History of Halifax City

by Thomas B. Akins

The first act of Government, after the organization of the Council on the 14th, was an audience of the three French Deputies, who had come down to meet the New Governor. They were Jean Melanson, from Canard River; Claude le Blance, from Grand Pre, and Philip Melanson from Pisiquid. Colonel Mascarine read to the Council the oath which the French inhabitants had before taken. Being asked if they had anything to offer from their several departments, they answered that they were sent only to pay their respects to His Excellency and to know what was to be their condition henceforth, and whether they would be allowed their priests. They were assured that their religion should be protected, but that, as heretofore, no priest should be permitted to officiate within the Province, without having first obtained a license from the Governor. They were furnished with copies of the Royal Declaration, a proclamation issued by Governor Cornwallis, and the oath which had been customary, with directions to return within a fortnight, to report to the Council the views of the inhabitants of the respective districts, and also to notify the other settlements to send deputies as soon as possible. The second meeting of the Council took place on the 17th, when Mr. Wm. Steele was sworn in a member of the Board, and on the following day the Governor's proclamation was read in the camp, prohibiting all persons from leaving the Province without permission, and against the retail of spirituous liquors without license.

On the 18th, Mr. Bruce the Engineer, Lieutenants Ewer, Collier and Mr. John Duport were appointed Justices of the peace, and all the settlers having assembled in separate companies with their respective overseers, each company chose its constables.

The Governor designed opening more perfect means of communication with Minas by constructing a road, which he described as being 30 miles only, in a direct line, and to build a Block House half way, but having only two companies of soldiers with him, one of Hopson's and one of Warberton's regiment, together with about 60 of Goreham's Indian Rangers, and the 50 French, who promised to assist in the work, having disappointed him, he was compelled to postpone the object until after the arrival of the army from Louisburg. Proper access to the interior, by the construction of a good road to Minas, was deemed of paramount importance to the settlement of the country. The inhabitants of the rural districts were so insulated as to be in a great measure independent of all authority. Colonel Mascarine, on returning to Annapolis, received directions to send a Captain, 3 Subalterns and 100 men to Minas, and to erect a Block-house and Battery there, the troops to be first quartered at Grand Pre, where the Block-house was to be built, and the French people were to be hired at fair wages to assist in the work.

Capt. How, who had been sent to St. John River in the Albany with Capt. Rouse, having returned overland with thirteen Indians, three deputies from the tribes at St. John, the Chief of the Chinecto Indians, and nine others of their tribes. They received an audience on the 14th; they consisted of Francis de Salle, Chief from Octfragli; the Chief Noellobig, from Medochig; the Chief Neptune Albodonallilla from the Chignecto tribe, for himself and tribe. The negotiation was carried on through Martin, the Indian, and André, the interpreter from Minas. They stated to the Council that they had come to confirm the treaty of 1726, and that several of them had been present at that treaty. Terms were drawn up by Mr. Secretary Davidson, and signed by the Chiefs on the 15th August,[16] 1749, and Capt. How was ordered to carry it to St. John to be ratified, and to take with him presents to the Chiefs. It was accordingly ratified on the 4th day of September following, and signed by all the Chiefs and Captains at the River St. John, six in number, in the presence of Mr. How and seven other witnesses; Madame De Bellisle acting as interpreter by request of the Indians. This document is still in existence; also a copy of that of 1726, sent to Governor Cornwallis by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay. This treaty appears to have been little regarded, for in the beginning of October following, news arrived from Annapolis and Canso of further incursions on the part of the Indians, and Government was compelled to raise two new independent companies of Volunteers for that service, which were placed under the command of Major Gilman and Capt. Clapham, on the same footing with the Rangers under Gorham.

