CHAPTER XIV.
Aukpaque, the Village at the Head of the Tide.
On the west bank of the St. John, about six miles above the City of Fredericton, is the site of the old Indian village of Aukpaque. It looks out upon a charming panorama of interval and islands, amidst which the river creeps lazily with many windings. In the background across the river there rises the steep slope of Currie’s Mountain, volcanic in its origin. Weird legends connected with this mountain have been handed down from ancient days, which the Indian guides will sometimes rehearse when they find appreciative listeners.
The surroundings of Aukpaque are indeed very beautiful, and as long ago as 1686 they won the admiration of Monseigneur St. Vallier, who, after describing the extent and varied scenery of the river, its smoothly flowing waters and fertile islands embosomed by the tide, says: “Some fine settlements might be made between Medoctec and Jemseg, especially at a certain place which we have named Sainte Marie, where the river enlarges and the waters are divided by a large number of islands that apparently would be very fertile if cultivated. A mission for the savages would be well placed there; the land has not as yet any owner in particular, neither the King nor the governor having made a grant to any one.”
Evidently there was not at this time any Indian village at Aukpaque, but it is probable the place was occasionally used as a camping ground. In the course of the next half century, however, there grew into existence a village that rivalled and in time eclipsed the more ancient village of Medoctec. Doubtless the presence of the French on the lower St. John, and the establishment of Villebon’s fort, at the mouth of the Nashwaak, served to draw the savages in that direction.
At the time of Monseigneur St. Vallier’s visit they were beginning very generally to embrace Christianity. The Indians and the Acadians were visited occasionally by Claude Moireau, a Recollet missionary, who went up the river as far at least as Fort Jemseg where, in July, 1680, he baptized nine Indian children of ages varying from five months to nineteen years. Their names, with those of their parents and sponsors, are duly recorded in his register. One or two of the entries are here inserted as of historic interest:—
“The year of grace 1680, the 7 July: I have baptized at Jemseg, according to the forms of our Holy Church, Claude, son of Soksim, savage, and of Apolline Kedekouit, Christian, aged 18 years, and named at the font Claude by Claude Petipas, notary royal, and Isabella Petipas, his sponsors.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
“The same day baptized Marie, sauvagesse, aged one year, daughter of Tobuk and of Marie Noktomkiache, Christian, and named at the font Marie by Rene Lambert and Catherine Bugaret, her sponsors.
[Signed] Cl. Moireau, Recol.”
Two baptisms in the following year, one at Jemseg and the other at St. John, are of equal interest:—
“At Jemsek, the year of grace 1681, the 25 May, have baptized according to the forms of our Holy Church, Marie Anne Denis, aged 4 months, daughter of Sieur Richard Denis, Esquire, and of Anne Partarabego, sauvagesse, and has been held at the font by damoiselle Marie Chartier, dame de Marson, her godmother, who has named her Marie Anne.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
“At Menagoueck, the year of grace 1681, the 2 June, have baptized according to the forms of the Church, Jeanne Guidry, child of Claude Guirdy dit la Verdure and of Keskoua, sauvagesse, who has been held at the font by Claude Petipas and Jeanne de la Tour, wife of Martignon, her sponsors, who have named her Jeanne.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
A little later Father Simon of the Recollet order became the missionary of the Indians on the river with headquarters at Medoctec. Some account of his interesting personality and of his zealous labors will be found in a previous chapter. After his death the work among the Indians passed into the hands of the Jesuit missionary, Joseph Aubery, and his successors Jean Baptiste Loyard, Jean P. Danielou and Charles Germain. The whole river was included in the mission and the priest had many journeys to make, but Medoctec, as the principal village, was for years the headquarters of the mission. This was so down to the time of Loyard’s death. His successor, Danielou, ministered to the Indians of Medoctec, also, as is shown by the presence of his name on the slate-stone tablet of the Medoctec chapel. But it is probable that Danielou was frequently at Aukpaque, and he certainly had the spiritual oversight of the Acadians at St. Anne’s Point.
