It is only fair to the Abbe Le Loutre to mention that the officer who criticizes him in this rude fashion was the Chevalier Johnston, an Englishman by birth and a puritan by religion and as such prejudiced against the French missionary. Johnston, however, served at Louisbourg on the side of France with great fidelity in the capacity of lieutenant, interpreter and engineer.
Father Germain, the missionary to the Indians and French on the St. John, was a man of courage and of patriotic impulses. He deemed himself justified in making every possible effort to keep the English from gaining a foothold north of the Bay of Fundy, but it does not appear that he ever incited the Indians to indulge their savage instincts, or that he was guilty of the duplicity and barbarity that have been so freely laid to the charge of the Abbe Le Loutre. It is evident, moreover, that the Marquis de la Galissonniere and his aides were particularly anxious to retain the services of Germain. He had been twelve or fourteen years in charge of his mission on the St. John, and during most of that time had labored single handed. Recently Father Loverja had come to stay with the Maliseets of Medoctec in consequence of their urgent request for a missionary, their village being eighteen leagues from Aukpaque, where Father Germain was stationed. Another missionary named Audren (or Andrein) had just arrived to replace Germain, who had been nominated superior of the house of Jesuits at Quebec. The Abbes de L’Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre endeavored to convince the French minister that it was very undesirable, under existing circumstances, that Germain should be removed, as he was valued and beloved by his people—French and Indians alike—and his services 114 could not well be spared. There was no chaplain at the fort, lately re-established at the mouth of the river, and Loverja’s age and infirmities would oblige him shortly to remove to Quebec. The two missionaries would then have sufficient occupation, especially as they would have frequently to repair on the one hand to Medoctec, and on the other to the garrison of Fort Menagoueche. In consequence of these strong objections to his retirement it was decided by Father Germain’s superiors to allow him to remain at his mission.
The Abbe de L’Isle-Dieu wrote the French minister, early the next year, that there was neither priest nor chapel at Fort Menagoueche, and that a missionary was needed on the lower part of the river. Father Germain had now for a long time been missionary to the Maliseets at Aukpaque (l’isle d’Ecouba) and having more than eighty families under his care found the fort too far removed to give due attention to the wants of the garrison.
The situation on the St. John at this time was not viewed with complacency by the authorities of Nova Scotia and New England. On the 18th October, 1753, Governor Hopson, of Nova Scotia, wrote the Lords of Trade and Plantations that he had been informed by Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, that since the arrival of a French missionary at the River St. John the conduct of the inhabitants had altered for the worse; the French had now 100 families settled on the river, had greatly strengthened the old fort at its mouth with guns and men, and had built a new one. Fort Boishebert, some miles up the river armed with twenty-four guns and garrisoned by 200 regulars. He also says a French frigate of thirty guns lay behind Partridge Island waiting for a cargo of furs, and that the French seemed to be entirely masters of the river.
It is not unlikely this statement is exaggerated, for the following summer Lieut.-Governor Lawrence says the French had at St. John only a small fort with three bad old guns, one officer and sixteen men; while of Indians there were 160 fighting men.
CHAPTER XII.
The Acadians become the Football of Fortune.
As time went on the Acadians became impatient at the delay in settling the limits of Acadia. In vain they were annually told the boundaries would soon be determined, all negotiation proved fruitless. Those who had crossed the isthmus into what is now the County of Westmorland found themselves undecided as to their future course. Their inclination—a very natural one—seems to have been to return to the fields they had abandoned, but the Abbe Le Loutre urged them to remain under French rule as the only way of enjoying unmolested the privileges of their religion. For their encouragement and protection Fort Beausejour was erected.