CHAPTER XIII.
The English take possession of the River St. John.
The territory north of the Bay of Fundy, which now forms the Province of New Brunswick, was for nearly half a century a bone of contention between the French and their English rivals. It might indeed be said that from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 to the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the controversy continued to disturb the peace of Europe. Sometimes the points at issue were warmly debated at the council board, where the representatives of either nation vainly tried to settle the limits of Acadia, and sometimes they were yet more fiercely disputed amidst the clash of arms and bloody scenes of the battle field.
But as years passed on, and the growing power of the English colonies began to overshadow that of “La Nouvelle France,” it seemed that the Anglo-Saxon race must in the end prevail. The policy of the governors of Nova Scotia and New England became more and more aggressive. In vain did the valiant Montcalm, as late as the year 1758, represent to his country that in fixing the limits of New France it was essential to retain possession of what the English claimed as Acadia as far as the Isthmus of Chignecto, and to retake Beausejour; also that France should keep possession of the River St. John or, at least, leave the territory there undivided and in the possession of its native inhabitants: no such compromise as this would now satisfy the English.
Louisbourg surrendered to General Amherst on the 26th July, 1758, and a few weeks later Colonel Monckton was sent with a body of troops, flushed with their success, to drive the hapless Acadians from their settlements on the River St. John. The particulars connected with this expedition are found in an unpublished document, of which the original is in the Public Record Office in London, entitled “Report of the Proceedings of the Troops on the Expedition up St. John’s River in the Bay of Fundy under the command of Colonel Monckton.”[37]
As Monckton was the principal agent in an event of such historic importance to us as the permanent occupation of the St. John river, a few words may very properly be devoted to him.
Robert Monckton was the second son of John, first Viscount Galway, by his wife Lady Elizabeth Manners, youngest daughter of the Duke of Rutland. He began his military career in Flanders in 1742, where he fought in several battles. Later he came out to America, and in 1752 we find him in charge of the garrison of Fort Lawrence, keeping watch over the French stronghold of Beausejour, across the Misseguash. A little later he was commandant of the garrison of Annapolis Royal. He commanded the English forces at the reduction of Beausejour, in June, 1755. The year following he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. He commanded the 4th battalion of the 60th regiment, or “Royal Americans,” at the siege of Louisbourg, and in 1759 served as second in command to Wolfe at the taking of Quebec, on which occasion he was conspicuous for his bravery and was 126 severely wounded. A year or two later he was Governor of New York. In the course of time he attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the army, and at his death, in 1782, was a member for Portsmouth in the British Parliament.
Among those who, in a subordinate capacity, rendered essential service in the expedition to the River St. John none was more conspicuous than our old friend, Captain Cobb, of the Province sloop “York;” a few words may fittingly be devoted to him.
Sylvanus Cobb was born in Plymouth, New England, in 1709. Shortly before the capture of Louisbourg by Sir Wm. Pepperrell, in 1745, he raised a company in his native town for Colonel Gorham’s regiment and served with credit during the operations of the seige. He was subsequently in command of a small armed vessel employed by Government to cruise in the Bay of Fundy. After Halifax was founded, in 1749, he was employed by Governor Cornwallis and his successors for nearly ten years as master of the Provincial armed sloop “York.” When at Louisbourg in 1758 he was selected by Monckton to conduct Wolfe to reconnoitre the fortress previous to an assault. As they sailed up the harbor no one was allowed to stand on deck but Wolfe at the fore-sheet and Cobb at the helm. The shot flew thickly around them, and Wolfe at length signified that they had approached as near to the fortifications as was necessary, but Cobb made yet another tack, eliciting Wolfe’s admiration and the remark, “Well, Cobb! I shall never again doubt but you will carry me near enough.” Capt. Cobb lived for some years at Liverpool, N. S. He died of fever in 1762 while serving in an expedition against Havana, and is said to have expressed his regret that he had not met a soldier’s death at the cannon’s mouth. His descendants in Queens county, N. S., are numerous.
The troops that accompanied Colonel Monckton to the River St. John included several New England companies of Rangers under captains McCurdy, Brewer, Goreham and Stark, a detachment of artillery, the 2nd battalion of the Royal American Regiment[38] and the 35th regiment of light infantry. The troops embarked on board the transport ships “Isabella,” “Wade,” “Alexander the Second,” “Viscount Falmouth,” “Lord Bleakeney,” the sloops “York” and “Ulysses” and other vessels, under convoy of the “Squirrel” man-of-war. Vessels and troops had lately returned from the siege of Louisbourg.