Inscription on Medoctec Stone
The Indians of the River St. John were regarded by the English as the most powerful and warlike tribe of Acadia and the Governor of Nova Scotia endeavored to gain their good-will, and to induce them to adhere to the treaty made with the eastern tribes by the authorities of New England and Nova Scotia in 1725. In the year 1732 Lieut. Governor Armstrong of Nova Scotia sent Paul Mascarene to Boston to treat with Governor Belcher about the erection of a “truck-house” for the Indian trade on the St. John river, and Mascarene was instructed to recommend the lands on the St. John to the people of Massachusetts as a very desirable place of settlement. Belcher expressed the opinion that unless the crown would build a fort at the mouth of the river, the “truck-house” project would fail, but in case of its erection Massachusetts would probably send a sloop with goods to the Indians Spring and Fall. However the idea of an English post at the mouth of the St. John remained in abeyance until the surrender of Beausejour.
So far as known to the author, the first mention of the Indian village of Aukpaque occurs in connection with the census of 1733 which states that fifteen French families reside below the “Village d’Ecoupay.” From this time onward there are frequent references to Aukpaque, some of which are indicated in the foot-note below.[48]
The little colony of fifteen families mentioned in the census of 1733 seems to have settled in the vicinity of St. Anne’s Point a few years previously. It was a typical Acadian hamlet. Its people were of simple habits and wished to live in peace. Naturally they were loyal to their mother country and devout members of their mother church. But France—sunny France—with all her marvellous resources and splendid opportunities, proved an unworthy mother. And what has been the result? A colonial empire shrunken almost to insignificance. And even if her colonial empire were today what it was in the days of Louis XIV, the colonies would be as empty cradles for which there are no children. The progress and development of the Acadians of the maritime provinces and of the French Canadians of the Dominion tell what France might have been if her people had been true to high ideals.
The colony of New France was never supported as it should have been. While New England was making rapid progress and the tide of immigration set strongly in that direction, Canada was left to take care of itself. After the days of Frontenac the governors of Quebec were haunted by the fear of encroachments on their territory on the part of the people to the south. It became their policy to employ the Indians and Acadians as buttresses against the inflowing tide of the Anglo-Saxons. The Acadians would fain have lived in peace but, alas the trend of events left little room for neutrality.
The Maliseets of the St. John were naturally disposed to resent the intrusion of the whites on their hunting grounds, and the French encouraged this sentiment as regards any advance made by the English. In the year 1735, Francis Germaine, “chief of Ockpaque,” with one of his captains came to Annapolis Royal to complain of the conduct of some English surveyors, whom they seem to have regarded as trespassers on their lands. For some reason they missed seeing the governor, but he wrote them a very friendly letter, assuring them of his favor and protection. This, however, did not satisfy the Indians, for a few months afterwards they interfered with the loading of a vessel that had been sent to St. John for limestone by the ordnance 143 storekeeper at Annapolis and robbed the sailors of their clothes and provisions, claiming that the lands and quarries belonged to them. Not long afterwards the Governor of Nova Scotia addressed a letter to “The Reverend Father Danilou, priest of St. John’s River,” complaining that a party of Maliseets under Thoma, their chief, had surprised, Stephen Jones, an English trader, as he lay sleeping aboard his vessel at Piziquid [Windsor, N. S.] and robbed him of goods to the value of £900 and of his book of accounts valued at £700 more, and he hoped the missionary would use his influence to induce the Indians to keep the peace and, if possible, obtain redress for the unfortunate man they had robbed.
Two of the principal Acadians, living at or near St. Ann’s, Mich’l Bergeron and Joseph Bellefontaine, had an interview with Governor Armstrong in 1736, and by request gave him a list of the Acadians then living on the river, numbering in all 77 souls, besides the missionary Jean Pierre Danielou. The governor ordered the Acadians to make their submission to the British government and not to receive any missionary without his approbation. It does not appear, however, that he was on unfriendly terms with Danielou, who came to Annapolis the next year and exercised the functions of his ministry.
