Vergor was sent on shore and confined to a room in the house of Governor Cornwallis. The governor treated him courteously, heard his version of the affair and called a council meeting the next day to inquire into the circumstances of the case.

Vergor's official report conveys the idea that Cornwallis was rather doubtful as to whether Rous had acted in a legitimate manner. The council held five or six meetings without coming to any decision. Meanwhile, with the governor's approval, Vergor had a new main-mast cut and drawn from the woods by the crew of the St. Francis and arrangements were made to repair the damaged sails and shrouds. However the matter was soon afterwards taken out of Cornwallis' hands by Captain Rous, who brought the case before the Admiralty Court, where the St. Francis was confiscated for engaging in illicit commerce in the province of his Britannic Majesty.

The French authorities took up the matter and sent a spirited remonstrance to the British ambassador, claiming that the transaction was opposed to every kind of law and demanding the restoration of the captured vessel with exemplary punishment of Captain Rous and the admiralty officers at Halifax, as well as orders on the part of his Britannic Majesty to all officers in his ships and colonies to observe the peace and to undertake nothing contrary thereto. A demand was also made that the English should in no way hinder the migration of the Acadians from the peninsula of Nova Scotia to the mainland or elsewhere. It is needless to say that the British government did not comply with these demands and here was one of the many grievances that led to a renewal of the war a little later.

The Sieur de Vergor and the crew of the St. Francis were sent to Louisbourg, and the brigantine retained at Halifax as a prize on the ground that she was engaged in furnishing warlike munitions to the Indian enemy and interfering with British rights on the River St. John.

Cornwallis evidently felt the difficulties of his position very keenly. Halifax was yet in its infancy and in a comparatively defenceless state; Louisbourg and Quebec were supporting the French on the St. John and he had neither the men nor the money to oppose their proceedings. It seems, too, that he had been called to account for the large expenditure he had made in Nova Scotia. In his letters to the Lords of Trade he expresses himself as distracted between his desire to lessen expenses and his fears of losing the province. He was doubtful if, with the forces at his disposal, he could prevent the French from fortifying St. John and Beausejour, and he observes, with some irritation, that it has been said, "What has he to contend with? Three or four hundred Indians: it is a time of peace and no other enemy to fear." So far from this being an adequate representation of the situation, he claimed the facts were that the French had taken possession of all Nova Scotia north of the Bay of Fundy, and had obliged many of the Acadians of the peninsula to remove thither and swear allegiance to the king of France; that the governor of Canada, through his emissary le Loutre, had offered a premium for every prisoner, head, or scalp of an Englishman; that the French had sent a ship of thirty-six guns and 300 men to the Bay of Fundy and had not only incited the Indians to hostilities but had behaved as if there were open war.

The French at Quebec, in view of the difficulty of keeping in touch with their posts on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, endeavored to improve the route of communication via the River St. John. During the previous war they had made a road from Riviere du Loup to Lake Temisquata, but the woods were growing up again and deep holes began to render it impracticable. Bigot, the intendant, therefore spent 600 or 700 livres in improving it, and in consequence couriers were able to come to Quebec in ten or twelve days from Shediac, and in eight from the River St. John. For the convenience of travelers three magazines of supplies were established, one at Riviere du Loup, one at Temisquata and one at the head of Madawaska river. The Marquis de la Jonquiere anticipated great advantages from the overland route of communication. He says in a letter to France, dated May 1, 1751: "We have made a road and are going to make some flat-bottomed conveyances so that in winter we will be able to transport by hauling over the snow the things most needed for the River St. John, and in summer we shall be able to make the transport by means of carts and flat-bottomed batteaux. These arrangements will be very useful supposing that the English continue to stop the vessels we send there."

"As the English have boasted that they are going to establish themselves at the River St. John," continues the Marquis, "I have given orders to the Sieur de Boishebert, who commands there, to repair the old fort named Menacoche (Menagoueche) at the mouth of the river and to make there a barrack for the officers and 100 men in garrison with necessary magazines. The whole will be built of logs and I have very expressly recommended Boishebert, to have it done without expense to the King, or at least very little, and to that end he is to employ the soldiers and militia."

This fort stood in Carleton opposite Navy Island on the point at the foot of King street, still called "Old Fort." The Marquis la Jonquiere says the terraces of the fort were about twenty-five feet high outside and twelve inside and the defences were such as would enable the garrison to withstand a lively attack.

It was intended to place four cannons of 8 L. to cannonade any ships that might attack it. The chief difficulty of the situation was the scarcity of water. The fort was quite indispensable for if the French were to abandon the lower part of the St. John river the English would immediately take possession. The savages were instructed to annoy the English on all occasions and to plunder any of their ships that landed on their shores. The Marquis even went so far as to suggest that some of the Acadians, dressed and painted like the savages, should join in the attacks upon the English in order that the savages might act with greater courage. He says he cannot avoid consenting to what the savages do in keeping the English busy and frustrating their advance since the French were restrained from open hostilities by the peace. "I beg you to be assured, Monseigneur," the Marquis continues, "that I will manage everything so as not to compromise myself and that I will not give up an inch of land that belongs to the king. It is time the limits should be settled and that we should know positively what we are to hold, so as to put an end to all hostilities and to avoid the immense expense that is occasioned."

La Jonquiere, in the month of February, sent on the ice a detachment of fifty Canadians to strengthen the garrison at the mouth of the River St. John, and as the services of Boishebert were required elsewhere, the Sieur de Gaspe,[26] lieutenant of infantry, was sent to replace him and remained two years and a half in command.

[26] Ignace Philippe Aubert, Sieur de Gaspe, was born at St. Antoine de Tilly near Quebec in 1714. He was an ensign in Acadia under de Ramezay in 1745 and was with Colombier de Villiers in the attack on Minas the following winter. He died at St. Jean, Port Joly, in 1787. He was grandfather of the author of the "Anciens Canadiens."

The situation of the Acadians on the St. John at this time was a very unenviable one. Fort Boishebert, at the Nerepis, was a frail defence, and they were beginning to be straitened for supplies on account of the vigilance of the English cruisers. Father Germain wrote to the commandant at Annapolis Royal for leave to buy provisions there for the French living on the river, but the governor and council objected on the ground that French troops occupied the place and the Indians there were hostile. We gather some interesting information from a letter written at this time to the French minister by the Sieur de Gaspe, who was in command of the fort at the mouth of the Nerepis.[27]

[27] I am indebted to Placide P. Gaudet for a copy of the original letter of which a translation is given on next page. It is one of the many interesting documents that have never yet been published.—W. O. R.

Fort de Nerepice, 16th June, 1751.

Monseigneur: On my arrival at this post on the River St. John, to which I am sent by my general, the Marquis de la Jonquiere, to relieve M. de Boishebert, the commandant of the place, I found at anchor the frigate "Fidele," commanded by M. Maccarti, who was landing the provisions and other supplies sent for this post. The coming of this ship, Monseigneur, convinces me that you wish to hold possession of this post.

I have only just arrived here. I learn that the English threaten to come and build a fort at the mouth of the river near that which the Marquis de la Jonquiere has caused to be begun and has ordered me to continue. I will do my best to carry out his orders so far as circumstances permit, and the governor will furnish you with an account of his intentions.

In order to fix ourselves here we must keep up communication by way of La Baie Francaise [the Bay of Fundy] so as to furnish provisions; for the place cannot be supplied by land, especially if we must afford subsistence to those families of Acadians who are obliged to seek refuge on the river, as has been stated to me. I will receive them, Monseigneur, in order to settle the country, which at present has only twenty-eight French inhabitants,[28] who can give no assistance in providing for the support of others, not having as yet enough cultivated land for themselves.

M. Maccarti, commander of the frigate, has taken note of the harbor [at St. John] on the other side of the fort, and of the other advantages, or disadvantages, we must encounter in this place, where I will endeavor to maintain the rights that we have and to oppose the Englishman if he attempts to build here.

I am with very profound respect, Monseigneur,

Your humble and very obedient servant,

GASPE.

[28] This refers, I imagine, to the Acadians on the lower St. John and does not include the colony at Ste. Annes.—W. O. R.



Resolute attempts continued to be made to withdraw the Acadians from the peninsula of Nova Scotia, both by threats and persuasions, and the Marquis de la Jonquiere issued a proclamation to those living within the bounds of what is now New Brunswick, declaring that all who did not within eight days take the oath of allegiance in the militia companies would be considered as rebels and driven from their lands. The companies of militia were ordered to drill on Sundays and Feast days and to hold themselves in readiness to defend themselves at any moment. A few months later the governor of Canada was able to report that all the Acadian inhabitants who were upon the lands of the king had taken the oath of fidelity. Twelve blank commissions were sent from Quebec to be issued to those most capable of fulfilling the duties of officers in the militia.