The fleet sailed from Halifax on Monday the 11th September and on the 18th anchored off Partridge Island sending in Cobb and Rogers[39] with their sloops to reconnoitre. They proceeded up the harbor and on their return reported that they had seen only two or three people. However, Monckton learned later that there were more than two hundred Indians in ambush at the mouth of the river 127 when the English landed, but their chief, overawed by the strength of the invaders, would not suffer them to fire and retired with them up the river, and “upon their return to Oauckpack (their settlement about two leagues above St. Anns) Pere Germain, their priest, expecting, as he termed it, ‘Quelque coup de Trahison’ from them, marched them off for Canada.”
The next day the fleet anchored in the harbor and Monckton sent Cobb with his sloop to Chignecto for some Acadian prisoners to serve as pilots up the river, also for some whale boats and Captain Benoni Danks company of Rangers.
We come now to a day worthy to be held in remembrance—the memorable 20th of September, 1759—when the control of the River St. John passed finally into the hands of Great Britain and a permanent English settlement was made upon the shores of our harbor, Monckton’s journal contains a brief record of the event:
“Sep’br. ye 20th.—Made the Signal for Landing about nine and soon after landed near the Old Fort, with as many Men as the Boats could take, being about 400. Met with no opposition. The 2d. Division being landed I sent off Maj’r Scott with about 300 Light Infantry and Rangers to make discovery and advanced the two companys of Grenadiers to support him in case of necessity. The Maj’r returned, having been above the Falls; he found some few Tracks but not the least signs of any Road or Path—the woods very thick and bad marching. The troops being all landed I ordered the Tents to be got on shore and encamped the two regiments just at the back of the Fort. The Light Infantry and Rangers under Maj’r Scott encamped on the Hill above.”
The next few days were spent in getting provisions and supplies on shore. The detachment of artillery and three field pieces were also landed. A number of exploring parties were sent out and all agreed that it was impracticable to proceed with the expedition by land. Monckton had already sent word by Capt. Rogers to Annapolis and by Capt. Cobb to Fort Cumberland to press into the King’s service any sloops or schooners available to transport provisions and stores up the river, as the majority of his vessels were too large to attempt the passage of the falls. Meanwhile he determined to repair the old fort and work was begun upon it on the 24th September. “My reasons,” writes Monckton, “for fixing on this spot, though somewhat commanded by the Hill on the back were, that it was so much work ready done to our hands, the command it would have of the Harbor, the conveniency of landing our stores, and the great difficultys that would have attended its being erected further from the shore having no conveniency of moving our stores but by men. Besides, as the season was so far advanced and we had still to go up the River, I thought it best to fix on what would be soonest done. And in regard to the Hill that has some command of it, it is only with cannon, which the enemy would find great difficulty in bringing, and this may hereafter be remedy’d by erecting some small Work on it.”
In the construction of the works at the fort 600 men were employed daily until the 24th October, when the number was reduced to 300 in consequence of the departure of the expedition up the river to destroy the Acadian settlements. Capt. Cobb returned from Fort Cumberland the last day of September with Danks’ company of Rangers, five whale boats and nine French prisoners. From the latter 128 Monckton learned that it would have been almost impossible to have gone up the river by land, and that it would have been dangerous to attempt to pass the falls with such vessels as they had with them. Their opinion, as to the difficulty of passing the falls, was confirmed by observations and soundings made by Capt. Willock and the masters of the transports.
While the fort was building, Monckton was engaged in collecting military stores, provisions and supplies of various kinds for which he sent vessels to Fort Cumberland, Annapolis, Halifax and Boston. The officers’ barracks at Fort Frederick were erected on the 2nd of October and the work of building the fort made rapid progress, but it was not until the 21st of October that the expedition was in a position to proceed up the river. Even then the start was not a very auspicious one as we learn from Monckton’s journal, in which he writes:—
“Having got together several sloops and schooners and victual’d them, I order Cobb & Rogers to pass the Falls to cover the other vessels as they might be able to get through. They accordingly get under way. Cobb being the headmost passes the Narrows, but is too late to get over the Falls and obliged to come too in a little cove below. The Ulysses, Capt. Rogers, in passing the Narrows strikes on a Rock, and is drove by the Tide into a creek above Cobb where the vessell sunk in a short time, and it was with great difficulty the Light Infantry who were in her and crew were saved. Upon hearing this and that Cobb did not lay very safe I ordered him down again and very luckily for at Low Water he would have struck on the Rocks.”
