THE FRENCH ANXIOUS TO HOLD POSSESSION OF THE RIVER ST. JOHN.
The situation on the St. John had now become a matter of international
interest in view of the boundary dispute. The deliberations of the
French and English commissioners began in 1750 and lasted four years.
In preparing the French case the Marquis de la Galissonniere summoned
to his aid the Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, who were both well
informed as to the situation of Acadia and also filled with intense
zeal for the national cause. We learn from letters of the Abbe de
L'Isle-Dieu, written at Paris to the French minister early in the year
1753, that the two missionaries, in consultation with the Count de la
Galissonniere, prepared several documents to elucidate the French
case. Copies of these very interesting papers are now in the Canadian
Archives at Ottawa, and have been published at Quebec in 1890 by the
Abbe Casgrain in "Le Canada Francais." The three most important of
these documents are entitled:
1. Memorandum on the necessity of determining the limits of Acadia.
2. Plan for the settlement of the country in order to hasten the
determining of the aforesaid limits.
3. Representation of the present state of the missions, French as well
as Indians, in the southern part of New France in Canada.
In the first of these documents the following references are made to
the River St. John:
"This post, so important to retain for France, has as commandant M. De
Gaspe at Fort Menagoeck, built at the mouth of the river. The
missionary on the river is Father Germain, Jesuit, who makes his
residence at Ekauba (Aukpaque), distant about forty leagues from Fort
Menagoeck.
"The savages of Father Germain's mission are Marechites, and he has in
addition the care of some French families settled on the river.
"Since the month of August last, Father Audren has been sent as
assistant to Father Germain, but his assistance will be much more
hurtful than beneficial to the mission if, in accordance with the plan
of the Jesuit provincial, it is decided to recall Father Germain to
Quebec to fill the office of superior general of the house of the
Jesuits in Canada. This is not merely a groundless surmise, for the
destination and nomination to office of Father Germain are already
determined, at least Father Germain himself so states in his last
letter to the Abbe l'Isle-Dieu, and he adds that he has made every
possible representation to at least delay his recall. The Abbe
l'Isle-Dieu, who perceives all the consequences of his removal, has
already endeavored to prevent its being effected by the Provincial,
and it is thought that, under the present circumstances, the court
should as far as possible employ its authority to hinder the
retirement of Father Germain from his mission, where the esteem and
confidence, the respect and authority, that he has acquired over the
savages and the few French who are found in his mission, give him a
power that a young missionary could not have. Besides Father Germain
joins to a disinterestedness without example, to piety the most
sincere, and to a zeal indefatigable, consummate experience. All this
is necessary in connection with various operations that are now to be
undertaken, in which a man of such qualifications can be of great
assistance.
"At a distance of eighteen leagues from Father Germain's post of duty
is another called Medoctek, which is dependent on the same mission and
served by the Jesuit father Loverga, who has been there nine months,
and who has the care of a band of Marechites; but, in addition to the
fact that Father Loverga is on the point of leaving, he would be
useless there on account of his great age and it would be better to
send there next spring Father Audren, since this mission is daily
becoming more important, especially to the savages whose chief
occupation is beaver hunting.
"The French inhabitants of the River St. John have suffered much by
different detachments of Canadians and Indians, to the number of 250
or 300 men, commanded by M. de Montesson, a Canadian officer, whom
they have been obliged to subsist, and for that purpose to sacrifice
the grain and cattle needed for the seeding and tillage of their own
fields. In the helpless position in which these inhabitants find
themselves, it is thought that in order to afford them sufficient
relief it would be advisable that the Court should send them
immediately at least 1,000 barrels of flour, and the same quantity
annually for some time, both for their own subsistence and for that of
the garrison and the Indians. It would be well also to send them each
year about 250 barrels of bacon; this last sort of provision being
limited to this quantity because it is supposed, or at least hoped,
there will be sent from Quebec some Indian corn and peas as well as
oil and fat for the savages."
