Resolute attempts continued to be made to withdraw the Acadians from the peninsula of Nova Scotia, both by threats and persuasions, and the Marquis de la Jonquiere issued a proclamation to those living within the bounds of what is now New Brunswick, declaring that all who did not within eight days take the oath of allegiance in the militia companies would be considered as rebels and driven from their lands. The companies of militia were ordered to drill on Sundays and Feast days and to hold themselves in readiness to defend themselves at any moment. A few months later the governor of Canada was able to report that all the Acadian inhabitants who were upon the lands of the king had taken the oath of fidelity. Twelve blank commissions were sent from Quebec to be issued to those most capable of fulfilling the duties of officers in the militia.
At Fort Menagoueche the work did not progress as fast as anticipated. The workmen had no tools except axes, and the Sieur de Gaspe complained that he had not been able to make the soldiers of the garrison work. He says “they are very bad subjects” and he dared not compel them to work apprehending their desertion. The fort was surrounded by four bastions and, in addition to the barracks and magazines, it was proposed to construct a building of logs, squared with the axe, to accommodate the chaplain and surgeon and to serve as a guard house.
Fort Boishebert, at Woodman’s Point on the Nerepis, was a difficult post to maintain owing to the insufficiency of the troops at de Gaspe’s disposal. He complains that the savages had broken in the door of the cellar and he thought it advisable to abandon it altogether. The Marquis de la Jonquiere ordered him to consult with Father Germain on the subject and meanwhile to double the guard. The missionary wrote he was of the same opinion as the Sieur de Gaspe, and permission was accordingly given to abandon the fort and to transport the supplies wherever they might be needed.
The Jesuit missionary at Penobscot, Father Gounon, proposed to spend the winter at “Nerepisse” with his Indians, but the governor of Canada did not at all approve of it, fearing that if the savages were to abandon their village the English would advance from the westward towards the River St. John. He apprehended that if only a small number of Indians remained at Penobscot, and these without a missionary, the enemy would win them to their side and, as a direful result, the English would presently establish themselves at Matsipigouattons, advancing to Peskadamokkanti (or Passamaquoddy) and so by degrees to the River St. John.
CHAPTER XI.
The French anxious to hold possession of the River St. John.
The situation on the St. John had now become a matter of international interest in view of the boundary dispute. The deliberations of the French and English commissioners began in 1750 and lasted four years. In preparing the French case the Marquis de la Galissonniere summoned to his aid the Abbes de L’Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, who were both well informed as to the situation of Acadia and also filled with intense zeal for the national cause. We learn from letters of the Abbe de L’Isle-Dieu, written at Paris to the French minister early in the year 1753, that the two missionaries, in consultation with the Count de la Galissonniere, prepared several documents to elucidate the French case. Copies of these very interesting papers are now in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa, and have been published at Quebec in 1890 by the Abbe Casgrain in “Le Canada Francais.” The three most important of these documents are entitled:
1. Memorandum on the necessity of determining the limits of Acadia.