The captain of the man of war “Squirrel” endeavored to raise the “Ulysses” but was forced to abandon the attempt and she proved a total wreck.
Having at length got all the smaller vessels safely above the falls and the troops on board, with provisions for a fortnight, Monckton himself embarked in Capt. Cobb’s sloop “York,” leaving Captain Bellen of the 35th regiment in command of the troops left behind. The force that proceeded up the river numbered about 1,200 men.
To understand the subsequent proceedings of the expedition the reader will do well to refer occasionally to the accompanying plan[40] based on that transmitted by Monckton, along with his report, to Major General Amherst.
On the morning of the 30th October the little fleet got under sail but the wind being contrary little progress was made; indeed the ordnance sloop was very nearly sharing the fate of the “Ulysses,” and only escaped by casting anchor in a rather perilous position just above the falls. Next day the vessels succeeded in crossing Grand Bay and anchored off “Pointe aux Tourtres,”[41] about two leagues above the mouth of the Nerepis. On their way they observed the remains of the fort built by Boishebert at Woodman’s Point.
Sketch of St. John’s Harbour, and a Part of the River.
“ISLE AU GARCE,” OR “EMENENIC.” (Now Called Caton’s Island, in Long Reach.)
On November 1, the wind being contrary, little progress was made, and in the evening the “York” anchored off an island called “Isle aux Garces.” Monckton landed on the island, which he describes as “a verry fine one—the 129 130 wood Oak, Beech, Birch, and Walnut, and no underwood.” This island was none other than the famous Emenenic, where some traders and fishermen of St. Malo had a small settlement in the year 1611—probably the first European settlement within the confines of the province. It was here the Jesuit missionary, Father Biard, held the first religious service on the St. John river of which we have any record. As mentioned in a previous chapter, the Indians still call the island “Ah-men-hen-ik,” which is almost identical in sound with Biard’s “Emenenic,” thus proving that the old Indian name has persisted for well-nigh three hundred years. The name “Isle au garce,” found in the plan of the river, is not easy of explanation. “Garce” may possibly be a misprint for “grace,” and the name “Isle of grace” would harmonize very well with the French missionary’s visit and religious services in October, 1611, but Placide P. Gaudet—who, by the way, is no mean authority as regards the French regime on the River St. 131 John—is disposed to consider the word “garce” as signifying a “merry maiden.” If so, the name is suggestive of an untold story and there is material for a romance in connection with our historic “Isle au garce.” The island is now owned by County Secretary George R. Vincent. The soil is fertile, well wooded and excellent spring water is abundant; fine oaks grow there as in Monckton’s day. A little cove, which may be seen in the view of the island a little to the right of the wood-boat, affords an excellent landing place.
The plan of the river accompanying Colonel Monckton’s report is of special interest on account of the curious admixture of French and English names. This feature is quite in harmony with the epoch which was one of transition. Instances today are not infrequent where the existing name has been translated from the French, a familiar example being that of the island at the mouth of St. John harbor, called by the French “Isle au Perdrix” and translated into the English “Partridge Island.” Another familiar instance occurs in connection with Oak Point in Long Reach. Describing their progress up the river Monckton says, “We came too off Point aux Chaines to sound.” Point aux Chaines in English means Oak Point, and the identity of the situation of Oak Point and of Monckton’s Point aux Chaines is clearly shown in the plan of the river.
Monckton describes the country along the lower part of the River St. John as “verry Mountainous and Rocky,” but above the Bellisle comparatively flat and well timbered.
On the evening of the 2nd November the sloop “York” came to anchor “under an island called the Great Island,” or Long Island. Some of the party landed on the island where, Monckton tells us, they found walnuts (or butternuts) much like English walnuts.
The expedition was now approaching one of the principal Acadian settlements and Captain Benoni Danks was sent with a party and a guide to try to take a prisoner in order, if possible, to obtain further information, but the Acadians evidently received timely warning of their danger and had abandoned their village.