At Fort Menagoueche the work did not progress as fast as anticipated. The workmen had no tools except axes, and the Sieur de Gaspe complained that he had not been able to make the soldiers of the garrison work. He says "they are very bad subjects" and he dared not compel them to work apprehending their desertion. The fort was surrounded by four bastions and, in addition to the barracks and magazines, it was proposed to construct a building of logs, squared with the axe, to accommodate the chaplain and surgeon and to serve as a guard house.

Fort Boishebert, at Woodman's Point on the Nerepis, was a difficult post to maintain owing to the insufficiency of the troops at de Gaspe's disposal. He complains that the savages had broken in the door of the cellar and he thought it advisable to abandon it altogether. The Marquis de la Jonquiere ordered him to consult with Father Germain on the subject and meanwhile to double the guard. The missionary wrote he was of the same opinion as the Sieur de Gaspe, and permission was accordingly given to abandon the fort and to transport the supplies wherever they might be needed.

The Jesuit missionary at Penobscot, Father Gounon, proposed to spend the winter at "Nerepisse" with his Indians, but the governor of Canada did not at all approve of it, fearing that if the savages were to abandon their village the English would advance from the westward towards the River St. John. He apprehended that if only a small number of Indians remained at Penobscot, and these without a missionary, the enemy would win them to their side and, as a direful result, the English would presently establish themselves at Matsipigouattons, advancing to Peskadamokkanti (or Passamaquoddy) and so by degrees to the River St. John.



CHAPTER XI.

THE FRENCH ANXIOUS TO HOLD POSSESSION OF THE RIVER ST. JOHN.

The situation on the St. John had now become a matter of international interest in view of the boundary dispute. The deliberations of the French and English commissioners began in 1750 and lasted four years. In preparing the French case the Marquis de la Galissonniere summoned to his aid the Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, who were both well informed as to the situation of Acadia and also filled with intense zeal for the national cause. We learn from letters of the Abbe de L'Isle-Dieu, written at Paris to the French minister early in the year 1753, that the two missionaries, in consultation with the Count de la Galissonniere, prepared several documents to elucidate the French case. Copies of these very interesting papers are now in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa, and have been published at Quebec in 1890 by the Abbe Casgrain in "Le Canada Francais." The three most important of these documents are entitled:

1. Memorandum on the necessity of determining the limits of Acadia.

2. Plan for the settlement of the country in order to hasten the determining of the aforesaid limits.

3. Representation of the present state of the missions, French as well as Indians, in the southern part of New France in Canada.

In the first of these documents the following references are made to the River St. John:

"This post, so important to retain for France, has as commandant M. De Gaspe at Fort Menagoeck, built at the mouth of the river. The missionary on the river is Father Germain, Jesuit, who makes his residence at Ekauba (Aukpaque), distant about forty leagues from Fort Menagoeck.

"The savages of Father Germain's mission are Marechites, and he has in addition the care of some French families settled on the river.

"Since the month of August last, Father Audren has been sent as assistant to Father Germain, but his assistance will be much more hurtful than beneficial to the mission if, in accordance with the plan of the Jesuit provincial, it is decided to recall Father Germain to Quebec to fill the office of superior general of the house of the Jesuits in Canada. This is not merely a groundless surmise, for the destination and nomination to office of Father Germain are already determined, at least Father Germain himself so states in his last letter to the Abbe l'Isle-Dieu, and he adds that he has made every possible representation to at least delay his recall. The Abbe l'Isle-Dieu, who perceives all the consequences of his removal, has already endeavored to prevent its being effected by the Provincial, and it is thought that, under the present circumstances, the court should as far as possible employ its authority to hinder the retirement of Father Germain from his mission, where the esteem and confidence, the respect and authority, that he has acquired over the savages and the few French who are found in his mission, give him a power that a young missionary could not have. Besides Father Germain joins to a disinterestedness without example, to piety the most sincere, and to a zeal indefatigable, consummate experience. All this is necessary in connection with various operations that are now to be undertaken, in which a man of such qualifications can be of great assistance.

"At a distance of eighteen leagues from Father Germain's post of duty is another called Medoctek, which is dependent on the same mission and served by the Jesuit father Loverga, who has been there nine months, and who has the care of a band of Marechites; but, in addition to the fact that Father Loverga is on the point of leaving, he would be useless there on account of his great age and it would be better to send there next spring Father Audren, since this mission is daily becoming more important, especially to the savages whose chief occupation is beaver hunting.

"The French inhabitants of the River St. John have suffered much by different detachments of Canadians and Indians, to the number of 250 or 300 men, commanded by M. de Montesson, a Canadian officer, whom they have been obliged to subsist, and for that purpose to sacrifice the grain and cattle needed for the seeding and tillage of their own fields. In the helpless position in which these inhabitants find themselves, it is thought that in order to afford them sufficient relief it would be advisable that the Court should send them immediately at least 1,000 barrels of flour, and the same quantity annually for some time, both for their own subsistence and for that of the garrison and the Indians. It would be well also to send them each year about 250 barrels of bacon; this last sort of provision being limited to this quantity because it is supposed, or at least hoped, there will be sent from Quebec some Indian corn and peas as well as oil and fat for the savages."

The reference to the St. John river region in the document from which this extract is taken, concludes by strongly recommending that the supply of flour and bacon should be sent, not to the store houses at Quebec and Louisbourg, but directly to St. John, where it would arrive as safely as at any other port and with less expense to the king and much more expedition to the inhabitants.

It may be well now to pause in the narration of events to look a little more closely into the situation on the River St. John at the time of the negotiations between the rival powers with regard to the limits of Acadia.

The statement has been made in some of our school histories, "Acadia was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, and has remained a British possession ever since." The statement is, to say the least, very misleading, so far as the St. John river country is concerned, for the French clung tenaciously to this territory as a part of the dominions of their monarch until New France passed finally into the hands of their rivals by the treaty of Paris in 1763.

There was no part of Acadia that was more familiar to the French than the valley of the River St. John, and the importance attached to the retention of it by France is seen very clearly in a memorandum, prepared about this time for the use of the French commissioners on the limits of Acadia. There can be no doubt that the Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre had a hand in the preparation of this document, which is an able statement of the case from the French point of view. They assert "that the British pretensions to ownership of the territory north of the Bay of Fundy have no foundation. That the French have made settlements at various places along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they have always lived peaceably and quietly under the rule of the French king. This is also the state there at present, and the English desire to change it, without having acquired any new right of possession since the treaty of Utrecht, and after forty years of quiet and peaceable possession on the part of the French. It is the same with regard to the River St. John and that part of Canada which adjoins the Bay of Fundy. The French, who were settled there before the treaty of Utrecht, have continued to this day to hold possession under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the King of France, enjoying meanwhile the fruit of their labors. It is not until more than forty years after the treaty of Utrecht that the English commissioners have attempted, by virtue of a new and arbitrary interpretation of the treaty, to change and overturn all the European possessions of America; to expel the French, to deprive them of their property and their homes, to sell the lands they have cultivated and made valuable and to expose Europe by such transactions to the danger of seeing the fires of war rekindled. Whatever sacrifices France might be disposed to make, in order to maintain public tranquility, it would be difficult indeed for her to allow herself to be deprived of the navigation of the River St. John by ceding to England the coast of the continent along the Bay of Fundy."

Continuing their argument, the writers of the document state: "That it is by the River St. John that Quebec maintains her communication with Isle Royal and Isle St. Jean, [Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island], and also with Old France, during the season that the navigation of the River St. Lawrence is impracticable; and as this is the only way of communication for a considerable part of the year, possession of the route is indispensably necessary to France. All who have any special knowledge of Canada agree on this head, and their testimony finds confirmation in an English publication that lately appeared in London, entitled 'The Present State of North America,' in which the writer sounds the tocsin of war against France and, although partiality, inspired by love of country, has led him into many errors, he does not seek to disguise how important it is to deprive France of the right of navigation of the River St. John, which affords the only means of communication with Quebec during the winter. 'The French,' says the English author, 'have often sent supplies and merchandise from Old France to Quebec, both in time of peace and of war, by the River St. John, so as to avoid the difficulties and risks of navigation by the River St. Lawrence. * * If we suffer them to remain in possession of that river they will always have an open communication between France and Canada during the winter, which they could have only from May to October by the River St. Lawrence.'

"This testimony makes us feel more and more how essential it is for France to keep possession of the River St. John so as to have communication with Quebec and the rest of Canada during the seven months of the year that the St. Lawrence is not navigable. The communication which the English pretend they require by land between New England and Nova Scotia, along the coast of the Etchemins[29] and the Bay of Fundy, is only a vain pretext to mask their real motive, which is to deprive France of a necessary route of communication.

[29] The country of the Etchemins, or Maliseets, included eastern Maine, and the western part of New Brunswick.