The reference to the St. John river region in the document from which
this extract is taken, concludes by strongly recommending that the
supply of flour and bacon should be sent, not to the store houses at
Quebec and Louisbourg, but directly to St. John, where it would arrive
as safely as at any other port and with less expense to the king and
much more expedition to the inhabitants.
It may be well now to pause in the narration of events to look a
little more closely into the situation on the River St. John at the
time of the negotiations between the rival powers with regard to the
limits of Acadia.
The statement has been made in some of our school histories, "Acadia
was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, and has
remained a British possession ever since." The statement is, to say
the least, very misleading, so far as the St. John river country is
concerned, for the French clung tenaciously to this territory as a
part of the dominions of their monarch until New France passed finally
into the hands of their rivals by the treaty of Paris in 1763.
There was no part of Acadia that was more familiar to the French than
the valley of the River St. John, and the importance attached to the
retention of it by France is seen very clearly in a memorandum,
prepared about this time for the use of the French commissioners on
the limits of Acadia. There can be no doubt that the Abbes de
L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre had a hand in the preparation of this
document, which is an able statement of the case from the French point
of view. They assert "that the British pretensions to ownership of the
territory north of the Bay of Fundy have no foundation. That the
French have made settlements at various places along the shores of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they have always lived peaceably and
quietly under the rule of the French king. This is also the state
there at present, and the English desire to change it, without having
acquired any new right of possession since the treaty of Utrecht, and
after forty years of quiet and peaceable possession on the part of the
French. It is the same with regard to the River St. John and that part
of Canada which adjoins the Bay of Fundy. The French, who were settled
there before the treaty of Utrecht, have continued to this day to hold
possession under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the King of
France, enjoying meanwhile the fruit of their labors. It is not until
more than forty years after the treaty of Utrecht that the English
commissioners have attempted, by virtue of a new and arbitrary
interpretation of the treaty, to change and overturn all the European
possessions of America; to expel the French, to deprive them of their
property and their homes, to sell the lands they have cultivated and
made valuable and to expose Europe by such transactions to the danger
of seeing the fires of war rekindled. Whatever sacrifices France might
be disposed to make, in order to maintain public tranquility, it would
be difficult indeed for her to allow herself to be deprived of the
navigation of the River St. John by ceding to England the coast of the
continent along the Bay of Fundy."
Continuing their argument, the writers of the document state: "That it
is by the River St. John that Quebec maintains her communication with
Isle Royal and Isle St. Jean, [Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island],
and also with Old France, during the season that the navigation of the
River St. Lawrence is impracticable; and as this is the only way of
communication for a considerable part of the year, possession of the
route is indispensably necessary to France. All who have any special
knowledge of Canada agree on this head, and their testimony finds
confirmation in an English publication that lately appeared in London,
entitled 'The Present State of North America,' in which the writer
sounds the tocsin of war against France and, although partiality,
inspired by love of country, has led him into many errors, he does not
seek to disguise how important it is to deprive France of the right of
navigation of the River St. John, which affords the only means of
communication with Quebec during the winter. 'The French,' says the
English author, 'have often sent supplies and merchandise from Old
France to Quebec, both in time of peace and of war, by the River St.
John, so as to avoid the difficulties and risks of navigation by the
River St. Lawrence. * * If we suffer them to remain in possession of
that river they will always have an open communication between France
and Canada during the winter, which they could have only from May to
October by the River St. Lawrence.'
"This testimony makes us feel more and more how essential it is for
France to keep possession of the River St. John so as to have
communication with Quebec and the rest of Canada during the seven
months of the year that the St. Lawrence is not navigable. The
communication which the English pretend they require by land between
New England and Nova Scotia, along the coast of the Etchemins[29] and
the Bay of Fundy, is only a vain pretext to mask their real motive,
which is to deprive France of a necessary route of communication.
[29] The country of the Etchemins, or Maliseets, included eastern
Maine, and the western part of New Brunswick.
