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TEXT IS CROSS IN THE BOOK KeepYour Card in This Pocket Books will be issued only on presentation of proper library cards. Unless labeled oiherwise, books may be retained for two weeks. Borrowers finding books marked, de- faced or mutilated are expected to report same at. library desk; oliierwise the last borrower will be held responsible for all imperfections discovered. The card holder is responsible for all books drawn on this card. Penalty for over-due books 2c a day plus cost of notices. Lost cards and change of residence must be re- ported promptly. Public Kansas City, Mo. tension ENVEI-DPE dorp. SAINT CROIX The Sentinel River 1^^ COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY GUY MURCHIE All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. PRINTED IN THE X7NITED STATES OF AMERICA To IFalter Motherwell Briggs of Santa Barbara This 'was the Abenaki land; Till on a day among the uncounted days. White in the sunlight. There came a barque, tiny and -frail. Over the sea, threading the island maze. By ruddy shore and sombre headland veering. But freighted with high enterprise, and manned By hearts adventurous; following time and chance. Into the hill-cleft waterways With ceaseless ebb and flow astir. Craftily steering. High on her mast They bore the banner of old France To the new land Acadia and cast Their anchor by this island of the bays, At the commandment of Pierre du Gast, And merry, brown Champlain, the king^s geographer. Henry Milner Rideout Preface I N MOST BOOKS DEALING WITH colonization in North America, the discovery and settle- ment of the St. Croix River are not mentioned. This broad and imposing river with its unique approach through both an outer and inner bay, between which lie many beautiful islands, was a scene of tragedy at the beginning. After that, so far as the English were concerned, it was regarded as the extreme edge of Acadia. The thought of French expansion beyond that limit could not be tolerated. To them the name Saint Croix at once took on significance as the Senti- nel standing at the eastern boundary of the colony of Mas- sachusetts Bay. On the other hand, the French considered it the very center of Acadia, their first settlement. And Cardinal Richelieu in 1632 granted “the river and bay of Sainte Croix” to his favorite, Isaac de Razilly, Governor of Aca- dia. For jurisdictional purposes RaziUy allotted to his sub- ordinates, the rival Acadian Chieftains, Charles de la Tour and Charnisay, the territory east and west of the river and fixed upon it as the line separating their domains. Strange as it may seem the location of the river got lost for almost two centuries. Champlain had pubhshed at Paris a contemporaneous account of its discovery and of the French settlement on Dochet Island with maps and a de- tailed description sufficient to mark its location. But the [vii] PREFACE French never used its Indian name of Schoodic and the Indians did not know the name Saint Croix. When the French, in 1713, finally surrendered Acadia to the Eng- lish, Massachusetts and Nova Scotia could not agree upon its identity during their long boundary dispute. Each claimed another and different river as the “true Saint Croix.” Although King James I had separated New Eng- land and Nova Scotia by naming the St. Croix River as the border of each its exact location was unknown. Still un- identified in 1776, it served as a watchtower for both British and Americans throughout the War. Relying on King James’s dictum the Commissioners making the Peace Treaty of 1783 chose it as the eastern boundary of the United States. But in the end it required a special treaty to decide its identity and so establish its legitimate status in the society of nations. The location of the St. Croix River was made definite by the Loyalists who escaped to the east side of the river and dug up the foundations of De Monts’s Settlement on Dochet Island to prove that at last they were beyond the reach of the fiery Patriots of the Revolution. During the War of 1812 the American side of the river at Eastport was held by the British but the inhabitants of the river settle- ments did not take part in the war. In war as in peace they were resolved to remain united. Indeed, by that time, many marriages across the border, other social ties and business ventures had firmly joined the two nations along this Sen- tinel River. No summary of events associated with the St. Croix River has ever been published. For that reason I have ven- tured to chronicle the story as it has seemed to me, during [viii] PREFACE the three centuries since De Monts and Champlain arrived at Dochet Island. Details of the growth and government of its settlements are not given and many individuals who contributed to the making of its history are not men- tioned. Knowledge of what took place in the beginning comes from the narrations of Champlain and Lescarbot. As for Indian life, much can be learned from the patient studies of Mrs. Wallace Brown of Calais and Mrs. Fannie H. Eckstorm of Brewer, Maine, also from the observa- tions of the early Jesuit Fathers as recorded in “Jesuit Relations.” These interpretations of manners and customs among the Passamaquoddy and other tribes are a legacy of value to anyone who may wish to know something of the old life and legends of the first inhabitants, once monarchs of the virgin forest. For friendly advice and assistance during the prepara- tion of the manuscript I am most grateful to Messrs. M. A. DeWolfe Howe of Boston, Winston Churchill of Cornish, N. H., Robert Struthers of Noroton, Conn., Justice Har- old H. Murchie and Harold Davis of Calais, Maine, Charles F. Todd of Milltown, N. B., Samuel D. Granville of St. Stephen, Mrs. Gurney Curtis of Cooperstown, N. Y., Mrs. John C. Phillips of Cambridge, Mass, and Mrs. Frank Hall of Berkeley, California. I owe, above all, a very special debt to Buchanan Charles, of Cambridge for his helpful criticism and correction of the text. The Boston Athe- naeum, Redpath Library of McGill University, the W. F. Ganong Papers in the New Brunswick Museum and the Saint John Library have been principal sources of infor- mation. G. M. Colinsfield House, Saint Andreios, N. B. rixl Abbreviations Acad Acadiensis, a historical magazine pub. at St. John, N.B. from 1900 to 1908. Adams ‘‘The Life and Works of John Adams” (10 vols.), by Chas. Francis Adams (Boston 1850-1856). B.HM. Bangor Historical Magazine, pub. at Bangor, Me. from 1885 to 1895. (Name later changed to Maine Historical Mag- azine.) Brebner “Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia,” by Prof. John Bartlet Brebner (New York 1937). See also Brebner’s “New Eng- land Outpost” (New York 1927). Campbell “Patrick Campbell’s Travels” [1792], pub. by Champlain Society (Toronto 1914). Canada and its Brovinces Archives Edition (22 vols.) by various authors (Toronto 1914). Champlain “The Works of Samuel de Champlain” (6 vols.), pub. by Champlain Society (Toronto 1922). Denys “Description and Natural History of the Coast of North America,” by Nicolas Denys, pub. by Champlain Society (To- ronto 1908). Diereville “Journal to Port Royal,” by Sieur de Diereville, pub. by Champlain Society (Toronto 1933). ABBRE VIATIONS Diet, of Nat. Biog “Dictionary of National Biography (London 1885 et seq.). Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) “The Documentary History of the Maine Historical Society,” 2nd Series (Portland) . Drake uel Gardner Drake (Boston 1841). Eckstorm “Old John Neptune and Other Maine Shamans,” by Fanny Hardy Eckstorm (Portland 1945). Ganong Monographs by Prof. W. F. Ganong on New Brunswick history including His- toric Sites, Settlement Origins, Cartog- raphy, Place-nomenclature, and Bound- aries, These monographs are collected in a single volume (St. John Library 1906), and are found in various volumes of Royal Society of Canada publications (R.S.C). G.P “Glimpses of the Past,” by James Vroom of St. Stephen, N.B., printed in the St. Croix Courier (St. Stephen) from Jan. 1892 to July 1895. Never published in book form, these 124 chapters may be consulted in typed copy at the Manu- script Room, New York Public Library, Widener Library, Harvard College, and the Public Library at St. John, N.B. (a complete index is available at St. John). Newspaper-clip copy is filed among the Ganong papers in the New Brunswick Museum at St. John, N.B., and in the Pennsylvania Historical Society at Phila- delphia. [xi] ABBRE VI AT ION S Haliburton “Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia” (2 vols.), by Thomas C. Haliburton (Halifax 1829). Hannay “The History of Acadia,” by James Hannay (St. John 1879). Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) .... “The Historical Collections of the Maine Historical Society,” in 3 series (Portland). Indian Place Names A publication of the Univ. of Maine in Univ. of Maine Studies. 2nd Series, No. 55 - “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Docu- ments,” edited by Prof. Reuben Gold Thwaites (62 vols.) (Cleveland 1896). “Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolu- tion,” by Frederic Kidder (Albany 1867). “Eastport and Passamaquoddy,” by William H. Kilby (Eastport 1888). ICnov^lton TThe A.nnals of Calais, Ade., and St. Stephen, N.B.,” by Rev. Isaac C. Knowl- ton (Calais 1875). La Verdiere “Samuel de Champlain,” by L’abbe La Verdiere (Quebec 1877). Le Clerq “New Relation of Gaspesia,” by Father Chrestien Le Clerq, pub. by Champlain Society (Toronto 1910). Lescarbot “The History of New France,” by Marc Lescarbot (3 vols.), pub. by Champlain Society (Toronto 1907), Mass. Hist. Soc “Proceedings of the Mass. Historical Society,” The Fenway, Boston. [xii] ABBRE VIATIONS Me. Hist. Mag See B.H.M. Mowat “The Diverting Histoiy of a Loyalist Town,” 2nd Ed., by Grace Helen Mo- wat (St. Andrews 1937). N.B. Mag New Brunswick Magazine^ St. John, N.B. N.E. Mag New England Magazine^ Boston. Paltsits “The Narrative of Capt. William Owen,” ed. by Victor H. Paltsits (N.Y. Pub. Library 1942). Raymond “The River St. John,” by Rev. William O. Raymond, ist Ed. 1905, 2nd Ed. 1910 (St. John), 3rd Ed. 1943 (Sack- viUe, N.B.). R. S. C “The Proceedings and Transactions of The Royal Society of Canada,” pub. annually from 1890 to date, Sabine “Moose Island Four Years Under Mar- tial Law,” by Lorenzo Sabine {N.Y. Hist. Magazine April and May 1870, and reprinted in Kilby). Siebert “Exodus of the Loyalists from Penob- scot to Passamaquoddy,” by William O. Siebert (Univ. of Ohio 1914). Slafter “Voyages of Champlain,” by Edmund Farwell Slafter (Boston 1880). See also Slafter’s “Sir William Alexander and American Colonization” (Prince So- ciety, Boston 1873). [xiii] ABBRE VIA TIONS Vetromile Winslow Papers , “Acadia and its Aboriginees,” by Rev. Eugene Vetromile, Missionary to the Passamaquoddies (Maine Hist. Soc. Coll. XII 339 et seq,). See also Vetromile's “Abenakis and their History’' (New York 1866). “The Papers of Col. Edward Winslow, Loyalist,” compiled by Rev. William O. Raymond, pub. by New Brunswick Hist. Society (St. John). Illustrations Flag Carried by Champlain Modem Copy of the Don de Dieu Portrait of Samuel de Champlain Portrait of Albert Gallatin Copley Portrait of Sir Francis Bernard The Boston State House showing the St. Croix Pines The Greenock Kirk, Saint Andrews Block House at Joe’s Point Devil’s Head Chamcook Mountain, New Brunswick St. Croix (Dochet) Island Vessels from Champlain’s Map of 1612 Passamaquoddy Bay Looking Seaward ' Stone Marker at Latitude 45° Monument at Perry Portrait of Thomas Masterman Hardy, Bart. Mansion House, Robbinston [xv] Maps Babcock’s Map of Thorfinn’s Course Map of Bay of Fundy 20 Map of St. Croix River showing Docket Island 25 Champlain’s Map of St. Croix Island 40 Champlain’s Drawing of Settlement at St. Croix Island 43 Map of Dochet Island, Past and Present 5 1 Ganong’s Map, Seignories of the Saint Croix 92 Southack’s Map {ca. 1733) 159 John Mitchell’s Map (1755) X63 David Owen’s Map of Passamaquoddy (1796) 17 1 Champlain’s Map (1612) 173 Map Showing Rival Boundary Claims 177 Plan of Town of Calais (ca, 1810) 199 Signatures of Matthew Thornton 235 [xvi] Flag Carried by Champlain It %vas the naval flag of the period, the fleiir de lis in gold voith a blue background. The same flag appears voith a gold border. The flag used by the King, Henry IV, voas the same in every respect except the background njohich njoas vohite and like the British Standard employed only vohen royalty nvas present. Acad. IV, 222 This modern copy of the Don de Dieu took part in the Lake Champlain Tercentenary held in ipop. Courtesy of the State Street Trust Company Courtesy of Boston Atbememn V Portrait by John Singleton Copley Courtesy of Boston Athenaeum The Boston State House as originally designed by Charles Bulfinch shonjoing the twefity-six St, Croix pineSj tu>elve columns in front and fourteen behind^ some of them partly concealed in the njoall. Block House at Joe’s Point There were five block houses built at St. Andrews during the War of 1812. Only one is still standings now a residence. Devil’s HEr (D’Orville’s) Situated at the westerly Armrf the Cross in St, Croix River Chamcook Mountain, New Brunswick Opposite Saint Croix Island St. Croix (Docket) Island The modern building shon^n is the United States lighthouse. Passamaquoddy Bay Looking Seaward Deer Island is in the background across the Bay. The high land at the right is Kilmarnock Head and the end of MmisteTs Island is beyond it. it iv.P ECiXilKlw Travellers on Highway Number One are Prone to stop at this point— Interested for the moment in the fact They are exactly the same distatice From both the Eqtiator and the Pole, /lonuinCTTl at Tcrri^ l5 Miles from CaUIs Auine Contents CHAPTER 1 Before 1604 CHAPTER 11 The year 1604 19 CHAPTER 111 At Anchor 30 CHAPTER IV Island of Tragedy- 39 CHAPTER V Land of the Abenaki 54 CHAPTER VI Quietus 71 CHAPTER VH Some Frenchmen and a Sanguine Dutchman 81 CHAPTER Vlll The End of French Control 91 CHAPTER IX Abenaki Legends 100 CHAPTER X The Coming of Benjamin Church III CHAPTER XI The English Period 119 CHAPTER Xll The American Revolution 140 CHAPTER XI11 The Search for the Boundary 157 CHAPTER XIV The Loyalists 183 CHAPTER XV Setthng the Yankee Shore 198 CHAPTER XVI A Surprise Attack 210 CHAPTER XV11 Charlotte’s Shiretown 220 CHAPTER XV111 Three Men of Campobello 00 CHAPTER XIX The Fenians and a Hurricane 00 CHAPTER XX Flood Tide and Ebb 256 [ xvii ] •*$^•*$*"*$^•*1'* *’1* *$ *'^ '*"*$* *! *•*$ *• *’1'* *1 '* *$*~*&'*$^'^i*'*$*"^'**I '* *I’**?**I*'*$*~'^^^*"^*~*i*^'*&"*$^^*$*-*^ Acknowledgments Much information contained in these sketches has come from early research into Saint Croix history made by Professor W. F. Ganong and James Vroom of St. Stephen; N. B. and by Lorenzo Sabine of Eastport, Maine. The author also wishes to express his thanks for use of material reprinted in this book by permission of the following publishers and copyright holders: The Royal Society of Canada^ the Champlain Society of Toronto and the Maine Historical Society of Portland for selections from their numerous important historical volumes; the Nenjo Brunsnjoick Historical Society for reprints from the “Winslow Papers” and “Saint John River,” both compiled by Archdeacon W. O. Ray- mond; Houghton Mifflin and Company for a quotation from John Fiske’s “New France and New England;” hittle Brown and Com- pany for material from Francis Parkman’s “Pioneers of France in the New World;” D. Appleton-Century Co. Inc. for a quotation from Edwin Dix’s “Champlain, Founder of New France.” Dodd Mead and Company for selections from “The Journal of William Pote Jr.;” The Macmillian Company for a paragraph from “The Autobiography of William Allen White;” The Viking Press Inc. for quotations from Emil Ludwig’s “Roosevelt, A Study in Fortune and Power;” John Murray Ltd., London, for material from Nelson’s “Hardy, His Life Letters and Friends;” The Uni- versity of Maine for quotations from “Indian Place Names of the Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast;” The NenjO' York Public Library for selections from the “Narrative of American Voyages and Travels of Captain William Owen R. N.;” Harvard University Press for material from Shurtleff’s “Log Cabin Myth;” Columbia University Press and Professor J. Bartlett Brebner for a quotation from “Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia.” [xix] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Smithsonian Institution for material from W. H. Babcock’s Norsemen and from Professor S. F. Baird’s writings; The National Geographic magazine for a quotation from A. S. Gatchet’s article about the Saint Croix whirlpools; Time magazine for a paragraph about Practical Internationalism; Ryerson Tress for a quotation from Myatt’s “Autobiography of Oliver Goldsmith;” Longmans Green Ltd., London, for reprint of material from Mrs. Napier Higgins’s “The Bernards of Abington and Nether Winchendon;” Glasgow Brook and Company for a quotation from “Canada and its Provinces;” Ray Long and Richard Smith Inc. for a paragraph from Sara Delano Roosevelt’s “My Boy Franklin.” Professor W. H. Siebert for quotations from “Exodus of the Loyalists from Penobscot to Passamaquoddy;” Professor W. In- galls Morse for material from Acadiensis Nova; Dr. J. C. Webster for quotations from “Diereville’s Journey to Port Royal;” Miss Grace Helen Movoat for information from “A Diverting History of a Loyalist Town;” Miss Susan Brittain Ganong for quotations from Dochet (St. Croix) Island; Mrs. F. H. Eckstorm for material from “Old John Neptune and other Maine Indian Shamans.” [XX] SAINT CROIX The Sentinel River CHAPTER ONE Before 1604 T ±HE RIVER SAINT CROIX FLOWS into the Bay of Passamaquoddy and through the Passa- maquoddy Islands into the Bay of Fundy and the At- lantic Ocean. Its channel is the Eastern Boundary of the United States. Its definite history began in 1 604 with the first French settlement of Acadia. This river hidden be- hind two bays, was discovered by Frenchmen anxious to reach a place away from English eyes. They hugged the woodland shores and, going well inland, cast anchor by an island to found their winter home. Before 1604, however, the river had its human history and we shall see in what manner unmolested Indians dwelt there. Yet those early tales of a coast where natives were said to live in cities, halfway between the Equator and the Pole, may be ignored. For the Red men, whose wigwams and hunting grounds lay along the forty-fifth parallel of latitude on the St. Croix and Penobscot rivers, structured no cities. Lescarbot, the Acadian historian, visited these [3] SAINT CROIX rivers in 1607 and exploded, as a yarn of Spaniards, the myth of Norumbega. “If this fair town ever existed,” he wrote, “I would fain know who has destroyed it in the last eighty years for there is nothing but scattered wigwams made of poles covered with bark or skin.” ^ On the other hand one wonders whether the tradition of the Passamaquoddy Indians about a people who settled there long before the French and then disappeared into the earth may not point to European inhabitants earlier than the French on the St. Croix River near its wide mouth in Passamaquoddy Bay. Mrs. Wallace Brown of Calais, Maine, studied the Passamaquoddy Indians for many years and her writings are a reliable authority on their customs and legends.^ In Glimpses of the Past she says, “It may be accepted as certain that all their traditions have some foun- dation in fact.” She tells us also that their legends “resemble so strongly the ancient Sagas of the Scandinavians as to suggest a common origin. Possibly the Indians received these mystic songs from the Norsemen who are said to have visited this coast a century before Saemund collected the Sagas of the Edda; yet it is just as possible that those Sagas were borrowed from the Indian.” ® If a Crucian should care to argue, a Crucian being one who hails from the St. Croix region, he could, I think, make out a case for its identification with the land once occupied by Norsemen. When the Norsemen came to America they took back with them a certain precious wood called mosur- wood, supposed to have been the burls of birch or maple both of which were abundant at Saint Croix. A prehistoric ^Lescarbot I, 31; II, 273, (See Note r). ® (See Note 2). ^G. P. IL [4] BEFORE 1604 dyke which has been found on the Cobscook River near Eastport may have been used for floating logs to the Viking roadstead between Deer Island and Campobello/ Later voyagers made use of this sheltered and convenient road- stead. Did the Vikings do so too? William H. Babcock, historian of the Norsemen, has de- clared in an exhaustive article published by the Smithso- nian Institution at Washington that Snorri is a son of the Passamaquoddy region, the first white child born in Amer- ica.® Snorri, son of Thorfinn Karlsefini and Gudrid, was three years old when his parents returned to Greenland, having been born in the autumn of their arrival at Strau- mey. Babcock makes this comment: “It will be seen that this little Snorri Thorfinnson, probably born on or near Passamaquoddy Bay, is no vanishing figure of history. His descendants have been numerous in all succeeding cen- turies including bishops, notable scholars and other emi- nent men.” ® Early Icelandic documents published in 1837 by the Royal Danish Society of Northern Antiquities convinced scholars generally that Norsemen sailed to North America before the voyages of Christopher Columbus. There have been many attempts in the last hundred years to identify this or that place as the scene of their visits. Since positive proof is lacldng and the realm of fancy is a land where each explorer may roam at will it is not surprising that Leif Ericson’s Vinland and Thorfinn’s Straumey are still re- gions of dispute. Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New ‘7Z>iiXXIIa. ® Smithsonian Misc. Coll. LIX, io6 et seq. ®The sculptor Thorwalden and Magnusson (antiquarian) also claimed Snorri as ancestor. Discovery of America, Fiske I, 193. [5] ' SAINT CROIX York, Virginia, Minnesota and parts of Canada, all have their partisans. There is substantial agreement, however, as to the word- ing of the Sagas in the translations of Professor Rafn and other scholars from 1837 to 1942 when the latest version of the voyages to Vinland was published by Professor Haugen.’' It is said that the Norsemen came to a land whose winter days were longer than at Iceland or Greenland. Important differences in length of days would be note- worthy on reaching the latitude of the forties and we may well look for their winter quarters south of Cape Breton. Although the Babcock identification of the Bay of Fundy region as Straumey does not settle the matter, I think it is the one section of the New England coast that closely fits the description attributed to Thorfinn Karlsefini. The texts of the Sagas say that Leif Ericson took samples of mosur-wood to Greenland and afterwards (about 1006) Thorfinn Karlsefini led an expedition of one hundred sixty men and several women in three ships, coming first to “Helluland,” then “Markland,” “Keel- ness,” “Furdistrander” and finally “Straumey”: “Karlsefini and his followers came to a coast in- dented 'with bays. They stood into a bay with their ships. There was an island in the mouth of the bay about which were strong currents wherefore they called it ‘Straumey.’ There were so many birds there that it was scarcely possible to step between the eggs. They sailed through the firth and called it ‘Straumfiord’ [Sound of violent currents] and car- ried their cargoes ashore from the ships and estab- lished themselves there.” ’ (See Note 7). [ 6 ] BEFORE 1604 Having these directions in mind let tis apply them to Deer Island and Passamaquoddy Bay. Deer Island blocks the entrance of this inner bay which indents the Bay of Fundy. The main passage into Passamaquoddy Bay at the south- western end of Deer Island contains famous whirlpools. The narrower Le Tete passages at its eastern end are dif- ficult if. not impassable for vessels without strong propul- sion against the tide. Here surely are the kind of “strong currents” Thorfinn would have remembered.® The whirl- pools that he may have encountered have been accurately described in the National Geographic Magazine: “Two large whirlpools perceptible in the channel of the St. Croix River are objects of great curiosity to the strangers visiting these parts. One of them occurs between Moose Island [Eastport] and the Southern End of Deer Island the other (of minor proportions) lies two miles above. . . . They are carefully avoided by people passing either in a white man’s boat or in Indian canoes for, like Charybdis of old, they are liable to capsize any small craft that ventures to come too near.” ® The effect of these currents on a sizable steamer was also told by Samuel Adams Drake in a book which relates noteworthy features of the Maine coast: “The swift little steamer Rose Standish makes daily trips between Eastport and Calais. . . . First comes the passage of the whirlpools, set in motion “ (See Note 8). ^National Geographic, 1897, VIII, 17. See Prof. Ganong’s map (Ch. VIII infra) for location of whirlpools. [7] SAINT CROIX hy the crashing together of the opposing tides that meet and struggle for mastery in the narrow waters between Deer Island and the mainland. ... No sooner has the boat entered the area of broken water than her headway is checked as suddenly as if an invisible hand had seized her prow. The shores creep by. Woe to the unlucky boatman drawn within reach of all this foam and fury for staunch as she is, even our gallant steamer reels like a drunken man as she fights her way through it foot by foot.’’ Birds crowd these passages even today after almost a thousand years. A Scottish traveler at St. Andrews in 1791, when they were more plentiful, wrote: ^^In passing through the islands in the mouth of the bay of Passamaquoddy we saw vast flocks of sea gulls and marrats^^ which indicated the great quan- tities of fish with which these waters abound. Cod were so abundant here last summer that it is said Newfoundland Banks could not exceed it for fish- ing.” "" Babcock states that '‘The Bay of Fundy is simply unique in these respects [tidal currents] on our coasts and Strau- mey and Straumfiord can belong nowhere else.’^ He ap- parently prefers Grand Manan as the location of the col- ony. Not only does Thorfinn record that he sailed through “the firth” to make his settlement (a description which does not fit the width of the Bay of Fundy between Grand ^^The Fine Tree Coast, Boston, 1891, 360. “Another name for the Murre, a thick-billed sea fowl, one of several species of the Guillemot. ^Fatrick CampbelFs Travels, Toronto, 1937, 302. (See Note 12). [ 8 ] Babcock’s Map showing the course followed by Thorfinn on his SAINT CROIX Manan and the mainland) but the Sagas go on to indicate quite clearly, I think, that Straumey lay in the midst of an inland country rather than on a remote island miles out at sea. “They brought with them, all kinds of live stock. They explored the nature of the land. There were mountains there. The country round about was fair to look upon. There was tall grass there. They re- mained during the winter and they had a hard win- ter for which [like De Monts in 1604] they had not prepared.” In the spring the party divided. Thorall and others wished to go northward, Karlsefini to go southward. After Thorall had departed, Thorfinn cruised south until he found a place where there were grapevines and self-sown wheat. The natives were hostile.^® He came back to Strau- mey and the third year the expedition returned to Green- land. This three years’ sojourn may explain the legend of the Passamaquoddy tribe. Five centuries later, Columbus came and the white man’s history in America definitely began. News of his discovery spread hke a fever among the maritime monarchs of Eu- rope. At once they sought a share in the new continent. Henry VII of England and King John II of Portugal, to whom Columbus had applied for backing, now regretted missing the opportunity to sponsor the birth of a new world. Henry promptly outfitted two ships and sent John “Champlain and De Monts likewise experienced hostility from warlike Armouchiquois near the “Vikings Vineyard.” Champlain I, 355, 420. [10] BEFORE 1604 Cabot on a voyage to North America in 1497. What place in America was first seen by John Cabot remains in dis- pute. Some say Newfoundland, which in its name keeps the credit. Some say Labrador, and others Cape Breton or Nova Scotia. Contemporaneous accounts make no men- tion of ice, which prevails in June at Labrador (the land- fall was June 24) and the opinion of Dr. Harvey in his learned monograph favors the more southern location of Acadia.^^ In any event, John Cabot and his son Sebastian are said to have skirted the coast of Maine and Passama- quoddy in later voyages. The English claim to North America was based on the Cabot voyages. King Herury’s privy purse, now in the British Museum, has an entry un- der date of August 10 after John Cabot’s return “To him that found the New Isle, ten pounds.” Cheap enough for a continent.^® Both the Kong of France and the King of Portugal were quick to follow England’s example. Francis I sent Breton fishermen to the Grand Banks. The Portuguese began to trade along the American coast. Meantime Pope Alexander VI issued the famous Bull which bestowed the New World on the kings of Spain and Portugal. To this Francis ob- jected, saying that Adam had put no such clause in his will. Francis employed a Florentine, John Verazzano, to ex- plore and settle America. Verazzano sailed west to the Carolinas in 1524 on a ship called the Dolphin. He cruised northward exploring over seven hundred leagues of coast, trading with the Indians all the way to Passamaquoddy and beyond. This notable voyage is the basis of the French ^^Nova Scotia Hist. Coll. 1895, IX, 2. -^Ibid IX, 24. (See Note 15). [II] SAINT CROIX claim to Acadia. He gave the name of “New France” to the territorj^ which he discovered.^® Although the Portuguese, unlike the English and French, did not follow up their voyages to North America with any enduring settlement, no country had a better claim. It is not commonly known that the section of the American coast which includes Passamaquoddy and the St. Croix River was first granted to Portuguese settlers. On March 13, 1521, a hundred years before Plymouth, Joam Alvarez Fegundez was given a royal commission by King Manuel, granting him the lands and islands which “he went to discover and has now certified to us by trust- worthy testimony that he did discover.” From the de- scription of the territory granted it is clear that it extended from the Spanish settlement in the south to Cape Breton and included therefore the land afterwards granted to the Plymouth Company as “New England” by the King of England, to De Monts as “Acadia” by the King of France, and to Sir Wiiham Alexander as “Nova Scotia” by the King of Scotland. In 1563, Lazaro Luis made a map of the region explored by Fegundez. I think this is so because he wrote on it the words “Joam Alvarez” under the name of the country. To be sure he called the land “Lavrador,” but on his map its location is much further south than on a standard map, A few years later, in 1 570, Franchesco de Souza wrote a tract telling of a settlement on the Acadian coast about forty-five or fifty years before, a date which would coincide with the doings of Fegundez. The account ends there and we shall History of Acadia, Hannay, St. John, 1879, 9. ^'^R.S.C. 1890, II, 127, 147, 169, 172. [12] BEFORE 1604 never know if it was the Bay of Passamaquoddy. The old- est map which shows the Bay of Fundy is by the Portu- guese, Diego Homen, in 1558. On it one may see inden- tations marking the location of the Port Royal River at Annapolis, Minas Basin, St. John River and even the St. Croix River. Portuguese maps were made as early as 1503. Portuguese names of places along the coast are in use today. Baya Fonda, or Deep Bay, is a Portuguese name. It is said to mean not depth of water, but deep distance into the land. Minas is Portuguese for mines. Canada in Portuguese means “the narrow way,” indicating the St. Lawrence River. Lavrador is Portuguese for farmer or soil worker. Cape Race was Cape Razo and the French island of St. Pierre was San Pedro. D’Anta Costa is now called the Island of Anticosti. The English may have acquired the Fegundez rights through Sir Humphrey Gilbert. This is somewhat conjSrmed by the reception the Portuguese gave him when he arrived in Newfoundland. Gilbert, in 1580, had sent Sir Simon Ferdmando and John Walker to the coast of Acadia to scout for a settle- ment and to trade. John Walker was Sir Humphrey’s man, a sort of supercargo. They went as far south as the Penob- scot River, bartering along the coast for moose hides, and returned with a full cargo. Finally, Gilbert received a com- mission in 1583 from Queen Elizabeth and sailed with a fleet of five vessels and two hundred sixty men to found an English colony in America. When he arrived in New- foundland there were in the harbor thirty-sis vessels of different nationalities, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and “Portuguese in N. A.,” ibid. (See Note i8). [13] SAINT CROIX English. The Portuguese were in control. They received Gilbert and his followers “with kindness above all other nations.” Possession of Newfoundland was taken by Gil- bert in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Doubtless it was Sir Humphrey’s intention to follow the course explored by his scout, Ferdinando. Fate, however, was against him. Fogs, adverse winds, the loss of his largest ship with most of her crew on the coast of Cape Breton, and complaints of his officers caused him to decide to re- turn to England. Everyone knows his brave end. Like Philip Sydney, he was daring in life and in death generous; to inspire his men, he put his flag and himself on the Squir- rel, a mere pinnace of ten tons, which in a midnight gale disappeared beneath the waves.®® English voyages to Acadia for fishing and trading fol- lowed the death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, notably that of Richard Fisher in the Marigold of seventy tons from Fal- mouth on June i, 1593, and of Charles Leigh with two small vessels from Gravesend on April 8, 1597-^^ The ac- counts left by them tell us that these English voyages did not meet with the friendly reception from the Indians which seems to have been given the French. Evidently the savages quickly learned to distinguish the two nations. On Charles Leigh’s voyage one of his vessels was attacked by French fishermen on Cape Breton Island, the first recorded clash between French and English in their struggle for supremacy in America. ^N. E. Hist. Genealogical Reg., April 1890, XLIV, 149. ^ (See Note 20). ^Purchase Pilgrimes; Early English and French Voyages, Barrage, New York, 1906; G. P. XV. [H] BEFORE 1604 Keen to outbid the English and control coveted Acadia, Henry IV of France granted to the Marquis de la Roche, as the century was closing, vice-sovereignty over that part of North America. His expedition sailed in 1598 and landed on Sable Island, then and now a graveyard of the Atlantic. The timbers and stray cattle from shipwrecks sheltered and kept ahve the few survivors of this ill-fated attempt at colonization.^^ Instead of practical farmers and mechanics, the settlers were ex-convicts, forty in all, most of whom died of hunger and exposure or were killed in brutal quarrels. When relief came, only a handful of wild- eyed men with unkempt hair and beards were found alive, “looking,” as an old chronicler vividly says, “like river- gods of yore and so they seemed to the King when they were brought before him.” The failures of the sixteenth century, however, did not have the effect of discouraging either Henry of France or the new King James of England. After 1604 both could claim sovereignty in North America based on permanent occupation and rivalry began in earnest which ended only with the final surrender of the French after nearly two centuries of wars declared and undeclared. The seven- teenth century, now beginning, dawned upon the Atlantic coast of America with its vast shoreline north of Florida still uninhabited by the subjects of any Christian prince. The French, spurred by Henry’s ambition, were alert to take advantage of this opportunity. Acadia, a word of vague and indefinite application, stirred their imagination. Its name had been known to explorers since 1561 when the ” Champlain I, 229, 235; Lescarbot I, 45; 11, 194. (See Note 22). [15] SAINT CROIX word first appeared on a map of the New World made by Girolamo Ruscelli, a learned Italian.^^ It was placed on his map midway between Passamaquoddy and Penobscot bays in what is now Maine and soon was applied generally to the whole coast as far north as the St. Lawrence River. We may safely surmise the origin of the name Acadia. Traders had been constantly skirting the Atlantic shore for years, talking and bartering for skins with the natives. Ask- ing the name of any place they happened to land and being answered in the Indian tongue, Pestumo-kaddy (place of the pollock). Kata-caddy (eel ground), Segubbena-caddy (place of ground nuts), Benecadia (calving place of moose), Tracadia (town or dwelling-place) and the like, is it any wonder those early seamen gave up in despair and called the whole coast by its last name. La Cadie? Whether this explanation is the right one or not. La Cadia was the name King Henry IV chose to call the coastal territory he granted by Royal Patent to the Sieur de Monts in i(5o3. This grant led to the discovery and settlement of the St. Croix River in 1 604 by De Monts and his famed pilot Samuel de Champlain. NOTES r, Norumbega is good Indian with several possible meanings but as the name of a town or city it has no value. Indian Place Names, 15. In Gen- eral History of the West Indies (Douay, 1607) Norumbega is called “Agguncia,” a Huron word said to have been borrowed from Cartier’s Narrative by one Andre Thevet, a monk (Indian Place Names supra), who probably is responsible for the myth of the “fair city.” See “The Voyage of Andre Thevet” in Norsemen in Maine and other Essays, (Albany, 1870) 71. ^Worcester Soc. of Antiquities, XIII, 19. R.S.C. 1896, II, 260 (Place Nomenclature) . Canadian Antiquarian, Oct, 1876, V, 86. [16] BEFORE 1604 One Johan Allefouss was on this coast in 1542. He described Norum- bega (manuscript in Bibleotheque Nationale Paris). 2. Mrs. Brown was the wife of W. Wallace Brown of Calais, Maine, In- dian agent. James Vroom, the historian, says: “Her patient study of the language and traditions of the Passamaquoddies made her the leading authority on the subject.” (G.P. II a). J. W. Fewkes in Journal of Am, Folklore, III, 258, writes: “[Mrs. Brown’s] influence over the Indians is equalled by her love for the study of their traditions.” Fewkes states that the Passamaquoddies are “the purest blooded race of Indians now living in New England.” Indian articles by Mrs. Brown appeared in American Folk Lore, Royal Society of Canada Collections and Glimpses of the Fast. 7. For various interpretations of the Sagas see: The Discovery of America by the Northmen, Carl Christian Rafn (Copenhagen, 1837) North?nen in America, North Ludlow Beamish (London, 1841). Antiquities of America, A. Davis (New York, 1847). History of Maine, Dr. J. H. Kohl, Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.), 1869, Vol. I. Voyages of the Norsmen to America, E. F. Slafter Prince Society (Bos- ton, 1877). Finding of Wineland, the Good, Arthur Middleton Reeves (London, 1890). The Norse Discovery of America, R. B. Anderson Noroena Society, 1907. The Icelander, Thorfinn Karlsefini, J. B. Samuel (New York, 1922). The Vinla?2d Voyages, Matthias Thordarson (New York, 1930), Westward from Finland, H. R. Holand (New York, 1942). Voyages to Vinland, Einar Haugen (New York, 1942). 8. It is significant that the Passamaquoddies had given the name “mutchig- nogos,” meaning “rough, strong tides ail about,” to Indian Island (the small island just off the southwestern end of Deer Island). Indian Place Names, 13 1. 12. Nicolas Denys during his travels in Acadia in the seventeenth century remarked on the great number of birds that produced their young on the Wolves, a group of rocky islands at the mouth of Passamaquoddy Bay. Denys, in. 15. See Archdeacon W. O. Raymond’s Scrap-book, XIII, 82, St. John Public Library. In the “Privy Purse” or expense-book of the King under same date, Aug. 10, 1497, there is also the entry “To the damsel that danceth 12-0-0.” Evidently a discovery nearer his royal person was worth more to Henry. 18. The name Canada is said to come from the Indian word “Kanata” (a small local tribe). I think there is a greater probability that it is of Portu- guese origin. “Canada” was a Portuguese word in use in the fifteenth cenmry (and to this day in the islands) to denote a narrow road espe- cially one bordered by walls or traced to an unknown wilderness. R.S.C. (1890) II, 158. In modem Portuguese dictionaries the meaning of “Canada” is given [17] SAINT CROIX as a small measure or pint. When they reached Quebec where the river narrows to a gorge Cortereal and his Portuguese men who explored the St. Lawrence about 1500 (in search of a broad passage to the Indies) may, indeed, in their disappointment have thought “Canada” the word for it. It is significant that the St. Lawrence was referred to by early writers as “the river of Canada.” Similarly there was in Newfoundland “Canada Bay,” “Canada Head” and “Canada Harbor.” Ibid, 159. 20. An eyewimess account of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s death is given in N. E. Hist. Genealogical Register (April 1890) XLIV, 149. “Monday the ninth of September in the afternoon the Frigat (the Squer- rell) was neere castaway, oppressed by waves, yet at that time recovered and giving signes of joy, the Generali sitting abaft with a booke in his hand, cried unto us in the Hind (So oft as we did approach in hearing) We are as neere to Heaven by sea as by land.’ Reiterating the same speech well beseeming a souldier resolute in Jesus Christ as I can testifie he was. . . . The same Monday night aboute twelve of the clocke or not long after the Frigat being ahead of us in the Golden Hine, suddenly her lights were out whereof as it were in a moment. We lost the light and withall our watch cryed ‘The Generali was cast away’ which was too true. For at that moment the frigate was devoured, and swallowed up by the sea.” 22. The origin of cattle on Sable Island was Portuguese according to Cham- plain, but Lescarbot attributed them to French adventurers. The grant of 1598 to the Marquis de la Roche included the “lands of Canada, Hochelega, Newfoundland, Labrador, the river of the Great Bay [St. Lawrence], Norumbega and the lands adjacent to the said provinces and rivers which are of great length and extent and unin- habited by the subjects of any Christian princes.” Lescarbot 11 , 196. [18] CHAPTER TWO The Year 1604 T Xhe most celebrated resident of the St. Croix River is Samuel de Champlain. He was its pioneer, its first historian, and its first geographer. His qualities of mind, his courage, his faith and imagination, and his accomplishments stamp him as one of the great Frenchmen of all time. “There was much in his charac- ter,” says John Fiske, the historian, “that remiads us of the highest type of medieval knight; yet combined with this was keen scientific curiosity. His piety and probity were equal to his courage and endurance, and these quali- ties were united to a tact which made him the idol of Indians and White Men ahke.” ^ He was a true Viking, loving the tossing waves and the howling of the wind m the shrouds. In the moment of danger his calmness was unruffled as he stood with his hand on tiller calling out his orders. To no other man except Washington and Lincoln has this continent erected so '^Ne'vo France and New England, Fiske, 1902, 39. [19] Chaaiplain's names are given without hi names arc in brackets THE YEAR 1604 many memorials. Even places he only gave names to as he passed by, Saint John, Mount Desert Island, and cities and towns in Vermont, New York, and Ontario, have raised monuments to Champlain. When he left Brouage, his birthplace, to become his uncle’s pilot on a two-year cruise to Mexico and the West Indies in 1599, Champlain started his “Narrative,” a rec- ord of events and observations, which Professor Ganong, the well-known authority, says is “One of the greatest books of exploration ever given to the world and a work which has been thought not unworthy of mention in a class with the greatest of all such writings, the Anabasis of Xenophon.” ^ One may judge of Champlain’s alert ob- servation by his remarks on visiting the Isthmus of Pan- ama “That if the four leagues of land which there are from Panama to this river were cut through, one might pass from the South Sea to the Ocean on the other side and thus shorten the route by more than 1500 leagues,” ® a preview by three hundred years of the Panama Canal. On his return from the West Indies, Champlain, as Henry IV’s geographer, made a trip to Canada in 1603, declared by him in his Narrative to be a “Voyage to the savages,” meaning no doubt that it was to explore and trade rather than for permanent stay. This voyage is important in that it shaped the course of his next voyage which ended at Saint Croix Island. While at Tadoussac in 1603 he met Sieur Prevert, a trader, who told in glowing and exagger- ated terms of the mineral wealth of Acadia, adding that “All this country is beautiful and flat with all kinds of ^Tercentenary of De Monts’ Settlement, Maine Hist. Soc., 1904, 41. ® Champlain I, 69. [21] SAINT CROIX trees.” ^ The Narrative refers many times to his hunt for Prevert’s mines. On this voyage with Champlain was Fran- cis Grave, Sieur du Pont, called Pontgrave, a rich St. Malo merchant and trader. While the explorers were in Amer- ica, De Chastes, backer of the voyage, died.® On their re- turn to France with a cargo of furs, Pontgrave appears to have acquired control of many of the De Chastes ships which were later used by Champlain on his voyages. No doubt Pontgrave and Champlain told Pierre du Gau, Sieur de Monts, one time Governor of Pons, a French nobleman of honor and wealth,® high in the favor of King Henry IV, of Prevert’s tales of Acadia. De Monts had al- ready been thinking of the possibilities of the fur trade and of founding a permanent colony in America for the glory of France. From Henry he obtained on November 8, 1603, a patent appointmg him Lieutenant General of the terri- tory of Acadia between the fortieth and forty-sixth de- grees of latitude with power to take and divide the land, to create offices of war, justice and policy, to prescribe laws and ordinances, to make war and peace, to build forts and towns, establish garrisons and convert the savages.'^ On December 8, 1603, he received for himself and his asso- ciates a further patent granting the exclusive right to trade in furs with the savages between the fortieth degree of lati- tude and Cape Razo (Cape Race).