CONWAY.

Name of Master or Mistress of the Family. Men. Women. Boys. Girls. Total. Hugh Quinton 2 2 2 4 10 Jonathan Leavitt 1 1 1 .. 3 Daniel Leavitt 1 .. .. .. 1 Samuel Peabody 1 1 1 2 5 William McKeen 2 1 5 1 9 Thomas Jenkins 1 1 3 .. 5 Moses Kimball 1 1 .. .. 2 Elijah Estabrooks 1 1 3 3 8 John Bradley 1 1 2 4 8 James Woodman 2 .. .. .. 2 Zebedee Ring 2 1 2 1 6 Gervas Say 1 1 .. .. 2 Samuel Abbott 1 .. .. .. 1 Christopher Cross 1 1 .. .. 2 John Knap 1 .. .. .. 1 Eliakim Ayer 1 .. .. 1 2 Joseph Rowe 1 1 1 2 5 — — — — — 21 13 20 18 72

Both of these little communities were of purely New England origin for it appears from Mr. Simonds' return that every individual at Portland Point, with the solitary exception of an Irishman, was a native of America, and at Conway all the inhabitants, save two of English nationality, were born in America. The Conway people, it will hardly be necessary to remind the reader, lived in the district now occupied by Carleton, Fairville and adjacent parts of the parish of Lancaster. At the time of the census they had 2 horses—both owned by Hugh Quinton, 13 oxen and bulls, 32 cows, 44 young cattle, 40 sheep and 17 swine; total number of domestic animals, 148. On the other side of the harbor Hazen, Simonds and White were the owners of 57 horses and mules, 18 oxen and bulls, 30 cows, 35 young cattle, 40 sheep and 6 swine; the other settlers owned 8 cows, 4 young cattle, 4 sheep and 6 swine; total number of domestic animals on the east side, 208.

It will be noticed that the names of all the adult male inhabitants do not appear in the census lists of 1775; in the case of the households of Messrs. Simonds, White and Hazen, for example, twelve males are returned. These included either relatives such as John Hazen and Stephen Peabody, who are known to have been then living at St. John, or employes and servants who lived with their masters—among the latter were probably Samuel Beverley, Levi Ring, Jonathan Clough, Jacob Johnson, Edmund Black, Reuben Harbut and Michael Kelly.

Quite a number of the settlers in Conway were employed by the company in various capacities, and as they were nearly all tenants of Hazen, Simonds and White they generally traded at the Portland Point store. These people suffered severely at the hands of American privateersmen as the war progressed, and most of them were forced to abandon their homes and move up the river for greater security.

In the years 1776 and 1777, business being nearly at a stand in consequence of the war and the stock of goods at Portland Point much diminished, it was agreed that James White should take charge of the store and keep the books at a commission of five per cent. His sales during the two years amounted to L3,150.

The war of the American Revolution was at the outset a source of intense disappointment to Hazen, Simonds and White, although in the end it was destined to prove the making of their fortunes by sending the exiled Loyalists in thousands to the River St. John and thereby rendering the lands they owned much more valuable. The war, however, completely overturned the plans the company had in view. Our old pioneers had learned by their experience of a dozen years to conduct their business to the best advantage, and they now had everything in train for a promising trade with St. Croix in the West Indies. The hardships incident to the establishment of new settlements were over, and the partners were now settled in comfortable homes with their wives and children.

It may be noted in passing that early marriages were much in vogue in those days, particularly with the ladies. Sarah Le Baron was not sixteen years of age when she married William Hazen. Hannah Peabody had not passed her seventeenth birthday when she married James Simonds. Elizabeth Peabody was about seventeen when she married James White and her sister Hephzibeth somewhat younger when she married Jonathan Leavitt. In most cases the families were large and the "olive branches" doubtless furnished sufficient occupation for the mothers to keep them from feeling the loneliness of their situation. James Simonds had fourteen children. James White and Jonathan Leavitt had good sized families, but the Hazens undeniably carried off the palm. Dr. Slafter in his genealogy of the Hazen family says that William Hazen had sixteen children; possibly he may have omitted some who died in infancy for Judge Edward Winslow writes on Jan'y 17th, 1793, to a friend at Halifax, "My two annual comforts, a child and a fit of the gout, return invariably. They came together this heat and, as Forrest used to say, made me as happy as if the Devil had me. The boy is a fine fellow—of course—and makes up the number nine now living. My old friend Mrs. Hazen about the same time produced her nineteenth!"[89]

[89] The following inscription on the monument of Mrs. Sarah Hazen was written by her grandson, the late Chief Justice Chipman:

Sacred to the Memory of MRS. SARAH HAZEN,

Widow of the Honorable William Hazen, Esquire; who was born in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay on the 22d February, 1749; and died in the City of St. John on the 3rd April, 1823.

Exemplary for Christian piety and benevolence and the exercise of every female virtue. She bears to her Grave the fond recollections of a numerous host of Descendants and the esteem and respect of the community.

While the presence of young children in their homes may have served to enliven the situation of Saint John's pioneer settlers it added greatly to their anxiety and distress in the ensuing war period. More than this the absence of church and school privileges was becoming a matter of serious consequence to the little community at Portland Point and their friends across the harbor. We shall in the next chapter say something of the religious teachers who endeavored to promote the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants upon the St. John river at this period.



CHAPTER XXII.

SOME EARLY RELIGIOUS TEACHERS ON THE RIVER ST. JOHN.

Our knowledge of affairs on the River Saint John down to the period of English occupation is largely derived from the correspondence of the Jesuit missionaries, the last of whom was Charles Germain. After his retirement the Acadians and Indians remained for several years without any spiritual guide, a circumstance that did not please them and was also a matter of concern to the Governor of Nova Scotia, who in December, 1764, informed the Secretary of State that a promise had been made the Indians of the River St. John to send them a priest, which the Lords of Trade had now forbidden. The governor regrets this as likely to confirm the Indians in their notion that the English "are a people of dissimulation and artifice, who will deceive them and deprive them of their salvation." He thinks it best to use gentle treatment in dealing with the Indians, and mentions the fact of their having lately burned their church[90] by command of their priest detained at Quebec, as a proof of their zealous devotion to their missionaries.

[90] This statement is corroborated by Charles Morris, who writes in 1765, "Aughpack is about seven miles above St. Anns, and at this place was the Indian church and the Residence of the French missionary; the church and other buildings about it are all demolished by the Indians themselves."

In the summer of 1767, Father Charles Francois Bailly came to the River St. John and established himself at Aukpaque, or, as he calls it, "la mission d'Ekouipahag en la Riviere St. Jean." The register of baptisms, marriages and burials at which he officiated during his year's residence at Aukpaque is still to be seen at French Village in the Parish of Kingsclear, York county. The records of his predecessor, Germain, however, were lost during the war period or while the mission was vacant. That there was a field for the missionary's labor is shewn by the fact that in the course of his year's residence on the River St. John he officiated at 29 marriages, 79 baptisms and 14 burials. His presence served to draw the Indians to Aukpaque, where there were also some Acadian families who seem to have been refugees of the expulsion of 1755. The older Indian village of Medoctec was now deserted and the missionary ordered the chapel there to be destroyed, seeing that it served merely as a shelter for travellers and "was put to the most profane uses." The building had been standing for fifty years and was much out of repair. The ornaments and furnishings, together with the chapel bell,[91] were brought to Aukpaque.

[91] This chapel bell was most unfortunately destroyed by fire when the chapel at French Village was burned early in March, 1904. An illustration and some account of the bell will be found in a previous chapters. See pages 75, 76 ante.

For some reason the presence of the Acadians at Aukpaque and its vicinity was not acceptable to the authorities of Nova Scotia, and Richard Bulkeley the provincial secretary, wrote to John Anderson and Francis Peabody, Esqrs., justices of the peace for the county of Sunbury, under date 20th August, 1768: "The Lieut. Governor desires that you will give notice to all the Accadians, except about six Families whom Mr. Bailly shall name, to remove themselves from Saint John's River, it not being the intention of the Govern-ment that they should settle there, but to acquaint them that on their application they shall have lands in other parts of the Province."

It is remarkable with what persistence the French clung to the locality of Aukpaque in spite of repeated attempts to dispossess them. The New Englanders under Hawthorn and Church tried to expel them as long ago as 1696, but Villebon repulsed the attack on Fort Nachouac and compelled them to retire. Monckton in 1759 drove the Acadians from the lower St. John and destroyed their settlements, but the lowness of the water prevented his ascending the river farther than Grimross Island, a little above Gagetown. A little later Moses Hazen and his rangers destroyed the village at St. Ann's and scattered the Acadians, but some of them returned and re-established themselves near the Indian village at Aukpaque. The governor of Nova Scotia apparently was not willing they should remain, hence his orders to Anderson and Peabody in 1768.

What these magistrates did, or attempted to do is not recorded, at any rate they did not succeed in effecting the removal of the Acadians for we find that the little colony continued to increase. The missionary Bailly wrote from Aukpaque, June 20, 1768, to Bishop Briand, "There are eleven Acadian families living in the vicinity of the village, the same ones whom your Lordship had the goodness to confirm at St. Anne. * * It is a difficult matter to attend to them for they live apart from one another during the summer on the sea shore fishing and in the winter in the woods hunting." It appears that these poor people were reduced to the necessity of leading almost an aboriginal life to save themselves from starvation, yet they clung to the locality.

