OLD PORT ROYAL
At Annapolis, the old Port Royal, Amy and her party were to stay longer
than at any other place. They had engaged rooms at a pleasant house
where there were no other boarders, and when they had unpacked their
trunks, began to feel as if they were really away for the summer.
"We have a fine view of the river," said Mrs. Redmond to Martine the
morning after their arrival, as they looked from the windows of her
room, which was at the rear of the house.
"River!" sniffed Martine; "I see nothing but red mud and green marshes;
I wonder where the water is."
"You won't ask that question at high tide; you'll find water enough to
float a small vessel," she replied, "and if you look a little beyond our
immediate neighborhood, you can see the whole Basin, and far, far away
there in the distance, I suppose, that land is Digby. I am going out to
sketch immediately after breakfast; I've seen several photographs of the
old fort, and I have special reasons for wishing to make a sketch of it;
and you, Martine, will get plenty of inspiration for your water-colors."
Amy was in her element at Annapolis. She had already given some time to
the history of the old town, and anticipated great pleasure in retracing
the steps of the brave Frenchmen who had made it famous.
"More French history!" Priscilla exclaimed, when Amy began to talk about
De Monts and Poutrincourt; "when shall we hear about the English?" and
Priscilla, with a wry face, continued, "I'm so tired of the French."
"All in good time," responded Amy; "but now we must take things in due
order and not skip about as we did. Let us go with the others into the
port to-day, and while they are sketching I'll talk a little about its
history."
So it was that, while Mrs. Redmond and Martine were making sketches of
the sally-port and old officers' quarters, Amy, seated near them, played
the part of historian and guide.
"This fort, you know, is from Vauban's plans, with four bastions and
connecting curtains."
"Do you suppose there's a moat?" interrupted Priscilla; "it looks as if
there should be one here."
"There used to be a wet ditch in the eighteenth century, and I suppose
that was much the same thing, though it's dry now."
"Oh, I can tell you something more entertaining than that," interposed
Martine. "They used to have logs on the top of the parapet ready to roll
down on the heads of assailants. But tell me, Amy, I've forgotten; did
Champlain build this fort?"
"My dear Martine, where is your history? Vauban and Champlain; oh, no.
Champlain's fort is six miles down the river, opposite Goat Island."
"Then who first built this fort?"
"Probably D'Aunay first planned it, and it was improved by Brouillan and
Subercase. You must remember that it has suffered twenty attacks and ten
regular sieges. There's little good in talking about it until you know
the history of the times better."
"Oh, dear," murmured Martine, "of course I knew this was to be an
improving trip, and yet I do think it's hard to have to learn history in
the summer."
"I'm afraid there's no escape for it," said Amy; "the fog is rolling in,
and this afternoon I will tell you once for all certain things that will
give you great interest in Annapolis during your stay here."
So, undisturbed by further historical information during the morning,
Martine, under Mrs. Redmond's direction, completed her sketch of the
officers' quarters within the fort,--a quaint old building, with its
thirty-six chimneys and thirty-six fireplaces, every one of which had
probably been needed in the long and cold winters of old Acadia.
As Amy had prophesied, the afternoon was foggy, and she felt little
compunction in insisting that Martine as well as Priscilla should join
her before her open fire while she talked to them of Port Royal history.
"Although some French," she said, "may have visited Acadia as early as
1504, our starting point is 1604, when De Monts, who was a nobleman of
the Court of Henry Fourth, and Champlain, and Poutrincourt, and
Pontgrave came out on a voyage of exploration. Poutrincourt seems to
have been the one most anxious to make a permanent settlement here.
Champlain was the geographer and map-maker of the expedition, and was
also on the search for ores. The grant of the land known as Acadia had
been given by Henry Fourth to De Monts. He, as well as Pontgrave had
been on a previous expedition to the New World. At first they were
delighted with Acadia. They saw fine opportunities for fur-trading as
well as for a permanent settlement. But after visiting the shores of the
Annapolis Basin, they made a mistake by going farther south to the St.
Croix River, and they spent their first winter on an island some
distance from its mouth. This proved a bad thing, for the climate was
severe and many of the colonists died; so when the weather permitted
they went back to the neighborhood of Port Royal and set up their houses
and built a small fort on Goat Island.
"They found the Indians everywhere very friendly, especially the old
chief, Membertou, who was said to be nearly one hundred years old.