"Considering the length of the road by land from New England to Port Royal and Acadia, the obstacles to be encountered in the rivers that fall into the sea along the coast, which will be more difficult to cross near the mouth; all these circumstances render the communication by land a veritable chimera; the more so that the way by sea from the remotest part of New England to Port Royal is so short and so easy, while that by land would be long, painful and difficult. We may be perfectly sure that if the English were masters of all the territory they claim they would never journey over it, and the only advantage they would find would be to deprive the French of a necessary route of communication. We do not fear to say that the object of the English is not confined to the country they claim under the name of Acadia. Their object is to make a general invasion of Canada and thus to pave the way to universal empire in America."

It is little to be wondered at that the French nation should have been very reluctant to part with their control of the St. John river. From the days of its discovery by Champlain it had become of increasing importance to them as a means of communication between the widely separated portions of New France. But more than this the river was in many of its features unrivelled in their estimation. Its remarkable falls near the sea, its massive walls of limestone at "the narrows" just above—which the French called "cliffs of marble"—its broad lake-like expansions, its fertile intervals and islands, the fish that swarmed in its waters and the game that abounded in its forests, its towering pines and noble elms were all known to them and had been noted by their early explorers. Champlain, L'Escarbot, Denys, Biard, La Hontan, Cadillac and Charlevoix had described in glowing words the wealth of its attractions. It is worth while in this connection to quote the description which Lamothe Cadillac penned in 1693—just two hundred and ten years ago:

River St. John.—"The entrance of this river is very large. Two little islands are seen to the left hand, one called l'Ile Menagoniz (Mahogany Island) and the other l'Ile aux Perdrix (Partridge Island), and on the right hand there is a cape of which the earth is as red as a red Poppy. The harbor is good; there is no rock and it has five or six fathoms of water.

Fort.—There is a fort of four bastions here, which needs to be repaired. It is very well situated and could not be attacked by land for it is surrounded by water at half tide. Less than an eighth of a league above there are two large rocks, perpendicular, and so near that they leave only space sufficient for a ship cleverly to pass.

Gouffre. Just here there is a fall, or abyss (gouffre), which extends seven or eight hundred paces to the foot of two rocks. There is a depth of eighteen fathoms of water here. I think that I am the only one who has ever sounded at this place. The falls are no sooner passed than the river suddenly expands to nearly half a league. It is still very deep and a vessel of fifty or sixty tons could ascend thirty leagues, but it would be necessary to take care to pass the falls when the sea is level, or one would certainly be lost there. It must be conceded that this is the most beautiful, the most navigable and the most highly favored river of Acadia. The most beautiful, on account of the variety of trees to be found, such as butternut, cherry, hazel, elms, oaks, maples and vines.

Masts.—There is a grove of pine on the boarders of a lake near Gemseq (Jemseg), fifteen leagues from the sea, where there might be made the finest masts, and they could be conducted into the St. John by a little river which falls in there.

Pewter mine.—Near the same lake there in a mine of pewter. I have seen the Indians melt and manufacture from it balls for their hunting.

It is most navigable, by reason of its size and depth and the number of lakes and rivers that empty themselves into it. The most highly favored, by reason of its greater depth of fertile soil, of its unrivalled salmon fishing, and of its reaching into the country to a depth of eighty leagues. The bass, the trout, the gaspereau, the eel, the sturgeon and a hundred other kinds of fishes are found in abundance. The most highly favored, also, because it furnishes in abundance beavers and other fur-bearing animals. I have ascended this river nearly one hundred and fifty leagues in a bark canoe. I pass in silence other attractions that it possesses for I must not be too long.

One single thing is to be regretted, which is that in the most beautiful places, where the land and meadows are low, they are inundated every spring time after the snow melts. The continuance of this inundation (or freshet) is because the waters cannot flow out sufficiently fast on account of those two rocks, of which I have spoken, which contract the outlet of the river. It would not be very difficult to facilitate the flow of the waters. It would only be necessary to mine the rock that is to the right hand on entering, and which seems to want to tumble of itself. It is undeniable that the waters would flow forth more freely, and the falls would be levelled, or at least diminished, and all this flat country protected from inundation.

Forts of the Micmacs and Maliseets.—Thirty leagues up the river there is a fort of the Micmacs,[30] at a place called Naxouak, and at thirty leagues further up there is one of the Maliseets. This latter nation is fairly warlike. They are well made and good hunters. They attend to the cultivation of the soil and have some fine fields of Indian corn and pumpkins. Their fort is at Medoctek.

At forty leagues still farther up there is another fort which is the common retreat of the Kanibas, or Abenakis, when they are afraid of something in their country. It is on the bank of a little river which flows into the St. John, and which comes from a lake called Madagouasca, twelve leagues long and one wide. It is a good country for moose hunting."

[30] Cadillac seems to have so termed Villebon's fort because the Micmacs of eastern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia often made it a rendezvous; perhaps also it was a fanciful distinction by way of comparison with the Maliseet fort at Medoctec.

In another edition of his narrative Cadillac says that Madawaska lake and river turn northward so those who journey from Acadia to Quebec go across the portage from the lake to the River St. Lawrence, opposite Tadoussac. This route was from very early times considered by the French as the easiest and best and was greatly valued by them as a means of communication both in time of war and in time of peace.

Cadillac's idea of protecting the low lying lands of the St. John river from inundation during the spring freshet, by enlarging the outlet at the falls, has been revived on more than one occasion. For example, sixty years later we find the following note in the statement prepared by the missionaries Le Loutre and de L'Isle-Dieu for the use of the commissioners engaged in the attempt to settle the boundaries of Acadia—:

"The River St. John is very extensive and the soil is excellent, easily cultivated, capable of supporting at least 1,000 families, but there exists an inconvenience which up to the present prevents the place from being inhabited as it should be. This inconvenience is due to the frequency of the floods occasioned by a fall where the waters do not discharge themselves fast enough and in consequence flow back upon the lands above, which they inundate. But if the proposed colony be established at this place it would be possible to give vent to the flood by removing a small obstruction [portage][31] less than an eighth of a league wide; this would certainly prevent the inundations, dry up the lands and render cultivation practicable."

[31] It would be interesting to know the exact location of the "portage" referred to above. Was it the rocky neck between Marble Cove at Indiantown and the Straight Shore? Or was it the comparatively slight obstruction at Drury's Cove that prevents the river finding an outlet by way of the Marsh Creek into Courtenay Bay? See on this head Dr. George F. Matthew's interesting paper on "The Outlets of the St. John River:" Nat. Hist. Society bulletin No. xii., p. 42.

A bill was once introduced into the House of Assembly for the purpose of enabling the promoters to remove, by blasting, the rocks that obstruct the mouth of the river and thus allow the waters to flow more freely. It was claimed that many benefits would follow, chiefly that the lumbermen would be able to get their logs and deals to market more expeditiously and at less cost, and that the farmers, of Maugerville, Grand Falls and Sheffield would be saved the serious inconveniences occasioned by the annual freshet. However, popular sentiment was strongly opposed to the project. People speedily realized that not only would the beauty of the river be destroyed but that navigation would be rendered precarious and uncertain. The project, in fact, would have changed our noble St. John into a tidal river, unsightly mud flats alternating with rushing currents of turbid waters, while so far as protection of the low-lying lands goes the remedy would in all probability have proved worse than the disease, for instead of an annual inundation there would have been an inundation at every high tide. Moreover the harbor at St. John would have been ruined. There can be no secure harbor at the mouth of a great tidal river where swirling tides pour in and out twice in the course of every twenty-four hours.

Cadillac mentions the convenient route to Quebec via the River St. John. The Indians had used it from time immemorial and the French followed their example, as at a later period did the English. The missionaries Le Loutre and de L'Isle-Dieu in the statement prepared by them in 1753, already mentioned, say:—

"It is very easy to maintain communication with Quebec, winter and summer alike, by the River St. John, and the route is especially convenient for detachments of troops needed either for attack or defence. This is the route to be taken and followed:—

"From Quebec to the River du Loup.

From the River du Loup by a portage of 18 leagues to Lake Temiscouata.

From Lake Temiscouata to Madaoechka [Madawaska.]

From Madaoechka to Grand Falls.

From Grand Falls to Medoctek.

From Medoctek to Ecouba [Aukpaque], post of the Indians of the Jesuit missionary, Father Germain.

From Ecouba to Jemsec.

From Jemsec, leaving the River St. John and traversing Dagidemoech [Washa demoak] lake ascending by the river of the same name, thence by a portage of 6 leagues to the River Petkoudiak.

From Petkoudiak to Memeramcouk descending the river which bears that name.

From Memeramcouk by a portage of three leagues to Nechkak [Westcock].

From Nechkak to Beausejour."

By this route the troops commanded by the French officers Marin and Montesson arrived at Beausejour in less than a month from the time of their departure from Quebec, the distance being about 500 miles.

In the war of 1812 the 104th regiment, raised in this province, left St. John on the 11th day of February and on the 27th of the same month crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice and entered Quebec 1,000 strong, having accomplished a march of 435 miles in midwinter in sixteen days and, says Col. Playfair, without the loss of a man.

