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 271 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 272 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.