Major Studholme sent a committee of four persons to explore the River St. John in July, 1783.[92] The committee reported sixty-one families of Acadians settled in the vicinity of Aukpaque. There were in these families 61 men, 57 women and 236 children. About twenty-five families lived on the east side of the river, most of them near the mouth of the Keswick; the others lived not far from the Indian village on the west side of the river, and there were in addition two or three families at St. Anne's Point. In their report to Major Studholme the committee describe the Acadians as "an inoffensive people." They had a considerable quantity of land under cultivation, but few, if any, of them had any title to their lands save that of simple possession. Those who claimed longest residence were Joseph Martin who came in 1758 and Joseph Doucet who came in 1763. The settlement began to grow more rapidly after the arrival of the missionary Bailly, for out of the sixty-one heads of families included in the Committees report to Studholme nine came in 1767, thirteen in 1768, ten in 1769 and four in 1770. All of these enjoyed the ministrations of l'Abbe Bailly. The missionary seems to have remained a year in residence and then at the instance of the Governor of Nova Scotia was sent to the Indians and Acadians of the peninsula to the eastward of Halifax. He, however, paid occasional visits to the River St. John as is shown by the records of the baptisms, marriages and burials at which he officiated when there.[93] He is heartily commended by Lord William Campbell, the governor of Nova Scotia, for his tact in dealing with the Indians and his loyalty to the constituted authorities of the province. It is not probable that there was very much ground for the complaint of Simonds & White in their letter of June 22, 1768, in which they say, "We have made a smaller collection of Furrs this year than last, occasioned by the large demands of the Priest for his services, and his ordering the Indians to leave their hunting a month sooner than usual to keep certain festivals, and by our being late in getting to their village, the reason of which we informed you in our last. * * It's expected that there will be a greater number of Indians assembled at Aughpaugh next fall than for several years past." The extract quoted serves to show that the Abbe Bailly's influence was felt while he lived on the St. John river. He returned to Canada in May, 1772, and was afterwards consecrated Bishop Co-adjutor of Quebec.

[92] The members of the committee were Ebenezer Foster, Fyler Dibblee, James White and Gervas Say. The first two were Loyalists,the others old English settlers. Ebenezer Foster was one of the first members for Kings county in the House of Assembly. Fyler Dibblee was an attorney-at-law and agent for settlement of the Loyalists. James White and Gervas Say were justices of the peace in the old county of Sunbury and have already been frequently mentioned.

[93] One of the Abbe Bailly's registers is preserved at French Village in York county and another, which seems a continuation of the first, is at Caraquet, Gloucester county.

During the year of his sojourn on the River St. John and in his subsequent visits the Abbe Bailly baptized, married and buried many of the Acadians as well as Indians. The names of a good many individuals occur in his register whose descendants are numerous in Madawaska, Bathurst, Caraquet, Memramcook and other places in the province. Among them may be mentioned Joseph Martin, Jean Baptiste Martin, Louis Mercure, Michel Mercure, Jean Baptiste Daigle, Olivier Thibodeau, Jean Thibodeau, Joseph Terriot, Ignace Caron, Joseph Cyr, Pierre Cyr, Jean Baptiste Cyr, Paul Cyr, Francois Cyr, Pierre Pinette, Francois Violette, Joseph Roy, Daniel Godin, Paul Potier, Francois Cormier, Jacques Cormier, Jean Baptiste Cormier, Pierre Hebert, Joseph Hebert, Francois Hebert, Louis Le Jeune, Joseph Mazerolle, and Jean Baptiste Vienneau.

Of these families the Cormiers, Cyrs, Daigles and Heberts came from Beaubassin at the head of the Bay of Fundy; the Martins from Port Royal (or Annapolis), the Mercures and Terriots from l'Isle St. Jean (or Prince Edward Island); the Violettes from Louisbourg, and the Mazerolles from Riviere Charlesbourg.

It is worthy of note that despite the hardships and misfortunes endured there are instances of marvellous longevity among the old French settlers. Placide P. Gaudet, who is by all odds the best authority on this head and whose wonderful knowledge of Acadian genealogy has been attained by years of hard study and patient research, gives a striking instance of this fact amongst his relatives of the Vienneau family. The ancestor of this family was one Michael Vienneau, who with his wife Therese Baude were living at Maugerville in 1770: both were natives of France. The husband died at Memramcook in September, 1802, at the age of 100 years and 3 months; his widow in March, 1804, at the age of 96 years. Their son Jean died at Pokemouche in August, 1852, at the extraordinary age of 112 years, leaving a son Moise who died at Rogersville in March, 1893, aged over 96 yeas. The united age of these four individuals—father, mother, son and grandson—are equivalent to the extraordinary sum total of 404 years.

In the course of a year or two after the arrival of the Loyalists the greater portion of the Acadians living on the St. John river above Fredericton removed—either from choice or at the instigation of government—to Madawaska, Caraquet and Memramcook. A few, however, remained, and there are today at French Village, in York county, about 31 families of Acadian origin numbering 149 souls, and 17 families in addition reside at the Mazerolle settlement not far away. The most common family name amongst these people is Godin; the rest of the names are Mazerolle, Roy, Bourgoin, Martin and Cyr. The influences of their environment can hardly be said to have had a beneficial effect upon these people, few of whom now use the French language. And yet the fact remains that from the time the valley of the River St. John was first parcelled out into seigniories, in the year 1684, down to the present day—a period of 220 years—the continuity of occupation of some portion of the soil in the vicinity of St. Ann's has scarcely been interrupted, and the records of the mission on the River St. John may be said to have been continuous for about the same time. The missionaries as a rule spoke well of the people of their charge. Danielou said that there were 116 Acadian inhabitants in 1739 and that Monsieur Cavagnal de Vaudreuil, governor of Trois Rivieres, was "Seigneur de la paroisse d'Ekoupag." He claims as a special mark of divine favor that in the little colony there was "neither barren woman nor child deformed in body or weak in intellect; neither swearer nor drunkard; neither debauchee nor libertine, neither blind, nor lazy, nor beggar, nor sickly, nor robber of his neighbor's goods." One would almost imagine that Acadia was Arcadia in the days of Danielou.

It may be well, whilst speaking of the remarkable continuity of the French occupation of the country in the vicinity of St. Anns, to state that after Chapter VII. of this history had been printed the author chanced to obtain, through the kindness of Placide P. Gaudet, some further information relating to the brothers d'Amours, the pioneer settlers of this region.

The brothers d'Amours, Louis, Mathieu and Rene, were residents on the St. John as early at least as the year 1686, when we find their names in the census of M. de Meulles. A document of the year 1695[94] shows that their claims to land on the St. John river were rather extravagant and hardly in accord with the terms of their concessions. Louis d'Amours, sieur de Chauffours, claimed as his seigniory at Jemseg a tract of land extending two leagues along the St. John, including both sides of the river two leagues in depth. He also claimed another and larger seigniory, extending from a point one league below Villebon's fort at the Nashwaak four leagues up the river with a depth of three leagues on each side. His brother Rene d'Amours, sieur de Chignancourt, lived on this seigniory a league or so above the fort.

[94] This document is entitled "Memoire sur les concessions que les sieurs d'Amours freres pretendent dans la Riviere St. Jean et Richibouctou." A copy is in the Legislative Library at Fredericton.

The statement made in a previous chapter that Rene d'Amours was unmarried and lived the life of a typical "coureur de bois" is incorrect. The census of 1698 shows that he had a wife and four children. His wife was Charlotte Le Gardeur of Quebec. The names of the children, as they appear in the census, are Rene aged 7, Joseph 5, Marie Judith 2, and Marie Angelique 1. While fixing his residence in the vicinity of Fort Nashwaak, Rene d'Amours was the seignior of a large tract of land on the upper St. John extending "from the Falls of Medoctek to the Grand Falls," a distance of more than ninety miles. After the expiration of eleven years from the date of his grant, Rene d'Amours seems to have done nothing more towards its improvement than building a house upon it and clearing 15 acres of land. Even in the indulgent eyes of the Council at Quebec, of which his father was a member, this must have appeared insufficient to warrant possession by one man of a million acres of the choicest lands on the St. John river. He made rather a better attempt at cultivating the land near his residence upon his brother's seigniory, for the census of 1695 shows that he had raised there 80 minots [bushels] of corn, 16 minots of peas, 3 minots of beans. He had 3 horned cattle, 12 hogs and 60 fowls; two men servants and one female servant; three guns and a sword.

The seigniory of Mathieu d'Amours, sieur de Freneuse, lay between the two seigniories of his brother Louis at Jemseg and Nashwaak, extending a distance of seven leagues and including both sides of the river. Both Louis and Mathieu made far greater improvements than Rene, having a large number of acres cleared and under cultivation, together with cattle and other domestic animals. They had a number of tenants and eight or ten servants.

The census of 1695 contains the following interesting bit of information: "Naxouat, of which the Sr. Dechofour is seignior, is where the fort commanded by M. de Villebon is established. The Sr. Dechofour has there a house, 30 arpents [acres] of land under cultivation and a Mill, begun by the Sr. Dechofour and the Sr. de Freneuse."

The reference to a mill, built by the brothers Louis and Mathieu d'Amours in the neighborhood of Fort Nashwaak, may serve to explain the statement of Villebon in 1696, that he had caused planks for madriers, or gun platforms, to be made near the fort.[95] This mill at any rate ante-dates by the best part of a century the mill built by Simonds & White at St. John in 1767 and that built by Colonel Beamsley Glacier's mill wrights at the Nashwaak in 1768. Doubtless it was a very primitive affair, but it sawed lumber, and was in its modest way the pioneer of the greatest manufacturing industry of New Brunswick at the present day.

[95] See Murdoch's Hist. of Nova Scotia, Vol. I., p. 223.