In the year 1837 the 43d Light Infantry marched from this province to Quebec in the month of December in almost precisely the same time, but the conditions were distinctly more favorable; the season was not nearly so rigorous, roads and bridges had been constructed over the greater portion of the route and supplies could be obtained to better advantage. Yet it is said the great Duke of Wellington observed of this march of the 43d Light Infantry, "It is the only achievement performed by a British officer that I really envy." How much greater a feat was the march of the gallant hundred-and-fourth whose men, poorly fed and insufficiently clad, passed over the same route on snowshoes in the middle of a most inclement winter, a quarter of a century before, to defend Canadian homes from a foreign invader?

During the negotiations between the French and English commissioners on the boundaries of Acadia, the suggestion was made by the Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, that if it should be found impossible to hold all the lands north of the Bay of Fundy for France the St. John river region should be left undivided and in possession of its native inhabitants. As early as the year 1716 the Marquis de Vaudreuil had stated to the French government: "The English wish to seize upon the lands that the Abenakis and Indians of the River St. John occupy, under the pretext that this land forms part of Acadia ceded to them by the king. The Indians so far from withdrawing on this account have answered that this land has always belonged to them, and that they do not consider themselves subjects of the French, but only their allies."

Vaudreuil admits that he encouraged this idea, and that his proposal to build a church for the Maliseets at Medoctec had as one of its principal objects the cementing of their alliance with the French and providing them with another inducement to cling to the locality where their church stood, and not by any means to abandon their old fort and village.

In 1749 Charlevoix, the well known Jesuit historian, writes the French minister at Versailles not to delay the settlement of the boundaries, for the English, who are colonizing and fortifying Acadia, will soon be in a position to oppress their Indian allies, the Abenakis (Maliseets), if steps are not taken in season to prevent them and to guarantee to the Indians peaceable possession of their country, where it is necessary they should remain in order to defend it against the English, otherwise there would be nothing to hinder the English from penetrating as far as the French settlements nearest Quebec; besides where would the Abenakis go if they were obliged to abandon their country? "In short," Charlevoix adds, "it seems to me certain that if time is given the English to people Acadia before the limits are agreed on, they will not fail to appropriate all the territory they wish, and to secure possession by strong forts which will render them masters of all that part of New France south of Quebec; and if this should be done it will certainly follow that the Abenakis will join them, will abandon their religion, and our most faithful allies will become our most dangerous enemies."

Of all the leaders of the French in Acadia, none was more active and influential than the Abbe Le Loutre. But while his energy, ability and patriotism are undoubted, his conduct has been the subject of severe criticism not only on the part of his adversaries but of the French themselves. He did not escape the censure of the Bishop of Quebec for meddling to so great an extent in temporal affairs, but the Bishop's censure is mild compared to that of an anonymous historian, who writes: "Abbe Loutre, missionary of the Indians in Acadia, soon put all in fire and flame, and may be justly deemed the scourge and curse of this country. This wicked monster, this cruel and blood thirsty Priest, more inhumane and savage than the natural savages, with a murdering and slaughtering mind, instead of an Evangelick spirit, excited continually his Indians against the English. * * * All the French had the greatest horror and indignation at Le Loutre's barbarous actions; and I dare say if the Court of France had known them they would have been far from approving of them."

It is only fair to the Abbe Le Loutre to mention that the officer who criticizes him in this rude fashion was the Chevalier Johnston, an Englishman by birth and a puritan by religion and as such prejudiced against the French missionary. Johnston, however, served at Louisbourg on the side of France with great fidelity in the capacity of lieutenant, interpreter and engineer.

Father Germain, the missionary to the Indians and French on the St. John, was a man of courage and of patriotic impulses. He deemed himself justified in making every possible effort to keep the English from gaining a foothold north of the Bay of Fundy, but it does not appear that he ever incited the Indians to indulge their savage instincts, or that he was guilty of the duplicity and barbarity that have been so freely laid to the charge of the Abbe Le Loutre. It is evident, moreover, that the Marquis de la Galissonniere and his aides were particularly anxious to retain the services of Germain. He had been twelve or fourteen years in charge of his mission on the St. John, and during most of that time had labored single handed. Recently Father Loverja had come to stay with the Maliseets of Medoctec in consequence of their urgent request for a missionary, their village being eighteen leagues from Aukpaque, where Father Germain was stationed. Another missionary named Audren (or Andrein) had just arrived to replace Germain, who had been nominated superior of the house of Jesuits at Quebec. The Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre endeavored to convince the French minister that it was very undesirable, under existing circumstances, that Germain should be removed, as he was valued and beloved by his people—French and Indians alike—and his services could not well be spared. There was no chaplain at the fort, lately re-established at the mouth of the river, and Loverja's age and infirmities would oblige him shortly to remove to Quebec. The two missionaries would then have sufficient occupation, especially as they would have frequently to repair on the one hand to Medoctec, and on the other to the garrison of Fort Menagoueche. In consequence of these strong objections to his retirement it was decided by Father Germain's superiors to allow him to remain at his mission.

The Abbe de L'Isle-Dieu wrote the French minister, early the next year, that there was neither priest nor chapel at Fort Menagoueche, and that a missionary was needed on the lower part of the river. Father Germain had now for a long time been missionary to the Maliseets at Aukpaque (l'isle d'Ecouba) and having more than eighty families under his care found the fort too far removed to give due attention to the wants of the garrison.

The situation on the St. John at this time was not viewed with complacency by the authorities of Nova Scotia and New England. On the 18th October, 1753, Governor Hopson, of Nova Scotia, wrote the Lords of Trade and Plantations that he had been informed by Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, that since the arrival of a French missionary at the River St. John the conduct of the inhabitants had altered for the worse; the French had now 100 families settled on the river, had greatly strengthened the old fort at its mouth with guns and men, and had built a new one. Fort Boishebert, some miles up the river armed with twenty-four guns and garrisoned by 200 regulars. He also says a French frigate of thirty guns lay behind Partridge Island waiting for a cargo of furs, and that the French seemed to be entirely masters of the river.

It is not unlikely this statement is exaggerated, for the following summer Lieut.-Governor Lawrence says the French had at St. John only a small fort with three bad old guns, one officer and sixteen men; while of Indians there were 160 fighting men.



CHAPTER XII.

THE ACADIANS BECOME THE FOOTBALL OF FORTUNE.

As time went on the Acadians became impatient at the delay in settling the limits of Acadia. In vain they were annually told the boundaries would soon be determined, all negotiation proved fruitless. Those who had crossed the isthmus into what is now the County of Westmorland found themselves undecided as to their future course. Their inclination—a very natural one—seems to have been to return to the fields they had abandoned, but the Abbe Le Loutre urged them to remain under French rule as the only way of enjoying unmolested the privileges of their religion. For their encouragement and protection Fort Beausejour was erected.

In the month of January, 1754, Lieut.-Governor Lawrence informed the Lords of Trade that the French were hard at work making settlements on the St. John and were offering great inducements to the Acadians of the peninsula to join them. He could not prevent some families from going, but the greater part were too much attached to their lands to leave them. In the opinion of Lawrence it was absolutely necessary, for the development and control of Acadia as an English colony, that the forts of Beausejour and the mouth of the River St. John should be destroyed, and the French driven from the settlements they were establishing north of the Bay of Fundy. Although the Indians had committed no hostilities for two years, he believed no dependence could be placed on their quietude so long as the French were allowed to exercise their disturbing influence among them.

Lawrence now began to consult with the Governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Shirley, about the removal of the Acadians from Chignecto and the River St. John. He proposed that two thousand troops should be raised in New England, which with the regular troops already in Nova Scotia would be sufficient for the business, the command of the expedition to be given to Colonel Robert Monckton. It was intended the expedition should sail from Boston about the 20th of April, but it was delayed more than a month awaiting the arrival of arms from England, and it was not until early in June that it arrived at Chignecto. To aid the expedition Captain Rous[32] was sent with a small squadron to the Bay of Fundy. The details of the seige of Fort Beausejour need not here be given, suffice it to say that after four days' bombardment the Sieur de Vergor was obliged, on the 16th June, to surrender to Colonel Monckton.

[32] Capt. John Rous in his early career commanded a Boston privateer. Having distinguished himself in several minor expeditions, he commanded the Massachusetts galley "Shirley," of 24 guns, at the first seige of Louisbourg, and bore the news of the surrender to England, where as a reward for his gallant services he was made a captain in the Royal Navy. He commanded the Sutherland of 50 guns, at the second seige of Louisbourg, and was with Wolfe in 1759 at the seige of Quebec. It was from his ship Wolfe issued his last order before storming the heights. Capt. Rous died at

Captain Rous, with three twenty-gun ships and a sloop, immediately sailed for St. John, where it was reported the French had two ships of thirty-six guns each. He anchored outside the harbor and sent his boats to reconnoitre. They found no French ships and on their appearance Boishebert, the officer in command of the fort, burst his cannon, blew up his magazine, burned everything he could and marched off. The next morning the Indians invited Captain Rous ashore and gave him the strongest assurances of their desire to make peace with the English, saying that they had refused to assist the French.