"When their buildings were finished, De Monts sailed back for France,
knowing that he could be spared until after the harvests were gathered.
Pontgrave was left in charge of the colony in his absence, assisted by
Champlain and Champdore. When the spring of 1606 came and De Monts had
not returned, the colonists were alarmed. They needed the supplies that
he had promised to bring them, and they were afraid that something had
happened to him. So, late in July, Pontgrave started off to see if he
could not find some fishing-vessel to take them all back to France.
"In the meantime, De Monts in France had had trouble in getting people
to interest themselves in the Port Royal Colony. But Poutrincourt, who
had returned with him, proved his best friend, and helped in fitting out
a vessel called the 'Jonas,' and promised to return to Acadia with De
Monts, and take his family with him, to establish a permanent colony.
"With them came Lescarbot, an advocate of Paris, who afterwards wrote a
full account of his residence in Acadia, from which we learn many
interesting details that, but for him, we would not know. Pontgrave fell
in with a shallop from De Monts' vessel and all returned to Port Royal.
De Monts wasn't perfectly satisfied with Port Royal for a permanent
settlement, and he persuaded Poutrincourt to make a journey farther
south to find a better place; but this expedition ended badly, and
Poutrincourt returned, convinced that he could be better off at Port
Royal than anywhere else in the New World.
"Unluckily, the merchants in France who had supplied money for this
trading colony sent word that they had decided to give it up. Without
money with which to trade, the colony could not prosper, and so the
majority of the colonists decided to go back to France. Poutrincourt,
however, was determined to come back, and he took home with him
specimens of grain grown in Acadia, and various animal, vegetable, and
mineral products, to show the King what could be raised in Acadia. The
King encouraged him to go back, and ratified the grant of land that De
Monts had given him.
"So Poutrincourt returned to Acadia, and it is greatly to the credit of
the Indians he had left in charge that all the buildings were unharmed.
A new crop of grain, planted by the Indians, was growing finely, and
Membertou and savages welcomed him very cordially.
"The King had given him a grant of money to be used for the Church and
he brought with him a Jesuit priest, who baptized the savages by
wholesale.
"In the summer of 1610, Poutrincourt sent his son, Biencourt, back to
France to report the conversion of the savages and the general
prosperity of the colony. Things in France were not going to be very
favorable now for Poutrincourt. When Biencourt arrived in Paris, it was
not long after the assassination of Henry Fourth. The Jesuits were now
anxious to get control of Acadia, and, to make a long story short,
Madame De Guercheville obtained a grant from the King of the very land
that De Monts had granted to Poutrincourt; Biencourt had to take certain
Jesuits back with him to Acadia; and there was much dissension in the
little colony. But what really proved its downfall was an attack made in
1613 by the Virginian Argall, who killed and captured many of the
inhabitants and burnt all the buildings to the ground. Poutrincourt made
no effort to re-establish Port Royal, but Biencourt, his son, remained
in the woods, living, with a few companions, the life of an Indian."
"Oh, yes, it was he, was it not," said Priscilla, "who was the friend of
Charles La Tour down at Fort St. Louis?"
"The very man," replied Amy. "I often think that if Biencourt had left a
record of his wanderings we should have something very interesting. He
and his father made a good fight for New France, but circumstances were
too strong for them."
"Thank you," said Priscilla. "I understand better than I did before how
the French happened to settle Port Royal."
"Why," asked Martine, "did that Virginian--Argall, I think you called
him--wish to interfere with the French? Jamestown had been settled only
six years when he came up here and attacked Port Royal, and there wasn't
any Plymouth, then, Priscilla."
"He had no real right to interfere, but the English, even then, claimed
the whole coast of North America, basing their claims on the discoveries
of the Cabots; Argall himself, however, is considered little more than a
pirate, and no Englishman justifies his destruction of the prosperous
and peaceful colony at Port Royal.
"The next settlement here was under the auspices of Sir William
Alexander, a friend of James the First. You remember that he made La
Tour a Baronet of Nova Scotia. He had great plans, and his colony was
near Goat Island. I am told that some people here in Annapolis still
speak about the Scotch fort, some trace of which is yet to be seen.
"War between France and England finally put an end to Sir William
Alexander's colony, and it was Charles La Tour who did more than any one
else to make Acadia of some importance to France. He claimed that
Biencourt, Poutrincourt's son, when he died in 1623, had left all his
claims to Acadia to him, including the position of Governor."