Under the care of Danielou’s successor Germain, the Acadians and their savage allies had a chequered experience indeed, but this has been already related in the previous chapters.
At the time of Monckton’s invasion of the river in 1758 most of the Indians abandoned the village of Aukpaque and retired with their missionary, Germain, to Canada, but they returned after the capture of Quebec and some of their chiefs went to Fort Frederick and took the oath of allegiance to the English monarch. Colonel Arbuthnot was directed to encourage them to come to Halifax and make a treaty of peace and such arrangements as were necessary for trade with the English.
During the session of the House of Assembly held at Halifax in the winter of 1759–60, Governor Lawrence urged the House to make provision for the establishment of “truck-houses” for the Indians; he also recommended legislation for the purpose of preventing private trade with them, and the Assembly soon afterwards passed an act for that purpose.
On the 11th of February, Colonel Arbuthnot came to Halifax from Fort Frederick, with two Indian chiefs of the Passamaquoddy tribe, to make peace on the basis of the old Indian Treaty of 1725. Representatives of the St. John river tribe arrived a few days later. The Indians appeared before the Governor and Council with an interpreter. They were received with every courtesy and presented with gold lace blankets, laced hats, etc. It was agreed that the treaty should be prepared in English and French, that the chiefs should be sent back in a vessel to St. John, and that Col. Arbuthnot should accompany them, taking the treaty with him to be ratified. After a fortnight’s deliberation the treaty was signed, on the 23rd February, by Ballomy Glode, chief of the St. John Indians, and Michel Neptune, chief of the Passamaquoddies. The treaty was based on those of 1725 and 1749, with an additional engagement on the part of the Indians not to aid the enemies of the English, to confine their traffic to the truck-house at Fort Frederick 144 and to leave three of each tribe there as hostages to ensure performance of the articles of the treaty.
In order the better to carry out the provisions of this treaty, and of similar treaties made at this time with the different tribes of Acadia, Benjamin Gerrish was appointed Indian commissary. Gerrish agreed to buy goods and sell them to the Indians for furs, he to receive 5 per cent on goods purchased and 2½ per cent on furs sold, and the prices to be so arranged that the Indians could obtain their goods at least 50 per cent cheaper than hitherto.
At their conference with the Governor and his council the Indians agreed upon a tariff of prices[49] for the Indian trade, the unit of value to be one pound of the fur of the spring beaver, commonly known as “one beaver,” equivalent in value to a dollar, or five shillings. Under the tariff the following articles were to be sold to the Indians at the following prices: Large blanket, 2 “beavers”; 2 yards stroud, 3 “beavers”; 14 pounds pork, 1 “beaver”; 30 pounds flour, 1 “beaver”; 2½ gallons molasses, 1 “beaver”; 2 gallons rum, 1 “beaver”; and other articles in proportion.
Furs and skins sold by the Indians at the “truck-house” were to be valued by the same standard: Moose skin, 1½ “beavers”; bear skin, 1⅓ “beavers”; 3 sable skins, 1 “beaver”; 6 mink skins, 1 “beaver”; 10 ermine skins, 1 “beaver”; silver fox skin, 2½ “beavers,” and so on for furs and skins of all descriptions. By substituting the cash value for the value in “beavers,” we shall obtain figures that would amaze the furrier of modern days and prove eminently satisfactory to the purchaser, for example: Bear skin (large and good), $1.35; moose skin (large), $1.50; luciffee (large), $2.00; silver fox, $2.50; black fox, $2.00; red fox, 50cts.; otter, $1.00; mink, 15 cts.; musquash, 10 cts. And yet these prices, ridiculously low as they appear, were considerably better than the Indians Had received from the French traders. It was no doubt on such terms as these that Messrs. Simonds, White and Hazen traded with the Indians after they came to St. John.
