The plan of the river accompanying Colonel Monckton's report is of special interest on account of the curious admixture of French and English names. This feature is quite in harmony with the epoch which was one of transition. Instances today are not infrequent where the existing name has been translated from the French, a familiar example being that of the island at the mouth of St. John harbor, called by the French "Isle au Perdrix" and translated into the English "Partridge Island." Another familiar instance occurs in connection with Oak Point in Long Reach. Describing their progress up the river Monckton says, "We came too off Point aux Chaines to sound." Point aux Chaines in English means Oak Point, and the identity of the situation of Oak Point and of Monckton's Point aux Chaines is clearly shown in the plan of the river.

Monckton describes the country along the lower part of the River St. John as "verry Mountainous and Rocky," but above the Bellisle comparatively flat and well timbered.

On the evening of the 2nd November the sloop "York" came to anchor "under an island called the Great Island," or Long Island. Some of the party landed on the island where, Monckton tells us, they found walnuts (or butternuts) much like English walnuts.

The expedition was now approaching one of the principal Acadian settlements and Captain Benoni Danks was sent with a party and a guide to try to take a prisoner in order, if possible, to obtain further information, but the Acadians evidently received timely warning of their danger and had abandoned their village.

It may be mentioned, in passing, that there are some very uncomplimentary references to Captain Danks and his Rangers in Rev. Hugh Graham's letter to Rev. Dr. Brown, written at Cornwallis, N. S., in 1791.[42] See for example the following: "A considerable large body of the French were at one time surprised by a party of the Rangers on Petitcodiac River; upon the first alarm most of them threw themselves into the river and swam across, and by this ways the greatest part of them made out to elude the clutches of these bloody hounds, tho' some of them were shot by the merciless soldiery in the river. It was observed that these Rangers, almost without exception, closed their days in wretchedness, and particularly a Capt. Danks, who rode to the extreme of his commission in every barbarous proceeding. In the Cumberland insurrection (1776) he was suspected of being 'Jack on both sides of the bush,' left that place in a small jigger bound for Windsor, was taken ill on the passage, thrown down into the hold among the ballast, was taken out at Windsor half dead, and had little better than the burial of a dog. He lived under a general dislike and died without any to regret his death."

[42] This letter will be found in the Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. II., pp. 135-145. Many of Mr. Graham's remarks savor of exaggeration and in reading the extract above this fact should not be lost sight of.

Saturday, the 4th of November, was an unhappy day for the poor Acadians living at the little village of Grimrose—the site of the modern village of Gagetown. The story shall be told in Monckton's own words:—

"Nov'br ye 4th,—The party returns without any Prisoner, having been at the Village of Grimrose which they found had been but lately deserted by the inhabitants.

"Give orders for landing. Having got a body of about 700 Men on Shore, we march to the further end of the Village, being about a league. From whence, by the tracks we found, we judged that the Inhabitants had but lately retired and drove off their cattle. Here we found the Lime that had been taken in a schooner in the spring, which they had landed as our Pilots supposed to lighten the schooner, to get her higher up or to hide her in some Creeke—as they supposed that they would certainly have carry'd the Lime up to St. Anns would the depth of the River have admitted of it.

"It being late in the day I gave orders for Burning the Houses & Barns, being in all about 50, and for destroying all the Grain, of which there was a good deal, and everything else that could be of the least service to the Inhabitants hereafter. Having Burnt and destroyed everything we marched backe and reimbarked.

"As we were disembarking in the morning some canoes were seen crossing the head of Grimerose River [Gagetown Creek], and near where we landed there had lately been some Birch canoes made. Much cleared Land here—Fine Country. This Village was settled by the Inhabitants of Beausejour, when drove off from thence in 1755."

The day following the expedition continued up the river to Isle Mettis, or Grimross Island. The pilots now refused to take charge of the vessels any higher, as they did not think there was sufficient water to pass. The accuracy of their judgment was soon evident. In attempting to proceed Capt. Cobb ran his sloop aground, and several of the transports had a like experience, but the bottom being sandy all soon got off again without damage. Monckton sent Capt. Rogers, late of the sloop "Ulysses," and a mate of the man-of-war "Squirrel," who had accompanied the expedition, to take soundings but they could find no practicable channel.

The commanding officer now reluctantly abandoned the idea of proceeding on to St. Annes. He might perhaps have attempted it by means of whale boats if the season had not been so far advanced and his provisions so nearly expended. After enumerating in his journal the difficulties that confronted him in the event of proceeding further he writes, "I therefore determined to return and destroy everything we could on our way down." Meanwhile, by Monckton's orders, Captain McCurdy had been scouring the country with his rangers and had succeeded in killing some cattle which were divided among the transports.

Captains Danks and Brewer were sent with their companies to burn some houses near what is now Upper Gagetown. After burning the houses they marched their troops down the "Neck" towards the village of Grimrose and on their way came across three or four Frenchmen who were driving off about forty head of cattle. The New Englanders made a dash for this prize, the Acadians escaped, but most of the cattle were destroyed.

Captain McCurdy was sent by Monckton across the river to Jemseg to destroy all the houses and grain that he might find in that quarter and to kill the cattle, and these orders were duly obeyed. Monckton burnt the little settlement called Villeray's (about three miles below Gagetown), and as he came down the river sent a small party on shore to burn the historic settlement of the Sieur de Belleisle and his sons-in-law, the brothers Robichaux, just above the mouth of Belleisle Bay. On the 8th day of November, after an absence of ten days, he arrived at the place above the falls where the troops had embarked.

Colonel Monckton evidently was not very much elated at the success of his expedition, for a few days after his return he wrote to Lieut. Governor De Lancey of New York: "I am sorry I can't give you a better acct. of our Proceedings up this River. But it was attended with so many unavoidable delays and impediments that we were only able to go up about 23 Leagues, which is above 10 Leagues short of St. Annes—where, if we had been able to have reached, it is by very certain accounts of no consequence, being only a Village and not the least signs of a fort.

"We burnt one village and some straggling Houses and destroyed everything that could be the least serviceable to them, so that I should think that they will in the spring be obliged to retire to Canada. The River, after passing the Falls, is as fine a River as ever I saw, and when you get up about 10 Leagues the country is level, with fine woods of Oak, Beech, Birch and Walnut, and no underwood and the land able to produce anything. We have just finished a pretty good fort here, where the old French Fort stood, which will be a footing for anything that may be thought proper to be undertaken hereafter."

The Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor general of Canada, was not ignorant of Monckton's operations on the River St. John, but he was in no position to make any effectual resistance. In his letter to the French minister of November 5, 1758, he states that the English were engaged in rebuilding the old Fort at Menagoueche; the Indians of the River St. John had retired with the Rev. Father Germain, their missionary to Canada, where Bigot, the intendant, had provided for their wintering, and the greater part of the Acadians had also retired to Canada.

During Colonel Monckton's absence up the river work was continued at the fort, so that it must have been nearly finished at the time of his return. It received the name of Fort Frederick, and the remains of its ramparts may still be seen at "Old Fort" in Carleton.

In the plan of St. John harbor made by Colonel Robert Morse of the Royal Engineers in 1784, there is an outline of Fort Frederick very nearly identical as regards situation and general form with the sketch of Fort Menagoueche (or "Fort de la Riviere de St. Jean") made in October, 1700, by the Sieur de Villieu.[43] We have further proof of an interesting nature that the situation and general plan of the new fort was identical with the old French fort in one of the letters of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in which he tells us that about the time Fort Frederick was nearing completion a French Canadian, kept there as a prisoner, made his escape, and on his return to Canada described the new fort as exactly the same size as the old but much stronger, the terraces being at least ten feet in thickness, and upon the terraces were palisades ten feet high in the form of "chevaux de frise." The Frenchman had counted 18 cannons mounted of a calibre of 18L., and the English had told him they expected to mount in all 30 cannons of 20L. and of 18L.

[43] The plan of Villieu appears in Dr. Ganong's Historic Sites in New Brunswick, p. 279.

On the 11th November Colonel Monckton sent Major Scott to Petitcodiac with the Light Infantry and Rangers in quest of a French privateer that had been at the St. John river and which, with one of her prizes, was said to have taken shelter there. He was directed to seize the vessels and bring them off, together with any of the Acadian inhabitants he could find, and to burn and destroy all the houses, barns, cattle, grain, etc. On his return he was to send Captain Dank's company to Fort Cumberland.

Major Scott certainly acted with promptitude, for barely a week had expired when he returned to St. John with the privateer schooner and prize sloop, which he had found in two different creeks up the Petitcodiac river. The parties sent out by the Major destroyed upwards of 150 houses and barns, much grain and a good many cattle. They captured 30 prisoners, including women and children. The Acadian seem to have made some resistance, however, and a Lieutenant McCormack and three men of Captain McCurdy's Company and two men of the Light Infantry were captured by them.