® Champlain was chosen to act as pilot of the expedition. Other Frenchmen of birth and breeding, “gentlemen adventurers” Parkman called * Ibidj 181-85, 261* ^Ibid ni, 327. (See Note 5). ® (See Note 6), ^Pxirchase Pilgrimes IV, 1619; Lescarbot II, 21 1. ^Ibid, 221. [22] THE YEAR i 604 them, stirred with the pioneer spirit, joined this enterprise destined to be the first to plant the flag of France in the New World. Expanding in industry and art at home under the aegis of her extrovert King Henry, France also envis- aged her future beyond the Atlantic. A mighty struggle for supremacy in America was about to begin. The De Monts Expedition sailed from Havre de Grace in two vessels on the seventh of March, 1604. Pontgrave in command of one ship arrived first at Cape Canso on the east end of Nova Scotia. De Monts and Champlain reached the coast of Nova Scotia further south somewhat later. They cruised westward without meeting Pontgrave, nam- ing bays and points of land as they went, finally rounding Cape Sable as far as St. Mary’s Bay. Since no place had been found which could be strongly fortified it was decided that De Monts, Champlain, and a selected crew should go ahead to look for a permanent location for the settlement. Cham- plain doubtless knew of the explorations by the English, of Bartholomew Gosnold’s voyage in 1602 under patronage of the Earl of Southampton, which visited Martha’s Vine- yard and Cape Cod, and of Martin Pring’s voyage in 1603 to the shores claimed as Acadia under De Monts’s grant.® He must have sensed Enghsh hostility as an important ob- stacle to successful French occupation of the new country. This, I think, is the real meaning of the emphasis on de- fence and repeated reference to a suitable place for making a permanent settlement. Leaving St. Mary’s Bay the scouting party came to An- napolis Harbor. Although its formation was much admired ®Sjr Wm, Alexander and American Colonization, Slafter, Prince Soc„ Boston, 1873, 29 et seq. [23] SAINT CROIX (Champlain named it Port Ro}^al) they considered it too difficult to defend against attack. Later events proved this true. It was to become their second capital in the wilder- ness they were seeking to claim and occupy for the glory of France and the fur trade it contained. Their next stop along the coast was the large Minas Basin, a name which first appeared on Portuguese maps. Thinking they now were in the region described by Prevert and finding cop- per tracings at Advocate Harbor, they confidently called it Port des Mines. Still dissatisfied, however, they set out from Minas on June twentieth to find the suitable place, meaning after that to retrace their course and locate the mine of pure cop- per which Prevert had spoken of. Many leagues to the west was a large and deep river. Coming to it on St. John’s day, the explorers dutifully named it for that saint. They next sailed toward four islands on one of which they landed. These were the islands now known as the Wolves. There they captured and ate margos or magpies “as good to eat as young pigeons.” From the Wolves they cruised through the islands and saw another river.^® It was now the twenty-sixth of June or possibly the twenty-seventh. Anyone who has seen the bay and river of Saint Croix on a sunny June day knows the magic of its beauty. Approaching Head Harbor on the Boston boat at the end of the last century one often saw Indians in birch- bark canoes spearing porpoises or fishing in the tide rips. And no doubt on that June day of 1 604 astonished natives witnessed from their canoes the invasion of their home- land. Grunting at the strange craft carried by wind and Champlain I, 269; Purchase Pilgrimes IV, 1620. [24] Map of St. Croix River showing Dochet (St. Croix) Island. (Courtesy Royal Society of Canada) SAINT CROIX tide through Le Tete Passage into the Bay of Passama- quoddy they could little guess the portent of what they saw. Our approach today, of which a Crucian may still be proud, can hardly be compared with Champlain’s. The towering pines and the hemlocks have met the woodman’s axe; the pointed firs have thinned; the grandeur of serene solitude is no more. On this day of discovery Champlain was at the helm. “Sailing west-north-west three leagues through the is- lands,” says his Narrative, “we entered a river which is almost half a league wide at its mouth; therein after going a league or two we found two islands, one very small, near the western shore and the other in the middle of the river. The latter was naturally well situated with but one place where it is low for about forty paces and that easy to for- tify. The shores of the mainland were distant on both sides some nine hundred to one thousand paces so that vessels could only pass along the river at the mercy of the cannon on the island. This place we considered the best we had seen, both on account of its situation, the fine country, and for the intercourse we were expecting with the Indians of these coasts and of the interior since we should be in their midst. . . . This place was named by the Sieur De Monts the Island of Ste. Croix.” “ After they had decided to found their settlement in the New World on Saint Croix Island they explored the river. Further up was a “great bay” (Oak Bay)^* in which were “two islands, one lofty and the other flat.” This bay with the rivers Waweig and St. Croix coming in on either side “Champlain I, 272; Lescarbot II, 242. (See Note ii). ^ (See Note 12). [26] THE YEAR i 604 made the cross which no doubt suggested the name to Sieur de Monts. Champlain also explored a waterfall about six miles up the larger or western branch of the river.^® By carrying their canoes around it, he said, the Indians can go by water and portage to Norumbega and Saint John. He learned too of the great catch of fish at the falls in May and June, “so great that vessels could be loaded with them.” There the Indians gather for weeks in the fishing sea- son. At the falls they found cleared land and Sieur de Monts had wheat (rye) planted “which throve extremely well.” Meantime on the island they erected barricades and mounted their cannon. In a very short time it was put in state of defence. Happy to have found at last the place where they were content to build their new home, they sent a long-boat to tell their comrades left behind at St. Mary’s Bay to come to Saint Croix. “This was quietly car- ried out,” said Champlain, “and while awaiting them, we passed our time pleasantly enough.” NOTES The portrait of Champlain in this volume is the so-called O’Neill portrait reproduced from Theophile Hamel’s painting now in Parlia- ment House at Ottawa. Hamel’s likeness is a composite of earlier paint- ings by Ducarnet and other artists of the 19th century. Since there are no known contemporaneous portraits of Champlain all we have are “purely speculative likenesses.” Paltsits, Acad. IV, 306. 5. Aymar de Chastes appears to have been responsible, more than anyone else, for French eagerness to found an American Empire. He was a Frenchman of note, Commander of the Order of St. John, Governor of Dieppe and a Catholic, yet he sided with Henry IV, leader of the Huguenots. It was from his castle that Henry was able to start the con- quest of France. De Chastes urged Henry to support colonization in America. Champlain and De Monts were inspired by him to join trading voyages to Tadoussac whose sequel led to the discovery of St. Croix ^ Schoodic or Salmon Falls. The distance (6 miles) is correct taken from Devil’s Head. [27] SAINT CROIX in Passamaquoddy. Champlain, Founder of New France Dix, 35 et seq. See also Fioneers of France in the New World, Parkman. 6. Pierre du Gua or du Guast, son of Guy du Gua, Sieur de Monts, is said to have been bom at LeGua (south of La Rochelle) near Royan on the west coast of France. His religion was Calvinist. He fought well on the side of Henry IV and was rewarded with the high favor of that King. After the death of Henry in 1610 his fortunes declined. He does not seem to have had the financial acumen necessary to control successfully his large colonial ventures in Acadia and on the St. Lawrence. In 1618 De Monts bought the chateau of Ardennes near Pons where he died (date uncertain). In 1632 Champlain referred to him, as “the late Sieur de Monts.” Morse’s Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, (London, 1939) 54. Lescarbot in Histoire de la Nouvelle France salutes De Monts in verse: “DeMonts, tu es celui de qui le haut courage A trace un chemin a un si grand ouvrage Et pour ce de ton nom malgre I’effort des ans La feuille verdoira d’un eternel printemps” freely rendered in English as — “De Monts, your courage paved the way to big events. For that—defeating time—forever green will be the garlands round your name.” Lescarbot Book IV, 533. ir. In his “Adieu a la Nouvelle-France,” Lescarbot gives an apostrophe to the “Island of the Bays:” “He, je te salue, ile de Saincte Croix He Premiere sejour de nos pauvres Francois Qui souffrirent chez toi des choses vraiment dures Mais nos vices souvent nous causent ces injures. Je revere pourtant ta fraiche antiquite Les Cedres odorans qui sont a son cote Tes loges, tes maison, ton Magazin superbe, Tes jardins etouffes parmi la nouvelle herbe. Mais j’honore surtout, a cause de nos morts Le lieu qui sainctement tient en depost leurs corps.” Lescarbot III, 488. These sentiments in broad English would probably be: “I salute you, Island of Saint Croix, First [American] home of pioneer Frenchmen. On you they met with hardships great And died, not knowing how to live. The ancient, fragrant cedars on your banks Are fresh in mind as are Your well-planned layout. Your fine arsenal of defense. [28] THE YEAR i 604 But above all else I cherish you As Sanctuary of comrades Who lie buried in your soil.” 12. Oak Bay. The name probably is a corruption of auk, a waterfowl now extinct but abundant two centuries ago as far south as Massachusetts. David Owen on his map of Passamaquoddy, sketched in November 1796 (chap. XIII infra) called it “Aouk Bay.” [29] CHAPTER THREE At Anchor w T T KITING LONG AFTERWARDS, in 1632, Champlain attempted to analyze the failure of the De Monts settlements at Saint Croix and Port Royal. Complaints of fur traders who lost their livelihood by De Monts’s monopoly and the easy promises of others, who had the ear of the French king, to do more for France in Acadia than had De Monts, were the causes of his pat- ent’s being cancelled. All he received in return for one hundred thousand hvres spent and three years wasted was a grant of six thousand livres per year to be collected pro rata from each vessel engaged in the fur trade, a worthless concession too costly to apportion and collect from differ- ent vessels at scattered ports. Champlain thought there should have been a preliminary expedition at less cost before attempting a permanent settlement. “Though his [De Monts’s] commission had been revoked,” he wrote, “the settlement would not have come to an end in three and one-half years, as had been [30] AT ANCHOR done in Acadia, and enough land would have been cleared to do without provisions from France. Had these matters been properly directed, little by little one would have grown accustomed to them and the English and Flem- mings would then not have enjoyed the places they had filched from us and where they settled at our expense.” He suggests a failure of morale from the frequent quar- rels of the Roman priest and the Huguenot pastor. Of the voyage he wrote “I forget just now which was the hardest hitter, but leave you to imagine what a fine spectacle they made, aiming and dodging blows, while the sailors gath- ered around and backed them according to their sectarian prejudices, some shouting Hang the Huguenot and others Dovm with the Papist!” ^ These quarrels may have been a factor. At St. Mary’s Bay, Nicholas Aubrey, the priest, something of a natural- ist, went with a party including the Huguenot pastor, to explore. When the others returned, the two were left be- hind arguing on religion. The pastor came back without the priest. Guns were fired and the woods searched for days without result. Foul play was suspected. The Hugue- not stoutly maintained his innocence. This morale-shatter- ing incident only ended when Champdore who was sent by De Monts with an engineer to look for mines, rescued Aubrey lost hunting specimens, on the seventeenth day after he had gone astray. “Poor Aubrey was terribly weak- ened, as you may suppose,” writes Lescarbot, “he was given food in small quantities and brought back to the company in the island of St. Croix, whereat all received ^Champlain III, 323-28. [31] SAINT CROIX an incredible joy and consolation and particularly M. de Monts, whom it concerned more than any other.” ^ Apparently these religious differences ended for priest and pastor only with the grave. The legend is that during the winter which brought death to so many at Saint Croix these two were buried in a common grave with the hope- ful comment of the survivors that there at last they would have to agree. If the season of 1604-1605 at Saint Croix had been as mild as the following year at Port Royal, the history of the settlement might have been different. Imagine the banks of the river now lined with farms and even a city or two, filled with French habitants. The entirely Anglo-Saxon population of today is in sharp contrast. Probably Cham- plain himself may have been more responsible than he thought for the failure that followed. In choosing the is- land as a place well adapted for fortifying to his satisfaction he made a decision which can be justified. That decision, if followed by precaution as to living conditions necessary for the comfort and health of colonists in a strange and wintry land would not have caused the settlement to fail. Champlain’s point of view and chief interest were no se- cret. “Among the most useful and excellent arts, naviga- tion has always seemed to me to take the first place,” he declared. “It is this art that has from my childhood lured me to love it, and has caused me to expose myself almost all my life to the rude waves of the ocean.” ® From Saint Croix he was sent almost at once on scouting voyages. He was not the doctor charged with the health ®Lescarbot II, 232, 243, 244; LaVerdiere III, 16. (See Note 2). ® Dedication to the CJueen Regent (Marie de Medici). Champlain I, 209. [32] A T ANCHOR of the settlement. He was not commissary, to provide maintenance. He was not head authority, responsible for discipline or management. We may surmise that at his last audience with King Henry before sailing from Le Havre, Champlain was told not only to record faithfully what happened, but to ex- plore and map all of Acadia, to watch out particularly for the English and to safeguard the expedition from attack.^ Perhaps the secret agents of the king already knew that Captain George Weymouth was outfitting for the voyage which early in 1605 reached that part of Acadia where Thomaston, Maine, is now. Champlain was charged with the affairs in which he specialized, and probably gave no thought to the practical aspects of the island as a dwelling place day by day. He saw quite correctly that this island, properly fortified, commanded the river. As an outpost or bastion for a settlement on either bank of the river where water in flowing streams, wonderful timber and wood, fertile land and cleared spaces,® were ready at hand, it was certainly a sensible choice. At St. Mary’s Bay, “having found there no place where we might fortify ourselves except after long delay, we de- termined,” he records, “to ascertain whether there might be some more suitable place.” That place he found in the St. Croix River. It must have remained in his mind the spot of all the coast from Cape Breton to Cape Cod most to his hking, for he mentions no other. And as if this conclusion should be generally accepted, Nicholas Denys who spent * The King’s permission was given on condition Champlain would always make a faithful report of all he saw and discovered. Champlain III, 321. ®Lescarbot I, 179; II, 241, 249. [33] SAINT CROIX many years in Acadia refers in his history published in Paris in 1672 to Saint Croix as the place “where the Sieurs de Monts and Champlain wished to construct a settlement to such a degree had they found the locality good and pleasing beyond all others they had seen.” ® Its being off the coast and remote to passing ships may have been a reason why the indented bay of Passama- quoddy had attracted Champlain. “We must needs say that the isle of St. Croix is difficult to find on one’s first visit,” wrote Lescarbot, “for there are so many islands and large Bays to pass before coming to it that I wonder they had the patience to push on so far to reach it.” ’’ And when Sir Samuel Argali sailed from Virginia in 1613 to wipe out all trace of French settlements north of Virginia to the 45th parallel of latitude, thus to validate geographically King James’s grant to that colony, he had difficulty, according to the Jesuit Father Biard, in finding the mysterious island of De Monts.® Someone may suggest that fear of the Indians made De Monts decide to build on the island, but this could hardly have been the case for the natives had been friendly every- where. Lescarbot records that the savages gave voluntary subjection to M. de Monts making him the judge of dis- putes between themselves.® In fact, the island gave no pro- tection from them. The Indians at once camped at the foot of the island to watch with curious eyes the strange ways of the palefaces from beyond the sea. They were much at home there, having constantly used the island for genera- ® Denys, in; Champlain I, 307. '^Lescarbot II, 249. ® Jesuit Relations IV, 37. ® Lescarbot II, 247; Haliburton Nova Scotia, I, 19. (See Note 9). [34] AT ANCHOR tions as “a place to leave things in going up and down the river,” which is the meaning of its Indian name—Mut-an- ag-wesd® Reading Champlain’s Narrative we wonder where the vessels used by him to explore for a settlement in advance from St. Mary’s Bay, to hunt for mines and to cruise along the Maine coast, came from. Only two ships, those in which they sailed from Havre de Grace, are mentioned. One of these is said to have been at Cape Canso,, the other at St. Mary’s Bay. Both returned to France from Saint Croix in August 1 604. It is a minor point but of interest. Although Champlain, a navigator, could hardly fail to have been proud of these pioneer ships, he rarely refers to them. In “Documents Relatifs a la Marine Normande” by Charles and Paul Breard they are described as “round and of medium size.” They steered well, sailed fast, and held much merchandise. One can fancy them deep with cargo sliding up and down the waves, swinging like a pendulum, riding out the gales, uncomfortable but seaworthy. Their clumsy sails required a big crew and their capacity for both crew and passengers seldom exceeded four score. They must have been sardine-packed at that. - But Champlain gives no hint of discomfort on the voyage and the same is generally true in the brief accounts we have of ocean cross- ings of the time. Perhaps if Pontgrave had been an author we should have some interesting sea tales. He appears to have owned many of the trading vessels of that day. He had sailed with Cham- “Indian Place Names, 231; Place Nomenclature, R.S.C., 1896, Part II, 230. ^Documents Relatifs a la Marine Normande, Rouen, 1899, 91-13 1. (See Note II ). [35] SAINT CROIX plain in 1603 in a barque called “La Bonne Renomme,” then owned by De Chastes, on Champlain’s first voyage to Tadoussac. The following spring Pontgrave and Captain Morel crossed to St. Croix Island in that same ship, captur- ing two fur traders on the way. Meantime De Monts and Champlain sailed to St. Croix in another of Pontgrave’s vessels either the Don de Dieu or La Francoise. Ships named Don de Dieu are closely associated with Cham- plain’s voyages. In his many crossings he frequently sailed on a ship of that name and on his final voyage to Quebec, where he died in 1635, flagship was a Don de Dieu. Pontgrave is spoken of more often than any other cap- tain.^^ After he moved from St. Malo to Honfleur, the lat- ter place became his favorite port of hail. Its records show that the St. Etienne of three hundred fifty tons. La Cath- erine of one hundred seventy tons, UEsperance, La Fran- coise, St. Pierre and St. Jehan, all smaller vessels, were popular charters for the ocean crossings. The little Jonas of one hundred twenty tons was another favorite.^® Jonas (French for Jonah) seems an odd name to choose for sea craft. Her own fateful career sealed the fate of many pioneers. Lescarbot sailed in the Jonas in 1606 on his only visit to Acadia. Later she was a Jonah bringing the bad news to Port Royal that De Monts’s grant of Acadia had been revoked. On one voyage she proved herself true to her name by running over a whale.^^ She carried the De Monts company back to France from Acadia with Cham- ^ (See Note 12). ^Champlain I, 38872; 45622; Lescarbot II, 289, 314, 356. Lescarbot III, 240. [36] AT ANCHOR plain, who was destined never to return to Acadia, on boardd® Madame de Guercheville,^® generous patroness of the Indian Missions to whom Father Biard probably had com- plained that he was being interfered with at Port Royal, sent the Jonas to Acadia in 1613 with Father Quantin and Brother Gilbert du Thet to pick up Fathers Biard and Masse in order to found a new colony at Kadesquit (near Bangor, Maine) where they would be free from interfer- ence. The Jonas found the seas rough, the fog dense, and only got as far as Mount Desert Island, where her passen- gers landed, gratefully to call their refuge “St. Sauveur.” But the name did not save them for Sir Samuel Argali came along, killed Du Thet, made the rest prisoners and, like the whale in the Bible, swallowed the Jonas. ^Champlain I, 456. The ]oms was one of Argali’s fleet in the sack of St. Croix Island in 1613. (See Note 16). NOTES 2. The priest Aubrey is known to us, because he got lost at St. Mary’s Bay; but his Huguenot rival is never mentioned by name. Historically the Huguenot should be known. He was perhaps the first minister to con- duct Protestant religious services in America. 9. “We were glad to be in a country of safety,” wrote Father Biard, the Jesuit, “for among the Etchemins we were no more obliged to be on our guard than among our own sen^ants and thank God we have never yet been deceived in' them.” Jesuit Relations II, 49. 11. Thirty-seven different ships are mentioned by name as having sailed from Norman ports to Acadia. An interesting account of “The Ships of Champlain, De Monts, and their Followers” is in France and New England, III, published by State Street Trust Company (Boston, 1929). The Grand Manan Historian edited by Buchanan Charles has footnotes also giving information about the ships of this period. 12. Pontgrave merits honorable and affectionate mention among the brave pioneers of early Canada. For almost thirty years he continued to be [37] SAINT CROIX associated with Champlain, Governor of Canada at Quebec, aiding in the administration of the French Colony and maintaining, in spite of failing health, the ocean connection with France. After the English under David Kirks captured Quebec in 1629, Pontgrave disappeared from notice. Champlain does not record his death. His son Robert Grave (see Ch. IV and VI) had died at sea November 9, 1621. 16. Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville, renowned for her grace and beauty, was a woman of rare virtue in the unbridled French court of her time. She is famous for her answer to the amorous advances of Henry IV; “Sire, my rank is not high enough to permit me to be your wife and my heart is too high to permit me to be your mistress.” The full story of her adventure with Henry and her support of the Jesuits is given in Pioneers of France in the New World. Parkman (Boston, 1894) 283 et seq. See also New France and New England, Fiske (Cam- bridge, 1902) 74. [38] CHAP TER FOUR Island of Tragedy T_Jpon the arrival of the colonists left behind at St. Mary’s Bay, De Monts gave the welcome command “All ashore.” He first chose a site for the storehouse to be fifty-four feet by eighteen feet by twelve feet high. Next he settled the plan for his own house for which he had brought sawn lumber from France. Champlain says that the carpenters built the storehouse and De Monts’s dwelling and that all other buildings were built by the men “each at his own.” The men collected in fives and sixes according to their preferences. The Narra- tive mentions the oven which was down by the side of the island below its east bank and a hand mill for grinding wheat, also gardens on the mainland and the island. It fails to give other details of the settlement as of not much inter- est evidently to its author.^ From Lescarbot we learn something of the living ar- rangements of the settlement. After stating that the bar- ^ Champlain I, 276 et seq» [39] Map of St. Croix Island Drawn by Samuel de Champlain, this map shows the location of (a) Dwellings, (b) Gardens, (c & d) Cannon, (e) Burial Ground,- (f) Chapel, (i) Water-mill, (1) Wood-Lot, (m) Garden on Maine shore, (n) Garden on New Brunswick shore, (p) Etchemin River. Taken fro?n Champlain^ s Narrative published at Paris in i6i^. ISLAND OF TRAGEDY racks of the soldiers were built outside the fort, he tells us that inside the fort was the dwelhng of De Monts “built of fair sawn timber with the banner of France overhead.” Within the fort was a magazine, also built of timber, and covered with shingles. Opposite the Magazine “were the dwellings of MM. d’Orville, Champlain, Champdore and other notable persons.” Beside the headquarters of De Monts stood a covered gallery used as a recreation hall. Beyond the buildings were gardens extending almost to the Battery. On the southern end of the island nearest the sea there rose a knoll, “what might be called a separate island,” where the cannon was set up. The httle chapel, “built in the Indian fashion” was also on this knoll.^ It would be interesting to know more about the “notable persons” and to see them as they went about their duties. To us, three centuries later, their adventure seems exciting but at the time neither Champlain nor Lescarbot bothered to record details we now would like to know. We can only pick up a thread here and there. Sieur was a title of respect in use in France in those days to denote gentler birth. It was natural for persons so titled to hve together. We know that Champlain and his friend D’Orville occupied a house looking out upon the garden marked “L” on the plan. Their servants joined in building it.® In the same cluster of houses or huts Sieurs de Beaumont, Fougeray, La Motte- Bourioli and Boulay, all gay young blades, also appear to have had their quarters. Poutrincourt, Baron of St. Just, a distinguished soldier,^ ^Lescarbot II, 255 et seq. ® “The Colonists at St. Croix” Acad. IV, 274. *For a fine tribute and appraisal of Poutrincourt see Lescarbot III, 73 (Appendix V). [41] SAINT CROIX destined to die for King and Country in the Wars of France, was a close friend of De Monts and had come to look over the country. Boulay, one of his captains in the wars of France, came with him. Champdore was master builder and a man of importance. Lescarbot celebrated his talents in verse but Champlain, who evidently didn’t like him, gave him scant praise. Although he admitted that Champdore could fit out a ship well enough, he ridiculed his seamanship and rated him as obstinate and a man who “would have his own way.” ® Yet Champdore seems to have been used by De Monts as Captain and later served in the Marine of France. Sieur d’Orville was chosen by De Monts to command the colony when he left for France in 1 605 to seek aid from Henry IV. This responsibility, however, D’Orville de- clined and the more reliable Pontgrave was substituted.® The lad Robert Grave, son of Pontgrave, doubtless ac- companied his father on his ship. La Bonne Kenomme. He was wounded in the skirmish with the Indians at Cape Cod, in 1 606, losing three fingers. He and Biencourt, young son of Poutrincourt, whose activities are mentioned in a later chapter, appear to have been enemies.'^ For this or some other reason Robert was out of favor with Poutrincourt after De Monts returned to France. He was banished to the Indians, rescued by Father Biard ® and finally settled down to become master of vessels trading with Acadia. Timothee, Morel, and Fouques were ship captains. “Champlain I, 382. ° Ibid I, 370. (See Note 6) . ’’ Ibid IV, 8. “J.R. II, 169. [42] The Settlement at St. Croix Island Drawing by Samuel de Cham-plain of dwellings and gardens on St. Croix Island from his “Narrative” published at Paris in i6iy. A—^Dwelling of Sieur de Monts. B—^Public building where we spent our time when it rained. C—The Storehouse. D—^Dwelling of the guard. F—^Dwelling of the carpenters. G—^The well. H—^The oven where the bread was made. I—^ICitchen. L,M,&X—Gardens. N—^Place in the centre where a tree stands. O—^Palisade. p_Dwellings, the Sieurs d’Orville, Champlain, and Champdore. V—^Dwelling of our curate. Q,R,&T—Other dwellings. Y—^The river surrounding the island. SAINT CROIX Pierre Fritot, known as Rossignol, was an involuntary par- ticipant in the building of the settlement, having been cap- tured by De Monts at Port Rossignol. One Simon was metallurgist and Jean du Val locksmith, the latter a trouble- maker who came to a bad end.® Soldiers, surgeons, priest. Huguenot minister, artisans, and a sprinkling of impressed vagabonds or ex-convicts made up the rest of the motley crew. There were seventy-nine settlers who spent the winter. In spite of Lescarbot’s account of the well-ordered settlement, we must be skeptical of its fitness to resist wet and cold in a northern climate. Health depended first of all on shelter. When snow and ice began to come in a quantity beyond their experience and expectation these Frenchmen found out how true this was. They seemed to have brought with them no materials familiar to European craftsmen other than enough to house their leader and their stores. Who among them had ever heard of a cabin made of whole green logs, chinked with moss and clay, snug and warm in bleakest weather. It was the Swedes skilled in the use of the entire tree who built the first log cabin in North America on the Delaware River in 1638. Other Europeans were slow to change old habits and adopt this newfangled dwelling which grew, almost readymade, on a forest continent. No hammers, saws, nails or plaster were needed. One man, armed only with an axe, could fell, lay and chink trees by himself. A century later, perhaps, these same Frenchmen would have ®Lescarbot II, 6; Champlain II, 25. Du Val was hanged for mutiny at Quebec. [44] ISLAND OF TRAGEDY had an encampment, warm and weather-proof even on wind-swept St. Croix Island.^® But the settlement waxed apace, nevertheless, in such fashion as they knew, and soon covered the whole island. Meantime two excursions took place. Captain Fouques sailed in Rossignol’s vessel, which had been seized for il- legal fur trading, to find Pontgrave at Canso and to fetch his cargo of supphes. And Champlain, with an Indian named Messamouet as guide, set out to locate his “mine of pure copper”—^the magnet that had drawn him to Aca- dia.“ This trip was made in a small pinnace of five or six tons with a crew of nine sailors. When Champlain reached the spot where he hoped the mine was, the Indian could not find it, so he had to return, leaving the mine a myth, which it has remained to this day. In mid-August, De Monts decided it was time to send all ships back to France. Pontgrave was to call at Tadoussac for a cargo of furs. Poutrincourt, on the other hand, in- tended to sail direct to France. Before he left he asked the Sieur de Monts for a grant of Port Royal as a site for a colony to be organized by him in France and the latter gave the grant to him on Saint Croix Island.^^ Rallaeau, De Monts’s secretary, went with Poutrincourt to arrange for supply ships to come out to St. Croix the following year. They sailed on the last day of August leaving everytjody on the island in good spirits. The fair weather and bracing summer days of St. Croix ^^The Log Cabin Myth, Shurtleff, Harvard Univ. Press, 1939 (See Note 10). ^ Champlain I, 278. '^Ihid I, 279, 280. [45] SAINT CROIX made it seem an even pleasanter place to live than France but the winter of which they knew nothing, was still to come. Two days later Champlain left on his first trip to chart the coast toward the west using a patache or small dispatch boat of seventeen tons with twelve seamen and two Indian guides. He seems to have overtaken Poutrin- court’s ship which was held up by fog at Port aux Co- quilles, the name given by the French to Head Harbor on Campobello. Then he skirted the coast as far as the River Kennebec where he met a severe storm. Heavy weather and lack of supplies made him turn back. On his return, October 2, conditions on the Island were still good. Everybody was busy and happy. Having ex- changed to their advantage, as they thought, the damp and dull Autumn weather of Europe for Saint Croix’s bouyant days and clear frosty nights, these pioneers must easily have been deceived in the climate of their new home. They did not know that Orion with his flaming sword, who came stridmg like Hamlet’s ghost through the night skies above Passamaquoddy Bay, brought a warning to all Crucians to get ready and dig in. Hence it is not strange they were caught unprepared when old man Winter came whistling down the river. Huddled behind their island ramparts they suffered thirty-five deaths in a company of less than eighty. There is not a word from Champlain of what was done to bolster the fading spirits of the colonists through the long winter days and nights. We may believe that they must have tried to organize at Saint Croix an “Ordre de bon temps,” which Lescarbot says Champlain suggested for the winter evenings at Port Royal in 1 606. This was a dress-up party in which each took appropriate part usually [46] ISLAND OF TRAGEDY a merry one. Wine flowed and spirits were high. Each member in turn was appointed chief steward for the day. His duties were to see that all were well provided for. There was no one who, two days before his turn came, failed to go hunting or fishing and bring back some deli- cacy in addition to the ordinary fare. At the feast the mas- ter of ceremonies wore the collar of the Order and a pro- cession was formed with the master leading. At the end with a formal toast he handed over the collar to his suc- cessor.^® Had such a morale-builder occurred the results might have been less tragic. At Saint Croix, however, there was cold comfort. All we know is that frozen cider had to be served in solid blocks by the pound. Some facetious fellows kept handing around anonymous brochures entitled “Mas- ter William” full of made-up news and jokes, doubtless meant to entertain but the reference to Sieur de Monts’s attempt to “Pull thorns out of Canada” was too realistic to be amusing.^* Cooped up on an island without adequate wood and water they were ill-prepared to meet an Acadian winter. Settled on the mainland it might have been possible to organize work and exercise but on the island, the men apparently remained idle to grow weaker and more home- sick with each new day. Lescarbot tells of an occurrence which ought to have aroused interest in lonely men. One of the Indians named Bituani who worked in the kitchen fell in love with a girl but her father refused consent to the marriage on the “Lescarbot II, 342. Master William was King Henry IV’s court jester. The pioneers sought to amuse themselves by imitating his privileged ironies. Ibid, 255. [47] SAINT CROIX ground that kitchen work was no proof of ability to sup- port a family. A savage about to marry ought to be out hunting. The impatient lover, however, kidnapped the girl and took her to wife. When the father went after her and brought her back, Bituani appealed to M. de Monts who, having heard both sides, said he was not detaining the fellow in his kitchen and suggested that the aspiring can- didate should go ahunting to prove his powers. According to Lescarbot the Indian compromised and went afishing. On his return to the Island with a large catch of salmon the father was satisfied. Bituani then donned “a fine new coat of beaver well trimmed with wampum” and went back, we may assume, to his job in the kitchen, a proud warrior and happy bridegroom.^® It is remarkable that no account of the winter at Saint Croix tells what De Monts, the leader, did. It is also worth noting that there is not a word from anybody in criticism of him, the man finally responsible. A captain who loses half his men in an enterprise and fails in what he is doing, usually receives plenty of blame. One must conclude that De Monts was a great gentleman whose character, deport- ment and big heart stilled reproof. Although conditions were severe in the extreme it does seem as if the results should have been better. It, also, seems strange that the Whites learned nothing from the Redskins who must with eager curiosity have hung constantly around the encampment. Champlain admits: “About our settlement at low tide are plenty of shell fish such as clams, mussels, sea urchins and sea snails.” With the bay full of ^Ibidy 247, 248. Champlain I, 302. [48] ISLAND OF TRAGEDY fish and the woods of game it is not easj;^ to understand why there need have been lack of fresh food. Scurvy is given as the cause of many deaths but there is no mention of scurvy attacking the Indians who are described as hunting moose and deer on “racquets” (snow shoes) with their women and children trailing after in order to be on hand for the feast which followed the kill. When the snow was not deep enough for hunting the natives fell back on corn and clams. All this the Europeans knew. The Indians also drank a brew made of tender fir or pine cuttings to freshen the blood. An old chronicle of Cartier’s voyages to Quebec a century before tells of its effect: “If all the physicians of Mountpeher had been there with all the drugs of Alexandria they could not have done so much in one year as that tree did in six days.” Father Biard, in reporting to his superiors at Paris wrote many true com- ments on Acadian life. In what he says of that miserable winter on St. Croix Island there is certainly some truth: “Of all Sieur de Monts’ people who wintered first at St. Croix only eleven remained well. These were a jolly company of hunters who preferred rabbit hunting to the air of the fireside, skating on the ponds to turning over in bed, making snowballs to bring down the game to sitting around the fire talking about Paris and its good cooks.” Spring came at last and the sick regained their health. So many had died, however, that spending another winter in such a place was unthinkable. Day after day dragged on. "Hannay, Acadia 20. (See Note 17). “jjL in, 53. [49] SAINT CROIX The April relief ship did not come. Defeated would they have to go to Gaspe to find passage back to France. “But God helped us better than we hoped,” says Champlain, “for on the 15th of June, whilst I was on guard about eleven o’clock at night, there arrived in a shallop Pont- grave who informed us that his ship was at anchor six leagues from our settlement. He was welcomed to the joy of all. The next day the vessel arrived and came to anchor near our settlement. Pontgrave informed us that another vessel, the St. Estienne of St. Malo was following him with provisions and supplies for our use. On the 17th of the month the Sieur de Monts decided to go in search of a more suitable place for a settlement.” So ended the first winter in America of those hardy pio- neers who came from France to begin on St. Croix Island the permanent occupation by white men of the Atlantic coast north of Florida. Twihght has shrouded this historic site from its aban- donment by De Monts until the present time but it deserves a brighter light. What an opportunity for patriotic socie- ties, American and Canadian, to join in restoring the can- non mounts, the house of De Monts “with the banner of France above,” the magazine and “opposite the magazine the lodgings and dwellings of MM. d’Orville, Champlain, Champdore and other notable persons,” the recreation hall, the chapel where both Protestant and Catholic services were held, the various shops, the gardens on the island, the water miU at Red Beach, the priest’s house and even the little cemetery in which the fighting priest and Protestant minister slept well after life’s fitful fever. “Champlain I, 310. [50] Map of Dochet Island showing its present condition in compari- son with its approximate features in the time of De Monts and Champlain. The lettering corresponds with that on Champlain’s maps. The outer line shows the island of 1604; the inner shows how much of it has since washed away. (Courtesy Royal Society of Canada) SAINT CROIX With the settlement restored imagine a pageant held there in 1954, its three hundred and fiftieth anniversary. The “notable persons” of France would return and the Indians. Its buildings would be dedicated; its evening en- tertainments repeated. Perhaps Sieur de Monts would con- duct again the ceremony which invested Poutrincourt with the patent of Port Royal “in conformity with his power and permission from the King,” a grant that fixed the scene of stirring episodes in history. The hght now in the island lighthouse helps few vessels on a river that commerce has deserted.^® From the tower of De Monts’s dwelling its beams would guide future gen- erations to paths once trod by brave men. ®°St, Croix Island is American territory. The U. S. Government has a lighthouse on it. NOTES 6. The Sieur d’Orville is something of an enigma. He appears to have been intimate with both De Monts and Champlain and considered by De Monts as entitled to serve as Captain of the colony yet there is no men- tion of him in any outstanding act or occupation. It is probable that he returned to France with De Monts in 1605. The name DeviVs Head at the bend of the St. Croix River may be a corruption of his name given to that prominent headland by De Monts. I have found no Indian tradi- tion of any devil associated with the St. Croix River. 10, Indian technique in making winter camps was described by Father Biard: “Arrived at a certain place the first thing they do is to build a fire and arrange their camp which they will have finished in an hour or two, often in half an hour. The women go into the woods and bring back some poles which are stuck in the ground in a circle around the fire. At the top they are interlaced in the form of a pyramid so that they come together over the fire—for this is the chimney. “Upon the poles they throw some skins, matting or bark. At the foot of the poles under the skins they put their baggage. All the space around the fire is strewn with soft boughs of the fir tree so they will not feel the dampness of the ground. Over these boughs are thrown some mats or seal sldns as soft as velvet. Upon these they stretch themselves around the fire with their heads resting upon their baggage. “What no one would believe they are very warm in there around the [52] ISLAND OF TRAGEDY little £re even in the greatest rigor of winter.” Jesuit Relations III, 77. Quoted in History of St. John River (1910 ed.) 9. 17. Delebat teUs how a similar brew was made: “They take the tenderest branches and boil them three or four times; then they take the branches out of the water and put a little molasses into the kettle. After this they pour the mixture into a cask or barrel proportionate to the size of the kettle. There they add yeast of wheat in very small pieces. This causes the concoction to bubble and froth. When it no longer froths they put a stopper in a barrel. At the end of three or four days they open it, if they wish, and drink some of the mixture which is very appetizing and refreshing and a protection Against the scurvy. This Fir Water is also good for gout and other ailments either as a drink or in compresses.” Morse, Acadiensis Nova I, 49. When John Gyles, captured by the Maliseets in 1689, froze his feet so badly that the skin came off whole from the ankles down he applied fir-balsam, heated in a clam-shell and made into a salve. It cured his feet and saved his \\ie..^Tragedies of the Wilderness (Boston, 1841), 88. The curative effect of fir-balsam is described in LeClerq, 298. [53] CHAPTER FI VE Land of the Abenaki T J.HERE ARE FIVE CLASSICS OF Acadia—Champlain’s “Narrative,” Lescarbot’s “History of New France,” Nicholas Denys’ “Description and Nat- ural History of the Coast of North America,” LeClerq’s “New Relation of Gaspesia” and Diereville’s “Journey to Port Royal.” These French Books not only give us the traits and cus- toms of the natives found in Acadia but reveal a respect which the English have sometimes failed to understand. The reason is not far to seek. The French enjoyed trading with them, understood and fostered their religious or mys- tical instinct and on the whole liked them.^ Fish and furs, income of sea and forest, were taken by the French. Na- ture, their principal, was left largely undisturbed. Perceiv- ing this, the Indians seldom treated the French as intruders. Forever ranging the forest and streams, hunting and fish- ing wherever the season called, the Passamaquoddies with ^ (See Note i). [54] LAND OF THE ABENAKI their cluster of wigwams near the headwaters of St. Croix, their corn clearings and burial ground at Schoodic Falls^ above Calais and St. Stephen, their bay settlements at Saint Andrews and Pleasant Point, were trustees of the territory occupied by the Crucians of today. For ages unrecorded, they had guarded the land and the river for the coming of the white man. It is not due to them that the tree-wealth of the region has gone taking with it the commerce of the river. Today one scans in vain for barque and brig and the many schooners deep with lumber which in the last cen- tury daily signalled St. Croix Island on their way to the sea, giving life and color to the river. For brighter hues, however, we can look back to the Indians of 1 604. Then, says Hannay, historian of Acadia, they were a race of men that had attained the highest state of advancement which is possible for hunters to reach with such implements as they had. They were, though primitive in mode of living, savages of the highest type—^what we call Roman in spirit—eloquent, brave and honorable. There is no instance on record of any insult being offered to a female captive by any of the Eastern Indians however cruelly she might otherwise have been treated. It would be pleasant to learn the name of any civilized people of which the same could be said.® The poetic epithet “Lo, the poor Indian” does not fit the Acadian native as he was at the time of his first contact with the white man. Primitive, simple, direct and childlike he easily could and did learn bad habits from the worldly wise and astute traders from Europe.