"Considering the length of the road by land from New England to Port
Royal and Acadia, the obstacles to be encountered in the rivers that
fall into the sea along the coast, which will be more difficult to
cross near the mouth; all these circumstances render the communication
by land a veritable chimera; the more so that the way by sea from the
remotest part of New England to Port Royal is so short and so easy,
while that by land would be long, painful and difficult. We may be
perfectly sure that if the English were masters of all the territory
they claim they would never journey over it, and the only advantage
they would find would be to deprive the French of a necessary route of
communication. We do not fear to say that the object of the English is
not confined to the country they claim under the name of Acadia. Their
object is to make a general invasion of Canada and thus to pave the
way to universal empire in America."
It is little to be wondered at that the French nation should have been
very reluctant to part with their control of the St. John river. From
the days of its discovery by Champlain it had become of increasing
importance to them as a means of communication between the widely
separated portions of New France. But more than this the river was in
many of its features unrivelled in their estimation. Its remarkable
falls near the sea, its massive walls of limestone at "the narrows"
just above--which the French called "cliffs of marble"--its broad
lake-like expansions, its fertile intervals and islands, the fish that
swarmed in its waters and the game that abounded in its forests, its
towering pines and noble elms were all known to them and had been
noted by their early explorers. Champlain, L'Escarbot, Denys, Biard,
La Hontan, Cadillac and Charlevoix had described in glowing words the
wealth of its attractions. It is worth while in this connection to
quote the description which Lamothe Cadillac penned in 1693--just two
hundred and ten years ago:
_River St. John._--"The entrance of this river is very large. Two
little islands are seen to the left hand, one called l'Ile
Menagoniz (Mahogany Island) and the other l'Ile aux Perdrix
(Partridge Island), and on the right hand there is a cape of which
the earth is as red as a red Poppy. The harbor is good; there is
no rock and it has five or six fathoms of water.
_Fort._--There is a fort of four bastions here, which needs to be
repaired. It is very well situated and could not be attacked by
land for it is surrounded by water at half tide. Less than an
eighth of a league above there are two large rocks, perpendicular,
and so near that they leave only space sufficient for a ship
cleverly to pass.
_Gouffre._ Just here there is a fall, or abyss (gouffre), which
extends seven or eight hundred paces to the foot of two rocks.
There is a depth of eighteen fathoms of water here. I think that I
am the only one who has ever sounded at this place. The falls are
no sooner passed than the river suddenly expands to nearly half a
league. It is still very deep and a vessel of fifty or sixty tons
could ascend thirty leagues, but it would be necessary to take
care to pass the falls when the sea is level, or one would
certainly be lost there. It must be conceded that this is the most
beautiful, the most navigable and the most highly favored river of
Acadia. The most beautiful, on account of the variety of trees to
be found, such as butternut, cherry, hazel, elms, oaks, maples and
vines.
_Masts._--There is a grove of pine on the boarders of a lake near
Gemseq (Jemseg), fifteen leagues from the sea, where there might
be made the finest masts, and they could be conducted into the St.
John by a little river which falls in there.
_Pewter mine._--Near the same lake there in a mine of pewter. I
have seen the Indians melt and manufacture from it balls for their
hunting.
It is most navigable, by reason of its size and depth and the
number of lakes and rivers that empty themselves into it. The most
highly favored, by reason of its greater depth of fertile soil, of
its unrivalled salmon fishing, and of its reaching into the
country to a depth of eighty leagues. The bass, the trout, the
gaspereau, the eel, the sturgeon and a hundred other kinds of
fishes are found in abundance. The most highly favored, also,
because it furnishes in abundance beavers and other fur-bearing
animals. I have ascended this river nearly one hundred and fifty
leagues in a bark canoe. I pass in silence other attractions that
it possesses for I must not be too long.
One single thing is to be regretted, which is that in the most
beautiful places, where the land and meadows are low, they are
inundated every spring time after the snow melts. The continuance
of this inundation (or freshet) is because the waters cannot flow
out sufficiently fast on account of those two rocks, of which I
have spoken, which contract the outlet of the river. It would not
be very difficult to facilitate the flow of the waters. It would
only be necessary to mine the rock that is to the right hand on
entering, and which seems to want to tumble of itself. It is
undeniable that the waters would flow forth more freely, and the
falls would be levelled, or at least diminished, and all this flat
country protected from inundation.