The troops that had served in the St. John river expedition were now distributed among the garrisons at Fort Cumberland, Windsor, Annapolis and Halifax, with the exception of McCurdy's, Stark's and Brewer's companies of Rangers and a small detachment of artillery, ordered to remain at Fort Frederick under command of Major Morris. This was a more considerable garrison than could well find accommodation there during the winter, but such was not Monckton's intention, for he writes in his journal: "The Fuel of the Garrison not being as yet lay'd in, I leave the three companies of Rangers, viz., McCurdy's, Stark's, and Brewer's, and have ordered that Captain McCurdy's company should Hutt and remain the Winter, the other two after compleating the wood to come to Halifax in the vessels I had left them."

Monckton sailed for Halifax in the man-of-war "Squirrel" on the 21st of November, and with him went the 2nd Battalion of the Royal American Regiment of which he was the commander.

In the month of January following, a tragic event took place at or near St. Anne's, an account of which has been left us by our early historians, Peter Fisher and Moses H. Perley, in substance as follows:

After the winter season had fairly set in, a party of the rangers at Fort Frederick, under Captain McCurdy, set out on snow-shoes to reconnoitre the country and to ascertain the state of the French settlements up the river. The first night after their departure they encamped at Kingston Creek, not far from the Belleisle, on a very steep hillside. That night Captain McCurdy lost his life by the falling of a large birch tree, which one of the rangers cut down on the hillside—the tree came thundering down the mountain and killed the Captain instantly, Lieutenant Moses Hazen[44] succeeded to the command, and the party continued up the river to St. Ann's Point (now Fredericton), where they found quite a town. They set fire to the chapel and other buildings, but a number of the French settlers gathered together, whereupon the Rangers retreated, and, being hotly pursued committed several atrocious acts upon the people who fell in their way, to prevent their giving information. By reversing their snow-shoes and making forced marches they got back safely to St. John.

[44] Moses Hazen was an older brother of William Hazen, who settled at St. John. He distinguished himself under Gen. Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham. In the American Revolution he fought against the British, raised a corps known as "Hazen's Own," and became a Major General in the American army.

This story, considerably modified in some of its details, finds confirmation from a variety of sources. (1) Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander of the forces serving in America, writes in a letter to Governor Lawrence, "You will have heard of the accident poor Capt. McCurdy met with as likewise of the success of his Lieutenant in demolishing the settlements at St. Anne's: on the recommendation of Major Scott I have preferred Lieut. Hazen to Capt. McCurdy's Company." In a subsequent letter Amherst says: "Major Morris sent me the particulars of the scouting party and I gave a commission to Lieut Hazen, as I thought he deserved it. I am sorry to say what I have since heard of that affair has sullied his merit with me as I shall always disapprove of killing women and helpless children. Poor McCurdy is a loss, he was a good man in his post." In another letter Amherst describes this sad affair more fully. See Appendix.

(2) Further confirmation of the charge of barbarity is found in the journal of Rev. Jacob Bailey[45] of Pownalboro, Maine. This gentleman had occasion to lodge at Norwood's Inn, in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, on the night of Dec'r 13, 1759, and speaking of the company he found there says: "We had among us a soldier belonging to Capt. Hazen's company of rangers, who declared that several Frenchmen were barbarously murdered by them, after quarters were given, and the villain added, I suppose to show his importance, that he 'split the head of one asunder, after he fell on his knees to implore mercy.' A specimen of New England clemency!"

[45] Rev. Jacob Bailey was a prominent loyalist during the American Revolution, and afterwards Rector of Annapolis. N. S.

(3). A statement is to be found in a dispatch of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, dated May 8, 1759, that a number of Acadians living at the River St. John were surprised on the night of the 27-28 January, 1759, by a detachment of New England troops who burned their houses, carried off twenty-three prisoners and killed two women and four children, whose scalps they bore away.

(4). Still further light is thrown upon this transaction by some notes appended to the names of certain Acadians, who had served as officers of militia in Acadia, and who were living in 1767 at Cherbourg. We learn that the Sieur Joseph Bellefontaine had once owned a large tract of land on the River St. John, near St. Anne's, and that he was appointed Major of the militia on the river by order of the Marquis de la Galissonniere, April 10, 1749, and always performed his duties with fidelity until made a prisoner by the enemy. At the time of the mid-winter raid on St. Anne's he had the misery of seeing one of his daughters with three of her children massacred before his eyes by the English, who desired by this act of cruelty and the fear of similar treatment to compel him to take their side. On his refusal he barely escaped a like fate by his flight into the woods, carrying with him two other children of the same daughter. The young mother so ruthlessly slain was Nastasie Bellefontaine, wife of Eustache Pare. The other victims of this tragedy of the wilderness were the wife and child of Michel Bellefontaine—a son of Joseph Bellefontaine. This poor fellow had the anguish of beholding his wife and boy murdered before his eyes on his refusal to side with the English.

The village of St. Anne's was left in a state of desolation. Moses Perley says that when the advance party of the Maugerville colony arrived at St. Anne's Point in 1762, they found the whole of what is now the Town plat of Fredericton cleared for about ten rods back from the bank and they saw the ruins of a very considerable settlement. The houses had been burned and the cultivated land was fast relapsing into a wilderness state. Nevertheless the early English settlers reaped some advantage from the improvements made by the Acadians, for we learn from Charles Morris' description of the river in 1768, that at the site of the old French settlement at St. Anne's Point there was about five hundred acres of cleared upland in English grass from whence the inhabitants of Maugerville got the chief part of their Hay for their Stock. "They inform me," says Mr. Morris, "that it produces about a load and a half to an acre." He adds, "The French Houses are all burnt and destroyed."

An interesting incident connected with the French occupation was related many years ago by the grandmother of the late Judge Fisher to one of her descendants. This good old lady came to St. Anne's in the fall of 1783 with the Loyalists. Not very many months after their arrival, there was so great a scarcity of provisions that the unfortunate people in some cases were obliged to dig up the potatoes they had planted and eat them. As the season advanced their hearts were cheered by the discovery of some large patches of pure white beans, marked with a black cross. They had been planted by the French, but were now growing wild. In their joy at this fortunate discovery the settlers called them "the staff of life and hope of the starving." Mrs. Fisher says she planted some of these beans with her own hands and that the seed was preserved in her family for many years.

The close of the year 1759 brought its anxieties to Colonel Mariot Arbuthnot, who had succeeded Major Morris as commandant at Fort Frederick. Quebec had fallen and the long and costly struggle between England and France for the possession of Canada and Acadia had terminated in favor of England.

The Massachusetts troops in garrison at Fort Frederick expected to be now relieved, as their period of enlistment had expired and the crisis of the war was over. But unfortunately for them, General Amherst at Crown Point found the force at his disposal insufficient, he could not spare a man, and Monckton, who commanded at Quebec, was in precisely the same predicament. Lawrence at Halifax had no troops at his disposal. Unless, therefore, the Massachusetts men remained Fort Frederick would be left without a garrison. In this emergency the Massachusetts legislature took the responsibility of extending the period of enlistment of the troops of their colony, at the same time voting money necessary to provide them with beds and other comforts for the approaching winter. General Amherst strongly commended the patriotic action of the legislature, and wrote to Governor Lawrence, "They have judged very rightly that the abandoning any of the Garrisons may be attended with most fatal consequences to this country; and as they have made a necessary provision for the men to continue during the winter, if the men do not stay and serve voluntarily, they must be compelled to it by force."

Evidently the men remained with great reluctance, for the following spring we find the Governor of Massachusetts writing to Governor Lawrence, "I find our people who are doing duty in your garrison—notwithstanding the favor and attention this Province has shown them for continuing their services through the winter, and notwithstanding the great encouragement given to those who would continue—have worked themselves up to such a temper of dissatisfaction that they have long ago threatened to come off, if not relieved."

This threat was not meaningless for the governor goes on to say "already seventy men in one schooner and about eighty in another have openly come off from Fort Frederick at St. John's."

The conduct of these Massachusetts rangers was a source of mortification to Lieut. Governor Hutchinson, who speaks of "the unwarrantable behaviour of the garrison at St. John's River, all of whom have deserted their post except 40 men and the continuation of those forty seems to be precarious." Steps were at once taken to enlist a fresh detachment for service at Fort Frederick.

