Glimpses of the Past Part 10

Alexandre le Borgne de Belleisle was living on the River St. John as late at least as 1754 and was regarded by the Nova Scotia authorities as "a very good man." The site of his residence is indicated on Charles Morris' map of 1765 and there can be little doubt that a settlement of four houses in the same vicinity, marked "Rob.i.+.c.heau" in the Morris map of 1758, was the place of residence of Frances Belleisle Rob.i.+.c.haux.

The name Nid d'Aigle, or "The Eagle's Nest," is applied to this locality in Bellin's map of 1744, D'Anville's map of 1755 marks at the same place "Etabliss't Francois," or French Settlement. The place is nearly opposite Evandale, the site of the well known summer hotel of John O. Vanwart. Here the St. John river is quite narrow, only about a five minutes paddle across. The British government during the war of 1812 built at Nid d'Aigle, or "Worden's," a fortification consisting of an earthwork, or "half-moon battery," with magazine in rear and a block-house at the crest of the hill still farther to the rear, the ruins of which are frequently visited by tourists. The situation commands an extensive and beautiful view of the river, both up and down, and no better post of defence could be chosen, since the narrowness of the channel would render it well nigh impossible for an enemy to creep past either by day or night without detection. There is some reason to believe that the French commander, Boishebert, established a fortified post of observation here in 1756.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD FORT AT WORDEN'S]

It is altogether probable that the name "Nid d'Aigle" was given to the place by the sieur de Belleisle or some member of his family, and one could wish that it might be restored either in its original form, or in its Saxon equivalent, "The Eagle's Nest."

Colonel Monckton, by direction of Governor Lawrence, ravaged the French Settlements on the lower St. John in 1758, and in the report of his operations mentions "a few Houses that were some time past inhabited by the Rob.i.+.c.heaus," which he burnt. It is possible that Francoise Belleisle Rob.i.+.c.haux went with her family to l'Islet in Quebec to escape the threatened invasion of which they may have had timely notice, but it is more probable the removal occurred a little earlier. The situation of the Acadians on the River St. John in 1757 was pitiable in the extreme. They were cut off from every source of supply and lived in fear of their lives. The Marquis de Vaudreuil says that in consequence of the famine prevailing on the river, many Acadian families were forced to fly to Quebec and so dest.i.tute were the wretched ones in some instances that children died at their mother's breast. The parish records of l'Islet[23] show that Pierre Rob.i.+.c.haux and his wife lived there in 1759.

[23] A child of Pierre Rob.i.+.c.haud and Francoise Belleisle his wife was interred at l'Islet, December 10, 1759.

Francoise Belleisle Rob.i.+.c.haux died at l'Islet January 28, 1791, at the age of 79 years, having outlived her husband six years. They had a number of children, one of whom, Marie Angelique, married Jean Baptiste d'Amour, de Chaufour, and had a daughter, Marguerite d'Amour, whose name seems very familiar to us.

The parish records at l'Islet give considerable information concerning the descendants of the families d'Amours, Rob.i.+.c.haux and Belleisle, but the s.p.a.ce at our disposal will allow us to follow them no further.

CHAPTER X.

RIVAL CLAIMS TO THE ST. JOHN RIVER.

The St. John river region may be said to have been in dispute from the moment the treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713 until the taking of Quebec in 1759. By the treaty of Utrecht all Nova Scotia, or Acadia, comprehended within its ancient boundaries, was ceded to Great Britain, and the English at once claimed possession of the territory bordering on the St. John. To this the French offered strong objection, claiming that Nova Scotia, or Acadia, comprised merely the peninsula south of the Bay of Fundy--a claim which, as already stated in these pages, was strangely at variance with their former contention that the western boundary of Acadia was the River Kennebec.[24] For many years the dispute was confined to remonstrances on the side of either party, the French meanwhile using their savage allies to repel the advance of any English adventurers who might feel disposed to make settlements on the St. John, and encouraging the Acadians to settle there, while the English authorities endeavored, with but indifferent success, to gain the friends.h.i.+p of the Indians and compel the Acadians to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown. The dispute over the limits of Acadia at times waxed warm. There were protests and counter-protests. Letters frequently pa.s.sed between the English government at Annapolis and the missionaries on the St. John--Loyard, Danielou, and Germain, who were in close touch with the civil authorities of their nation, and were in some measure the political agents of the Marquise de Vaudreuil and other French governors of Canada.

