CHAPTER XIV.
Aukpaque, the Village at the Head of the Tide.
On the west bank of the St. John, about six miles above the City of Fredericton, is the site of the old Indian village of Aukpaque. It looks out upon a charming panorama of interval and islands, amidst which the river creeps lazily with many windings. In the background across the river there rises the steep slope of Currie’s Mountain, volcanic in its origin. Weird legends connected with this mountain have been handed down from ancient days, which the Indian guides will sometimes rehearse when they find appreciative listeners.
The surroundings of Aukpaque are indeed very beautiful, and as long ago as 1686 they won the admiration of Monseigneur St. Vallier, who, after describing the extent and varied scenery of the river, its smoothly flowing waters and fertile islands embosomed by the tide, says: “Some fine settlements might be made between Medoctec and Jemseg, especially at a certain place which we have named Sainte Marie, where the river enlarges and the waters are divided by a large number of islands that apparently would be very fertile if cultivated. A mission for the savages would be well placed there; the land has not as yet any owner in particular, neither the King nor the governor having made a grant to any one.”
Evidently there was not at this time any Indian village at Aukpaque, but it is probable the place was occasionally used as a camping ground. In the course of the next half century, however, there grew into existence a village that rivalled and in time eclipsed the more ancient village of Medoctec. Doubtless the presence of the French on the lower St. John, and the establishment of Villebon’s fort, at the mouth of the Nashwaak, served to draw the savages in that direction.
At the time of Monseigneur St. Vallier’s visit they were beginning very generally to embrace Christianity. The Indians and the Acadians were visited occasionally by Claude Moireau, a Recollet missionary, who went up the river as far at least as Fort Jemseg where, in July, 1680, he baptized nine Indian children of ages varying from five months to nineteen years. Their names, with those of their parents and sponsors, are duly recorded in his register. One or two of the entries are here inserted as of historic interest:—
“The year of grace 1680, the 7 July: I have baptized at Jemseg, according to the forms of our Holy Church, Claude, son of Soksim, savage, and of Apolline Kedekouit, Christian, aged 18 years, and named at the font Claude by Claude Petipas, notary royal, and Isabella Petipas, his sponsors.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
“The same day baptized Marie, sauvagesse, aged one year, daughter of Tobuk and of Marie Noktomkiache, Christian, and named at the font Marie by Rene Lambert and Catherine Bugaret, her sponsors.
[Signed] Cl. Moireau, Recol.”
Two baptisms in the following year, one at Jemseg and the other at St. John, are of equal interest:—