Among the contemporaries of the brothers d'Amours on the River St. John were Gabriel Bellefontaine, Jean Martel,[96] Pierre Godin, Charles Charet, Antoine Du Vigneaux, and Francois Moyse. The author is indebted to Placide P. Gaudet for some interesting notes regarding the family of Gabriel Bellefontaine. Mr. Gaudet has satisfied himself in the course of years of genealogical research, that the Godins now living on the River St. John and in the county of Gloucester, the Bellefontaines of the county of Kent, and the Bellefontaines and Beausejours of Anichat and other parts of Nova Scotia all have a common origin, and that in each case the real family name is Gaudin, or Godin. To any one conversant with the practice of the old French families of making frequent changes in their patryonymics this will not appear surprising. The common ancestor of the Gaudin, Bellefontaine, Beausejour and Bois-Joly families in the maritime provinces was one Pierre Gaudin, who married Jeanne Roussiliere of Montreal, Oct. 13, 1654, and subsequently came to Port Royal with his wife and children. Their fourth child, Gabriel Gaudin (or Bellefontaine) born in 1661, settled on the St. John river in the vicinity of Fort Nashwaak. He married at Quebec in 1690, Angelique Robert Jeanne, a girl of sixteen, and in the census of 1698 the names of four children appear, viz., Louise aged 7, Louis 5, Joseph 3, Jacques Phillipe 7 months. Of these children the third, Joseph Bellefontaine, spent the best years of his life upon the St. John river and his tribulations there have been already noticed[97] in these pages. He was living at Cherbourg in 1767 at the age of 71 years, and was granted a pension of 300 livres (equivalent to rather more than $60.00 per annum) in recognition of his losses and services which are thus summarised:

[96] Martel and Bellefontaine have been mentioned already. See page 57 ante.

[97] See Chapter xiii., p. 135

"The Sieur Joseph Bellefontaine or Beausejour of the River St. John, son of Gabriel (an officer of one of the King's ships in Acadia) and of Angelique Roberte Jeanne, was commissioned Major of the militia of the St. John river by order of M. de la Galissonniere of 10th April, 1749, and has always done his duty during the war until he was made prisoner by the enemy. He owned several leagues of land there and had the sad misfortune of seeing one of his daughters and three of her children massacred before his eyes by the English, who wished by such cruelty and fear of similar treatment to induce him to take their part, a fate that he only escaped by fleeing to the woods, bearing with him two other children of the same daughter."

Notwithstanding all their misfortunes and persecutions the Acadians living on the St. John continued gradually to increase. After the return of the missionary Bailly to Canada they were without a priest until the arrival of Joseph Mathurin Bourg in September, 1774. This intrepid missionary was the first native of Acadia to take holy orders and as such is a subject of especial interest. He saw the light of day at River Canard in the district of Mines on the 9th of June, 1744. His father, Michel Bourg, and his mother, Anne Hebert, with most of their children, escaped deportation at the time of the Acadian expulsion in 1755 and sought refuge at the Island of St. John [Prince Edward Island], from which place they were transported by the English to the northern part of France. Young Joseph Mathurin became the protege of the Abbe de l'Isle-Dieu, then at Paris. He pursued his studies at a little seminary in the Diocese of St. Malo and on the 13th of September, 1772, was ordained priest at Montreal by Monseigneur Briand. After a year he was sent to Acadia as missionary to his compatriots of that region. He took charge of his mission in September, 1773. It at first extended from Gaspe to Cocagne, but in August, 1774, the Bishop of Quebec added the River St. John (including "Quanabequachies," or Kennebeccasis) and all the rest of Nova Scotia and the Island of Cape Breton. The bishop also appointed the Abbe Bourg his grand vicar in Acadia. Almost immediately afterwards he visited the River St. John and the little settlement at French Village near the Kennebeccasis where, early in September, he baptized a considerable number of children, whose names and those of their parents are to be found in the register which is still preserved at Carleton, Bonaventure Co., in the province of Quebec.



The missionary made his headquarters at Carleton (on the north side of the Bay of Chaleur) but from time to time visited different parts of his immense mission. During the Revolutionary war he paid special attention to the Indians on the River St. John, who largely through his efforts were kept from taking the warpath and going over to the Americans. The raids made by the Machias rebels under Jonathan Eddy and John Allan, in 1776 and 1777, interfered in some measure with the visits of the missionary, for Col. Michael Francklin in his interview with the Maliseets at Fort Howe in September, 1778, assured them that Mons'r. Bourg would have visited them sooner but for the apprehension entertained of his being carried off by the rebels.

The chapel at Aukpaque was not entirely disused during the absence of the missionary. We learn from John Allan's narrative that while he was at Aukpaque in June, 1777, a number of Acadians came on Sundays to worship at the Indian chapel and that he and his prisoners, William Hazen and James White, also attended. While there they witnessed the funeral of an Indian girl. The ceremony was a solemn yet simple one. The body was borne into the chapel, the bell tolling the while; after a short prayer they sang funeral hymns, that done some of the chiefs bore the coffin to the grave where there was another prayer followed by a funeral hymn. The coffin was then deposited in the grave and a handful of earth cast upon it by the relatives and friends of her sex. Immediately afterwards the family wigwam was struck and removed into the thickest part of the village that the parents might be the better consoled for the loss of their child.

The important services rendered by Father Bourg to government during the American Revolution will be told in another chapter.

The first clergyman of the Church of England to visit the River St. John was the Rev'd. Thomas Wood, a native of the town of New Brunswick in the then British province of New Jersey. Mr. Wood went to England in 1749—the year of the founding of Halifax—to be ordained by the Bishop of London. He bore with him testimonials declaring him to be "a gentleman of a very good life and conversation, bred to Physick and Surgery." He became one of the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and was transferred from New Jersey to Nova Scotia in 1753. Halifax and Annapolis were destined to be the chief scenes of his labors, but he made frequent tours amongst the new settlements.

Mr. Wood was an excellent French scholar and his gifts as a linguist were of no mean order. While at Halifax he lived on terms of friendship and intimacy with Antoine Simon Maillard, the missionary of the Indians and Acadians. In the year 1762 Mr. Wood attended the Abbe Maillard for several weeks during his last illness, and the day before his death, at his request, read the Office for the Visitation of the Sick in the French language in the presence of a number of Acadians, who were summoned for the occasion by the venerable missionary. Mr. Wood also officiated at the burial of M. Maillard, reading over his remains in French the burial service of the Church of England in the presence of "almost all the gentlemen of Halifax and a very numerous assembly of French and Indians."

As the Indians were for the time being without any religious teacher Mr. Wood resolved to devote much attention to them. He applied himself diligently to the study of their language, in which he had the assistance of the papers left him by the Abbe Maillard and by devoting three or four hours daily to the task he made such progress that upon reading some of M. Maillard's morning prayers the Indians understood him perfectly and seemed themselves to pray very devoutly. He resolved to persevere until he should be able to publish a grammar, dictionary and translation of the Bible. He writes in 1764, "I am fully determined that nothing but sickness or the Bastille shall impede me in this useful service." Two years later he sent to England the first volume of his native grammar, with a Micmac translation of the Creed, Lord's Prayer, etc. He was now able to minister to the Indians in their own language.

In July, 1767, the Indians attended a special service held in St. Paul's church, Halifax, at which there were present, the Governor of Nova Scotia, Lord William Campbell, the officers of the army and navy and the principal inhabitants. The service was in the Micmac tongue. An anthem was sung by the Indians at the beginning and again at the close. On the 12th of August in the same year Mr. Wood married Pierre Jacques, an Indian, to Marie Joseph, eldest daughter of old Thoma, who deemed himself "hereditary king of the Mickmacks." There were present at the wedding, besides the Indians, Sir Thomas Rich—an English baronet, and other gentlemen. After the ceremony Mr. Wood entertained the company at his own house.

It was in the summer of the year 1769 that Mr. Wood made his first tour up the River St. John. Lord William Campbell provided him with a boat and party of men, under the direction of Capt. William Spry of the Engineers. Capt. Spry will be remembered as one of the active promoters of the settlement of the townships on the St. John river, where he had large land interests. His knowledge of the river made him an excellent guide.

The English missionary arrived at St. John harbor on the 1st day of July, and the day following, which was Sunday, held the first religious service conducted by an English speaking minister at Portland Point.

The account books of Simonds & White suffice to show that no business was transacted at their establishment on Sunday, and doubtless the day was honored as a day of rest, but up to this time there had been no opportunity for church-going. Among those who heard the first sermon preached at St. John in English were in all probability, the Messrs. Simonds & White and their employes, Edmund Black, Samuel Abbott, Samuel Middleton, Michael Hodge, Adonijah Colby, Stephen Dow, Elijah Estabrooks, John Bradley, William Godsoe, John Mack, Asa Stephens, and Thomas Blasdel. To these may be added the wives of James Simonds, of Black, Abbott and one or two other workmen; also a few settlers living in the vicinity. It may be observed in passing that Edmund Black was foreman in the lime burning; Abbott, Middleton and Godsoe were employed in making hogsheads and barrels for lime and fish; Hodge and Colby were shipwrights engaged in building a schooner for the company; the others were fishermen and laborers. Doubtless the service held by Mr. Wood was a very simple one, and if there were any hymns they were sung from memory, for there is reason to believe that there was not a single hymn book in the community, with the exception of a copy of Watt's psalms and hymns owned by James White.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of the situation, the Rev'd. Thomas Wood on the occasion of his first Sunday at St. John established a record which, after the lapse of nearly a century and a half, remains unequalled for interest and variety. In the morning he held divine service and preached to the English settlers and baptized four of their children. In the afternoon he conducted a service for the benefit of a number of Indians, who chanced to be encamped there, baptized an Indian girl and addressed them in their own language. In the evening, many of the French inhabitants being present, he held a third service and preached in French, the Indians again attending as many of them understood that language. These French people were chiefly Acadians living at what is now called French Village, in Kings county. They were at that time employed by Simonds & White in building an aboideau and dykeing the marsh. In one respect the Indians perhaps did better than the English or the Acadians, for at the close of their service Mr. Wood desired them to sing an anthem which, he says, "they performed very harmoniously."

