NACHOUAC AND MENAGOUECHE.
It was now proposed by the French authorities to re-establish the
stronghold at the mouth of the St. John. The old fort of four bastions
so far remained that it could readily be restored; the ditches needed
to be deepened, the parapets to be raised and new palisades
constructed. It was thought that 150 men would suffice to garrison the
post as well as that at the Nashwaak. The fort was needed to protect
French privateers and French commerce. Many English vessels were
brought to Menagoueche at this time by the privateersmen Baptiste and
Guyon. The company of Acadia, with Tibierge as their agent, continued
to develop a thriving trade, and it seems, too, that the forest wealth
of the country was beginning to attract attention for Villebon, a year
or two later, sent home to France a mast, as a specimen, 82 feet long,
31 inches in diameter at one end and 21 at the other.
The French privateers were not allowed to ply their vocation with
impunity, they often had spirited encounters with the British ships in
which there were losses on both sides.
In 1694 one Robineau of Nantes, who had taken several English vessels,
was forced to burn his ship in St. John harbor, in order to escape
capture by an English ship, and to defend himself on shore. The
vessels employed as privateers evidently were small, for they
sometimes went up the river to Villebon's fort. The prisoners taken
were kept at the fort or put in charge of the French inhabitants
living on the river, and from time to time ransomed by their friends
or exchanged for French prisoners taken by the English. Villebon
informs us that in June, 1695, an English frigate and a sloop arrived
at Menagoueche (St. John) on business connected with the ransom of
eight captives who were then in the hands of the French. Messages were
exchanged with Nachouac and the captain of the English ship, a jovial
old tar, expressed a wish to meet Governor Villebon and "drink with
him" and to see Captain Baptiste, whom he called a brave man, but his
overtures were declined.
The ships Envieux and Profond, before proceeding to the attack of Fort
Pemaquid, had landed at St. John a number of cannon and materials of
all sorts to be used in the construction of the new fort. This project
was not viewed with complacency by the people of New England, and
Lieut.-Governor William Stoughton, of Massachusetts, thus explains the
line of action proposed against the French in a communication
addressed to Major Benjamin Church, the old Indian fighter, who had
been sent from Boston in August, 1696, on an expedition against the
settlements of Acadia: "Sir, His Majesty's ship Orford having lately
surprised a French shallop with 23 of the soldiers belonging to the
fort (at Nashwaak) upon St. John's river in Nova Scotia, together with
Villieu, their captain, providence seems to encourage the forming of
an expedition to attack that fort, and to disrest and remove the enemy
from that post, which is the chief source from whence the most of our
disasters do issue, and also to favor with an opportunity for gaining
out of their hands the ordnance, artillery, and other warlike stores
and provisions lately supplied to them from France for erecting a new
fort near the river's mouth, whereby they will be greatly strengthened
and the reducing of them rendered more difficult."
Before the order from which the above extract is quoted was placed in
Major Church's hands he had arrived at St. John, having previously
devastated the French settlements at Chignecto. Being desirous, if
possible, to surprise the men engaged upon the new fort Church landed
at Manawagonish Cove, a little to the west of the harbor; what
followed we shall let him tell in his own quaint fashion. "Next
morning early the Major, with his forces, landed to see what discovery
they could make, travelled across the woods to the old fort or falls
at the mouth of St. John's river, keeping themselves undiscovered from
the enemy. Finding that there were several men at work, and having
informed themselves as much as they could, returned back (the enemy
being on the other side of the river could not come at them). But
night coming on and dark wet weather with bad travelling, were obliged
to stop in the woods till towards next day morning and then went on
board. Soon after the Major ordered all the vessels to come to sail
and go into the mouth of the river, the French firing briskly at them,
but did them no harm, and running fiercely upon the enemy they soon
fled to the woods. The Major ordered a brisk party to run across a
neck to cut them off from their canoes[7] which the day before they
had made a discovery of. So the commander, with the rest, ran directly
towards the new fort they were building, not knowing but they had some
ordnance mounted. The enemy running directly to their canoes were met
by our forces who fired at them, and killed one and wounded Corporal
Canton, who was taken. The rest threw down what they had and ran into
the woods. The prisoner Canton being brought to the Major told him if
he would let his surgeon dress his wound and cure him he would be
serviceable to him as long as he lived. So being dressed he was
examined and gave the Major an account of the twelve great guns which
were hid in the beach, below high water mark--the carriages, shot, and
wheelbarrows, some flour and pork all hid in the woods.
[7] These canoes were probably lying in the cove at Indiantown just
above the falls.