A few weeks after Boishebert had been thus obliged to abandon Fort Menagouche there occurred the tragic event known as the "Acadian Expulsion." The active agents employed by Lawrence and Shirley in this transaction were Colonel Monckton and his subordinates, of whom Lieut.-Colonel John Winslow and Capt. Murray were the most actively engaged. These officers evidently had little relish for the task imposed on them. Winslow in his proclamation to the inhabitants of Grand Pre, Minas, etc., says: "The duty I am now upon, though necessary, is very disagreeable to my natural make and temper." The hostility of the New England troops to the Acadians added to the difficulties of their officers. Murray wrote to Winslow: "You know our soldiers hate them, and if they can find a pretence to kill them they will."

Of recent years there has been much controversy concerning the expulsion of the Acadians and widely differing opinions have been expressed on the one hand by Parkman, Murdoch, Hannay, Hind and Aikins and on the other by Casgrain, Richard, Porier, Gaudet and Savary. Upon the merits of this controversy it is not necessary to enter, and it will be more in keeping with our present subject to refer to the Acadian Expulsion only as it concerns the history of events on the River St. John.

The position of the Sieur de Boishebert after the capture of Beausejour and the fort at St. John was a very embarassing one. His letter to the Chevalier de Drucour, who commanded at Louisbourg, is of interest in this connection.

"At the River St. John, 10 October, 1755.

"Monsieur,—As the enemy has constantly occupied the route of communication since the fall of Beausejour, I have not had the honor of informing you of the state of affairs at this place.

"I was compelled to abandon the fort—or rather the buildings—that I occupied on the lower part of the river in accordance with orders that I had received in case of being attacked. I have beaten a retreat as far as the narrows (detroits) of the river, from which the enemy has retired, not seeing any advantage sufficient to warrant an attempt to drive me from thence.

"I have succeeded, sir, in preventing the inhabitants of this place from falling under the domination of the English.

"Monsieur de Vaudreuil, approving this manoeuvre, has directed me to establish a temporary camp (camp volant) sit such place as I may deem most suitable. Even were I now to go to Quebec he could not give me any assistance, all the troops and militia being in the field.

"I received on the 16th of August a letter from the principal inhabitants living in the vicinity of Beausejour beseeching me to come to their assistance. I set out the 20th with a detachment of 125 men, French and Indians."

Shortly after his arrival at the French settlements on the Petitcodiac, Boishebert had a sharp engagement with a party of New England troops who had been sent there to burn the houses of the Acadians and who were about to set fire to their chapel. The conflict occurred near Hillsboro, the shiretown of Albert county, and resulted in a loss to the English of one officer and five or six soldiers killed, and a lieutenant and ten soldiers wounded, while Boishebert's loss was one Indian killed and three wounded. He returned shortly afterwards to the River St. John accompanied by thirty destitute families with whom he was obliged to share the provisions sent him from Quebec.

Evidently the Marquis de Vaudreuil relied much upon the sagacity and courage of his lieutenant on the St. John river in the crisis that had arisen in Acadia. In his letter to the French colonial minister, dated the 18th October, 1755, he writes that the English were now masters of Fort Beausejour and that Boishebert, the commander of the River St. John, had burnt his fort, not being able to oppose the descent of the enemy. He had given him orders to hold his position on the river and supplies had been sent him for the winter. He hoped that Father Germain, then at Quebec, would return without delay to his Indian mission and act in concert with Boishebert. The marquis summarises his reasons for wishing to maintain the post on the River St. John as follows:—

"1. As long as I hold this river and have a detachment of troops there I retain some hold upon Acadia for the King, and the English cannot say that they have forced the French to abandon it.

2. I am assured of the fidelity of the Acadians and the Indians, who otherwise might think themselves abandoned and might yield to the English.

3. Mon. de Boishebert will rally the Acadians from far and near and will try to unite them and their families in one body. These Acadians, so reunited, will be compelled for their own security actively to resist the enemy if he presents himself.

4. Mon. de Boishebert will in like manner be engaged rallying the savages and forming of them a body equally important, and by corresponding with M. Manach, the missionary at Miramichi, will be able, in case of necessity, to unite the savages of that mission to his own in opposing the advance of the enemy.

5. He will be able constantly to have spies at Beausejour and Halifax, and to take some prisoners who will inform him of the situation and strength of the English.

6. He will be able to organize parties of Acadians and savages to harras the enemy continually and hinder his obtaining firewood for the garrison at Beausejour (Fort Cumberland).

7. By holding the River St. John I can at all times have news from Louisbourg."

The Marquis adds that even if France failed to establish her claim to the territory north of the Bay of Fundy and should be forced to abandon it he hoped, by the aid of Boishebert and the missionaries, to withdraw the Acadians and their Indian allies to Canada. The Acadians north of the isthmus he estimated were about two thousand (perhaps 3,000 would have been nearer the truth) of whom seven hundred were capable of bearing arms. "It would be vexatious," adds the Marquis, "if they should pass to the English."

After Boishebert was forced to retire from the mouth of the River St. John he established himself at a "detroit," or "narrows," up the river, where he constructed a small battery, two guns of a calibre of 2L., and twelve swivel guns. The following summer he entertained no fears as to his security. He had made an intrenchment in a favorable situation and hoped if the English should venture an attack to have the best of it. "I have particularly recommended him," writes the governor, "not to erect any fortifications which might in case of some unfortunate event be hurtful to us, to retain always a way of retreat and to use every effort to harass the enemy ceaselessly, day and night, until he shall have reduced him to the stern necessity of re-embarking."

There are but two places on the lower St. John to which the word "detroit" could apply, namely the "Narrows" just above Indiantown, near the mouth of the river, and the narrows at "Evandale," a little above the mouth of the Bellisle[33]; the latter is the more probable location. The situation as a point of observation and for defence of the settlements above could not be excelled, while at the same time it was not sufficiently near the sea to attract attention on the part of an English cruiser. It is therefore quite probable that the old fort at Worden's, erected during the war of 1812, the remains of which are in a fair state of preservation and are often visited by tourists, was built on the site occupied by Boishebert's "Camp Volant" of 1755, afterwards fortified by him and for some little time his headquarters.

[33] See under "Nid d'Aigle," Ganong's Place-Nomenclature of New Brunswick, p. 257. D'Anville's map of 1755 shows here "Etabliss't. Francois," signifying French Post or Settlement. See observations already made at page 91.

From the month of October to the end of December, 1755, nearly seven thousand of the unfortunate Acadians were removed from their homes and dispersed amongst the American colonies along the Atlantic seaboard as far south as Georgia and the Carolinas. A fleet of two ships, three snows, and a brigantine, under convoy of the "Baltimore" sloop of war, sailed from Annapolis Royal on the morning of the 8th December. On board the fleet were 1,664 exiles of all ages whose destinations were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and South Carolina. One of the snows[34] had her mainmast broken in a heavy gale just before her arrival at Annapolis and Charles Belliveau, a ship-builder and navigator of experience, was employed to replace the broken mast, which he did in a workmanlike manner; but upon his claiming payment for the job the captain laughed in his face. Belliveau, indignant at such treatment, seized his axe to cut down the mast and this brought the captain to terms.

[34] A snow was a vessel similar to a brig; the Marquis de Vaudreull says the one above referred to was a Portuguese vessel.

It chanced that shortly afterwards Belliveau and a number of his unfortunate compatriots (32 families, 225 persons in all) were placed on board this vessel to be transported to South Carolina. The "Baltimore" only went as far as New York and the snow, with Belliveau and his friends on board, was left to pursue the rest of her voyage unattended; not, however, without a parting caution on the part of the commander of the "Baltimore" to her captain to be careful, for amongst his captives were same good seamen. This advice was not heeded as the sequel will show.

The voyage proved a tedious one and from time to time small parties of the Acadians were allowed on deck for air and exercise. A plot was laid to seize the ship. Accordingly six of the stoutest and boldest lay in readiness, and when those on deck were ordered below and the hatchway opened to allow them to descend, Belliveau and his friends sprang from the hold and in the twinkling of an eye were engaged in a desperate struggle with the crew. Reinforced by those who followed, the master of the vessel and his crew of eight men were soon overpowered and tied fast.

Belliveau, the leader of the spirited encounter, now took the helm and the course of the ship was reversed. Under full sail she careened to the wind until her former master cried to Belliveau that he would certainly break the main mast. He replied: "No fear of that; I made it and it is a good one."

In due time the vessel reached the Bay of Fundy without other adventure than a trifling conflict with an English privateer, which was beaten off without loss. The French soon after released and put on shore the English captain and his crew, and on the 8th day of January anchored safely in the harbor of St John.[35]

[35] The incident related above is mentioned by several writers, French and English, but the details were gathered by Placide P. Gaudet about twenty years ago from an old Acadian of remarkable memory and intelligence, whose grandfather was a brother of Charles Belliveau.

