The story of the old Medoctec village in later times will be told incidentally in the chapters that are to follow.
CHAPTER IX.
Incidents in King Georges War.
After a long interval of peace from the time of the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, war was declared between France and England in 1744. The Indians of the St. John river, who had been fairly quiet for some years, took the warpath with great alacrity. The war that ensued is known as “King George’s,” or the “Five Years” war. At its commencement the Maliseets played rather a sharp trick upon the English which Paul Mascarene and Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, remembered against them when peace was proclaimed five years later. On that occasion Count de la Galissonniere wrote to Mascarene to inquire if the Maliseets were included in the peace, “in which case,” he says, “I entreat you to have the goodness to induce Mr. Shirley to allow them to settle again in their villages, and to leave their missionaries undisturbed as they were before the war.” The French governor suggested that a reply might be sent through the missionary by whom he had sent his own letter. Both Mascarene and Shirley replied at some length to the letter of de la Galissonniere. They stated that when a renewal of the war with France was daily expected, a deputation of the St. John river Indians came to Annapolis professedly to make an agreement to remain on friendly terms with the English in the event of war with France. They were well received in consequence. But they had come in reality as spies, and three weeks afterwards returned with others of their tribe, the missionary le Loutre at their head, surprised and killed as many of the English as they caught outside the fort, destroyed their cattle, burnt their houses and continued their acts of hostility against the garrison till the arrival of troops from New England to check them. “For this perfidious behaviour,” Shirley says, “I caused war to be declared in his majesty’s name against these Indians in November, 1744, and so far as it depends upon me, they shall not be admitted to terms of peace till they have made a proper submission for their treachery.”
During King George’s war the Maliseet warriors did not, as in former Indian wars, assemble at Medoctec and turn their faces westward to devastate the settlements of New England, the scene of hostilities was now transferred to the eastward, Annapolis Royal, Beausejour and Louisbourg became the scene of hostilities and Aukpaque, not Medoctec, the place of rendezvous.
Immediately after the declaration of war Paul Mascarene set to work to repair the defences of Annapolis Royal. The French inhabitants at first showed every readiness to assist him, but they retired to their habitations when the Indians, to the number of about three hundred fighting men, appeared before the fort. Among the leaders of the savages was young Alexander le Borgne de Bellisle, who himself had Indian blood in his veins, being the son of Anastasie de St. Castin. The Indians failed in their attack and retired to await the arrival of troops from Louisbourg under Du Vivier.
Some weeks later the united forces again advanced on Annapolis but, after a siege lasting from the end of August to about the 25th of September, they were 80 obliged to retire without accomplishing anything. Mascarene conducted the defence with prudence and energy but honestly admits, in his letter to Governor Shirley, that it was largely “to the timely succours sent from the Governor of Massachusetts and to our French inhabitants refusing to take up arms against us, we owe our preservation.”
The people of New England cherished no good will toward the savages of Acadia. The horrors of Indian warfare in the past were yet fresh in their memories, and stern measures were resolved upon. Governor Shirley, with the advice of his council, offered premiums for their scalps, £100 currency for that of an adult male Indian, £50 for that of a woman or child, and for a captive £5 higher than for a scalp.