^ But in July 1607,, ^ (See Note 2). ® Hannay, Acadia, 42, 50. * Denys, 449. (See Note 4), [55] SAINT CROIX when Lescarbot visited the abandoned Saint Croix Island he could truthfully say “I saw better than before that the Indians were at least in manners more humanised and bet- ter people than many of those who bear the name of Chris- tians, having for three years [since De Monts left] spared this place from which they had not taken a single morsel of wood nor of salt which was there in a great quantity.” ® Port Royal also, which was left uninhabited from r6o8 to i6io, was found intact by Poutrincourt on his return from France “even the furniture remaining as we had left it.” ® In sailing along the coast, Champlain noted the Indians’ eagerness to get hold of the fascinating articles brought by the French for barter. Yet he says “I am of opinion if they had anything to exchange with us they would not give themselves to thieving. They bartered away to us their bows, arrows and quivers for pins and buttons and if they had anything better they would have done the same with it.” French writers agree that one of their finest qualities was then: eagerness to assist one another to the full extent of their power. “If an Indian has food,” writes Diereville, “he never fails to share it with those who have none. He would die of hunger rather than eat alone. He would take [a teal he had killed] to the wigwam where he knew others like himself were in need of it and each would have his share.” ® Untaught, these savages had adopted by instinct con- ventions which promote restraint, self-control and an or- ® Lescarbot H. 359. ® Jesuit Relations I, 67-69. ^ Champlain I, 357. * Diereville, 163. [56] LAND OF THE ABENAKI dered life. In important matters they were ceremonious and even haughty. Christopher Levett who visited New England in 1623 and wrote a book about it noted that a Sagamore would scarcely speak to the ordinary man but would refer him to others, saying, “Sanops must speak to sanops” ®—and Sagamores only to Sagamores—and a chief’s family and relatives were designated by special names in the nature of a title. Eloquence in speaking and even emotion on occasions were admired qualities. The chief of the Gaspesians, addressing the Collect Father Chrestien LeClerq, said: “Thou wishest to abandon us and return to France. There lies the great wooden canoe (pointing to the ship anchored off shore) which is going to steal thee. Ah, my son, if thou couldst see my heart at present thou woulds’t see that it weeps tears of blood while my eyes weep tears of water.” On the other hand a man who grieved and was incon- solable was not held in high regard. An Indian returning from hunting to find his wife and child dead from a burn- ing wigwam, mourning bitterly, summoned his friends to the death feast. After an oration reciting the virtues of his wife, also of her ancestors, and claiming that his dead son would have become a great warrior, heir to the bravery of his father, he said: “I have shed tears which I am unable to refuse to the dead I love. Now as becomes a warrior I will banish from my heart all grief and sadness.” When he had received the approving whoops He! He! Hk!—of those gathered about him he began to dance his very best steps. Then chanting war songs, at the same time fortifying him- ^A voyage into New England. London, 1628, Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) II, 95. (See Note 9). LeClerq, 308. [57] SAINT CROIX self with good gulps of brandy, he handed round the bottle to his friends.^^ Without benefit of Christian teaching the Passamaquoddies held their families sacred. Oagimont, the Saint Croix Sagamore, had a beautiful daughter aged eleven whose comeliness was such that Baron Poutrincourt wished to take her to France to show her to the Queen as a prod- uct of the new province. Although he promised the chief he should “never lack for corn or aught else,” his offer was refused.^^ If an Indian could be far from mute in conversa- tion he was nevertheless limited to tales of fortitude, en- durance and the many legends of his tribe. Of small talk he had none.^® His own realistic pursuits were all he knew of the great world whose thousand facets had never shone for him. The most prized reputation of the Indian w^as fame as a fighter; and to be a great warrior was his highest ambi- tion. The male child, schooled in the arts of war, must equal or excel his parent in deeds of valor. But the arts of peace were not neglected. Within the limited horizon of their life natives of Acadia showed a practical skill and adaptabihty which the white man has not improved on. What better tools for their purpose have we than the canoe, toboggan, moccasin or snow shoe? We still plant com in the Indian manner. We catch fish in weirs, lure fish and game with a torch, follow trails by broken branches, play lacrosse and do many other things they taught us. With no real knowledge of astronomy they ob- served the stars and had names for the principal planets. ^Ibid, 1 86 . “Lescarbot II, 360. ““If (Indians) hear a man speak much they say he is Me-che-cuin^ a fool.” Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) II, 95. [58] LAND OF THE ABENAKI They made their own calendar based upon the coming of each new moon. In December the “long Moon” was rec- ognized as the year’s end. The January moon’s name meant “it’s very hard to get a living.” February brought the “moon in which there is crust on the snow,” March “the moon in which the hens lay,” April “the moon in which we catch fish,” May “in which we sow,” June “in which we catch young seals.” With July came the moon when “the berries are ripe.” In August “there is a heap of eels on the sand.” September had the welcome hunter’s moon “in which there are herds of moose, bear, etc.” October brought “ice on the borders,” and November had a “moon in which the frost fish comes.” Such a calendar was quite an intelligent summary of vital things. They had names for the seasons but did not recognize individual days. Yet they divided the day and night into periods such as noon, after- noon, sunset, after dark, before midnight. It is amusing that having a name for the beginning of their own day “between daylight and sunrise”—they adopted after the coming of the Europeans a new name for “the morning of the whites” which they reckoned began only at eight o’clock.^^ The Abenaki in their pride called themselves the people of the Northern Lights. With their horizon thus unlimited the title of chief or Saghem meant “one who is over the whole world.” The Passamaquoddy tribe of the Abenaki is a mixture of Maliseet and Penobscot, the former from Saint John and the latter from West of Machias.^® Prob- ^ Acadia and its Aborigines, Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) VII, 339, 345. “ G. P. IV, A.; R.S.C., 1887, II, I et seq. “ “Origia of the Malisets,” New Brunswick Magazine, Vol. I, No. i; Acad. IV, 280, Cf. G. P. IV (See Note 16). [59] SAINT CROIX ably the excellent hunting and fishing of the St. Croix region and its convenient interior lines of communication between the sea and up country and the St. John and Pe- nobscot rivers, caused other Indians to follow the honey- moon couple who, tradition says, first built their wigwam on the St. Croix. This Adam Maliseet and Eve Penobscot founded the tribe whose totem is a canoe with two Indians pursuing Pollock. Pollock in the Indian tongue is Pes- tu-moo. Quoddy is a modification of kaddy or cadie which means place. The Indian name of Pestumoo-kaddy later became Pesmokady and after many queer variations of spelHng and sound by early pioneers it is now spelled and pronounced Passamaquoddy. It is interesting that the place name Cadie without any other designation came to be ap- plied to the whole coast as La Cadie, later Acadia. The Quoddy Indians were spoken of among the older Etchemin tribes as a “new tribe,” meaning new home for an old tribe.^® While Passamaquoddy Bay was a fine hunt- ing site in summer, it may have been exposed in winter and the Indians soon established better protected camping- grounds up the river and among the Saint Croix lakes. But antiquarians have found permanent habitations or middens located on the shores of the bay and lower river. In no section of North America has nature provided such admirable natural highways for the aboriginal races as are to be found in New Brunswick and Eastern Maine. It is fascinating to note on the map (see inside cover) the ease with which it was possible to go by water with only ^‘^R.s.c., 1887, Sy 1896, n, 260. ^Old John Neptune and Other Maine Indian Shamans, F. H. Eckstorm, Portland, 1945, 7 ^- [60] LAND OF THE ABENAKI slight labor of portage between the Bay of Fundy and the Bay of Chaleur on the Gulf of St. Lawrence in almost any direction and from Saint John to Tadoussac or Quebec or to pass from one river to another as far west as the Kenne- bec. The French made important use of these dispatch routes in their attempt to hold together their empire in America.^® Although for ordinary trafSc canoes often went by the open sea, war parties used the interior routes paral- lel to the coast. All the surprise raids of the French and Indian wars which harassed Pemaquid and the shore set- tlements to the west for more than a century followed the grapevine route of paddle and carry which the redskins had instinctively prepared long before the white man came. They had been quick to grasp what nature offered. The Indian was as improvident as he v'as generous in the matter of food. He preferred to gorge when he could and go lean when necessity demanded rather than ration him- self. At certain times food would be very plentiful. Then his sense of hospitality indicated a feast and feast it would be. He was much on the move because the season for sup- phes would come at different times and in different places. After the Spring rush of alewives and salmon at the Falls, next would be corn planting in the open stretches up the river. Then leaving the old men and women to tend the corn the Indians would come down the last of May or first of June for seals and goose eggs, then to the eel grounds and down again to catch sea fowl.®® Clams were dug in the autumn and cooked in eel grass for winter rations.®^ Catch- ^ (See Note 19). ^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series X, 300. ^Proceedings of U. S. National Museum, 1881, IV, 292. (See Note 21). [6x] SAINT CROIX ing sea fowl was a gala occasion. The scene of the catch was Katy’s Cove formerly known as Con-nos-quam-cook Pond, the Indian name for St. Andrews. Katy’s Cove to- day is the fashionable bathing place of the Algonquin Hotel.^^ There on a summer afternoon children dig in the sand and bathers rest under gay umbrellas or swim in the spacioxis stretch of water kept high by damming the nar- row entrance of the cove. What excitement there would be could the bathers of today witness the scene which took place there on August 22, 1770, as described in the Journal of Captain William Owen. With Sir Thomas Rich, his guest, he had sailed in his cutter from Campobello up Passamaquoddy Bay, an- chored at Chamcook and gone ashore to find twelve of the principal Indian families guarding the mouth of Con-nos- quam-cook Pond: “At this season the sea fowls cast their pinion feathers and cannot fly. The Indians had, agreeable to annual custom, assembled all their Canoes and drove (as they call it) the great bay, closing in by degrees and at length towards highwater had forced them all into this large pond or lagoon, which has but a very narrow entrance, and at low water the greatest part of it is left dry. About Yz past 3, most of the water being ebbed out of the pond, the In- dian drove the birds by degrees into a creek of it to the northward, where I, with a party of men, women and children lay in ambush, and sallied out with paddles and bludgions; a general massacre ensued, and what escaped us afforded about two hours excellent diversion to the Gunmen and In- ^ (See Note 22). [62] LAND OF THE ABENAKI dian squaws, who seemed to excell their husbands in desterity and certainty of hitting their object. About 54 past 5 the action ceased and the dead being numbered amounted to seven hundred in ducks, murrs, Cootes, &c, which, after we had taken a few of the ducks, were divided out by the chief in equal proportions to the twelve families.” William Pote mentions a fish haul as another kind of feast in his journal written during his captivity among the Maliseets and Passamaquoddies: “July 14, 1745. . . . This day as we was pad- dling up ye river we passed by a small cove and per- cieved at ye head of it there was a salmon playing in ye cool water at ye head of ye cove. We landed verey carefully and cut bushes and brought them down to ye entrance of ye cove and wile some of us was imployed with perches and our paddies etc, thrashing in ye water to hinder ye fish from com- ing out of ye cove, ye others built a ware across ye entrance of ye cove with bushes and our blankets etc. and we caught in this cove fiftyfour salmo [n] which was so exceptable at that time that I shall never forget ye joy I was filled with.” Pote refers again to a less spectacular gorge: “This day we remained in our habitation and did little else but eat and drink ye greater part of the day which I observe is ye custome of ye Indians at any place where they can possibly have it in their power.” Although food in bulk was popular the Passamaquoddies ^Narrative of American Voyages and Travels of Captain William Ovoen, R. N., edited by V. H. Paltsits, N, Y. Public Library, 1942, 129.' ^ The Journal of Capt, Wm, Pote, Jr,, New York, 1896, 66, 127. [63] SAINT CROIX were not without appreciation of more epicurean tidbits. The St. Croix supplied at that time plenty of oysters, lob- sters, sea trout, salmon and bass. Quantities of eels of which they were fond squirmed in the mud of the upper river. Fish, flesh and fowl could be handled without a cooking container but soup, a much relished delicacy, was less easy to manage. When they had no crockery pots they made cauldrons by hollowing tree trunks with fire. The soup was boiled by dropping red hot stones in the pot. This could only be done at camps where a soup kettle was stored. There, says Denys, “They dined without care or salt or pepper and quaffing deep draughts of good fat soup, lived long and multiplied and were happy.” It would be incorrect to stress too far their indolence or lack of foresight in storing up food. A. Leith Adams, in “Field and Forest Rambles” published in London in 1873, certifies to the size of their cache of clams: “I examined several ancient kitchen middens on the islands of the Bay of Fundy and along the Fiord of the St. Croix River for many miles. Although a large number had evidently been leveled and utilized for top dressing enough remained to show that whether as articles of food, bait or both, the abo- riginal races collected vast quantities of the well-known clam and quahog beside two species of oysters, etc.” One important midden was located on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay between Bocabec and Digdequash rivers. Its size according to aquarians would indicate a vil- lage of two hundred aborigines. It was a well chosen site for hunting, fishing and transportation of supplies. The Denys, 403; Hannay, 46. ^ Field and Forest Rambles^ Adams, London, 1873, 35. [64] LAND OF THE ABENAKI dense forest to the north broke the winds of winter and driftwood on the beach was plentiful. Beaver and larger game were abundant up both streams, and seals and fish in the bay. This midden when examined revealed ancient fireplaces and foundations of conical-shape huts. Since the charcoal from fires and shells of the sea food were never removed from the huts, the Indians would level up the sides from time to time by bringing in fresh gravel. Tiers of gravel were also raised to make sleeping-benches. These dry couches no doubt had a covering of boughs and fur skins. This location, never having been ploughed by settlers, produced, when first dug, thick coarse pottery marked with original designs, also implements of stone of skillful manufacture, lanceheads, flat and oval, arrow points, skinning knives and scrapers as well as bodkins made of bone by sphtting the leg bones of moose, deer and other larger animals. The only ivory found was the tooth of the beaver. There was no trace of any article of European origin.^’^ The Indians also stored much corn in “barns,” that is, in holes in the ground fined and covered with bark and then with dirt. Any reader interested to learn of intimate Indian fife would be well repaid to read the “Narrative of the Captivity of John Gyles” who lived as a prisoner with the Abenaki from 1689 to 1697. He went through many hardships but came out admiring rather than hating his captors. Of their integrity to one another and their modesty he had high opinion.^® He found their skill with ^ “Discoveries at a village of the Stone Age at Bocabec/’ G. F. Matthews, M.S., F.R.S.C.; G. P. V. ^Tragedies of the Wilderness^ Drake, Boston, 1841, 83 et seq. ^Ibidy 89. (See Note 29). [65] SAINT CROIX food remarkable. Gyles writes amusingly of Indian braves who would a-wooing go: “If a young fellow determines to marry, his relations and the Jesuit advise him to a girl. He goes into the wig-wam where she is and looks at her. If he likes her appearance he tosses a chip or stick in her lap which she takes and with a reserved side look views the person who sent it yet handles the chip with admiration as though she wondered from whence it came. If she likes him she throws the chip to him with a modest smile and then nothing is wanting but a ceremony with the Jesuit to consummate the marriage. But if she dislikes her suitor she, with a surly countenance, throws the chip aside and he comes there no more.” The Indians dwelhng in the region between the Kenne- bec and St. John rivers were called Etchemins, the name first given to the St. Croix River by Champlain. And the several Etchemin tribes were always closely associated. In both war and peace they acted uniformly as one.®^ Among their noted chiefs after the coming of the whites were Bashaba the Great, whom Champlain met at Bangor in 1 604; Madockawando, later father-in-law of Baron Castin; and the Neptune Sagamores, so called, who originated on the St. Croix River and ruled the Quoddy and Penobscot tribes for two hundred years. They were the accepted leaders of their people and the signers of treaties. These salt water saghems believed themselves descended from a merman and the name Neptune seemed fitting to them. It was probably adopted following the pageant at ^Ibid, 97. History of Maine, W. D. Williamson, Hallowell, 1832, I, Ch. 18 (The Indians), 475. (See Note 31). [ 66 ] LAND OF THE ABENAKI Port Royal that Lescarbot put on, to the gasping astonish- ment of the assembled Red men, in celebration of the safe return of Poutrincourt and Champlain from Cape Cod in 1606. In the pageant Neptune was shown with his crown, trident and fishtail rising from the sea, personifying a leader or god.®^ To the proud descendants of a water half-man, loving the familiar sea which gave them birth, this was in- spiration indeed. As children of nature before the advent of a strange religion telhng of a God imported from Europe, the Etche- mins had an appropriate and rather beautiful behef in ani- mal ancestors. They put faith in a Poohogan or famihar spirit that linked them to these ancestors. A hunter would hardly have been surprised if an animal which might have been his own kin should, when pursued, turn and talk to him in his own language. Although mankind must live by flesh and so sacrifice its weaker brethren, there was a creed among the Indians that the spirit of the slain animal should be honored and respected. But the savages of Acadia in the seventeenth century soon found their once unmolested fife submerged in the surge, of a civilization whose deteriorating effects they could neither resist nor understand. When the White Commissioners came to the Maliseets gathered at Meductic on the St. John River to dispossess them of their land they said to the Indians; “By what right or title do you hold these lands?” And the chief, pointing to the little enclosure by the river, rephed: “There are the graves of our grand- fathers; there are the graves of our fathers; there are the Lescarbot II, 312. See Denys, 80, for an encounter with a bona fide merman. (See note 32). [67] SAINT CROIX graves of our children.” English respect for the right of immemorial possession hardly applied in this case and the Indians’ sense of honor and affection for their dead were swept away as worthless things. In conclusion, we may reflect that the Indians, before the coming of the Europeans, conducted their affairs with a dignity, a realism, and a success proportionate to their resources that the white race has often failed to equal. NOTES 1. Father Biard has described a chief of this period who was influential at Saint Croix. Speaking of Membertoti, he said: “This was the greatest, most renowned and most formidable savage within the memory of man; of splendid physique; taller and larger- limbed than is usual among them; bearded like a Frenchman, although scarcely any of the others have hair upon the chin; grave and reserved; feeling a proper sense of dignity for his position as commander. God impressed upon his soul a greater idea of Christianity than he has been able to form from hearing about it, and he has often said to me in his savage tongue: ‘Learn our language quickly, for as soon as thou know- est it and hast taught me well I wish to become a preacher like thee.' “He was the first of all the savages in these parts to receive baptism and extreme unction, the first and the last sacraments; and the first one who, by his own command and decree, has received a Christian burial. Mon- sieur de Biencourt honored his obsequies, imitating as far as possible the honors which are shown to great Captains and Noblemen in France.” Jesuit Relations II, 23. 2. The principal street of Milltown, N. B., cuts the old u*ibal burial ground of the Passamaquoddies. There they had their sacred fire (connected with mystic ceremonies of the tribe) which is said to have been kept burning continuously during each seasonal catch of fish at the Schoodic Falls. The big catch was made possible by means of improvised nets when the fish were clustered in the narrow rock channel of the rapids below the Falls. Vroom says that Skudek or Schoodic means “where it burns,” and adds “The wonder-working fires of the cotton mill furnaces may now be burning upon the very spot on which the Aborigines made their votive offerings to the Spirit of the Stream or invoked the mighty Glooskap’s aid.” G.P. cm. ^ 4. Denys gives many details. The French traders gave the Indians much brandy. The women and older girls were not open in their drunkenness ^ Canada and its Provinces^ XIII, 28. [ 68 ] LAND OF THE ABENAKI as were the males. They hid in the woods but the sailors knev/ the rendezvous and brought their victims “into so favourable a condition that they can do with them everything they will.” 9. “Since Sagamores must be honorable and liberal one toward the other, Memhertou wished to present his copper mine to the King of France, jor being himself a Sagamore he considers himself the equal of the King and of all his lieutenants.’’^ Lescarbot II, 355. A certain Sagamore on hearing that the young King of France (Louis XIII) was unmarried observed: “Perhaps I may let him marry my daughter but the King must make me some handsome presents.” Ray- mond (1910 ed.) 53. 16. Williamson’s History of Maine quotes a Penobscot Indian’s statement that “All the Indians between the Saint John and Saco rivers are broth- ers; the eldest lives on the Saco and each tribe is younger as we pass east- ward. Always I could understand these brothers when they speak but when the Micmacs talk I can’t tell what they say.” The affinity of the Passamaquoddy and Maliseet tribes is celebrated in humorous verse by Prof. deMille: “Sweet maiden of Passamaquoddy Shall we seek for communion of souls Where the deep Mississippi meanders Or the distant Saskatchewan rolls? Ah no! in New Brunswick we’ll find it— A sweetly sequestered nook— Where the sweet gliding Skoodawabskooksis Unites with the Skoodawabskook.” 19. Details of many historic portages are given in Historic Sites R.S.C. (1901) 233, et seq. Cf. “Earliest routes of travel between Canada and Acadia—olden time celebrities who used them.” R.S.C. (1921) ii, 33; G.P. XIV. The portage routes were used continuously by the French and British during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and by the Indians from time immemorial. A message sent by this route from Oromocto on the St. John River first gave to the Commander at Quebec the historic tid- ings of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Canada and its Prov- inces XIII, 139. 21. Professor Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian explored an important midden on Oak Bay. “This locality,” he reports “is on the eastern side of Oak Bay and is about eight miles from Calais on the farm of Josiah Simpson. This is the most extensive and in fact one of the richest mounds I have ever examined. The total thickness of the bed is about 5 feet. A careful examination of the ashes indicated that they were derived from eel grass and it is suggested that the cooking of these shells was done by wrapping them up in dry eel grass and setting fire to it. This would probably cook the animals sufficiently to enable them to be readily with- drawn from the shells.” [69] SAINT CROIX 22. Katy’s Cove (called Kitty’s Cove on U. S. chaits) got its name from Katy McIntosh, a native of St. Andrews who inherited the land around the cove and terrorized small boys seeking to swim there. GJP. XCIII; Mowat, 89. 29. Gyles says: “Tho the Indians both male and female go into the water together they have each of them such a covering on that not the least indecency can be observed and neither chastity nor modesty is violated.” 31. In 1838, the Passamaquoddy and St. John tribes were instrumental in removing from office Chief John Neptune of the Penobscot tribe for immoral conduct and disloyalty to his superior, Chief Attian. See Mass. Hist. Coll. (3rd series, 1846) IX, 90. 32. The 1606 exploring expedition of Champlain and Poutrincourt intended to reach Florida (Champlain I, 391) began at Saint Croix (Ibid 393) and ended disastrously at practically the same spot on Cape Cod reached by Champlam and De Monts in 1605 (Ibid 362, 420). The hostile Armouchiquois, more aggressive in 1606 than they were on the visit described in Chapter Six (infra) ^ killed several of the French at Stage Harbor (Chatham). Champlain had wished to sail direct to Cape Cod (omitting places already charted by him) and to explore the coast south of it but he was overruled (Ibid 394, 432 n. i). Had he prevailed he probably would have reached New York’s fine harbor and river before Henry Hudson in the DutcR ship Half Moon m 1609. If so, names and history perhaps would now be different. [70] C H AF TER SIX Quietus 1605 to 1613 T J. HE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT of 1605 connected with the Island of Saint Croix, aside from its abandonment as permanent home of the Col- ony, was the voyage of Champlain and De Monts with twenty sailors and two Indians, Panonnias and his wife as guides, along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts/ Champlain had explored as far as Kennebec the previous year when he named Moimt Desert Island and Isle au Haut and sailed up the Penobscot River as far as Ken- duskeag where Bangor now stands. In 1605, their first stop to barter with the Indians was at Kennebec. Trading at various places along the coast, unaccountably missing Portland harbor, they finally moored their pinnace near Noddle’s Island (East Boston) in Boston Harbor on the afternoon of July 16. They observed many columns of smoke along the shore with savages running. De Monts ^ Champlain I, 3 1 1 et seq, [71] SAINT CROIX sent some men in a canoe to give the Indians knives and rosaries. This pleased the Armouchiquois who danced sev- eral times in acknowledgment. Much cleared land with growing corn was noticed. The Narrative says “the coun- try is pleasant and agreeable with many fine trees.” Cham- plain named the Charles River in honor of Sieur de Monts calling it “Riviere du Guast.” ^ He describes it as stretch- ing “toward the Iroquois” but the description was imagi- nary and the name he gave it has been forgotten for the greater name of an English King. Bostonians may think it strange that the possibilities of the Boston area as a place to live did not appeal more strongly to these inquisitive white men. The explorers next visited Plymouth Harbor, making a map of it, and came to the end of their journey at Nauset on Cape Cod. Here occurred the first clash with the war- like Armouchiquois. When some sailors went ashore with large kettles to fetch fresh water from among the sand hills, certain Indians, keen to possess some of the kettles, watched for the chance and snatched one by force out of the hands of a sailor, who had no weapons. “The other Indians took to flight when they saw our sailors running toward our pinnace and shouting to us to discharge some musket-shots at the Indians who were in considerable numbers. At that time there were a few In- dians on board our pinnace who threw themselves into the sea and we were able to seize only one of them. Those on shore who had taken to flight, seeing the others swimming, turned back straight to the sailor from whom they had taken the kettle and shot several arrows at him from be- ^Ibidj 34272 . [72] QUIETUS hind and brought him down. Perceiving his condition they at once rushed upon him and despatched him with their knives.” ® This fatal accident seems to have discouraged further progress of the explorers. Sailing eastward again they learned of Weymouth’s voyage to the Sagadahoc River and of his capture of five Indians at Monhegan Island. The Narrative does not disclose the effect of this news on their minds. All we know is that they anchored at Isle au Haut and reached the western mouth of St. Croix River on Au- gust 2 . “Having cast anchor,” says Champlain, “between the first two islands the Sieur de Monts embarked in a canoe to go up six leagues to the settlement of St. Croix where we arrived the next day in our pinnace. We found there the Sieur des Antons of St. Malo who had come out in one of Sieur de Monts’ vessels to bring provisions and other supplies for those who were to winter in this coun- 5 ? 4 try. Since De Monts’s patent from his king made him Lieu- tenant General and Governor of all the territory from Cape Breton to the Delaware River and no part of it was yet settled by any nation, I wonder if it was not the pres- ence of the English on this coast that prompted the deci- sion made at St. Croix to move to Port Royal rather than to attempt a settlement west of Saint Croix. If so, it was a cue that did not help for the Enghsh pursued the Erench during the next century no matter how hidden they were. And the reason is plain. The Enghsh who settled in Vir- ginia and Massachusetts were resolute men not too scrupu- ^Ibid, 353- *‘ibid, 366 . [73] SAINT CROIX lous about the fine points of priority in the occupation of lands next their own. The sea was theirs to go where they would. The coasts it washed, along which they fished and traded with the Indians, ought as naturally to be under their control. So at least they reasoned. Saint Croix and Acadia in the end became theirs beyond dispute. One indirect result of this voyage was another tragedy. Its sequel gives us a glimpse of an Indian burial. Because Panounias would not go without his squaw, Champlain and De Monts took her along. They hoped that being of the Armouchiquois Tribe, she could interpret for them. It turned out that she had forgotten her mother tongue. Panounias, who evidently had remained among his wife’s people, was killed by the Armouchiquois some time later. His body was taken to Saint Croix (probably St. An- drews), where Lescarbot saw it, and a kind of embalming by a method of drying the flesh took place. Both Cham- plain and Lescarbot expressed much interest in the funeral rites which were held at Port Royal.® Weeping and crying began each day at daybreak and continued at intervals through the day. Mourning usually lasted a month, but the French succeeded in this instance in having it reduced somewhat. Champlain gave the relatives a red coverlet in which the body was tightly bound. Ornaments were added, the face painted, and many feathers stuck in the hair. The mourners, “their faces painted all over with black, howling like dogs,” placed the body in a kneefing position supported by stakes. As they gathered around it. Chief Membertou® pronounced a funeral oration lauding ^ Ibid, 443; Lescarbot III, 273 et seq. ^Cf. chapter V, Note i (supra)', Jesuit Relations I, 165, 167, II, 223: Les- carbot III, 273. [74] QUIETUS the dead and demanding vengeance, which his hearers loudly promised. Mourners show their grief in the Indian convention by giving presents to the close relatives of the deceased. For that reason burial was put off until more mourners could be assembled and more presents gathered in. This frugal custom must have compensated the relatives for any loss incurred from the deposit of possessions in the grave. “When the poor Indian pays the debt We all to nature owe, In proof of friendship and regret Most generous offerings flow. And in his grave they place a store Of things he may have need In the long journey to that shore Imagined in their creed A living dog, a hatchet, gun. Corn, pipes, tobacco too A kettle, powder, ball. New Blanket and canoe.” ’’ With fresh supplies and recruits from France and re- moval to a new location on the mainland of Nova Scotia, De Monts hoped to win out in his ambitious attempt at Acadian colonization. But it was fated to end two years later through revocation by King Henry IV of all his right and title to Acadia. At the time he went to France, how- ever, in the autumn of 1605, leaving Pontgrave in charge during his absence, his project seemed in a fair way to suc- ceed. The arrival of Poutrincourt and Lescarbot the next Spring gave it further impetus. The revocation of his pat- ^Diereville, 291, 161 (the translation here given is from Murdock I, 541). [75] SAINT CROIX ent and the consequent return to France on September 3, 1607, of most of the colonists was not only unfair to De Adonts but a blow to the French claim of priority in Aca- dia. The English felt even more justified than before in claiming the first right to Acadia. King James I of England had granted in 1606 the Vir- ginia Patent, so called, under which Virginia was settled in 1 607. It reads that “They may begin their said first plan- tation ... at any place upon the said coast of Virginia and America where they shall think fit and convenient be- tween eight and thirty degrees of said latitude and five and forty degrees of the same latitude.” ® The St. Croix is on the forty-fifth parallel. At once it became a point of con- flict and remained so throughout the long struggle for possession of this part of North America. To no other French Governor of Acadia was so large a territory granted as had been to De Adonts. The actual southern limit claimed by France in almost all subsequent grants was the Kenne- bec River. Such a claim put the St. Croix geographically in the middle of Acadia about half way from Cape Breton to Pemaquid. Although abandoned as a permanent seat or capital of the colony. Saint Croix Island was often visited and even occupied from time to time until its buildings were totally destroyed in 1613. Alany of the huts had been left intact as well as the larger storehouse. Fish, game and furs were plentiful at Saint Croix. From Port Royal twenty-five leagues away, it was an easy run. We have record of a visit by Champlain and Poutrincourt on September 7, 1606, to see if they “could find any spikes of wheat and ®R.S.C., 1901, II, 164. [76] QUIETUS Other seeds” they had planted there. Besides the wheat they found garden vegetables “fair and large” which gave them “great satisfaction to see that the soil was fair and fertile.” ® This planting was probably along the river banks and on the Indian grounds at the Falls above tide water. They mentioned meeting a “number of Indians, among others Secoudon and Messamouet.” In July 1607, Poutrincourt went there again with Champdore and Lescarbot. They found Spanish wine which they drank and cabbages, sor- rel and lettuce which they cooked.^ Three years later, in 1610, Poutrincourt had Mass said there for the dead buried in the fateful winter of 1 604. On this visit to Saint Croix Island, Poutrincourt went up the river to the Falls where he found such a great number of herring (alewives) at every tide that they “had enough to feed a whole city.” There were “also trees of indescribable beauty, height and grandeur.” Father Biard, the peripatetic missionary, who wandered all over Acadia, often mentioned Saint Croix.^^ He says he went there once with Poutrincourt where “God willed I should meet young Du Pont (Robert Grave) of St. Malo.” In August 1611, Biencourt, who had been left by his father as acting Governor of Acadia, went with Biard to collect revenue from one Captain Platrier. As Lord of the country, Biencourt demanded one-fifth of all merchandise and trade of its inhabitants. Biard, who was always dramatic, says “We went accompanied by eight ® Champlain I, 392 et seq. Lescarbot II, 319, 358. ^Jesuit Relations II, 133. ^Ibid II, 27. ^Ibid I, 169. [77] SAINT CROIX people and, well armed, marched into the place, leaving Father Biard in one end of the island upon the rocks await- ing the outcome because the Father had arranged with the Sieur that in case of any warlike act of force he should be left in some place apart so that everyone might know that he was a friend of both parties and that he would very will- ingly interpose to make peace.” From this safe place, the Father saw everything pass ojff happily enough. Platrier treated them well and helped Sieur de Biencourt recover a barque which was at Port aux Coquilles.^* The island’s abandonment ended aU but its name.^® That remained as the decisive factor in determining the bound- ary of Acadia and New England, of Nova Scotia and Mas- sachusetts, and finally of the United States and Canada. The man, who in 1613 destroyed it, was a sea captain. Something of a freebooter he did spectacular things. Cred- ited with saving the Jamestown Colony and preventing its abandonment in r6io by bringing relief from Eng- land, he had also the reputation of the fastest voyages of his time across the Atlantic. He was Sir Samuel Ar- gali who captured Pocahontas by giving her uncle Pas- tancy a copper kettle. Having delivered his fair captive to Sir Thomas Gates, Governor of Virginia, he was sent to destroy the French Colony north of Virginia. He became Deputy Governor of Virginia and ended his career con- ducting expeditions against Algiers and Spain.^® The settlement on Saint Croix Island had been the eager ^Ibid III, 199, 201. “ (See Note 15). Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1885. [78] QUIETUS labor of months but it took only a single blow to end it. If the buildings had remained standing long enough to gain tradition among the Indians the mystery of De Monts’ and Champlain’s first habitation in America would have been more easily solved. Father Biard was a prisoner of Argali and as such witnessed its destruction. The French at Port Royal seem to have felt that his hostility to Biencourt’s rule in Acadia led him to give treacherous assistance to Argali. In his account of what happened, however, written for the Father Superior of the College of Jesuits at Paris, Biard thus refuted the charge: “From Saint Sauver they [the English] sailed for Ste. Croix, Sieur de Montls-Old settlement; and as they knew that FatKerBIard had beenthefe’, Afgal wished him to con- duct them thither; but the Father would not consent to do so. This caused him to be in complete disgrace with Augal and in great danger of his life. Notwith standing this, Aj- gal wandered about, up and down, and, by dint of search- ing all places thoroughly and comparing them with the maps he had taken from us, he at last found the place him- self. He took away a good pile of salt, which he found there, burned the settlement and destroyed all traces of the name and claims of France, as he had been commanded to do.” "J.R. IV. 37. NOTES 15. St. Croix Island has had various names—“Bone” (possibly from remains of early settlers dug up), “Neutral” and “Dochet.” The latter is its present local name, said to be derived from the fact that Theodosia Millbury, a local Bayside girl of pioneer times, used often to row over to the island; hence Dosia’s Island. In 1792, it was written “Doceas” (Kilby, 124), in 1831, “Docks” and in 1859, “Doucett’s Island.” R.S.C. O896) II, 230. [79] SAIN T CROIX For a time the island was known as Helleker’s (see Williamson in his History of Maine I, 87, 88 who seems to have been mixed as to its description) . The Hellekers or Hillikers must have been squatters since the island, which is American territory, was not granted until 1820 by Massachusetts to John Brewer. But Hilliker deserves to be remembered as the Enoch Arden of the period. He disappeared for a long time. In his absence Mrs. Hilliker was wooed and won by a man named Post. When Hilliker made his appear- ance he and her second choice lived happily together on the island. The Hillikers are buried there. This harmony is indicated by Hilliker’s Will in the St. Andrews Regis- try Oifice. I leave “all my real and personal estate and property viz. my interest and title in Dosh’s Island to my wife Mary Hilliker and at her death the same to go to Daniel Post.” Acad. Ill, 170. Ganong’s St. Croix (Dochet) Island, edited by Susan Brittain Ganong (St. John, 1945) 98, 99. R. V. Hayden of Robbinston surveyed St. Croix Island on May 17, 1823. The following record is taken from his diary (Manuscript, Calais Public Library): “Went on a survey of Big Island [Dochet] for General Brewer and ascertained distance from Red Beach Point across the water to the nearest beach on the Island to be no rods at low water and the distance from said Island to the easterly shore of the river to be 170 rods at low water and the content of the Island to be about 6 acres.” [80] CHAPTER SE VEN Some Frenchmen and a Sanguine Dutchman 1613 to 1680 During the seventeenth century the French ruled Acadia. They held the better title and most of the time had possession of Saint Croix and the coast as far west as Pentagoet, now Castine, Maine. They were kept busy plucking the thorns the Enghsh thrust at them and the plucking became iucreasingly dif- ficult. It was a century of pohtical jockeying. The Eng- lish and French in Europe were at war a good part of the time with intervals of inconclusive peace. The Massachu- setts colonists usually succeeded during these wars in tak- ing Port Royal and other French settlements only to have their seizures restored to France by each peace treaty. That this constant turmoil stunted the healthy growth of the French in Acadia while the Enghsh were steadily increas- [8i] SAINT CROIX ing in wealth and numbers at Boston was an end, not only- intended by the English but actually attained. The Eng- lish James I and his advisors knew of the French activity in Acadia. Jamestown had been founded in 1607 and now a new patent was granted in 1620 to the Plymouth Com- pany under the title of the “Council for New England.” ^ The boundaries of this grant were the fortieth and the forty-eighth parallels of latitude, an area which included land already occupied by De Monts and his successors. Sir William Alexander, a prominent Scot, reminded his Scotch sovereign, James, that there was a “New England” and a “New France” and slyly suggested that there should be a “New Scotland” as well.^ The King gladly accepted a suggestion that would enable him by public decree to claim the coast line to the north not covered in the patent to the Council of New England. He granted to Sir Wil- liam Alexander in 1621, as New Scotland, the territory extending from “The river generally known by the name of St. Croix and to the remotest springs or source from the western side of the same which empty into the first mentioned river; thence by an imaginary straight line which is conceived to extend through the land or run northward to the nearest bay, river, or stream emptying into the great river of Canada; and going from that eastward along the low shores of the same river of Canada.” ® Thus the name Saint Croix was the first to appear in ^R.s.c. 1901, n, 164. ^ibidy 1899, n, 5. ®Slafter’s Sir Wm. Alexander, 129; R.S.C., 1901, II, i6e et seq, (See Note 3). [82] SOME FRENCHMEN any title or grant of the new continent. It was the first grant that was bounded by specific physical limits (the rivers St. Croix and St. Lawrence) instead of in general terms of latitude. It took from New England a portion of its previously granted territory and was the grant that fixed the boundary between Massachusetts and Nova Sco- tia. But the French continued to claim the St. Croix and land west of it as part of Acadia until the final end of all French claims in 1763. Poutrincourt had succeeded in get- ting royal confirmation of the grant he had received from De Monts on Saint Croix Island in 1605. Otherwise the French Government did nothing to help settle Acadia. Champlain and De Monts had transferred their activities to the more promising region of the St. Lawrence River. Only young Biencourt remained to collect tribute from settlers in his father’s domain. Biencourt, overlord in possession of Acadia, attracts our notice by his gallant qualities and his friendship with Charles de la Tour, the most romantic of all Acadians. He came out to Port Royal with his father as a mere lad. Quickly learning the Indians’ language he became a leader to whom they were devoted. At the age of nineteen he was sent by Poutrincourt, his father, to France to obtain help from the Court of Marie de Medici, regent for young King Louis XIII. He overcame many difficulties with marked success. Crossing the ocean in midwinter to bring relief to the starving colonists, he continued with great resolution for many years to hold together his group of followers, in- cluding young Charles de la Tour, to whom he bequeathed aU his rights to Acadia upon his death in 1623.* *Haimay, 91, 114. (See Note 4). [83] SAINT CROIX Charles de St. Etienne de la Tour was a man brought up in the hard school of pioneer living who beside being reso- lute, brave and sagacious, had an instinctive poise and bear- ing which enabled him to gain support in France, England and even in the rival colony of Massachusetts Bay. He had the art, says Hannay, most necessary of any for a leader, of win ning the confidence of those with whom he was associated.