and Beaubassin on Cumber- 
land Basin. Here they cultivated the rich marsh 
lands, which they protected from the sea by strong 
dikes, For the most part, they neglected the wooded 
üplands. "Their wealth consisted largely in cattle, 
horses, sheep, and swine, 
When Port Royal was given up, the English 
agreed that the Acadians living within three miles of 
the fort should be allowed to remain on their lands 
for two years. At the end of this time, all the z1ca- 
dians in Nova Scotia could have been expelled as