The conduct of the garrison was not unnatural, although from a military point of view it was inexcusable. The men had enlisted for a great and, as the event proved, a final struggle with France for supremacy in North America. With the downfall of Louisbourg and Quebec the crisis had passed. The period of their enlistment had expired, what right had the Assembly of Massachusetts to prolong it? Why should they remain? So they reasoned. Meanwhile garrison duty at Fort Frederick was found to be extremely monotonous. The country was deserted, for the few habitations that once existed in the vicinity of the fort had been abandoned and destroyed when the French fled up the river, and no English settlers had as yet appeared. Amidst their privations and the loneliness of their situation the charms of their own firesides seemed peculiarly inviting. Most probably, too, the fort and barracks were little more than habitable in consequence of the havoc wrought by a terrible storm on the night of the 3-4 November, 1759. This storm was the most violent that had till then been known, and from all accounts must at least have rivalled the famous "Saxby" gale of 1869. The tide attained a height of six feet above the ordinary, and huge waves, driven by the storm, broke through the dykes at the head of the Bay of Fundy, flooding the marsh lands reclaimed by the Acadians. Much damage was done along the coast, thousands of trees were blown down all over the country, while near the coastline the forest was levelled as with a scythe. A considerable part of Fort Frederick was washed away by the storm and Lieutenant Winckworth Tonge, of the Engineers, was sent with a party of men to repair it and put it in the most defensible state the situation would allow, taking such tools and materials from Fort Cumberland as were needed. He found the condition of the fort even worse than he had anticipated. Governor Lawrence consulted General Amherst as to what should be done, and in answer the general wrote: "By Lt. Tonge's report to you of the state of the works at Fort Frederick, it must doubtless undergo great alterations to put it in a proper state of defence, but as this will require many more hands than you can provide at present, we must for the time being rest satisfied with the work you have ordered, especially as the line of strong Pallisadoes you mention will secure it against any insult for the present."

Colonel Arbuthnot's anxieties were not confined to tidal waves and the discontents of his garrison. About the end of October a party of some two hundred Acadians came down the river to Fort Frederick and presented to him a certificate of their having taken the oath of allegiance to the English sovereign before Judge Cramahe, at Quebec; also an order signed by General Monckton giving them permission to return to their former habitations. Whether these Acadians were old inhabitants of the river, or fugitives who had taken refuge there at the time of the Expulsion is not very clear. Lawrence surmised that the certificates had been obtained from Judge Cramahe on the supposition that the people belonged to some river or place in Canada known as St. Johns, and not to the River St. John in Nova Scotia, and that they never could have had any sort of permission from Monckton to settle in Acadia.

The Abbe Casgrain comments severely on the course pursued by Governor Lawrence on this occasion: "Not being able," he says, "to dispute the genuineness of the letters of Monckton and Cramahe, Lawrence claimed that the Acadians could only have obtained them by fraud, and he decided with his council, always ready to do his bidding, that they should be regarded as prisoners of war and transported as soon as possible to England. He took care not to disclose this resolution in order to keep them securely at the fort, and to have them ready to his hand when ships should arrive to transport them. This precaution was almost superfluous for the Acadians, having exhausted their last resources, were no longer in a state to return to the woods where they would have died of hunger."

Evidently it was part of the settled policy of Lawrence and his advisers to keep the Acadians out of the province and to people it with English speaking inhabitants, and with this policy General Amherst seems to have been in accord, for he wrote the Governor of Nova Scotia, "The pass you mention the two hundred Inhabitants of St. John's River to have from Mr. Monckton, was by no means meant or understood to give the French any right to those lands; and you have done perfectly right not to suffer them to continue there, and you will be equally right in sending them, when an opportunity offers, to Europe as Prisoners of War."

And yet it was very natural that, after the surrender of Quebec, the Acadians should believe that upon accepting the new regime and taking the oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain they would be treated in the same way as the French Canadians. The Abbe Casgrain says, not without reason, that the Acadians had an even greater right than the Canadians to clemency at the hands of their conquerors as their sufferings were greater: ["Ils y avaient d'autant plus de droit qu'ils avaient plus souffert."]

The expulsion at so late a period as this of two hundred Acadians from the Valley of the River St. John, where they had vainly hoped to remain in peace, is an incident of some importance. There is an unpublished letter of the Jesuit missionary Germain to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, written at Aukpaque on the River St. John, under date February 26, 1760, which is of some interest in this connection. "I arrived at the River St. John," writes Father Germain, "on All Saints Day (Nov. 1, 1759), where I unfortunately found all the inhabitants had gone down to the English fort with their families, which made me resolve to go and join them, as I did eight days afterwards, with the intention of accompanying them wherever they might be sent in order to help them—some to die as Christians in the transport ships and others to be of good cheer in the calamity that has befallen them as it did their brethren who are exiles in New England. But by a stroke of Providence, Monsieur Coquart, missionary to the French, arrived, and I desired the commandant to give me leave to retire which he granted together with a passport permitting me to remain at the priests' house in my mission where I am now."[46]

[46] I am indebted to Placide P. Gaudet for the above extract. Father Germain was the missionary of the Indians, while Coquart seems to have ministered to the Acadians. The latter was a "secular priest," or one not connected with any religious order.—W. O. R.

Colonel Arbuthnot had reported to Governor Lawrence that the Acadians begged leave to remain upon their lands on their promise to be faithful and true to His Majesty's Government. To this he made answer that they must come down to the Fort and remain there till he could apply to the Governor to know what should be done; they came down accordingly, and were to remain at the Fort until his excellency's pleasure should be known. The poor Acadians were represented to be in a starving condition. Their case came before the Governor and Council for consideration on the 30th November, at a meeting held at the Governor's house in Halifax, and the decision arrived at was this: "The Council are of opinion, and do advise that His Excellency do take the earliest opportunity of hiring vessels for having them immediately transported to Halifax, as Prisoners of War, until they can be sent to England; and that the two Priests be likewise removed out of the Province." The resolve of the council seems to have been carried into effect. In the month of January, Lawrence sent to the River St. John for the French inhabitants who, to the number of 300, were brought to Halifax until he could send them to England. Colonel Arbuthnot was the agent employed in collecting these unfortunate people and sending them to Halifax, and being a gentleman of a humane disposition he doubtless found his task a most uncongenial one. Among his assistants was Joseph Winniett,[47] a member for Annapolis Royal in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

[47] This gentleman afterwards received an order from Mr. Bulkeley, the provincial secretary, to take for his own use one of the French boats "forfeited to the Government by the Acadians that were at Annapolis," as a reward for his services in going up the River St. John and assisting Colonel Arbuthnot in bringing in the French. Winniett had a violent altercation with Captain Sinclair of the Annapolis garrison about this boat. See Murdoch's Hist. of N. S., Vol. II., p. 409.



CHAPTER XIV.

AUKPAQUE, THE VILLAGE AT THE HEAD OF THE TIDE.

On the west bank of the St. John, about six miles above the City of Fredericton, is the site of the old Indian village of Aukpaque. It looks out upon a charming panorama of interval and islands, amidst which the river creeps lazily with many windings. In the background across the river there rises the steep slope of Currie's Mountain, volcanic in its origin. Weird legends connected with this mountain have been handed down from ancient days, which the Indian guides will sometimes rehearse when they find appreciative listeners.

The surroundings of Aukpaque are indeed very beautiful, and as long ago as 1686 they won the admiration of Monseigneur St. Vallier, who, after describing the extent and varied scenery of the river, its smoothly flowing waters and fertile islands embosomed by the tide, says: "Some fine settlements might be made between Medoctec and Jemseg, especially at a certain place which we have named Sainte Marie, where the river enlarges and the waters are divided by a large number of islands that apparently would be very fertile if cultivated. A mission for the savages would be well placed there; the land has not as yet any owner in particular, neither the King nor the governor having made a grant to any one."

Evidently there was not at this time any Indian village at Aukpaque, but it is probable the place was occasionally used as a camping ground. In the course of the next half century, however, there grew into existence a village that rivalled and in time eclipsed the more ancient village of Medoctec. Doubtless the presence of the French on the lower St. John, and the establishment of Villebon's fort, at the mouth of the Nashwaak, served to draw the savages in that direction.

At the time of Monseigneur St. Vallier's visit they were beginning very generally to embrace Christianity. The Indians and the Acadians were visited occasionally by Claude Moireau, a Recollet missionary, who went up the river as far at least as Fort Jemseg where, in July, 1680, he baptized nine Indian children of ages varying from five months to nineteen years. Their names, with those of their parents and sponsors, are duly recorded in his register. One or two of the entries are here inserted as of historic interest:—

"The year of grace 1680, the 7 July: I have baptized at Jemseg, according to the forms of our Holy Church, Claude, son of Soksim, savage, and of Apolline Kedekouit, Christian, aged 18 years, and named at the font Claude by Claude Petipas, notary royal, and Isabella Petipas, his sponsors.

[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.

"The same day baptized Marie, sauvagesse, aged one year, daughter of Tobuk and of Marie Noktomkiache, Christian, and named at the font Marie by Rene Lambert and Catherine Bugaret, her sponsors.

[Signed] Cl. Moireau, Recol."

Two baptisms in the following year, one at Jemseg and the other at St. John, are of equal interest:—

"At Jemsek, the year of grace 1681, the 25 May, have baptized according to the forms of our Holy Church, Marie Anne Denis, aged 4 months, daughter of Sieur Richard Denis, Esquire, and of Anne Partarabego, sauvagesse, and has been held at the font by damoiselle Marie Chartier, dame de Marson, her godmother, who has named her Marie Anne.