"Amy," said Martine, yawning slightly, "this is all very interesting,
but unless I have time to digest it I shall forget it entirely. Let us
put history aside until another day and see if we cannot find something
more amusing."
"I'm going downstairs for a moment," said Priscilla; "I have an idea the
mail has come."
In a moment she returned with a handful of letters.
"Boston, Plymouth, two from Shelburne--where's that? I suppose that I
may look at the postmarks?"
"Give, give," cried Martine, and Priscilla put a couple in her hand.
"Only one for me," said Amy, "and it's from Fritz; he's at Shelburne.
Did you have one too, mamma?"
"No," replied Mrs. Redmond, who had just entered the room.
"Oh, I thought there were two Shelburne postmarks."
Priscilla noticed Martine's heightened color, and an idea that had come
to her at Yarmouth now returned. As it was a matter in which she had no
real right to meddle, she said nothing.
"What does Fritz say?" asked Mrs. Redmond, turning to Amy.
"That he's having the time of his life, that he and Taps have found the
best fishing in the world, and like Nova Scotia so much that they may
bring a party of their own here next summer. What he writes about the
French of Pubnico sounds exactly like Meteghan and Church Point, so I'll
skip all that; Shelburne seems more romantic, and I almost wish it had
lain in our path. He says it has one of the finest harbors he ever saw,
but I will read you a little in his own words.
"'Shelburne, my dear Amy, is like the ghost of a city, to one who has
imagination. It was planned to be the chief city of Nova Scotia, and
there is something rather tragic in looking at the broad streets that
were meant for a larger city. Hardly one of the fine old houses remains.
They say that twelve thousand Loyalists came here just after the
Revolution, and most of them were rich and influential. The frames of
large houses were brought and set up here; people tried to live as they
would in a great city, with servants and every luxury. With such a great
harbor they expected to have a great seaport; but the trouble was, there
was nothing in the country back of them. There was no farming land, and
no farmers to supply produce for the ships in the harbor to carry away
in exchange for other goods. After a while people found they had used up
the money they had brought with them from New York and other places.
Then those who could left Shelburne. Some went away leaving their houses
fully furnished, and they never came back. They went to Halifax, to
Annapolis, or even back to New York and Boston after the bitter feeling
over the war had gone down.
"'If you were here, Amy, you'd find plenty of material for poems in
Shelburne, especially on moonlight nights like last night, when Taps and
I wandered up and down the broad streets, trying to imagine what
Shelburne must have been in the days of its greatness. I hope that you
and the others are enjoying yourselves as much as you expected to,
without me or any other masculine disturber of the peace. I haven't a
doubt that your mother thinks we've been pretty badly treated. She
always was an unusually sensible woman, and we'd have been useful to
carry your bags, if nothing more; however, mark my words, before your
journey is over you will sigh for me more than once, and the day will
come when you'll really need me.'"
"He thinks enough of himself, doesn't he?" said Martine.
"Oh, he's not really conceited," replied Amy, "and I dare say that he
would liven us up a little; but on the whole things are best as they
are."
"Aren't you quieter than usual, Martine?" asked Amy that evening.
"Well, I had a letter from papa to-day," she said, "and he says that
mamma is really very ill, and that they may have to stay abroad all
summer. I have just written him about Yvonne; but of course it will be
some time before I can get an answer."
"What do you want him to do?" asked Amy,--"to let you adopt her? She's
almost as tall as you are."
"Well, I'm not sure what I want, but I know that if Yvonne should have
her voice cultivated she'd be a great prima donna, and what a feather in
my cap to have been her discoverer!"
"I fear that your father would need more than your opinion to enable him
to decide a matter like that. In fact, only an expert musician could
make a safe prophecy about Yvonne."
"Well, at least, I hope that he will consent to letting her go to Boston
to study next winter. We could find a doctor to help her eyesight."
"Why not ask your father to invest in Alexander's gold mine?" asked Amy,
with a smile; "then he could do everything for Yvonne himself."
"That isn't the point. I've really taken a great fancy to Yvonne, and I
want to have her near me. Have you written to Pierre yet?"
"Oh, yes; I went out this morning and bought him a copy of Longfellow.
He had never owned one himself, and was anxious to have it. I have asked
him to write us so that we shall get the letter at Grand Pre."