It may be mentioned, in passing, that there are some very uncomplimentary references to Captain Danks and his Rangers in Rev. Hugh Graham’s letter to Rev. Dr. Brown, written at Cornwallis, N. S., in 1791.[42] See for example the following: “A considerable large body of the French were at one time surprised by a party of the Rangers on Petitcodiac River; upon the first alarm most of them threw themselves into the river and swam across, and by this ways the greatest part of them made out to elude the clutches of these bloody hounds, tho’ some of them were shot by the merciless soldiery in the river. It was observed that these Rangers, almost without exception, closed their days in wretchedness, and particularly a Capt. Danks, who rode to the extreme of his commission in every barbarous proceeding. In the Cumberland insurrection (1776) he was suspected of being 132 ‘Jack on both sides of the bush,’ left that place in a small jigger bound for Windsor, was taken ill on the passage, thrown down into the hold among the ballast, was taken out at Windsor half dead, and had little better than the burial of a dog. He lived under a general dislike and died without any to regret his death.”
Saturday, the 4th of November, was an unhappy day for the poor Acadians living at the little village of Grimrose—the site of the modern village of Gagetown. The story shall be told in Monckton’s own words:—
“Nov’br ye 4th,—The party returns without any Prisoner, having been at the Village of Grimrose which they found had been but lately deserted by the inhabitants.
“Give orders for landing. Having got a body of about 700 Men on Shore, we march to the further end of the Village, being about a league. From whence, by the tracks we found, we judged that the Inhabitants had but lately retired and drove off their cattle. Here we found the Lime that had been taken in a schooner in the spring, which they had landed as our Pilots supposed to lighten the schooner, to get her higher up or to hide her in some Creeke—as they supposed that they would certainly have carry’d the Lime up to St. Anns would the depth of the River have admitted of it.
“It being late in the day I gave orders for Burning the Houses & Barns, being in all about 50, and for destroying all the Grain, of which there was a good deal, and everything else that could be of the least service to the Inhabitants hereafter. Having Burnt and destroyed everything we marched backe and reimbarked.
“As we were disembarking in the morning some canoes were seen crossing the head of Grimerose River [Gagetown Creek], and near where we landed there had lately been some Birch canoes made. Much cleared Land here—Fine Country. This Village was settled by the Inhabitants of Beausejour, when drove off from thence in 1755.”
The day following the expedition continued up the river to Isle Mettis, or Grimross Island. The pilots now refused to take charge of the vessels any higher, as they did not think there was sufficient water to pass. The accuracy of their judgment was soon evident. In attempting to proceed Capt. Cobb ran his sloop aground, and several of the transports had a like experience, but the bottom being sandy all soon got off again without damage. Monckton sent Capt. Rogers, late of the sloop “Ulysses,” and a mate of the man-of-war “Squirrel,” who had accompanied the expedition, to take soundings but they could find no practicable channel.
The commanding officer now reluctantly abandoned the idea of proceeding on to St. Annes. He might perhaps have attempted it by means of whale boats if the season had not been so far advanced and his provisions so nearly expended. After enumerating in his journal the difficulties that confronted him in the event of proceeding further he writes, “I therefore determined to return and destroy everything we could on our way down.” Meanwhile, by Monckton’s orders, Captain McCurdy had been scouring the country with his rangers and had succeeded in killing some cattle which were divided among the transports.
Captains Danks and Brewer were sent with their companies to burn some houses near what is now Upper Gagetown. After burning the houses they marched their troops down the “Neck” towards the village of Grimrose and on their way came across three or four Frenchmen who were driving off about forty head of 133 cattle. The New Englanders made a dash for this prize, the Acadians escaped, but most of the cattle were destroyed.
Captain McCurdy was sent by Monckton across the river to Jemseg to destroy all the houses and grain that he might find in that quarter and to kill the cattle, and these orders were duly obeyed. Monckton burnt the little settlement called Villeray’s (about three miles below Gagetown), and as he came down the river sent a small party on shore to burn the historic settlement of the Sieur de Belleisle and his sons-in-law, the brothers Robichaux, just above the mouth of Belleisle Bay. On the 8th day of November, after an absence of ten days, he arrived at the place above the falls where the troops had embarked.
Colonel Monckton evidently was not very much elated at the success of his expedition, for a few days after his return he wrote to Lieut. Governor De Lancey of New York: “I am sorry I can’t give you a better acct. of our Proceedings up this River. But it was attended with so many unavoidable delays and impediments that we were only able to go up about 23 Leagues, which is above 10 Leagues short of St. Annes—where, if we had been able to have reached, it is by very certain accounts of no consequence, being only a Village and not the least signs of a fort.