Benjamin Gerrish soon afterwards took steps to establish the “truck-house” promised the Indians, and by order in council of July 19, 1760, Captain Doggett was instructed to proceed directly to the River St. John and deliver the stores that Mr. Gerrish had shipped on board his vessel for the truck-master at Fort Frederick.
Colonel Arbuthnot reported that the Indians behaved well and came to the fort to trade. The delegates from the River St. John, who went to Halifax, seem to have acted in accordance with the advice of their missionary Germain, who accepted the logic of events after the fall of Quebec and advised the Indians to submit to their conquerors. The establishment of a “truck-house” at St. John was of advantage to them and the missionary determined to cultivate friendly relations with the English.
Governor Lawrence reported that he had induced the Assembly of Nova Scotia to pass a law, with severe penalties, against private trading with the Indians. The provisions of this act, however, found little favor with the Lords of Trade, by 145 whom it was considered “an improper and unreasonable restraint upon trade.” Their objection found expression in the proclamation of George III., at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763:—
“We do by the advice of our privy council declare and enjoin that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a license for carrying on such trade from the governor or commander-in-chief of any of our colonies where such person shall reside, and also give security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit to direct or appoint.”
The proclamation required the governor to issue such licenses without fee or reward, the license to be void and the security forfeited if the person to whom it was granted failed to observe the regulations prescribed.
We have now arrived at the period when the first permanent English settlement was to be made on the St. John river, but before proceeding to the consideration of that event a glance at the general situation on the river is necessary. The only foot-hold the English had as yet obtained was at Fort Frederick on the west side of St. John harbor. A considerable number of Acadians still lingered furtively in their hiding places up the river, the majority of them near the Indian village of Aukpaque. For their benefit, as well as that of the savages, the missionary Germain desired to remain at his post. He accordingly made overtures to the Nova Scotia authorities to be allowed to continue his ministrations, promising to use his influence in the interests of peace. To this proposition the Governor and Council cheerfully assented, promising the missionary a stipend of £50. A year or two afterwards he wrote acknowledging the receipt of his salary and stating it was his desire to inspire the Indians with the respect due to the government. He complained of their irregularities and says that in spite of his efforts to promote harmony he feared “they will shortly pay no regard to what he says.”
In Kidder’s “Military operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution,” the statement is made that Aukpaque signifies a beautiful expanding of the river occasioned by numerous islands, but, while this is perfectly correct as descriptive of the locality, it is more probable that Aukpaque—or its Indian equivalent Ek-pa-hawk—means “the head of the tide,” or beginning of swift water. Kidder speaks of the site of Aukpaque as “almost unknown and difficult to locate.” Commenting on this statement, the late Sir John C. Allen (whose grandfather, Colonel Isaac Allen, purchased of the Indians the site of the village of Aukpaque), makes the following remark:—
“It is an error to suppose that there is any difficulty in locating Aukpaque. It is laid down, under the name Opack, on a plan in the Crown Lands office in Fredericton of a survey of land in the old Township of Sunbury while this province formed a part of Nova Scotia. In addition to this there are several persons living who can point out the place that was used as the Indian burial ground and who remember that a large piece of cleared land adjacent to it and separated from it by a deep ravine, being a part of the tract of land reserved for the Indians, was formerly known as the ‘Chapel Field’—no doubt from the fact that the chapel of the Indian settlement had stood upon it. There is also further evidence in the plan of the survey of the lands in the Parish of Kingsclear, the grant of which issued in 1799, upon which a cross is marked on this lot of land, which is 146 well known to indicate the site of a church or chapel. There is very little doubt that at the time of the survey the chapel, or the remains of it, were standing, as the Indians had been in occupation of the land till within a few years of that time.”