[24] In a letter to the French minister, written in 1698, Villebon observes "J'ai recu par mons'r de Bonaventure qui est arrive ici le 20 Juillet la lettre de votre Grandeur et le traite de Paix fait avec l'Angleterre [the treaty of Ryswick]. * * Comme vous me marquez, Monseigneur, que les bornes de l'Acadie sont a la Riviere de Quenebequi." [Kennebec]. etc.

It is possible that the Marquis de Vaudreuil felt special interest in the St. John river country, owing to the fact that his wife Louise Elizabeth Joibert, was born at Fort Jemseg while her father, the Sieur de Soulanges, was governor of Acadia. At any rate the marquis stoutly a.s.serted the right of the French to the sovereignty of that region and he wrote to the Lieut. Governor of Nova Scotia in 1718, "I pray you not to permit your English vessels to go into the river St. John, which is always of the French dominion." He also encouraged the Acadians of the peninsula to withdraw to the river St. John so as not to be under British domination, pledging them his support and stating that Father Loyard, the Jesuit missionary, should have authority to grant them lands agreeably to their wishes.

Lieut. Governor Doucett, of Nova Scotia, complained of the aggressive policy of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, a.s.serting that he was entirely mistaken as to the owners.h.i.+p of the St. John river, for it was "about the centre of Nova Scotia;" he was satisfied, nevertheless, that the Acadians believed it would never be taken possession of by the British, and if the proceedings of the French were not stopped they would presently claim everything within cannon short of his fort at Annapolis.

The policy of the French in employing their Indian allies to deter the English from any advance towards the St. John region was attended with such success that the infant colony of Nova Scotia was kept in a constant state of alarm by the threats and unfriendly att.i.tude of the Micmacs and Maliseets. There were, however, occasional periods in which there were no actual hostilities, and it may be said that the peace made at Boston in 1725, and ratified by the St. John river tribe in May, 1728, was fairly observed by the Indians until war was declared between England and France in 1744.

During this war the St. John river was much used as a means of communication between Quebec and the French settlements of Acadia, smart young Indians with light birch canoes being employed to carry express messages, and on various occasions large parties of French and Indians travelled by this route from the St. Lawrence to the Bay of Fundy. The Indian villages of Medoctec and Aukpaque afforded convenient stopping places.

In the year 1746 a great war party, including the Abenakis of Quebec as well as their kinsmen of the upper St. John, arrived at Aukpaque.

Thence they took their way in company with the missionary Germain to Chignecto. They had choice of two routes of travel, one by way of the Kennebecasis and Anagance to the Pet.i.tcodiac, the other by way of the Washademoak lake and the Canaan to the same river. As the war proceeded the Maliseets actively supported their old allies the French. Some of them took part in the midwinter night attack, under Coulon de Villiers, on Colonel n.o.ble's post at Grand Pre. The English on this occasion were taken utterly by surprise; n.o.ble himself fell fighting in his s.h.i.+rt, and his entire party were killed, wounded or made prisoners. From the military point of view this was one of the most brilliant exploits in the annals of Acadia, and, what is better, the victors behaved with great humanity to the vanquished.

The missionaries le Loutre and Germain were naturally very desirous of seeing French supremacy restored in Acadia and the latter proposed an expedition against Annapolis. With that end in view he proceeded to Quebec and returned with a supply of powder, lead and ball for his Maliseet warriors. However, in October, 1748, the peace of Aix la Chapelle put a stop to open hostilities.

Immediately after the declaration of peace, Captain Gorham, with his rangers and a detachment of auxiliaries, proceeded in two s.h.i.+ps to the River St. John and ordered the French inhabitants to send deputies to Annapolis to give an account of their conduct during the war.