The next day the missionary sailed up the river, visiting the settlers in their homes as he proceeded. At Gagetown he baptized Joseph and Mary Kendrick, twin children of John and Dorothy Kendrick. Mr. Wood says the children were born in an open canoe on the river, two leagues from any house, a circumstance that illustrates the exigencies liable to arise in a region so sparsely inhabited as the valley of the River St. John then was.[98]

[98] Major Studholme in 1783 states that John Kendrick was a good subject, an old soldier and very deserving. He lived near Gagetown with his wife and five children. He settled there about the year 1768.

On Sunday the 9th of July Mr. Wood held service at Maugerville, where he had a congregation of more than two hundred persons but, owing to the fact that the people were chiefly "Dissenters from New England," he baptized only two infants. He thought, however, if a prudent missionary were settled among them their prejudices against the Church of England would speedily vanish. He speaks in his letter to the S. P. G. of the rising townships of Gagetown, Burton and Maugerville as a most desirable field for a missionary and commends the Indians to the special consideration of the society. After making a call at Morrisania, a little below Fredericton, where two children were baptized, Mr. Wood and his companions proceeded to "Okpaak" which he terms "the farthest settlement upon the River." He thus describes the reception they met with on their arrival:

"The Chief of the Indians came down to the Landing place and handed us out of our boat, and immediately several of the Indians, who were drawn out on the occasion, discharged a volley of Musketry turned from us, as a signal of receiving their friends. The Chief then welcomed us and introduced us to the other Chiefs, and after inviting us to their Council Chamber, viz. their largest wigwam, conducted us thither, the rest of the Indians following. Just before we arrived we were again saluted with their musketry drawn up as before. After some discourse relative to Monsieur Bailly, the French Priest that Government have thought proper to allow them, finding them uneasy that they had no priest among them for some time past, I told them that the Governor had employed him to go to the Indians to the eastward of Halifax and had sent me to officiate with them in his absence. They then seemed well enough satisfied, and at their desire I began prayers with them in Mickmack, they all kneeling down and behaving very devoutly. The vice concluded with an anthem and the blessing."

Mr. Wood says that although there were then at Aukpaque Indians of three different tribes, Micmacs, Maliseets and Caribous,[99] they all understood the Micmac language, and he expresses regret that he had not been sent among them two years before, being satisfied that he could have gained their confidence and good will.

[99] Probably Canibas or Kennebec Indians.

The Reverend Thomas Wood closed a laborious and successful ministry of thirty years at Annapolis, where he died December 14, 1778.

Some account has already been given, in the chapter descriptive of the progress of the settlement at Maugerville, of the first religious teachers in that locality, Messrs. Wellman, Webster and Zephaniah Briggs. We shall have something more to say of their first resident minister, the Rev'd. Seth Noble, when we come to deal with events on the river at the time of the American Revolution. As already stated the first Protestant church on the river was erected at Maugerville in the year 1775. This building was at first placed on a lot the title of which was afterwards in dispute, and regarding the possession of which there was rather a bitter quarrel between the old inhabitants and the Loyalists. In consequence the building was removed to the lot in Sheffield where the Congregational Church now stands. An interesting account of this incident is given in the narrative of the Rev. Joshua Marsden, a Methodist pioneer missionary on the St. John river, who says:—

"The Presbyterian [i. e. Congregational] chapel at Sheffield, was a church-like building of frame-work, with a spire steeple and a spacious gallery. This chapel had been drawn down upon the ice of the river more than five miles: it had first been erected at Maugerville, upon a litigated lot of land, which the society, not choosing to bring to the issue of a law-suit, they determined to remove the chapel bodily to their own glebe, five miles lower down the river. The whole settlement, men, horses and more than one hundred yoke of oxen, were present to assist in this more than herculean enterprise. The chapel was raised from its stone foundation by immense lever screws. Prodigious beams of timber were then introduced under the whole length of the building; into these were driven large staples, to which the oxen were yoked with strong chains of iron. When all things were ready for a movement, at a given signal, each man standing by his horse or oxen, this great building, capable of holding eight hundred persons, was drawn along and down the bank of the river to its appointed place, where another foundation having been prepared, it was again raised by levers upon it with very little damage. Not a single pew in the gallery or bottom having been removed in the process. In this emigrated chapel, I had the satisfaction of preaching the gospel of the kingdom to a large congregation. Perhaps you will wonder how the ice of this mighty river bore upon its bosom so ponderous a body; but your surprise will cease when I inform you that in the depth of winter, it is from two to three feet in thickness, making a bridge of aqueous crystal capable almost of bearing up a whole town."



CHAPTER XXIII.

ON THE EVE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

When the county of Sunbury was established in 1765, there was no English settlement north of St. Ann's and the river was but sparsely settled from that place to the sea. Nevertheless the immense forest wealth of the St. John was gradually becoming known and appreciated.

The French ship of war "Avenant," as long ago as the year 1700, after discharging her cargo of supplies for Villebon's garrison and goods for the French traders, took on board some very fine masts for the French navy that had been cut upon the River St. John. Afterwards, when the control of Acadia passed into the hands of the British, they in turn began to procure masts for the navy on the St. John. England's place among the nations then, as now, depended very largely on the efficiency of her navy, and the reservation of trees suitable for masts for the largest ships of war became a matter of national concern. In consequence Governor Legge, at the request of the home government, desired Charles Morris, the Surveyor general of Nova Scotia, to report as to ungranted lands in the province that might be reserved for the purpose of supplying masts for the navy. On the 21st May, 1774, Mr. Morris submitted his report. He states that his knowledge of the country was based upon personal observations during a residence of nearly twenty-eight years, in the course of which he had visited nearly all parts of the province. In the Nova Scotian peninsula there were very few pines fit for masts, but on the River St. John, above the settlements, and on the other rivers flowing into it were great quantities of pine trees fit for masts and great quantities of others growing into that state, which being so far inland, protected by growth of other timber and by hills, and remote from those violent gales which infest the coast would prove the most desirable reserve for the purpose intended. Mr. Morris adds: "I am of opinion that a reserve of all the lands on the River St. John above the settlements for the whole course of the river, at least twenty-five miles on each side, will be the most advantageous reserve to the Crown of lands within this province, especially as the river is navigable for boats and rafting of masts the whole course of it, as also for rafting of masts in the several branches of it; and in this tract is contained a black spruce, fit for yards and topmasts, and other timber fit for ship-building."

The importance to coming generations of the "black spruce, fit for yards and top-masts," was little dreamed of by Charles Morris. However, it seems that in accordance with his recommendation the region of the upper St. John was at this time reserved to the crown because its towering pines supplied the best masts in the world for the British navy, and at the close of the American Revolution it was still unbroken forest.

After the formation of the County of Sunbury, April 30, 1765, magistrates and other officers were appointed and representatives chosen to sit in the House of Assembly. Some of our local historians, including the late Moses H. Perley, have stated that the first representative of Sunbury County was Charles Morris jr., but although Mr. Morris may have been the first to take his seat he was not the first elected representative. The late Thos. B. Akins, of Halifax, a recognized authority on all points of local history, in a communication to the late J. W. Lawrence states that the election writs on file at Halifax give the names of Capt. Beamsley Glasier and Capt. Thomas Falconer as the first representatives of the County of Sunbury. It does not appear that either of these gentlemen attended the sessions of the House of Assembly, and as it was the rule for members who were absent two years to forfeit their seats for non-attendance, a new election was held in 1768, when Richard Shorne and Phinehas Nevers were returned. The House of Assembly was dissolved two years later, and at the ensuing general election Charles Morris, jr., and Israel Perley were returned; the former took his seat but Mr. Perley appears never to have done so and in 1773 James Simonds was elected in his stead. Mr. Simonds was in attendance in October, 1774, and took the customary oath, being the first inhabitant of the county to take his seat in the legislative halls of Nova Scotia. A little later William Davidson was elected a member and he and James Simonds were the sitting members when the old Province of Nova Scotia was divided at the isthmus and the Province of New Brunswick constituted in 1784.

Among the earliest magistrates of the County of Sunbury were John Anderson, Beamsley Glasier, Francis Peabody, James Simonds, James White, Israel Perley, Jacob Barker, Phinehas Nevers and Gervas Say. The Courts of General Sessions of the Peace meet regularly at Maugerville and transacted such business as was necessary, appointed constables and other parish officers, administered justice and so forth. Benjamin Atherton was clerk of the peace for the county, James Simonds registrar of deeds and judge of probate, and James White deputy sheriff. The first collector of customs was Capt. Francis Peabody, who died in 1773. The attention given to the collection of duties was but nominal and Charles Newland Godfrey Jadis, a retired army officer who had settled at Grimross on the St. John river, wrote to the secretary of state in 1773 calling his attention to the prevalence of smuggling of which "Major-Ville" was the centre, connived at, as he alleges, by the magistrate and collector. This little incident is an indication that the sentiment of the Massachusetts settlers of Maugerville was identical with that of their kinsmen in New England in regard to the enactment of the stamp act and the duties imposed by the British government.

A few particulars of interest regarding the settlers on the River St. John are to be gleaned from the papers of David Burpee,[100] at one time deputy sheriff of the county. There were very few framed dwellings, nearly all the settlers living in log houses. As late as 1783 there were in Gagetown, Burton, and at St. Anns and vicinity about 76 houses occupied by English inhabitants, of which only 9 were framed buildings. The proportion of framed dwellings in Maugerville was little better, the vast majority being log houses.

