“At Jemsek, the year of grace 1681, the 25 May, have baptized according to the forms of our Holy Church, Marie Anne Denis, aged 4 months, daughter of Sieur Richard Denis, Esquire, and of Anne Partarabego, sauvagesse, and has been held at the font by damoiselle Marie Chartier, dame de Marson, her godmother, who has named her Marie Anne.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
“At Menagoueck, the year of grace 1681, the 2 June, have baptized according to the forms of the Church, Jeanne Guidry, child of Claude Guirdy dit la Verdure and of Keskoua, sauvagesse, who has been held at the font by Claude Petipas and Jeanne de la Tour, wife of Martignon, her sponsors, who have named her Jeanne.
[Signed] Claude Moireau, Recol.
A little later Father Simon of the Recollet order became the missionary of the Indians on the river with headquarters at Medoctec. Some account of his interesting personality and of his zealous labors will be found in a previous chapter. After his death the work among the Indians passed into the hands of the Jesuit missionary, Joseph Aubery, and his successors Jean Baptiste Loyard, Jean P. Danielou and Charles Germain. The whole river was included in the mission and the priest had many journeys to make, but Medoctec, as the principal village, was for years the headquarters of the mission. This was so down to the time of Loyard’s death. His successor, Danielou, ministered to the Indians of Medoctec, also, as is shown by the presence of his name on the slate-stone tablet of the Medoctec chapel. But it is probable that Danielou was frequently at Aukpaque, and he certainly had the spiritual oversight of the Acadians at St. Anne’s Point.
Inscription on Medoctec Stone
The Indians of the River St. John were regarded by the English as the most powerful and warlike tribe of Acadia and the Governor of Nova Scotia endeavored to gain their good-will, and to induce them to adhere to the treaty made with the eastern tribes by the authorities of New England and Nova Scotia in 1725. In the year 1732 Lieut. Governor Armstrong of Nova Scotia sent Paul Mascarene to Boston to treat with Governor Belcher about the erection of a “truck-house” for the Indian trade on the St. John river, and Mascarene was instructed to recommend the lands on the St. John to the people of Massachusetts as a very desirable place of settlement. Belcher expressed the opinion that unless the crown would build a fort at the mouth of the river, the “truck-house” project would fail, but in case of its erection Massachusetts would probably send a sloop with goods to the Indians Spring and Fall. However the idea of an English post at the mouth of the St. John remained in abeyance until the surrender of Beausejour.
So far as known to the author, the first mention of the Indian village of Aukpaque occurs in connection with the census of 1733 which states that fifteen French families reside below the “Village d’Ecoupay.” From this time onward there are frequent references to Aukpaque, some of which are indicated in the foot-note below.[48]
The little colony of fifteen families mentioned in the census of 1733 seems to have settled in the vicinity of St. Anne’s Point a few years previously. It was a typical Acadian hamlet. Its people were of simple habits and wished to live in peace. Naturally they were loyal to their mother country and devout members of their mother church. But France—sunny France—with all her marvellous resources and splendid opportunities, proved an unworthy mother. And what has been the result? A colonial empire shrunken almost to insignificance. And even if her colonial empire were today what it was in the days of Louis XIV, the colonies would be as empty cradles for which there are no children. The progress and development of the Acadians of the maritime provinces and of the French Canadians of the Dominion tell what France might have been if her people had been true to high ideals.
The colony of New France was never supported as it should have been. While New England was making rapid progress and the tide of immigration set strongly in that direction, Canada was left to take care of itself. After the days of Frontenac the governors of Quebec were haunted by the fear of encroachments on their territory on the part of the people to the south. It became their policy to employ the Indians and Acadians as buttresses against the inflowing tide of the Anglo-Saxons. The Acadians would fain have lived in peace but, alas the trend of events left little room for neutrality.