® Himself a Huguenot, he married a Huguenot lady shortly after he succeeded to Biencourt’s crown, such as it was, and moved from Port Royal, then held by a few Scotch settlers under Alexander’s grant of 1621, to a fort near Cape Sable which is called Port la Tour to this day. When war with England came in 1627, he sent his father, Claude de la Tour, to France to seek aid in resisting Eng- lish attacks. The French King appointed Charles de la Tour Lieutenant General of Acadia and sent arms and sup- plies in several vessels. They were however captured, to- gether with his father, by the English under Sir David Kirk. Claude, the father,® was taken to England a prisoner and on the way seems to have been persuaded to desert to the Enghsh. It happened that Sir William Alexander had a novel scheme for colonizing Nova Scotia by having the King grant the title of Baronet to selected gentlemen who would undertake to support the new colony. Claude de la Tour not only obtained a title and grant of territory in Acadia for himself and his son but married a maid-of-honor of Kong Charles’ Court. When Claude, the father, proud of ®Haimay, 114. ®A short sketch of life of Claude de la Tour is given in Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) IX, 97. He had come to Acadia in 1609 with his young son, Charles. Hannay, 114. [84] SOME FRENCHMEN what he had accomphshed, came to Acadia, his son refused to turn against his own country. A fight followed between the English force and the son’s soldiers at Port la Tour. The English were beaten and retired to Port Royal. When all places in Acadia held by the English were given back to Erance by the treaty of St. Germain in 1632, Charles for- gave his father and agreed to shelter him near his own headquarters at Port la Tour. In France meantime Cardinal Richelieu decided to ad- vance French interests in Acadia. For that purpose he sent his relative and favorite, Isaac de Razilly, with colonists and soldiers to restore and rule Acadia. Neither Biencourt nor Charles la Tour had in recent years been in position to exercise practical control over Saint Croix or any part of Acadia beyond their own headquarters. With Razilly in command things were to be different. Both he and Riche- lieu must have heard favorably of Saint Croix for on May 19, 1632, before Razilly left France, he was granted an im- mense tract of land on both sides of the St. Croix River. This grant reads in part . . . “For these reasons we have given and granted to the aforesaid Sieur de Razilly, and we do by these presents give and grant to him the extent of land and territory which follows, namely, the river and bay of St. Croix, the islands contained in it and the lands lying adjacent on the one side and the other, in New France to the extent of 12 leagues in breadth reckoning its middle point at the Island of St. Croix where the Sieur de Monts win- tered, and 20 leagues in length inland from the Port aux Coquilles which is on one of the islands which is at the entrance of the river and bay of St. [85] SAINT CROIX Croix, each league to be of four thousand fathoms in length.” Razilly’s grant extended many miles inland and its breadth included I’Etang harbor and Lake Utopia on the east and all the many lakes of Saint Croix as far as Machias River on the west. He undoubtedly visited his large domain and laid his plans but what they were we shall never know. His death, in 1636, ended whatever he meant to do. When Razilly came to Acadia he brought with him Nicholas Denys and Charles de Menou, Seigneur d’ Aul- nay de Chamisay. The latter was to become the lifelong enemy of Charles la Tour.® While Razilly hved he kept his subordinates well in hand. He divided Acadia into three lieutenancies giving the western section from Saint Croix to the Kennebec to Charnisay with headquarters at Penta- goet, the middle section, from St. Croix to Canso, to Charles de la Tour who set up a fur trading post at St. John, and the section east of Canso to Nicholas Denys.® With Razilly dead, the rivalry between Charnisay and Charles de la Tour began at once. Their territories met at the St. Croix. Two of their battles were fought at Passamaquoddy. In one Charles de la Tour was victorious, driving Chamisay in flight to Pentagoet.^ In the other La Tour’s Captain was kflled and he himself made prisoner. But the stakes were ’G. P., XXVIII. ® Parkman, Feudal Chiefs of Acadia (old regime in Canada) 3 et seq. Cf. Atlantic Monthly (Feb. and March 1893); Parkman, Pioneers of France, 280 et seq.; Hannay, 114 et seq.; Worcester Soc. of Antiquities XIII, 19. ® Denys ii. Wheeler’s Hist, of Castine, 1923, 14. A fort of Chamisay at St. Croix is mentioned. Its situs is not now known. Worcester Soc. of Antiquities, VIII, 24. ^Land of St, Castine, Sylvester, 158. [ 86 ] SOME FRENCHMEN much higher than possession of uninhabited Saint Croix. The bitter rivalry of these Acadian chieftains lasted until both were ruined and Chamisay had died fourteen years later. Their conflict extended all the way from Boston to London and Paris. It destroyed La Tour’s wife who died in defense of her husband’s fort at Saint John and it had a sur- prising ending in the marriage of the widow of the dead Chamisay to the widower of the brave Lady de la Tour,^^ Charles de la Tour was able to recover some of his fortune and prestige in Acadia. He went to England in Cromwell’s time and won from him, in 1656, a grant of Acadia includ- ing the St. Croix River and extending as far west as the river St. George in Maine. He then sold his rights in this grant to Sir Thomas Temple and retired to end his days in peace with the widow of his old enemy. In this century of constant conflict there were many strange encounters. One of them, which history has hardly noticed, was aimed by the Dutch at Acadia. King Charles, having restored Acadia to France by the Treaty of Breda in 1667 induced the French King to join in an attack on the Dutch, then quite powerful on the sea. War having begun, the Dutch in 1673 recaptured New York, held it temporarily, and sent out privateers. Captain Jurrieu Aer- nouts, commander of the Dutch frigate. Flying Horse, left Curasao with instructions “to take, plunder, spoil and possess in the name of the great Prince of Orange any of the garrisons, towns, territories, privileges, ships, persons or estate of any of the enemies of the Great States of Hol- land.” “ Arriving at New Orange (New York) he learned “Hannay, 191. (See Note 12). “Murdock, Nova Scotia, I, 138. “ Historical Papers (The Dutch Conquest of Acadia, C W. Tuttle, Bos- ton, 1889, 137 et seq,). [87] SAINT CROIX that the English had just made peace, leaving only the French still at war with the Dutch. Perhaps the skipper of the Flying Horse knew that the Half Moon, another Dutchman, had spent eight days re- fitting at or near Pentagoet in Penobscot Bay in 1609^® and, on the basis of discovery, decided to claim the ter- ritory for Holland. Picking up an Englishman, John Rhoades, who said he knew the coast, Aernouts sailed for Pentagoet on August i, 1674. He attacked the French fort commanded by the veteran De Chambly, Governor of Acadia, and soon captured it. He did not have men enough to man the fort so he buried a bottle with his commission and a claim of Dutch ownership in it. The inhabitants were sworn to recognize the Prince of Orange. Arresting the Governor he put the price of his freedom at one thousand beaver skins. Unable to provide this ransom M. de Cham- bly dispatched the young Baron St. Castin, later to become famous in Acadian history, to Quebec. After this. Captain Aernouts, claiming all Acadia for the Dutch, sailed eastward touching at Passamaquoddy, ascended the St. John River, buried a bottle wherever he found a settlement and exacted recognition of Dutch sov- ereignty. Then the Flying Horse sailed for neutral Boston. Governor de Chambly was kept in captivity by the accom- modating British until freed upon payment of the ransom some months later by Frontenac at Quebec. A nugget of diplomacy was uncovered recently in the answer given by the British in London to the protest of the Dutch Ambas- sador at the indignities suffered by the subjects of Holland ^ Acad, V, 279; Narr, and Crit, Hist, of America, Winsor, III, IV* [ 88 ] SOME FRENCHMEN who, left behind by Aernouts at Pentagoet, had promptly been rounded up by the authorities at Boston. The British Government apologized to the Ambassador with the ex- planation “that the King’s orders were httle obeyed by those of Boston and adjacent colonies.” This answer would have pleased the Massachusetts patriots, Samuel and John Adams. On the strength of Aernouts’s raid the Dutch in Amster- dam appointed Cornelius Stenwyck as Governor of Nova Scotia and Acadia in a document which contained the fol- lowing sanguine language. “We do commit and authorize Cornelius Steen- wyck in the name and for the High and Mighty and the Priviliged General West India Company to take possession of the coasts and countries of Nova Scotia and Acadia, including the subordinate coun- tries and islands to the east and north from the river Pountegonycet [Penobscot] and that he Steenwyck may establish himself there and select such places for himself in order to cultivate, to sow or to plant as he shall wish.” Dutch colonists, if promptly sent, might have occupied Acadia in spite of anything the weak French could do.^® Whether the Dutch would have been any more welcome than the French, in the neighborhood of Massachusetts Bay, may be doubted. But they made no serious attempt at colonization of Acadia. And the French and English con- Acad. V. 286; Raymond (2d ed.), 47. ^'^De Peyster’s “The Dutch in Maine,” N. Y. Hist. Soc. Paper, 1857. ^New England Mag,, June, 1904, 426. Tuttle, “Dutch Conquest of Acadia” 157 et seq. [89] SAINT CROIX tinued their ding-dong battles for Acadia without further interference from any other nation. NOTES 3. Sir Wm. Alexander (made Earl of Sterling in 1633) also received from the Council of New England, Apr. 22, 1635, a grant of the territory from St. Croix to Pemaquid. Slafter, 251. 4. The date (1623) of Biencourt’s death has been questioned but he seems without doubt to have disappeared from Acadian life about that time. Acad. IV, 258. 12. Marie Jacquelin, Lady de la Tour, was the first and greatest of Acadian heroines, “As long as the sons and daughters of this New Acadia take an interest in their country’s early history, they will read with admiration the noble story of the constancy and heroism of the Lady La Tour.” Hannay, 172. “There will always be a peculiar charm for us in (her) story. Fearless, energetic, resolute undoubtedly she was ... A heart more loyal and true never beat in a human breast. She gave her life to protect her hus- band, her children and the humbler dependents that followed their for- tunes from the hands of a bitter and unscrupulous enemy.” Raymond, Hist, of St. John River (1910 ed.), 27. [90] CHAPTER EIGHT The End of French Control 1680 to ni3 Th. FAME OF THE SPRING fishing at Schoodic Falls in the St. Croix River, of which Champlain speaks in his Narrative, must have been widely- known. Although there is no record of what took place there in the seventeenth century, it is true, without doubt, that traders found their way from time to time to the St. Croix to collect furs from the Indians and gather the seasonal catch of fish at the Falls. We know that a century later when the English began to filter into this region, one John Frost, who was living at Pleasant Point trading with the Indians, went with two or three others in small sloops to the Falls and took “from 800 to 1,000 barrels chiefly alewives with some salmon, shad and bass.” ^ Colonel Church in 1704 found and destroyed a large quantity of fish the Indians had piled up near the Falls. "G. P. XXXVII. [91] Ganong’s Map showing approximate location of seigniories of the Saint Croix. - '• THE END OF FRENCH CONTROL Acadia gained slowly in population in spite of strife within and wars without. Toward the end of the seven- teenth century a few settlers began to take up land at Pas- samaquoddy. Five grants by the French Government are known: Jean Sarreau, Sieur de St. Aubin, June 28, 1684, lo- cated probably at Sr. Andrews. The Ecclesiastics of the Episcopal Seminary of For- eign Missions at Quebec August 13, 1685, probably intended as the location of a mission on the upper river. Jean Meusnier, July 16, 1691, located on the lower Magaguadavic River. Paul Dailleboust, Sieur de Periginy, April 14, 1693, the entire island of Grand Manan and adjacent small islands. Sieur Michel Chattier, July 8, 1695, probably lo- cated at St. Stephen and Calais.^ It has been said that these grants are in terms too indefi- nite to be exactly located. The grant of Grand Manan is certainly particular enough and Magaguadavic also. I think, too, there is enough evidence on which to agree that Chartier’s grant was at St. Stephen, and St. Aubin’s at St. Andrews. The description of St. Aubin’s grant is . . . “A tract of land at Passamaquoddy five leagues of = G. P. XXIX; “Historic Sites,” Ganong in R.S.C., 1899, II. 266, 323. (See Note 2). [93] SAINT CROIX front along the seashore and five leagues of depth into the land, including the islands near, and a rocky islet six leagues off for a seal fishery.” The description of Chartier’s grant is . . . “An extent of land situated on the river Des Coudet [Schoodic] containing one-half league in front on each side of the said river, one league and a half in depth, together with the adjacent islands and islets, to commence at the south-west side of the property of the Sieur St. Aubin descending the said river and on the north-east side at the ungranted lands.” ^ It must be plain from its terms that the grant to Chattier is up river from St. Aubin’s and that the two grants touch. Gourdan, who was down river, said when interviewed by Colonel Church in 1704, “that Sharkee [Chattier] lived several leagues up at the head of the river at the Falls.” ® If we lay a ruler on the map (page 92) to make a straight line from St. Andrews to St. Stephen, the line runs north-west and south-east. The distance by the river from Joe’s Point to the vicinity of St. Stephen is about fourteen miles which was the width of St. Aubin’s grant. If we lo- cate St. Aubin’s grant on this line, its “south-west” corner where Chartier’s grant is described as beginning will be at or near St. Stephen. Chattier, under the name of Sharkee in Colonel Church’s rude translation, was found by him to be hving near the Falls in 1704. When Colonel Church raided Passamaquoddy he said he moved “up the river in the dark night through great difficulty by reason of the Chap. X {infra). [94] THE END OF FRENCH CONTROL eddies and whirlpools” and at daybreak came to a place where the river or bay was still “very broad.” This de- scription fits St. Andrews and the terms of the grant to St. Aubin fit St. Andrews also.^ There are several islands near it, as mentioned in the grant, and the “rocky islet” for seal fishing could be the Wolves “six leagues off” through Le Tete Passage. I believe Crucians are entitled to call Calais, St. Stephen and St. Andrews more ancient habitations of white men than commonly thought. A hitherto unknown manuscript recently published confirms the location of a settlement up the river at the Falls. This manuscript was written by De Gargas who visited Passamaquoddy in 1688 and took a census of its inhabitants. He speaks of it as a suitable place for com- merce. “It lies at the mouth of the Sainte Croix River” he says, “I visited this place.” He found there a population of twenty-one whites, men, women and childjren, forty In- dians, five houses, ten wigwams, five cattle, forty guns, three swords and twelve acres under cultivation. Whether the entire population of Passamaquoddy was at St. An- drews or scattered, we do not know. There had always been an Indian settlement there and the forty guns prob- ably included those of the Indians. Then De Gargas goes on to say: “There is another settlement called Lincourt, far- ther up the said Sainte Croix River where the soil is still very good. There are nearly fifty acres of high ground which only need to be ploughed but the place is not suited to trade, being too far up [ 95 ] * (See Note 4) . SAINT CROIX the river. The inhabitants cultivate a little garden ground in which they sow Indian wheat (corn) . ® His census of Lincourt lists two men (white), twenty male Indians, twenty female Indians, thirty-three little Indians, seventy-five souls in all, four houses, twenty wig- wams, two guns, one sword, one pistol and two acres of cultivated land. This is the only mention of the name Lin- court in available records of Acadia. We may guess easily enough that Chartier went there to establish himself be- fore his marriage and before he applied for a legal grant of occupation. Colonel Church said in 1704 that Chartier was married and his wife had “silk clothes and fine linen.” He had probably called his place “Lincourt” for personal or family reasons as many of us name our camps today . Another visitor of this region was M. de la Mothe Cadil- lac in 1692. Cadillac, who later founded Detroit and be- came Governor of Louisiana, had been granted, a short time before, Mount Desert Island by his King Louis XV, and was probably living there at the time.® He came to Passamaquoddy to survey it and the island of Grand Ma- nan by order of Count Frontenac, Governor of Canada. But the leading Saint Croix inhabitant in this final period of French control was the Sieur St. Aubin. He was born about 1621, probably in France and served France well as soldier and pioneer. In 1692 he was a prisoner of the Eng- lish in Boston, taken in a raid at Penobscot where one of ® W. I. Morse, Acadiensis Nova (1589-1779), London, 1935, 2 vols., I, 183- 184. For census see I, 144 et seq. ® Spelled as “Cadolick and wife” he is listed in a census of May ii, 1688, as resident at Mt. Desert. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 3rd Series, I, 82. Cadillac’s description of Passamaquoddy, ibid (ist Ser.) VI, 279. [96] THE END OF FRENCH CONTROL his sons seems to have had a place at or near Eggemoggin Reach. The Governor of Massachusetts Bay sent him and another prisoner, Jacques Petitpas, "with rwo French de- serters to Pentagoet with the object of capturing Baron St. Castin. St. Aubin revealed the plan and gave up the de- serters. He did his best to build up his seigneury at St. An- drews. The raid of Church destroyed what he had built. He was probably absent in France in 1704 and is said to have died at Port Royal in 1705 in his eighty-fourth year. The regard in which he was held by his countrymen is shown by the passport dated November 20, 1703, given him at Port Royal by Bouillan, Governor of Acadia: “This is to certify that the Sieur St. Aubin, Sei- gneur of Passamaquoddy, has worked with diligence to increase the value of his seigneurie, upon which he has settled tenants who hold there in fielty and has likewise worked in other places for the increase of the colony, having given proofs of his fidelity in the service of the King upon aU occasions which have presented themselves as well in this country as upon the Island of Newfoundland, where he has shown evidence of bravery and good conduct and that in addition he has fought with distinction against the English of New England and the In- dian enemies of France, in virtue of which we now give him this certificate with permission to go to France to give attention to his business.” In bidding farewell to the French as settlers at Passama- quoddy and Saint Croix, we must admit they left Httle im- print which affected its future. A few place names remain 'G. P. XXX. [97] SAINT CROIX —St. Croix, Le Tete, Lepreaux, L’Etang, Delute (de rOutre) . Some may regret there are not more links with the past. Nevertheless at the end of the seventeenth cen- tury the Acadian settlers found life, given no interference from the English colony at Boston, both pleasant and satis- fying. Diereville, the poet-surgeon, who came from France in 1699 to collect plants for the Royal gardens has summed up Acadian life as he saw it: “Yet ever is the Habitant content With his abode. He only for His living works and no one speaks To him of taxes or of tithes, nor are There any payments to be made at all. Each one in peace beneath a rustic roof Empties his bread-box and his cask And in the winter keeps himself quite warm Without a farthing spent on wood. Where else Could such advantages be found.? A land of Cocagne this might be.® If but a hiUside of Champagne were there, Better than any other it would be.” ® On the Indians, however, the French made a lasting impression. Converted to their religion, satisfied with the decisions and authority of the priests, sensing their friendly interest, the Passamaquoddies turned to the French and re- warded their sympathy and appreciation of Indian tradi- tions and legends with unfailing support in the wars against the English.^® ® (See Note 8). ® Diereville’s Journey to Tort Royal, Toronto, 1933, 90. For a different translation see Murdock’s Nova Scotia I, 540. (See Note 9). (See Note 10). [98] THE END OF FRENCH CONTROL NOTES 2. Probably the “Episcopal Seminary” grant was never actually located. Its terms provided that it should be laid out on a site to be agreed on within ten years. There is no record of any further action in the matter. See G.P. XVI. 4. A census of 1686 given in the Hutchinson Papers lists St. Robin (St. Aubin) as living at ‘Pessimaquoddy, near St. Croix.” The river St. Croix begins at Joe’s Point near St. Andrews. This census would appear to confirm our claim that St. Aubin’s actual habitation on his grant was at St. Andrews. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 3rd Series I, 82. 8. Cocagne, i.e., Land of plenty of good things. Denys gave this name to a bay in Kent County, N. B., where during a stay he found much to bring good cheer. Denys, 173; R.S.C. (1896), 227. 9. Diereville’s Journal has not been fully translated. It is largely in verse as requested by his patron Michel Begon who sent him to Acadia. All phases of Indian and colonial life seem to have interested him— thus: “Our ladies and the Indian Maids Differ but little in their tastes. When they are courted by a youth They do not wait for marriage bonds To taste the joys of love. Yet is The Indian Maid more fortunate By far in amorous impulses. For she her favors may accord And honor is not lost; should she Conceive, she need but state the fact When she becomes aware of it For, by acknowledgement the sin Is blotted out.” Diereville, 145 10. The affection of the Indians for the French caused them to appropriate French Christian names (used sometimes as surnames), for example, Lewy (Louis), Soc (Jacques), Sabattis (Jean Baptiste), Atv)in (Etienne), Flansoa (Francois), Peol (Pierre), Mollie (Marie), Mitchell (Michel), Tomah (Thomas) etc. G. P. XIIL [99] Abenaki Legends XhAT the ABENAKI WERE A superior people, peacefully inclined and full of poetic imagery all must concede who have listened to their leg- ends. Wonderful poems in themselves are these legends peopling every nook and rivulet, not altogether from the imagination but giving voice and language to all nature. So affirms our authority, Mrs. Brown.^ If you have never read “Green Mansions,” Hudson’s masterpiece of a sprite of the woods; never experienced, deep in a forest, the creepy ef- fect of its shadows; if you think Robin Hood silly righting wrongs and rescuing maidens in distress; and scorn all superstition, then you will wish to skip this chapter. But you will miss meeting Glooskap. Mythical or not he was a factor in the everyday life of the Passamaquoddies. He was not Manitou or the Great Spirit. He seems rather to have been a god-agent who could tell the tribe when the *G. P. VI. [ 100 ] ABENAKI LEGENDS old fellow was in good humor and so likely to be indulgent. That Glooskap does not still help his people today is due to the English. Some time after the Enghsh came Glooskap left. He couldn’t stick them. “Over the tribe, with jealous eye, Watched the Great Spirit, from on high. While on the crest of Blomidon, Glooskap, the God-man dwelt alone. No matter how far his feet might stray From the favorite of his tribe away Glooskap could hear the Indian’s prayer. And send some message of comfort there. Glooskap, it was, who taught the use Of the bow and spear, and sent the moose Into the Indian hunter’s hands, Glooskap who strewed the shining sands Of the tide-swept beach of the stormy bay With amethysts purple and agates gray And brought to each newly wedded pair The Great Spirit’s benediction fair. But the white man came, and with ruthless hand Cleared the forest and sowed the land And drove from their haunts by the sunny shore Indian and moose, forevermore. So Glooskap, saddened and sore distressed Took his way to the unknown West.” ^ ^Arthur Wentworth Eaton in YoutFs Companion, “Algonquin Legends of New England” Leland, Cambridge, 1885. [lOl] SAINT CROIX The great Glooskap was believed to be all wise and all powerful. He knew all that was passing in the hearts of men and beasts. When he willed it he was among them for he ever came as the wind comes and no man wist how. The stories about him are numerous and varied. Angered by K’chi-Quabeet (the Great Beaver) Glooskap determined to capture him so he took a position on top of the hill be- tween Waweig and Oak Bay known as “the place of many sugar maples.” ® There he could get a good view of the beaver house which was on the dome-shaped island in Oak Bay now called Cookson’s Island. The Great Beaver, warned of his danger, left for the St. John River where he had already built a dam on the ledge of rocks at the Re- versible Falls called Quabeet-a-wee-sogado or Great Bea- ver rolling-dam.^ The other animals objected to this dam. It had turned St. John River into a Jmquispam or lake as far as Jemseg. Since Glooskap’s mission on earth was to do good and mete out justice he had accordingly summoned all animals including the Beaver to appear before him. When the ani- mals had gathered, Glooskap asked the Bear what he would do if he met a man. For reply the Bear trotted off looking over his shoulder as he generally does today when a human being confronts him. Pleased with this answer Glooskap next asked the Squirrel what he would do. At that time the Squirrel was as big as a lion. He immediately flew at a stump and tore it to pieces. This was quite too dangerous a demonstration of power and Glooskap reduced him to his present size. *G. P. VI— (This legend is also given in Acadiensis VII, 275.) * (See Note 4). [ 102] ABENAKI LEGENDS Then came the Beaver’s turn. Defiant of the warning about the dam he openly rebelled. All agreed that he must be taught a lesson. So Glooskap followed after the Beaver as far as the dam. On breaking it with his ponderous club the rush of water swept a piece of it out to sea which made Partridge Island in St. John Harbor. Meantime the Beaver had fled into Lake Ah-ben-squaa-tuct where he built an- other wigwam. Indians say Glooskap finally caught the Beaver on the island opposite Rothesay on the Kennebe- casis. We do not know what punishment he got but it is true that he never built another dam at the mouth of the St. John. At the reservation on Pleasant Point, Mrs. Brown wrote down many of the legends of the Quoddy tribe. One poem recited for her by an old chief was their song of Summer: “Long time ago in the early red morning before sunrise, Glooskap went very far north where all was ice. He came to a wigwam wherein lived a giant, a great giant for he was Winter. Glooskap entered the wigwam and sat down. Then Winter gave him a pipe and told him tales of the old times. The charm was on him. It was the frost. As Winter talked on Glooskap fell asleep and slept for six months. Then the charm fled and he woke up. “He went to the south and at every step it grew warmer and the flowers began to come up and talk to him. He came to where there were many little ones dancing in the forest. Their queen was Sum- mer, the most beautiful one ever bom. Glooskap caught her in his arms and kept her by a crafty trick. Tho’ the fairies of Light objected, he took her to the lodge of Winter where Winter wel- [ 103] SAINT CROIX corned him once more for he hoped again to freeze him to sleep. But now he had Summer in his bosom. “This time the Master did the talking; this time his vHteoulin was strongest. Soon the sweat ran down W^inter’s face and he melted more and more and quite away. Then Spring came, the grass grew, the fairies came out and the snow ran down the rivers carrying away the dead leaves.” ® The Passamaquoddies believed thunder storms were due to the antics of thunder-spirits playing ball and shooting their flashing arrows through the clouds. It seems that a young Indian once voiced a desire to become a thunder- spirit and all at once his companions saw him mounting to the sky in the smoke of the camp-fire. Becoming a “Thunder,” as the savages called the Spirits, he married a female Thunder and lived a hfe of thunder and lightning for seven years. Tired of this at last he sHd down to earth in the midst of a terrific storm to tell his awe-inspiring adventures to the tribe.® Shamanism or the behef that all events and accidents of life are caused or influenced by spirits was natural to In- dians. Disease, pain, continuous bad weather and any dis- aster called for the intervention of a magician or wonder- worker. Looking to their chiefs for leadership the simple natives expected them to supply this magic. And the sag- hems soon found that skillful use of natural remedies were credited to their m'teoulin or magic powers. The reputation for such powers greatly increased a ^Algonquin Legends of Nero England, 134. ^Journal of Am. Folklore 1889, II, 230. [ 104] ABENAKI LEGENDS chief’s prestige and influence. The Etchemin tribe-leaders, Bashaba, Mockawando, Membertou (a wizard, Lescarbot thought him)'^ and Abowadowonit, one of the Neptune family mentioned in Chapter V., were well known to pos- sess supernatural powers. But these minor magicians seem only to have gained dominance after Glooskap had de- parted. Grand Falls on the St. John River has the Indian name of Chi-kuni-ka-bik (destroyer place) from a favorite leg- end among all Eastern tribes. According to it a Maliseet maiden inspired by Glooskap lured two hundred Mohawks sleeping in canoes tied together, over the Falls to their death. Indeed Glooskap’s aid, .constantly sought, was needed against the Mohawks. This powerful tribe of the Six Nations had a habit of coming by the St. Lawrence and St. John Rivers to ravish the weaker Eastern Indians. Un- til the arrival of the French these raids continued, dreadful in anticipation and terrible in execution. The Mohawk was a boogie-man always coming unexpectedly and possessing evil powers like a witch. Once a man hiding in the bushes threw pebbles at a group of maidens playing lacrosse who because of the heat of the game had shed all but their beads. This was against all rules. Under the Indian code of honor males never per- mitted themselves to intrude at such times. The maidens at an agreed signal rushed the intruder to duck him in the pond. As he plunged into the water he changed into a chubfish (che-pen-ob-quis) . Then the maidens knew he was a Mohawk and ai sorcerer.® '^Lescarbot III, 103-113. ®R.S.C., 1888, II, 46. “Wabanaki Games.” [105] SAINT CROIX The legendary duel which took place between the Passa- maquoddies and the Mohawks has some basis of fact in that the Eastern tribes were paying tribute to the Mohawks as late as the eighteenth century. It is therefore likely that one of their chiefs may have visited St. Andrews for the pur- pose of collecting tribute and it was due to Glooskap, no doubt, that the aifair ended so happily for the Quoddy tribe. There are several versions of the duel. According to one of them a Mohawk chief, named Hawk-u-mah-bis, or Snow-shoe-string, accompanied by his son, came to Con- nos-quam-cook (Saint Andrews).® One day the sons of the Mohawk and Passamaquoddy chiefs, while hunting together, killed a white sable. The boys got into a hot dis- pute over the possession of the game. In the quarrel the young Mohawk was killed. The chief of the Passamaquod- dies, according to Indian custom, offered his son to the Mohawk chief, to take the place of the boy who had been killed; but the Mohawk would not be appeased and left for home determined to return and take revenge. One morning at daybreak, the Mohawks appeared in large numbers and the woods rang with their war cry “Coo-way-mitt.” The Passamaquoddies were greatly alarmed. They sent out a man with the loo-good-we-mede-wegon, or flag of truce, to propose that the matter should be settled by single com- bat. “We should not fight and destroy each other,” they said, “for our nations are becoming less in numbers each year, and if we keep on fighting thus, the whites will soon outnumber us.” Single combat having been agreed upon, the fight took •G. P. XI. ABENAKI LEGENDS place early next morning in an open field at Con-nos-quam- cook in the presence of both tribes. The Mohawks chose their Chief and the Passamaquoddies a stout Indian named Lux. At a given signal the Mohawk threw his tomahawk. The Passamaquoddy dodged it and immediately threw his weapon but failed to hit his antagonist. Rushing upon each other they clinched in a struggle for life. They fell to the ground, the Mohawk on top, but the Passamaquoddy soon got the advantage and plunged his knife into his enemy’s side. Lux, the victor; was the ancestor of Captain Lewy after whom Lewy’s Island (Princeton) is called.^® The tradition of Glooskap’s great height brought night- mares to Saugus, an Indian who was with a party cruising timber in Charlotte County not far from the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay a generation or so ago. One of the men came back to camp from spotting trees and said to Saugus: “I met an old men twelve feet tall up the mountain who had one eye. He called to me, ‘Where is Saugus. 1 rLvant to eat him.' ” Saugus was so terrified he couldn’t sleep. About midnight when he heard repeated hoots of an owl he woke up the camp to warn that the “old man” was coming.^^ Glooskap loved Nature and knew how to landscape. Before he went west he did a thing which has been a joy of the Saint Croix springtime ever since. He sent a maiden through the woods in whose foot-prints, wherever she stepped, the mayflower grows.^^ Indians say when Gloo- skap left them he went down under a great cobscook (See Note lo). “Hannay, Acadia, 56 (note). ^G. P. XIV. [ 107 ] SAINT CROIX (waterfall) and there on an island he remains in company with his adopted grandmother^® This is a disappointing end, better perhaps than to be left alone with your mother- in-law, but hardly fitting for so great a personage. Of all who have mourned him none have grief so poignant as his friend the Loon, whose sad lament on summer lakes still reminds us of Glooskap and what he was to all living crea- tures in his day. Once ye were happy, once by many a shore, Wherever Glooskap’s gentle feet might stray. Lulled by his presence like a dream, ye lay Floating at rest, but that was long of yore. He was too good for earthly men, he bore Their bitter deeds for many a patient day. And then at last he took his unseen way; He was your friend, and ye might rest no more. And now, though many hundred altering years Have passed, among the desolate northern meres Still must ye search and wander querulously Crying for Glooskap, still bemoan the light With weird entreaties, and in agony. With awful laughter pierce the lonely night.” No doubt the French priest was a poor substitute for Glooskap yet his was a voice eagerly listened to. He, too, spoke for a dread, invisible power one could only guess at. It is touching to read the letter with its phonetic spelling sent by the Passamaquoddy tribe to Governor Bernard of “G. P. VI. “The Loons,” by Archibald Lampman, quoted from St. Croix Courier. Cf. Among the Millets and other Foems, [io8] ABENAKI LEGENDS Massachusetts after the French had finally ceded all Canada to England in February, 1763, humbly submitting an ap- peal to be allowed to keep their priests. “Governor Bearnnard. . . . We think it Hard That you Settle The Lands That God Gave To Us Whouth making us Sum Considiration We Kno That We are in Youer Peers Pray Considder ouer Case and You Will Be Inlightnd Into Your Owen. We heare That It is Peace and reioyce That The English Comands The Greatest Parte of North America. We hear that ouer Ministers are and are to Be removid from us Ifs So we Pray That You Would Consider and have Pittey on ouer Souls and Send us one We Should Be Glad That you Would send us a French one But if not Send us one of Youers For aney is better than none We hope That You will Consider ouer riquest and Send us an answer we Saluit You The Gournover and Counsell In The Name and Behalfe of the Pas- samaquoduia Tribe Abowodowonit . . . Passamaquida Great Island June 1763”^® “Considder ouer Case and You Will Be Inlightn*^ Into Your owen” is memorable phrasing of the Golden Rule. Receiving no satisfaction the Indians sent three chiefs from Passamaquoddy and St. John to Halifax in July 1763 to ask the Governor of Nova Scotia why the priest, Pere Germain, had been taken from them and to beg that an- other would be sent.’^® Still persistent they again came to ^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XXIV, 114. (Baxter Manuscripts). “Murdock, Nova Scotia II, 428; G. P. XIX. [ 109] SAINT CROIX Governor Bernard in September, 1764, when he was visit- ing the St. Croix river. He wrote to the Earl of Halifax on September 29 telhng him that he had been at Passama- quoddj only to find almost the whole tribe absent fishing at some distance but that he saw four or five of them who “again and again reminded me of their great want of a priest. I gave them for answer that I must wait for the King’s commands before I could do anything in that busi- ness.” Evidently the English wished that all priests would, like Glooskap, be off to Cobscook and their adopted grandmothers. NOTES 4. It is interesting to find mention of a rolling-dam in an Indian legend. This would seem to indicate its Indian origin. In the Century Dictionary its definition is attributed to New Brunswick. A rolling-dam was made of bushes, logs and stones placed during low water across a stream or river below a pool where trout had gathered. Then, by beating the wa- ter above the pool with sticks, the fish would be “rolled” (a fishing term) i.e., held in the pool and netted. 10. The settlement at Lewy’s Island was incorporated as Princeton, Feb- ruary 3, 1832. It might properly have been called Bonnyville, as many in habitants suggested, after Moses Bonney who, in 1815, first settled on the Plantation. However, one Rolfe, an infiuential citizen from Princeton, Massachusetts, had it named after his home town. B. W. Belmore, Early Frmceton, Maine (Portland, 1945) 20. ^^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XIII, 370. [ no] CHAPTER TEN The Coming of Benjamin Church A T THE TURN OF THE CENTURY the great event at St. Croix was the raid of the redoubt- able Colonel Benjamin Church in 1704. Little did the peaceful inhabitants there, white or Indian, dream that the recoil of an Indian attack on a Massachusetts settlement of which they knew nothing would so quickly hit them at Saint Croix. Benjamin Church was bom at Plymouth, January 17, 1639, a descendant of Richard Warren of the Mayflower. He learned to fight Indians in King Philip’s war. Leading a force which in August 1676 ambushed and destroyed ICng Philip, he gained great credit. He led five expeditions against the Indians. His final one was to the Saint Croix.^ The Deerfield massacre of 1704^ so stirred him that he begged Governor Dudley of Massachusetts to send him to exterminate all eastern Indians. Since the Governor and of Am. Biography, Scribner’s, 1930. * (See Note 2). [Ill] SAINT CROIX Council at Boston did not show much enthusiasm for his plan, Church is said to have gone all over his own Plymouth county and Cape Cod rousing the people for vengeance. The result of his call for volunteers shows his energy and fire. Over sixty-five years of age and overweight, but still full of fight, he collected five hundred fifty soldiers, fourteen transports, thirty-six whaleboats and three armed vessels. Governor Dudley, who must have recognized the oddities of this avenger of Deerfield as well as his enthusi- asm, laid down strict instructions for the expedition. First, Church must institute religious services and obtain God’s blessing. Next came the warning to keep his men fit, to supress disorders and put down profane swearing and curs- ing. Then notorious and capital offenders were to be im- prisoned and the sick and wounded cared for. The itiner- ary and the object of the journey was fully outlined. “You are to proceed to Machias,” the Governor said, “and from thence to Passamaquado and having effected what spoils you possibly may upon the enemy in those parts embark on your vessels for Menis and Signecto touching at Grand Manan if you see cause.” The Colonel himself wrote the Governor a full and pic- turesque report of all he accomplished at Saint Croix.® It was a conquest chimerical, a feast from empty dishes, for he was bent on crushing an enemy that didn’t exist. But we are glad that he went for we can still smile at the thought of the Colonel, fat and puffing, being roiled like a barrel over fallen tree trunks by Sergeant Edee as he went crash- ‘Hisi. of the Eastern Expeditions Against the Indians. Benj. Qiurch, Bos- ton, 1867, n, 104 et seq. [112] THE COMING OF BENJAMIN CHURCH ing through the forest on the banks of the river proudly- claiming that he landed on his feet like a cat: “In the evening of June 7th, -we entered in at the •westward harbour at the said Passemequado com- ing up said harbour to an island [Indian Island]^ where landing we came to a French house and took a French woman and children. The woman upon her examination said her husband was abroad afish- ing. I ask’d her whither there were any Indians thereabouts? She said yes there were a great many and several on that Island. I ask’d her whither she could pilot me to them. Said no, they hid in the woods. I ask’d her when she saw them. Answered just now or a little while since. I ask’d her whether she knew where they laid their canoo’s. Answered no they carried their canoo’s into the woods with them.” At that time a French settler named Latreille and his retainers were the only occupants of this small island. Church left Colonel Gorham with a considerable part of his troops to guard “Old Lotriel” and his family but mostly to be ready for the large body of Indians which the Colo- nel imagined would be found there at daylight on the mor- row. He stationed some soldiers on nearby Campobello Island, who also were told to be ready. Not only in his enormous size, but in his mentality. Colonel Church re- minds us of the immortal Falstalf. He loved “alarums and excursions.” Rumors along the coast had caused him to be- lieve there were many Indians at Saint Croix under control * (See Note 4). [113] SAINT CROIX of the “Canada gentlemen” as he called them, who were supposed to have come for the purpose of mustering the Indians against the English. It was Church’s plan to sur- prise them. Above all he was bristling for a fight. The St. Croix had only the small population (in all a few struggling families) we have described in a previous chap- ter. There were no “Canada gentlemen” at all. Fully con- vinced, however, of a big battle at his next objective, the Colonel started up-river across Passamaquoddy Bay through great difficulty, he says, by reason of eddys and whirlpools made with the fierceness of the current. His guide remarked that some of the Latreille family had been drowned in the whirlpools. He informed the Governor that this was said to discourage him and added “but noth- ing of that nature shall do it.” The many boats full of sol- diers arrived at Monsieur Gourdan’s (St. Andrews) a little before day. He ordered Captain Mirick and Captain Cole commanding “English Companies” to tarry with several boats “to be ready if any of the enemy should come out of the bush.” Landing himself with the remainder of the army, he- marched into the woods on a wide front direct- ing his men to destroy the enemy with their hatchets and not fire a gun. It was still quite dark. The cabins were quickly surrounded. Ordering the “pilot” to shout to them that they were surrounded with an army and “if they would come forth and surrender themselves they should have good quarter, but if not they should be all knocked on the head and die,” one of them showed himself. “I asked who he was,” reported Church, “he said Gourdan and begged for quarter. I told him he should have good quar- ter.” By that time many of the soldiers were running about [ 114] THE COMINQ OF BENJAMIN CHURCH in the dark. Someone said there was a bark house nearby. “I bid them pull it down and knock them on the head never asking” he went on, “whether they were French or Indians, they being all enemies alike to me.” There seems to have been nobody in the house. Nervous in the dark and ready to imagine a large body of enemies whom the Colo- nel had no doubt warned his men to expect, someone started firing and all joined in. “I thought they were mad,” said Church, “and I believe they had not killed and wounded less than 40 or 50 of our own men, but to my admiration no man was killed but he (a Frenchman), and one of our men wounded in the leg, and I turning about, a Frenchman spoke to me and I gave him quarter.” So ended the Barmecide victory over St. Aubin’s tenants. The Colonel summed it up as follows: “This was a short night’s action and all sensible men do well know that ac- tion done in the dark (being in the night as aforesaid) un- der so many difficulties, as we then labored under, as be- fore related, was a very hard task for one man.” Falstaff himself could not have spoken better. Daylight having now come on, Church questioned Gourdan, found out that two residents of the settlement were abroad, which he seems to have regretted (“it proved a damage,” he said), and learned that Monsieur Chartier was settled up the river at the Falls. Leaving a guard over Gourdan the Colonel immediately went after Chartier. A lone canoe with two Indians in it was their first quarry. They gave chase, but the Indians put ashore and escaped. Church was fearful they might warn Sharkee, as he called Chartier. Since the boats were making slow progress against the ebb tide, he decided to land and advance on Sharkee [115] SAINT CROIX through the woods. For some reason the Colonel now took an objective view of his expedition and in his report to the Governor referred to himself only in the third person as if he were not present: “The Colonel being ancient and unwieldy desired Sergeant Edee to run with him and coming to sev- eral trees fallen, which he could not creep under or readily get over, would lay his breast against the tree, the said Edee turning him over, generally had Cat luck, falling on his feet, by which means he kept in front. And coming near to Sharkee’s house discovered some French and Indians malting a wair in the river and presently discovered the two In- dians aforementioned, who call’d to them at work in the river, told them there was an army of Eng- lish and Indians just by, who immediately left their work and ran, endeavoring to get to Sharkee’s house, who hearing the noise, took his Lady and Child and ran into the woods. Our men running briskly fired and killed one of the Indians and took the rest Prisoners. Then going to Sharkee’s house, found a woman and child to whom they gave good quarter and finding that Madam Sharkee had left her Sdk Clothes and fine linen behind her, our Forces was desirous to have pursued and taken her, but Colonel Church forbid them saying he would have her run and suffer that she might be made sen- sible what hardships our poor People had suffered by them.” ® This is an unforgettable picture. The Colonel, gallant in action, not to be outdone, overcoming his own handicaps [ii6] ' G. p. XXXI, xxxn, xxxm. THE COMING OF BENJAMIN CHURCH to keep in front of his men; also gallant in chivalry, not permitting his soldiers to capture Madame Sharkee, who was lurking in the woods without her “silks and fine linen,” the Colonel deftly concealing his gallantry by remarking that she be allowed to “run and suffer” as a martyr for the hardships put upon “our poor People” of Deerfield. What a man! It was now night, too late to go the last mile to the Falls where the Indians were said to be fishing. The next day the Colonel seems to have lost his gusto. The Indians were on the other side of the river and the Colonel only exchanged some shots with them, but did not attempt to cross the river. He told his men to take “their prisoners, Sever, and other plunder and put it into their boats.” Then hke the King of France he marched down again to Gourdan’s. From St. Andrews he went to Minas and Chignecto, but feeling unequal to the task of reducing Port Royal, he re- turned to Passamaquoddy intent, as he says, of going again to see Sharkee. He was, however, diverted through a conversation with a former prisoner of another campaign whom he met on one of the islands. He seems to have been glad to meet this old acquaintance and believed his story that the Indians had left St. Croix. So he went on board his transports and continued his journey westward to Mount Desert.