"The next morning the officers being all ordered to meet together to
consult about going to Vilboon's fort, and none amongst them being
acquainted but the Aldens, who said the water in the river was very
low so that they could not get up to the fort; and the prisoner Canton
told the commander that what the Aldens said was true * * so concluded
it was not practicable to proceed. Then ordered some of the forces to
get the great guns on board the open sloops and the rest to range the
woods for the enemy, who took one prisoner and brought him in. * * Now
having with a great deal of pains and trouble got all the guns, shot,
and other stores aboard intended on our design which we came out first
for. But the wind not serving, the commander sent out his scouts into
the woods to seek for the enemy. And four of our Indians coming upon
three Frenchmen undiscovered concluded that if the French should
discover them they would fire at them and might kill one or more of
them, which to prevent fired at the French, killed one and took the
other two prisoners. And it happened that he who was killed was
Shavelere (Chevalier), the chief man there."
Major Church's design was to make a raid on the settlement of Baron
St. Castin and his Indians at Penobscot by way of retaliation for the
destruction of Fort William Henry at Pemaquid, but as he was sailing
down the bay he met a small squadron having on board a reinforcement
of 100 men under Colonel Hawthorne. The command now passed to
Hawthorne as the senior officer, and it was decided to attempt the
capture of Fort Nachouac. This was against the advice of Major Church,
but as the expedition now numbered about 500 men, Hawthorne was
unwilling to return to Boston without striking a blow at the chief
stronghold of the French in Acadia.
Villebon was on the alert: he had stationed his ensign, Chevalier,
with five scouts at the mouth of the river and on the 4th of October
he learned of the presence of the English at Menagoueche. Chevalier
was at first alarmed by the appearance of Church's ships off Partridge
Island, and sent word directly to Fort Nachouac; a day or two later he
was killed by some of Church's Indians as already related. Villebon
sent his brother Neuvillette down the river to continue the look out
and in the meantime made every possible preparation for a siege. His
garrison, numbering about 100 soldiers, was busily employed in
throwing up new intrenchments and mounting additional guns, word was
sent to the French inhabitants of the vicinity to repair to the fort
and assist in its defence, and Villebon, on the 11th October, sent an
urgent message to Father Simon, the missionary at Medoctec, to get the
Indians to come down as soon as possible if they wished to fight the
English. He lost not a moment and having sent out word on all sides
(the Indians being then dispersed upon the river) he arrived the
afternoon of the 14th, with thirty-six warriors and expressed his
desire to remain at the fort as the chaplain was absent. Two days
later Neuvillette returned to the fort and reported that he had seen
the enemy in great force about a league and a half below the Jemseg.
The last preparations were now hurriedly made and on the evening of
the 17th, Villebon caused the "generale" (or assembly) to be beat and
all the garrison being drawn up under arms he addressed them in
stirring words, bidding them to maintain the honor of their country
and the reputation of French soldiers, adding that if any should be
maimed in the approaching combat the king would provide for him during
the rest of his life. This speech created the greatest enthusiasm and
the cry of "Vive le roy" awoke the forest echoes and was borne over
the waters. The same evening a dozen Frenchmen who lived in the
vicinity arrived at the fort. Among them were the brothers Mathieu and
Rene d'Amours and the privateersman Baptiste. Villebon assigned to
Baptiste and Rene d'Amours the duty of heading the Indians and
opposing the landing of the English.
The sketch on the next page, based upon a plan in the archives de la
Marine, Paris[8] will serve to give an idea of the general character
of Fort Nachouac. The space of ground enclosed by the palisade was
about 125 feet square; the site, as already stated, lay in the upper
angle formed by the junction of the Nashwaak with the river St. John,
nearly opposite the Cathedral in Fredericton. The general arrangement
of the buildings is shown in the plan. At the rear of the enclosure is
the commandant's lodging, on the right hand side the guard house and
on the left the soldiers' barracks; at the front is the gate and in
the lower left hand corner the bake oven; cannons were placed at each
corner. A small room in the left end of the commandant's lodging was
fitted up as a chapel. The ditches and ramparts that surrounded the
enclosure added considerably to the strength of the position. The
bastions were so arranged that the space outside the walls was
entirely commanded by the musketry fire of the defenders. The
loopholes at the corners from which the fire was delivered are shown
in the sketch.
[8] The author is indebted to Dr. W. F. Ganong for his kindness in
furnishing the sketch from which the accompanying plan of
illustration has been made. It is not, of course, a copy of
the original, but gives an idea of the general character of
the fortification.
[Illustration: FORT NACHOUAC, A. D. 1696.]