“We burnt one village and some straggling Houses and destroyed everything that could be the least serviceable to them, so that I should think that they will in the spring be obliged to retire to Canada. The River, after passing the Falls, is as fine a River as ever I saw, and when you get up about 10 Leagues the country is level, with fine woods of Oak, Beech, Birch and Walnut, and no underwood and the land able to produce anything. We have just finished a pretty good fort here, where the old French Fort stood, which will be a footing for anything that may be thought proper to be undertaken hereafter.”
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor general of Canada, was not ignorant of Monckton’s operations on the River St. John, but he was in no position to make any effectual resistance. In his letter to the French minister of November 5, 1758, he states that the English were engaged in rebuilding the old Fort at Menagoueche; the Indians of the River St. John had retired with the Rev. Father Germain, their missionary to Canada, where Bigot, the intendant, had provided for their wintering, and the greater part of the Acadians had also retired to Canada.
During Colonel Monckton’s absence up the river work was continued at the fort, so that it must have been nearly finished at the time of his return. It received the name of Fort Frederick, and the remains of its ramparts may still be seen at “Old Fort” in Carleton.
In the plan of St. John harbor made by Colonel Robert Morse of the Royal Engineers in 1784, there is an outline of Fort Frederick very nearly identical as regards situation and general form with the sketch of Fort Menagoueche (or “Fort de la Riviere de St. Jean”) made in October, 1700, by the Sieur de Villieu.[43] We have further proof of an interesting nature that the situation and general plan of the new fort was identical with the old French fort in one of the letters of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in which he tells us that about the time Fort Frederick 134 was nearing completion a French Canadian, kept there as a prisoner, made his escape, and on his return to Canada described the new fort as exactly the same size as the old but much stronger, the terraces being at least ten feet in thickness, and upon the terraces were palisades ten feet high in the form of “chevaux de frise.” The Frenchman had counted 18 cannons mounted of a calibre of 18L., and the English had told him they expected to mount in all 30 cannons of 20L. and of 18L.
On the 11th November Colonel Monckton sent Major Scott to Petitcodiac with the Light Infantry and Rangers in quest of a French privateer that had been at the St. John river and which, with one of her prizes, was said to have taken shelter there. He was directed to seize the vessels and bring them off, together with any of the Acadian inhabitants he could find, and to burn and destroy all the houses, barns, cattle, grain, etc. On his return he was to send Captain Dank’s company to Fort Cumberland.
Major Scott certainly acted with promptitude, for barely a week had expired when he returned to St. John with the privateer schooner and prize sloop, which he had found in two different creeks up the Petitcodiac river. The parties sent out by the Major destroyed upwards of 150 houses and barns, much grain and a good many cattle. They captured 30 prisoners, including women and children. The Acadian seem to have made some resistance, however, and a Lieutenant McCormack and three men of Captain McCurdy’s Company and two men of the Light Infantry were captured by them.
The troops that had served in the St. John river expedition were now distributed among the garrisons at Fort Cumberland, Windsor, Annapolis and Halifax, with the exception of McCurdy’s, Stark’s and Brewer’s companies of Rangers and a small detachment of artillery, ordered to remain at Fort Frederick under command of Major Morris. This was a more considerable garrison than could well find accommodation there during the winter, but such was not Monckton’s intention, for he writes in his journal: “The Fuel of the Garrison not being as yet lay’d in, I leave the three companies of Rangers, viz., McCurdy’s, Stark’s, and Brewer’s, and have ordered that Captain McCurdy’s company should Hutt and remain the Winter, the other two after compleating the wood to come to Halifax in the vessels I had left them.”
Monckton sailed for Halifax in the man-of-war “Squirrel” on the 21st of November, and with him went the 2nd Battalion of the Royal American Regiment of which he was the commander.
