A bill was once introduced into the House of Assembly for the purpose of enabling the promoters to remove, by blasting, the rocks that obstruct the mouth of the river and thus allow the waters to flow more freely. It was claimed that many benefits would follow, chiefly that the lumbermen would be able to get their logs and deals to market more expeditiously and at less cost, and that the farmers, of Maugerville, Grand Falls and Sheffield would be saved the serious inconveniences occasioned by the annual freshet. However, popular sentiment was strongly opposed to the project. People speedily realized that not only would the beauty of the river be destroyed but that navigation would be rendered precarious and uncertain. The project, in fact, would have changed our noble St. John into a tidal river, unsightly mud flats alternating with rushing currents of turbid waters, while so far as protection of the low-lying lands goes the remedy would in all probability have proved worse than the disease, for instead of an annual inundation there would have been an inundation at every high tide. Moreover the harbor at St. John would have been ruined. There can be no secure harbor at the mouth of a great tidal river where swirling tides pour in and out twice in the course of every twenty-four hours.
Cadillac mentions the convenient route to Quebec via the River St. John. The Indians had used it from time immemorial and the French followed their example, as at a later period did the English. The missionaries Le Loutre and de L’Isle-Dieu in the statement prepared by them in 1753, already mentioned, say:—
“It is very easy to maintain communication with Quebec, winter and summer alike, by the River St. John, and the route is especially convenient for detachments of troops needed either for attack or defence. This is the route to be taken and followed:—
“From Quebec to the River du Loup.
From the River du Loup by a portage of 18 leagues to Lake Temiscouata.
From Lake Temiscouata to Madaoechka [Madawaska.]
From Madaoechka to Grand Falls.
From Grand Falls to Medoctek.
From Medoctek to Ecouba [Aukpaque], post of the Indians of the Jesuit missionary, Father Germain.
From Ecouba to Jemsec.
From Jemsec, leaving the River St. John and traversing Dagidemoech [Washa demoak] lake ascending by the river of the same name, thence by a portage of 6 leagues to the River Petkoudiak.
From Petkoudiak to Memeramcouk descending the river which bears that name.
From Memeramcouk by a portage of three leagues to Nechkak [Westcock].
From Nechkak to Beausejour.”
By this route the troops commanded by the French officers Marin and Montesson arrived at Beausejour in less than a month from the time of their departure from Quebec, the distance being about 500 miles.
In the war of 1812 the 104th regiment, raised in this province, left St. John on the 11th day of February and on the 27th of the same month crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice and entered Quebec 1,000 strong, having accomplished a march of 435 miles in midwinter in sixteen days and, says Col. Playfair, without the loss of a man.
In the year 1837 the 43d Light Infantry marched from this province to Quebec in the month of December in almost precisely the same time, but the conditions were distinctly more favorable; the season was not nearly so rigorous, roads and bridges had been constructed over the greater portion of the route and supplies could be obtained to better advantage. Yet it is said the great Duke of Wellington observed of this march of the 43d Light Infantry, “It is the only achievement performed by a British officer that I really envy.” How much greater a feat was the march of the gallant hundred-and-fourth whose men, poorly fed and insufficiently clad, passed over the same route on snowshoes in the middle of a most inclement winter, a quarter of a century before, to defend Canadian homes from a foreign invader?
During the negotiations between the French and English commissioners on the boundaries of Acadia, the suggestion was made by the Abbes de L’Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, that if it should be found impossible to hold all the lands north of the Bay of Fundy for France the St. John river region should be left undivided and in possession of its native inhabitants. As early as the year 1716 the Marquis de Vaudreuil had stated to the French government: “The English wish to seize upon the lands that the Abenakis and Indians of the River St. John occupy, under the pretext that this land forms part of Acadia ceded to them by the king. The Indians so far from withdrawing on this account have answered that this land has always belonged to them, and that they do not consider themselves subjects of the French, but only their allies.”
Vaudreuil admits that he encouraged this idea, and that his proposal to build a church for the Maliseets at Medoctec had as one of its principal objects the cementing of their alliance with the French and providing them with another inducement to cling to the locality where their church stood, and not by any means to abandon their old fort and village.
In 1749 Charlevoix, the well known Jesuit historian, writes the French minister at Versailles not to delay the settlement of the boundaries, for the English, who are colonizing and fortifying Acadia, will soon be in a position to oppress their Indian allies, the Abenakis (Maliseets), if steps are not taken in season to prevent them and to guarantee to the Indians peaceable possession of their country, where it is necessary they should remain in order to defend it against the English, otherwise there would be nothing to hinder the English from penetrating as far as the French settlements nearest Quebec; besides 113 where would the Abenakis go if they were obliged to abandon their country? “In short,” Charlevoix adds, “it seems to me certain that if time is given the English to people Acadia before the limits are agreed on, they will not fail to appropriate all the territory they wish, and to secure possession by strong forts which will render them masters of all that part of New France south of Quebec; and if this should be done it will certainly follow that the Abenakis will join them, will abandon their religion, and our most faithful allies will become our most dangerous enemies.”
Of all the leaders of the French in Acadia, none was more active and influential than the Abbe Le Loutre. But while his energy, ability and patriotism are undoubted, his conduct has been the subject of severe criticism not only on the part of his adversaries but of the French themselves. He did not escape the censure of the Bishop of Quebec for meddling to so great an extent in temporal affairs, but the Bishop’s censure is mild compared to that of an anonymous historian, who writes: “Abbe Loutre, missionary of the Indians in Acadia, soon put all in fire and flame, and may be justly deemed the scourge and curse of this country. This wicked monster, this cruel and blood thirsty Priest, more inhumane and savage than the natural savages, with a murdering and slaughtering mind, instead of an Evangelick spirit, excited continually his Indians against the English. * * * All the French had the greatest horror and indignation at Le Loutre’s barbarous actions; and I dare say if the Court of France had known them they would have been far from approving of them.”