In return for goods purchased the settlers tendered furs, lumber, occasionally an old piece of silver, sometimes their own labor and later they were able to supply produce from their farms. Money they scarcely ever saw. Very often they gave notes of hand which they found it hard to pay. The furs they supplied were principally beaver skins at five shillings (or one dollar) per pound. They also supplied martin, otter and musquash skin, the latter at 4½ pence each. The lumber supplied included white oak barrel staves at 20 shillings per thousand, red oak hogshead starves at 20 shillings per thousand, “Oyl nut” (Butternut) staves at 16 shillings per thousand, clapboards at 25 shillings and oar rafters at £2 per thousand feet. Considering the labor involved—for the manufacture was entirely by hand—prices seem small; but it must be borne in mind that 2s. 6d. was a day’s pay for a man’s labor at this time.
The Indians had for so long a time enjoyed a monopoly of the fur trade that they regarded the white hunter with a jealous eye. Indeed in the year 1765 they assembled their warriors and threatened to begin a new war with the English. The settlers an the river were much alarmed and the commandant of Fort Frederick, Capt. Pierce Butler, of the 29th Regiment, doubled his sentries. Through the persuasion of the commandant, assisted by Messrs. Simonds and White and other leading inhabitants, the chiefs were induced to go to Halifax and lay their complaints before the Governor. One of the most influential inhabitants on the river accompanied them, whose name is not stated but it was very probably James Simonds, at least he writes to his partners at Newburyport in November of this year, “The dispute with the Indians is all settled to the satisfaction of the government as well as the Indians.”
At their first interview the chiefs insisted that the white settlers interfered with the rights of the Indians by encroaching on their hunting grounds, clamming that it was one of the conditions of a former treaty that the English settlers should not be allowed to kill any wild game beyond the limits of their farms and improvements. They demanded payment for the beavers, moose and other animals killed in the forest by the settlers. The inhabitants of Maugerville were able to prove that the charges brought against them were greatly exaggerated, most of the wild animals having 175 been killed not far from their doors, while the aggregate of all animals slain by them was much less than stated by the Indians. In the end the chiefs seemed to be satisfied that they were mistaken and appeared ashamed of their conduct in alarming the country without reason, but they still insisted that the young warriors of their tribe would not be satisfied without some compensation for the loss of their wild animals. The Governor gave his decision as follows: “That although the grievances the Indians had started were by no means sufficient to justify their hostile proceedings, yet to do them ample justice, he would order to be sent them a certain amount in clothing and provisions, provided they would consider it full satisfaction for any injuries done by the settlers; and that he would also send orders to restrain the settlers from hunting wild animals in the woods.” The chiefs accepted this offer and the Indians remained tranquil until the American Revolution some twelve years later.
One of the results of the conference seems to have been the reservation to the Indians in the grant of the Township of Sunbury of “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 Island.” The well known Maliseet chief, Ambroise St. Aubin, was one of the leading negotiators at Halifax as appears by the following pass furnished to him by Governor Wilmot:
“Permit the bearer, Ambroise St. Aubin, chief of the Indians of St. John’s river, to return there without any hindrance or molestation; and all persons are required to give him all necessary and proper aid and assistance on his journey.
Given under my hand and seal at Halifax this 7th day of September, 1765.
CHAPTER XVII.
At Portland Point.
When the attention of James Simonds, was directed to the River St. John, by the proclamation oaf Governor Lawrence inviting the inhabitants of New England to settle on the vacant lands in Nova Scotia, he was a young man of twenty-four years of age. His father had died at Haverhill; August 15th, 1757. The next year he went with his uncle, Capt. Hazen, to the assault of Ticonderoga, in the capacity of a subaltern officer in the Provincial troops, and shortly after the close of the campaign proceeded to Nova Scotia in order to find a promising situation for engaging in trade. The fur trade was what he had chiefly in mind at this time, but the Indians were rather unfriendly, and he became interested along with Captain Peabody, Israel Perley and other officers of the disbanded Massachusetts troops in their proposed settlement on the River St John. His future partners of the trading company formed in 1764 were, with the exception of Mr. Blodget, even younger men than himself. William Hazen, of Newburyport, had just attained to manhood and belonged to a corps of Massachusetts Rangers, which served in Canada at the taking of Quebec. Samuel Blodget was a follower of the army on Lake Champlain as a sutler. James White was a young man of two-and-twenty years and had been for some time Mr. Blodget’s clerk or assistant. Leonard Jarvis—afterwards Wm. Hazen’s, business partner and so incidentally a member of the trading company at St. John—was not then eighteen years of age.