® After Church’s overwhelming visit nothing hap- pened at Saint Croix until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 took from the French their right to settle in Acadia. NOTES 2. The attack on Deerfield occurred before daybreak on Feb. 29, 1704. Three hundred Indians from Canada surprised the inhabitants. In this as- ^ (See Note 6). [ 117] SAINT CROIX sault more than one hundred persons were killed or captured. See George Sheldon’s Hist, of Deerfield (Deerfield, 1895) I, 293. 4. The Indian Island (of today) was locally known as L’Attirail Island (after the French squatter Latrielle) from 1700 to 1796 (see David Owen’s map, Ch. XIII), It was however granted by Nova Scotia in 1765 as “Per- kins Island.” Raymond, (1905 ed.), 195- d. The full text of Col. Church’s activities is given in Eastern Expeditions, Pronunciation of French names by Benjamin Church was peculiar. It is possible that Goiirdan mentioned by him (at St. Andrews) may have been St, Aubin (probably one of the sons of the Seigneur to whom the pass- port to France had been given). [118] CHAPTER ELEVEN The English Period 1713 to 1783 T AHERE CAN BE LITTLE DOUBT that the French poHcy of keeping the Indians, through the priests, hostile to the English and constantly on the alert for an opportunity to attack and plunder was unwise. This policy coninued until the end. On October 15, 1754, the Marquis du Quesnes, Governor of New France wrote from Quebec to De Loutre, a priest in Acadia: “Your policy is excellent—^to threaten the Eng- lish with your Indians whose attacks wiU increase their fears. The Indians—^Abenakis, Malicites and Micmacs—are the main support of this Colony and they must be kept in a state of hatred and venge- ance. The actual condition of Canada requires that they should strike vsdthout delay.” ^ "G. p. xrx. [ II9] SAINT CROIX As late as 1754 it may have been trae that there was noth- ing else they could do. But England, in the century of conflict after Plymouth was founded, had given back to France in each peace treaty all of the territory in New France and Acadia that her Colonists had seized. The re- peated Indian raids from Canada and Acadia, however, had so stirred the people of New York and New England that the English Government was forced to demand in the treaty of 1713 the cession of Acadia. Even then the French might have saved Cape Breton and Northern Canada if they had been content to stay there and mind their, own business. When the English made no attempt to perfect their new legal title to Acadia by vigorous occupation, the French at Quebec became aggressive and put forward a claim to all the territory between the peninsula of Nova Scotia and the Kennebec which included Passamaquoddy and the St. Croix. In 1718, Governor Vaudreuil wrote to the Lieu- tenant-Governor at Annapolis: “I request you also not to permit your English vessels to go into the River St. John which is always of the French dominion.” ^ It was not difficult to keep the Passamaquoddy tribe fighting the English. Around many a camp fire, with im- pressive eloquence, its chiefs must have continued to recite the treachery of Captain Chubbs at Pemaquid. Governor Stoughton of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had invited the Eastern Indians to come to Pemaquid in 1696 for a peace talk and exchange of prisoners. Several chiefs includ- ing Egeremont of Passamaquoddy came. Chubb in com- mand at Pemaquid was most friendly. He succeeded in ob- *Hannay, 326. (See Note 2). [ 120] THE ENGLISH PERIOD taining the release of the prisoners brought by the Indians on his promise to send to Boston and free the Indian pris- oners held there. Plying the Indians with hquor he pro- posed that nine chiefs and nine of his own principal men should go apart unarmed to confer. The chiefs agreed to bury the hatchet. The white men, themselves treacher- ously armed with concealed pistols, had a body of armed soldiers quietly surround the group. At a signal the whites fired on the Indians killing Chief Egeremont and several others.® Innocent men, women and children in the border settle- ments of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts paid with their lives for this kind of folly which, one regrets to record, marred English dealings with the Indians almost from the beginning. The Saint Croix Indians took an ac- tive part in every later raid against the Enghsh and this an- cient grudge probably kept them hostile to their traditional enemy at the time of the American revolution.^ Although Nova Scotia officials were more concihatory than were those of Massachusetts, there is no record of any favorable result from Governor PhilHp’s expansive letter of July 27, 1720 promising the Indians to treat them “like a father as the French do” and inviting them to a conference with the tempting words “the vessel is ready, the tide serves, and provisions, wine and brandy are on board.” ® In Lovewell’s War, so called, Passamaquoddy was the scene of the first encounter of the campaign.® The sloop ®Hannay, 250. *For the activities of the Passamaquoddies in the French and Indian wars see G. P, XVT et seq, ® Nova Scotia Archives H, 64. « G. P. Xvin. [r2i] SAINT CROIX Ipswich, in which Hibbert Newton, Collector of Customs at Annapolis Royal, John Adams, son of one of the coun- cillors of Nova Scotia, and a Mr. Savage of Boston and his negro servant were passengers, touched at Harbor de Loutre, Campobello, on June 13, 1722. It proved for them to be a kind of Pearl Harbor. They anchored there on their way to Boston with the idea of going ashore for breakfast at Monsieur Dambois’ house. While they were looking at some flakes used for drying fish, Pierre Neptune and twelve other Indians, armed with hatchets and knives, “naked and nearly as long as a bugginett,” seized Captain James Blinn of the sloop. Blinn struggled and demanded what it meant. “War,” answered Chief Joseph St. Aubin, who had just come from Saint John, where it had been planned to seize all English ships, destroy Annapolis, and rid the country generally of the English. The party was confined in Dambois’ house under guard, the old man hav- ing disappeared. During the scrimmage, however, the two sailors who had rowed them ashore managed to slip away unnoticed, got in the dinghy, and started for the sloop. The Indians demanded that Blinn hail them back. Instead he shouted for them to go on board and make sail. Then he told the Indians, who didn’t understand the order, that the sailors were too frightened to obey. The Indians insisted that all on the sloop be brought on shore. Accordingly Mr. Savage at Blinn’s request, started to go aboard. On coming along side in a canoe paddled by two of the Indians with a guard of two other canoes, he slipped quickly over the side of the sloop and ordered the crew to fire on the canoes. Seeing what was up, the In dians ^ (See Note 7). [ 122] THE ENGLISH PERIOD made off. The sloop being now under sail and about to es- cape, the stratagem of the captain caused the Indians to release the prisoners upon the promise of presents. It was agreed that two of Dambois’ men should go on board for the presents, but Savage sent only a part of what Blinn had ordered. The Indians refused to accept a part. When Dam- bois’ men went back for the remainder. Savage told them he would send no more unless the prisoners were released and put on board. He gave them an ultimatum that if this was not done within the hour, the sloop would sail for An- napolis. Blinn was helpless. He wrote out an order to Sav- age to show that his plan for their release was official. Be- fore the canoe arrived the third time, however, the sloop had sailed. The prisoners were now in great fear of the Indians’ re- venge. Hibbert Newton’s journal, which tells us the story, says that God was good. Dambois having returned, their release waTs finally arranged by his giving the Indians twenty-seven pistoles’ worth of Indian corn, powder and shot, which together with the presents from the sloop al- ready delivered amounted to about £6o. The Indians then crossed to their wigwams on Indian Island where they cel- ebrated all night with occasional gunfire, which caused the late prisoners some anxiety. Captain Bhnn had a small shal- lop stored at Otter Habor. A timely Bay of Fundy fog set in and the shallop sailed for Grand Manan from which is- land after another night in the open the harassed voyagers managed to reach AnnapoHs with news of another war.® It was evident that Massachusetts must begin to look ® Board of Trade Pub. (Nova Scotia) Vol. IV. Ch. 64; Gay Transcripts (Nova Scotia Papers) IV, 32 in Mass. Hist. Soc. (See Note 8). [123] SAINT CROIX after her frontier at Saint Croix. Governor William Dum- mer at Boston instructed Colonel Westbrook, charged with patrolling the coast, to “get all your whale boats mended . , , and order a party of about fifty men under a diligent, prudent officer down to Penebscot Bay and as much further as you shall think for the service, especially at Passamaquoddy.” ^ Lieutenant Governor J. Wentworth of Portsmouth was even more aggressive. He told his Cap- tain Cornwall on May 24, 1725, to go to Passamaquoddy “to get intelligence of the enemy and decoy them by sounding for fish, concealing the men, etc., and destroy the Indian enemy as well as any pirates.” As encouragement he offered one hundred pounds for each scalp of a male Indian above twelve years old and, to show how to earn this blood money, advised that an ambush be laid at the “usual passage of the Indians from Passamaquoddy and St. Johns l^ver to Penebscot.” The record is silent about the ambush but a treaty in 1725, in which King George was acknowledged “the rightful possessor of the Province of Nova Scotia or Acadie according to its ancient bound- aries,” was ratified at a great pow-wow at Falmouth (Port- land) where Chief Assoquad represented the Passama- quoddy tribe. It served as a precedent for succeeding treaties.” The Indians, however, were still suspicious and held back. In the Governor of Nova Scotia’s letter-book is a copy of a letter to the Passamaquoddies, dated June 17, 1727, assuring them there is no truth in a rumor that the •Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) X, 244. ^“Ibid, 280. “G. P. XVIII, Raymond (1910 ed.) 255. [124] THE ENGLISH PERIOD English ships would fire on their canoes if they went fish- ing at Cansod^ For some time the Lords of Trade and Plantations had been considering the formation of a new province east of Penebscot. Massachusetts governors frequently made trips of exploration as far as Passamaquoddy. Readers of the Boston Weekly News Letter of July i8, 1734 could have read this social item. “On Monday last about six o’clock in the after- noon the Rev. Thomas Prince sailed from Boston for the Eastward in his Majesty’s Ship Scarborough, Captain Durell, in Company with Gov. Belcher, Hon. Josiah Willard Esq. and Edward Winslow Esq., Sheriff of the County of Suffolk and Colonel of a regiment of foot in this town. They go to take a further view of that spacious country and, as we hear, to have an interview of some of the Indian tribes to continue and strengthen their friendship with us.” It was the right time of year, as we know, for a junket along the Maine coast to that spacious country. The Rev. Thomas Prince kept a diary of his trip in which he tells us that with a fair wind they came to anchor in the eastern or main branch of Passamaquoddy harbor on Wednesday night at nine o’clock in sixteen fathoms: “It is supposed to be the harbor which the French call St. Crok or near it which St. Croix is the east- ern boundary of this Province and the western of ^’Nova Scotia Archives 11, 77 (Governor’s Letter Book). [125] SAINT CROIX Nova Scotia and about five or six hours sail to An- napolis. The next morning we made signals for the inhabitants to come on board. The next day in the afternoon, His Excellency with some other gentle- men went a shoar but could discover none. And the thick fog hindered us from searching for St. Croix River.” As opportunity offered, the Indians continued to make trouble at Passamaquoddy. Their last recorded raid in these Indian wars occurred in February 1756, when they captured there a schooner, carrying six guns and a crew of ten, bound for Annapolis with provisions for the garrison. This seizure caused Governor Shirley of Massachusetts to write Governor Lawrence at Annapolis urging him to have the Vulture, a sloop of war, retake the schooner lest the provisions “yield the French and their Indians very considerable support.” But the aggressive actions of the English and also the dechning influence of the French in Acadia helped to convince the river tribe that a trade treaty would be more to its advantage than wars. On February II, 1760, Colonel Arbuthnot commanding the garrison at Fort Frederick at the mouth of the St. John River arrived at Halifax bringing with him two chiefs of the Passama- quoddy tribe intent on making peace on the basis of the Indian treaty of 1725. A feature of the resulting treaty was the provision for a government “Truckhouse” and pro- hibition by the Nova Scotia Legislature against all private trading with the Indians. The standard of value set by the treaty was the beaver skin and all articles were appraised “N. E. Hist, and Genealogical Register, October, 1851, V, 376. P. XIX. [ 126 ] THE ENGLISH PERIOD and priced in terms of beaver skins. Percentages were fixed.^® More equitable and friendly relations followed this treaty. With the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, interest in the “spacious country” had increased. And now the ap- pointment of Francis Bernard as Colonial Governor of Massachusetts Bay in 1759 to succeed Governor Pownell proved to be a step forward. Francis Bernard should at- tract more than passing notice of the Crucian. It was due to him in large part that the Coast of Maine, which Lon- don authority had kept closed, became open for settlement and he was the first English-speaking person to own and try to develop the territory bordering the St. Croix River. Although Governor Belcher’s curiosity about that river could not be satisfied because of fog, Governor Bernard seems to have been well acquainted with the region. His correspondence indicates that he thoroughly explored the whole coast of the province of which he was governor.^® We may imagine him in summer months cruising leisurely along its rugged shore finally rounding Quoddy Head to enter the fine harbor of Passamaquoddy. There Moose Is- land arrested his attention and no doubt the St. Croix beck- oned him to explore its beauties as it had done to Cham- plain and De Monts almost two centuries before. The proof of our pudding lies in the fact that he acquired and held until its escheat a vast area of land on the western bank of the St. Croix River. When Governor Bernard, now Sh: Francis Bernard, Baronet, retired to England he left this ^Nova Scotia Archives, 1869, I, 436. “The Bernard Correspondence and Papers (15 vols.) in Sparks manu- scripts, Harvard College Library. (See Note 16). [ 127 ] SAINT CROIX tract and also the whole island of Mount Desert which had been granted to him as a gift in 1 762 by the Legislature and Council of Massachusetts (in gratitide as stated in the act for “Extraordinary Services”)'" under the charge of his son John. The fine portrait of Governor Bernard painted at Bos- ton by Copley^® seems to reveal a man of attractive person- ality. With ability as administrator he combined skill in poetry, music and architecture. He took keen interest in Harvard College, especially in its cultivation of classical Latin verse, gave liberally toward renewal of the college library after the burning of Harvard Hall and drew the actual plans and supervised the building of the new Har- vard Hall that still stands today. Until the adoption of the Stamp Act by Great Britain in 1765 Bernard was most popular. If he had quitted office then, says Hutchinson, he would have been spoken of as “one of the best of the New England governors.” “ Although he deplored the Stamp Act and helped to have it repealed he got no credit. Hence- forth the rising tide of angry revolution enguEed him. He stood out in the minds of the mob as the image of a king they blamed and hated without reserve. Sir Francis was a royal governor who lent a touch of elegance to provincial life in Massachusetts. Stately Prov- ince House in Boston and his own country estate of sixty acres along Jamaica Pond, whose old trees, still standing. (See Note 17). ^ (See Note 18). ^ (See Note 19). ^History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay, Thomas ‘Hutchinson, Lt. Gov. and Chief Justice, Harvard University Press, 1936, (3 vols.) in, 182. [128] THE ENGLISH PERIOD are said to have been planted by him, in addition to Castle William on Boston Harbor, all at his command, provided an urbane center for the gentry of his time. But it was a case of fiddling while Rome burnt. When he left his prov- ince in 1769, the bell-ringing and songs by the populace on his departure were not set to the words and music of the famihar toast he is credited with having composed in his younger days.^^ A group headed by Governor Thomas Pownall of Massachusetts and containing Richard Oswald, Lord Shel- burne’s Scottish friend and adviser, had put forward a pro- posal to develop a county of six townships on Passama- quoddy Bay and St. Croix River. There scheme included the development of hemp and naval stores and the erection of a frontier to prevent outlaws of neighboring Colonies sheltering themselves from justice.^^ Nothing seems to have come of this suggestion but in Governor Bernard’s admin- istration an exploring party with Israel Perley as leader and twelve men in the pay of Massachusetts landed at Machias in 1761 and went through the woods, crossing the St. Croix River, as far as the River St. John. They reported that they found “no obstacle save what Indians might offer to its being at once occupied and settled.” Governor Bernard also sent John Mitchell to locate and survey the St. Croix River. The map which Mitchell made became important later in the search for the eastern boundary of the United States. We need not hesitate to assert that Governor Bernard was much interested in Saint Croix and the new province ^ (See Note 21). “Nova Scotia Archives (Memorial read December 23, 1763), 72, 177. “ “On the Early History of New Brunswick,” Moses H. Perley, 1891, 5. [ 129] SAINT CROIX of which it was to be the center. On November 9, 1764, he wrote to the Earl of Halifax: “The whole length of the country (between Saint Croix and Penobscot) I have reconnoitered in person. ... As for a Capital it would be too early to determine upon that now. It would be perhaps the best way to let the several towns advance themselves as far as they can and then to pick and choose among them. At present for the situation of a Capital we should ballance between the Bay of Saint Croix, or more properly the Bay of Passama- quoddy and the Bay of Machias. The former I know very well having lived there at anchor 4 days and having had the whole of it to the westward of the river Saint Croix surveyed and planned.” And on October 3 1 of the following year, he received a grant from the Government at Nova Scotia for himself, ex-Governor Pownall and others of one hundred thousand acres of land bordering on the west bank of the St. Croix river and extending from Eastport to Devil’s Head and Princeton.^® Actually this grant was part of the same grant received by Isaac de Razilly in 1632 and a part, of course, of the proposed new province. An item of considerable in- terest is that the Richard Oswald associated with Pownall in developing a Saint Croix grant is the man who repre- sented England in negotiating the treaty of peace of 1783 which fixed by his agreement the St. Croix River as the United States boundary. Since the Bernard grant was lo- cated on the American side of the boundary it reverted by Doc. (M.H.S.) Xin, 386. = G. P. XL (See Note 25). [ 130] THE ENGLISH PERIOD escheat to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was lost to the grantees. Meantime the Rulers of Nova Scotia had advertised for settlers in 1758 and the “New England Emigration” be- gan.®® Slowly at first they came in fishing and trading ves- sels to start small settlements at Wilson’s Beach (Campo- bello) , Indian Island, Schoodic (St. Stephen) , Digdeguash and elsewhere in Passamaquoddy.®'^ It would be difficult to say with accuracy who arrived first or where. James Boyd and James Chaffey are rivals for first place in Indian Is- land.®® Robert Wilson settled at Wilson’s Beach.®® Jere- miah Frost and James Brown built the first log cabin at St. Andrews.®® John Curry came early to Digdeguash,®^ John Frost was hving at Pleasant Point, and Thomas FerreU on Deer Island.®® In 1765, Governor Montagu Wilmot of Nova Scotia began and his successor Lord Wm. Campbell continued to distribute land on a liberal plan. Besides the St. Croix River grant of 100,000 acres to Governor Bernard, the “Canada Company,” an association organized at Montreal (it included Lt. Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts and other prominent poHtical or financial members as well as ex-officers of the late war) obtained grants totalling about 400,000 acres of the best lands on the St. John River and a fishing station at Indian Island in Passamaquoddy.®® “G. P. XXXIV, Haliburton, Nova Scotia, I, 219. *'R.S.C., 1899, II, 323, (Ganong), “ (See Note 28). ® (See Note 29). (See Note 30). “ (See Note 31). ** (See Note 32). ^History of Central Neiv Brunswick, Lilian M. Beckwith Maxwell, 1937, 45 * [131] SAINT CROIX Lord Wm. Campbell in 1767 granted James Boyd 1000 acres at Digdeguash, John Tucker 20,000 acres at Oak Bay, John Mascareen 10,000 acres at Magaguadavic and Joseph Gorham the whole of Deer Island. Joseph Gorham and three others also received x 0,000 acres apiece, a total of 40,000 acres, on the mainland between St. Andrews and St. George. This liberal pohcy of giving large blocks of land to prospective settlers was soon curtailed, probably on orders from London, but not before Lord Wm. Camp- bell had granted his friend, Wm. Owen, the island of Campobello.®^ The letters of James Simond who set up the Indian Is- land trading and fishing post for the Canada Company, in which he and his partners from Newburypon were in- terested, tell of large profits in furs, staves, fish and lime (the latter from St. John) before 1775.^® Their fishing ves- sels carried fish in the hold and lumber on the decks usually to Boston. Passamaquoddy, being nearer to Newburyport than St. John, had first attracted Simond’s attention. The sloops Bachelor, Peggy, and Molly and schooners Eunice and Polly from Newburyport were employed in fishing at Passamaquoddy from April to October for several years after 1763. Simond tried whaling too. Out of his experi- ence, however, he wrote “with respect to whaling, don’t think the sort of whales that are at Passamaquoddy Bay can be caught.” The first extant business letter of the company G. P. XL. The threat of the Stamp Tax caused the great rush for grants of land in 1765. Raymond, 353. ^Brebner, 116; G. P. XXX^I; R^ymond—History of St, John River (1910 ed.) 182, 221, 303 seq. gives a full account of the early traders at St. John and the St. Croix. [ 132] THE ENGLISH PERIOD was written from Indian Island. There must have been at that time a large summer population of traders and fisher- men at the mouth of the St. Croix. Simond speaks of “such a number of traders at Passamaquoddy that I don’t expect much trade there this spring.” Massachusetts as well as Nova Scotia had adopted a policy of encouragement to settlers. Puritan as she was, her requirements were stricter. The House of Representa- tives of Massachusetts Bay on February 20, 1762, voted to grant six townships between the rivers St. Croix and Penob- scot to about three hundred fifty persons on the fol- lowing conditions: No township was to be more than six miles on the sea coast or on any river. Each township was to be divided into sixty-four parts or shares. For each town- ship there were to be sixty families and sixty houses of dimensions not less than eighteen feet square and seven feet stud. Five acres of land must be cleared and cultivated and on each township a suitable meeting house for public wor- ship of God set up. In addition a learned Protestant minis- ter was to be settled and provided with “comfortable and honorable support.” In each township there must be re- served and appropriated four whole rights or shares—one for the first settled or ordained minister, his heirs and as- signs forever; one for the use of the ministry; one for the use of Harvard College in Cambridge; and one for the use of a school forever. Any grantee neglecting to perform the above within six years would forfeit his right or share and the King’s consent was necessary as a condition of validity of the grant.®® The important individual grant of Campobello, already “Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) xra, 249, 253. [133] SAINT CROIX mentioned, to William Owen was the first big grant which has remained valid to this day.®'^ Captain William Owen, R. N., came from a prominent Welsh family whose ancestral home was Glansevem, Wales. As a youth he en- listed in the Royal Navy. After campaigning in the East Indies he was put in command while still a midshipman of a boat sent to cut out two French ships from under the guns of Pondicherry. In that action of October 7, 1760, he had his right arm shot off and was wounded in his side by a cannon ball from the fortress. Promoted to lieutenant and retired from active service he petitioned the Admiralty for a recognition of his services. Nothing seems to have come of this until he met Lord William Campbell, Governor of Nova Scotia with whom he went there in 1766 as a sort of volunteer aide. At Halifax he again petitioned the govern- ment, this time successfully, and received a grant of land at Passamaquoddy. His grant of “Outer Island” was issued on September 30, 1767. One of the major finds in the litera- ture of the Saint Croix region is the manuscript narrative of William Owen. It covers many of his adventures in different parts of the world. The portion relating to his travels in America with its interesting account of life in Boston and other cities in 1767 and of his settlement at Campobello in 1770 has been ably edited by Dr. Victor H. Paltsits and published by the New York Public Library.®® After receiving his grant Captain Owen returned to England to organize his company of proprietors and gather his colony. In 1770, he sailed in a vessel called the Owen "R.S.C. 1899, n, 332, G. P. XL. ‘^Narrative of American Voyages and Travels of Captain Wm. Owens, RN. Paltsits, N. Y. Public Library, 1942. See Introduction and Appendix. [134] THE ENGLISH PERIOD with a group of artisans and indentured servants to settle his island at Passamaquoddy. Owen’s journal is salty as the sea. His sailing directions are numerous and accurate. Be- calmed off his island on June 3, 1770, he tells us how he approached and named his new domain. “About 3 o’clock a fresh breeze sprung up from the westward with which we worked up the Sound and at 5 anchored in NE Cove of Havre de Loutre in the Island of Passamaquoddy. I soon after went on shore and found three New England families settled here without legal authority, who chearfully acquisced in coming under my jurisdiction. I fixt on a spot for building a town to be called New Warrington and formally named the harbor Port Owen and the island Campobello. The latter partly complimentary and punning on the name of the Governor of the Province and partly as applicable to the nature of the soil and fine appearance of the island: Campobello in Spanish and Italian being, I presume, synonimous to the French Beauchamp.” It was Owen’s idea that the title of all land on the island should always remain with the proprietors and all settlers be leaseholders only, a procedtire which later meant con- siderable friction with tenants. There were also squatters who claimed prior rights by occupation. Captain Owen called his settlement New Warrington after his family place at Glansevern, a name which has now disappeared. He did not, however, long remain at his ideal estate in the new world, so carefully planned in the English manner. After his eldest son was bom on the island he took his ‘‘Ibid, 120. [135] SAINT CROIX family back to Wales and never returned. An eccentric cousin, David Owen, in 1787 became the resident agent of the family and in 1835 Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen, the second son of Captain Owen, arrived at Campo- bello to carry on the Owen idea. After his death the heirs apparently found it unprofitable to own a thinly populated island three thousand miles away and finally sold all their right, title and interest to a Boston syndicate in 1881.*® Under its management Campobello became a well-known summer resort. All these grants of land by Nova Scotia, whose territory bordered the St. Croix River, and the coming of squatters who began gradually to camp on any favorable location, whether granted or not, were not inspired by fear of im- pending revolution in the more western colonies. They were economic and taken for personal gain or betterment. As the activities of the Canada Company and other traders made the abundance of fish, game, lumber and fertile soil known, restless pioneers eager for more space and oppor- tunities were bound to come. But it was the War of the Revolution, after all, which finally shaped the destiny of the Sentinel River. NOTES 2. The French resolve to recapture Acadia “before the English are solidly settled therein” is indicated by a letter of M. Pontchartrain, Minister of Marine, to M. Beauhamois, intendent of Rochefort on December 14, 1711, which included the true forecast that “this country is so near to Canada that there will be every reason to fear that it will eventually in- volve its [Canada’s] loss if the English retain possession.” “Early Missions in Acadia,” (J. G. Shea) Catholic World, February 1871. Murdock, Nova Scotia 1, 328 (Note). "St. John Daily Sun, July zr, 1882. (See Note 40). [136] THE ENGLISH PERIOD In 1748, the government of Quebec still claimed that the “Quenibec” (Kenebec) was the boundary. G.P. XIX. In 1754, Quebec planned to erect a fort or trading post and settle on Passamaquoddy Bay. It was, however, never built. Broadhead’s Docu- ments New York, X, 264; G.P. XXXIII. 7. In the Shetland and Orkney Islands a “buggie” is a sheepskin bag with the wool off. Hence ‘‘buggie-fiay,” i.e., to Say an animal in such a man- ner as to keep the skin entire from the neck downward. This obviously would require a special knife—the “bugginett.” Cf. English Dialect Dic- tionary (London, 1898). 8. Capt. John Lovewell or Lovell (after whom the Indian war of 1721-25 is called) was kiUed at Pequaket (Saco Pond) on May 8, 1725. It was his persistence and courage in fighting the Indians in territory where they considered themselves safe that led to the Peace of 1725. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series I, 353; Ibid VII, 213. 16. A portion of this correspondence is printed in Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.). For full information on the life of Bernard see The Bernards of Abington and Nether Winchendon^ Mrs. Napier Higgins (London, 1903, 4 vols.); Life of Sir Francis Bernard by one of his Sons, Thomas Bernard (pri- vately printed in London, 1790); The Loyalists of Massachusetts, J. H. Stark (Boston, 1910) 191; The Portraits of Sir Francis Bernard, A. Mat- thews, Club of (Ddd Volumes, (Boston, 1922). 17. The approval by the English Lords of Trade of the Massachusetts grant of Mt. Desert Island to Governor Bernard was worded: “We can have no objection to your acceptance of this grant as a testimony of the ap- probation and favour of the Province in whose service and in the con- duct of whose affairs you have manifested such zeal and capacity.’^ The actual confirmation of the grant did not come through however until 1771 due to certain objections by Nova Scotia. Sir Francis Bernard and his Grant of Mt. Desert, Sawtelle Mass. Colonial Soc. Pub., 1921, XXIV, 197, 250. 18. When Sir Francis was awarded the degree of D.C.L. by Oxford Uni- versity in 1772, he also received “The honor of having his picture by Copley among the illustrious students in the Hall of that society.” (Christ Church Records). The Bernards of Abington, II, 235. The Cop- ley portrait was undoubtedly painted at Boston because John Singleton Copley first visited England in 1776. 19. Governor Bernard w’as the instigator and one of the authors of the famous Harvard College address to King George III in celebration of his accession. It was published in England under the title of ^Tietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis apud Novanglos, Bostoni, Massachut- tensium. typis J. Green and J. Russell. MDCCLXII.” 21. “Here’s a health to all those that we love Here’s a health to all those that love us Here’s a health to aU those that love them that love those That love them that love those that love us.” The Bernards of Abington I, 214. [ 137 ] SAINT CROIX 25. The text of the Bernard grant was: at the head of the Western branch of river Cobscook Called the St. Croix two leagues above falls or full rapids and to run from thence north on the meridian line or north fourteen degrees east by the needle seventeen miles, thence south sixty-six degrees east till it meets with the Western branch of the river Schoodic and is thence bounded by the river Schoodic to the bay round into Cobscook River, through the falls, and up the W^estem branch to the first mentioned boundary, together with the island called Moose Island and the island called St. Croix Island, containing in the whole by estimation one hun- dred thousand acres.” The “St. Croix Island” referred to in the grant was probably Treat’s Is- land in Eastport Harbor, erroneously claimed by Nova Scotia as the island on which De Monts and Champlain spent the winter (1604-5). 28. James Boyd came from Scotland to America in 1760 to sell goods for a brother, then took the proceeds of his sales and settled at Passama- quoddy. He formed the ambitious scheme of supplying settlers to the territory between Schoodic Falls and Outer Island and receiving a grant of it from Lord William Campbell. Nothing came of it. He appears to have sided with the American patriots and to have left Passamaquoddy at the start of the Revolution. (His deposition on the boundary dispute was sworn to at Boston in 1798.) Crucians are indebted to him for the attractive name “Edlmamock,” a headland on the bay near Chamcook, in memory of his native Scotland. G.P. XLI; CXI, XX.; Kilby, 106. Chal- mers Manuscripts, N. Y. Public Library. The descendants of James Chaffey assert that he was the first English inhabitant of Indian Island. He came from Somersetshire, was a gold- smith by trade but at Passamaquoddy appears to have been active in fur and lumber. After the Canada Company abandoned Indian Island his heirs received a grant of it from the government of New Brunswick. The attractive brick dwelling of the Chaffey family is still standing. GJP. XXXVIII; XL. History of the Isles and Islets of the Bay of Fundy, Lori- mer. (St. Stephen, 1876), 29. Robert Wilson, an Irishman and an ofEcer in the Old French War came from Boston to locate on Outer Island about 1766. In ejectment pro- ceedings brought by David Owen in 1787 the New Brunswick court confirmed Wilson’s title because of his adverse possession for more than twenty years, G.P. XXXVIII. 30. Jeremiah Frost and James Brown testified before the Boundary Com- mission in 1797 as early residents. They appear to have come to St. An- drews about 1769 or 1770 from the St. John River. Frost soon settled at St. Stephen where he was living when the Port Matoon Loyalists ar- rived in 1784. He later had a grant on Dennis Stream there. Brown set- tled on Deer Island. G.P. XXXVIII; CV; CXXII. 31. John Curry, known as “Esquire Curry,” was a prominent pre-revolu- tionary settler. He was established at Digdeguash as early as 1771, ap- pointed magistrate by Nova Scotia in 1774 and was active on the British Side in the Revolution. His house was raided by order of Colonel John [ 138 ] THE ENGLISH PERIOD Allan in 1778, his papers seized and much property taken. Curry, who was not at home, later pursued the pillagers and recovered some of the plunder. He received with others a grant of 15,000 acres along the Dig- deguash in 1784. G.P. LIII; SCVI; Kilby, no. 32. Deer Island (a translation of the Indian word Ed-ok-e-men-eekO, one of the beauty spots of the St. Croix River, was early occupied by one John Fountain (or La Fontaine) a Frenchman from Port Royal but its resident proprietor was Captain Thomas Ferrell, who bought the grant issued to Joseph Gorham and built a house at Choco- late Cove about 1770. A Virginian by birth. Captain Ferrell served as ensign at the time of Braddock’s defeat and was, also, present at the storming of Morro Castle in Havana in 1762. He was noteworthy among early pioneers. Unlike David Owen of Campobello, he invited all who would to share his island with him. G.P. XLII. Captain Ferrell was a picturesque figure in the social life of Saint Andrews. Mowat, 73. Gideon Pendleton, after whom nearby PendletorPs Island was named, lived on Deer Island. The other large island in the Passamaquoddy group, “McMasters,” with the pink clifis, took its name from the Mc- Masters family, pioneers at St. Andrews. 40. The incorporators of the Campobello Co. were Quincy A. Shaw, Henry L. Higginson, Francis R. Beaumont, Alexander S. Porter, Edward C. Pike; Samuel Wells was President and A. S. Porter, General Manager. Old legends and new developments, principally the building of two hotels the “Owen” and “Tyn-y-coed,” are also told in the Sun article. All early Saint Croix grants mentioned in this chapter except that of Campobello appear to have been forfeited. The same locations were later granted to Loyalists and others. [ 139] CHAPTER TWELVE The American Revolution A 1 JlLTHOUGH there are undoubted advantages in living in remote places in time of war Pas- samaquoddy did not escape the unrest of 1775. On one side Machias was strongly militant and on the other Halifax watched with cathke eyes all activities of the coast from Saint John to Penobscot. That Machias men were eager to throw off the yoke of British interference is undoubtedly, true. It seems to have been a matter of business.^ In the reign of George I, the British government had adopted forest laws for America. Colonel Dunbar, Sur- veyor General of the lands of Nova Scotia, wrote to Gov- ernor Dummer of Massachusetts on December 4, 1729, that the Bang had given instructions “Signed with ye King’s own hand” to lay aside not less than 200,000 acres of timberland in the province of Nova Scotia as contiguous as may be to the sea coast or navigable rivers to be reserved 'G. P.XLIV. [ 140] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION as a nursery of trees for the use of the Royal Navy.^ John Gyles, of whom we have already spoken, had been with Colonel Church in the raid on the St. Croix and now ap- pears to have been employed in cruising for King’s masts. On November 14, 1729 he wrote to Colonel Dunbar that he was going “as far as Passamaquoddy for timber for masts which King George had mead a Returne for his Use in all this continent.” Some of these mast reservations probably were on the Machias river. We know that on the St. Croix there was a “King’s mast road” at St. Stephen running to Old Ridge and beyond. This road was later used in plotting lots given Loyalists and soldiers in 1784 and is today named “King Street.” Because the Machias river with its two branches had am- ple water power near the sea it was the first river on which saw mills were built. It had a thriving lumber trade before the Revolution. Massachusetts men resented these forest laws as infringing their rights as freemen. Here was an- other thorn to be plucked, this time by Americans from the British. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached their ears the patriots of Machias seized the British armed schooner, Margaretta, an act which made the first naval engagement of the war.^ The American Revolution turned out to be as impor- tant an event in the history of the St. Croix River as its ear- lier discovery. By establishing its identity and bringing a flood of worthy settlers, the outcome of the war benefited ^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series, X, 452. ® Ibid X, 446. * (See Note 4). [ 141 ] SAINT CROIX a large region then mostly populated by native Indians. Only thirty white families were living there in 1775, strug- gling to make it a place of permanent abode.® After the war began, both sides recognized the importance of Indian sup- port in holding thinly settled outposts. For the Americans, Colonel John Allan succeeded in keeping the Indians hos- tile to the idea of British domination of Saint Croix.® Prob- ably this had the elfect of warding off British control of eastern Maine. On the British side, Michael Francklin of Halifax who was later appointed Indian agent was success- ful to some extent in neutralizing the hostility of the In- dians of Saint John and Saint Croix. Franckhn summed up the situation in a letter to Lord George Germaine on June 6, 1778—“The several tribes of the Passamaquoddie, St. Johns and Mickmack Indians are not less than 500 fighting men. Part of those of Passamaquoddie and St. John River, prior to my appointment, were in arms against the King and with the rebels at the investment of Fort Cumberland having been influenced thereto by letters from Mr. Wash- ington and by very considerable presents from the Massa- chusetts government.” ^ The propaganda and the presents intended to influence the Indians were numerous. One of the most interesting and effective letters was sent by George Washington who was immensely popular with his brother warriors of Saint Croix.® The original of this letter is a treasured possession of the tribe at Pleasant Point: ®Brebner, 117. ^ G. P. XLIV et seq. Kidder’s Military Operations in Eastern Maine. John Allan’s Letters in Me. Hist. Soc. Collections. ^ Murdock, Nova Scotia II, 591. Cf. Perley, 14. ® (See Note 8). [ 142] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION “Brothers of Passamaquoddia: I am glad to hear by Major Shaw that you accepted the chain of Friendship which I sent you last February from Cambridge, & that you are determined to keep it bright and unbroken. When I first heard that you refused to send any of your warriors to my assist- ance when called upon by our brothers of St. John, I did not know what to think. I was afraid that some enemy had turned your hearts against me. But I am since informed that all your young men were employed in hunting, which was the reason for their not coming. This has made my mind easy and I hope you will always in future join with your brothers of St. John & Penebscot when required. I have desired my brother the Gov’’ of Massachusetts Bay, to pay you the money which Capt. Smith promised you for sending my letters to the Mic- mack Indians. Brothers: I have a piece of news to tell you which I hope you will attend to. Our enemy, the King of Great Britain, endeavored to stir up all the Indians from Canada to South Carolina against us. But our brethren of the six Nations & their allies the Shaw- anese & Delewares would not hearken to the ad- vice of his Messengers sent among them, but kept fast hold of the ancient covenant chain. The Chero- kees & the Southern tribes were foolish enough to listen to them and take up the hatchet against us. Upon this our Warriors went into their country, burnt their houses, destroyed their com and ob- liged them to sue for peace and give hostages for their future good behavior. Now Brothers never let the King’s wicked counsellor turn your hearts against me and your brethren of this country, but bear in mind what I told you last February & what I tell you now. [143] SAINT CROIX In token of my friendship I send you this from my army on the banks of the Great River Dele- ware, this 24th day of December, 1776. George Washington It is the date of this letter and the place it came from that hold our attention. It was written at the moment of plan- ning a great adventure. The next day, Christmas, Wash- ington crossed the Delaware to surprise and capture a thousand Hessians in the memorable battle of Trenton. John Allan became the dominant person at Saint Croix throughout the Revolution. His business had been trading with the Indians. From his long acquaintance with them and many visits to their wigwams from Penobscot to Chig- necto, he had gained much influence over them. From 1770 to 1776, when he abandoned his home and property in Nova Scotia, he had represented the County of Cum- berland in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Why he took the side of the Americans is not clear, but, to escape arrest, he left Fort Cumberland in an open boat and ar- rived at Passamaquoddy on August ii, 1776 .^ He went from there to Machias. Because of his experiences with the Indians he was made “Superintendent of Eastern Indians” and received an ap- pointment as colonel in the American Army. His many letters to the Massachusetts authorities and his diary of the war have been preserved in the Maine Historical Society Collections. Nova Scotia leaders resented bitterly that a prominent citizen should side with the rebels and a reward of one hundred pounds was posted for his capture.