[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.

"At Menagoueck, the year of grace 1681, the 2 June, have baptized according to the forms of the Church, Jeanne Guidry, child of Claude Guirdy dit la Verdure and of Keskoua, sauvagesse, who has been held at the font by Claude Petipas and Jeanne de la Tour, wife of Martignon, her sponsors, who have named her Jeanne.

[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.

A little later Father Simon of the Recollet order became the missionary of the Indians on the river with headquarters at Medoctec. Some account of his interesting personality and of his zealous labors will be found in a previous chapter. After his death the work among the Indians passed into the hands of the Jesuit missionary, Joseph Aubery, and his successors Jean Baptiste Loyard, Jean P. Danielou and Charles Germain. The whole river was included in the mission and the priest had many journeys to make, but Medoctec, as the principal village, was for years the headquarters of the mission. This was so down to the time of Loyard's death. His successor, Danielou, ministered to the Indians of Medoctec, also, as is shown by the presence of his name on the slate-stone tablet of the Medoctec chapel. But it is probable that Danielou was frequently at Aukpaque, and he certainly had the spiritual oversight of the Acadians at St. Anne's Point.



The Indians of the River St. John were regarded by the English as the most powerful and warlike tribe of Acadia and the Governor of Nova Scotia endeavored to gain their good-will, and to induce them to adhere to the treaty made with the eastern tribes by the authorities of New England and Nova Scotia in 1725. In the year 1732 Lieut. Governor Armstrong of Nova Scotia sent Paul Mascarene to Boston to treat with Governor Belcher about the erection of a "truck-house" for the Indian trade on the St. John river, and Mascarene was instructed to recommend the lands on the St. John to the people of Massachusetts as a very desirable place of settlement. Belcher expressed the opinion that unless the crown would build a fort at the mouth of the river, the "truck-house" project would fail, but in case of its erection Massachusetts would probably send a sloop with goods to the Indians Spring and Fall. However the idea of an English post at the mouth of the St. John remained in abeyance until the surrender of Beausejour.

So far as known to the author, the first mention of the Indian village of Aukpaque occurs in connection with the census of 1733 which states that fifteen French families reside below the "Village d'Ecoupay." From this time onward there are frequent references to Aukpaque, some of which are indicated in the foot-note below.[48]

[48] Probably the name of no place in New Brunswick has appeared in so many varied forms as that of this Indian village. The list that follows does not pretend to be exhaustive, but will suffice for illustration:—

(1.) Ecoupay—Census, 1733. (2.) Ocpaque—Lt.-Gov. Armstrong's letter, 1735. (3.) Apoge—Capt. Pote's Journal, 1745. (4.) Octpagh—Treaty proceedings at Halifax, 1749. (5.) Ekauba—Report of Abbe de L'isle-Dieu, 1753. (6.) Ocpaque—Letter of James Simonds, 1765. (7.) Aughpack—Map of Charles Morris, 1765. (8.) Ekouipahag—Register of l'Abbe Bailly, 1767. (9.) Aughpaugh—Letter of James Simonds, 1768. (10.) Ekoupahag—Indian negotiations at Halifax, 1768. (11.) Okpaak—Report of Rev. T. Wood's, 1769. (12.) Augpeake—Letter Lt. Gov. Franklin, 1777. (13.) Auque Pawhaque—Letter of Indians to Major Studholme, 1778. (14.) Aupaque—Letter of Gen'l Haldimand, 1782. Oak Park—Letter of Sam'l Peabody, 1782, also report of Exploration Committee to Major Studholme, 1783. (16.) Ek-pa-hawk—Modern Indians.

The little colony of fifteen families mentioned in the census of 1733 seems to have settled in the vicinity of St. Anne's Point a few years previously. It was a typical Acadian hamlet. Its people were of simple habits and wished to live in peace. Naturally they were loyal to their mother country and devout members of their mother church. But France—sunny France—with all her marvellous resources and splendid opportunities, proved an unworthy mother. And what has been the result? A colonial empire shrunken almost to insignificance. And even if her colonial empire were today what it was in the days of Louis XIV, the colonies would be as empty cradles for which there are no children. The progress and development of the Acadians of the maritime provinces and of the French Canadians of the Dominion tell what France might have been if her people had been true to high ideals.

The colony of New France was never supported as it should have been. While New England was making rapid progress and the tide of immigration set strongly in that direction, Canada was left to take care of itself. After the days of Frontenac the governors of Quebec were haunted by the fear of encroachments on their territory on the part of the people to the south. It became their policy to employ the Indians and Acadians as buttresses against the inflowing tide of the Anglo-Saxons. The Acadians would fain have lived in peace but, alas the trend of events left little room for neutrality.

The Maliseets of the St. John were naturally disposed to resent the intrusion of the whites on their hunting grounds, and the French encouraged this sentiment as regards any advance made by the English. In the year 1735, Francis Germaine, "chief of Ockpaque," with one of his captains came to Annapolis Royal to complain of the conduct of some English surveyors, whom they seem to have regarded as trespassers on their lands. For some reason they missed seeing the governor, but he wrote them a very friendly letter, assuring them of his favor and protection. This, however, did not satisfy the Indians, for a few months afterwards they interfered with the loading of a vessel that had been sent to St. John for limestone by the ordnance storekeeper at Annapolis and robbed the sailors of their clothes and provisions, claiming that the lands and quarries belonged to them. Not long afterwards the Governor of Nova Scotia addressed a letter to "The Reverend Father Danilou, priest of St. John's River," complaining that a party of Maliseets under Thoma, their chief, had surprised, Stephen Jones, an English trader, as he lay sleeping aboard his vessel at Piziquid [Windsor, N. S.] and robbed him of goods to the value of L900 and of his book of accounts valued at L700 more, and he hoped the missionary would use his influence to induce the Indians to keep the peace and, if possible, obtain redress for the unfortunate man they had robbed.

Two of the principal Acadians, living at or near St. Ann's, Mich'l Bergeron and Joseph Bellefontaine, had an interview with Governor Armstrong in 1736, and by request gave him a list of the Acadians then living on the river, numbering in all 77 souls, besides the missionary Jean Pierre Danielou. The governor ordered the Acadians to make their submission to the British government and not to receive any missionary without his approbation. It does not appear, however, that he was on unfriendly terms with Danielou, who came to Annapolis the next year and exercised the functions of his ministry.

Under the care of Danielou's successor Germain, the Acadians and their savage allies had a chequered experience indeed, but this has been already related in the previous chapters.

At the time of Monckton's invasion of the river in 1758 most of the Indians abandoned the village of Aukpaque and retired with their missionary, Germain, to Canada, but they returned after the capture of Quebec and some of their chiefs went to Fort Frederick and took the oath of allegiance to the English monarch. Colonel Arbuthnot was directed to encourage them to come to Halifax and make a treaty of peace and such arrangements as were necessary for trade with the English.

During the session of the House of Assembly held at Halifax in the winter of 1759-60, Governor Lawrence urged the House to make provision for the establishment of "truck-houses" for the Indians; he also recommended legislation for the purpose of preventing private trade with them, and the Assembly soon afterwards passed an act for that purpose.

On the 11th of February, Colonel Arbuthnot came to Halifax from Fort Frederick, with two Indian chiefs of the Passamaquoddy tribe, to make peace on the basis of the old Indian Treaty of 1725. Representatives of the St. John river tribe arrived a few days later. The Indians appeared before the Governor and Council with an interpreter. They were received with every courtesy and presented with gold lace blankets, laced hats, etc. It was agreed that the treaty should be prepared in English and French, that the chiefs should be sent back in a vessel to St. John, and that Col. Arbuthnot should accompany them, taking the treaty with him to be ratified. After a fortnight's deliberation the treaty was signed, on the 23rd February, by Ballomy Glode, chief of the St. John Indians, and Michel Neptune, chief of the Passamaquoddies. The treaty was based on those of 1725 and 1749, with an additional engagement on the part of the Indians not to aid the enemies of the English, to confine their traffic to the truck-house at Fort Frederick and to leave three of each tribe there as hostages to ensure performance of the articles of the treaty.

In order the better to carry out the provisions of this treaty, and of similar treaties made at this time with the different tribes of Acadia, Benjamin Gerrish was appointed Indian commissary. Gerrish agreed to buy goods and sell them to the Indians for furs, he to receive 5 per cent on goods purchased and 2-1/2 per cent on furs sold, and the prices to be so arranged that the Indians could obtain their goods at least 50 per cent cheaper than hitherto.

At their conference with the Governor and his council the Indians agreed upon a tariff of prices[49] for the Indian trade, the unit of value to be one pound of the fur of the spring beaver, commonly known as "one beaver," equivalent in value to a dollar, or five shillings. Under the tariff the following articles were to be sold to the Indians at the following prices: Large blanket, 2 "beavers"; 2 yards stroud, 3 "beavers"; 14 pounds pork, 1 "beaver"; 30 pounds flour, 1 "beaver"; 2-1/2 gallons molasses, 1 "beaver"; 2 gallons rum, 1 "beaver"; and other articles in proportion.

