The statement has been made in some of our school histories, “Acadia was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, and has remained a British possession ever since.” The statement is, to say the least, very misleading, so far as the St. John river country is concerned, for the French clung tenaciously to this territory as a part of the dominions of their monarch until New France passed finally into the hands of their rivals by the treaty of Paris in 1763.
There was no part of Acadia that was more familiar to the French than the valley of the River St. John, and the importance attached to the retention of it by France is seen very clearly in a memorandum, prepared about this time for the use of the French commissioners on the limits of Acadia. There can be no doubt that the Abbes de L’Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre had a hand in the preparation of this document, which is an able statement of the case from the French point of view. They assert “that the British pretensions to ownership of the territory north of the Bay of Fundy have no foundation. That the French have made settlements at various places along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they have always lived peaceably and quietly under the rule of the French king. This is also 108 the state there at present, and the English desire to change it, without having acquired any new right of possession since the treaty of Utrecht, and after forty years of quiet and peaceable possession on the part of the French. It is the same with regard to the River St. John and that part of Canada which adjoins the Bay of Fundy. The French, who were settled there before the treaty of Utrecht, have continued to this day to hold possession under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the King of France, enjoying meanwhile the fruit of their labors. It is not until more than forty years after the treaty of Utrecht that the English commissioners have attempted, by virtue of a new and arbitrary interpretation of the treaty, to change and overturn all the European possessions of America; to expel the French, to deprive them of their property and their homes, to sell the lands they have cultivated and made valuable and to expose Europe by such transactions to the danger of seeing the fires of war rekindled. Whatever sacrifices France might be disposed to make, in order to maintain public tranquility, it would be difficult indeed for her to allow herself to be deprived of the navigation of the River St. John by ceding to England the coast of the continent along the Bay of Fundy.”
Continuing their argument, the writers of the document state: “That it is by the River St. John that Quebec maintains her communication with Isle Royal and Isle St. Jean, [Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island], and also with Old France, during the season that the navigation of the River St. Lawrence is impracticable; and as this is the only way of communication for a considerable part of the year, possession of the route is indispensably necessary to France. All who have any special knowledge of Canada agree on this head, and their testimony finds confirmation in an English publication that lately appeared in London, entitled ‘The Present State of North America,’ in which the writer sounds the tocsin of war against France and, although partiality, inspired by love of country, has led him into many errors, he does not seek to disguise how important it is to deprive France of the right of navigation of the River St. John, which affords the only means of communication with Quebec during the winter. ‘The French,’ says the English author, ‘have often sent supplies and merchandise from Old France to Quebec, both in time of peace and of war, by the River St. John, so as to avoid the difficulties and risks of navigation by the River St. Lawrence. * * If we suffer them to remain in possession of that river they will always have an open communication between France and Canada during the winter, which they could have only from May to October by the River St. Lawrence.’
“This testimony makes us feel more and more how essential it is for France to keep possession of the River St. John so as to have communication with Quebec and the rest of Canada during the seven months of the year that the St. Lawrence is not navigable. The communication which the English pretend they require by land between New England and Nova Scotia, along the coast of the Etchemins[29] and the Bay of Fundy, is only a vain pretext to mask their real motive, which is to deprive France of a necessary route of communication.
“Considering the length of the road by land from New England to Port Royal and Acadia, the obstacles to be encountered in the rivers that fall into the sea along 109 the coast, which will be more difficult to cross near the mouth; all these circumstances render the communication by land a veritable chimera; the more so that the way by sea from the remotest part of New England to Port Royal is so short and so easy, while that by land would be long, painful and difficult. We may be perfectly sure that if the English were masters of all the territory they claim they would never journey over it, and the only advantage they would find would be to deprive the French of a necessary route of communication. We do not fear to say that the object of the English is not confined to the country they claim under the name of Acadia. Their object is to make a general invasion of Canada and thus to pave the way to universal empire in America.”
It is little to be wondered at that the French nation should have been very reluctant to part with their control of the St. John river. From the days of its discovery by Champlain it had become of increasing importance to them as a means of communication between the widely separated portions of New France. But more than this the river was in many of its features unrivelled in their estimation. Its remarkable falls near the sea, its massive walls of limestone at “the narrows” just above—which the French called “cliffs of marble”—its broad lake-like expansions, its fertile intervals and islands, the fish that swarmed in its waters and the game that abounded in its forests, its towering pines and noble elms were all known to them and had been noted by their early explorers. Champlain, L’Escarbot, Denys, Biard, La Hontan, Cadillac and Charlevoix had described in glowing words the wealth of its attractions. It is worth while in this connection to quote the description which Lamothe Cadillac penned in 1693—just two hundred and ten years ago:
River St. John.—“The entrance of this river is very large. Two little islands are seen to the left hand, one called l’Ile Menagoniz (Mahogany Island) and the other l’Ile aux Perdrix (Partridge Island), and on the right hand there is a cape of which the earth is as red as a red Poppy. The harbor is good; there is no rock and it has five or six fathoms of water.