Everything being now in order for the defence of his fort Villebon
ordered the garrison to pass the night under arms, as from the barking
of the dogs it was believed the enemy was drawing near. The next
morning between eight and nine o'clock, whilst Father Simon was
celebrating mass in the chapel, a shallop filled with armed men
rounded the point below, followed by two others. The alarm was at once
given and every man repaired to his post. The sloops approached within
the distance of half a cannon shot when the guns of the fort opened on
them and they were forced to retire below the point where they
effected a landing. Villebon did not deem it prudent to oppose the
landing as his men would have had to cross the Nashwaak river to do so
and this would have been very imprudent. The English took up a
position on the south side of the Nashwaak stream and threw up an
earthwork upon which they placed two field guns from which they opened
fire on the fort; a third gun of larger size was mounted soon
afterwards nearer the fort, but not being sheltered it was not much
used. The beseigers hoisted the royal standard of England and there
were cheers and counter-cheers on the part of the combatants. The
cannon fire was heavy on both sides but the guns of the fort being
better mounted and well served had rather the advantage. There was
also a sharp exchange of musketry fire, the St. John river Indians,
from the bushes along the shore, engaging in a vicious fight with
Church's Indians on the opposite side of the stream. When darkness
ended the day's struggle the English had made little or no progress.
The following night being very cold they made fires to keep themselves
from freezing, but this afforded a sure mark for the French cannon,
which opened on them with grape shot, and they were obliged to put
them out and suffer the inclemency of the weather. Major Church's men
being almost bare of clothing from their long service, suffered
extremely and were ill disposed to continue the siege. At daybreak the
musketry fire from the fort recommenced and about 8 o'clock the
English again got their guns into operation, but la Cote, who had
distinguished himself the evening before by firing rapidly and
accurately, dismounted one of their field guns and silenced the
other.
It was now apparent that the fort could not be taken without a regular
investment and in view of the lateness of the season this was not
deemed advisable. The Massachusetts historian Mather quaintly
observes, "The difficulty of the cold season so discouraged our men
that after some few shot the enterprize found itself under too much
congelation to proceed any further." And so the following night
the New England troops re-embarked after lighting fires over a
considerable extent of ground in order to deceive the French. When the
morning dawned their camp was deserted and soon after Neuvillette,
who had been sent down the river to reconnoitre, reported that after
he had gone three leagues he found them embarked in four vessels
of about 60 tons and going down the river with a fair wind. On
their return towards the mouth of the river the invaders burned the
house and barns of Mathieu d'Amours at Freneuse, opposite the
Oromocto, and laid waste his fields. The sieur de Freneuse was
himself so much injured by exposure during the siege that he died
shortly afterwards. Major Church took back with him to Boston a
Negro man of Marblehead, who had been taken prisoner by the French
and kept amongst them for some time. He was probably the first of
his race to set foot within the borders of New Brunswick.
In the siege of his fort Villebon lost only one man killed and two
wounded while the English loss is said to have been eight soldiers
killed and five officers and twelve soldiers wounded.
The effect of the capture of Pemaquid by d'Iberville and the
repulse of the English by Villebon greatly encouraged the savages of
Acadia in their hostility and the following summer another raid on
the English settlements was planned. A large number of Micmacs came
from the eastward, some of them from the Basin of Minas, with St.
Cosme, their priest, at their head. They were entertained by
Villebon, furnished with ammunition and supplies and sent on to the
rendezvous at Penobscot. Father Simon and 72 Maliseets were sent in
the same direction soon afterwards with instructions to pick up the
Passamaquoddies on their way; they departed in high spirits with
the intention of giving no quarter to the enemy and Villebon
encouraged their animosity, exhorting them "to burn and to destroy."
This advice they followed to the letter for the Governor wrote in
his journal shortly afterwards, "the missionary, M. de Thury,
confirms the report I already had received of four small parties of
our Indians having killed fifteen or sixteen English and burnt one of
them alive on account of one of their chiefs being slain." The
vindictiveness of the Indians is further illustrated by an incident
that happened at the Medoctic village in the time of King William's
war, in which John Gyles and James Alexander, two English captives,
were cruelly abused. A party of Indians from Cape Sable, having
had some of their relatives killed by English fishermen, travelled
all the way to Medoctec in order to wreak their vengeance upon any
English captives they might find. They rushed upon their unfortunate
victims like bears bereaved of their whelps, saying, "Shall we, who
have lost our relations by the English, suffer an English voice to be
heard among us?" The two captives were brutally beaten and ill used
and made to go through a variety of performances for the amusement of
their tormenters. Gyles says: "They put a tomahawk into my hands
and ordered me to get up, sing and dance Indian, which I performed
with the greatest reluctance and while in the act seemed determined to
purchase my death by killing two or three of these monsters of
cruelty, thinking it impossible to survive the bloody treatment....
Not one of them showed the least compassion, but I saw the tears run
down plentifully on the cheeks of a Frenchman who sat behind." The
tortures were continued until the evening of what Gyles might well
call "a very tedious day." Finally a couple of Indians threw the
two wretched men out of the big wigwam, where they had been
tormented; they crawled away on their hands and knees and were
scarcely able to walk for several days.
The experience of Gyles was, however, nothing in comparison with that
of his brother and another captive taken by the Indians at the same
time as himself. This unfortunate pair attempted to desert, but failed
and were subjected to the most horrible tortures and finally burned
alive by the savages.