[49] This tariff of prices is given in full in Murdoch's Hist. of Nova Scotia, Vol. II., p. 395.

Furs and skins sold by the Indians at the "truck-house" were to be valued by the same standard: Moose skin, 1-1/2 "beavers"; bear skin, 1-1/3 "beavers"; 3 sable skins, 1 "beaver"; 6 mink skins, 1 "beaver"; 10 ermine skins, 1 "beaver"; silver fox skin, 2-1/2 "beavers," and so on for furs and skins of all descriptions. By substituting the cash value for the value in "beavers," we shall obtain figures that would amaze the furrier of modern days and prove eminently satisfactory to the purchaser, for example: Bear skin (large and good), $1.35; moose skin (large), $1.50; luciffee (large), $2.00; silver fox, $2.50; black fox, $2.00; red fox, 50cts.; otter, $1.00; mink, 15 cts.; musquash, 10 cts. And yet these prices, ridiculously low as they appear, were considerably better than the Indians Had received from the French traders. It was no doubt on such terms as these that Messrs. Simonds, White and Hazen traded with the Indians after they came to St. John.

Benjamin Gerrish soon afterwards took steps to establish the "truck-house" promised the Indians, and by order in council of July 19, 1760, Captain Doggett was instructed to proceed directly to the River St. John and deliver the stores that Mr. Gerrish had shipped on board his vessel for the truck-master at Fort Frederick.

Colonel Arbuthnot reported that the Indians behaved well and came to the fort to trade. The delegates from the River St. John, who went to Halifax, seem to have acted in accordance with the advice of their missionary Germain, who accepted the logic of events after the fall of Quebec and advised the Indians to submit to their conquerors. The establishment of a "truck-house" at St. John was of advantage to them and the missionary determined to cultivate friendly relations with the English.

Governor Lawrence reported that he had induced the Assembly of Nova Scotia to pass a law, with severe penalties, against private trading with the Indians. The provisions of this act, however, found little favor with the Lords of Trade, by whom it was considered "an improper and unreasonable restraint upon trade." Their objection found expression in the proclamation of George III., at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763:—

"We do by the advice of our privy council declare and enjoin that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a license for carrying on such trade from the governor or commander-in-chief of any of our colonies where such person shall reside, and also give security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit to direct or appoint."

The proclamation required the governor to issue such licenses without fee or reward, the license to be void and the security forfeited if the person to whom it was granted failed to observe the regulations prescribed.

We have now arrived at the period when the first permanent English settlement was to be made on the St. John river, but before proceeding to the consideration of that event a glance at the general situation on the river is necessary. The only foot-hold the English had as yet obtained was at Fort Frederick on the west side of St. John harbor. A considerable number of Acadians still lingered furtively in their hiding places up the river, the majority of them near the Indian village of Aukpaque. For their benefit, as well as that of the savages, the missionary Germain desired to remain at his post. He accordingly made overtures to the Nova Scotia authorities to be allowed to continue his ministrations, promising to use his influence in the interests of peace. To this proposition the Governor and Council cheerfully assented, promising the missionary a stipend of L50. A year or two afterwards he wrote acknowledging the receipt of his salary and stating it was his desire to inspire the Indians with the respect due to the government. He complained of their irregularities and says that in spite of his efforts to promote harmony he feared "they will shortly pay no regard to what he says."

In Kidder's "Military operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution," the statement is made that Aukpaque signifies a beautiful expanding of the river occasioned by numerous islands, but, while this is perfectly correct as descriptive of the locality, it is more probable that Aukpaque—or its Indian equivalent Ek-pa-hawk—means "the head of the tide," or beginning of swift water. Kidder speaks of the site of Aukpaque as "almost unknown and difficult to locate." Commenting on this statement, the late Sir John C. Allen (whose grandfather, Colonel Isaac Allen, purchased of the Indians the site of the village of Aukpaque), makes the following remark:—

"It is an error to suppose that there is any difficulty in locating Aukpaque. It is laid down, under the name Opack, on a plan in the Crown Lands office in Fredericton of a survey of land in the old Township of Sunbury while this province formed a part of Nova Scotia. In addition to this there are several persons living who can point out the place that was used as the Indian burial ground and who remember that a large piece of cleared land adjacent to it and separated from it by a deep ravine, being a part of the tract of land reserved for the Indians, was formerly known as the 'Chapel Field'—no doubt from the fact that the chapel of the Indian settlement had stood upon it. There is also further evidence in the plan of the survey of the lands in the Parish of Kingsclear, the grant of which issued in 1799, upon which a cross is marked on this lot of land, which is well known to indicate the site of a church or chapel. There is very little doubt that at the time of the survey the chapel, or the remains of it, were standing, as the Indians had been in occupation of the land till within a few years of that time."

We may add that the claim of the Indians to the lands in the vicinity of their village was early recognized by the Government of Nova Scotia, and when the first grant of a large tract of the surrounding country was made in 1765 to Thomas Falconer and sixty-six other land speculators, there was expressly reserved for the Indians "500 acres, including a church and burying ground at Aughpack, and four acres for a burying ground at St. Ann's point, and the island called Indian (or Savage) Island." This island is probably that mentioned in 1753 by the Abbe de L'Isle Dieu as "l'isle d'Ecouba," the residence of the missionary Charles Germain.

The situation of Aukpaque is shown in the accompanying sketch:—



Although the Indians were ostensibly at peace with the English they viewed them with suspicion, and were jealous of any infringement of their aboriginal rights. After the erection of Fort Frederick they seem, for the most part, to have abandoned the lower part of the river, and Charles Morris tells us that about the year 1760 they burned much of the timber along the Long Reach and on both sides of the Washademoak and probably at other places.

When the exploring party of the Maugerville colony arrived at St. Anne's point in 1762 and were about to begin their survey, a large party of Indians came down from their priest's residence, with his interpreter, their faces painted in divers colors and figures, and dressed in their war habits. The chiefs informed the adventurers that they were trespassers on their rights, that the country belonged to them, and unless they retired immediately they would compel them.

The chiefs claimed that they had some time before had a conference with Governor Lawrence and had consented that the English should settle the country up as far as Grimross. The surveyors promised to remove their camp towards Grimross. This answer did not appear to fully satisfy the Indians, but they made no reply. The settlement of the New England people, in consequence of the attitude of the Indians, did not embrace St. Anne's Point as originally intended.

Plans of the River St. John were made by the Hon. Charles Morris, surveyor general of Nova Scotia, as early as the year 1761. A little later he wrote an interesting description of the river. He describes "Aughpack" as about seven miles from St. Anne's, and says the Acadians had settlements upon the uplands between the two places but drew their subsistence from the cultivation of the intervals and islands. At Aukpaque was the Indian church and the residence of the French missionary. Their church and buildings adjoining had been demolished by the Indians themselves. The island opposite Aukpaque, called Indian Island, was the place where the Indians of the river made their annual rendezvous.

"On this island," adds Mr. Morris, "is their town, consisting of forty mean houses, or wigwams, built with slender poles and covered with bark. In the centre of the town is the grand council chamber constructed after the same manner as the other houses."

The reason for the destruction by the Indians of their church we need not go far to seek. In the summer of the year 1763 three chiefs came to Halifax to inquire why Father Germain had been removed from his post. They were told that he had gone of his own accord to Quebec and had been detained there by General Murray, and that the government of Nova Scotia were not responsible for it. They then desired Lieutenant Governor Belcher to provide them with another priest, which he promised to do. The Indians were satisfied and departed with their usual presents. The intention of the lieutenant governor was frustrated by an order from the Lords of Trade forbidding the employment of a French missionary. Governor Wilmot regretted this action as likely to confirm the Indians in their notion of the English as "a people of dissimulation and artifice who will deceive and deprive them of their salvation." He thought it better to use the Indians generously and mentions the fact of their having lately burned their church, by direction of the priest detained at Quebec, as a proof of their devotion to their religious guides.

The site of the old church at Aukpaque was in all probability the old "chapel field" mentioned by Sir John C. Allen. Hard by, on the other side of a little ravine, is the old burial ground of the Acadians and Indians. One of the descendants of the Acadians, who visited the spot a few years ago, writes mournfully of this little cemetery:

"Not a stone, not a cross, not even an enclosure to divide it from other fields; here in this corner of the world, remote and almost unknown, repose the ashes of some of our ancestors, the first cultivators of the soil of Madawaska. Freed from all the troubles and vicissitudes of the past they hear only the gentle, harmonious murmur of the waters of La Riviere St. Jean, the river they loved so well even in the days of their misfortune."



CHAPTER XV.

THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLERS.