In the month of January following, a tragic event took place at or near St. Anne’s, an account of which has been left us by our early historians, Peter Fisher and Moses H. Perley, in substance as follows:
After the winter season had fairly set in, a party of the rangers at Fort Frederick, under Captain McCurdy, set out on snow-shoes to reconnoitre the country and to ascertain the state of the French settlements up the river. The first night after their departure they encamped at Kingston Creek, not far from the Belleisle, on a very steep hillside. That night Captain McCurdy lost his life by the falling of a large birch tree, which one of the rangers cut down on the hillside—the tree came thundering down the mountain and killed the Captain 135 instantly, Lieutenant Moses Hazen[44] succeeded to the command, and the party continued up the river to St. Ann’s Point (now Fredericton), where they found quite a town. They set fire to the chapel and other buildings, but a number of the French settlers gathered together, whereupon the Rangers retreated, and, being hotly pursued committed several atrocious acts upon the people who fell in their way, to prevent their giving information. By reversing their snow-shoes and making forced marches they got back safely to St. John.
This story, considerably modified in some of its details, finds confirmation from a variety of sources. (1) Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander of the forces serving in America, writes in a letter to Governor Lawrence, “You will have heard of the accident poor Capt. McCurdy met with as likewise of the success of his Lieutenant in demolishing the settlements at St. Anne’s: on the recommendation of Major Scott I have preferred Lieut. Hazen to Capt. McCurdy’s Company.” In a subsequent letter Amherst says: “Major Morris sent me the particulars of the scouting party and I gave a commission to Lieut Hazen, as I thought he deserved it. I am sorry to say what I have since heard of that affair has sullied his merit with me as I shall always disapprove of killing women and helpless children. Poor McCurdy is a loss, he was a good man in his post.” In another letter Amherst describes this sad affair more fully. See Appendix.
(2) Further confirmation of the charge of barbarity is found in the journal of Rev. Jacob Bailey[45] of Pownalboro, Maine. This gentleman had occasion to lodge at Norwood’s Inn, in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, on the night of Dec’r 13, 1759, and speaking of the company he found there says: “We had among us a soldier belonging to Capt. Hazen’s company of rangers, who declared that several Frenchmen were barbarously murdered by them, after quarters were given, and the villain added, I suppose to show his importance, that he ‘split the head of one asunder, after he fell on his knees to implore mercy.’ A specimen of New England clemency!”
(3). A statement is to be found in a dispatch of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, dated May 8, 1759, that a number of Acadians living at the River St. John were surprised on the night of the 27–28 January, 1759, by a detachment of New England troops who burned their houses, carried off twenty-three prisoners and killed two women and four children, whose scalps they bore away.
(4). Still further light is thrown upon this transaction by some notes appended to the names of certain Acadians, who had served as officers of militia in Acadia, and who were living in 1767 at Cherbourg. We learn that the Sieur Joseph Bellefontaine had once owned a large tract of land on the River St. John, near St. Anne’s, and that he was appointed Major of the militia on the river by order of the Marquis de la Galissonniere, April 10, 1749, and always performed his duties with fidelity until made a prisoner by the enemy. At the time of the mid-winter raid 136 on St. Anne’s he had the misery of seeing one of his daughters with three of her children massacred before his eyes by the English, who desired by this act of cruelty and the fear of similar treatment to compel him to take their side. On his refusal he barely escaped a like fate by his flight into the woods, carrying with him two other children of the same daughter. The young mother so ruthlessly slain was Nastasie Bellefontaine, wife of Eustache Pare. The other victims of this tragedy of the wilderness were the wife and child of Michel Bellefontaine—a son of Joseph Bellefontaine. This poor fellow had the anguish of beholding his wife and boy murdered before his eyes on his refusal to side with the English.
The village of St. Anne’s was left in a state of desolation. Moses Perley says that when the advance party of the Maugerville colony arrived at St. Anne’s Point in 1762, they found the whole of what is now the Town plat of Fredericton cleared for about ten rods back from the bank and they saw the ruins of a very considerable settlement. The houses had been burned and the cultivated land was fast relapsing into a wilderness state. Nevertheless the early English settlers reaped some advantage from the improvements made by the Acadians, for we learn from Charles Morris’ description of the river in 1768, that at the site of the old French settlement at St. Anne’s Point there was about five hundred acres of cleared upland in English grass from whence the inhabitants of Maugerville got the chief part of their Hay for their Stock. “They inform me,” says Mr. Morris, “that it produces about a load and a half to an acre.” He adds, “The French Houses are all burnt and destroyed.”