^® Since ® The Yankees of Nova Scotia were as badly treated as the Loyalists of the United States. Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, 310. (See Note o). -Kilby, 435. [I44-] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION his headquarters were at Machias and the no man’s land ex- tending to the St. John River was his patrol ground, Allan was in some danger. Once in travelhng in winter among the interior lakes of Saint Croix, he escaped a hot pursuit by skating down a lake and jumping open water which his pursuers were unable to leap.^^ At another time he was chased through Passamaquoddy Bay by three boats from a British vessel. Rounding a point of land, sinking his own boat and hiding in the woods, he again managed to get away.^^ Colonel Allan had the habit of admitting Indians freely into his quarters. When sitting in a room with his sons, William and John, at Machias, a powerful Indian came in who had been sent from Halifax to kill him. The Indian pulled a knife but before he could strike a friendly Indian felled him. Disarming his would-be assassin, all Allan did was to send him home in a birch canoe.^® He was nearly caught on July 7, 1778, at Passamaquoddy. Two inhabit- ants of the islands brought a letter from the Captain of a Bermudian sloop praying for protection from small pri- vateers. The Captain had come, it said, for a load of lum- ber and desired advice on how to proceed. “I was so cred- ulous and believed it all true,” wrote Allan in his report, “and upon the first reflection foreign from that proper guard every soldier should be upon in such critical situa- tion, I intended to have gone but kind Providence was more favorable.” He decided to send Lieutenant Delesdernier and some ^ Ibid, 436. “G. P.XLIX. “Kidder, 17. 248. [145] SAINT CROIX Others in a boat with arms to inspect the sloop’s papers and bring it up to St. Andrews. The vessel turned out to be the sloop of war, Howe, with seventy men. Lieutenant Deles- dernier was taken prisoner and spent months at Halifax be- fore his exchange. The most ambitious adventure of this fearless watch-dog of the Saint Croix border was his attempt to set up a truck- house on the St. John River in May, 1777. The attempt failed. The schooners with supphes for the trading sta- tion were seized by the British vessel, VultuTC. Nothing daunted, however, Allan set out (when he heard of his loss) with a party of forty-three in whale boats and canoes to try to extend American influence over the Indians lo- cated on the St. John River in the village of Aukpaque. On the way he picked up some reinforcements at Passama- quoddy. His diary gives many interesting details. A part of his force, left at the mouth of the river, was scattered by an unexpected attack from Nova Scotia. Meantime ascending the river, he held conferences which led to an agreement promising perpetual peace between the various tribes and the United States. But the Indians were not all in agree- ment. Francklin with the aid of the military and a priest named Father Bourg induced others to side with the Brit- ish. It was soon determined to move aU the friendly Indians from Aukpaque to the Saint Croix lakes where there was good hunting. And what was really a gigantic migration, even for nomad Mahseets, began. On July 13, a party of four hundred eighty Indians—^men, women and children —embarked in one hundred twenty-eight canoes. Condi- [146] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION tions were bad. Low water, excessive heat, lack of food, and mosquitoes plagued the party. Suffering was intense. On arrival at the St. Croix lakes word came that the Brit- ish were invading Passamaquoddy and might attack Ma- chias. Allan and his partisans pushed on. “The spirit and loyalty of the Indians was beyond all praise,” says Allan in his diary. The arrival at Machias came in time to render material assistance in its defense during the attack made by Sir George Collier on the thirteenth and fourteenth of Au- gust.^® The attack was repulsed and American control of Machias and Passamaquoddy was never again seriously threatened. Allan’s letters and reports are full of the constant activi- ties of himself and agents at Saint Croix. Privateers of both sides patrolled Passamaquoddy. Vessels allegedly neutral carried on trade in lumber and fish. Passing from one bel- ligerent country to the other was common practice in the Revolution and trading with the enemy almost legitimate.^® A sloop, partly owned in Massachusetts, took “as a tolera- tion from government for near Three years” a load of lum- ber every time it was at Machias. The cargo was seized by the British and well paid for each time. On the sloop’s re- turn voyage from Boston its cargo was again sold to the British.^^ Colonel Allan had on February 12, 1778, ordered Captain Ephraim Chase to arrest “one Mr. Robert Bell, an inhabitant of Passamaquoddy. . . . This man I have re- peated accounts is very active in aiding and assisting the adherents of Great Britain and is what is commonly called “ G. P. XLVII; Raymond 270 et seq, “Brebner, 300W. ^^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XVII, 348. [147] SAINT CROIX a tory.” Much to Allan’s disgust Bell was later released on his brother’s bond by the authorities^® Knowing this he complained that “Passamaquoddy is filling with disaffected from the westward. Incendiarys along shore, aiding and assisting Tories fleeing from Justice, Indeed I expected the Hon'" Court would have laid some more restraint upon that place.” It is probable that the Council in Boston bothered little with Passamaquoddy problems. I have found no record of any commendation of Allan’s success in making the Indians act humanely toward prisoners captured there. Acts origi- nating at Boston continually troubled him, especially the “crimes” American privateers were committing, presum- ably in his territory. “Such proceedings, the Hon®'" Board may depend on [it],” he declared, “will occasion more Torys than loo such expeditions will make good,” His efforts to secure just treatment of the loyal tribes met with negative response. Although he sent their com- plaints verbatim and described them as “just and true,” the Indians received no satisfaction. At a council held in Old Town on October 7, 1778, the old chief of the tribe had spoken with much emotion: “Brother: We was in hopes when we acknowl- edged ourselves Americans, owned them as broth- ers, that the White people on this river [Penobscot] would not [have] admitted any person to take ad- vantage of our unhappy disposition. [They] trys all they can to hurt us, not only cheat us but steal from us. ^ Ibid XV, 357. ^Ibid XV, 381. ^IbidXYl, 15. G. P. Ch. L. [ 148 ] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION “This tribe has taken last winter above 2500 moose skins besides a great quantity of beaver and other furrs, (now) gone from us and we have not a suf- ficiency that will secure our Families this winter. Our men and women are made drunk and after they take all from us [they] will kick us out of doors.” Reading the record of this Council which included many other grievances, we can understand how such abuses not only made the task of this fatherly Superintendent more difficult but angered him. For Allan understood and really cared for his Indians, unreliable as they often were. More- over it was his job to keep them American and he took great pride in it. In the year 1779, he seems to have been able to rouse them to fighting pitch. Captain John Preble who had been truckmaster at Machias and was now m local charge at Pendleton’s Island near Le Tete passage, reported on July 24: “I left Passamaquoddy about 10 days ago where I have been upon command of the Indians five weeks. There is now there about 60 warriors, the greater part fierce for War and wait only for orders to march and assist their brothers the Americans. The enemy coudent incured their displeasure more than coming on their River or near it to fourtify. They have declared to me they would spil Every drop of their blood in defence of their land & liberty. They seem to be more and more Sensible of the diabolli- cal intentions of the Enemy and the Justness of our cause.” “Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XVI, 101. “/Wi XVI, 395. [ 149] SAINT CROIX And on October 30, Colonel Allan boasts that “the body of Indians now at Passamaquoddy is very large. . . . They are anxious for fighting and had I but 40 men I certainly would attempt Fort Howe [Saint John].” Evidently he lacked “white” men. This zest for attack did not last long. A letter, dated November 9, from “the riverWAGGA-GUADA- W O I A or St. Croix,” says he is afraid to leave the Indians to themselves at Saint John and Saint Croix and proposes to “keep them under my own eye” by taking them to Machias and feeding them for the winter.^® Castine had just been occupied by the British. After that show of power, fol- lowed by the disastrous defeat of the American fleet^® the warriors of Passamaquoddy paid more attention to Nova Scotia’s Superintendent Franckhn. They were getting out of hand. The British had given them pardon and presents.^^ From St. Andrews, Allan wrote on May 28, 1780, that he had been obliged in order to satisfy them to send to Saint John for a priest and hoped the President and Council would not object.^® On June i, he forbade the Indians to board two armed British schooners, the Buckram of eight guns and a transport of six guns, anchored in Eastport har- bor. Defying him. Pier Toma, the Chief of Saint John, and Louis Neptune of Penobscot, whom he scornfully described as “the pretended chief of Passamaquoddy,” went on board and received presents.^® Later in 1780, the Indians retired to the lakes of the Saint Croix and would ^ibid xvn, 412. *Doc. Hist. (M.H5.) xvn, 429. (See Note 26). ^ G. P., L. (See Note 27). «Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XVin, 284. ^ Ibid XVIII, 292. (See Note 29). [ 150] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION not respond to Allan’s “expresses” asking for a confer- ence.®® In the efforts to hold the natives French officers were sent to Machias to make friends with the Eastern tribes and the French warship Mars came to Eastport in May, 1781. The Indians inspected her and were entertained on board.®^ There is no evidence of their wilHngness to take sides in any active manner with either belligerent during the clos- ing period of the war. Throughout the war, however, there were no hostile acts toward the Americans. At Machias the Passamaquoddies had been of important aid in its defense against the British attack.®® Surely to John Allan belongs the credit for the success of the vigil at Saint Croix.®® What is it that ignites the spark of liberty in the human breast to make a man leave his accustomed and expected way of life for a cause? The three men most notably asso- ciated with the Saint Croix on the American side in the Revolution were not born in and did not live in the Ameri- can Colonies when the tocsin of liberty rang in their ears. Of these men, John Allan and Lewis Frederick Delesder- nier, Jr., came from Nova Scotia to Passamaquoddy in 1776, there to spend the remainder of their lives. The other, Albert Gallatin, whose first contact with America began there in 1780, went on from the Saint Croix to greater fame elsewhere, as Champlain had before him. He became an able financier and statesman, United States Sec- retary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and Minis- ter to France and to Great Britain. Born in Geneva, in "Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XDC, 30. ’^Ibid XIX, 283. “G. P. XLVII; Kilby, 485. (See Note 33). [151] SAINT CROIX ij 6 i, of a leading family, he was determined upon his graduation from the University of Geneva in 1779, to come to America to aid her struggle for liberty. With let- ters from Benjamin Franklin and Lady Penn to prominent persons in Philadelphia, he landed with his friend, Henri Serre, at Cape Ann on July 14, 1780. They rode on horse- back from Gloucester to Boston, where they put up at a coffee house on North Street. There they met another Genevese, Madame Delesdernier, young Lewis Frederick’s mother. And these homesick boys forgot all about their letters of introduction at Philadelphia.®^ Lewis Frederick Delesdernier, Sr., and his wife had come to Boston from Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, to see if they could recover some property seized by an American privateer and also to join their son, who had taken sides with the Americans. They were then on their way to Machias with a French priest, who was being sent from the French Fleet at Rhode Island to serve as mission- ary to the Indians. Gallatin and Serre decided to join them. The young men had brought tea from Geneva, which they now exchanged for a supply of rum, sugar and tobacco. They hoped to trade with the Indians for furs. Arriving at Machias they lived with young Delesdernier, who was sec- retary to Colonel Allan and a lieutenant in the Continental Army. Although born in Nova Scotia of Genevese parents and with several brothers on the Kong’s side, Delesdernier was in sympathy with the Americans and took part in the unsuccessful American attack on Fort Cumberland under Jonathan Eddy. After that he made his way along the shore through the wilderness to the St. Croix and joined Colonel Allan at Machias. ^ H. Adams, Albert Gallatin, 30 et seq; Kilby, 236 et seq, [ 152] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The young men from Geneva were very enthusiastic about the country. In their letters to friends at home they wrote that they expect to “take some of the land next spring, not here, but a little further to the north or south where it is better.” They were fascinated with the Indian canoes, which are “constructed of birch bark and are charming to go with one or two inside. One can lie down in them as in a bed and can paddle at his ease.” They told of their fondness for Lieutenant Delesdernier and de- scribed him as “a very fine fellow” and “one of all the Americans most zealous and full of enthusiasm for the hberty of his country.” Colonel Allan made Gallatin a volunteer aide. He went at least twice to Passamaquoddy and once was in charge of a small fort there. With Deles- dernier he cut hay at Boyden’s Lake in Perry, apparently for supplies for the patrols. He left the border after one year, taught French at Cambridge, and finally settled in Pennsylvania to rise rapidly in his great career. Delesder- nier, more locally minded, settled at Eastport after the Revolution, was postmaster and the first Collector of the Port, an office he was holding when his friend Gallatin be- came his chief as Secretary of the Treasury. But the iron man at Saint Croix during the Revolution was John Allan. Not only did he sacrifice much for his convictions but spelled out those convictions with unfail- ing loyalty and stubborn resistance to English control of the river border over which he was made watchman. Born in January, 1746, in Edinburgh Castle, where his father was a major in the British Army during the uprisings headed by the young Stuart Pretender, Prince Charles, he was brought at the age of four to Nova Scotia. It is prob- Kilby, 238. (See Note 35). [153] SAINT CROIX able that he was in Massachusetts as a young man. By 1767 he had married and settled in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. In the beginning of the Revolution he owned “In- vermary,” a large, well-stocked farm of 348 acres, where he lived happily with his wife and five children. He held the influential positions of Justice of the Peace, Clerk of Sessions and of the Supreme Court, represented his County at Halifax and was prosperous. Without hesitation, he spoke out in favor of the independence of the American revolutionists, a decision which necessitated his leaving his wife, his family and Nova Scotia.®® After the peace treaty of 1783, Colonel Allan who then made his home on Dudley’s Island (near Eastport) was active in the boundary dispute. He threatened the Loyahsts who had sought a haven under the British flag at St. An- drews.®^ He had felt as early as 1779 that he ought to do something to prove that the “true St. Croix” was at the lo- cation of the Magaguadavic river. He wrote to the General Court of Massachusetts that “if not disagreeable to govern- ment I propose moving to the river St. Croix or Maggaua- dewaya, the boundarys between Acadia and province of Maine settled formerly between the French and English Courts, the advantages arising I shall communicate in my next.” ®® The advantages he mentioned he never did ex- plain. In spite of the Colonel the true St, Croix remained where it had been discovered in 1604 by De Monts and Champlain. ^ (See Note 36). Chapter XIV (infra). (See Note 37). "®Doc. Hist. (M.H.S,) XVIII, 62. [154] THE AMERICAN REV OLUTION NOTES 4. The British armed Schooner Margaretta (carrying 4 four-pounders and 16 swiveles) acted as convoy for lumber sloops seeking cargo at Machias probably intended for building barracks for British Soldiers at Boston. At a secret meeting of Patriots her capture was planned. The first at- tempt on June ii, 1775 failed. The next day after her Captain Moore had been mortally wounded and four of the Schooner’s crew were killed, Jeremiah O’Brien, leader of the Americans forced a surrender. Among the attacking part}^ was Jonathan Knight, one of the first settlers of Cal- ais. Hist. Coll. (A'l.H.S.) 2nd Series II. 2; G.P. XLIV. See also John O’Brien’s account Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) ist Series II, 242. 8. In July, 1775, at a conference between the Indians and patriots at Wa- tertown, Mass., the spokesman for the Red men declared, “All that we shall worship or obey will be Jesus Christ and General Washington.” W. B. Kerr, Maritime Frovinces of British North America and the American Revolution, 89. 9. When John Allan left Nova Scotia, the British burned his house and barns with most of their contents. His family fled the burning buildings and hid in the woods for three days almost without food. Later Mrs. Allan was arrested, carried to Halifax and imprisoned for many months. One Elijah Ayer who had come from Connecticut to live in Nova Scotia hid in a haystack to escape arrest. The British made desperate efforts to capture him and by harsh treatment tried to make his wife reveal his hiding place. Failing in this they set fire to her house. In her escape with her baby in her arms, brands from the burning house fell on the baby, who, as an old lady in Dennysville, still bore the scars of that ad- venture. Kdlby, 436. 26. Massachusetts under Commodore Saltonstall had mustered practically the whole American Navy to recapture Castine. The attack, however, lacked the enterprize more recently identified with the American spirit. General Peleg Wadsworth testified at the Court of Inquiry “The Uni- form backwardness of the Commander of the Fleet [Comm. Saltonstall] appeared in the several councils of war at which I was present—where he always held up the idea that the damage that his ships would receive in attempting to engage the enemy shipping would more than counter- balance the advantage of destroying them.” Mass. Archives, Vol. CXLV, 275; Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) (2nd Series) V, 153. A single British ship the Albany, (Capt. Henry Mowatt) and some sloops blocked the way. G.P. LI. The British rescue fleet finally appeared. What then took place is well described by Lieut. John Moore (after Sir John Moore of Corunna) in the following letter to his father: “On the 13th, Sir Geo, Collier with a ’64, two frigates B and three 20-gun ships were seen sailing up the bay. The rebel fleet never attempted to make a stand but run up the river in the utmost confusion. Two of their vessels only were taken. The rest of the rascals ran ashore and burned before our shipping could get up with them.” Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series II, 408. [155] SAINT CROIX 27. Colonel Allan was also worried because the British were using the Iro- quois (hostile to Eastern Indians) as a threat to the Passamaquoddies to keep them on the British side. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) VII, 435. 29. Pier Toma showed his resourcefulness when he stopped an attack on the British which Allan had ordered him to make. He said he must go apart and talk with God. He told his warriors that if God consented, ail would be well. After a proper interval he returned to the Council with the word that God was unwilling. Perley On the Early History of New Brunswick, 15. 33. “The fact that our New England boundary is now the St. Croix and not the Kennebec must be attributed, in part at least, to Allan’s success.” Diet, of Ainerican Biography (N. Y., 1928) I, 180; Raymond (1910 ed.), 431 - Allan’s work at St. Croix would appear to contradict Kerr’s criticism that he was outwitted by Francklin (British Agent) . 35. Judging by his letters, several of which are given by Adams in his life of Gallatin, Henri Serre must have been an enthusiastic and delightful fellow. He did not long survive his arrival in the New World. Gallatin wrote Delesdemier in 1798: “You ask me about our friend Serre. He has been dead nearly fifteen years. Having gone to Jamaica a very few months after you saw him, he died there, almost immediately after his arrival, of one of the fevers gen- erated by that climate.” Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) , (1859) 36. For a sketch of Allan’s life, see Kidder V et seq. The standing of Colonel Allan in Nova Scotia is shown by an affidavit dated September 16, 1798, by James Law, J. P., Colonel of Militia of Westmoreland County, N. S., and nine others, which said: “From the great interest he [Allan] had, and the high esteem he was in among the people, we believe he might still have continued to hold and enjoy all the most lucrative offices in said county had he remained among us.” Kid- der, 320. The reason for the afSdavit is not disclosed. By Act of Congress, approved February, 1801, John Allan was granted 2240 acres, Jonathan Eddy 1280 acres and L. F. Delesdemier, Jr. 960 acres, all in the Chillicothe District of Ohio. Maine Hist. Magazine IX, 69. 37. After Allan settled on Dudley’s Island (now Treat’s Island), he kept a store. Just across the harbor at Campobello, Benedict Arnold came to trade and, odd as history is, his name was the first to appear on Allan’s books. Notice of Arnold’s advent in New Brunswick was given by Judge Blowers to his friend Ward Chipman in a tart and amusing letter. Halifax, November 22, 1785 Dear Chipman: Will you believe General Arnold is here from England in a brig of his own, as he says reconnoitering the country. He is bound for your city which he will of course prefer to Halifax and settle with you. Give you joy of the acquisition. Lawrence’s “Footprints” page 70. [156] S. S. Blowers. CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Search for the Boundary (Chance and a flood tide had brought a band of adventurers to Saint Croix Island in 1604. That remote happening fixed the boundary of the United States. As events unrolled themselves, they somehow clung to the St. Croix River. James I, probably with it in mind, placed the northern limit of Virginia at the forty-fifth parallel which touches the mouth of the St. Croix. Sir WilKam Alexander named it, in 1621, as the end of New England and the beginning of Nova Scotia. Thereafter during the one hundred fifty years be- fore the Revolution the word “St. Croix” meant to both provinces the dividing line between them. It was natural enough that the American Peace Cornmissioners should insist on retaining this boundary. They did so and won, but only after stout opposition from the British who sought to keep Eastern Maine for the Loyalists. Although the Treaty had defined the Boundary it did not identify it. Indeed Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, as [157] SAINT CROIX British Provinces, had never been able to agree on the lo- cation of the river that stood sentinel at their borders. And the Indians who lived there could not help with any accu- racy. They had the Cobscook, Schoodic, Cheputnatecook, Waweig, Bocabec, Digdeguash and Magaguadavic Riv- ers, all within Passamaquoddy. They knew no “river of the Etchemins” or of “St. Croix,” names used only by the French. They had, therefore, no tribal tradition of a St. Croix. As time passed. Saint Croix meaning “cross” meant just that to the Indians and not a river. There was a tradi- tion among the Indians that the French had set up crosses at various places as part of their religion.^ They had placed a cross of their own at St. Andrews Point where their dead were buried.^ With the Indians thus bewildered, navigators cruising along the coast added to the confusion with the name ‘Pas- samaquoddy River.’ From a vessel at anchor in Eastport harbor between Campobello and Deer Island the inner bay is hidden from sight by the islands. The tide racing through the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay between Pleasant Point and Deer Island made it seem like a river and the name Passamaquoddy River came into common use. Since this passage into the interior was west of any other en- trance, the Passamaquoddy river was so placed on maps and the mythical St. Croix was usually put east of it. Cap- tain Cyprian Southack who had been on the expedition of 1704 under Colonel Church and therefore could say he knew the region first hand made a map in 1733. He must have forgotten what he really saw. His inaccurate map be- 1 1 4. Lescarbot speaks of this custom of the French. (II, 331). ^Acad. VII, 235. [158] Southack’s Map ( ca . 1733) Taken from “Eastport and Passamaquoddy” by William H. Kilby, this map is supposed to have influenced the John Mitchell map of 1755- “Kilby, published in Eastport, 1888. SAINT CROIX came the basis of future maps, notably that of John Mitch- ell, which was the map used by the English and Ameri- can commissioners sitting round the peace table in Paris. Both these maps placed the St. Croix east of the so called Passamaquoddy River and the Mitchell map had both rivers emptying into a large bay drawn as an open arm of the sea with no islands blocking it. From John Adams’s diary we learn something of the thoughts of the negotiators of the treaty.^ He is quite frank about his fellow Americans. Benjamin Franklin is an old man with gout, always talking of resigning, easily influ- enced by the British and French who seem to rely on him. Adams admits Franklin’s prestige but thinks him too easy. John Jay is independent and acts without advice. “Between two as subtle spirits as any in the world I shall have a delicate, a nice, a critical part to act. Franklin’s cunning will be to divide us,” so wrote Adams. It would seem that each one of them was trying to make the treaty himself. From Adams one infers that it was he who really worked it in the end.® We know more of the day-to-day details from Adams than from any other source. Jealousy of Franklin is plainly to be seen between the lines of his diary. The approach of the Commissioners was different. Franklin saw nothing but conservatism in the credentials of the British agent directing him to negotiate for peace with the “Plantations or Colonies.” Jay and Adams refused until the British in- structions read—“to negotiate with the United States.” Franklin favored consultation with France as directed by ^ Adams HI, 300 et seq, ® (See Note 5). ri6o] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY the Continental Congress, which had ordered the commis- sioners “ultimately to govern themselves by the advice and opinion of the French ministry.” The others were deter- mined to ignore France.® This suited the British who sought to separate the Americans and the French. Franklin was dehberate in his negotiations. He was angling for Canada to add it to the United States by offering Great Britain the inducement of liberal trade agreements between North America and Europe. Adams and Jay saw quicker results in pushing American independence only. France as an ally might claim Canada as her share. The British held out for consideration and fair treatment of the Loyalists. But the three American commissioners were agreed at least on one point: They all hated the Tories. When Count Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, said to Adams that the Eng- lish wanted the Penobscot as boundary because of the masts in that territory he replied: “It is not the masts but the Tories which make the difficulty. Some of them claim land in that territory. Others hope for grants there. Let the Enghsh compensate them herself.” Lord North’s ministry fell in March, 1782. A new gov- ernment with Charles James Fox as Foreign Secretary and Lord Shelburne as Colonial Secretary was formed, deter- mined to find the way to peace. While Fox dealt with France, the Colonial Secretary set out to satisfy the Amer- icans. He sent his friend, Richard Oswald, not a profes- sional diplomat but a kind of Colonel House, with creden- tials to Franklin. In the negotiations Adams, too, seems to have got on well with Oswald. One interesting conversa- ® (See Note 6). ^ Adams III, 304. (See Note 7), [161] SAINT CROIX tion between them reveals John Adams to us as a true prophet: Oswald: “We never can be such sots as to think of differing again with you.” Adams: “Why in truth I have never been able to comprehend the reason why you ever thought of differing with us this far.” Oswald: “You are afraid of being made the tools of the powers of Europe.” Adams: “Indeed I am. But I think it ought to be our rule not to meddle and of the pow- ers of Europe not to desire us, or per- haps even permit us, to interfere if they can help it.” Oswald: “I beg of you to get out of your head the idea that we shall disturb you.” Adams: “What! Do you yourself believe that your Ministers, Governors and even Nation will not wish to get us on your side in any future war.” ® On November 2, 1782, Adams was able to make this entry in his diary: “Almost every moment of this week has been employed in negotiation with the English gentlemen concerning peace. We have made two propositions, one the line of forty-five degrees, the other a line through the middle of the lake and as for the bound betnneen Massachu- setts and Nova Scotia a line from the mouth of St. Croix to its source and from its source to the Highlands.^’ ® No prompt answer came from the British. They knew full well how cruelly the Tories were being treated by the III, 316. “/wiiri, 300. r T /Cn 1 The St Croix of Mitchell's Map. Drawn to show the division between Nova Scotia and New England which was adopted as the International Boundary by the Peace Commissioners at Paris in 1782. Hist. CoU. (M. H. S.) 2nd Series I, 397 SAINT CROIX Yankees with expulsion or imprisonment and confiscation of everything they possessed and the loyal Tories were insistent in their demands for compensation. Adams had been quite correct in saying that the Tories wanted land grants in the territory west of Saint Croix. It had long been planned, as we have seen, to establish a province or state between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. In September, 1778, the British government ordered General Clinton at New York to secure a post on the Penobscot River for the purpose of erecting a province in which loyal adherents of the Crown might settle. As a war measure, also. Lord Ger- maine thought it would secure better communication be- tween New York, the British headquarters, and Quebec presumably by the Penobscot River and the old Indian portage route. William Knox, a Georgia Loyalist who was Under-secretary in the Colonial Office at London and one John Nutting had charge of all details. As the site of the post they selected Castine which the 74th Highland Regi- ment occupied in 1779."^° An American navy was then as- sembled to beseige it, but a British fleet appearing, the siege was lifted and, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, the American vessels in attempting to escape were driven ashore and destroyed. Thus made safe, as the Loyalists thought, Knox’s scheme of a new Province became well advanced. It was to be called “New Ireland” and to be settled only by Loyalists of high repute. Thomas Hutchinson, a former Governor of Massachusetts was proposed as Governor (later Peter “W, H. Siebert Exodus of the Loyalists from Fenobscot to Fassama- quoddyy Ohio State University, 1914, 7 et seq. See also, John Nutting^ Batch- elder, Cambridge Hist. Soc. [164] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY Oliver, ex-Chief Justice of Massachusetts was substituted) , Daniel Leonard as Chief Justice, Dr. John Caleff of Ipswich as Clerk of Council and Rev. Henry Caner of King’s Chapel, Boston as Bishop. Tories were leaving the rebel colonies in ever-increasing numbers. Many had already moved to the Penobscot. Even if the Yankees won in- dependence, the Penobscot, they thought, would be the boundary. As English prospects of success faded after Yorktown, pressure on the Colonial Office increased. Dr. Califf was sent to London from Castine to represent the Loyahsts’ claim. He haunted the office of Lord North. But one morning Lord North on entering the office and finding him there said: “Doctor, we cannot make the Penobscot the boundary. The pressure is too strong.” Pressure was finally applied on November i8 when Adams told Oswald that if the terms now before the (Brit- ish) Court were not accepted the whole negotiation would be broken off. The British, sick of trouble, decided to ac- cept the inevitable.^® Final treaty terms were agreed upon by the commissioners on Nov. 30, 1782. Article II of the treaty which is dated Sept. 3, 1783, defines the boundary. Its text is given in the notes.®'‘ Hidden in it are two fixed points that make clear the meaning of the whole. These points are. . . . (1) The mouth (of the St. Croix River) in the Bay of Fundy.” (2) The “northwest angle of Nova Scotia.''^ ^ (See Note ii). “G. P. LI. “ (See Note 13). ^ (See Note 14) . [165] SAINT CROIX Having before them only the Mitchell map the commis- sioners could plainly see the St. Croix emptying itself into the Bay of Fundy and, so describing it, they intended to agree upon the point where the river, actual or extended, did reach the Bay of Fundy, As for the location of the Northmiest Angle of Nova Scotia both the American and British Commissioners had access to exact information. The report accepted and passed in the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (James Otis, Speaker) on February i8, 1762, and consented to by the Governor, Francis Bernard, on Feb- ruary 25, 1762, had settled so far as Massachusetts was con- cerned, its eastern boundary. This report gave the western boundary of Nova Scotia as the imaginary hne running north from the source of the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence and claimed all the lands west of this line as “Undoubtedly within the jurisdiction of this government (Massachu- setts) And the British Commissioners must have known that a Royal decree dated October, 1763, had fixed the southern boundary of Quebec as the “Highlands” (just south of the St. Lawrence River), and that the Royal Commission to Governor Wiknot of Nova Scotia dated November 21, 1763, had defined the western limits of Nova Scotia as “a line drawn north from the source of the St. Croix to the Southern bounds of Quebec.” Official documents of 1774 and 1780 also confirmed these bounds.^® The northwest angle of Nova Scotia, therefore, was plainly to be found where the line running north from the source of the St. ^Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) XIII, 256 (Baxter papers (See Note 15). Justin Winsor Nar. and Crit, Hist, of America, VII, lyi seq. [166] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY Croix met “the Highlands” or the southern boundary of Quebec. The treaty itself fixed without ambiguity both the beginning and the end of the eastern boundary of the United States. The confusion which lasted almost sixty years after 1783 came from the attempt of rival inhabitants to win an interpretation more favorable to their respective nations. When the treaty was signed there were few set- tlers along the eastern boundary of the United States. As the population increased the dispute began and a legal de- cision on the exact location became necessary. This need resulted in the John Jay Treaty of Amity of November 19, 1794."" In September, 1796, a very distinguished group was present at St. Andrews. It was the group of commissioners appointed by the terms of the Jay treaty to settle the ques- tion “what river was the true St. Croix contemplated in the Treaty of Peace and forming a part of the boundary therein described.” The commissioners met at the house of Robert Pagan, the leading citizen of the Loyahst colony. In its long list of visitors from that day to this it is probable that St. Andrews has never been host to more notable guests.^® The Massachusetts Bay Colony and Nova Scotia had been rivals as to territory. When John Mitchell located the boundary of Massachusetts in 1764, he established it at the river Magaguadavic. That he came to Passamaquoddy with his mind made up in advance we know from the testimony of John Frost of Passamaquoddy before the Boundary Moore^s International Arbitrations VI, 6; Royal Soc. of Canada. 1901, 247; Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.), 2nd Ser., VIII, 102. (See Note 18). [167] SAINT CROIX Commission in 1796. Frost testified that he “brought into this part of the country a Mr. Mitchell, a surveyor sent by Governor Bernard to explore the river St. Croix.” On cross examination he was asked; Question: “Did you ever know of any determinate line of jurisdiction between the province of Massachusetts Bay and Nova Scotia.?” Answer: “Mr. Mitchell when he was coming down with me and while he was here told me Magaguadavic would be the di- viding line.” It is important to note, however, that in drawing the St. Croix on his map in the approximate position of the Maga- guadavic, Mitchell put at the source of it the lake which is actually at the source of the true St. Croix^® thus showing that he thought he was locating the St. Croix of the Alex- ander grant which separated the Massachusetts Bay colony and Nova Scotia in 1621. To support his theory Mitchell interviewed the Indians. He kept a diary, the manuscript of which came into posses- sion of W. H. Kilby who included a portion of it in his important history entitled “Eastport and Passamaquoddy.” It was the practice of the time to entertain Indians and to expect them to oblige in retum.^^ A few quotations from the diary will show how the Red man’s testimony was ob- tained. “Sunday June 3, 1764. . . . When we came to Lat- terell (Indian Island) Capt. Fletcher thought it most “Kilby, 103. ^ (See Note 20) . ^ (See Note 21). [168] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY expedient to go to St. Croix (Magaguadavic) next day by reason that the Indians who had for sum days past Bin drunk were got Sober so Capt. Jones ordered the men that came with us to go back to where we left the Rest of our men in Order to Bring them all to Latterell to be ready to Depart on Monday morning for St. Croix. Monday June 4, 1764. . . . We arrived at Harbor leteet where we met with the Indians and Capt. Fletcher had a conference with them and the Indians appointed two to go with us on Tuesday morning. Tuesday June 5, 1764. . . .At eleven of the clock we arrived at the entreance of sd River at which time Capt. Fletcher Requisted Three of said Indians to Swear that the said river that they showed us was actually known by the name of St. Croix river. The names of sd Indians are as followeth Lue Nepton, Meesel and Mary Catron. And we taried there awhile and eat Dinor then went up sd river to ye falls and the Indians told Capt. Fletcher that they wood go no farther.” In 1796 Judge Sullivan, the agent for the American case also had Indians state that the Magaguadavic had always been known to them as the St. Croix. The value of such testimony was lessened by the fact that other Indians duti- fully told the English agent the Schoodic was the St. Croix.®® In opposition to the Massachusetts claim of 1764, Charles Morris, surveyor general of Nova Scotia, attempted to fix the boundary. He established it for Nova Scotia in 1765 even further west than the Schoodic at the Cobscook river “Kilby, 90. “ Original manuscripts in N. B, Historical Soc., St. John, N. B. [169] SAINT CROIX which empties into the bay back of Eastport. The argu- ment in support of this claim by Nova Scotia was that Treat’s Island between Eastport and Lubec had been the Saint Croix Island of 1 604. The British agent, however, did not advance any such extreme claim before the Boundary Commission. He early grasped the vital point that the river St. Croix of the treaty was the same river which bounded the grant of Nova Scotia given to Sir. William Alexander and that the river of the Alexander grant was the river on which De Monts and Champlain settled in 1604. Sir William Alexander had made this perfectly clear. Speaking of the hmits of his patent of 1 62 1 he wrote: “they [De Monts and Champlain] went to the river called by them St. Croix but more fit to be called Tweede because it divides New England and New Scotland bounding the one of them upon the east and the other upon the west side thereof, here they made choice of an isle that is within the middle of the same, where to winter, building houses suffi- cient to lodge their number ... the limits which are ex- pressed in the patent granted unto me under his great seal of his kingdom of Scotland marching upon the west to- wardes the river of St. Croix, now Tweede, where the Frenchmen did designe their first habitation.” When John Adams, then President of the United States, was in- terviewed by the Boundary Commission at Quincy, Mas- sachusetts, on August 15, 1797, he testified that “the ulti- mate agreement [of the Peace negotiators] was to adhere to the charter of Massachusetts Bay and to the St. Croix ^Slafter, Sir Wm. Alexajider, Prince Soc., 1875; Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series, 1887 HI, 353. [ 170] Passamaquoddy in 1796 This map by David Owen shows local knowledge of an earlier French Settlement on Dochet Island, SAINT CROIX river mentioned in it which was supposed to be delineated on Mitchell’s map.” But this was not satisfactory to Judge Sullivan the Amer- ican agent. He had published a history of Maine in 1795 and mapped the Magaguadavic as the boundary. He was not concerned with the location of the French settlement of 1604. The President of the College of Philadelphia had sent him suggestions meant to be helpful about the island settlement to which Sullivan replied “however good Les- carbot may be as a pilot yet the courses you propose to steer under his direction will never land you on any island which either party would now agree on as the one on which De Monts wintered nor on any island to be found in these waters. The island is not of much importance as I understand the case.” The Boundary commissioners who had first come to- gether at St. Andrews adjourned to meet in Boston in August 1797, then to meet at Providence in June 1798 and the award was finally made on October 25, 1798.^’^ Judge SulHvan remained unconvinced to the end. On September 29, 1798, he wrote Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State . . . “Judge Howell will never sign a result to allow the English claim. The decision rests with Judge Benson and I am apprehensive he will give them all they ask and carry them to the river Penobscot. This I conclude from his uni- form conduct from the opening until the close of the argu- ments.” Judge Benson, an American and the third com- missioner chosen by the other two, had adopted as his view *Hist. CoU. (M.H.S.) (2nd series) VI, 234, 235. ^ Ibid IX, 267, 209. ^Ibid VI, 242. ^Ibid VI, 241. [ 172] Champlain's Map, 1612 Outline tracing from Quebec edition. SAINT CROIX of the case that “the commissioners at Paris intended the river intended by Mitchell and he [Mitchell] intended the river intended in the grant to Sir William Alexander for Nova Scotia.” The river that Alexander “intended” was conclusively identified by the discovery of the foundations of the buildings on St. Croix Island which agreed with the plan of the island published in Paris in 1613. This proof was the contribution of the Loyalists of St. Andrews, headed by Robert Pagan, who were determined to show that they were on the British side of the true Saint Croix.®® We can appreciate Judge Benson’s clear logic and sound reasoning which fixed the boundary as intended by the framers of the treaty. But the commissioners certainly took the hard way in arriving at their decision for Champlain had drawn the exact location of St. Croix Island on a map. Champlain was a remarkable geographer and a draughts- man of no little skill. It is not difficult to interpret his maps. The relative positions of the three rivers, St. John, St. Croix and Penobscot in their approaches to one another are correct. The island settlement is graphically pointed out by a flag. Immediately north of the island are the arms of the river forming the cross that suggested its name. The main northerly branch of the St. Croix is also correctly drawn and the western or Princeton branch indicated. Although the decision of the boundary commission was unanimous it went no further than to establish the bound- ary from Joe’s Point near St. Andrews to the source of the eastern branch of the St. Croix River at the lake named on “For Judge Benson’s statement see Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (2nd ser, 1887 III, 350. “Kilby, 124. [ 174] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY Mitchell’s map. There were still the questions— i. How did the St. Croix reach the Bay of Fundy—2. Which na- tion is to own which islands of the Bay of Passamaquoddy —3 . Where does the line running north from the source of the St. Croix River end? It took forty more years to answer these questions. The St. Croix, hke most rivers, had cut one deep channel to the sea. This channel, navigable at all tides, ran between Deer Island and Pleasant Point and between Deer Island and Campobello entering the Bay of Fundy at the eastern end of Campobello. Since the treaty stated that the river from its mouth at the Bay of Fundy was to be forever open to navigation of both countries it was common sense to identify by agreement as early as possible this part of the boundary. On May 12, 1803, a treaty was arranged be- tween Lord Hawkesbury of Great Britain and Rufus King of the United States which, if accepted by the Senate would have saved years of doubt and discussion and have kept Grand Manan a part of the United States. The first article of this treaty fixed the boundary as run- ning from the mouth of the river St. Croix at Joe’s Point by the deep channel which ended east of Campobello and provided that “the islands and waters northward and east- ward of the said boundary together with the island of Campobello situate to the southward thereof are hereby declared to be within the jurisdiction and part of His Maj- esty’s province of New Brunswick and the islands south- ward and westward of said boundary, except only the island of Campobello, are hereby declared to be within the j-urisdiction and a part of Massachusetts, one of the United States.” [ 175] SAINT CROIX Grand Manan would lie south and west of this bound- ary. This treaty was rejected by the Senate and a later treaty with the same description as to boundary which James Munroe and Wm. Pinkney for the United States had con- cluded with the British on December 3 1, 1806, was pigeon- holed by President Thomas Jefferson and never reached the Senate. The rejection of this sensible division of terri- tory resulted in the occupation of Eastport by British troops from 1814 to 1818 and the loss to the United States of the large Island of Grand Manan. Then came the War of 1812. The British claimed Moose Island (Eastport) under the terms of the treaty of 1783 as an island settled by British Nationals from Nova Scotia pre- vious to that date and refused to vacate Eastport when the Treaty of Ghent was negotiated on December 14, 1814. John Quincy Adams for the United States agreed that the British should hold Eastport until commissioners appointed by the fourth article of the Ghent treaty should decide the question of the eastern boundary.