The erection of Fort Frederick, in the autumn of 1758, gave the English a permanent foothold on the River St. John, which possibly was rendered a little more secure by the destruction of the Acadian settlements at Grimross and St. Annes, and the subsequent removal by Colonel Arbuthnot of a large number of the French inhabitants.

Shortly after the Acadian expulsion, the Lords of Trade and Plantations urged Governor Lawrence to re-people the lands vacated by the French with settlers from New England. The idea was quite in accord with the governor's own mind, but he was obliged to defer it for a season. In the existing state of affairs he could not spare the troops necessary to defend new settlements, and nothing was practicable until the country should be possessed in peace. However, very shortly after Monckton's occupation of the St. John River Lawrence issued the first of his celebrated proclamations, offering favorable terms to any industrious settlers from New England, who would remove to Nova Scotia and cultivate the lands vacated by the French, or other ungranted lands. The proclamation stated that proposals on behalf of intending settlers would be received by Thomas Hancock at Boston, and by Mesrs. De Lancey and Watts at New York, and by them transmitted to the Governor of Nova Scotia.

This proclamation had the effect of directing attention to the River St. John. Young and adventurous spirits soon came to the fore anxious to be the pioneers of civilization in the wilds of Nova Scotia. But first they wished to know: What terms of encouragement would be offered? How much land each person would get? What quit-rents and taxes would be required? What constitution of government prevailed, and what freedom in religion?

In answer to their inquiries a second proclamation was issued, in which it was declared that townships were to consist of 100,000 acres (about 12 miles square) and were to include the best lands, and rivers in their vicinity. The government was described as similar to that of the neighboring colonies, the legislature consisting of a governor, council and assembly and every township, so soon as it should consist of fifty families, would be entitled to send two representatives to the assembly. The courts of justice were similar to those of Massachusetts, Connecticut and the other northern colonies, and full liberty of conscience was secured to persons of all persuasions, "papists" excepted, by the royal instructions and a late act of the Assembly. As yet no taxes had been imposed or fees exacted on grants. Forts garrisoned with troops were established in the neighborhood of the lands it was proposed to settle.

The Lords of Trade approved of Governor Lawrence's proceedings in settling the province, and at the same time desired that land should be reserved "as a reward and provision for such officers and soldiers as might be disbanded in America upon a peace." This led the governor to desist from making further grants of the cleared lands to ordinary settlers. He did not, however, anticipate much benefit to the province in consequence of the attempt to people it with disbanded British soldiers, and he wrote to the Lords of Trade:

"According to my ideas of the military, which I offer with all possible deference and submission, they are the least qualified, from their occupation as soldiers, of any men living to establish new countries, where they must encounter difficulties with which they are altogether unacquainted; and I am the rather convinced of it, as every soldier that has come into this province since the establishment of Halifax, has either quitted it or become a dramseller."

Soon after the treaty of Paris, a proclamation of George III. (dated at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763) signified the royal sense and approbation of the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the army, and directed the governors of the several provinces to grant, without fee or reward, to disbanded officers and soldiers who had served in North America during the late war and were actually residing there, lands in the following proportions:—

To every field officer, 5,000 acres.

To every captain, 3,000 acres.

To every subaltern or staff officer, 2,000 acres.

To every non-commissioned officer, 200 acres.

To every private man, 50 acres.

Like grants of land were to be made to retired officers of the navy who had served on board a ship of war at the reduction of Louisbourg and Quebec.

Petitions and memorials of retired officers of the army and navy who were desirous of obtaining lands in Nova Scotia as a reward for their services, now flowed in upon the provincial and imperial authorities. The desire to obtain land on the River St. John became so general that government officials, merchants and professional men joined in the general scramble. The result was not only detrimental to the best interests of the country, but in many cases disastrous to the speculators themselves.

The ideas of some of the memorialists were by no means small. For example, in 1762, Sir Allan McLean applied for 200,000 acres on the River St. John to enable him to plant a colony; and in the same year Captains Alexander Hay,[50] John Sinclair, Hugh Debbeig,[51] Alex. Baillie, Robert G. Bruce and J. F. W. DesBarres applied for another immense tract on behalf of themselves and 54 other officers.

[50] Capt. Alex. Hay is said to have saved the life of the Duke of Cumberland, during the rebellion of 1745.

[51] In Des Barres' splendid chart of St. John harbor, published according to act of parliament in 1780, the well-known Reed's Point is called "Point-Debbeig."

War with the French and Indians had been so constant previous to the peace of 1763, that a large proportion of the young men of New England had seen service in the "provincial regiments." To those who had held commissions the inducements contained in Lawrence's proclamations were especially attractive.

Among the retired officers of the Massachusetts regiments, who became interested in the River St. John at this time were Francis Peabody, William Hazen, James White, James Simonds, Nicholas West and Israel Perley. Captain Francis Peabody was somewhat older than the others; he had served with distinction in the late war, and is mentioned in Parkman's "Wolfe and Montcalm" [p. 428]. From the active part he took in settling the township of Maugerville, as well as from his age and character, he must be regarded as the most prominent and influential person on the St. John river while he lived. He died in the year 1773. Three of his daughters married respectively James Simonds, James White and Jonathan Leavitt.

A few years ago the writer of this history had the good fortune to find, in an old rubbish heap, a letter of James Simonds detailing the circumstances under which he came to take up his residence at St. John.

"In the years 1759 and 1760," he says, "proclamations were published through the colonies which promised all the lands and possessions of the Acadians, who had been removed, or any other lands lying within the Province of Nova Scotia, to such as would become settlers there. In consequence of these proclamations I went through the greater part of Nova Scotia, in time of war, at great expense and at the risk of my life, in search of the best lands and situations, and having at length determined to settle at the River St. John, obtained a promise from Government of a large tract of land for myself and brother Richard, who was with me in several of my tours."

The attention of Mr. Simonds may have been particularly called to St. John by the fact that his cousin, Captain Moses Hazen, commanded the garrison at Fort Frederick in 1759. It may be noted, in passing, that this post was occupied for the first two years after it was rebuilt by Monckton, by the Massachusetts troops. They were relieved by a company from one of the Highland regiments. In 1762 the post was garrisoned by a detachment of the 40th regiment of foot under Lieutenant Gilfred Studholme. The fort afterwards continued to be garrisoned by a company of British regulars under different commanders until 1768, when the troops were withdrawn and the fort remained for several years under the nominal care of Messrs. Simonds and White.

About the time James Simonds decided to settle at St. John, the harbor was carefully surveyed by Lieut. R. G. Bruce of the engineers, whose plan is reproduced in the accompanying illustration. A glance will suffice to show that the rocky peninsular on the eastern side of the harbor, where the business part of the city stands today, was at that time uninhabited. The military post at Fort Frederick imparted a little life to the immediate surroundings but on the other side of the harbor everything remained in its virgin state, except at Portland Point, where there was a small clearing and the ruins of a feeble old French Fort. The few Acadians who once lingered there had fled before the English invaders, and only when some wandering savage pitched his wigwam on the shores of "Men-ah-quesk," as he called it, was there any tenant save the fox, the bear or other wild forest creature. The rocky peninsular of east St. John with its crags and swamps was considered of so little value that it remained ungranted up to the time of the landing of the Loyalists. In the words of James Simonds it was "the worst of lands, if bogs, morasses and rocks may be called lands."



The circumstances under which James Simonds made choice of the Harbor of St. John, as the most promising place for an extensive trade, are detailed at some length in his evidence in the famous chancery suit which arose about the year 1791 in connection with the division of the lands of Hazen, Simonds and White, and occupied the attention of the courts for more than twenty years. It is chiefly from this source we learn the particulars that follow.

James Simonds was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the year 1735. After the death of his father, Nathan Simonds, and the settlement of his estate, finding the property falling to him to be inconsiderable, he set out in company with his younger brother Richard to seek his fortune. In the course of the years 1759 to 1762, different parts of the old province of Nova Scotia were visited, including the River St. John, with a view of ascertaining the most advantageous situation for the fur trade, fishery and other business. Finding that the mouth of the St. John river was an admirable situation for trade with the Indians, that the fishery in the vicinity was excellent, and that there was a large tract of marsh land, and lands that afforded great quantities of lime-stone adjacent to the Harbor of St. John, Mr. Simonds eventually gave the preference to those lands on account of their situation and the privileges attached to them, and having previously obtained a promise from Government of a grant of 5,000 acres in such part of the province as he might choose he with his brother Richard took possession. In the month of May, 1762, they burnt over the large marsh (east of the present city) and in the ensuing summer cut there a quantity of wild hay. It was their intention immediately to begin stock raising, but they were disappointed in obtaining a vessel to bring from Massachusetts the cattle they expected. They accordingly sold or made a present of the hay to Captain Francis Peabody, who had recently come to St. John and built himself a house at Portland Point. This house is said to have had an oak frame, which was brought from Newburyport. In 1765 it became the property of James Simonds (Captain Peabody having moved up the river to Maugerville) and later it was owned by James White. It was not an elaborate or expensive building[52] but it had the honor of being the first home of an English speaking family on the St. John river.