Fort.—There is a fort of four bastions here, which needs to be repaired. It is very well situated and could not be attacked by land for it is surrounded by water at half tide. Less than an eighth of a league above there are two large rocks, perpendicular, and so near that they leave only space sufficient for a ship cleverly to pass.
Gouffre. Just here there is a fall, or abyss (gouffre), which extends seven or eight hundred paces to the foot of two rocks. There is a depth of eighteen fathoms of water here. I think that I am the only one who has ever sounded at this place. The falls are no sooner passed than the river suddenly expands to nearly half a league. It is still very deep and a vessel of fifty or sixty tons could ascend thirty leagues, but it would be necessary to take care to pass the falls when the sea is level, or one would certainly be lost there. It must be conceded that this is the most beautiful, the most navigable and the most highly favored river of Acadia. The most beautiful, on account of the variety of trees to be found, such as butternut, cherry, hazel, elms, oaks, maples and vines.
Masts.—There is a grove of pine on the boarders of a lake near Gemseq (Jemseg), fifteen leagues from the sea, where there might be made the finest masts, and they could be conducted into the St. John by a little river which falls in there.
Pewter mine.—Near the same lake there in a mine of pewter. I have seen the Indians melt and manufacture from it balls for their hunting.
It is most navigable, by reason of its size and depth and the number of lakes and rivers that empty themselves into it. The most highly favored, by reason of its greater depth of fertile soil, of its unrivalled salmon fishing, and of its reaching into the country to a depth of eighty leagues. The bass, the trout, the gaspereau, the eel, the sturgeon and a hundred other kinds of fishes are found in abundance. The most highly favored, also, because it furnishes in abundance beavers and other fur-bearing animals. I have ascended this river nearly one hundred and fifty leagues in a bark canoe. I pass in silence other attractions that it possesses for I must not be too long.
One single thing is to be regretted, which is that in the most beautiful places, where the land and meadows are low, they are inundated every spring time after the snow melts. The continuance of this inundation (or freshet) is because the waters cannot flow out sufficiently fast on account of those two rocks, of which I have spoken, which contract the outlet of the river. It would not be very difficult to facilitate the flow of the waters. It would only be necessary to mine the rock that is to the right hand on entering, and which seems to want to tumble of itself. It is undeniable that the waters would flow forth more freely, and the falls would be levelled, or at least diminished, and all this flat country protected from inundation.
Forts of the Micmacs and Maliseets.—Thirty leagues up the river there is a fort of the Micmacs,[30] at a place called Naxouak, and at thirty leagues further up there is one of the Maliseets. This latter nation is fairly warlike. They are well made and good hunters. They attend to the cultivation of the soil and have some fine fields of Indian corn and pumpkins. Their fort is at Medoctek.
At forty leagues still farther up there is another fort which is the common retreat of the Kanibas, or Abenakis, when they are afraid of something in their country. It is on the bank of a little river which flows into the St. John, and which comes from a lake called Madagouasca, twelve leagues long and one wide. It is a good country for moose hunting.”
In another edition of his narrative Cadillac says that Madawaska lake and river turn northward so those who journey from Acadia to Quebec go across the portage from the lake to the River St. Lawrence, opposite Tadoussac. This route was from very early times considered by the French as the easiest and best and was greatly valued by them as a means of communication both in time of war and in time of peace.
Cadillac’s idea of protecting the low lying lands of the St. John river from inundation during the spring freshet, by enlarging the outlet at the falls, has been revived on more than one occasion. For example, sixty years later we find the following note in the statement prepared by the missionaries Le Loutre and de L’Isle-Dieu for the use of the commissioners engaged in the attempt to settle the boundaries of Acadia—:
“The River St. John is very extensive and the soil is excellent, easily cultivated, capable of supporting at least 1,000 families, but there exists an inconvenience which up to the present prevents the place from being inhabited as it should be. This inconvenience is due to the frequency of the floods occasioned by a fall where the waters do not discharge themselves fast enough and in consequence flow back upon the lands above, which they inundate. But if the proposed colony be established 111 at this place it would be possible to give vent to the flood by removing a small obstruction [portage][31] less than an eighth of a league wide; this would certainly prevent the inundations, dry up the lands and render cultivation practicable.”