[100] See Hannay's article on the Maugerville Settlement, Collections of N. B. Hist. Soc., Vol. 1, p. 63.

Horses were few and nearly all the ordinary farm work was done by oxen. It is doubtful if any of the settlers owned a carriage, wagon or sleigh at this time. Carts were generally used in summer and sleds in winter. Some of the men owned saddles, of which there was much borrowing, and there were a few pillions for the ladies. Traveling in the summer time on land was either on horseback or afoot for the roads were too bad to admit of the use of wheeled vehicles.

All the cooking in those days was done at old-fashioned fireplaces and the utensils included a gridiron, toasting iron, frying pan, iron kettle and a number of pots and pans. The dishes used in the farm houses were mostly of pewter and their number limited.

A broadcloth coat or a beaver hat was a valuable asset which might be handed down to the second or even the third generation. A decent broadcloth suit would cost a man as much as he could earn in three months at the current rate of wages, after paying his board; consequently the early settler did not often indulge in the luxury of a new suit. Leather breeches were commonly worn, and from their lasting qualities were an economical garment.

The money handled by the early settlers was quite insignificant; nearly all transactions were of the nature of barter. Corn and furs were the staple articles of trade. The value of corn varied considerably, according to the season, from 4 shillings to 8 shillings a bushel, the average rate 5 to 6 shillings. Half a bushel of corn was the equivalent of a week's board. The ordinary rate of farm wages was 2s. a day except for such work as mowing, framing, hoeing corn, and raking hay, for which the rate was 2s. 6d. a day. The wages of a woman servant were 10s. a month and as all articles of clothing were very dear compared with modern prices, they became excessively so when the rate of wages was taken into account. It took a whole month's wages to purchase a pair of stays and two months wages to buy a gown. A pair of silk mits cost 5s. 6d. and a lawn handkerchief 6s. 6d. Calico was charged as high as 6s. a yard and cotton wool at 6s. 6d per lb. As a rule everything that had to be purchased out of a store was dear, while the prices of country produce were exactly the reverse. Butter sold as low as 6d. per lb.; lamb at 2-1/2d. per lb.; beef, 1-1/2 to 3d. per lb.; geese at 3s. each; fowls 1s.; potatoes 1s. 3d. a bushel.

Dr. Hannay quotes the following as a transaction on the part of Mr. Burpee, which would be regarded as unusual at the present day:

"September 30, 1778.

"Took a hog of Mr. Joseph Howlin of Burton to fat, the hog weighs now 113 lbs. and I am to have as many pounds of pork as he weighs more when I kill him.

"Dec. 1st, 1778, killed Mr. Howlin's hog. Weighed before he was killed 181 lbs."

Showing that Mr. Burpee obtained 68 lbs. of pork as the result of his bargain.

David Burpee taught school one winter, receiving 4s. per month for each pupil. The tuition fees were paid in a great variety of ways; in work, in grain, leather, musquash skins, rum, hauling hay and making shoes; he only handled 10s. in cash for his entire winter's work.

In the year 1770 Mr. Burpee kept a diary which, while it contains some facts of interest, serves on the whole to show how narrow and monotonous was the life of the early settlers on the St. John. On Sundays they attended religious services held at the houses most convenient for the purpose and in the winter there was some social visiting. However, we are now to speak of more stirring events.

Many were the trials and tribulations of the dwellers on the St. John—particularly of those living at the mouth of the river—during the American Revolution. Most of their calamities might have been avoided had an efficient garrison been maintained at Fort Frederick, but the troops were withdrawn from that post in 1768 and sent to Boston in consequence of disturbances there, and for five or six years the care of the fort and barracks was entrusted to James Simonds.

Lord William Campbell reported, about the close of 1771: "Since Fort Frederick at the entrance of St. John's river has been dismantled and the garrison, which formerly consisted of an officers' command, reduced to a corporal and four privates, he had had frequent complaints of the Indians on the river." The presence of a half dozen soldiers was of little utility at any time and of no utility whatever after the Revolution began. It was not until the erection of Fort Howe that adequate steps were taken for the protection of the inhabitants.

The year 1774 was an extremely busy one at St. John. Our old pioneers James Simonds, James White and William Hazen were making strenuous efforts to place settlers upon their lands in the township of Conway, while at the same time Mr. Hazen's house was being finished at Portland Point, an aboideau was being built to reclaim the "great marsh," and the business of the fishery, lime-burning and general trade was being vigorously prosecuted. Troublous times were now at hand.

The situation of Hazen, Simonds and White when hostilities arose between the old colonies and the mother country was very embarrassing. By birth and early association they were New Englanders and most of their old time friends and neighbors were hostile to the crown. Massachusetts was practically the cradle of the Revolution, and the vast majority of its inhabitants were bitterly opposed to the King and his government. But while Simonds, White and Hazen were Massachusetts men they now held various official positions under the government of Nova Scotia and had sworn true allegiance to the King. Very likely they would have gladly assumed a neutral attitude in the approaching contest, but alas for them the force of events left no room for neutrality.

It is clear that at the beginning of the war the people of Massachusetts hoped for the cordial support of the settlers on the River St. John. This is probably the reason why the small colony at Portland Point was not molested during the early stages of the war and that William Hazen was able on two occasions to obtain the release of the company's schooner "Polly" after she had been taken by American privateers. But as the war progressed considerate treatment gave place to acts of vandalism, and the sentiments of the settlers at St. John towards their old compatriots of Massachusetts became intensely bitter. Their tenants in the township of Conway were driven from their homes and obliged to seek refuge up the river, and those living at Portland Point suffered equal hardships.

When the Loyalists arrived in 1783, it was proposed that the township of Conway should be escheated for their benefit. James Simonds protested stoutly against this, representing the expense that had been incurred in the endeavor to settle the township and the losses and sufferings of the tenants who were for a long time unprotected against the depredations of the enemy. He adds, "Instead of our being stripped of our rights to make amends for the losses of the Loyalists, who were plundered in New York or elsewhere, we have at least as weighty reasons as they can possibly offer to claim restitution from Government for the value of all the property taken from us, our distress by imprisonment, etc. They had a numerous British army to protect them, we had to combat the sons of darkness alone. In a word we had much less than they to hope for by unshaken loyalty and incomparably more to fear."

The statement of Mr. Simonds is confirmed by Major Studholme who wrote to Gov'r. Parr, "Messrs. Hazen and Simonds, two of the original proprietors of Conway, have at different times placed a number of settlers on the lands of that Township and have used every effort on their parts to comply with the terms of their Grant, but the continual robberies committed by the Rebel boats during the war, to which these settlements have been exposed, obliged a number of their tenants to remove. However, as every exertion was used by them I take the liberty to recommend their claims on that Township to your consideration."

During the earlier stages of the Revolution the attitude of the people of Machias on the one hand, and of the inhabitants of the township of Cumberland on the other, proved a matter of concern to the dwellers on the River St. John. Machias was settled in 1763 by a colony from Scarborough, one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts. During the war it was the asylum of disloyal spirits who fled thither from various parts of Nova Scotia. The township of Cumberland included a considerable portion of what is now the county of Westmorland. The inhabitants were mostly natives of New England, and many of them warm sympathizers with the revolutionary pasty. Jonathan Eddy was their representative in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1774, and John Allan in 1776. Eddy and Allan, aided by William Howe and Samuel Rogers, succeeded in stirring up an active rebellion in Cumberland, which called for prompt action on the part of the Government of Nova Scotia. The leaders fled to Machias and a reward of L200 was offered for the apprehension of Eddy and L100 for each of the others.

The attitude of the Indians was another matter of serious concern to the settlers on the River St. John. Immediately after the Declaration of Independence the American congress authorized Washington to call forth and engage the Indians of Nova Scotia, St. John and Penobscot to take up the hatchet and fight against the English. With strange inconsistency Congress a few days later, in an address to the people of Ireland, denounced the King of England on the ground that "the wild and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited by gifts to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated to deluge our settlements with the blood of defenceless women and children."

The Micmacs seem to have been reluctant to take sides in the contest and in answer to John Allan's solicitations they said, with quiet dignity, "We do not comprehend what all this quarreling is about. How comes it that Old England and New England should quarrel and come to blows? The father and the son to fight is terrible! Old France and Canada did not do so; we cannot think of fighting ourselves till we know who is right and who is wrong."

The style of argument employed to induce the simple minded natives to side with the Americans is seen in the letter addressed to them by the agent of the Congress of Massachusetts (May 15, 1775), in which the following statements occur: "The ministry of Great Britain have laid deep plots to take away our liberty and your liberty; they want to get all our money and make us pay it to them when they never earned it; to make you and us their servants and let us have nothing to eat, drink or wear but what they say we shall; and prevent us from having guns and powder to kill our deer and wolves and other game or to send to you to kill your game with so as to get skins and fur to trade with us for what you want. * * * We want to know what you our good brothers want from us of clothing or warlike stores, and we will supply you as fast as we can. We will do all for you we can and fight to save you at any time. * * * The Indians at Stockbridge all join with us and some of their men have enlisted as soldiers and we have given each of them a blanket and a ribbon, and they will be paid when they are from home in the service, and if any of you are willing to enlist we shall do the same for you. * * * Brothers, if you will let Mr. John Preble know what things you want he will take care to inform us and we will do the best for you we can."