[52] When the affairs of Hazen, Simonds and White were wound up some twenty-five years later the house was valued at L40.

The situation of the new-comers at Portland Point would have been very insecure had it not been for the protection afforded by Fort Frederick across the harbor. The Indians had not yet become accustomed to the idea of British supremacy. Their natural allegiance—even after the downfall of Quebec—was to "their old father the King of France." Their prejudice against the English had been nurtured for generations and embittered by ruthless warfare, and we need not wonder that the coming of the first English settlers was viewed with a jealous eye. Even the proximity of the garrison at Fort Frederick did not prevent the situation of James Simonds and his associates from being very precarious, when the attitude of the Indians was unfriendly. Richard Simonds, who died January 20, 1765, lost his life in the defence of the property of the trading company when the savages were about to carry it off.

While the brothers Simonds were endeavoring to establish themselves at St. John, a settlement upon a more extensive scale was being projected by a number of people in the County of Essex in Massachusetts. An advertisement appeared in the "Boston Gazette and News-Letter" of September 20, 1762, notifying all of the signers under Captain Francis Peabody for a township at St. John's River in Nova Scotia, to meet at the house of Daniel Ingalls, inn-holder in Andover, on Wednesday, the 6th day of October at 10 o'clock a. m., in order to draw their lots, which were already laid out, and to choose an agent to go to Halifax on their behalf and to attend to any matters that should be thought proper. The advertisement continues: "And whereas it was voted at the meeting on April 6th, 1762, that each signer should pay by April 20th, twelve shillings for laying out their land and six shillings for building a mill thereon, and some signers have neglected payment, they must pay the amount at the next meeting or be excluded and others admitted in their place."

The agent chosen at this meeting was Captain Francis Peabody.[53]

[53] Beamish Murdoch in his History of Nova Scotia, Vol. II, p. 428, refers to the settlement made at this time at Maugerville and observes, "A Mr. Peabody was the principal inhabitant and agent for the English settlers."

According to the late Moses H. Perley, whose well known and popular lectures on New Brunswick history were delivered at the Mechanics Institute in 1841, the government of Massachusetts sent a small party to explore the country east of Machias in 1761. "The leader of that party," says Mr. Perley, "was Israel Perley, my grandfather, who was accompanied by 12 men in the pay of Massachusetts. They proceeded to Machias by water, and there shouldering their knapsacks, they took a course through the woods, and succeeded in reaching the head waters of the River Oromocto, which they descended to the St. John. They found the country a wide waste, and no obstacles, save what might be afforded by the Indians, to its being at once occupied and settled, and with this report they returned to Boston."

The result of this report is seen in the organization of a company of would be settlers shortly afterwards.

There is in the possession of the Perley family at Fredericton an old document that contains a brief account of the subsequent proceedings:—

"In the year 1761 a number of Provincial officers and soldiers in New England who had served in several campaigns during the then French war agreed to form a settlement on St. John's River in Nova Scotia, for which purpose they sent one of their number to Halifax, who obtained an order of survey for laying out a Township in mile squares on any part of St. John's River (the whole being then a desolate wilderness). This Township called Maugerville was laid out in the year 1762, and a number of settlers entered into it, encouraged by the King's proclamation for settling the lands in Nova Scotia, in which, among other things, was this clause, that people emigrating from the New England Provinces to Nova Scotia should enjoy the same religious privileges as in New England. And in the above-mentioned order of survey was the following words—viz., 'You shall reserve four Lots in the Township for Publick use, one as a Glebe for the Church of England, one for the Dissenting Protestants, one for the maintenance of a School, and one for the first settled minister in the place.'

"These orders were strictly comply'd with, but finding difficulty in obtaining a Grant of this Township from the government of Nova Scotia on account of an order from England that those lands should be reserved for disbanded forces, the settlers did in the year 1763 draw up and forward a Petition or memorial to the Lords of Trade and Plantations."...

In this memorial were set forth the services that Captain Peabody and his associates had rendered to their country in the late war, the expenses they had incurred and the inducements offered by the government of Nova Scotia to them to settle on the lands they had surveyed. The memorial was signed by Francis Peabody, John Carleton, Jacob Barker, Nicholas West and Israel Perley on behalf of themselves and other disbanded officers. This memorial was submitted by Mr. Peabody to the Governor and Council at Halifax, who cordially approved of the contents and forwarded it to Joshua Mauger,[54] the agent for the Province in London, expressing their opinion that the officers and disbanded soldiers from New England, settled on the reserved lands on the St. John River, ought not to be removed. They would be of great use and their removal would cause their total ruin. The settlers earnestly solicited the influence of the agent in England to obtain a speedy answer to their memorial. He took the liveliest interest in their cause and largely through his efforts the Lords of Trade on the 20th December, 1763, recommended that the memorial of the disbanded officers of the Provincial forces be granted, and that they be confirmed in possession of the lands on which they have settled on the St. John River. The matter was finally settled in the Court of St. James, the 10th day of February, 1764, by the adoption of the following resolve on the part of King George the III. and his Council:

"Whereas the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations have represented to His Majesty that a memorial has been presented to him on behalf of several disbanded officers of His Majesty's provincial forces in North America, setting forth that induced by several encouragements they have sold their lands in New England and settled themselves and families upon the St. John River in His Majesty's province of Nova Scotia at the distance of 200 miles from any other settlement and praying that the possession of the lands upon which they have settled themselves at a very great expense may be confirmed to them by His Majesty: The Governor of Nova Scotia is ordered to cause the land upon which they are settled to be laid out in a Township consisting of 100,000 acres, 12 miles square, one side to front on the river. Also to reserve a site for a town with a sufficient number of lots, with reservations for a church, town-house, public quays and wharves and other public uses; the grants to be made in proportion to their ability and the number of persons in their families, but not to exceed 1,000 acres to one person. That a competent quantity of land be allotted for the maintenance of a minister and school-master and also one town lot to each of them in perpetuity."

[54] Joshua Mauger was a merchant from England who made his residence at Halifax shortly after its founding by Cornwallis in 1749. He traded extensively in Nova Scotia and had contracts with government. He returned to England in 1761, became agent there for the Province of Nova Scotia and held a seat in Parliament.

For months the settlers of Maugerville remained in a state of suspense and in much anxiety as to the fate of their memorial. They were naturally greatly relieved when the order of the King in Council arrived confirming them in possession of the lands they had settled. The kindness and generosity of Joshua Mauger, who bore the expense of their appeal and exerted himself in their behalf, were fully appreciated, and as a tribute of respect and gratitude to their patron the settlers gave to their township the name of "Maugerville."

The Township of Maugerville was laid out early in the year 1762 by a party under Israel Perley their land surveyor. In the survey Richard Simonds acted as chain bearer and James Simonds, who was one of the patentees of the township, also assisted, receiving the sum of L40 for his services.

The first published account of the founding of the Maugerville settlement is that of Peter Fisher,[55] printed by Chubb & Sears at St. John in 1825, and a very readable account it is as the extracts that follow will show.

[55] Peter Fisher was the father of the late Judge Fisher and of L. Peter Fisher (for many years mayor of Woodstock), and grandfather of W. Shoves Fisher of St. John. His penmanship was superior to that of some of his descendants, judging from the fac-simile of his signature that appears above.



Under the title "A narrative of the proceedings of the first settlers at the River St. John, under the authority of the Government of Nova Scotia," Mr. Fisher tells us that "In the year 1761, a number of persons from the County of Essex, province of Massachusetts, presented a petition through their agent (Francis Peabody), to the Government of Nova Scotia, for the grant of a township twelve miles square at the River Saint John; they received a favorable answer and obtained full authority to survey a tract of that dimension, wherever it might be found fit for improvement. In consequence many of the applicants proceeded in the course of the winter and spring following to prepare for exploring the country and to survey their township; they provided a vessel for that purpose and on the 16th May, 1762, embarked at Newburyport and arrived in three days at the harbor of Saint John. * * * *

"The exploring and surveying party proceeded to view the lands, round the harbor and bay of Saint John in a whale boat they brought with them, for they could not travel on the land on account of the multitude of fallen trees that had been torn up by the roots in a violent gale of wind nearly four years previous.[56] The same gale extended as far up the river as the Oromocto, and most of the country below that place was equally incumbered with the fallen trees.

[56] The exact date of this gale was Nov. 3, 1759.

"After making all the discoveries that could be made near the harbor, it was the unanimous opinion that all the lands near that part of the country were unfit for their purpose and in about ten days from their first arrival they set out to view the country as far as Saint Anne, ninety miles up the river, where they expected to find an extensive body of cleared land that had been formerly improved by the French inhabitants. On their way they landed wherever they saw any appearance of improvement. All such spots as far up as Mill Creek[57] were supposed not to exceed one hundred acres, most of which had been very roughly cleared.

