After the capture of Fort Gaspereaux and Fort Beaus�jour, the British commander, Colonel Robert Monckton strengthened Fort Beaus�jour, renaming it Fort Cumberland, and making it his headquarters for military operations in the region.

The Governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, decided to deport the Acadian settlers. In the fall of 1755, deportation centres were set up at Fort Lawrence (Amherst, Nova Scotia), Fort Cumberland (Aulac, New Brunswick), Grand Pr� (Nova Scotia) and Annapolis (Nova Scotia).

Many Acadians were arrested, imprisoned, and sent away. Everything they owned was taken or destroyed, families were separated, and individuals dispersed to distant lands far away from their homes in Acadia.

Some of the more fortunate were able to escape to the forest, and found shelter on the rivers St. John and Miramichi, but they too were eventually found and taken prisoner. Many thousands died from hardship, starvation, and shipwrecks. While Acadians were being expelled from Nova Scotia, the protection of refugees fleeing the British deportation became a responsibility for General Charles Deschamps de Boish�bert, commander of the French forces in Acadia. He helped refugees to reach the Miramichi, and in 1757 established a camp, named �Camp de l��sperance�, just behind Beaubear's Island, at the forks of the Northwest and Southwest Miramichi. Ever since this time, Beaubear's (�Boish�bert�s�) Island, has carried his name. During the winter of 1757, hundreds of refugees died at Camp de l��sperance from hunger and scurvy, and were buried at Beaubear's Point. The next spring, many of the survivors went to Chaleur Bay and Quebec, where they hoped to be safe from the British soldiers, while some remained behind, at Beaubear�s Point and nearby French Fort Cove.

These settlements, like so many others in Acadia, were destroyed by British forces during the Seven Years� War between England and France.