In consequence of the inducements of Allan and the other agents, Pierre Tomah and Ambroise St. Aubin, leading chiefs of the Maliseets of the River St. John, went to the trading post the Americans had established at Penobscot, and signed an agreement to the following effect: "We heartily join with our brethren the Penobscot Indians in everything that they have or shall agree with our brethren of the colony of Massachusetts, and are resolved to stand together and oppose the people of Old England that are endeavoring to take your and our lands and liberties from us. * * * We desire that you will help us to a priest that he may pray with us to God Almighty, etc., etc." The Indians agreed to bring their furs and skins to Penobscot and to procure their provisions, goods and ammunition there. Many of them were heavily in debt to Simonds & White, so that the prospect of a new trading post with no old scores to settle appeared to them particularly inviting.

Washington honored the Indians with letters accompanied by belts of wampum, after the approved Indian fashion. A delegation from the St. John river, Pierre Tomah at its head, went soon afterwards to Washington's headquarters on the Delaware, where they received a flattering welcome and were sumptuously entertained. On the 24th December, 1776, Washington thus addressed them:

"Brothers of the St. John's tribe: It gave me great pleasure to hear by Major Shaw that you keep the chain of Friendship, which I sent you in February last from Cambridge, bright and unbroken. I am glad to hear that you have made a treaty of peace with your brothers and neighbors of Massachusetts Bay. My good friend and brother, Gov'r Pierre Tommah, and the warriors that came with him shall be taken good care of, and when they want to return home they and our brothers of Penobscot shall be furnished with everything necessary for their journey. * * * Never let the King's wicked counsellors turn your hearts against me and your brethren of this country, but bear in mind what I told you last February and what I tell you now."

Washington's overtures were not without effect. This is evident from the fact that the Maugerville people in May, 1776, reported that Gen. Washington's letter had set the Indians on fire, and they were plundering all people they thought to be Tories, and that perhaps when the supply of Tories was exhausted others might share the name fate. "We think it necessary," they added, "that some person of consequence be sent among them." The Indians had always been allies of the French and had never fully accepted the change of ownership on the River St. John. They were disposed to view the cause of the Americans with favor, more particularly when the French became their allies.

John Allan was by far the most active and energetic agent of Congress in dealing with the Indians. He was born in Edinburgh and when four years of age accompanied his parents to Halifax when that city was founded by Cornwallis. At the commencement of the Revolution he lived near Fort Cumberland, on the New Brunswick side of the isthmus of Chignecto and carried on an extensive Indian trade visiting all the villages as far west as the Penobscot river. His estimate of the Indians is not particularly flattering. He says: "The Indians are generally actuated according to the importance or influence any one has who lives among them. They are credulous to a degree, will listen to every report, and generally believe it and think everything true that is told them."

We shall presently see that Allan was able to make good use of his knowledge of the weaknesses of Indian nature. He was appointed superintendent of the Eastern Indians in 1777 by the Massachusetts Congress, with the military rank of Colonel. He was the most persevering and troublesome antagonist the British had in Eastern New England. Had it not been for his exertions it is probable the Americans would have lost their outpost at Machias, and it is possible that the English would then have held the country as far west as the River Kennebeck.



CHAPTER XXIV.

AFFAIRS ON THE ST. JOHN DURING THE REVOLUTION.

In the year 1775 armed vessels were fitted out in several of the ports of New England to prey on the commerce of Nova Scotia. Many of these carried no proper commissions and were manned by hands of brutal marauders whose conduct was so outrageous that even so warm a partizan as Col. John Allan sent a remonstrance to congress regarding their behaviour: "Their horrid crimes," he says, "are too notorious to pass unnoticed," and after particularizing some of their enormities he declares "such proceedings will occasion more Torys than a hundred such expeditions will make good."

The people of Machias were particularly fond of plundering their neighbors, and that place was termed a "nest of pirates and rebels" by General Eyre Massey, the commandant at Halifax.

Early in the summer of 1775 it was rumored that Stephen Smith of Machias, one of the delegates to the Massachusetts congress, had orders to seize Fort Frederick, and the Governor of Nova Scotia recommended the establishment of a garrison there to prevent such an attempt. But the military authorities were too dilatory and in the month of August a party from Machias, led by Smith, entered St. John harbor in a sloop, burned Fort Frederick and the barracks and took four men who were in the fort prisoners. The party also captured a brig of 120 tons laden with oxen, sheep and swine, intended for the British troops at Boston. This was the first hostile act committed in Nova Scotia and it produced almost as great a sensation at Halifax as at St. John. The event is thus described by our first local historian, Peter Fisher, in his Sketches of New Brunswick:—

"A brig was sent from Boston to procure fresh provisions for the British army, then in that town, from the settlements of the river Saint John. The same vessel was laden with stock, poultry, and sundry other articles mostly brought from Maugerville in small vessels and gondolas, all of which had been put on board within about fifteen days after the brig had arrived. While she was waiting for a fair wind and clear weather an armed sloop of four guns and full of men from Machias came into the harbor, took possession of the brig, and two days after carried her off to Machias; the first night after their arrival the enemy made the small party in the Fort prisoners, plundered them of everything in it, and set fire to all the Barracks, but at that time they did not molest any of the inhabitants on the opposite side of the river."

The burning of Fort Frederick seems to have been made known at Halifax by James Simonds and Daniel Leavitt, who went to Windsor in a whale boat to solicit to protection of government. Their report caused a mild sensation on the part of the military authorities, and they began to take measures for the defence of the province, although it was more than two years before any adequate protection was afforded the settlers at St. John. Being apprehensive that the company's effects in the store at Portland Point might be carried off by marauders, Mr. Simonds a few weeks afterwards carried a portion of the goods to Windsor in the schooner "Polly" and disposed of them as well as he could.

The next year was a decidedly uncomfortable one for the people living at Portland Point. In the month of May two privateers entered the harbor, remaining more than a week. Their boats proceeded up the river as far as Maugerville and informed the people that the province would soon be invaded from the westward, that privateers were thick on the coasts and would stop all manner of commerce unless the settlers joined them. They threatened, moreover, that should the Americans be put to the trouble and expense of conquering the country all who sided with the mother country must expect to lose their property and lands. About this time some Indians arrived with letters from General Washington, and it was believed that the whole tribe was about entering into an alliance with the Americans, as they showed a decided predilection in their favor and even threatened to kill the white inhabitants unless they would join the "Boston men." There can be little doubt that the majority of the people on the River St. John were at this time not indisposed to side with the Revolutionary party. A public meeting was held on the 14th of May, 1776, at the meeting house in Maugerville, at which a number of highly disloyal resolutions were unanimously adopted. One of the leading spirits at this meeting was the Rev. Seth Noble, who had already written to Gen'l. Washington to represent the importance of obtaining control of western Nova Scotia, including the River St. John. Jacob Barker, Esq'r., was chosen chairman and a committee, consisting of Jacob Barker, Israel Perley, Phineas Nevers, Daniel Palmer, Moses Pickard, Edward Coy, Thomas Hartt, Israel Kinny, Asa Kimble, Asa Perley, Oliver Perley and Hugh Quinton, was appointed to prepare the resolutions which were subsequently adopted by the meeting. One of the resolutions reads:—

"Resolved, That it is our minds and desire to submit ourselves to the government of Massachusetts Bay and that we are ready with our lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however God in his providence may order it."

The resolutions adopted were circulated among all the settlers on the river and signed by 125 persons, most of them heads of families. The committee claimed that only twelve or thirteen persons refused to sign, of whom the majority lived at the river's mouth. If this statement be correct, the resolutions certainly could not have been submitted to all the inhabitants, for there is evidence to show that at least thirty families outside of the township of Maugerville were steadfastly and consistently loyal to the government under which they lived. The names of these people are as deserving of honor as the names of the Loyalists, who came to the province from the old colonies in 1783. In the township of Maugerville the sentiment of the people was almost unanimous in favor of the Revolution and we have no data to determine who were loyalists—if any. But at St. Anns we have Benjamin Atherton and Philip Weade; in the township of Burton, John Larley, Joseph Howland, and Thomas Jones; in Gagetown Zebulon Estey, Henry West, John Crabtree, John Hendrick, Peter Carr and Lewis Mitchell; on the Kennebecasis Benjamin Darling; in the township of Conway, Samuel Peabody, Jonathan Leavitt, Thomas Jenkins, John Bradley, Gervas Say, James Woodman, Peter Smith, and Christopher Cross; at Portland Point, James Simonds, James White, William Hazen, John Hazen, William Godsoe, Lemuel Cleveland, Robert Cram, John Nason, Moses Greenough, Christopher Blake and most of the men in the employ of Hazen, Simonds & White.

A number of Acadians too were loyal to the government of Nova Scotia and should be mentioned in this connection. Louis Mercure and his brother Michel Mercure rendered good service to the Governor of Nova Scotia in carrying dispatches to and from Quebec during the war period. Of the Martin family, Jean, Simon, Joseph, Francois and Amant were warmly commended by Major Studholme for their fidelity and active exertions on various occasions. Members of the Cyr family also rendered important services as guides or pilots, Oliver, Jean Baptiste and Pierre Cyr being employed in that capacity by Major Studholme and Lieut. Governor Michael Francklin.

At this distance of time it is difficult to determine the number of people on the river who were disposed to be actively disloyal. That they had many inducements to cast their fortunes with their friends in Massachusetts is undeniable. At Maugerville the powerful influence of the pastor of the church, Rev. Seth Noble, and of the leading elders and church members was exerted in behalf of the American congress. Jacob Barker, who presided at the meeting held on the 14th May, was a justice of the peace and ruling elder of the church. Israel Perley and Phineas Nevers were justices of the peace and had represented the county of Sunbury in the Nova Scotia legislature. Daniel Palmer, Edward Coy, Israel Kinney and Asa Perley were ruling elders of the church. Moses Pickard, Thomas Hartt and Hugh Quinton were leading church members. The gentlemen named, with Asa Kimball and Oliver Perley, were appointed a committee "to make immediate application to the Congress or General Assembly of Massachusetts Bay for relief under the present distressed circumstances."

