ANNAPOLIS.
ON the Nova Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy, immediately opposite the
City of St. John, New Brunswick, there is a narrow inlet of the sea,
walled by perpendicular and densely wooded hills. A few scattered
cottages, belonging to fishermen, speck the deep green of the forest, as
the traveller passes up this narrow channel, known by the uneuphonious
name of Digby Gut. Digby is a small picturesque village, immediately
inside the channel, which here opens out into a wide basin, large enough
to float mighty navies, and beyond description beautiful. In the spring
of 1604, a French Protestant, M. de Monts, first discovered this harbour
of safety, and one of his comrades, Potrincourt by name, was so
enchanted by its beauties, that he applied to the French monarch for a
grant of the surrounding district. At the end of the basin, furthest
from the entrance and at the mouth of a river, now called the Cornwallis
river, he built a Fort and a village, to which he gave the name of Port
Royal. The history of this little village has been one of marvellous
interest; and until the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was
written in letters of blood. Since it finally became the property of
England, its existence has been a peaceful one; and now, alas, the
mouldering ramparts, the tumbling, grass-grown walls of the old fort,
and the windowless, stairless barrack, proclaim in unmistakable language
the advent of a new colonial epoch, and the retreat of British troops
before that new enemy—expense. The train required for its defence, after
its final capture, was one of the arguments used in favour of creating a
permanent force of Artillery in England; and for more than a century
this village of Port Royal, or Annapolis, has been entwined in the
history of the Royal Artillery.
If all historical researches were pursued in such beautiful localities,
the historian would be the veriest sybarite of literature. By the
tumbling fortifications now stands one of the loveliest villages on the
face of this world. The river, at whose mouth it is built, wanders
through a valley, which, in summer, is like a dream of beauty. Rich
_intervalle_ land on either bank, covered with heavy crops of every
kind; fields and gardens studded with apple-trees, planted by the old
French inhabitants; grapes in heavy clusters growing and ripening in the
open air, and clean, white churches and cottages studding the landscape
for miles; all unite in forming a picture, like the Utopia which haunts
the dreamer's mind. The garden of Canada—an Artilleryman may well
rejoice that so lovely a spot had a share in the birth of the corps to
which he belongs.
The early history of the place may be summed up in a few words. In 1606,
an addition to the little colony was made of more French emigrants;
cultivation of the soil, and the breeding of cattle occupied the
peaceful inhabitants; and they lived in perfect amity with the
surrounding Indians. Difficulties having arisen about the original
charter, Potrincourt went to France, and secured from the King the grant
of the territory: subject, however, to a distasteful condition, that he
should take two Jesuit priests with him on his return. He did so; but
made them as uncomfortable as he could, and in 1613, they left him to
join a settlement, also near the Bay of Fundy, vowing vengeance against
him in their hearts. Although England and France were at peace, a sea
rover from Virginia, named Argoll, came with his ship, and pillaged the
Jesuits' new home, killing one, and making the other prisoner. Fired by
his success, and urged and guided by the revengeful priest, he next
fitted out an expedition against Port Royal, and succeeded in destroying
the fort, and scattering the settlers, some of whom joined the
neighbouring Indian tribes. During the next few years, more French
immigrants settled in a scattered, unmethodical way, over the province
of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, as it was called; and some coming to Port
Royal, the little colony commenced to revive.
But in 1627, Kirke's fleet sailed from England to destroy the French
settlements in Nova Scotia; and among others, he ravaged unhappy Port
Royal. And from this time dates the struggle in America between France
and England, which lasted a hundred years. In 1629, it may be said, that
we had added Nova Scotia to our possessions; but in 1632, we gave it
back to France; Charles I. having been in treaty with the French King,
even while our expedition in America was at work, and having consented
to let the French have Quebec and all our recent American conquests back
again. In 1655, Cromwell recovered Port Royal, by means of an expedition
he sent for that purpose, under one Major Sedgwick. The fort had by this
time been strengthened and armed; but it had to surrender to the
impetuosity of our troops. Much labour and money was now spent on the
fortifications by the English, but all to no purpose, for by the treaty
of Breda, Charles II. ceded Nova Scotia to the French again. Certainly,
the Stuarts were cruel to our colonies; and it required all the
enterprise of our merchants, and all the courage and skill of our seamen
and fishermen to resist utter extinction under the treatment they
received. The day was to come—and to last for many a year, when a worse
evil than the Stuarts was to blight our colonies—the nightmare of the
Colonial Office. As the former was the positive, so it was the
comparative degree of colonial endurance. Is it true that a superlative
degree is coming on them now? Is it true, that in our Statesmen's minds
there exists a coldness, an indifference to our colonies, which in time
of trial or danger will certainly pass into impatience, and anxiety to
be free from colonial appendages?