Count de la Galissonniere strongly protested against Gorham's interference with the Acadians on the St. John, which he described as "a river situated on the Continent of Canada, and much on this side of the Kennebec, where by common consent the bounds of New England have been placed." This utterance of the French governor marks another stage in the controversy concerning the limits of Acadia. He stoutly contended that Gorham and all other British officers must be forbidden to interfere with the French on the St. John river, or to engage them to make submissions contrary to the allegiance due to the King of France "who," he says, "is their master as well as mine, and has not ceded this territory by any treaty."

The governors of Ma.s.sachusetts and of Nova Scotia replied at some length to the communication of Count de la Galissonniere, claiming the territory in dispute for the king of Great Britain, and showing that the French living on the St. John had some years before taken the oath of allegiance to the English monarch.

The Acadians on the St. John, whose allegiance was in dispute, were a mere handful of settlers. The Abbe le Loutre wrote in 1748: "There are fifteen or twenty French families on this river, the rest of the inhabitants are savages called Marichites (Maliseets) who have for their missionary the Jesuit father Germain." His statement as to the number of Acadian settlers is corroborated by Mascarene, who notified the British authorities that thirty leagues up the river were seated twenty families of French inhabitants, sprung originally from the Nova Scotia side of the bay, most of them since his memory, who, many years ago, came to Annapolis and took the oath of fidelity. He adds, "the whole river up to its head, with all the northern coast of the Bay of Fundy, was always reckoned dependent on this government."

Both Mascarene and s.h.i.+rley strongly urged upon the British ministry the necessity of settling the limits of Acadia, and a little later commissioners were appointed, two on each side, to determine the matter. They spent four fruitless years over the question, and it remained undecided until settled by the arbitrament of the sword.

s.h.i.+rley was one of the commissioners, as was also the Marquis de la Galissonniere, and it is not to be wondered at that with two such determined men on opposite sides and differing so widely in their views, there should have been no solution of the difficulty.

The period now under consideration is really a very extraordinary one.

Ostensibly it was a time of peace. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 England gave back Cape Breton (or Isle Royale) to France and France restored Madras to England, but there remained no clear understanding as to the boundaries between the possessions of the rival powers in America.

So far as the French and English colonies were concerned the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle scarcely deserved the name of a truce. It was merely a breathing time in which preparations were being made for the final struggle. The treaty was so indefinite that a vast amount of territory was claimed by both parties. The English were naturally the most aggressive for the population of the English colonies was 1,200,000 while Canada had but 60,000 people.

Count de la Galissonniere, the governor-general of Canada, though diminutive in stature and slightly deformed, was resolute and energetic; moreover he was a statesman, and had his policy been followed it might have been better for France. He advised the government to send out ten thousand peasants from the rural districts and settle them along the frontiers of the disputed territory, but the French court thought it unadvisable to depopulate France in order to people the wilds of Canada. Failing in this design, the Count determined vigorously to a.s.sert the sovereignty of France over the immense territory in dispute. Accordingly he claimed for his royal master the country north of the Bay of Fundy and west to the Kennebec, and his officers established fortified posts on the River St. John and at the Isthmus of Chignecto. He at the same time stirred up the Indians to hostilities in order to render the position of the English in Nova Scotia and New England as uncomfortable as possible, and further to strengthen his hands he endeavored to get the Acadians in the peninsula of Nova Scotia to remove to the St. John river and other parts of "the debatable territory." His policy led to a counter policy on the part of s.h.i.+rley and Lawrence (governors respectively of Ma.s.sachusetts and Nova Scotia) namely, that the Acadians should not be allowed to go where they liked and to do as they pleased but must remain on their lands and take the oath of allegiance to the English sovereign or be removed to situations where they could do no harm to the interests of the British colonies in the then critical condition of affairs.

Ostensibly there was peace from the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle until war was declared between the rival powers in 1756. But in the meantime there was a collision between them on the Ohio river, where the French built Fort Duquesne on the site now occupied by Pittsburg. The governors of the English colonies held a conference and decided on rather a startling programme for a time of peace. Gen. Braddock was to march on Fort Duquesne and drive the French from the Ohio valley; s.h.i.+rley, of Ma.s.sachusetts, was to lead an expedition against Niagara; William Johnson, was to take Crown Point and secure control of Lake Champlain; while, in Acadia, Colonel Monckton was to attack the French position at Fort Beausejour. In every instance the English were the aggressors but they justified their action on the ground that the places to be attacked were on British territory. This the French as emphatically denied. Braddock's attempt resulted in a most disastrous failure, s.h.i.+rley's expedition was abandoned, William Johnson won a brilliant victory at Lake George and Colonel Monckton captured Beausejour.