_Forts of the Micmacs and Maliseets._--Thirty leagues up the river
there is a fort of the Micmacs,[30] at a place called Naxouak, and
at thirty leagues further up there is one of the Maliseets. This
latter nation is fairly warlike. They are well made and good
hunters. They attend to the cultivation of the soil and have some
fine fields of Indian corn and pumpkins. Their fort is at
Medoctek.
At forty leagues still farther up there is another fort which is
the common retreat of the Kanibas, or Abenakis, when they are
afraid of something in their country. It is on the bank of a
little river which flows into the St. John, and which comes from a
lake called Madagouasca, twelve leagues long and one wide. It is a
good country for moose hunting."
[30] Cadillac seems to have so termed Villebon's fort because the
Micmacs of eastern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia often made it
a rendezvous; perhaps also it was a fanciful distinction by
way of comparison with the Maliseet fort at Medoctec.
In another edition of his narrative Cadillac says that Madawaska lake
and river turn northward so those who journey from Acadia to Quebec go
across the portage from the lake to the River St. Lawrence, opposite
Tadoussac. This route was from very early times considered by the
French as the easiest and best and was greatly valued by them as a
means of communication both in time of war and in time of peace.
Cadillac's idea of protecting the low lying lands of the St. John
river from inundation during the spring freshet, by enlarging the
outlet at the falls, has been revived on more than one occasion. For
example, sixty years later we find the following note in the statement
prepared by the missionaries Le Loutre and de L'Isle-Dieu for the use
of the commissioners engaged in the attempt to settle the boundaries
of Acadia--:
"The River St. John is very extensive and the soil is excellent,
easily cultivated, capable of supporting at least 1,000 families, but
there exists an inconvenience which up to the present prevents the
place from being inhabited as it should be. This inconvenience is due
to the frequency of the floods occasioned by a fall where the waters
do not discharge themselves fast enough and in consequence flow back
upon the lands above, which they inundate. But if the proposed colony
be established at this place it would be possible to give vent to the
flood by removing a small obstruction [portage][31] less than an
eighth of a league wide; this would certainly prevent the inundations,
dry up the lands and render cultivation practicable."
[31] It would be interesting to know the exact location of the
"portage" referred to above. Was it the rocky neck between
Marble Cove at Indiantown and the Straight Shore? Or was it
the comparatively slight obstruction at Drury's Cove that
prevents the river finding an outlet by way of the Marsh Creek
into Courtenay Bay? See on this head Dr. George F. Matthew's
interesting paper on "The Outlets of the St. John River:" Nat.
Hist. Society bulletin No. xii., p. 42.
A bill was once introduced into the House of Assembly for the purpose
of enabling the promoters to remove, by blasting, the rocks that
obstruct the mouth of the river and thus allow the waters to flow more
freely. It was claimed that many benefits would follow, chiefly that
the lumbermen would be able to get their logs and deals to market more
expeditiously and at less cost, and that the farmers, of Maugerville,
Grand Falls and Sheffield would be saved the serious inconveniences
occasioned by the annual freshet. However, popular sentiment was
strongly opposed to the project. People speedily realized that not
only would the beauty of the river be destroyed but that navigation
would be rendered precarious and uncertain. The project, in fact,
would have changed our noble St. John into a tidal river, unsightly
mud flats alternating with rushing currents of turbid waters, while so
far as protection of the low-lying lands goes the remedy would in all
probability have proved worse than the disease, for instead of an
annual inundation there would have been an inundation at every high
tide. Moreover the harbor at St. John would have been ruined. There
can be no secure harbor at the mouth of a great tidal river where
swirling tides pour in and out twice in the course of every
twenty-four hours.
Cadillac mentions the convenient route to Quebec via the River St.