The names of most of the families who arrived at St. John in this ship have been preserved, including those of Charles Belliveau, Charles Dugas, Denis St. Sceine, Joseph Guilbault, Pierre Gaudreau, Denis St. Sceine, jr., M. Boudrault and two families of Grangers.

Charles Belliveau, the hero of the adventure just related, was born at the Cape at Port Royal about 1696; he married in 1717 Marie Madeleine Granger and had eight children whose descendants today are numerous.

On the 8th of February, 1756, an English schooner entered the harbor of St. John, under French colors, having on board a party of Rangers disguised as French soldiers. Governor Lawrence writes to Shirley: "I had hopes by such a deceit, not only to discover what was doing there but to bring off some of the St. John's Indians. The officer found there an English ship, one of our transports that sailed from Annapolis Royal with French Inhabitants aboard bound for the continent (America), but the inhabitants had risen upon the master and crew and carried the ship into that harbor; our people would have brought her off, but by an accident they discovered themselves too soon, upon which the French set fire to the ship."

We learn from French sources that on this occasion the captain of the English vessel made some French signals and sent his shallop on shore with four French deserters, who announced that they had come from Louisbourg with supplies and that other ships were on their way with the design of re-establishing the fort at the mouth of the river and so frustrating a similar design on the part of the English. The story seemed so plausible that an unlucky Acadian went on board the ship to pilot her to her anchorage, but no sooner was he on board than the captain hoisted his own proper flag and discharged his artillery upon the people collected on shore. Belliveau and the people who had lately escaped transportation to South Carolina were living in huts on shore and perceiving that the English were approaching with the design of carrying off the vessel in which they had escaped, they succeeded in landing some swivel guns and having placed them in a good position made so lively a fire upon the enemy that they soon abandoned the idea of a descent and returned to Annapolis Royal.

The sole result, of this bit of strategy seems to have been the capture of one poor Frenchman from whom the English learned that the Indians had gone, some to Passamaquoddy and others with Boishebert to Cocagne, also that there was "a French officer and about 20 men twenty-three miles up the River at a place called St. Anns."

The Indians who had gone to Passamaquoddy managed to surprise at night a large schooner lying at anchor in Harbor L'Elang, bound from Boston to Annapolis Royal with provisions for the garrison. The schooner carried six guns and had on board a crew of ten men besides her captain and an artillery officer of the Annapolis garrison. The vessel was carried to St. John and hidden on the lower part of the river. The savages pillaged her so completely that on her arrival there remained only a small quantity of bacon and a little rum. The prisoners were sent by Boishebert to Canada along with others captured on various occasions.

The Acadian refugees continued to come to the River St. John in increasing numbers, and Boishebert and the missionaries soon found themselves reduced to sore straits in their endeavors to supply them with the necessaries of life. The Marquis de Vaudreuil was determined to hold the St. John river country as long as possible. He wrote the French minister, June 1, 1756: "I shall not recall M. de Boishebert nor the missionaries, nor withdraw the Acadians into the heart of the colony until the last extremity, and when it shall be morally impossible to do better." It was his intention to send provisions and munitions of war to the Acadians and Indians.

Boishebert was endeavoring at this time, with the approval of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, to draw as many of the Acadians as possible to the River St. John and to induce them to oppose any advance on the part of the English. The French commander, however, soon found his position an exceedingly difficult one. After sending many families to Quebec and to the Island of St. John he had still six hundred people, besides the Indians, to provide for during the winter, and many refugees from Port Royal and elsewhere desired to come to the River St. John. The number of Acadians dependent on him received additions from time to time by the arrival of exiles returning from the south. In the month of June five families numbering fifty persons, arrived from Carolina and told Boishebert that eighty others were yet to arrive.

The difficulties surmounted by these poor people in the pathetic endeavor to return to their old firesides seem almost incredible. A small party of Acadians of the district of Beaubassin, at the head of the Bay of Fundy, were transported to South Carolina. They traveled thence on foot to Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburg) from which place they were transported to Quebec. One might have thought they would have been well satisfied to have remained there, but no, so great was their attachment to their beloved Acadia that they would not rest content until they had arrived at the River St. John.

The idea that dominated the Marquis de Vaudreuil in providing these unfortunates with the necessaries of life seems to have been to utilize their services for the defence of Canada. "It would not be proper," he says, "that they should be at the charges of the King without giving tangible proof of their zeal for the service of his majesty." The governor not being able to provide for all the refugees at the River St. John, on account of the difficulty of transporting supplies by way of Temiscouata, gave directions to the Sieur de Boishebert to send to Miramichi the families he could not subsist on the St. John. The number of Acadians at Miramichi soon amounted to 3,500 persons.

The ensuing winter proved most trying to the destitute Acadians. The harvest had been extremely poor. In some cases the old inhabitants had nothing to live upon but the grain needed for seeding in the spring time. The conditions at Miramichi were probably not more wretched than on the River St. John. Of the former the Marquis de Vaudreuil writes in the following plaintive terms:——

"This part of Acadia holds out for the King although reduced to the most wretched state. Although ourselves in want, M. Bigot has sent a vessel with provisions to Miramichi, but she has unfortunately been delayed on the way by head winds. The misery of the Acadians there is so great that Boishebert has been compelled to reduce their allowance to ten pounds of peas and twelve pounds of meat per month, and it would have been further reduced had not forty bullocks been brought from Petitcodiac. This was the allowance for the month of January and, the fishery being exhausted, he could not hope to have the same resource the months following. In a word the Acadian mothers see their babes die at the breast not having wherewith to nourish them. The majority of the people cannot appear abroad for want of clothes to cover their nakedness. Many have died. The number of the sick is considerable, and those convalescent cannot regain their strength on account of the wretched quality of their food, being often under the necessity of eating horse meat extremely lean, sea-cow, and skins of oxen. Such is the state of the Acadians.

"The intendant, M. Bigot, is going to send a ship, as soon as the ice breaks, to carry such supplies as we can furnish them. Unless some assistance is sent by sea, the lands, cattle, and effects hidden in the woods must all be sacrificed, and the Acadians obliged to go elsewhere."

At the beginning of the year 1756, the governors of Massachusetts and Nova Scotia discussed the situation of affairs on the St. John river, and agreed that steps must be taken as soon as possible to dislodge the French.

In one of his letters to Governor Lawrence, Shirley observes, "I look upon dispossessing the French of the St. John River, and fortifying it, to be necessary for securing the Bay of Fundy and the Peninsula against attempts from Canada. * * * If I am rightly informed, nothing hath yet been done towards it, except making a visit up the River as far as the lower Fort, near the mouth of it, upon which the French abandoned it, having first destroyed the stores and burst the cannon, and there still remain the settlements they have above that Fort, by means of which they keep the Indians inhabiting it in a dependence upon them, and have a passage across a carrying place into the River Patcotyeak (Petitcodiac) whereby a communication may be maintained between St. John's River and Cape Breton across the Gulf of St. Lawrence." In another letter Shirley wrote that it was essential the French should be dislodged from the St. John and their settlements broken up, since, if suffered to remain, they would soon be very strong and able to maintain communication by the river with Canada, depriving the English of the fur trade upon it and maintaining absolute control of the Indians.

The Indians were at this time decidedly hostile to the English and Lawrence determined to wage against them a merciless warfare. Accordingly, with the advice and approval of his council, he issued a proclamation offering a reward of L30 for every Indian warrior brought in alive, a reward of L25 for the scalp of every male Indian above the age of sixteen years, and for every woman or child brought in alive the sum of L25; these rewards to be paid by the commanding officer at any of His Majesty's Forts in the Province on receiving the prisoners or scalps.

This cold-blooded and deliberately issued proclamation of the chief magistrate of Nova Scotia and his council can scarcely be excused on the plea that the Abbe Le Loutre and other French leaders had at various times rewarded their savage allies for bringing in the scalps of Englishmen. As for the savages, they had, at least, the apology that they made war in accordance with the manner of their race, whereas the proclamation of the Governor of Nova Scotia was unworthy of an enlightened people. Nothing could be better calculated to lower and brutalize the character of a soldier than the offer of L25 for a human scalp.

About this time, two of the New England regiments were disbanded and returned to their homes, their period of enlistment having expired, and the difficulty of obtaining other troops prevented anything being attempted on the St. John for a year or two. Lawrence and Shirley, however, continued to discuss the details of the proposed expedition. Both governors seem to have had rather vague ideas of the number of the Acadians on the river and the situation of their settlements. Shirley says he learned from the eastern Indians and New England traders that their principal settlement was about ninety miles up the river at a place called St. Annes, six miles below the old Indian town of Aukpaque. He thought that 800 or 1,000 men would be a force sufficient to clear the river of the enemy and that after they were driven from their haunts the English would do well to establish a garrison of 150 men at St. Annes, in order to prevent the return of the French and to overawe the Indians. He also recommended that the fort at the mouth of the river, lately abandoned by Boishebert, should be rebuilt and a garrison of 50 men placed there.