The people of the frontier settlements were now so on the alert that,
although the Indians roamed over the country like wolves, they were
usually prepared to meet them. Every little village had its block
house and sentinels, and every farmer worked in his fields with his
musket at his side. Nevertheless tragic events occasionally happened.
In February, 1698, Captain Chubb, of Pemaquid notoriety, and six
others were killed by the Indians at Andover, several of the
inhabitants were captured and many houses burned; Major Frost was
slain at Kittery and a number of people at Wells; Major Marsh had a
sharp fight near Pemaquid, in which he lost twenty-five of his men,
but succeeded in putting the savages to rout. This was the last blood
shed during King William's war. The Indians were becoming weary of
fighting and the peace of Ryswick deprived them of the open assistance
of their French allies. For a brief season peace reigned in Acadia.
The expedition under Church had interrupted the rebuilding of the fort
at St. John and shown the correctness of Villebon's prediction in a
letter written to the French minister in 1696 that it was impossible
with the few men at his disposal to attempt a work which, though easy
to repair could not be completed as quickly as the enemy could get
ready to destroy it. In the same letter he speaks of making plank near
Fort Nachouac for the madriens, or gun platforms, of the fort at
Menagoueche. As there were mills at this time at Port Royal, it would
be possible from this incident to frame a theory that Villebon had a
saw mill a short distance up the Nashwaak, say at Marysville, but it
is more probable the planks were cut in saw pits by the soldiers of
the garrison. The plan of the fort at St. John was agreed on in 1698,
and 3,000 livres granted for its construction. Villebon paid his
workmen 30 sous (about 30 cts.) a day, his laborers 20 sous, and the
soldiers 4 sous a day over their pay and a weekly allowance of 1 qr.
lb. tobacco. The walls of the fort were laid in clay and mortar, 24
pounders were placed on the bastions and 36-pounders could be placed
there three on each bastion. By the end of the year Villebon was able
to report the fort in a condition to do honor to whoever should defend
it. He had left Nachouac just as it was, leaving only two men to see
that nothing was spoiled by the savages.
A plan in the Marine Archives at Paris, made by Villieu in 1700,
shows that "Fort de la Riviere de St. Jean," or Fort Menagoueche, was
built at "Old Fort Site," behind Navy Island in Carleton. The
general plan was the same as that of Fort Nachouac, but it was
considerably larger, nearly 200 feet square. Within the enclosure
were barracks for the soldiers, a residence for the governor with
small chapel adjoining it, a house for the officers of the garrison,
lodgings for the surgeon, gunner and armorer, a small prison and a
well, and just outside the gate were two bake-houses. The water
supply of the fort seems always to have been inadequate. The
sieur des Goutins, who disliked Villebon, complains in a letter of
23rd June, 1699, "the Governor keeps the water within the fort for
the exclusive use of his kitchen and his mare, others being obliged
to use snow-water, often very dirty." Diereville, who visited St. John
during his short stay in Acadia describes the fort as "built of
earth, with four bastions fraised (or picketed) each having six
large guns." A new industry was now coming into existence, namely
the shipping of masts to France for the King's navy; Diereville sailed
to France in the Avenant "a good King's ship," mounting 44 guns which
had brought out the ammunition and provisions that Placentia and the
Fort on the River St. John received annually. This ship took on board
a number of fine masts that 14 carpenters and mast makers in his
majesty's service had manufactured at the River St. John. The
vessel left Acadia on the 6th of October and reached France in 33
days.
The period of Governor Villebon's residence at St. John was of about
two years' duration. He died on the 5th July, 1700, and was buried
near the fort. The life of this devoted son of New France went out
with the century and with his death the seat of government of Acadia
was again transferred to Port Royal.
Brouillan now succeeded to the command. He found the fort at St. John
in good order, as was to be expected, it having been just rebuilt, but
in the opinion of the new governor it was of little use for the glory
of the King or for the preservation of the country. He condemned the
situation as being commanded on one side by an island at the distance
of a pistol shot, and on the other by a height at the distance only of
a hundred and odd fathoms (toises), and with a very insufficient water
supply. He therefore caused the fortifications to be razed, demolished
the houses, and carried away the guns and everything else of a
portable character to Port Royal. The inhabitants living on the River
St. John were left without protection and they seem almost without
exception to have removed, some to Quebec and others to Port Royal.
The valley of the St. John was thus left as deserted and desolate as
it had been previous to the arrival of Champlain. The Indian might
wander at will among the ruins of forts and dwellings abandoned to his
care, or left to be converted into hiding places for the wild beasts
and wonder at the folly of the white man who had forsaken the finest
river in all Acadia with its wealth of forest and stream and its
fertile lands awaiting the hands of industry and thrift.