John. The Indians had used it from time immemorial and the French
followed their example, as at a later period did the English. The
missionaries Le Loutre and de L'Isle-Dieu in the statement prepared by
them in 1753, already mentioned, say:--
"It is very easy to maintain communication with Quebec, winter and
summer alike, by the River St. John, and the route is especially
convenient for detachments of troops needed either for attack or
defence. This is the route to be taken and followed:--
"From Quebec to the River du Loup.
From the River du Loup by a portage of 18 leagues to Lake
Temiscouata.
From Lake Temiscouata to Madaoechka [Madawaska.]
From Madaoechka to Grand Falls.
From Grand Falls to Medoctek.
From Medoctek to Ecouba [Aukpaque], post of the Indians of the
Jesuit missionary, Father Germain.
From Ecouba to Jemsec.
From Jemsec, leaving the River St. John and traversing Dagidemoech
[Washa demoak] lake ascending by the river of the same name,
thence by a portage of 6 leagues to the River Petkoudiak.
From Petkoudiak to Memeramcouk descending the river which bears
that name.
From Memeramcouk by a portage of three leagues to Nechkak
[Westcock].
From Nechkak to Beausejour."
By this route the troops commanded by the French officers Marin and
Montesson arrived at Beausejour in less than a month from the time of
their departure from Quebec, the distance being about 500 miles.
In the war of 1812 the 104th regiment, raised in this province, left
St. John on the 11th day of February and on the 27th of the same month
crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice and entered Quebec 1,000 strong,
having accomplished a march of 435 miles in midwinter in sixteen days
and, says Col. Playfair, without the loss of a man.
In the year 1837 the 43d Light Infantry marched from this province to
Quebec in the month of December in almost precisely the same time, but
the conditions were distinctly more favorable; the season was not
nearly so rigorous, roads and bridges had been constructed over the
greater portion of the route and supplies could be obtained to better
advantage. Yet it is said the great Duke of Wellington observed of
this march of the 43d Light Infantry, "It is the only achievement
performed by a British officer that I really envy." How much greater a
feat was the march of the gallant hundred-and-fourth whose men, poorly
fed and insufficiently clad, passed over the same route on snowshoes
in the middle of a most inclement winter, a quarter of a century
before, to defend Canadian homes from a foreign invader?
During the negotiations between the French and English commissioners
on the boundaries of Acadia, the suggestion was made by the Abbes de
L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre, that if it should be found impossible to
hold all the lands north of the Bay of Fundy for France the St. John
river region should be left undivided and in possession of its native
inhabitants. As early as the year 1716 the Marquis de Vaudreuil had
stated to the French government: "The English wish to seize upon the
lands that the Abenakis and Indians of the River St. John occupy,
under the pretext that this land forms part of Acadia ceded to them by
the king. The Indians so far from withdrawing on this account have
answered that this land has always belonged to them, and that they do
not consider themselves subjects of the French, but only their
allies."
Vaudreuil admits that he encouraged this idea, and that his proposal
to build a church for the Maliseets at Medoctec had as one of its
principal objects the cementing of their alliance with the French and
providing them with another inducement to cling to the locality where
their church stood, and not by any means to abandon their old fort and
village.
In 1749 Charlevoix, the well known Jesuit historian, writes the French
minister at Versailles not to delay the settlement of the boundaries,
for the English, who are colonizing and fortifying Acadia, will soon
be in a position to oppress their Indian allies, the Abenakis
(Maliseets), if steps are not taken in season to prevent them and to
guarantee to the Indians peaceable possession of their country, where
it is necessary they should remain in order to defend it against the
English, otherwise there would be nothing to hinder the English from
penetrating as far as the French settlements nearest Quebec; besides
where would the Abenakis go if they were obliged to abandon their
country? "In short," Charlevoix adds, "it seems to me certain that if
time is given the English to people Acadia before the limits are
agreed on, they will not fail to appropriate all the territory they
wish, and to secure possession by strong forts which will render them
masters of all that part of New France south of Quebec; and if this
should be done it will certainly follow that the Abenakis will join
them, will abandon their religion, and our most faithful allies will
become our most dangerous enemies."