If it be so, then, indeed, the superlative degree of blundering and
misery is approaching; but the misery, like the blundering, will be
found this time, not in the colonies, but in England.
For sixteen years after the treaty of Breda, Port Royal was left
comparatively undisturbed; the French population reaching, in the year
1671, 361 souls; 364 acres having been brought under cultivation, and
nearly 1000 sheep and cattle being owned by the settlers.
In 1680, however, the English again, for the fifth time, obtained
possession of it; and again lost it. After its recapture, and before
1686, considerable additions had been made to the fortifications by the
French; and in the treaty of that year between France and England, it
was resolved—a resolution which was never kept—that although the mother
countries might quarrel, their respective American subjects might
continue to maintain mutual peaceable relations. After the Revolution of
1688, war broke out in Europe once more between France and England, and
their American children followed suit. Port Royal being the head-
quarters for the French ships attracted the attention of Sir William
Phipps, who after capturing and pillaging it abandoned it again to the
French.
And the treaty of Ryswick again officially announced that the whole of
Nova Scotia was French territory.
In 1699, and again in 1701, considerable labour was devoted by the
French to strengthening the works of Port Royal; an increase to the
garrison was made from France, and the militia in the surrounding
settlements were carefully trained and armed.
Every difficulty was interposed by the French governors between the
settlers and the New England merchants, who were mutually eager for
trade. Exasperated by prohibitory duties on their wares, the latter
first tried smuggling, and then hostile expeditions. One such was made
from Boston in 1704; and although Port Royal made a successful
resistance, much damage was done to the surrounding country.
In 1707, two expeditions were made from New England, and a large force
of militia accompanied them. They were convoyed by a man-of-war, and
would undoubtedly have captured the place, had it not been for the
personal energy of Subercase, the French governor, who rallied the
neighbouring inhabitants, and drove back the English, thoroughly
dispirited. On the second occasion, the English attempted to float their
artillery up the river with the tide by night, and attack the fort from
the land side. The rise and fall of the tide in the Bay of Fundy and its
inlets are very great, often reaching sixty feet. The French governor,
seeing the enemy's design, lit large fires along the banks of the river,
and exposed the drifting boats with the English guns on board to the
view of the artillerymen in the fort, who opened a fire which utterly
prevented the English from advancing further, or effecting a landing. By
the 1st of September, the New Englanders were utterly foiled and
dispirited, the object of the expedition was frustrated, and the fleet
weighed anchor and returned to Boston. After these two attempts,
rendered unsuccessful by the marvellous tact and energy of one man, Port
Royal enjoyed comparative rest, and the leisure of the inhabitants was
devoted to strengthening the works during the next two years.
Before describing the circumstances of its final capture, let some
explanation be given of the incessant war which went on for so many
years between the French and English colonists in North America. It was
not a burning interest in the European questions agitating the parent
countries that animated their Western children; the parent quarrels were
an excuse, but not a reason, for their mutual aggression; and the
absence of such excuse did not ensure peace in America. The cause lay in
the two feelings which prompt most wars: thirst for revenge and love of
trade. The way in which the last acted has already been hinted at. There
was undoubtedly a market among the French colonists, which was all the
New England merchants could desire; and so ready were the French
peasants to trade, that no prohibitory action of their rulers could
conceal their desire, although in a great measure it might prevent its
gratification. The knowledge of this made the New Englanders frantic.
They were men of immense energy, as they are now; they were of
magnificent physique, made for war and hardship; and they rebelled
against any obstacle to what they deemed their legitimate wishes. Their
anger became intolerance; their intolerance became aggressive; and the
result was first smuggling, then privateering, and finally war.
But another motive was thirst for revenge. And why? Was there not room
on this vast continent for both nations to plant any wandering or
surplus children, without the vile passions seeking place, which thrive
in the hot-bed of crowded, neighbouring, and rival states? Here the old
poet's words come in most truly: "Cœlum, non animum, mutant, qui trans
mare currunt."
National jealousies _were_ reproduced: the French allied themselves in
Canada with the Indians, and incessant incursions were made thence by
them on the English colonies. Hardly a child grew up in New England who
did not know of some hideous tragedy in the domestic life of his
immediate neighbours, if not in his own family; from infancy one of the
articles of his creed was detestation of the French; and this feeling
found ready and revengeful expression whenever opportunity offered. But
revenge is not always true in its aim, is indeed often wofully blind;
and too often when maddened with thoughts of cruelty and outrage on his
wife or sisters—and what thoughts stir the Anglo-Saxon more fiercely?—he
would avenge himself wildly and recklessly on victims who mayhap were
innocent. And so the ghastly vendetta crossed from hand to hand, from
one side to the other, and hardly a year passed without its existence
being attested by tales of horror and of blood!