The course of events on the River St. John and in other parts of Acadia harmonizes with the general situation of affairs in America at this time.

As the period under consideration is one of which comparatively little has been written, it may be well to make use of the information contained in the voluminous correspondence of the French ministers and their subordinates in America.

Early in the summer of 1749 the Count de la Galissonniere sent the Sieur de Boishebert to the lower part of the River St. John with a small detachment to secure the French inhabitants against the threats of Capt. Gorham, who had been sent by the Governor of Nova Scotia to make the inhabitants renew the oath of allegiance to the English sovereign, which de la Galissonniere says "they ought never to have taken." The Count expresses his views on the situation with terseness and vigor: "The River St. John is not the only place the English wish to invade. They claim the entire coast, from that river to Beauba.s.sin, and from Canso to Gaspe, in order to render themselves sovereigns of all the territory of the Abenakis, Catholics and subjects of the king, a nation that has never acknowledged nor wishes to acknowledge their domination and which is the most faithful to us in Canada. If we abandon to England this land, which comprises more than 180 leagues of seacoast, that is to say almost as much as from Bayonne to Dunkirk, we must renounce all communication by land from Canada with Acadia and Isle Royal, together with the means of succoring the one and retaking the other." The Count further argues that to renounce the territory in dispute will deprive the Acadians of all hope of a place of refuge on French soil and reduce them to despair, and he apprehends that the English, having no reason to care for them, will suffer them to have no missionaries and will destroy at their leisure their religion. "It is very easy," he adds, "to hinder the English establis.h.i.+ng themselves on these lands. They will have to proceed through the woods and along narrow rivers, and as long as the French are masters of the Abenakis and the Acadians are provided with arms and supplies from France the English will not expose themselves to their attacks."

Both sides began to consider the advisability of taking forcible possession of the disputed territory, but the French were the first to take action. In June, 1749, Mascarene reported two French officers with twenty or thirty men from Canada and a number of Indians had come to erect a fort and make a settlement at the mouth of the river, and that two vessels with stores and materials were coming to them from Quebec. On receipt of this information, Cornwallis, who had just arrived at Halifax, sent Captain Rous in the sloop "Albany" to St.

John to ascertain what works were in course of erection by the French, and to demand the authority for their action. He also issued a proclamation in French prohibiting the Acadians from making a settlement on the St. John.

When the "Albany" arrived no one was found at the old fort and for some time no inhabitants, either French or Indian, were seen. At last a French schooner entered the harbor, laden with provisions. Captain Rous took her, but offered to release her provided the master would go up the river and bring down the French officers. The master accordingly went up the river in a canoe, and the next day a French officer with thirty men and 150 Indians came down and took position, with their colors flying, at a point on the sh.o.r.e within musket shot of the "Albany." The commander of the French was Pierre Boishebert. He had fixed his headquarters ten miles up the river at the place now known as Woodman's Point, just above the mouth of the Nerepis, where in Governor Villebon's time there had been an Indian fortress.

Captain Rous ordered the French to strike their colors; their commander demurred, and asked to be allowed to march back with his colors flying, promising to return the next day without them. Rous ordered the colors to be struck immediately, which being done, the officers were invited on board the "Albany." They showed their instructions from the governor of Canada, Count de la Galissonniere, by which it appeared they had at first been ordered to establish a fortified post, but afterwards the order had been countermanded and they were required merely to prevent the English from establis.h.i.+ng themselves till the right of possession should be settled between the two crowns.

The letter of Captain Rous to Boishebert, upon the arrival of the former at St. John harbor, is rather quaint reading. The original is in French.

From the River St. John, 3 July, 1749.

Sir,--I am directed by the King, my master, to look into and examine the various ports, harbors and rivers of His Majesty's province of Nova Scotia, and am now here for that intent. Being informed that you are upon this river with a detachment of soldiers of the King of France. I should be pleased to know by what authority and with what intention your are engaged in a similar procedure. It would afford me much pleasure if I could have the honor of a personal interview in order to convince you of the rights of the King, my master.