Of all the leaders of the French in Acadia, none was more active and
influential than the Abbe Le Loutre. But while his energy, ability and
patriotism are undoubted, his conduct has been the subject of severe
criticism not only on the part of his adversaries but of the French
themselves. He did not escape the censure of the Bishop of Quebec for
meddling to so great an extent in temporal affairs, but the Bishop's
censure is mild compared to that of an anonymous historian, who
writes: "Abbe Loutre, missionary of the Indians in Acadia, soon put
all in fire and flame, and may be justly deemed the scourge and curse
of this country. This wicked monster, this cruel and blood thirsty
Priest, more inhumane and savage than the natural savages, with a
murdering and slaughtering mind, instead of an Evangelick spirit,
excited continually his Indians against the English. * * * All the
French had the greatest horror and indignation at Le Loutre's
barbarous actions; and I dare say if the Court of France had known
them they would have been far from approving of them."
It is only fair to the Abbe Le Loutre to mention that the officer who
criticizes him in this rude fashion was the Chevalier Johnston, an
Englishman by birth and a puritan by religion and as such prejudiced
against the French missionary. Johnston, however, served at Louisbourg
on the side of France with great fidelity in the capacity of
lieutenant, interpreter and engineer.
Father Germain, the missionary to the Indians and French on the St.
John, was a man of courage and of patriotic impulses. He deemed
himself justified in making every possible effort to keep the English
from gaining a foothold north of the Bay of Fundy, but it does not
appear that he ever incited the Indians to indulge their savage
instincts, or that he was guilty of the duplicity and barbarity that
have been so freely laid to the charge of the Abbe Le Loutre. It is
evident, moreover, that the Marquis de la Galissonniere and his aides
were particularly anxious to retain the services of Germain. He had
been twelve or fourteen years in charge of his mission on the St.
John, and during most of that time had labored single handed. Recently
Father Loverja had come to stay with the Maliseets of Medoctec in
consequence of their urgent request for a missionary, their village
being eighteen leagues from Aukpaque, where Father Germain was
stationed. Another missionary named Audren (or Andrein) had just
arrived to replace Germain, who had been nominated superior of the
house of Jesuits at Quebec. The Abbes de L'Isle-Dieu and Le Loutre
endeavored to convince the French minister that it was very
undesirable, under existing circumstances, that Germain should be
removed, as he was valued and beloved by his people--French and
Indians alike--and his services could not well be spared. There was
no chaplain at the fort, lately re-established at the mouth of the
river, and Loverja's age and infirmities would oblige him shortly to
remove to Quebec. The two missionaries would then have sufficient
occupation, especially as they would have frequently to repair on the
one hand to Medoctec, and on the other to the garrison of Fort
Menagoueche. In consequence of these strong objections to his
retirement it was decided by Father Germain's superiors to allow him
to remain at his mission.
The Abbe de L'Isle-Dieu wrote the French minister, early the next
year, that there was neither priest nor chapel at Fort Menagoueche,
and that a missionary was needed on the lower part of the river.
Father Germain had now for a long time been missionary to the
Maliseets at Aukpaque (l'isle d'Ecouba) and having more than eighty
families under his care found the fort too far removed to give due
attention to the wants of the garrison.
The situation on the St. John at this time was not viewed with
complacency by the authorities of Nova Scotia and New England. On the
18th October, 1753, Governor Hopson, of Nova Scotia, wrote the Lords
of Trade and Plantations that he had been informed by Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, that since the arrival of a French
missionary at the River St. John the conduct of the inhabitants had
altered for the worse; the French had now 100 families settled on the
river, had greatly strengthened the old fort at its mouth with guns
and men, and had built a new one. Fort Boishebert, some miles up the
river armed with twenty-four guns and garrisoned by 200 regulars. He
also says a French frigate of thirty guns lay behind Partridge Island
waiting for a cargo of furs, and that the French seemed to be entirely
masters of the river.
It is not unlikely this statement is exaggerated, for the following
summer Lieut.-Governor Lawrence says the French had at St. John only a
small fort with three bad old guns, one officer and sixteen men; while
of Indians there were 160 fighting men.