At the Maugerville meeting it was unanimously agreed that the committee, whose names have just been mentioned, should have charge of all matters civil and military until further regulations should be made, and that all who signed the resolutions should have no dealings with any person for the future who should refuse to sign them. The tone of several of the resolutions was that of open defiance to the constituted authority of Nova Scotia, the signers pledging themselves to support and defend the actions of their committee at the expense, if necessary, of their lives and fortunes. One of the resolutions reads:

"Resolved that we will immediately put ourselves in the best posture of defence in our power; that to this end we will prevent all unnecessary use of gunpowder or other ammunition in our custody."

Asa Perley and Asa Kimball, two of the committee, were sent to Boston to interview the Massachusetts congress on behalf of the people living on the river. The commissary general there was directed to deliver them one barrel of gunpowder, 350 flints and 250 weight of lead from the colony's stores; they were also allowed to purchase 40 stand of small arms.

So far all seemed favorable to the promoters of rebellion, but bitter humiliation was in store, and within a year the vast majority of those who had pledged themselves to the people of Massachusetts as "ready with their lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however God in His providence may order it," were compelled to take the oath of allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third for the defence of the province of Nova Scotia against all his enemies.

An impartial review of the situation on the St. John at this stage of the American Revolution would seem to show that the sympathies of a large majority of the settlers were with the revolutionary party, at the same time many of the people were much less enthusiastic than their leaders and if left to themselves would probably have hesitated to sign the resolutions framed by their committee. The presence of the privateersmen, who came up the river at the time the meeting at Maugerville was held, was an incentive to many to sign the resolutions and the attitude of the Indians was a further inducement to stand in with the people of Massachusetts, who had lately entered into an alliance with the savages.

During the autumn of this year (1776) the Bay of Fundy was so infested with pirates and picaroons that the war vessels Vulture, Hope and Albany were ordered around from Halifax. They were not entirely successful in their endeavor to furnish protection, for the privateers frequently managed to steal past the large ships in the night and in fogs and continued to pillage the defenceless inhabitants.

Another hostile act was now undertaken by the people of Machias of a more ambitious kind than the destruction of Fort Frederick. This was nothing less than an attempt to capture Fort Cumberland, where Lieut. Col. Joseph Goreham was in command with a detachment of the Royal Fencible Americans. This attempt was in the end a miserable fiasco, but it occasioned much alarm at the time and was the cause of some distress to the loyal inhabitants of that region.

The leader of the expedition against Fort Cumberland was Jonathan Eddy, who had lately been commissioned a lieutenant colonel by the Massachusetts congress. He was a native of Norton (Mass.), and had settled in Cumberland about 1763, but early in the Revolution returned to Massachusetts. About the time of the Declaration of Independence, in July, 1776, Eddy set out from Boston in company with Jonathan Rowe (lately a resident at St. John) and proceeded to Machias. He left that place about the middle of August in a schooner with only 28 men as a nucleus of his proposed army. At Passamaquoddy a few people joined him. The party did not meet with much encouragement on their arrival at St. John, although Hazen, Simonds and White from motives of prudence refrained from any hostile demonstration. Proceeding up the river to Maugerville Eddy met with greater encouragement. "I found the people," he writes, "to be almost universally hearty in our cause; they joined us with one captain, one lieutenant and twenty-five men, as also sixteen Indians." The captain of the St. John river contingent was probably Hugh Quinton[101] who has as his lieutenant one Jewett of Maugerville. Others of the party were Daniel Leavitt, William McKeen, Elijah Estabrooks, Edward Burpee, Nathan Smith, John Pickard, Edmund Price, Amasa Coy, John Mitchell, Richard Parsons, Benjamin Booby and John Whitney. The rest of the party lived in Maugerville but their names are not known.

[101] Hugh Quinton is called Captain Quinton by the rebel Col. John Allan in his diary, printed in Kidder's "Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution." The report of Major Studholme's exploration party in 1783 states that "Quinton was one of the Cumberland party, but since hath taken the Oath of Allegiance to his Majesty and behaved in a loyal manner; turned out sundry times and fought the rebel parties."

On his arrival at Cumberland Jonathan Eddy was joined by many of the settlers there who, like himself, were originally from New England. His whole force probably did not exceed 200 men, badly equipped and without artillery. The Indians of the St. John were under the leadership of Ambroise St. Aubin, one of their chiefs, and Eddy says they "beheaved most gallantly."[102] However, the expedition failed to achieve anything of importance. The rebels plundered some of the loyal inhabitants, seized one or two small provision sloops and captured several prisoners, including the Rev. John Eagleson, acting chaplain of the garrison. All attempts to take the fort were futile, and the arrival of Major Batt and Captain Studholme with reinforcement from Windsor rendered Eddy's situation exceedingly precarious. On the 28th November his forces were utterly routed by Major Batt and hastily retired to the River St. John. They suffered great hardships on the way and arrived at that place in a very miserable condition. Unwelcome as they had proved to the people of Portland Point on the occasion of their advance they were still more unwelcome visitors on their return. In their forlorn condition Hazen, Simonds and White were obliged to furnish them with provisions and supplies in order to keep them from plundering their houses and stores. All that the trading company obtained in return was a bill of exchange on the Massachusetts congress, which probably was never paid:

"Gentlemen,—At sight of this our second Bill (first of same tenor and date not paid) please to pay to Messrs. William Hazen, James Simonds and James White, or order, forty-one Spanish milled Dollars for value received of them.

EZEKIEL FOSTER, Lt., EDMUND STEVENS, Capt., DAVID PRESCOTT, Lt., DANIEL MESERVY, Lt.

Portland, Nova Scotia, December 14th, 1776.

To the Honorable Council of Massachusetts State.

[102] A pretty full account of the siege of Fort Cumberland will be found in the Canadian Archives for 1894, pp. 355-366. Other particulars are to be found in Kidder's Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia, pp. 67-74.

James White says the supplies furnished to Prescott & Co., were regarded as for the common cause and benefit to get rid of a needy lawless banditti.

On the 10th February ensuing General Massey wrote to the secretary of State that Eddy, Rogers, Allen and Howe were at the River St. John preparing with the Indians for attacks on various points in the Spring. To counteract the designs of Eddy and his associates Colonel Michael Francklin was appointed Superintendent of Indian affairs about this time.

Early in May, 1777, a serious attempt was made by John Allan to establish a trading post for the Indians on the River St. John. James Simonds proceeded via Windsor to Halifax, and reported the matter to the civil and military authorities. Lieut.-Governor Arbuthnot at once sent Colonel Arthur Goold and an armed party, commanded by Major Studholme, to investigate, and on their arrival at St. John the Machias rebels promptly decamped. On the 9th May Goold wrote a letter to the inhabitants of the townships up the river stating that the government of Nova Scotia was well informed of their treasonable doings, and that the tenure of their present possessions was due to the clemency of "the most just, generous and best of Princes." He informed them that his object was to effect a reconciliation for them with Government, and added that while he came to them with the olive branch of peace, in the event of a refusal of his overtures an armed force would follow and employ a very different argument.

A meeting was immediately held at Maugerville, and in reply to Goold a letter was sent "by order of the body of the inhabitants assembled," written and signed in their behalf by Israel Perley. In this letter the inhabitants aver "that their greatest desire hath ever been to live in peace under good and wholesome laws," and they declare themselves "ready to attend to any conditions of lenity and oblivion that may be held out to them."

Colonel Goold in his reply expresses his pleasure at the unanimity of their resolution to observe loyalty and obedience to the government under which they lived and his surprise that they should suffer a few incendiaries to disturb the public tranquillity. He hoped the word "Committee" had nothing so terrible in its sound as to frighten a majority of the loyal people. "Why not," he says, "form a Committee in favor of Government and see which is strongest? I will throw myself into your scale and make no doubt but we shall soon over balance these mighty Law-givers."

On the afternoon of May 13, two of John Allan's lieutenants, William Howe and John Preble, arrived at Manawagonish Cove[103] in a whale boat, not knowing of the presence of a British sloop of war at St. John. Captain Featus, the commander of the "Vulture," promptly dispatched a boat to the place and took their whale boat, but Howe and Preble and their party fled to the woods and eventually got back to Machias. The captain of the "Vulture" also intercepted two schooners laden with supplies for the proposed Indian "Truck House."

[103] Commonly called Mahogany Cove, about three miles to the west of the harbor of St. John.

Evidently there was a lack of harmony and mutual confidence among the inhabitants of Maugerville at this time, for on the 16th May they wrote to Colonel Goold a letter in which, after representing their recent conduct in the best light they could and admitting that they had acted in opposition to this Majesty's Government, they say: "As your honor is pleased to tell us that you bring the Olive Branch of Peace we humbly crave the benefit, and as we were jointly concerned in the first transgressions we now humbly request that no distinction may be made as to a pardon, there being in this place as in all others private prejudices and contentions, and perhaps some persons may avail themselves of this opportunity to got revenge by representing their private enemies as the greatest enemies of Government. We earnestly request no such complaint may prevail upon your Honor to make any distinction with regard to any person, on the River, and we beg your Honor's answer to this petition from your Honor's most humble servants.

[Signed]. Israel Perley, Seth Noble, Jonathan Burpee, Elisha Nevers, junr."

