BELL OF OLD INDIAN CHAPEL. (A. D. 1717.)
Port Royal, under its new name of Annapolis, was now become the headquarters of British authority and efforts were made to establish friendly relations with the Indians of the St. John river. In July, 1720, nine chiefs were brought over to Annapolis in a vessel sent by Governor Philipps for the purpose; they were entertained and addressed and presents were made to them and they went home apparently well pleased. However the English governor did not count much upon their fidelity. He states that he was beset with Indian delegations from various quarters; that he received them all and never dismissed them without presents, which they always looked for and for which he was out of pocket about a hundred and fifty 77 pounds; he adds, “but I am convinced that a hundred thousand will not buy them from the French interest while the priests are among them.”
Governor Philipps’ lack of confidence in Indian promises of friendship and alliance was soon justified, for in Lovewell’s war, which broke out in 1722 and lasted three years, the Indians surprized and captured a large number of trading vessels in the Bay of Fundy and along the coast, and a party of 30 Maliseets and 26 Micmacs attacked the Fort at Annapolis, killing two of the garrison and dangerously wounding an officer and three men. In retaliation for the loss of Sergt McNeal, who was shot and scalped, the English shot and scalped an Indian prisoner on the spot where McNeal had fallen, an action which, however great the provocation, is to be lamented as unworthy of a Christian people.
Lovewell’s war was terminated by a notable treaty made at Boston in 1725 with four eminent sagamores representing the tribes of Kennebec, Penobscot, St. John and Cape Sable; Francois Xavier appearing on behalf of the Maliseets of the St. John. The conference lasted over a month, for the Indians were very deliberate in their negotiations and too well satisfied with their entertainment to be in a hurry. The treaty was solemnly ratified at Falmouth in the presence of the Lieutenant-Governors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Nova Scotia, and about forty chiefs. The formal assent of the St. John Indians does not appear to have been given until May, 1728, when three or four sachems, accompanied by twenty-six warriors, came from Medoctec to Annapolis Royal to ratify the peace and make submission to the British government. Governor Armstrong with the advice of his officers made them presents, entertained them several days and sent them away well satisfied.
The ministry of Loyard was now drawing to a close. He seems to have been a man of talents and rare virtues, esteemed and beloved by both French and Indians, and in his death universally lamented. He devoted nearly twenty-four of the best years of his life to the conversion of the Indians, and when summoned to Quebec for the benefit of his health, which had become impared by toil and exposure, he had hardly recovered from the fatigue of the journey when he requested to be allowed to return to his mission, where his presence was needed. It was while in the active discharge of his duty among the sick that he contracted the disease of which he died in the midst of his people, who were well nigh inconsolable for their loss. The obituary letter announcing his death to the other Jesuit missionaries contains a glowing eulogy of the man and his work. His disposition had nothing of sternness, yet he was equally beloved and revered by his flock; to untiring zeal he joined exemplary modesty, sweetness of disposition, never failing charity and an evenness of temper which made him superior to all annoyances; busy as he was he had the art of economising the moments, and he gave all the prescribed time to his own spiritual exercises; over his flock he watched incessantly as a good shepherd with the happy consolation of gathering abundant fruit of his care and toil; he was fitted for everything and ready for everything, and his superiors could dispose of him as they would. The date of his death, June 24, 1731, suggests some remarkable coincidences. The 24th of June is St. John Baptist’s day; Loyard’s name was Jean Baptiste; the church he built was 78 called St. Jean Baptiste; it was the first church on the banks of a river named in honor of St. Jean Baptiste (because discovered on 24th June, 1604, by Champlain); and it was fitting that the missionary who designed it, who watched over its construction and who probably was laid to rest beneath its shade, should pass from the scene of his labors on the day that honors the memory of St. Jean Baptiste. By a pure coincidence the author finds himself penning these words on St. John Baptist’s day, 1903.
Jean Loyard Fac-simile, A. D. 1708.
Loyard’s successor was Jean Pierre Danielou, whose presence at Medoctec is indicated by the occurrence of his name on the memorial tablet. After his arrival at Quebec in 1715 he was employed for some years as a teacher, but took holy orders about 1725. Danielou had been but a short time in charge of his mission when he received a sharply worded letter from the governor of Nova Scotia, ordering the Acadians settled on the River St. John to repair to the port of Annapolis Royal and take the oath of allegiance. The governor says that their settling on the river without leave was an act of great presumption. A number of the settlers accordingly presented themselves at Annapolis, where they took the required oaths and agreed to take out grants.
The little French colony were settled at or near St. Anns (now Fredericton) for a census made in 1733, for the government of France, gives the number of Acadians on the river as 111, divided into twenty families, and fifteen of these families, numbering eighty-two persons, were living below the village of Ecoupay (or Aukpaque). Two families lived at Freneuse and three at the mouth of the river.