®^ The Ghent commis- sioners met first at St. Andrews on September 23, 1816. The decision was reached at New York on November 24, 1817. Great Britain again appointed Thomas Barclay com- missioner. Ward Chipman, this time assisted by his son, was again agent. John Holmes, afterwards United States Senator from Maine, represented the United States with James T. Austin, a Boston lawyer, assisted by Jonathan D. Weston of Eastport, as agent. There was no third com- missioner.®® The whole proceeding somewhat resembles 128. ^For the text of the Treaty of Ghent and the award tinder it, see Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) 2nd series, VIII, 114; Kilby, 131, 132. [ 176] Rival Boundary Claims The right hand line is the original claim of the United States; the left hand line the extreme British claim; the middle line is the actual boundary fixed by the treaty of 1842. SAINT CROIX a horse trade. The commissioners had no difficulty in agreeing on the main channel of the river. The United States claim to the Island of Grand Manan was, however, given up in return for the possession of Moose Island then held by British troops but largely populated by Americans who had settled there after the revolution. The most serious dispute was still unsettled. The region north of Saint Croix began to be occupied by both British and American citizens. If the line north to the highlands as stated in the treaty should be adopted as the boundary many British inhabitants (mostly French Canadian) would find themselves in Maine and easy access between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the one hand and Quebec on the other would be lost to the British.®* By 1 840 war again threatened. A previous reference to arbitration of the King of the Belgians which had been authorized by treaty in 1827 came to nothing. The King made no decision. He recommended a settlement by compromise at the river St. John. Maine, now a free and sovereign state, objected. It was only the serious threat of a war which neither side wanted that brought about the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. By this treaty Daniel Webster is said to have given a large shce of Maine to Canada. Lord Ashbur- ton was the British Commissioner.®^ A strict interpretation of the treaty of 1783 would have run the line directly north from the St. Croix almost to the St. Lawrence where the “northwest angle of Nova Scotia” undoubtedly was. It was wise of Daniel Webster, even if generous, to stop at the St. John River as a natural boundary thus leaving the ®®Doc. relating to North East Boundary, Boston, 1828, (See Note 34). [ 178] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY French Canadians in Canada and permitting direct com- munication between the Maritimes and more northern Canada. Two well-informed Canadian historians admit the jus- tice of the American case. James Hannay in the St. John Daily Telegraph of Nov. 28, 1898, said that “the boundary obtained by Lord Ashburton was far more favorable than we [Canada] had the right to expect.” And Professor W. F. Ganong wrote in the same year in the New Brunswick Magazine: “Naturally as a New Brunswicker I formerly thought our own view of the case necessarily the correct one but an investigation of the whole subject, so far from confirming this opinion, has forced me to the opposite con- clusion namely that Maine is right and v^e are wrong, that the Ashburton Treaty took from Maine much territory awarded her by the treaty of 1783 and so far from robbing us of what was our due, it really gave us territory not awarded us by the treaty.” NOTES 5. Under date of Nov. 12, 1782, Adams wrote: “The compliment of Mon- sieur, vous etes le Washington de la negociation was repeated to me by more than one person. I answered—Afomfewr, vous me fakes le plus honneur et le compliment le plus sublime possible. A few of these com- pliments would kill Franklin if they should come to his ears.’’ Adams III, 309. 6. Adams and Jay felt that Vergennes was hostile to American interests. “The arrangement proposed by the court of France in 1782 would have extended the Southern Boundary of Canada to the Ohio River and fixed the Alleghany Mountains as the western boundary of the United States.” GJP. LXI. 7. Lecky in his England in the Eighteenth Century, IV, 265, 266, comments on the hostility of the American commissioners to the Loyalists. II. Dr. John Calefi, an important man of St. Andrews, was born at Ipswich, Mass, in 1725 and was related by birth or marriage to several leading ^N. B. Magazine (St. John), December, 1898, Vol. I, No. 6. [ 179] SAINT CROIX Massachusetts families. He had been surgeon in the Louisburg Expedi- tion of 1745. His account of the siege is a rare manuscript of the Har- vard College Library. Dr. Caleff served in the Massachusetts legislature, but being one of the seven famous rescinders he had to leave the colony before the Revolution. From Castine he went to London as Loyalist agent. At St. Andrews he was responsible for stopping a smallpox epi- demic. (Winslow Papers, 455) “Life of Dr. John Caleff,” Acadiensis VII, 261. GJP. LI. 13. Franklin’s biographers give him credit for bringing the negotiations to a head. He told the British commissioners, if the English wished the Con- tinental Congress to recommend compensation to the Loyalists, George III should himself recommend to Parliament that it compensate Ameri- cans for (i) goods seized in Boston (2) goods carried to Philadelphia by Howe (3) tobacco, rice, indigo and slaves taken by B. Arnold and Corn- wallis (4) cargoes captured before the Declaration of War and (5) towns, villages and farms burnt by the British. Following this the British Commissioners held a short conference and decided to waive their claim for compensation of Loyalists and agreed to make a treaty on the terms of the Americans. Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin 692-3; R. Franklin's Writings VIII, 632-3. “I had but the alternative, whether to accept the terms proposed,” said Shelburne in the House of Lords, “or to continue the war.” Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series, 1 . 397, 14. The Treaty of Peace thus describes the boundaries of the United States so far as they relate to the eastern boundary between Maine and New Brunswick: “Article 2. And that all disputes which might arise in future on the sub- ject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shah be their boundaries, viz.: from the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, viz.: that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix River, to the Highlands, along the said Highlands which di- vide those rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those which faU into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwestermost head of Connecticut River; thence. . . . East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands which divide the rivers that faU into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the River St. Lawrence.” Murdock Nova Scotia, III, 24; Royal Soc. of Can. (1901) 11, 241; Moore’s International Arbitra- tions, 15. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had long insisted (and been encouraged by London to insist) on its jurisdiction and control of territory as far as the St. Croix River. On Oct. 30, 1700, the Lords of Trade wrote the Earl of Bellamont, Governor at Boston, “As to boundaries we have al- ways insisted upon the English right as far as the river St. Croix.” Hutch- inson, Hist, of Mass, Bay, (Mayo ed.). Harvard Press, 1936, II, 83. In the Boston Public Library diere is a broadside (Feb. 26, 1732) by his [ 180] THE SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARY Excellency Jonathan Belcher claiming jurisdiction of land between St. Croix and Penobscot. Cf. Gov. Belcher’s inspection trip to Passama- quoddy. XI (supra), 1 8. David Howell, the American commissioner appointed by George Wash- ington, was a leading citizen of Rhode Island, a graduate of Princeton and professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Brown Univer- sity, member of the Continental Congress, Attorney General of Rhode Island and judge of its Supreme Court. George III appointed Thomas Barclay of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, as British commissioner. Bom in New York the son of the rector of Trinity Church, Barclay graduated from Kang’s College (now Columbia) in 1772, studied law under John Jay, was a Loyalist, an officer in the Brit- ish Army, speaker of the provincial assembly of Nova Scotia, British Consul General at New York in 1799 and was again commissioner for the British under the treaty of Ghent in 1814. Judge Egbert Benson of New York was the third commissioner, chosen by the other two. He was a graduate of King’s College, first Attorney General of New York, member of the Continental Congress, also of the first and second United States Congress. In 1794 he was made judge of the N. Y. Supreme. Court. The American agent was James Sullivan, Attorney General of Massa- chusetts and later governor. He was also an historian of note. The Brit- ish agent was Ward Chipman, son of John Chipman a leading lawyer of Marblehead. Ward Chipman graduated from Harvard College in 1770. He left Boston with the King’s troops in 1776, served England in various military capacities and came to St. John after the war. He became So- licitor General of New Brunswick and later Chief Justice. Phineas Bond, British Consul at Philadelphia and Robert Pagan, Judge of Common Pleas of Saint Andrews assisted Chipman. Colonel Edward Winslow of Plymouth, graduate of Harvard College, British officer in the revolution and a prominent Loyalist was secretary of the commission. A full discussion of the Treaty Commission of 1796- 1798 is by Rev. Henry S. Burrage, D.D. in Me, Hist. Soc. Col. 2nd Series, 1895, VI, 225 et seq. 20. Grand Lake (at source of main east branch of St. Croix River) was in Indian Kee-ok-qu-sak. In 1744 it was spelled Kaoua Kousaki by Beilin. Mitchell put it down as Kousak in his map of 1755. R.S.C., 1896, II, 237, 21. James Vroom, the historian, comments “The means employed by the whites to secure the assent of the Indian delegates to the provisions of their treaties can scarcely be commended. For instance there was a conference at Boston in the year 1736, extend- ing over three weeks during which time nine chiefs from the Penobscot region lodged with one John Sale who in rendering his account for twenty-four days entertainment charges for 3 half pints of wine per day each, 12 pence-worth of rum per day each, 120 gallons of cider; also for damage done in breaking of sash doors, frames of glass, china bowls, double decanter and sundry glasses and mugs; for 2 gross of pipes and tobacco; for showing them the rope dancers, for washing 49 of their [181] SAINT CROIX greasy shirts and for cleaning and white-washing two rooms after them. The following memorandum is attached to the account. “They eat for the most part between 50 and 60 pounds of meat per day besides milk, cheese, etc. The cider which they drank I sold at 12 shill- ings per quart. Besides they had beer when they pleased. And as for meat they had the best as I was ordered.” G.P. XLV (Note) . 34. Lord Ashburton (as Alexander Baring before his elevation to the peer- age) owned extensive holdings of Maine forest land including the town- ship on the St. Croix which now bears his name. The town of Baring was incorporated Jan. 19, 1825. [ 182] CHAPTER FOURTEEN Th e Loyalists A VAST IMPETUS WAS GIVEN to the development of the country north of the Bay of Fundy by the coming of the Loyalists. In the course of a few months it passed from the condition of a compara- tively unknown region with a mere handful of English- speaking people to that of an independent province with an enterprising class of inhabitants—poor in purse, indeed, but rich in experience, determination, energy, education, intellect and other quahties essential to the building up of a country.^ Thus W. O. Raymond, Canadian authority of the Loyalist immigration, has summed up the change that took place in 1784 at Passamaquoddy and the seaports east of St. Croix. The veterans of English and Scottish regi- ments from across the sea, the citizen soldiers of the col- onies who had volunteered to serve in the British colonial army, college graduates, business men of importance in the ^G. P. LXVIL [183] SAINT CROIX land they had left behind them and many women and chil- dren made up this homeless band of immigrants. It is said that more than thirty-five thousand persons came from the United States to the Maritime provinces of Canada at the end of the American revolution.^ Among them there was a group of about fifty Quakers who arrived at Beaver Harbor to settle “Penn’s Field” so named in honor of the founder of Pennsylvania. Advertisements had been published in New York early in 1783 calling a meet- ing of the Society of Friends at which regulations govern- ing their conduct were agreed upon. This declaration of principles signed by all present under the heading “No Slave Master Admitted” was the first of emancipation proclamations. Fifty years before the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies and eighty before the mighty Lincoln spoke, it declared “that no slaves be either bought or sold or kept by any persons belonging to said society on any pretence whatsoever.”® In Passamaquoddy in 1784 according to the muster Hst of Colonel Edward Winslow there were 1744 persons known as Loyalists of whom seven hundred and ninety were men, three hundred four women and six hundred fifty children. These were made up of the Penobscot loyalists from Castine including some of the 74th Highland regiment, Colonel Nehemiah Marks’s company (known as the Port Matoon Association), the Cape Arm Association and representatives of the 42nd, 70th and 72nd regiments. Royal Fencible Americans, King’s Orange Rangers, Royal Garrison Battalion, Tarle- “IbidLXV. ‘Ibid Lxxn. [184] THE LOYALISTS ton’s Dragoons, Nova Scotia Volunteers, Regiment of Specht (Hessians) and others/ The exodus of Loyalists who settled the British West Indies, Ontario and eastern Canada may be said still to await impartial analysis. It is strange and disheartening to note the similarity between the actions of the democratic revolutionists of the American colonies in 1776 and the Nazis of Germany in 1940. Fanatics are the same in any century. John Adams, strong advocate and eager supporter of the declaration that all men are created equal and en- dowed by their Creator with the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness felt no inconsistency in criticizing American executives who showed any clemency whatso- ever toward Loyahsts as neglecting “a point which I so strenuously recommended at the first viz. to fine, imprison and hang all inimical to the cause without fear, favor or affection. ... I would have hanged my own brother had he taken part with our enemy in the contest.” ® It is easy to see the result of this exhortation when adopted by less responsible patriots. The Declaration of Independence by the American de facto Government put Loyalists in jeopardy. It definitely changed the status of all American residents who were not ready to break their British ties. Indeed the patriot leaders had spoken on July Fourth, 1776 with the voice of Moses in Deuteronomy: “Behold (we) set before you this day a blessing and a curse a. blessing if ye * Original Muster Book (Raymond papers, St. John, N. B. Public Library). P. LVn.; Adams (diary) H. [185] SAINT CROIX obey and a curse if ye will not obey but turn out of the way which (we) com- mand you this day (Choose Ye).”® Those who preferred the curse of remaining loyal to Great Britain and their old way of life soon found that they could expect no consideration. Many states at once voted Confiscation Acts. The New York Act defined treason as “voluntarily withdrawing to any place within the power or possession of the King of Great Britain, his fleets or armies or being apprehended by order of Provin- cial Congress or committee thereof or committee of Public Safety of this State.” If seeking safety on the one hand or staying where you were on the other, to be arrested at will, constituted trea- son, in either case it is difficult to see how any Loyalists could escape arrest, loss of property or even death. Cruel- ties naturally followed. The experience of a lad named Walter Bates of Stamford, Connecticut, whose elder brother had joined the British, is interesting: “At this time I had just entered my sixteenth year. I was taken and confined in the guard house, next day examined before a committee and threat- ened with sundry deaths if I did not confess what I knew not of. They threatened among other things to confine me at low water and let the tide drown me if I did not expose those honest farmers. At length I was sent back to the guard house until ten o’clock at night when I was turned out by an armed mob, ^Deuteronomy XI, 26. '^History of New York During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jones, II, 515. [186] THE LOYALISTS conveyed through Back Creek, then having been stripped my body was exposed to the mosquitoes, my hands and feet confined to a tree near the Salt Marsh in which situation for two hours time every drop of blood would be drawn from my body. Soon after, two of the committee said that if I would teU them all I knew they would release me; if not they would leave me to these men who per- haps would kill me. I told them I knew nothing that would save my life. They left me and the guard came to me and said they were ordered to give me, if I did not confess, one hundred stripes and if that did not kill me I would be hanged. Twenty stripes were then executed with severity after which they sent me again to the guard house. No ‘Tory’ was allowed to speak to me but I was insulted and abused by all. “The next day the committee proposed many means to extort a confession from me, the most ter- rifying was that of confining me to a log on the carriage in the saw mill and let the saw cut me in two if I did not expose those Tories. Finally they sentenced me to appear before Colonel Davenport in order that he should send me to headquarters where all the Tories he sent were surely hanged. Accordingly next day I was brought before Daven- port—one of the descendants of the old apostate Davenport who fled from old England—^who after he had examined me said with great severity of countenance “I think you could have exposed those Tories.” I said to him “you might rather think I would have exposed my own father sooner than suffer what I have suffered.” Upon which the old judge could not help acknowledging that he never knew anyone who had withstood more without ex- [187] SAINT CROIX posing confederates and he finally discharged me the third day.” ® Underneath the convention chamber of the New York Provincial Congress was a jail where Loyalists were con- fined. It was so full and the prisoners so neglected that the stench was terrible. There is a certain grim humor in a resolution passed by that Congress in 1777: “WHEREAS from the past want of care in the prisoners now confined in the jail immediately un- derneath the Convention chamber, the same is sup- posed to have become unwholesome and very nau- seous and disagreeable effluvia arises which may endanger the health of the members of the Conven- tion: “THEREFORE RESOLVED that for the pres- ervation of their health the members of the Conven- tion be at liberty at their pleasure to smoke in the Convention chambers while the House is sitting and proceeding to business.” ® Noncombatants anxious for peace and normal living conditions naturally sought the protection of the British Army at New York and at Penobscot. And no doubt the Penobscot Loyahsts who later moved to St. Andrews met the standard of “high repute” intended to have been used in accepting settlers for the iV’e'iu Ireland mentioned in the last chapter. At any rate St. Andrews became the leading colony at Passamaquoddy. Before they left Castine for safer British territory these harassed pioneers sent scouts ^Kingston and the Loyalists of ij8s, Walter Bates, St. John, 1889, P. LIX. [I88] THE LOYALISTS ahead to choose a favorable location. Their hardships were many and the need for their exodus exasperating enough but their lot was far less trying than that endured by other Loyalists at St. John and St. George. At St. John many of the soldiers with their wives and families spent their first winter at Lower Cove in log huts or bark camps, some even in tents covered with spruce branches brought in boats from Partridge Island. Their sufferings were naturally very severe and a number of per- sons died through exposure.^® At St. George, one Peter Clinch was in charge of the Royal Fencible Americans as- signed to the Magaguadavic. A delay had taken place in furnishing a vessel to convey them and their stores so it was not until the tenth of November that a landing was effected at the mouth of the Magaguadavic where there was neither house nor habitation of any kind to receive them. The skipper of the vessel glad to be rid of his dissatisfied pas- sengers sailed away the moment he had landed them for fear they would insist on coming away with him rather than land on such an inhospitable shore. Sleeping in the open the first rdght, a heavy fall of snow came and the men had to be dug out in the morning.^^ The leaders of the Penobscot Loyalists were business men from Falmouth (Portland) who had come to Castine early in the Revolution when conditions made it seem ad- visable for them to leave. They were Capt. Wright, Capt. Wyer, Robert Pagan, a successful merchant, and Capt. Jeremiah Pote whose daughters Wyer and Pagan had mar- ried. These men with Dr. John Caleff had joined the “ G. P. LXVI. ^Ibid LXXVII. (See Note ii). [ 189] SAINT CROIX Penobscot Association. Their houses at Castine were taken down and placed on schooners with furniture, dishes, sil- ver, tools and livestock for transport to the new home. John Hanson and James .Maloney had gone ahead, the former settling on Minister’s Island and the latter on Navy Island by way of protection from the Indians then located at St. Andrews Point who were still more or less under the control of Colonel John Allan. Oddly enough it is the Colonel who gives us in his report to Governor Hancock of Massachusetts the only contem- poraneous account we have of the arrival of the Loyalists at St. Andrews: “I do myself the honor to make report to your Excellency of the situation of affairs at Passama- quoddy respecting the encroachments made by the Britons and the steps I have pursued in conse- quence. On my arrival at Passamaquoddy the 23d Septr. I found there had been several surveyors ex- ploring the rivers and a number of settlers taken possession of Saint Andrews Point 20 miles west- ward of St. Croix. On the 3d October two large transports and several smaller vessels with a number of families arrived at Saint Andrews from Bagaduce (Castine). My business calling me up the river Pas- samaquoddy, I passed by the sliips and cautioned them at their peril not to land any inhabitants. But a few days after the whole were landed to amount of forty fainilies. . . . Since the above several more families have been landed and vessels from differ- ent place with supplies daily arriving, a number of houses erected and a large store King’s provisions. ^ Ibid LXXVIII; Mowat, Diverting Hist, of a Loyalist Town, 32. Cf. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series, I, 398. [ 190] THE LOYALISTS Lumber constantly shipping oif and a quantity of valuable timber cut down for the same purpose. So that it appears the whole produce of that valuable part of the country is liable to fall to Britain. . . . A company composed of a number of wealthy per- sons among the rest Pagan formerly of Casco Bay one of the principal managers intend to carry on the business to a great amount at Passamaquoddy. Their interest with the Government has given them an opportunity of procuring a number of inhabit- ants, a great part British soldiers. With these they mean to take possession and once fixed suppose they cannot be removed whether the land falls eastward or westward of the line. So that if the ancient river St. Croix is intended as the boundary it will be highly necessary some steps should be immediately taken to remove those settlers from Saint An- drews.” The new arrivals apparently paid no more attention to the Colonel than his Indians did in 1780. Edward Win- slow, muster officer, wrote to Sir John Wentworth, last Royal Governor of New Hampshire, who was then at Halifax that “Allen, the drunken partisan, has thrown out some threats that he will employ the Indians to remove the people settled between Magadavick and Schoo- diac but Mr. Campbell, Bliss and other discreet men lately from Passamaquoddy say they are under no apprehension from him or his adherents.” Meantime in November, 1783 New York was beiag “G. P. LXXEX. ^Winslow papers, 260, [191] SAINT CROIX evacuated by the British army. Young Ward Chipman, afterwards the efficient agent of the British Boundary Commission at St. Andrews, has described that scene: “I have been a witness to the mortifying scene of giving up the city of New York to the American troops. About 12 o’clock on Tuesday the 25th inst. all our troops were paraded on the wide ground before the Provost where they remained till the Americans, about i o’clock, marched in through Queen Street and Wall Street and the Broad-way, when they wheeled off the Hay-wharf and em- barked immediately and fell down to Staten Island. I walked out and saw the American troops under General Knox march in and was one of the last on shore in the city. It really occasioned most painful sensation and I thought Sir Guy Carleton who was on parade looked unusually dejected * * * I have passed two days since in the city to which I re- turned upon finding all was peace and quiet; a more shabby, ungentlemanlike-looking crew than the new inhabitants are, I never saw tho’ I met with no in- sult or molestation. The Council for sixty days which is invested with supreme authority for that term is sitting. What will be determined by them is uncertain; many are apprehensive of violent and se- vere measures against individuals. I paid my respects to Generals Knox and Jackson, the latter is Com- mandant of the city; they received me very po- litely. I had the satisfaction also of seeing General Washington who is really a good-looking, genteel fellow. Scarce any of our friends, or any man of re- spectability, remains at New York.” From New York transports brought settlers to Nova ^Ibidy 152. [ 192] THE LOYALISTS Scotia destined to locate finally at St. Stephen. These set- tlers were members of the Port Matoon Association, so called, the name being an anglicized version of Port Mon- ton, where they planned to locate. This group had been formed in New York on or before October 1783, probably by Capt. Nehemiah Marks, a native of Derby, Connecti- cut who had first held a commission under Sir Guy Carle- ton and afterwards in a loyalist Maryland regiment. By a notice dated October 1 1, pubhshed in a New York paper “loyalists and discharged soldiers who have been admitted to join this settlement” were directed to “hold themselves in readiness to embark in eight days from the date hereof.” “ They arrived at Port Mouton in due course and spent the winter. Conditions there were not good. A camp election was held which resulted in many members voting to follow the lead of Captain Marks and move to the St. Croix. They stopped at St. Andrews, already a well estab- lished colony, and arrived opposite St. Stephen on May 26, 1784. They landed, put up the British flag and called their settlement “Morristown.” About a dozen famihes were already occupying the river front. The newcomers, having been assigned to the location on the St. Croix with a prom- ise of free grants, felt they had the better right. But Cap- tain Marks, credited with saymg that “the Kang was a gentleman and wotild care for all,” made the further dip- lomatic gesture of treating the squatters as if in his own company of settlers. He was therefore hospitably received. The association did not have to wait long for their grants. Garden or town lots on either side of the “King’s Mast “G. P. CIV. "G. P. LXXXV. (See Note 17). [ 193] SAINT CROIX Road” were assigned and a country grant of one hundred or more acres to each member of the association was made north of the town mostly on the Old Ridge where many of their descendants live still. The old inhabitants or squatters were later granted land on either side of and adjoining the Port Matoon Association. Only Loyalists and honorably discharged soldiers made up the Penobscot and Matoon groups of settlers. But an- other group, known as the Cape Ann Association from their leader Francis Norwood of Gloucester, who had been carrying on a fishing business at Passamaquoddy after the close of the war, was not all Loyalist. Many of its mem- bers were said to have been induced by Norwood to join him because of the wealth of the forests and supposed fertility of the soil.^® Governor Parr, in 1784, had en- couraged twenty families to remove from Nantucket to Nova Scotia to carry on the fishery at Dartmouth.^® He probably also wished to settle the Passamaquoddy region with as large a population as possible in order to strengthen the British claim to the territory on the eastern bank of the St. Croix. The Cape Ann Association did not, however, receive grants with water frontage. While the people at St. Andrews were taking up land all along the St. Croix River the Cape Anners were given back land between Dennis Stream, the boundary of St. Stephen, and the Digdeguash River. Soldiers who did not join any of the civilian associations and receive grants as members of such were usually grouped together by regiments. A field officer received “ G. P. cxvi. ^Ibid (Note A). [ 194] looo acres, a captain 700 acres, subaltern staff and warrant officers 500 acres and privates 100 acres, exclusive of the number of acres to which members of their families might be entitled. The British Government, which was encour- aging the disbanded soldiers to settle on the border, seems to have had its doubts of the good neighbor policy of the new repubhc. The Royal instructions to Governor Carleton dated August 18, 1784, read: “It is our will and pleasure that the allotments to be made to non-commissioned officers and private men under said instructions shall be, where the same is practicable, by corps and as contiguous as may be to each other and that the allotments made to the several commissioned officers under this our in- structions shall be interspersed therein that the same may be united and in case of attack be defended by those who have been accustomed to bear arms and serve together P All of the larger islands of Passamaquoddy, except Grand Manan, had been granted to settlers before the coming of the Loyalists. Moses Gerrish whose name ap- pears with the Penobscot Association and also the Cape Ann Association applied with several others, who wished to branch out for themselves, for the grant of the whole island of Grand Manan. They undertook to settle fifty families on it. A license of occupation was given them. In 1810, the Council of New Brunswick escheated this and at the same time granted to the few individual settlers of this big island the land individually occupied by them.^^ “G. P. LXVIII. ^Manuscript N. B. Hist. Society (St. John). (See Note 21). [195] SAINT CROIX Although present-day St. Stephen, St. Andrews and St. George remain in the proud possession of Loyalist descend- ants, two Loyalist locations of 1784 are all but forgotten. These ghost settlements were then ahve with eager fugi- tives glad to find so attractive a place in which to start life anew. Belleview or Bellevue had been laid out by surveyors on the western side of Beaver Harbor. It boasted streets 60 feet wide (nine in parallel lines and six at right angles) bounding 950 lots of which 149 were originally granted. There was also a suburban or farm area. An old plan in the Crown Land Office at Fredericton reveals that the Ana- baptists had “ten acre lots unimproved” set aside for them, and the Quakers first settled there before moving to their second Penn’s Field. In 1786, this Beaver Harbor location held 800 inhabitants and 300 houses. St. George was the name first given to the other lost settlement situated nearby on the peninsula of L’Etang Harbor opposite Frye Island (then called Le Tete and occupied by Dr. William Paine, a prominent Loyalist of Worcester). It comprised 128 town lots, 25 garden lots and 1 5 3 original grantees. The hard labor of the inhabitants of these twin seashore towns came to naught. Their homes were destroyed in the fateful forest fire of 1790 and were never rebuilt. The busy commerce of early Loyahst days soon found other ports of call.^^ The British border of the St. Croix had now become permanently settled. Not all grantees, however, intended to work their lands. Many sold their claims at once, es- pecially the soldiers and often for a pittance. But the drift- ers seem not to have taken advantage in any large number “G. P. LXXII; LXXIV. [ 196] THE LOYALISTS of the amnesty which permitted their return to the United States. NOTES T I . Lieutenant Peter Clinch, the founder of the present town of St. George (incorporated in 1904), was the grantee of a large tract on the Maga- guadavic. He had taken two Indians and set out to explore the Bay of Passamaquoddy in order to find a location for a settlement for himself and his regiment. Paddling up the Magaguadavic River he was so struck with the beauty of the river and its splendid falls that he at once de- cided to make that location his home. Bom of an old Irish family and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Clinch had come to St. John before the Revolution. After the war he became one of the first Justices of the Peace and represented his County in the first House of Assembly of New Brunswick. He died at St. George in 1816 and is buried in the old churchyard there. G.P., LXXIV. 17. The name Morristowm (now St. Stephen) probably was chosen to honor Charles Morris, Surveyor General. His son, who mapped the St. Croix lands for settlement, is said to have given names to various locations as he surveyed them (G.P. LXXVI). The settlement was soon named “St. Stephen,” however, following the custom of the time of using the names of saints. All the parishes were so named. St. Stephen became an in- corporated town in 1871. Vroom in Glimpses of the Past records the suggestion that the name St. Stephen may have been chosen to honor Stephen Pendleton of St. An- drews, a friend of the surveyor who laid out the parish lines. G.P. CXXI. The Indians had called the St. Stephen location K’tchimeda- biaught or “great landing.” It was the landing used by the Indians on remming to “the Falls” after seal and porpoise hunting. It had good fresh water and a large beach. (Gatchet in Eastport Sentinel—Sept. 13, 1897). 21. Lord William Campbell had in 1773 applied for a grant of Grand Manan but there is no record of any positive action taken toward granting it to him. GJP. XL. [ 197 ] Settling the Yankee Shore THE TERRIBLE DROUGHT of 1761 and 1762 was followed by widespread forest fires in the western section of the Province of Maine, an ex- ploring party came to the Machias River where they found extensive marshes of grass, pine forests, and ample water power for making lumber. The report was so favorable that sixteen men of Scarborough formed an association in 1763 to move to Machias. Others quickly followed, mills were built, houses put up, grants of land taken out and a flourishing settlement was established before the Revolution.^ The migration to Machias was economic rather than poHtical. Doubtless there were men in it who would have been differently rated as Whig or Tory if their leanings had been known. At that time nobody cared. But it may be worth mentioning that of the early settlers at Machias, who later became the pioneers of the Yankee shore of the St. Croix, only one appears to have been con- ^G. P. XXXIX. (See Note i). . [198] Plan of the Town of Calais { ca . i8io) This plan was drawn by Benjamin R. Jones from surveys of Solo- mon Cushing and S. Jones. SAINT CROIX cemed in the capture of the Margaretta in the first naval battle of the Revolution. From this it could be inferred that they tvere Loyahsts. Yet there is no certainty of that for men who had been soldiers in the American Army in the war soon followed them and the settlers on both sides of the St. Croix River at Calais and St. Stephen seem to have mingled on friendly terms. Joint lumbering ventures were undertaken and in- termarriage was not infrequent.^ Although the treaty of peace fixed the St. Croix as the boundary, the neighbors quite wisely ignored the existence of a dividing line be- tween them. Daniel Hill, one of the original sixteen who came to Machias from Scarborough, is generally credited with being the first permanent resident of Calais. He took up land in 1779 at Ferry Point where the International Bridge is now. His descendants boast of him as an Indian fighter, a member of Rogers Rangers, a man “remarkably strong, agile and fearless.” ® Daniel Hill, Jacob Libby and Jeremiah Frost built the first sawmill on the river in 1782 at the mouth of Dennis stream. The legal grant of Town- ship No. 5, now the city of Calais, was not made until 1789. In that year Massachusetts gave the deed of it to one Waterman Thomas.^ It was probably a land speculation. Thomas does not appear as a resident. He promptly deeded the land in quarters to others, among them Speaker Rob- bins of Massachusetts, who had already bought an adjoin- ing township. By 1810, Township No. 5 had been pretty well divided, some of it in loo-acre lots, as shown by the ’Ibid Ln, LIII. Cf. Knowlton’s Annals. ®Knowlton’s Annals of Calais and St, Stephen, i8, 19. (See Note 3). ^Knowlton^s Anmls, 32. (See Note 4). [ 200] SETTLING THE YANKEE SHORE so-called plan,” on which all present-day titles are based. Whatever the pohtical leanings of the settlers of the upper river at the Falls may have been, there is no doubt that Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Harbor at the mouth of the river was distinctly partisan American. Before the war it had been occupied by a few Nova Scotia men en- gaged in the fish and lumber trades. Their presence was the basis of the persistent British claim of sovereignty over all the Passamaquoddy islands, which led finally to the seizure of Eastport by an English fleet in 1814. On the other hand. Colonel Allan’s patrols during the Revolution had made the superior fishing grounds of Passamaquoddy well known to the inhabitants of Machias. With ample land suitable for cultivation to meet the needs of first settlers, with a fine deepwater harbor, and a citadel-like height above the harbor, to reward the climber with its fine view toward the sea over the islands or inland across the intricate waterways of Cobscook Bay, Moose Island was an attractive site for a settlement. As the Revolution was ending Americans had moved in from the west and claimed it for the United States.® It was obviously necessary to make a survey of the eastern border of Massachusetts after the war. The govern- ment at Boston, in 1784, sent General Rufus Putnam and Captain Park Holland to Passamaquoddy to lay out town- ships on the west bank of the river. They surveyed Moose Island and an area which included the present sites of Perry, Pembroke, Dennysville, Robbinston and Calais. Their report does not give the number of American in- ® Kilby, 220 et seq. [201 ] SAINT CROIX habitants of the river at that time. On Pleasant Point, how- ever, they came across John Bernard, son of the former colonial governor, who, as we know, had held \mder British rnle the grant of the west side of the St. Croix. They decided that young Bernard, living there alone among the Indians, must be despondent, his family’s mis- fortune having affected his mind. Holland says in his diary: “We found him in a small hut of his own erecting with no living creature but a little dog for his com- panion and he told us he intended making him a farm here. Poor fellow, we pitied him. He had probably never done a day’s work in his life. He said other young men went into the woods and made them farms and got a good living and he saw no reason why he could not.” * The life of John Bernard was seriously affected by the Revolution. He had come to America in 1765 and after a short term as Naval Officer to the Port of Boston had started in business as a merchant. Until the Confiscation Act of 1779 he had managed his father’s property. Forced to take to the woods he seems not only to have survived but to have had Whig enough in him to obtain from the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1785 the restoration of a portion of his Massachusetts estate including one half of Mount Desert Island and some of the Boston property. He sold or mortgaged this recovered real estate and returned to England. Now Sir John since the death of his father in 1779, he ended by holding various offices under the British Crown in the West Indies and died there in 1809.’^ ^Bangor Hist. Mag. (Oct. 1887), III, 72. ^ “The Bernards of Abington, etc. ” Higgins I, 223; II, 41, 72; III, 160 et seq. [ 202 ] SETTLING THE YANKEE SHORE In 1784, also, General Henry Knox, General Benjamin Lincoln, both Revolutionary heroes, and George Par- tridge, were sent as commissioners of Massachusetts to de- termine the location of the St. Croix River named in the Treaty of 1783. This visit may not have had any effect on the solution of the boundary dispute but it was summer- time and General Lincoln decided that he would like to own land on the western side of the St. Croix just as Razilly and Bernard had tried to do before him. With Thomas Russell and John Lowell of Boston he purchased two townships. It was not a gift or bounty from the State as in the British counties across the bay. This purchase resulted in the first organized American migration to the St. Croix. Sixteen pioneers, friends and neighbors from Hingham, Massachusetts, where General Lincoln lived, sailed in the sloop Sally up the Cobscook River in May, 1786, under the leadership of young Theo- dore Lincoln, the General’s second son, just graduated from Harvard. It was the seventeenth day of the month. The woods were then in full leaf and cast as deep a shade as they do ordinarily in the middle of June. The settlers stepped directly from the bow of their boat onto the soft green moss carpeting the unbroken forests of Passama- quoddy. The settlement thus auspiciously begun, flour- ished. Dennysville, which Theodore Lincoln founded and guided as first citizen throughout his long life, still retains, as a farming district, its attractive character.® Edward H. Robbins of Milton, Massachusetts, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, and later Lieu- ®G. F. Talbot, looth Anniversary of Settlement of Dennysville, 1886; Bangor Hist. Mag. (June 1891), VI, 269. (See Note 8). [203] SAINT CROIX tenant Governor, undoubtedly knew of the purchase of Saint Croix land by his Boston friends. He sent Colonel Jonathan Eddy, who had captained the disastrous attack on Fort Cumberland in 1776, to pick out a township for him . Eddy chose Township No. 4, the site of the present town of Robbinston. Speaker Robbins, who bought it in 1786, took great pride in advancing his settlement, visiting it many times.® In 1798 when the Legislature voted to build a State House in Boston, the commission authorized to build it was headed by Robbins."® John Hancock’s cow pasture on Beacon Hill was chosen as the site and Charles Bulfinch as the architect, both happy choices. No doubt Robbins was no less happy in choosing pine trees from his own land to be made into the beautiful columns which still adorn the front of the golden-domed Capitol at Boston. They were actually cut, as were the timbers of the roof of the legislative chamber, on the shore of west Maguerrewock Lake within the present limits of the city of Calais."" Meanwhile inhabitants of Moose Island were kept con- scious that they really were on the frontier. Because the boundary defined in the treaty of peace had not been located, the nationality of the islands was unsettled. The loyalists at St. Andrews were better organized than the settlers of any other place on the St. Croix. They had the largest settlement, a thriving trade, and established courts. They were attempting to control conditions on all the islands including Moose Island as a part of the County of ® (See Note 9). Mass. Resolves y Ch. 66 of 1794 dated Feb. 16, 1795. ^Bangor Hist. Mag., Ill, 75, 200; Kilby, 222, 223. (See Note [204] II). SETTLING THE YANKEE SHORE Charlotte in the new province of New Brunswick. The settlers of Moose Island or “Freetown,” the name they then called themselves to show their spirit of independ- ence, resented the St. Andrews attempt at control. Ten men of Freetown petitioned the Governor of Massachu- setts, James Bowdom, on January 3, 1786, for release from British interference. The Justices of the Peace at St. An- drews were issuing warrants against persons on Moose Island and attempting to serve them. “As for ourselves,” read the petition, “no allurements or threats will prompt us to forsake that system and constitution which we hold as our natural right and privelege.” Zealous for independence, they were nevertheless des- tined to undergo considerable annoyance mcludmg four years of British martial law during the War of 1812 before they fully achieved the liberty they sought in their petition of 1786. Freetown had gained in population with fair ra- pidity, enough to prompt the freeholders to petition the Massachusetts legislature in 1797 for incorporation as a town. An act establishing a town was passed in 1798. The name of Eastport was chosen as more distinctive and geo- graphically appropriate than Freetown.