But the end for Port Royal was approaching, an end which was to mean
defeat, but was to ensure a lasting peace. In 1709, news reached the
Governor of an intended attack on a large scale in the ensuing spring by
the English; and as his garrison had recently been much reduced by
disease, he wrote, strongly urging its reinforcement either from France,
or from the French post at Placentia, in Newfoundland. Apparently, his
request was not complied with; and after a gallant, and almost heroic
resistance, Port Royal capitulated in the following year to the
expeditionary forces under the command of Colonel Nicholson, comprising
regular troops from England, militia from New York, and a strong train
of Artillery,—the whole being supported by a powerful fleet. On the 2nd
October, 1710, the capitulation was signed; and, out of compliment to
the Queen, the name of the village was changed to Annapolis.
A fortnight after the expedition left England for New York and Boston,
_en route_ to Port Royal, a Royal Warrant was issued establishing a
Train of Artillery to _garrison Annapolis_. It will thus be seen that so
confident was the English Government of the success of the expedition,
that the new name for Port Royal had already been fixed, and
arrangements made for a permanent garrison. The acquisition of
Newfoundland followed; the French garrison of Placentia were allowed
with many of the inhabitants to go to the Island of Cape Breton, where
they fortified a place which will occupy a prominent part in this
volume, Louisbourg; and the year 1713 saw, by the Treaty of Utrecht,
Acadia or Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland formally surrendered to the
English.
The train of Artillery formed to garrison Annapolis, and its adjunct
ordered three years later for Placentia, were two of the permanent
trains used as arguments in 1716 for establishing a fixed Artillery
Regiment which could feed these foreign garrisons—arguments which in
that year brought into existence the Royal Regiment of Artillery.
The Artillery garrison ordered for Annapolis in 1710, comprised a
captain, a lieutenant, a surgeon, 4 non-commissioned officers, 11
gunners, 40 matrosses, an engineer, a storekeeper, 3 bombardiers, and 2
armourers.
That for Placentia was smaller and differently constituted. It consisted
of an engineer, a master-gunner, 20 gunners, a mason, a smith, a
carpenter, and an armourer.
The cost of the Annapolis train was 1964_l._ 18_s._ 4_d._ per annum:
that of the Placentia train was 1259_l._ 5_s._ After the Regiment was
created, these two trains or garrisons were generally furnished by the
same company, and mutually met each other's deficiencies or demands. For
many years, these places appeared in the Ordnance estimates, not merely
as items in the expense of maintaining the Artillery and Engineers, but
also as requiring considerable sums for fortifications. Occasionally the
number of men was reduced, as in 1725, when at Placentia there were only
1 lieutenant and 8 gunners; and at Annapolis, 1 lieutenant, 2
bombardiers, 4 gunners, and 7 matrosses. But the amount spent on the
fortifications remained for years very considerable. Up to the year
1759, the average spent on this item annually at the two places was
3000_l._ and 1000_l._; but in 1747 and 1748, evidently exceptional
years, the expenditure rose to 10,000_l._ and 6000_l._ respectively. In
1759, a large sum appears to have been spent in transporting to Nova
Scotia the guns and stores taken from the French at Louisbourg. After
1759, Annapolis gradually dwindles down as a military station, being
dwarfed by Halifax, whose Artillery expenses in that year alone amounted
to nearly 40,000_l._
For a century longer, Annapolis retained the special distinction of
giving the title of Governor, with a considerable income, to the officer
commanding the troops in the maritime provinces of British North
America. But its martial glory has now altogether faded; gradually
diminishing in numbers, its garrison at length consisted of the solitary
barrack sergeant, who is the "last man" of every military epic; and now
even he has departed. The old Fort is a ruin, the barracks crumbling and
unsightly; but, in spite of the pain one feels at first witnessing this
modern indifference to ancient story,—this forgetfulness of the memories
which in stately procession troop through the student's mind,—this
feeling is soon obliterated as one turns to gaze on happy homesteads and
blooming gardens, and on contented faces which meet one at every turn as
one wanders over the fertile country, away even to that "Bloody Creek,"
where, in one of their many engagements, some thirty Englishmen met a
cruel death, by an unexpected attack made by some Indians.
Where are the Indians now? A few drunken, demoralized creatures hang
about some of the towns; two or three only have retained their love and
instinct for the chase; and before many years shall have passed away,
Acadia shall know the Mic-mac no more!