We may add that the claim of the Indians to the lands in the vicinity of their village was early recognized by the Government of Nova Scotia, and when the first grant of a large tract of the surrounding country was made in 1765 to Thomas Falconer and sixty-six other land speculators, there was expressly reserved for the Indians “500 acres, including a church and burying ground at Aughpack, and four acres for a burying ground at St. Ann’s point, and the island called Indian (or Savage) Island.” This island is probably that mentioned in 1753 by the Abbe de L’Isle Dieu as “l’isle d’Ecouba,” the residence of the missionary Charles Germain.
The situation of Aukpaque is shown in the accompanying sketch:—
PLAN OF AUKPAQUE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
Although the Indians were ostensibly at peace with the English they viewed them with suspicion, and were jealous of any infringement of their aboriginal rights. After the erection of Fort Frederick they seem, for the most part, to have abandoned the lower part of the river, and Charles Morris tells us that about the year 1760 they burned much of the timber along the Long Reach and on both sides of the Washademoak and probably at other places.
When the exploring party of the Maugerville colony arrived at St. Anne’s point in 1762 and were about to begin their survey, a large party of Indians came down from their priest’s residence, with his interpreter, their faces painted in divers colors and figures, and dressed in their war habits. The chiefs informed the adventurers that they were trespassers on their rights, that the country belonged to them, and unless they retired immediately they would compel them.
The chiefs claimed that they had some time before had a conference with Governor Lawrence and had consented that the English should settle the country up as far as Grimross. The surveyors promised to remove their camp towards Grimross. This answer did not appear to fully satisfy the Indians, but they made no reply. The settlement of the New England people, in consequence of the attitude of the Indians, did not embrace St. Anne’s Point as originally intended.
Plans of the River St. John were made by the Hon. Charles Morris, surveyor general of Nova Scotia, as early as the year 1761. A little later he wrote an interesting description of the river. He describes “Aughpack” as about seven miles from St. Anne’s, and says the Acadians had settlements upon the uplands between the two places but drew their subsistence from the cultivation of the intervals and islands. At Aukpaque was the Indian church and the residence of the French missionary. Their church and buildings adjoining had been demolished by the Indians themselves. The island opposite Aukpaque, called Indian Island, was the place where the Indians of the river made their annual rendezvous.
“On this island,” adds Mr. Morris, “is their town, consisting of forty mean houses, or wigwams, built with slender poles and covered with bark. In the centre of the town is the grand council chamber constructed after the same manner as the other houses.”
The reason for the destruction by the Indians of their church we need not go far to seek. In the summer of the year 1763 three chiefs came to Halifax to inquire why Father Germain had been removed from his post. They were told that he had gone of his own accord to Quebec and had been detained there by General Murray, and that the government of Nova Scotia were not responsible for it. They then desired Lieutenant Governor Belcher to provide them with another priest, which he promised to do. The Indians were satisfied and departed with their usual presents. The intention of the lieutenant governor was frustrated by an order from the Lords of Trade forbidding the employment of a French missionary. Governor Wilmot regretted this action as likely to confirm the Indians in their notion of the English as “a people of dissimulation and artifice who will deceive and deprive them of their salvation.” He thought it better to use the Indians generously and mentions the fact of their having lately burned their church, by direction of the priest detained at Quebec, as a proof of their devotion to their religious guides.
The site of the old church at Aukpaque was in all probability the old “chapel field” mentioned by Sir John C. Allen. Hard by, on the other side of a little ravine, is the old burial ground of the Acadians and Indians. One of the descendants of the Acadians, who visited the spot a few years ago, writes mournfully of this little cemetery:
“Not a stone, not a cross, not even an enclosure to divide it from other fields; here in this corner of the world, remote and almost unknown, repose the ashes of some of our ancestors, the first cultivators of the soil of Madawaska. Freed from all the troubles and vicissitudes of the past they hear only the gentle, harmonious murmur of the waters of La Riviere St. Jean, the river they loved so well even in the days of their misfortune.”