An interesting incident connected with the French occupation was related many years ago by the grandmother of the late Judge Fisher to one of her descendants. This good old lady came to St. Anne’s in the fall of 1783 with the Loyalists. Not very many months after their arrival, there was so great a scarcity of provisions that the unfortunate people in some cases were obliged to dig up the potatoes they had planted and eat them. As the season advanced their hearts were cheered by the discovery of some large patches of pure white beans, marked with a black cross. They had been planted by the French, but were now growing wild. In their joy at this fortunate discovery the settlers called them “the staff of life and hope of the starving.” Mrs. Fisher says she planted some of these beans with her own hands and that the seed was preserved in her family for many years.
The close of the year 1759 brought its anxieties to Colonel Mariot Arbuthnot, who had succeeded Major Morris as commandant at Fort Frederick. Quebec had fallen and the long and costly struggle between England and France for the possession of Canada and Acadia had terminated in favor of England.
The Massachusetts troops in garrison at Fort Frederick expected to be now relieved, as their period of enlistment had expired and the crisis of the war was over. But unfortunately for them, General Amherst at Crown Point found the force at his disposal insufficient, he could not spare a man, and Monckton, who commanded at Quebec, was in precisely the same predicament. Lawrence at Halifax had no troops at his disposal. Unless, therefore, the Massachusetts men remained Fort Frederick would be left without a garrison. In this emergency the Massachusetts legislature took the responsibility of extending the period of enlistment 137 of the troops of their colony, at the same time voting money necessary to provide them with beds and other comforts for the approaching winter. General Amherst strongly commended the patriotic action of the legislature, and wrote to Governor Lawrence, “They have judged very rightly that the abandoning any of the Garrisons may be attended with most fatal consequences to this country; and as they have made a necessary provision for the men to continue during the winter, if the men do not stay and serve voluntarily, they must be compelled to it by force.”
Evidently the men remained with great reluctance, for the following spring we find the Governor of Massachusetts writing to Governor Lawrence, “I find our people who are doing duty in your garrison—notwithstanding the favor and attention this Province has shown them for continuing their services through the winter, and notwithstanding the great encouragement given to those who would continue—have worked themselves up to such a temper of dissatisfaction that they have long ago threatened to come off, if not relieved.”
This threat was not meaningless for the governor goes on to say “already seventy men in one schooner and about eighty in another have openly come off from Fort Frederick at St. John’s.”
The conduct of these Massachusetts rangers was a source of mortification to Lieut. Governor Hutchinson, who speaks of “the unwarrantable behaviour of the garrison at St. John’s River, all of whom have deserted their post except 40 men and the continuation of those forty seems to be precarious.” Steps were at once taken to enlist a fresh detachment for service at Fort Frederick.
The conduct of the garrison was not unnatural, although from a military point of view it was inexcusable. The men had enlisted for a great and, as the event proved, a final struggle with France for supremacy in North America. With the downfall of Louisbourg and Quebec the crisis had passed. The period of their enlistment had expired, what right had the Assembly of Massachusetts to prolong it? Why should they remain? So they reasoned. Meanwhile garrison duty at Fort Frederick was found to be extremely monotonous. The country was deserted, for the few habitations that once existed in the vicinity of the fort had been abandoned and destroyed when the French fled up the river, and no English settlers had as yet appeared. Amidst their privations and the loneliness of their situation the charms of their own firesides seemed peculiarly inviting. Most probably, too, the fort and barracks were little more than habitable in consequence of the havoc wrought by a terrible storm on the night of the 3–4 November, 1759. This storm was the most violent that had till then been known, and from all accounts must at least have rivalled the famous “Saxby” gale of 1869. The tide attained a height of six feet above the ordinary, and huge waves, driven by the storm, broke through the dykes at the head of the Bay of Fundy, flooding the marsh lands reclaimed by the Acadians. Much damage was done along the coast, thousands of trees were blown down all over the country, while near the coastline the forest was levelled as with a scythe. A considerable part of Fort Frederick was washed away by the storm and Lieutenant Winckworth Tonge, of the Engineers, was sent with a party of men to repair it and put it in the most defensible 138 state the situation would allow, taking such tools and materials from Fort Cumberland as were needed. He found the condition of the fort even worse than he had anticipated. Governor Lawrence consulted General Amherst as to what should be done, and in answer the general wrote: “By Lt. Tonge’s report to you of the state of the works at Fort Frederick, it must doubtless undergo great alterations to put it in a proper state of defence, but as this will require many more hands than you can provide at present, we must for the time being rest satisfied with the work you have ordered, especially as the line of strong Pallisadoes you mention will secure it against any insult for the present.”