After the evacuation of Louisburg the population received a considerable accession; a number of the English inhabitants came with Governor Hobson and became settlers, and many from New England were daily arriving, and upwards of 1000 more from the old provinces had expressed themselves desirous of joining the Settlement before winter. The Governor therefore gave orders to all vessels in the Government service to give them a free passage. The New England people soon formed the basis of the resident population, and are the ancestors of many of the present inhabitants. They were better settlers than the old discharged soldiers and sailors who came on the fleet; most of whom died or left the country during the first three or four years, leaving, however, the most industrious and respectable among them as permanent settlers. Many settlers and traders came out for the purpose of making money; these people infested the Settlement in great numbers, and gave Mr. Cornwallis and his successors much trouble and annoyance, in demoralizing the people by the illicit sale of bad liquors, and in other ways retarding the progress of the country.

A proposition was made about this time by a French merchant from the West Indies to Governor Cornwallis to bring to Halifax some Protestant families from Martinique with their effects, if he would give them protection and grant them lands, and the Governor was furnished with a list of their names, with what each of them was worth, which approached in all nearly £50,000. This gentleman proceeded to Louisburg to obtain for them a passport, and proposed to have his people on before winter; but it does not appear as far as any information on the subject can be gathered from the public records that any of these French Protestants ever arrived.

The Government found it necessary to check the indiscriminate sale of spirituous liquors by a license duty. On the 28th August an ordinance passed for that purpose, and all such licensed houses were to be closed at 9 p. m. under penalty. On the 31st August the Governor and Council for the first time sat as a Court of Law. This was named the General Court, all authority—legislative, executive and judicial—being vested in the Board. They met on this day for the trial of Abram Goodside, the Boatswain's mate of the Beaufort, who stabbed and wounded two men. A grand jury was summoned who found a bill of indictment; he was tried and found guilty by a petit jury, and hanged under the Governor's warrant on 2nd September, 1749. On 31st August, another Court was held for the trial of one Peter Cartal, for murder. The Acadian Deputies having returned from the country, they were called before the Governor and Council on September 6th, when they presented a letter signed by 1000 inhabitants claiming to take only a qualified Oath of Allegiance.

On the 30th August, a sloop from Liverpool, Great Britain, with 116 settlers, arrived after a passage of nine weeks. They were, however, all quite healthy, not one person being sick on board at the time of their arrival. Two streets were then added to the Town and lots assigned to these people. This was Forman's new division. We have no names of these settlers or the name of the sloop.

Information having reached the Government that the Indians of Acadia and St. John's Island, designed to molest the settlement at Halifax on the approach of winter,[17] it was deemed advisable to erect outworks for its defence; accordingly the troops and inhabitants were immediately employed to construct a line of palisades around the town in connection with square log forts which were to be placed at convenient distances. A space of thirty feet was cleared without the lines, and the trees thrown up by way of a barricade, which constituted a complete defence against any attempt on the part of the Indians. Those settlers who had built their houses without the town had arms given them, and their dwellings being built of logs were musket proof; also the Ordnance Artificers, those from New England and such of the settlers as had been in the army, and such others as could be trusted with arms within the town, also received them, and an order was sent to Boston for a supply of lamps to light the streets during the winter nights. Col. Goreham was sent to the head of the Basin with his company of Rangers for the winter, with an armed sloop to assist him, and every preparation possible was made for the protection of the people during the ensuing winter.

The Indians had appeared in the neighbourhood of the town for several weeks, but intelligence had been received that they had commenced hostilities, by the capture of twenty persons at Canso under frivolous pretences, and of two vessels having been attacked by them at Chignecto, when three English and seven Indians were killed. In consequence of this information it was resolved in Council to send a letter to M. Desherbiers, Governor of Louisburg, to recall LeLoutre. On the last day of September they made an attack on the sawmill at Dartmouth, then under the charge of Major Gilman. Six of his men had been sent out to cut wood without arms. The Indians laid in ambush, killed four and carried off one, and the other escaped and gave the alarm, and a detachment of rangers was sent after the savages, who having overtaken them, cut off the heads of two Indians and scalped one.[18]