[57] Just below the town plot of Fredericton.

"On the arrival of the exploring party at St. Anns, they lost no time in making a shelter for themselves nearly opposite the river Nashwaak ... and they commenced their survey at the small gravelly point near Government House, with the intention of surveying a township to terminate twelve miles below that place, but after surveying the courses of the river about four miles downward, a large company of Indians, came down about nine miles, from their Priest's residence with his Interpreter, all having painted faces of divers colours and figures and dressed in their war habits. The chiefs, with grave countenances, informed the adventurers that they were trespassers on their rights; that the country belonged to them and unless they retired immediately they would compel them."

"The reply made to the chiefs was to this effect: that the adventurers had received authority from the Governor of Halifax to survey and settle any land they should choose at the River Saint John; that they had never been informed of the Indians claiming the village of Saint Anne, but as they declared the land there to be their property (though it had been inhabited by the French, who were considered entitled to it, till its capture by the English) they would retire further down the river.

* * * The surveying party removed their camp, according to their promise, almost as far down as the lower end of Oromocto Island on the east side of the river, whence they finished their survey twelve miles below the first mentioned bounds and returned to Fort Frederick."

The circumstances that led to delay in procuring the grant from government have already been mentioned in this chapter.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Fisher's statement—corroborated by Moses H. Perley—that the township was laid out in lots in the earlier part of 1762 is correct, for on Sept. 2nd a meeting of the intending settlers was advertised to be held for the purpose of drawing the lots which were described as "already laid out." But the statement of Mr. Fisher (in which he is again followed by Moses H. Perley) that one or two families from Newburyport accompanied the surveying party in the month of May, and brought with them the frame of a small dwelling house and boards to cover it, together with a small stock of cattle, and that on the third day after their arrival the house was finished and inhabited—is probably a misapprehension resulting from the confounding of incidents, which occurred in the course of the same year but were separated by an interval of several months. At any rate the late John Quinton, who was born in 1807, states most emphatically in a letter to Joseph W. Lawrence that it was not until the 28th day of August that his grand-parents, Hugh and Elizabeth Quinton, Capt. Francis Peabody and family, James Simonds and others came to reside at the River St. John. He says that accomodation was provided for Quinton and his wife, Miss Hannah Peabody and others in the barracks at Fort Frederick, where on the very night of their arrival was born James Quinton, the first child of English speaking parents, whose birth is recorded at St. John.[58] The remainder of the party encamped on the east side of the harbor at the site of an old French Fort, the place since known as Portland Point, or Simonds' Point, where they erected a dwelling into which the Quintons and others in Carleton soon afterwards removed. Hannah Peabody was at this time about twelve years old: she afterwards became the wife of James Simonds.

[58] John Quinton says he heard this story many times from his grandmother's lips. She was a woman of remarkable memory and lived until the year 1835. It would seem very improbable she could be mistaken as to the date of such an event.



CHAPTER XVI.

PROGRESS OF THE MAUGERVILLE SETTLEMENT.

The township of Maugerville, as described in the grant of October 31, 1765, began "at a Pine Tree on a point of land a little below the Island called Mauger's Island," extending 12-1/2 miles up the river with a depth of nearly 11 miles. It embraced the principal part of the parishes of Maugerville and Sheffield, including Oromocto Island and "the Island lying off Wind-mill Point called Middle Island." In the grant the "Rights" or "Shares" were fixed at 500 acres but the surveyor-general of Nova Scotia, Charles Morris, had intended that the grantees should have 1,000 acres each on account of their being the first adventurers and also on account of the large proportion of sunken lands and lakes within the limits of the township.

At the time the Maugerville grant was made out the obnoxious Stamp Act was about coming into force in America and the Crown Land Office at Halifax was besieged with people pressing for their grants in order to save the stamp duties. In the hurry and confusion existing Mr. Morris says that the shares of the township were inadvertently fixed at 500 acres each, whereas it had been his intention to lay out one hundred farm lots, each forty rods wide and extending one mile deep into the country, and to give each grantee the balance of his 1,000 acres in the subsequent division of the rest of the township. It is quite likely the Maugerville settlers were glad to accept the smaller shares allotted them in view of the fact that they had been so near losing the whole by the decision of the British government to reserve the lands for the disbanded regulars of the army.

By the terms of the grant it was provided that all persons who failed to settle on their lots, with proper stock and materials for the improvement of their lands, before the last day of November, 1767, should forfeit all claim to the lands allotted them. The township was supposed to consist of 200 shares but only 61 shares were included in the grant of 1765. At least two other grants were passed prior to the coming of the Loyalists—one in 1770, the other early in 1783; but there were still some vacant lots which were gladly taken up by these unfortunate exiles. For their accomodation also a grant was made Dec. 22, 1786, of the rear of the township and such men as Samuel Ryerson, Justus Earle, Joseph Ryerson, Wm. Van Allen, Abraham Van Buskirk, Samuel Tilley and Lodewick Fisher[59] were among the grantees.

[59] Samuel Tilley and Lodewick Fisher were the progenitors respectively of Sir Leonard Tilley and Hon. Charles Fisher, the one came from Long Island, N. Y., the other from New Jersey. It is curious they should have settled on adjoining lots in view of the intimate relations of their distinguished grandsons in the battle for responsible government. The other names given above are those of officers in Lt.-Col. Van Buskirk's battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers who were of Dutch descent.

Nearly all the original settlers in the township of Maugerville were from Massachusetts, the majority from the single county of Essex. Thus the Burpees were from Rowley, the Perleys from Boxford, the Esteys from Newburyport, while other families were from Haverhill, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem and other towns of this ancient county which antedates all others in Massachusetts but Plymouth. These settlers were almost exclusively of Puritan stock and members of the Congregationalist churches of New England.

The list of the grantees of the Township of Maugerville, alphabetically arranged, includes the following names:—

Benjamin Atherton, Jacob Barker, Jacob Barker, jr., Thomas Barker, Richard Barlow, Benjamin Brawn, David Burbank, Joseph Buber, Jeremiah Burpee, Jonathan Burpee, James Chadwell, Thomas Christy, Joseph Clark, Widow Clark, Edward Coy, Moses Davis, Jos. F. W. Desbarres, Enoch Dow, Joseph Dunphy, John Estey, Richard Estey, Richard Estey, jr., Zebulun Estey, Joseph Garrison, Beamsley P. Glazier, William Harris, Thomas Hart, Geo. Hayward, Nehemiah Hayward, Jeremiah Howland, Ammi Howlet, Samuel Hoyt, Daniel Jewett, Richard Kimball, John Larlee, Joshua Mauger, Peter Moores, William McKeen, Elisha Nevers, Jabez Nevers, Phinehas Nevers, Samuel Nevers, Nathaniel Newman, Daniel Palmer, Moses Palmer, Jonathan Parker, Francis Peabody, Oliver Peabody, Richard Peabody, Samuel Peabody, Stephen Peabody, Asa Perley, Israel Perley, Oliver Perley, Humphrey Pickard, Moses Pickard, Hugh Quinton, Nicholas Rideout, Thomas Rous, John Russell, Ezekiel Saunders, William Saunders, Gervas Say, John Shaw, Hugh Shirley, James Simonds, Samuel Tapley, Giles Tidmarsh, jr., Samuel Upton, James Vibart, John Wasson, Matthew Wasson, John Whipple, Jonathan Whipple, Samuel Whitney, Jediah Stickney, John Smith, Johnathan Smith, Charles Stephens, Isaac Stickney.

The majority of the surnames in the above list will seem wonderfully familiar to the residents of the St. John river counties where their descendants today form a large and influential element in the community.

In his lecture on New Brunswick history delivered in 1840, Moses H. Perley says that in the year 1763 the Maugerville township was settled by 200 families, comprising about 800 persons, who came from Massachusetts in four vessels. There cannot be the slightest doubt that Mr. Perley has greatly over-estimated the number of the original settlers. We have every reason to believe that the population of the township continued steadily to increase and about two years later (Dec. 16, 1766), a census was submitted to the government of Nova Scotia by Lieut. Governor Francklin showing that there were then living at Maugerville 77 men, 46 women, 72 boys and 66 girls, a total of 261 souls; and it may be added that during the year 17 new settlers had arrived and 14 children were born, while the number of deaths was but 3. That the new settlers were anxious to fulfil the conditions of their grants is shown by the fact that they already possessed 10 horses, 78 oxen and bulls, 145 sows, 156 young cattle, 376 sheep and 181 swine. Their crop for the year included: Wheat 599 bushels, Rye 1,866 do., Beans 145 do., Oats 57 do., Pease 91 do., Flaxseed 7 do. A grist and saw-mill had been built and two sloops were owned by the settlers. Some attempt had also been made at raising flax and hemp.