I shall be delighted to see some of the Indian chiefs in order to inform them of the peace and of the harmony that prevails between the two crowns, also to confer with them.

Until I shall have the honor, as I hope, of seeing you,

I am very truly, etc.

In the subsequent interview with the savages, Father Germain and Captain Edward How acted as interpreters, and the missionary wrote an account of the interview to the governor of Quebec, in which he mentions the fact that Cornwallis, the governor of Nova Scotia, claimed jurisdiction over the St. John river region and beyond it to Pa.s.samaquoddy, deeming it a part of Acadia according to its ancient limits. Boishebert, in his letter to the Count de la Galissonniere, says that one of the best reasons the English had for laying claim to the territory north of the Bay of Fundy was that the commission of Subercase, the last French governor who resided at Annapolis Royal, fixed his jurisdiction as far west as the River Kennebec. In the spirit of a true soldier, Boishebert wishes that war might speedily recommence, and that France might be more fortunate as to the conquest of Acadia than in the last war. Meanwhile he had arranged with Capt.

Rous to remain undisturbed on the River St. John until the next spring, on the understanding that he was to erect no fortification.

The St. John Indians having made peace with the governor of Nova Scotia at Halifax, it was decided that a present of 1,000 bushels of corn should be sent "to confirm their allegiance"; and it seems their allegiance needed confirmation, for a little later Father Germain warned Captain How that an Indian attack was impending. Nor was it by any means a false alarm, for on the 8th of December about 300 Micmacs and Maliseets surprised and captured an English officer and eighteen men and attacked the fort at Minas.

Father Germain evidently was a warrior priest and had used his powers of observation to some purpose; he strongly recommended the erection of a fort for the defence of the river at the narrows ("detroit") about a league and a half above where the river enters the sea. The English, he says, could not pa.s.s it with 600 men if there were but 60 or 80 men to oppose them.

The Marquis de la Jonquiere, who succeeded as governor general this year, at once displayed anxiety in regard to the St. John river region--"Being the key of this country," he says, "it is essential to retain it." He confides his policy to the minister at Versailles, in his letter of October 9, 1749. "It is desirable," he writes, "that the savages should unite in opposing the English even at Chibuctou (Halifax).... The savages must act alone without co-operation of soldier or inhabitant and without it appearing that I have knowledge of it. It is very necessary also, as I wrote the Sieur de Boishebert, to observe much caution in his proceedings and to act very secretly in order that the English may not be able to perceive we are supplying the needs of the said savages. It will be the missionaries who will attend to all the negotiations and who will direct the proceedings of the said savages. They are in very good hands, the Rev. Father Germain and the Abbe Le Loutre being well aware how to act to the best advantage and to draw out all the a.s.sistance they can give on our side. They will manage the intrigue in such a way that it will not be known. They will concert in every instance with the Sieurs de la Corne and de Boishebert. If all turns out as I hope it will follow,--first that we will hold our lands and the English will not be able to establish any settlements before the boundaries have been determined by the two crowns, and second that we shall be able to a.s.sist and gradually to withdraw from the hands of the English the French of Acadia."

It is not necessary for us to criticize too harshly the policy of the French governor and his subordinates, but we need not be surprised that in the end it provoked resentment on the part of the governors of Nova Scotia and Ma.s.sachusetts and was one of the causes of the Acadian expulsion. That it was in a measure successful is proved by the reply of Lawrence a few years later to the suggestion of the Lords of Trade, who had been urging upon him the importance of making settlements: "What can I do to encourage people to settle on frontier lands, where they run the risk of having their throats cut by inveterate enemies, who easily effect their escape from their knowledge of every creek and corner?"

Boishebert, prevented from immediately establis.h.i.+ng a fortified post, seems to have moved freely up and down the river. At one time he writes from "Menacouche" at the mouth of the river, at another from "Ecoubac"--the Indian village of Aukpaque--at another he is at "Medoctec," the upper Indian village. He organized the few Acadians on the river into a militia corps, the officers of which were commissioned by Count de la Galissonniere.