The Maliseets of the St. John were naturally disposed to resent the intrusion of the whites on their hunting grounds, and the French encouraged this sentiment as regards any advance made by the English. In the year 1735, Francis Germaine, “chief of Ockpaque,” with one of his captains came to Annapolis Royal to complain of the conduct of some English surveyors, whom they seem to have regarded as trespassers on their lands. For some reason they missed seeing the governor, but he wrote them a very friendly letter, assuring them of his favor and protection. This, however, did not satisfy the Indians, for a few months afterwards they interfered with the loading of a vessel that had been sent to St. John for limestone by the ordnance 143 storekeeper at Annapolis and robbed the sailors of their clothes and provisions, claiming that the lands and quarries belonged to them. Not long afterwards the Governor of Nova Scotia addressed a letter to “The Reverend Father Danilou, priest of St. John’s River,” complaining that a party of Maliseets under Thoma, their chief, had surprised, Stephen Jones, an English trader, as he lay sleeping aboard his vessel at Piziquid [Windsor, N. S.] and robbed him of goods to the value of £900 and of his book of accounts valued at £700 more, and he hoped the missionary would use his influence to induce the Indians to keep the peace and, if possible, obtain redress for the unfortunate man they had robbed.
Two of the principal Acadians, living at or near St. Ann’s, Mich’l Bergeron and Joseph Bellefontaine, had an interview with Governor Armstrong in 1736, and by request gave him a list of the Acadians then living on the river, numbering in all 77 souls, besides the missionary Jean Pierre Danielou. The governor ordered the Acadians to make their submission to the British government and not to receive any missionary without his approbation. It does not appear, however, that he was on unfriendly terms with Danielou, who came to Annapolis the next year and exercised the functions of his ministry.
Under the care of Danielou’s successor Germain, the Acadians and their savage allies had a chequered experience indeed, but this has been already related in the previous chapters.
At the time of Monckton’s invasion of the river in 1758 most of the Indians abandoned the village of Aukpaque and retired with their missionary, Germain, to Canada, but they returned after the capture of Quebec and some of their chiefs went to Fort Frederick and took the oath of allegiance to the English monarch. Colonel Arbuthnot was directed to encourage them to come to Halifax and make a treaty of peace and such arrangements as were necessary for trade with the English.
During the session of the House of Assembly held at Halifax in the winter of 1759–60, Governor Lawrence urged the House to make provision for the establishment of “truck-houses” for the Indians; he also recommended legislation for the purpose of preventing private trade with them, and the Assembly soon afterwards passed an act for that purpose.
On the 11th of February, Colonel Arbuthnot came to Halifax from Fort Frederick, with two Indian chiefs of the Passamaquoddy tribe, to make peace on the basis of the old Indian Treaty of 1725. Representatives of the St. John river tribe arrived a few days later. The Indians appeared before the Governor and Council with an interpreter. They were received with every courtesy and presented with gold lace blankets, laced hats, etc. It was agreed that the treaty should be prepared in English and French, that the chiefs should be sent back in a vessel to St. John, and that Col. Arbuthnot should accompany them, taking the treaty with him to be ratified. After a fortnight’s deliberation the treaty was signed, on the 23rd February, by Ballomy Glode, chief of the St. John Indians, and Michel Neptune, chief of the Passamaquoddies. The treaty was based on those of 1725 and 1749, with an additional engagement on the part of the Indians not to aid the enemies of the English, to confine their traffic to the truck-house at Fort Frederick 144 and to leave three of each tribe there as hostages to ensure performance of the articles of the treaty.
In order the better to carry out the provisions of this treaty, and of similar treaties made at this time with the different tribes of Acadia, Benjamin Gerrish was appointed Indian commissary. Gerrish agreed to buy goods and sell them to the Indians for furs, he to receive 5 per cent on goods purchased and 2½ per cent on furs sold, and the prices to be so arranged that the Indians could obtain their goods at least 50 per cent cheaper than hitherto.
At their conference with the Governor and his council the Indians agreed upon a tariff of prices[49] for the Indian trade, the unit of value to be one pound of the fur of the spring beaver, commonly known as “one beaver,” equivalent in value to a dollar, or five shillings. Under the tariff the following articles were to be sold to the Indians at the following prices: Large blanket, 2 “beavers”; 2 yards stroud, 3 “beavers”; 14 pounds pork, 1 “beaver”; 30 pounds flour, 1 “beaver”; 2½ gallons molasses, 1 “beaver”; 2 gallons rum, 1 “beaver”; and other articles in proportion.
Furs and skins sold by the Indians at the “truck-house” were to be valued by the same standard: Moose skin, 1½ “beavers”; bear skin, 1⅓ “beavers”; 3 sable skins, 1 “beaver”; 6 mink skins, 1 “beaver”; 10 ermine skins, 1 “beaver”; silver fox skin, 2½ “beavers,” and so on for furs and skins of all descriptions. By substituting the cash value for the value in “beavers,” we shall obtain figures that would amaze the furrier of modern days and prove eminently satisfactory to the purchaser, for example: Bear skin (large and good), $1.35; moose skin (large), $1.50; luciffee (large), $2.00; silver fox, $2.50; black fox, $2.00; red fox, 50cts.; otter, $1.00; mink, 15 cts.; musquash, 10 cts. And yet these prices, ridiculously low as they appear, were considerably better than the Indians Had received from the French traders. It was no doubt on such terms as these that Messrs. Simonds, White and Hazen traded with the Indians after they came to St. John.
Benjamin Gerrish soon afterwards took steps to establish the “truck-house” promised the Indians, and by order in council of July 19, 1760, Captain Doggett was instructed to proceed directly to the River St. John and deliver the stores that Mr. Gerrish had shipped on board his vessel for the truck-master at Fort Frederick.