During the years that followed the expulsion of the Acadians occasional parties of the exiles, returning from the south, arrived at the River St. John, where they waited to see what the course of events might be. Their condition was truly pitiable. Some had journeyed on foot or by canoe through an unexplored wilderness; others, from the far away Carolinas, having procured small vessels, succeeded in creeping furtively along the Atlantic coast from one colony to another until they reached the Bay of Fundy; and thus the number of the Acadians continued to increase until Boishebert had more than a thousand people under his care. Some of them he sent to Canada, for his forces were insufficient for their protection, and his supplies were scanty.

The locations of the French settlements on the river at this period are described in detail in Dr. Ganong's "Historic Sites in New Brunswick." The largest settlement, and that farthest up the St. John, was at St. Annes Point, where the City of Fredericton stands today. Here the Acadians had cleared 600 or 700 acres of land and built a thriving village with a little chapel (near the site of Government House) and probably there was a sprinkling of houses along the river as far up as the Indian village of Aukpaque, six miles above. Their next settlement was at the mouth of the Oromocto, where 300 acres of land had been cleared. A very old settlement existed near the abandoned fort at the mouth of the Jemseg, but its growth had been retarded by the annoyances of the spring freshets and many of the inhabitants had been obliged to remove. There was an important settlement on the site now occupied by the village of Gagetown and houses were scattered along the river for several miles below. Another small settlement existed above the mouth of the Bellisle, and there may have been a few inhabitants at the mouth of the Nerepis where stood Fort Boishebert. At St. John the French had cleared some land on the west side of the harbor, and in Bruce's map of 1761 the places cleared are marked as "gardens," but it is probable that the inhabitants abandoned them and fled up the river in 1755 when their fort, "Menagoueche," was destroyed by Captain Rous.

In the year 1756 England declared war against France and the capture of Louisbourg was proposed. The governor of Canada ordered Boishebert to hold himself in readiness to aid in its defence, and he accordingly proceeded to Cape Breton with a force of 100 Acadians and Canadians and about 250 Indians, many of them Maliseets of the River St. John. The latter did not go very willingly, for they had been reduced to so great a state of misery in consequence of not receiving the supplies they had expected from the French that they had entered into peace negotiations with the English. However by means of harangues and promises Boishebert contrived to bring them with him.

The Chevalier de Drucour, the commander at Louisbourg, urged the French minister to send at once presents and supplies for the savages. "These people," he observes, "are very useful in the kind of warfare we are making, but unless we act towards them as they have been led to expect I will not answer that we shall have them with us next year." He urges the French minister to send him some medals for distribution. The distinction of possessing one was very highly prized and often retained the fidelity of a whole village of the savages.

The expected assault of Louisbourg did not take place until 1758 and Boishebert, who had retired to Canada, was ordered to repair thither. The Marquis de Montcalm wrote from Montreal to the French minister, April 10th, "Monsieur Boishebert, captain of troops of the colony, leaves in the course of a few days, if the navigation of the St. Lawrence is open, to proceed to the River St. John and thence to Louisbourg with a party of 600 men, including Canadians, Acadians and savages of Acadia."

The governor and other officials at Quebec seem to have placed every confidence in the courage and capacity of Boishebert, who, it may be here mentioned received this year the Cross of St. Louis in recognition of his services in Acadia. "It is certain," writes the Marquis de Vaudreuil, "that if, when the former siege of Louisbourg took place, the governor there had agreed to the proposal to send Marin thither with a force of Canadians and Indians the place would not have fallen, and if Boishebert were now to collect 200 Acadians and 200 St. John river Indians and the Micmacs he would be able to form a camp of 600 or 700 men, and Drucour could frequently place the besiegers between two fires."

The expectations of Montcalm and de Vaudreuil as to the usefulness of Boishebert's detachment in the defence of Louisbourg were doomed to disappointment, for Boishebert did not arrive at Louisbourg until near the end of the siege and with forces not one-third of the number that Drucour had been led to expect. Two depots of provisions had been placed in the woods for the use of the detachment, but the fact that Boishebert had only about 120 Acadians and a few Indians in addition to a handful of regulars, entirely frustrated Drucour's design of harrassing the attacking English by a strong demonstration in their rear. About twenty of Boishebert's Indians were engaged in a skirmish with the English and two of their chiefs having fallen the rest were so discouraged that they returned to their villages. Boishebert himself had a few unimportant skirmishes with outlying parties of the English, and then came the news of the surrender of Louisbourg. He immediately sent away the sick of his detachment, set fire to a thousand cords of wood and a quantity of coal to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, and on the 29th July set out on his return to the St. John river. The English made a lively but fruitless pursuit.

Boishebert left his sick at Miramichi, and having sent sixty prisoners, whom he had taken on various occasions, to Quebec, he then took part in an expedition against Fort George, on the coast of Maine, where he gained more honor than at the seige of Louisbourg.[36] He returned to Quebec in November, and about the same time there was an exodus from the River St. John, both of Acadians and Indians, the reason for which the next chapter will explain. From this time the Sieur de Boishebert ceases to be an actor in the events on the St. John, and becomes merely an on-looker.

[36] The Chevalier Johnson writes, "Boishebert came early in the Spring to Louisbourg with several hundred men, 12 Canadian Officers and 6 others from the garrison of Louisbourg; and he kept his detachment with such prudence so concealed at Miry during the siege, five leagues from Louisbourg, that neither the English nor the garrison had ever any news of them."



CHAPTER XIII.

THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE RIVER ST. JOHN.

The territory north of the Bay of Fundy, which now forms the Province of New Brunswick, was for nearly half a century a bone of contention between the French and their English rivals. It might indeed be said that from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 to the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the controversy continued to disturb the peace of Europe. Sometimes the points at issue were warmly debated at the council board, where the representatives of either nation vainly tried to settle the limits of Acadia, and sometimes they were yet more fiercely disputed amidst the clash of arms and bloody scenes of the battle field.

But as years passed on, and the growing power of the English colonies began to overshadow that of "La Nouvelle France," it seemed that the Anglo-Saxon race must in the end prevail. The policy of the governors of Nova Scotia and New England became more and more aggressive. In vain did the valiant Montcalm, as late as the year 1758, represent to his country that in fixing the limits of New France it was essential to retain possession of what the English claimed as Acadia as far as the Isthmus of Chignecto, and to retake Beausejour; also that France should keep possession of the River St. John or, at least, leave the territory there undivided and in the possession of its native inhabitants: no such compromise as this would now satisfy the English.

Louisbourg surrendered to General Amherst on the 26th July, 1758, and a few weeks later Colonel Monckton was sent with a body of troops, flushed with their success, to drive the hapless Acadians from their settlements on the River St. John. The particulars connected with this expedition are found in an unpublished document, of which the original is in the Public Record Office in London, entitled "Report of the Proceedings of the Troops on the Expedition up St. John's River in the Bay of Fundy under the command of Colonel Monckton."[37]

[37] For a copy of this valuable paper I am indebted to Dr. W. F. Ganong. The name of Monckton is preserved in that of the second largest town of the province.

As Monckton was the principal agent in an event of such historic importance to us as the permanent occupation of the St. John river, a few words may very properly be devoted to him.

Robert Monckton was the second son of John, first Viscount Galway, by his wife Lady Elizabeth Manners, youngest daughter of the Duke of Rutland. He began his military career in Flanders in 1742, where he fought in several battles. Later he came out to America, and in 1752 we find him in charge of the garrison of Fort Lawrence, keeping watch over the French stronghold of Beausejour, across the Misseguash. A little later he was commandant of the garrison of Annapolis Royal. He commanded the English forces at the reduction of Beausejour, in June, 1755. The year following he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. He commanded the 4th battalion of the 60th regiment, or "Royal Americans," at the siege of Louisbourg, and in 1759 served as second in command to Wolfe at the taking of Quebec, on which occasion he was conspicuous for his bravery and was severely wounded. A year or two later he was Governor of New York. In the course of time he attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the army, and at his death, in 1782, was a member for Portsmouth in the British Parliament.

Among those who, in a subordinate capacity, rendered essential service in the expedition to the River St. John none was more conspicuous than our old friend, Captain Cobb, of the Province sloop "York;" a few words may fittingly be devoted to him.