Colonel Arbuthnot’s anxieties were not confined to tidal waves and the discontents of his garrison. About the end of October a party of some two hundred Acadians came down the river to Fort Frederick and presented to him a certificate of their having taken the oath of allegiance to the English sovereign before Judge Cramahe, at Quebec; also an order signed by General Monckton giving them permission to return to their former habitations. Whether these Acadians were old inhabitants of the river, or fugitives who had taken refuge there at the time of the Expulsion is not very clear. Lawrence surmised that the certificates had been obtained from Judge Cramahe on the supposition that the people belonged to some river or place in Canada known as St. Johns, and not to the River St. John in Nova Scotia, and that they never could have had any sort of permission from Monckton to settle in Acadia.
The Abbe Casgrain comments severely on the course pursued by Governor Lawrence on this occasion: “Not being able,” he says, “to dispute the genuineness of the letters of Monckton and Cramahe, Lawrence claimed that the Acadians could only have obtained them by fraud, and he decided with his council, always ready to do his bidding, that they should be regarded as prisoners of war and transported as soon as possible to England. He took care not to disclose this resolution in order to keep them securely at the fort, and to have them ready to his hand when ships should arrive to transport them. This precaution was almost superfluous for the Acadians, having exhausted their last resources, were no longer in a state to return to the woods where they would have died of hunger.”
Evidently it was part of the settled policy of Lawrence and his advisers to keep the Acadians out of the province and to people it with English speaking inhabitants, and with this policy General Amherst seems to have been in accord, for he wrote the Governor of Nova Scotia, “The pass you mention the two hundred Inhabitants of St. John’s River to have from Mr. Monckton, was by no means meant or understood to give the French any right to those lands; and you have done perfectly right not to suffer them to continue there, and you will be equally right in sending them, when an opportunity offers, to Europe as Prisoners of War.”
And yet it was very natural that, after the surrender of Quebec, the Acadians should believe that upon accepting the new regime and taking the oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain they would be treated in the same way as the French Canadians. The Abbe Casgrain says, not without reason, that the Acadians had an even greater right than the Canadians to clemency at the hands of their conquerors as their sufferings were greater: [“Ils y avaient d’autant plus de droit qu’ils avaient plus souffert.”]
The expulsion at so late a period as this of two hundred Acadians from the Valley of the River St. John, where they had vainly hoped to remain in peace, is an incident of some importance. There is an unpublished letter of the Jesuit missionary Germain to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, written at Aukpaque on the River St. John, under date February 26, 1760, which is of some interest in this connection. “I arrived at the River St. John,” writes Father Germain, “on All Saints Day (Nov. 1, 1759), where I unfortunately found all the inhabitants had gone down to the English fort with their families, which made me resolve to go and join them, as I did eight days afterwards, with the intention of accompanying them wherever they might be sent in order to help them—some to die as Christians in the transport ships and others to be of good cheer in the calamity that has befallen them as it did their brethren who are exiles in New England. But by a stroke of Providence, Monsieur Coquart, missionary to the French, arrived, and I desired the commandant to give me leave to retire which he granted together with a passport permitting me to remain at the priests’ house in my mission where I am now.”[46]
Colonel Arbuthnot had reported to Governor Lawrence that the Acadians begged leave to remain upon their lands on their promise to be faithful and true to His Majesty’s Government. To this he made answer that they must come down to the Fort and remain there till he could apply to the Governor to know what should be done; they came down accordingly, and were to remain at the Fort until his excellency’s pleasure should be known. The poor Acadians were represented to be in a starving condition. Their case came before the Governor and Council for consideration on the 30th November, at a meeting held at the Governor’s house in Halifax, and the decision arrived at was this: “The Council are of opinion, and do advise that His Excellency do take the earliest opportunity of hiring vessels for having them immediately transported to Halifax, as Prisoners of War, until they can be sent to England; and that the two Priests be likewise removed out of the Province.” The resolve of the council seems to have been carried into effect. In the month of January, Lawrence sent to the River St. John for the French inhabitants who, to the number of 300, were brought to Halifax until he could send them to England. Colonel Arbuthnot was the agent employed in collecting these unfortunate people and sending them to Halifax, and being a gentleman of a humane disposition he doubtless found his task a most uncongenial one. Among his assistants was Joseph Winniett,[47] a member for Annapolis Royal in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.