"It's time Priscilla had a protegee," said Martine, "though she doesn't
seem the kind of person to adopt anything very warmly except her own
opinions."
This was a rather sharp remark for Martine to make, and it convinced Amy
of something that she had tried to doubt--that the two girls were really
rather far apart, "and both such charming girls," she said to herself.
Martine's letters with the Pubnico and Shelburne postmarks had given
Priscilla considerable concern. Though not a meddler, she yet saw
Martine's lack of frankness about those letters. Priscilla knew that
neither was in the handwriting of Fritz Tomkins, and she was sure that
they were written by the Freshman with him whom she knew only by the
name of "Taps." She was now quite convinced, also, that it really was
Martine whom Amy had seen wheeling through the streets of Yarmouth with
this same youth. That it was no concern of hers she realized perfectly;
and yet, she wondered if it might not be her duty to tell Mrs. Redmond
what she knew. Priscilla was over-conscientious; she was always more
ready to disclose her own faults than to conceal them,--to disclose, at
least, faults that she herself recognized. She did not altogether
realize that a certain form of censoriousness was growing upon her; that
she was too much inclined to measure all people by her own standard.
Thus many little things that Martine did quite innocently and naturally
seemed to Priscilla bits of affectation. Martine's hand was ever in her
pocket. When it was a question of buying books or fruit or some other
little thing for the traveller, Martine always managed to pay for it,
and Priscilla thought that her readiness to do this came from a desire
to display the size of her allowance. Priscilla herself, on the other
hand, had to be careful about little expenses, and while their present
trip called for no great expenditure, she hated to be obliged so often
to thank Martine for small luxuries. Then, too, Martine had an
extravagant way of talking that disturbed the serious Priscilla. She
could not say that she had ever found Martine in a real untruth. Still,
Martine's way was not her way, and instead of drawing nearer together as
the journey progressed, the two girls were farther apart.
Martine, on her part, thought Priscilla rather old-fashioned, but
accounted for the seriousness of her dress and her manner by the fact
that she was still in mourning for her father, who had died of fever
contracted in Cuba at the beginning of the late war.
Perhaps it was because she realized that her prejudices were a little
unreasonable, that Priscilla hesitated about speaking to Amy or Mrs.
Redmond regarding the suspicious postmarks.
The long "historical disquisition," as Martine called it, that Amy had
given them on their first day at Annapolis, was not immediately followed
by another. Their mornings were spent in sketching in the neighborhood,
and their afternoons in driving. One day they crossed the Grandville
Ferry and went down to the old fort near Goat Island. But though they
all professed to see slight traces of the earthworks, it required
imagination rather than eyesight to discern even a slight trace of
Poutrincourt's fort.
"It's one of the ironies of history," said Amy, "that tradition should
speak of this as a Scotch fort, for the Scotch were here so short a time
before the French were again in power."
"What became of the Scotch?" asked Priscilla.
"It is supposed that most of them went back home, and that the few who
stayed intermarried with the conquering French. Sir William Alexander
and his Baronets of Nova Scotia made little impression on Acadia."
"Amy," said Martine, "of all the people you've told us about the most
interesting to me is young Biencourt, wandering about in the woods and
living like an Indian; I even dreamt about him the other night. How did
he happen to escape when Argall destroyed the fort?"
"Oh, he and some of his companions were up there where Annapolis now is,
working in their grain fields; you know they had a mill up there, and
rich fields of grain. The fort itself was not in a good location,--at
least for farming. It is said that Argall and the other Virginians were
not aware of the existence of the mill and the fields, and when they had
destroyed the fort, thought that there was nothing left for the French."
"You may be pretty sure," said Martine, "they wouldn't have let anything
escape if they'd known; the English are always greedy."
"They are not a bit worse than the French," retorted Priscilla. "Just
think how cruel the French were during the Reign of Terror."
"Oh, that's an entirely different kind of thing; the French are never
half as anxious to grab other people's land as the English are."
"There, there," interposed Amy, "I'll have to be a Board of
International Arbitration; in other words, let us have peace. There's
one thing," she continued, "I feel as if young Biencourt kept alive the
love of the French for Port Royal. Charles La Tour was himself only a
boy like Biencourt when he first came to the New World. The King had
certainly given Poutrincourt rights in Acadia, and he had passed them on
to his son. Poutrincourt was killed at the Siege of Marye in 1610,
scarcely three years before Argall's destruction of Port Royal."