Sylvanus Cobb was born in Plymouth, New England, in 1709. Shortly before the capture of Louisbourg by Sir Wm. Pepperrell, in 1745, he raised a company in his native town for Colonel Gorham's regiment and served with credit during the operations of the seige. He was subsequently in command of a small armed vessel employed by Government to cruise in the Bay of Fundy. After Halifax was founded, in 1749, he was employed by Governor Cornwallis and his successors for nearly ten years as master of the Provincial armed sloop "York." When at Louisbourg in 1758 he was selected by Monckton to conduct Wolfe to reconnoitre the fortress previous to an assault. As they sailed up the harbor no one was allowed to stand on deck but Wolfe at the fore-sheet and Cobb at the helm. The shot flew thickly around them, and Wolfe at length signified that they had approached as near to the fortifications as was necessary, but Cobb made yet another tack, eliciting Wolfe's admiration and the remark, "Well, Cobb! I shall never again doubt but you will carry me near enough." Capt. Cobb lived for some years at Liverpool, N. S. He died of fever in 1762 while serving in an expedition against Havana, and is said to have expressed his regret that he had not met a soldier's death at the cannon's mouth. His descendants in Queens county, N. S., are numerous.

The troops that accompanied Colonel Monckton to the River St. John included several New England companies of Rangers under captains McCurdy, Brewer, Goreham and Stark, a detachment of artillery, the 2nd battalion of the Royal American Regiment[38] and the 35th regiment of light infantry. The troops embarked on board the transport ships "Isabella," "Wade," "Alexander the Second," "Viscount Falmouth," "Lord Bleakeney," the sloops "York" and "Ulysses" and other vessels, under convoy of the "Squirrel" man-of-war. Vessels and troops had lately returned from the siege of Louisbourg.

[38] The Royal American Regiment, or 60th Regiment of Foot, was raised in America about 1756 or 1757. It was commanded by Maj. Gen. James Abercrombie, who was succeeded by Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst in February, 1758. The corps included four battalions each of 1,000 men. Robert Monckton was appointed colonel in the regiment Sept. 28, 1757. (See Murdoch's Hist. Nova Scotia, Vol. 2, p. 329.)

The fleet sailed from Halifax on Monday the 11th September and on the 18th anchored off Partridge Island sending in Cobb and Rogers[39] with their sloops to reconnoitre. They proceeded up the harbor and on their return reported that they had seen only two or three people. However, Monckton learned later that there were more than two hundred Indians in ambush at the mouth of the river when the English landed, but their chief, overawed by the strength of the invaders, would not suffer them to fire and retired with them up the river, and "upon their return to Oauckpack (their settlement about two leagues above St. Anns) Pere Germain, their priest, expecting, as he termed it, 'Quelque coup de Trahison' from them, marched them off for Canada."

[39] Capt. Jeremiah Rogers commanded the armed sloop "Ulysses" in the pay of the Government of Nova Scotia, as early as January, 1751.

The next day the fleet anchored in the harbor and Monckton sent Cobb with his sloop to Chignecto for some Acadian prisoners to serve as pilots up the river, also for some whale boats and Captain Benoni Danks company of Rangers.

We come now to a day worthy to be held in remembrance—the memorable 20th of September, 1759—when the control of the River St. John passed finally into the hands of Great Britain and a permanent English settlement was made upon the shores of our harbor, Monckton's journal contains a brief record of the event:

"Sep'br. ye 20th.—Made the Signal for Landing about nine and soon after landed near the Old Fort, with as many Men as the Boats could take, being about 400. Met with no opposition. The 2d. Division being landed I sent off Maj'r Scott with about 300 Light Infantry and Rangers to make discovery and advanced the two companys of Grenadiers to support him in case of necessity. The Maj'r returned, having been above the Falls; he found some few Tracks but not the least signs of any Road or Path—the woods very thick and bad marching. The troops being all landed I ordered the Tents to be got on shore and encamped the two regiments just at the back of the Fort. The Light Infantry and Rangers under Maj'r Scott encamped on the Hill above."

The next few days were spent in getting provisions and supplies on shore. The detachment of artillery and three field pieces were also landed. A number of exploring parties were sent out and all agreed that it was impracticable to proceed with the expedition by land. Monckton had already sent word by Capt. Rogers to Annapolis and by Capt. Cobb to Fort Cumberland to press into the King's service any sloops or schooners available to transport provisions and stores up the river, as the majority of his vessels were too large to attempt the passage of the falls. Meanwhile he determined to repair the old fort and work was begun upon it on the 24th September. "My reasons," writes Monckton, "for fixing on this spot, though somewhat commanded by the Hill on the back were, that it was so much work ready done to our hands, the command it would have of the Harbor, the conveniency of landing our stores, and the great difficultys that would have attended its being erected further from the shore having no conveniency of moving our stores but by men. Besides, as the season was so far advanced and we had still to go up the River, I thought it best to fix on what would be soonest done. And in regard to the Hill that has some command of it, it is only with cannon, which the enemy would find great difficulty in bringing, and this may hereafter be remedy'd by erecting some small Work on it."

In the construction of the works at the fort 600 men were employed daily until the 24th October, when the number was reduced to 300 in consequence of the departure of the expedition up the river to destroy the Acadian settlements. Capt. Cobb returned from Fort Cumberland the last day of September with Danks' company of Rangers, five whale boats and nine French prisoners. From the latter Monckton learned that it would have been almost impossible to have gone up the river by land, and that it would have been dangerous to attempt to pass the falls with such vessels as they had with them. Their opinion, as to the difficulty of passing the falls, was confirmed by observations and soundings made by Capt. Willock and the masters of the transports.

While the fort was building, Monckton was engaged in collecting military stores, provisions and supplies of various kinds for which he sent vessels to Fort Cumberland, Annapolis, Halifax and Boston. The officers' barracks at Fort Frederick were erected on the 2nd of October and the work of building the fort made rapid progress, but it was not until the 21st of October that the expedition was in a position to proceed up the river. Even then the start was not a very auspicious one as we learn from Monckton's journal, in which he writes:—

"Having got together several sloops and schooners and victual'd them, I order Cobb & Rogers to pass the Falls to cover the other vessels as they might be able to get through. They accordingly get under way. Cobb being the headmost passes the Narrows, but is too late to get over the Falls and obliged to come too in a little cove below. The Ulysses, Capt. Rogers, in passing the Narrows strikes on a Rock, and is drove by the Tide into a creek above Cobb where the vessell sunk in a short time, and it was with great difficulty the Light Infantry who were in her and crew were saved. Upon hearing this and that Cobb did not lay very safe I ordered him down again and very luckily for at Low Water he would have struck on the Rocks."

The captain of the man of war "Squirrel" endeavored to raise the "Ulysses" but was forced to abandon the attempt and she proved a total wreck.

Having at length got all the smaller vessels safely above the falls and the troops on board, with provisions for a fortnight, Monckton himself embarked in Capt. Cobb's sloop "York," leaving Captain Bellen of the 35th regiment in command of the troops left behind. The force that proceeded up the river numbered about 1,200 men.

To understand the subsequent proceedings of the expedition the reader will do well to refer occasionally to the accompanying plan[40] based on that transmitted by Monckton, along with his report, to Major General Amherst.

[40] The original of this plan, which is in the British Museum, was made by Major Charles Morris, Surveyor General of Nova Scotia. He was with Monckton at the River St. John.

On the morning of the 30th October the little fleet got under sail but the wind being contrary little progress was made; indeed the ordnance sloop was very nearly sharing the fate of the "Ulysses," and only escaped by casting anchor in a rather perilous position just above the falls. Next day the vessels succeeded in crossing Grand Bay and anchored off "Pointe aux Tourtres,"[41] about two leagues above the mouth of the Nerepis. On their way they observed the remains of the fort built by Boishebert at Woodman's Point.

[41] This place is known as Salmon Point, but in the plan is given as Pidgeon's Point.



On November 1, the wind being contrary, little progress was made, and in the evening the "York" anchored off an island called "Isle aux Garces." Monckton landed on the island, which he describes as "a verry fine one—the wood Oak, Beech, Birch, and Walnut, and no underwood." This island was none other than the famous Emenenic, where some traders and fishermen of St. Malo had a small settlement in the year 1611—probably the first European settlement within the confines of the province. It was here the Jesuit missionary, Father Biard, held the first religious service on the St. John river of which we have any record. As mentioned in a previous chapter, the Indians still call the island "Ah-men-hen-ik," which is almost identical in sound with Biard's "Emenenic," thus proving that the old Indian name has persisted for well-nigh three hundred years. The name "Isle au garce," found in the plan of the river, is not easy of explanation. "Garce" may possibly be a misprint for "grace," and the name "Isle of grace" would harmonize very well with the French missionary's visit and religious services in October, 1611, but Placide P. Gaudet—who, by the way, is no mean authority as regards the French regime on the River St. John—is disposed to consider the word "garce" as signifying a "merry maiden." If so, the name is suggestive of an untold story and there is material for a romance in connection with our historic "Isle au garce." The island is now owned by County Secretary George R. Vincent. The soil is fertile, well wooded and excellent spring water is abundant; fine oaks grow there as in Monckton's day. A little cove, which may be seen in the view of the island a little to the right of the wood-boat, affords an excellent landing place.