In reply to the letter, from which the foregoing is taken, Colonel Goold said that his ears would be shut to all insinuations as to the honesty of their submission, that their letter "seems to breathe the sentiments of a sincere repentance for inconsiderate follies past" and that he had not the least doubt it would meet with as favorable a reception as they could desire.

In spite of Goold's tact and diplomacy there were a few irreconcilables, and on the 19th of May he wrote from Maugerville to Major Studholme, who had remained with the troops at the mouth of the river:

"As notwithstanding every measure which I have taken to reclaim some of the principal people concerned in the late defection, amounting to rebellion, on this river has proved fruitless, and they still continue obstinately bent on quitting their houses and families rather than submit to his Majesty's gracious offers of clemency, I think it my duty to give you their names—Seth Noble, Elisha Nevers, Jacob Barker—that you may act upon the occasion agreeable to the orders you may have received from Major General Massey."

Colonel Goold administered the oath of allegiance to all but a few of the people and, as his last word, charged them on no account to suffer those who inconveniently absented themselves from accepting the proposals of the Lieutenant Governor to return to their habitations without first proceeding to Halifax to beg pardon for their past behaviour. "I have nothing more to observe to you," he adds, "but that you are not to pay any more respect to those Gentlemen, who lately styled themselves your rulers, than to every other common member of the community."

On his return to Halifax, Col. Goold reported to Lt.-Gov'r Arbuthnot that the inhabitants at the River St. John had cheerfully taken the oath of allegiance, after delivering up two pieces of ordnance, formerly concealed by the French inhabitants.

While he was at the River St. John Goold had an interview with the Indians and made a speech to them in French, which seems to have produced a strong impression. Eight of the chiefs and captains swore allegiance to King George the Third in the name of their tribe, and had they been let alone by Allan it is probable the Indians would have given no further trouble to the Government or Nova Scotia. Colonel Goold regarded his arrival as opportune as Allan, Howe and others from Machias were assembled "to play the same game as last year." Before he left the river he addressed a letter to the Indians in French, promising that he would represent to Lieut. Governor Arbuthnot their great desire to have a priest, and expressing his confidence that they might have Mons'r. Bourg, then stationed at the Bay of Chaleur, who would be put on the same footing as their late missionary Bailly.

John Allan was altogether too determined a man to abandon the struggle for supremacy on the St. John without another attempt. He learned on the 29th of May that the "Vulture" had returned to Annapolis and he set out the very next day from Machias with a party of 43 men in four whale boats and four birch canoes. At Passamaquoddy he met with some encouragement and thirteen canoes joined the flotilla, which proceeded on to Musquash Cove, where they arrived on the evening of the 1st of June. Having ascertained that there were no hostile vessels at St. John harbor, Allan sent one of his captains named West with a party to seize Messrs. Hazen, Simonds and White. The party landed at Manawagonish Cove and marched through the woods to the St. John river above the falls, crossing in canoes to the east side of the river and landing at what is now Indiantown. Proceeding on through scrubby woods and over rough limestone they reached Portland Point undiscovered and took William Hazen and James White prisoners. James Simonds and Israel Perley had accompanied Col. Goold to Halifax, and in this way Mr. Simonds escaped capture, but it seems that a little later he was not so fortunate. There was now no good will between the people of Portland Point and their neighbors to the west. Allan states in his journal "Hazen and Simonds jeered our officers, saying that they made breastworks of women and children." Tradition has it that on one occasion James Simonds told a party of marauders who had come to pillage that they would never dare to face the King's soldiers for their blood was nothing but molasses and water.

Leaving a guard of sixty men at the mouth of the river under Capt. West, the rest of the invaders proceeded up the river taking their prisoners with them. West and his party took possession of Woodman's store and buildings opposite Indiantown and occupied them for barracks. Allan directed them "To range the woods from Hazen's across the river above the falls round to the Old Fort," and in accordance with his instructions, the party came over every day to the Portland shore in order to capture any vessel that might enter the harbor and to prevent the landing of marines or seamen from any British man of war.

Allan in his diary gives an account of his trip up the St. John, which is of much local interest. He claims that the majority of the settlers, despite their late submission to Colonel Goold, were friendly to the American cause, although some were "great Zealots for Britain." Gervas Say and Lewis Mitchell are said to have been instrumental in bringing Col. Goold to the river, and Allan endeavored to seize them. Mitchell's influence was feared on account of his being of "an insinuating turn, particularly among the French and Indians." Mitchell was captured by strategy at his house above Grimross, but a few days later he "made his elopement" and with the assistance of other loyalists was not long in bringing a hornet's nest about the ears of his captors.

On the 5th of June, 1777, John Allan and his party arrived at the Indian village of Aukpaque where forty or fifty Indians arrayed in war costume of paint and feathers fired a salute of welcome. The visitors responded and in order still further to impress the Indians landed their two cannon and discharged them. Allan says that he found several of the Indian captains were vastly fond of Colonel Goold and seemed undetermined what to do. The inclinations of the head chiefs were diverse. Ambroise St. Aubin favored the Americans but Pierre Tomah, the head chief, inclined the other way. Allan, knowing full well by experience as an Indian trader the weak points of Indian character, flattered them, appealed to their cupidity, promised them presents and supplies at the trading posts he was about to establish, recalled the days when they regarded the French as their brothers affirming he had come to do them justice with the same authority Monsieur Boishebert had exercised in the French time. He was formally admitted into their tribe and as they had then no missionary the priest's house, adjoining the chapel, was placed at his disposal. During the next four weeks there were formal conferences with the Indians with the usual harangues, exchange of wampum belts and other ceremonies, in all of which the American agent appeared to advantage. The chiefs made quite a grand appearance on these occasions, particularly Ambroise St. Aubin, who was attired in blue Persian silk coat, embroidered crimson silk waistcoat, scarlet knee breeches and gold lace hat with white cockade. In the intervals between the formal conferences Allan visited the various wig-wams exercising his powers of persuasion. Messengers were sent up the river to invite delegates from Medoctec and Madawaska and they were not long in coming when they learned that Allan had a quantity of supplies and presents at his disposal. The Madawaska delegates arrived on the 20th of June in three birch canoes; in their party were seven chiefs and captains, one of whom had lately assumed the name of Washington. Allan wrote to Boston that he needed an abundance of things sent him as he had been forced to be very lavish in his dealings with the Indians. In the same letter he says of the white inhabitants on the river: "I am sorry to say that the people have not acted with that spirit that becomes the subjects of Liberty. Much division has been among them * * and having no encouragement of success from the Westward and being surprised so suddenly by Col. Goold the whole gave up and are now become the subjects of Britain. The greatest part, I believe, is as zealous as ever and it is their earnest desire that a sufficient force be sent from the continent."

William Hazen and James White had been left by Col. Allan prisoners on parole at the mouth of the river but a little later they were brought up the river to Aukpaque by Capt. Preble. James White's long acquaintance with the Indians gave him an influence which Allan seems to have feared, for after they had been with him a week he issued the following order:—

"Wednesday, June 18, 1777, Prisoners Hazen and White are to mess by themselves for the future, not any of our people to join them."

The very next day they were sent to the mouth of the river again and placed in charge of Capt. West and his party.

After the arrival of the Indian delegates from Medoctec and Madawaska a general conference was held at Aukpaque, and it was agreed "that peace and friendship be now established permanent and lasting between the United States and the several tribes"; also that a truck house be established by John Preble where the Indians should obtain good prices for their furs.

The account of John Allan's doings at Aukpaque, as found in the diary kept by his lieutenant, Frederick Delesderniers, is very interesting reading. It is apparent to one who reads between the lines that Allan felt he was engaged in a game at which two could play, and he feared the outcome. In spite of his zealous efforts and apparent success he was suspicious of his native allies. He complains that the impression Colonel Goold had made seemed to occasion in them an unsteady conduct, so much so that notwithstanding their fair speeches, he at times thought that they would desert him after all. He was the more uneasy when informed by Israel Perley, on his return from Halifax, that the government of Nova Scotia had appointed so competent a man as Col. Michael Francklin agent of Indian affairs.

As soon as the authorities at Halifax were informed of Allan's expedition and of what was going on at the River St. John they sent the warship "Mermaid" and the sloops "Vulture" and "Hope" with a detachment of troops under Major Studholme to put a stop to the proceedings. Allan's force at the mouth of the river consisted of about sixty men under command of Captains West and Dyer. The "Vulture" arrived on June 23rd and an attempt was made to land a party of troops at Portland Point, but being fired upon by the enemy and having no exact information as to their strength, nothing further was attempted until the arrival of the other ships. Allan says "The 'Vulture' anchored within cannon shot of Simonds[104] where our party lay."

[104] That is Simonds house at Portland Point.

On the morning, of the 30th of June about 120 men under command of Major Studholme left the ships in eight barges and landed at "Mahogany bay," opposite the house of Samuel Peabody. They marched thence through the woods two and a half miles in the direction of the falls. Near what is now called Fairville, Studholme encountered about 40 men under Captain West and a sharp conflict ensued in which several were killed on both sides. The American invaders were soon put to flight and retired with great precipitation. It is said that one poor fellow climbed into a tree and might have escaped, but the cracking of a branch betrayed his hiding place, and a soldier "dropped him like a little carrier pigeon." The next day Colonel Francklin arrived from Windsor with about 150 troops and militia.

Finding Studholme in hot pursuit West and his men ascended the Oromocto and crossing to the head waters of the Maguadavic managed to reach Machias. They had little or no provisions and endured almost intolerable hardships. When tidings of the disaster were brought to Aukpaque all was consternation. Pierre Tomah and some of the Indians were disposed to listen to the overtures of Michael Francklin, but Ambroise St. Aubin and the others were of a contrary mind.