Colonel Arbuthnot reported that the Indians behaved well and came to the fort to trade. The delegates from the River St. John, who went to Halifax, seem to have acted in accordance with the advice of their missionary Germain, who accepted the logic of events after the fall of Quebec and advised the Indians to submit to their conquerors. The establishment of a “truck-house” at St. John was of advantage to them and the missionary determined to cultivate friendly relations with the English.
Governor Lawrence reported that he had induced the Assembly of Nova Scotia to pass a law, with severe penalties, against private trading with the Indians. The provisions of this act, however, found little favor with the Lords of Trade, by 145 whom it was considered “an improper and unreasonable restraint upon trade.” Their objection found expression in the proclamation of George III., at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763:—
“We do by the advice of our privy council declare and enjoin that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a license for carrying on such trade from the governor or commander-in-chief of any of our colonies where such person shall reside, and also give security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit to direct or appoint.”
The proclamation required the governor to issue such licenses without fee or reward, the license to be void and the security forfeited if the person to whom it was granted failed to observe the regulations prescribed.
We have now arrived at the period when the first permanent English settlement was to be made on the St. John river, but before proceeding to the consideration of that event a glance at the general situation on the river is necessary. The only foot-hold the English had as yet obtained was at Fort Frederick on the west side of St. John harbor. A considerable number of Acadians still lingered furtively in their hiding places up the river, the majority of them near the Indian village of Aukpaque. For their benefit, as well as that of the savages, the missionary Germain desired to remain at his post. He accordingly made overtures to the Nova Scotia authorities to be allowed to continue his ministrations, promising to use his influence in the interests of peace. To this proposition the Governor and Council cheerfully assented, promising the missionary a stipend of £50. A year or two afterwards he wrote acknowledging the receipt of his salary and stating it was his desire to inspire the Indians with the respect due to the government. He complained of their irregularities and says that in spite of his efforts to promote harmony he feared “they will shortly pay no regard to what he says.”
In Kidder’s “Military operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution,” the statement is made that Aukpaque signifies a beautiful expanding of the river occasioned by numerous islands, but, while this is perfectly correct as descriptive of the locality, it is more probable that Aukpaque—or its Indian equivalent Ek-pa-hawk—means “the head of the tide,” or beginning of swift water. Kidder speaks of the site of Aukpaque as “almost unknown and difficult to locate.” Commenting on this statement, the late Sir John C. Allen (whose grandfather, Colonel Isaac Allen, purchased of the Indians the site of the village of Aukpaque), makes the following remark:—
“It is an error to suppose that there is any difficulty in locating Aukpaque. It is laid down, under the name Opack, on a plan in the Crown Lands office in Fredericton of a survey of land in the old Township of Sunbury while this province formed a part of Nova Scotia. In addition to this there are several persons living who can point out the place that was used as the Indian burial ground and who remember that a large piece of cleared land adjacent to it and separated from it by a deep ravine, being a part of the tract of land reserved for the Indians, was formerly known as the ‘Chapel Field’—no doubt from the fact that the chapel of the Indian settlement had stood upon it. There is also further evidence in the plan of the survey of the lands in the Parish of Kingsclear, the grant of which issued in 1799, upon which a cross is marked on this lot of land, which is 146 well known to indicate the site of a church or chapel. There is very little doubt that at the time of the survey the chapel, or the remains of it, were standing, as the Indians had been in occupation of the land till within a few years of that time.”
We may add that the claim of the Indians to the lands in the vicinity of their village was early recognized by the Government of Nova Scotia, and when the first grant of a large tract of the surrounding country was made in 1765 to Thomas Falconer and sixty-six other land speculators, there was expressly reserved for the Indians “500 acres, including a church and burying ground at Aughpack, and four acres for a burying ground at St. Ann’s point, and the island called Indian (or Savage) Island.” This island is probably that mentioned in 1753 by the Abbe de L’Isle Dieu as “l’isle d’Ecouba,” the residence of the missionary Charles Germain.
The situation of Aukpaque is shown in the accompanying sketch:—