^® A signal honor was paid Colonel John Allan in the Act of Incorporation by directing that he alone should call the meeting to put the Act into effect. The unusual conditions applying to border affairs on the Passamaquoddy frontier in the unsettled period followmg the Revolution resulted in smuggling on a grand scale. To indulge in this profitable sport, with its excitement and “Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) (2nd Series) XXI, 171. “Kilby, 221, 223. [205] SAINT CROIX sometimes gunfire, there flocked to Passamaquoddy many bold citizens from both sides of the border. The two governments created the conditions in which smugghng flourished. As a part of her colonial policy, Great Britain had since Cromwell’s time forbidden other nations to trade direct with her colonies.^^ This prohibition applied of course to the United States, now an independent nation. But the Maritime Provinces had long depended on imports from Boston. Goods could legally be shipped to Eastport, which the United States claimed as her territory. Not more than a mile or so away were islands under British control. It was handy to negotiate so short a distance. Vessels of different nationahties could transfer cargoes at Passama- quoddy without difficulty. The boundary was fluid, being an imaginary line somewhere in the waters of the bay. On the British side, George Leonard, Superintendent of Trade and Fisheries, was having trouble with his em- bargo. He had been ordered not to permit traffic of any kind between citizens of the two countries.^® On August 20, 1806, he complained that “from 50 up to 100 American vessels have been receiving cargoes from British vessels within ten days past in the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay. These islands are asylum of deserters from the Army and Navy, criminals and absconding debtors from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.” Corruption in subordinate of- ficials in the service of both countries made most difiicult the enforcement of unpopular laws. The two countries Ibidy 143. ^Winslow Papers, 565. ^‘‘Ibid, SSI- [206] SETTLING THE YANKEE SHORE were also at odds and drifting into war. There was no co- operation between them. Either was pleased to outwit the other. On the American side, Thomas Jefferson saw fit to add to complications by his Embargo of 1 807. This appears to have caused the British to cancel the prohibition against importing American goods into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. What had before been illegal was now encouraged under protection of warships stationed to prevent pursuit by American Customs officers in British waters. This situation led to The Flour War, its battles fought between American guards and the general public of both countries, eager on the one hand to receive the flour and on the other to gain the high price for its delivery. At its height, something like one hundred sixty thousand barrels of flour passed through Eastport in a single year. Flour was piled everywhere—on the beaches above the tide and on the adjacent uplands. Every pile of flour was guarded, but the flour somehow disappeared, embargo or no embargo. According to Sabine, there was no such thing as keep- ing it here on the American side in piles in the open air or even in buildings where it was worth only $5.00 per barrel, when it could be sold for $12.00 two miles off across the harbor. At first the price of smuggling was but twelve and one-half cents, but as the risk increased the price advanced and finally rose to $3.00 the barrel. Boats of every imagina- ble size and condition and even Indian canoes were kept employed, and sometimes one man earned for his labor and the use of a small boat forty-seven dollars in twenty- four hours paid him in hard money. The smugglers worked [207] SAINT CROIX under cover of night and of the fog and said they knew why fogs were made.^’^ While all the excitement was going on in Eastport Harbor a man named Ebenezer Ball had set up a plant to make counterfeit money on a lake back in the country now known as “Moneymaker’s Lake.” John S. Downes of Robbinston, an officer, hearing of it took an arrest warrant, which later was found to be illegal, and went in search of Ball. They met on the highway leading to Calais. Bali shot Downes and killed him. This was the first deliberate mur- der on the American shore. Because of the illegal warrant, the Court had difficulty with the case. Some of the judges thought it couldn’t be murder, but as Downes was shot before he had a chance to produce the warrant, they de- cided to hang Ball and hanged he was at Castine in i8i NOTES I. A grant of land for a settlement at Machias had been made to the proprietors on April 26, 1770, subject to the approval of King George III. In Nov. 1770, still lacking this approval, the proprietors voted to pay John Bermrd (Son of ex-Govemor Bernard), then a merchant in Boston, the sum of ten shillings per proprietor’s share if he would get from “His Sacred Majesty” {sic) a confirmation of the grant. Machias was inco^orated as a town by Massachusetts on June 23, 1784. “History of Machias Maine,” G. W, Drisko, Machias, 1904, 12; 23. 3. Daniel Hill is described in G.P. LXXXVIII as an “Ardent Loyalist” but he was one of the Petitioners to Massachusetts in 1775 alleging adherence to the Revolutionary aims and asking protection. Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series VI, 125. 4. Waterman Thomas appears to have been a contractor supplying food for the Continental army. Doc. Hist. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series XVII, 345. The Indians had called the location of Calais “Pemskudek” meaning “The extensive burned place.” Indian Place Names, 230. Cf. Chapter V, Note 2 {supra). The name Calais was probably adopted by the peti- tioners on its incorporation in 1809 because its location was opposite a portion of the English Settlement across the river known as “Dover” Kilby, 245. ^Hist. CoU. (M.H.S.), 2nd Series, I, 169. [ 208 ] SETTLING THE YANKEE SHORE (Royal Soc. of Can., 1906, II, 47). J. F. W. Johnston, a traveller in 1851 commented “The names of the town on the one side of the stream [Calais] and of a principal street on the other call the mind far away to scenes very different on the whole but where frontier towns and rival populations were also vis-a-vis with each other.” Notes on North America II, 158. It is stated in the Encyclopedia Americana that “Calais was named in 1809 after the French city of Calais in gratitude for French help in the Revolution.” There seems little likelihood that the pioneers chose the name for that reason. 8. Theodore Lincoln lived unmarried for twelve years at Dennysville. On his first voyage, however, he had gone ashore in Machias Bay. There he met a child of eleven (Hannah Mayhew) chewing spruce gum. He al- ways remembered her. Years later he wrote to have her come to his house as housekeeper. Within the year they were married. When Thomas Russell, one of the proprietors, was asked by Theodore’s mother what kind of a woman her son had married, Russell replied, “one who would grace a court.” The Denny’s River in Indian was “K’themis” pronounced in English Cathance (now the name of a nearby lake). The name “Dennysville” is probably derived from its association with Indians for John Denny, father, Nicholas and Michel, his sons, are listed by Allan as principal chiefs living there in 1784 (Kidder’s Eastern Expeditions) . It is claimed, however, that the town was named for Nicholas Denys, the French pioneer and historian. Bangor Hist, Mag. Jan., 1892, VII, 150. From the large Lincoln-Russell-Lowell grant three towns were made— Dennysville incorporated on Feb. 13, 1818; Perry (said to be named after Commodore O. H. Perry, hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813) incor- porated on Feb. 12, 1818; and Pembroke (settled as early as 1770) incor- porated on Feb. 4, 1832. Cf. Maine Register. According to local tradition (courtesy of Miss Virginia A. Porter) Pem- broke was named after Pembroke, Wales, by Jerry Burgin of Eastport who gave the town its first set of books for the privilege of naming it. The Welsh Pembroke was famous for crude salt and “Pembroke Salt” was widely known. Pembroke, Maine, in early days also a source of salt, had salt works established there. 9. See Bangor Hist. Mag. Ill, 13, for full sketch of life of Lt. Governor Robbins. He is described as “a gentleman of extensive information, something of an antiquarian whose organ of inquisitiveness was very ? rominent.” The town he founded was incorporated Feb. 18, 1811. ohn Duke, Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of England, visiting in the United States, wrote on Oct. 16, 1883, to Sir M. E. Grant-Duff: “The most beautiful city in America as far as I have seen is Boston and the State House is the most beautiful thing in the country. [It] is in perfect taste and proportion, every interspace the right size, every moulding right, every decoration refined—a sort of Adam architecture of noblest type.” (From his Life and Correspondence) . [209] CHAPTER SIXTEEN A Surprise Attack T.. WAR OF 1812 WAS, WE hope, the safety valve which let off for all time the bad feeling left over from the Revolution. On the St. Croix River the inhabitants of both countries had the sense to realize that any harm they could do to their neighbors would not materially aid either government. Ties of busi- ness, connections by blood or marriage, and mutual friend- ships prompted them to forego raids and hostilities. Con- versations and agreements to that effect were entered into by the magistrates of the various river settlements.^ East- port, from its situation, continued to be a port of entry and departure of the contraband trade which was winked at by both nations. Trafficking in needed or desired articles went on throughout the war. Since hostile vessels could not enter an enemy port without being seized under the laws of war, neutral flags were used for this commerce. American ^Sketches of Ne'W Brunswick^ St. John, 1825; Kilby’s Eastport, 159; Cf. Time magazine, May 21, 1945. (See Note i). [210] A SURPRISE ATTACK goods were brought to Eastport and British or foreign goods to Campobello and Indian Island. After that, the device of transferring a vessel from its true nationality to a neutral flag, usually that of Sweden, was resorted to. A “Swedish” vessel, no questions being asked, would dis- charge cargo at Eastport legally entered at the Customs House. Sweden was only a mile or two away and two en- tries in a single day were possible.^ Carelessness in the accepted procedure would sometimes result in a seizure. Meanwhile privateering, which was practiced liberally by both sides, with big profits to crews from a lucky capture, was mostly directed against enemy commerce with other nations.® In June, 1813, the British declared a blockade of the whole coast of the United States from Passamaquoddy to the Mississippi, a declaration which at most only created a paper blockade. Such an order, if enforceable, would in- volve neutral vessels. It could not very well be enforced in Passamaquoddy harbors whose nationahty was still unde- cided. There seems to have been no serious attempt to do so. The war can therefore be said not to have affected the St. Croix very much until the surprise attack against East- port by the British fleet in 1 8 1 4. What were the reasons for this attack? The war "was within a few months of its end. Eastport had no military importance. Indeed, a British scout had reported as early as 1808 that “a battery might be erected on either [Indian or Marvel Island] from which the Town of Eastport might ^ “Moose Island four years under Martial Law,” Lorenzo Sabine, N. Y. Hist. Mag. (April and May 1870)*, also given in Kilby 20$. ® Kilby, 162 et seq. [211 ] SAINT CROIX be destroyed and the passage between them and Moose Island commanded.” ^ This passage was the deepwater entrance to the river. But the strategy of holding territory claimed by an enemy when a peace is about to be negotiated is apparent. It might effect the unsettled boundary question and secure to the British undivided control of the Bay and Harbor of Passa- maquoddy. This view is indicated by the report dated September 13, 1814, from Lieutenant General Sherbrooke to Earl Bathurst, Downing Street, London: “I have great pleasure in congratulating your lordship upon the whole of the country between the Penobscot River and Passama- quoddy Bay being now in our possession.” ® False peace rumors often occur, as we know, toward the end of wars. They are eagerly believed. Such a rumor spread in early July, 1814. When on the eleventh of that month a large fleet appeared off Head Harbor coming in fast from the eastward with a fair wind and tide, the sentinel on Fort Sulhvan in Eastport naturally thought it a fleet of merchantmen, under convoy of a frigate, bound for St. Andrews for timber. As the fleet drew nearer it was seen that the leading ship was the Ramilies, a “74,” and that all the others were armed vessels. Even then no alarm was given. The Ramilies hove to. Its boat carrying a white flag put ashore. A young officer in uniform climbed rapidly up the hill toward the fort where the American flag was fly- ing. Citizens of Eastport followed him. Demanding to see Major Perley Putnam, officer in com- mand, the intruder gave his own name: “Lieutenant Oats * Select British Documents of War of 1812, 1, 142. (Champlain Soc*). ^ Ibid III, 314. [212] A SURPRISE ATTACK on the staff of Sir John Cope Sherbrooke.” Watch in hand, he presented Major Putnam with a written summons for the surrender of Moose Island. Major Putnam, who was ill, tried to be cordial. He invited the Lieutenant to sit down and discuss the situation. But the latter continued to stand. Sternly he put a five minute limit to acceptance of his demand and left peremptorily upon its rejection. The civilian leaders who had rushed to the fort on seeing Lieu- tenant Oats land with the flag, finally persuaded Major Putnam that resistance would mean destruction of the town, that the few small cannon on the fort would be in- effectual against the greater firepower of the fleet and that his small garrison could not repel a large landing force. Not without difficulty did this sober view prevail. The Major insisted he should fire on the ships. On consulting his officers, however, finding that they were not unanimous in supporting him, he lost his temper and threw away both dignity and his sword. A signal had been agreed on between Oats and the Com- mander of the Fleet that if successful in arranging a peace- able surrender he should enter his boat with his cap on his head. If not, he would be uncovered. Cap in hand, the Lieutenant started his return to the ship, but halfway, he saw the Stars and Stripes being slowly lowered from its proud place above the fort. Quickly he put on his cap. His mission had succeeded. Within an hour five himdred sol- diers were landed from fifteen barges with cannon and munitions.® Eastport’s long period of British control began. The naval force which won this bloodless battle consisted of a dozen or more warships of nearly two hundred guns as ®ICilby, 176. (See Note 6). [213] SAINT CROIX well as txoop transports. They had been assembled from Bermuda and Halifax at a rendezvous in Shelburne under command of Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, Baronet.'^ From time to time notable men have entered into the history of Saint Croix and Passamaquoddy. Sir Thomas is one of them. In his early career his valiant conduct in a naval engagement attracted the attention of Lord Nelson with whom he was afterwards constantly associated. He became ship commander in Nelson’s great sea fights. On the Victory at Trafalgar he was flag-captain. With the famous signal “England expects every man to do his duty,” they began the engagement. When Nelson was mortally wounded Hardy took over. A flying shell splinter had struck Hardy’s foot taking off his shoe buckle. “This is too hot to last long,” remarked Nelson. His four stars made the Admiral a special target of enemy riflemen in the mast tops. And his moment was not long in coming. Before Hardy could reach him he fell on his knees shot through the spine. Two hours later when Hardy assured him of victory Nelson thanked God and signalled that his end, too, was near. He asked Hardy to kiss him. Bending down, “Nelson’s Captain” stood watch as his chief passed over to join the immortals. A native of Dorset, home of great sailors. Hardy was essentially a man’s man. Although much of his popularity sprang from the fact that he had been Lord Nelson’s favorite ofScer who had carried on to victory he rose by his own merit to the rank of Vice-Admiral and the position of First Sea Lord.® Nelson^s Hardy, His Life, Letters and Friends, 1909, 142, 164. (See Note 7), * (See Note 8) . [214] A SURPRISE ATTACK At Eastport the Bucknam House with its inside wooden shutters, deep-set windows, spacious hall and broad stair- ways was chosen by Sir Thomas for his residence. After his return to sea duty it became British headquarters dur- ing the occupation. Sabine has pictured the life which was centered in this stately mansion with its grounds sloping to the sea, the dark treacherous ledge close at hand round which the whirling eddies boiled; “Before the war, the prosperous young merchants fitting up their homes, the opportunities of the Em- bargo and Non-intercourse Acts, the harbour in front, scene of many strange transactions. Then the war, the builders departing with their families from the exposed frontier, the conquerors upon the scene, armed men in the scarlet livery of Britain guarding the doors while their superiors with clanking swords and heavy boots tramped up and down the stair- ways as the roof timbers resound in revelry. Here too came suppliant committees of the townspeople to ask relief from harsh military measures.” ® The Gentleman’s Magazine of London for September, 1814, printed the report sent to Sir John Sherbrooke at Halifax by Colonel Pdlcington, who commanded the garri- son which occupied Eastport. He gave the details of the capitulation. They fotmd in the fort a blockhouse, four ten pounders, one eighteen-pound carronade, four field pieces, six officers and eighty men. He reported the popula- tion of Eastport as 1500, the size of the island as four miles in length, two in breadth, “in a great state of cultivation,” ® Kilby, 493 (Appendix C). The Bucknam House was destroyed by fire in 1833. [215] SAINT CROIX and ended “we have occupied Allan’s and Frederick Is- lands so that in this Bay the whole of the islands are now subject to the British flag.” “ It is probably true that the four years of discipline and restraint put upon the inhabitants of Eastport were more beneficial than harmful. Outrageous they called it, espe- cially the Oath of Allegiance to Great Britain. Sir Thomas, as commander, had the good sense to realize that Great Britain’s annexation of Moose Island by military decree did not settle it. He eased their fears by telling them that he deplored the war, that it was unnecessary, and added that England didn’t begin it. He allowed a note to be made that the Oath “was to be regarded as an oath of neutrality while they remained under British jurisdiction rather than of perpetual allegiance.” The advent of the British materially changed the life of the town. Wives and children were permitted under Brit- ish practice to follow troops to foreign stations. A garrison of looo men kept at that strength during most of the occu- pation, with families added, considerably increased the population of the island. With new schools established, a theatre group organized, games and sports arranged, the novelty of English horse-racing introduced, the commu- nity settled down to a quiet routine. It was of course military rule. No person without permission could leave or enter the island. Rights and property of individuals were strictly protected. Justice by military courts was swift and certain. There was no appeal. There was also no oppression. Select British Doc, of War of 1812, III, 302. “ “Moose Island four years under Martial Law,” Sabine. (N, Y, Hist, Mag. (April and May 1870), [216] A SURPRISE ATTACK A new turn of affairs in Eastport was the founding of the settlement now known as Lubec/^ Its location on the mainland was part of the township of Eastport as incor- porated in 1798. By the terms of the capitulation in 1814 all pubKc property on Moose Island had to be surrendered to the captors. This included the fort and equipment, Customs House and contents, duty bonds, treasury notes, public money, revenue boats, etc., belonging to the United States or the community as a whole. It happened that several prominent men of Eastport had given the United States Government a large amount of Custom Bonds just before the Occupation. These were in duplicate, one of which was at Eastport and the other in possession of United States authorities elsewhere. Colonel Trescott, the Collector of Customs, tried to conceal the Customs House papers, but they finally came into possession of the British. Attempt was made to collect these Duty Bonds from the citizens. To avoid double payment, they left Moose Island and settled on Lubec Neck, which was a forest at that time. This new settlement, once started, grew apace. When the British vacated Moose Island in 1 8 1 8, Lubec was large and important enough to compete with its parent for the trade of Passamaquoddy. After the English took over, smuggling which had been a blemish on the reputation of the pioneer settlement, seems largely to have ended. The rough characters at- tracted by its hazards and gain disappeared. Following the happy event of restoration to the United States, Eastport began a new era free of ancient encumbrances. Its citizens showed a remarkable spirit of enterprise. New wharfs and “Kilby, 201. (See Note 12). [217] SAINT CROIX buildings went up, legitimate commerce increased and many desirable newcomers from other parts of Maine are said to have given ‘^a high tone to the moral, social, and literary character of the town and neighborhood,” NOTES I. Rev. Duncan McCoU of Saint Stephen, who appears to have had much influence with the inhabitants of the upper river says in his diary: “News of war came on Saturday, June 27, 1812. I preached in our meeting-house. All the people flocked there. They were sobbing and weeping so I could hardly make out to preach. The next day I stept over to Mr. P. Christy’s, one of our magistrates and pointed out the necessity and propriety of calling on the people on both sides of the river to consult together and maintain peace.” Br, North American Wesleyan Magazine Vol. I (1841) No. XIII. 6. In seizing Moose Island the British asserted that they were restoring the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay to New Brunswick and were not act- ing against enemy territory. 7. The written demand for surrender young Oats carried as he strode up the hill to the fort was as follows: On Board H.M.S. “RamiUies,” off Moose Island, July ii. Sir, As we are perfectly apprised of the weakness of the fort and garrison under your command, and your inability to defend Moose Island against tlie ships and troops of his Britannic Majesty placed under our direc- tions, we are induced from the humane consideration of avoiding the effusion of blood, and from a regard to you and the inhabitants of the island, to prevent, if in our power, the distresses and calamities which will befall them, in case of resistance. We, therefore, allow you five minutes, from the time this summons is delivered, to decide upon an inswer. In the event of your not agreeing to capitulate, on liberal terms, we >hall deeply lament being compelled to resort to those coercive measures ^Ibid, 219. [218] A SURPRISE ATTACK which may cause destruction to the town of Eastport, but which will ultimately insure us possession of the island. T. M. HARDY Captain of H.M.S. Ramillies. A. PILKINGTON Lieut-Colonel Commanding. To the Officer Commanding the United States Troops on Moose Island 8. Hardy’s popularity with the fleet throughout his long career was im- mense. An old Trafalgar song “The Quartergunner’s Yam” contained the following verses: “Our Captain was Hardy, the pride of us all, m ask for none better when danger shall call. He was hardy by nature and Hardy by name. And soon by his conduct to honour he came. The Victory led, to her dag it was due Though the Temeraires thought themselves Admirals too. Lord Nelson was wounded, most cruel to tell They’ve done for me, Hardy,’ he cried as he fell. When the Captain reported a victory won ‘Thank God,’ he kept saying, ‘My duty I’ve done.’ At last came the moment to kiss him goodbye And the Captain for once had the salt in his eye. ‘Now anchor, dear Hardy,’ the Admiral cried, But before we could make it he fainted and died; All night in the trough of the sea we were tossed And for want of ground tackle good prizes were lost. Then we hauled down the flag, at the fore it was red, And blue at the mizzen was hoisted instead By Nelson’s famed Captain, the pride of each tar Wio fought in the Victory off Cape Trafalgar.” 12. Lubec, spelled Lubeck in its act of incorporation dated June 21, 1811 and called after the German town of that name, was first known as “Soward’s Neck.” It comprised the mainland section of the incorporated town of Eastport. Lubec has the distinction of containing West Quoddy Heady the most easterly point of land of the United States. Maine Register; Kilby, 230. [219] CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Charlotte^s Shiretown AFTER THE TREATMENT GIVEN them in the United States it was natural enough that the Loyalists should look at the world through British spec- tacles. The new province, set off from Nova Scotia in 1784, took its title from the reigning House of Brunswick. St. Andrews,^ proud to certify where it stood, did some- thing unique in street nomenclature. It made its streets the roster of the Royal Family, leading off with the King, Queen, Prince of Wales and Princess Royal, then the rest of the children by their Christian names. Queen Charlotte, consort of the mad king who helped bring on the migra- tion, was honored for herself with the name of the County. To Loyalists anythmg British sounded good even with a German accent, more popular then than now. The leaders of the Penobscot Association had chosen an attractive location for their enforced habitation. A con- temporary traveller described St. Andrews in 1791 as ^ (See Note i). [ 220 ] CHARLOTTE’S S H I RETO W N “prettily situated on a spacious point of land with an easy slope toward the water and surrounded on three sides by the River Scudiac and the Bay of Passamaquoddy.” ^ Adapting their settlement to the land formation with its pleasant southern exposure, they employed Charles Mor- ris, Jr., son of the surveyor general, to lay out wide streets in a rectangular pattern, the long streets parallel to the har- bor and the shorter ones, called after the King and his children, making right-angle connections with them from the harbor to the top of the slope.® That St. Andrews has retained its colonial features may to a large extent, with the aid of a bracing climate and pleasing landscape, account for its appeal to visitors and satisfaction to its inhabitants. Some of the simple original houses made of materials brought by the first settlers re- main. Others built square and better timbered, a few of Georgian brick, have been added by later generations. The colonial court house with its interesting coat-of-arms, and the old stone jail are other relics of earher days. But the Greenock Church and its handsome double pulpit are con- sidered St. Andrews’ best specimens of provincial archi- tecture. One of the first acts of the new settlers was calling a meeting to join in the petition to the government to set off the area now known as New Brunswick in a separate prov- ince. Halifax was too far away to function satisfactorily as the capital. Even before this happened Governor Parr had named four St. Andrews men to be Justices of the Peace and appointed other officers of the law.^ Thus organized ^Patrick Campbeirs Travels. ®Siebert, 24. ^ G. P. LXXXIL (See Note 4). [221 ] SAINT CROIX with plenty of trade in sight and work for everybody the future looked bright. On May 2nd, 1784, William Pagan wrote from St. Andrews to his friend Dr. William Paine who had settled at L’Etang: “We have now about ninety houses up and great preparations making in every quarter of the town for more. Numbers of inhabitants are daily arriving and a great many others are hourly looked for from different quarters. Agents are now here from the neighboring States on the lookout for lands for a number of valuable inhabitants who wish to emi- grate here being tired of their new Government. Early this spring I made one of an exploring party. We went all around Oak Point Bay and up Scu- dock River as far as the Indian settlement a little above the Falls. These are part of the lands laid out for the Associated Loyalists from Penobscot and I can with pleasure assure you that the land is in gen- eral very good abounding with large quantities of hardwood, all kinds of fine timber of a large growth and very handy to the water where most vessels can safely anchor. There are a number of falls of water where saw mills can be erected but only two on Scudock yet up * * * I am fully convinced that the Grand Bay of Passamaquoddy alone can supply the whole British West India Islands with boards, planks, scantling, etc.” ® Each grantee had drawn by lot a town plot and also land bordering the shore of the bay or river. In addition the government was issuing rations to needy settlers in fron- tier locations. With individual land holdings each pioneer had a chance at prosperity. The numerous streams in the ® Winslow Papers, 201. [ 222 ] CHARLOTTE’S SHIRETOWN thickly wooded, hilly country had sufficient power for small mills and nearby timber produced deal and boards enough to satisfy the trade to the West Indies. With ship- yards handy to the mill, vessels were easily built to carry it. They often lay at anchor at the mouth of the streams load- ing roughly squared timber floated out to the vessels. It was only on the religious and social side that the needs of the community were not satisfied. To meet them the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent as mission- ary in 1786 Rev. Samuel Andrews, who had been rector of St. Paul’s Church at Wallingford, Connecticut. His coming proved to be an important event in the life of the town. He brought with him the coat-of-arms given by King William and Queen Mary to the church at WalHng- ford which today hangs over the west door of All Saints Church in St. Andrews.® Parson Andrews, as he came to be known, held the community content in one church dur- ing his long life. It did not split into different denomina- tions until after his death in 1818. Parson Andrews gave intellectual stimulus as well as religion. All the leading men joined his “Friendly Society,” which met each week for discussion and debate on such subjects as religion, morahty, law, medicine, geography, history and important newspaper articles. His old minute book with the subjects discussed is still preserved.'^ There were no roads and no paths except in the town. Those dwelling there were secure enough but conditions in lonely clearings deep in the woods sometimes meant ®Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings (2nd Ser.), IV, 255. (See Note 6). Siebert, 26. The Minute Book is owned by Miss G. H. Mowat, St. An- drews. [223] SAINT CROIX want and adventure. Henry Goldsmith, who had drawn a fine millsite (now Bartlett’s Mills on the road to St. Stephen), went abroad in search of financial backing. His wife and children ran out of food. A roaming Indian brought news of their plight to St. Andrews. Rescue had to be made by boat for only by the river could the pioneers move easily from place to place.® In the forest brown bears, wolves and other wild animals were plentiful. Bears were inquisitive and troublesome. In an old commonplace book we read of a Loyalist’s wife who kept a pig, a rare animal in early days.® Hearing squeals she looked out and saw a big bear walking off with her pig in his arms. Grabbing a musket, determined not to lose her treasure, she charged the bear with fixed bayonet. Dropping the pig the bear turned on her, but the bayonet stood him off while she inched her way to the safety of her cabin. At Digdeguash another plucky woman, wife of Wilham Stewart, kept sheep to provide wool for her hand-loom. One day a bear appeared. She drove the sheep into the little potato cellar under her cabin. The bear followed and all the sheep ran out but one. To block the bear in the cellar she piled stumps against the cellar door. The cabin floor was made of poles. The bear tried to get out by climbing through the floor into the room above. So Mrs. Stewart seized an axe and hacked at his paws. Although the enraged bear ate the lone sheep, he was shot when her husband came home.^® Among the statements in the Winslow Papers edited by W. O. Raymond, the historian, it is said that St. Andrews ®Mowat, 71, ® Courtesy of D. G. Hanson, St. Andrews, P. CVIII. [224] CHARLOTTE’S SHIRETOWN in 1788 had six hundred houses and a neighborhood popu- lation of over 3000.^^ These figures seem excessive in view of a later census which does not equal this number. But growth was vigorous. The inhabitants felt both pride and confidence. It must have been the reputation of the settle- ment that caused Patrick Campbell, a Scotch traveller, who visited Canada in 1791, to write in his journal, “Being de- sirous of seeing St. Andrews, Pasmaquady and Charlotte County I set out in the packet sloop Capt. Magistonr He described the country and put down the names of the persons he met. He visited the Indians at Pleasant Point, where he heard a story that pleased him, and went up the St. Croix River in a canoe as far as Princeton to the farm of old Bailhe, whose name is retained in Baileyville. He tells us that St. Andrews had a smart trade in shipbuilding, lum- ber and fish, of which Robert Pagan, another Scotchman, was the “life and soul.” For many years there were no black sleep among the Loyalists on the river, but finally a very black one ap- peared. John Dunbar, who drew the first lot and headed the hst of Port Matoon grantees, abandoned his grant and moved to Campobello. There he worked in a mill. One day he demanded of his wife a gold piece which she was sav- ing. When she refused to give it to him he killed her. He was tried at St. Andrews, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. This is news because of what happened to him afterwards. Just before the day appointed for the hanging he escaped and wandered through the woods to Bayside ^Winslow Papers, 354. (See Note ii). ^Patrick Campbeirs Travels, 285, (See Note 13). [225] SAINT CROIX where he asked for work from the son of Captain Brad- ford who was absent. When the Captain returned he rec- ognized Dunbar and Jailer Hitchings was able to recapture his prisoner. It was not long, however, before another break occurred, this time by the aid of one Greenlaw, a confined debtor. Dunbar completely disappeared. His case was almost forgotten. One day a man named Bentley, a resident of St. Andrews, was in Boston walking aimlessly along a street. There was a man shingling the roof of a house. Bentley paid no attention, but just as he was passing a shingle blew down and hit him in the face. He looked up and recognized Dunbar, whose next exit was to the gal- lows. Justice, not so blind on this occasion, had followed the custom in lumber countries of keeping her tally with a shingle.^* Canada’s first native-born, English-speaking poet was bom in St. Andrews. The records of baptism in the regis- ter of Ail Saints Church show that one Oliver Goldsmith was baptized on July 5th, 1795. He was the son of Henry Goldsmith, who was himself a nephew of the famed Eng- lish poet. In “The Deserted Village,” the inhabitants had been forced to leave the homes they loved. The EngHsh Oliver has thus described their sad depar- ture “Good Heavens! What sorrows Gloomed that parting day That called them from their native walks away; “G. P. Lxxxvr. [226] CHARLOTTE’S S H I RE T O W N When the poor exiles every pleasure past Hung round their bowers and fondly looked their last And took a long farewell and 'wished in vain For seats like these beyond the Western Maini” The Canadian Oliver, loath to have the villagers in his namesake’s poem wish in vain for a settlement beyond the Western Main, wrote a poem called “The Rising Village.” Using the same meter in a longer poem than “The Deserted Village,” he raised for them a new home in unsettled Can- ada. This excellent poem was printed in London in 1825. Its author, who was a commissary officer in the British Army at Saint John, wrote no other poems. But in his one attempt he painted a pleasing picture of the struggle, the sports and pastimes of pioneer life. He ended with an apos- trophe to Acadia: “Happy Acadia! Though around thy shore Is heard the stormy winds’ terrific roar. Though round thee winter binds his icy chain And Hs rude tempests sweep along the plain, Still Summer comes and decorates thy land With fruits and flowers from her luxuriant hand. Still Autumn’s gifts repay the laborer’s toil With richest products from thy fertile soil. ^ “The Deserted Village,” lines 363-368. [227] SAINT CROIX With bounteous store his varied wants supply And scarce the plants of other suns deny. How pleasing and how glowing with delight Are now thy budding hopes! How sweetly bright They rise to view! How full of joy appear Thy expectations of each future year! ” St. Andrews was the leading settlement on the river. All court and administrative functions took place there. As prosperity increased it became the social center as well. The transition from pioneer beginnings to the conventions of an established Hfe in the English sense must have been very gradual. Yet there are traditions of an annual ball each year on the King’s birthday and other good times at which representatives from Campobello, Deer Island and St. Ste- phen were present.” As a forecast of the St. Andrews of today, there seems to have been appreciation of this seaside village as a health resort. Colonel Edward Winslow’s let- ters are full of his constant suffering from gout which often incapacitated him. In June, i8io, he came to St. Andrews for a cure. His daughter, Penelope, who was with him, reported to her brother in November that he had “not had a symptom since.” The cure may have colored his view- point, for Colonel Winslow wrote to George Heriot, Postmaster General, at Quebec: “The country which I have lately visited (St. An- drews) is by far the most interesting and most de- lightful part of the Province of New Brunswick. The banks of the St. Croix, which in 1796 were on '^Autobiography of Oliver Goldsmith, Myatt, Toronto, 1943, 47, 2, 54. ^^Mowat, 72, 90. [ 228 ] CHARLOTTE’S SHIRETOWN both sides desert, now exhibit scenes of enterprise, industry and activity.” A new and leisurely group of inhabitants arrived with the war of 1812. St. Andrews became for many years a garrison town. The advent of Redcoats boosted as well as colored social life. Now officially an English center, it at- tracted remittance men sent from England whose coming may be said not to have added to the industry of the com- munity. Following English practice there were also ap- prentices or indentured servants. St. Andrews men were responsible for the first railroad in New Brunswick. In 1835, before any other existed in Canada, and only five years after the first railroad was built in the United States, St. Andrews men provided money and started a survey of the route which now is the roadbed of the Canadian Pacific Railway running to Woodstock.^® The project was intended to reach Quebec, but lack of English financial backing and objection from the State of Maine to crossing its territory put a stop to that ambition. St. Andrews citizens also joined in introducing the tele- graph to New Brunswick. Squire John Wilson tells us that fact by a telegram in fanciful Victorian rhetoric sent from St. Andrews to St. John: “beustg the first subscriber to the electric tel- egraph COMPANY I AM HONORED BY THE FIRST COM- MUNICATION TO YOUR CITY ANNOUNCING THE GREAT AND WONDERFUL WORK GOD HAS MADE KNOWN TO MAN BY GIVING US CONTROL OF HIS LIGHTNINGS.” Winslow Papers, 654. ^ Acad. Ill, 163; cf. Mowat, 91, no. ^ Acad. VII, 203. (See Note 20). [229] SAINT CROIX Just as Colonel Winslow had found St. Andrews to be a comforting habitation in i8io, many other Canadians have since turned to this seaside town for rest and recrea- tion. Prominent among them were Dr. Tupper (later Sir Charles Tupper, Bart.) and Sir Leonard Tilley. Dr. Tup- per owned an attractive location on Highland Hill, now called “Clibrig,” the present home of Mr. Norman Wilson and his wife (the Honorable Cairine Wilson, a distin- guished woman senator of Canada) . As Nova Scotia’s most influential statesman. Sir Charles Tupper joined the move- ment seeking to confederate the Canadian provinces into one national group. After the consolidation he became its Minister of Pubhc Works and gave powerful support to the building of the vital Canadian Pacific Railway. He was Prime Minister of Canada in 1896.^^ Sir Leonard Tilley, whose residence is now owned by Miss Olive Hosmer, was also an eager proponent of Con- federation. Badly beaten in New Brunswick by its op- ponents in 1865 he triumphed later. For this he was knighted. He was twice chosen Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. An interesting contribution to the Con- federation was his suggestion of adding the word “Domin- ion” to the title of Canada, inspired by those of Solomon and Zechariah.^® The acquisition of the St. Andrews branch railroad by the C.P.R. in 1890 caused its high officials to acquire sum- mer homes there. Sir William Van Horne, first of its presidents to locate in St. Andrews, bought Minister’s ^Dict. of Canadian Biography, 1926; Sir Charles Tupper^s life and letters, E, M. Saunders. Recollections of Sixty Years (autobiography). ^Mowat, 125; Diet, of Canadian Biography, 1926; Wilmot and Tilley, Hannay. (See Note 22). [230] CHARLOTTE’S S H I RET OW N Island where Parson Andrews had settled in 1791. Al- though he did not follow the good parson’s example of crossing the causeway to and from the island on horseback with his wife on a pilHon behind him, he took deUght in keeping it almost as inaccessible. Such simplicity, however, ended with the approach to the island. For Sir Wilham, like Kubla Khan, decreed himself a stately pleasure dome. Under many a raised eyebrow St. Andrews folks looked out on doings which even old Kubla would have envied. Not only “Fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.” but Dutch-belted cattle and windmills as well as graperies from England also appeared on the landscape. He named it “Covenhoven.” Decisive in judgment, confident in opinion. Sir Wil- liam’s exaggerations were not those of impotence. The monument to his energy and determination is the Canadian colossus which finally succeeded in straddling the North American continent and encircling the globe with famous steamships. He combined the skill, experience and leader- ship of a successful man of affairs with the leisure of a bon viveur, raconteur and discriminating artist.^^ “I never work,” said he, “never have since I was ten years old and “Kubla Khan,” S. T. Coleridge. ^ (See Note 24). [231] SAINT CROIX Split logs. I have only enjoyed” It was this vitality of en- joyment that led him to collect ceramics and paintings, to become an authority on the lives and works of great artists, and to paint many pictures himself. As a painter, however, he did not equal George Inness, the landscapist who built a summer home near the Algonquin Hotel in Saint An- drews and painted some of his best pictures there.®® Although this unusual man and his Covenhoven are fading into the legendary past they were in their day magnets to draw others to seek a haven on the St. Croix, among them Sir Thomas Shaughnessy who had joined the railroad early in its march from sea to sea. He became its president in the first decades of this century. Obtaining a lease of old Fort Tipperary on the ridge overlooking the town he built himself a residence and ended his distin- guished career as Lord Shaughnessy,®^ St. Andrews’ only peer, having been given the rank of Baron by King George V in 1916. The summer colony, which these men helped to foster, has added to the population of the town many friendly people from other parts of Canada and the United States. It would be hard to say whether the “summerers” or the “winterers” love it more. Both agree in acknowl- edging a debt to the Loyalists who founded it. There is a story connected with the coming of the. Loyalists to St. Andrews which it may be of interest to record in closing this chapter of early life in the parent town of the St. Croix, eldest in point of settlement, and leader for a long period in its trade and shipping. Matthew ^My Camdicm Memories, MacNaughton, London, 1920, 97. ^ (See Note 26). ^ (See Note 27). [232] CHARLOTTE’S SH IRETOWN Thornton, a member of the Penobscot Association, had a town lot in 1784 at St. Andrews and a farm on the river between the Ledge and the Narrows. Later he sold his farm and settled near Pagan’s Cove in Oak Bay. There he died in 1824. He was apparently a tight-hpped man and the pubhc knew nothing of his past. Yet he must have talked within his family. When he died it was said that he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It would be natural, if he was signer, to avoid mention in Canada of such an unpopular fact about himself. About fifty years ago James Vroom, painstaking and im- portant historian of Charlotte County, who contributed much local history to the St. Croix Courier, a weekly journal published in St. Stephen, became interested in the Matthew Thornton story. He found that there were two Matthew Thorntons, uncle and nephew, who lived in New Hampshire before the Revolution. The uncle was a doctor in Londonderry and was well known by that title. As sur- geon in the Shirley expedition against Cape Breton, he was present at the surrender of Louisburg in 1745. Although he held a commission under the Royal government, he joined the revolutionary party and was president of a Provincial Convention held at Exeter in 1775. He was a well-known man and may have been the Matthew Thorn- ton who affixed that name to the immortal document. In the Journal of the Congress of ijj6 z Matthew Thornton is mentioned as a delegate from New Hampshire without the title of Doctor. At that time the nephew was eligible to have been such a delegate. Whoever was the signer, his is the last signature to the Declaration. Matthew Thornton, the nephew, born in New Hamp- [233] SAINT CROIX shire in December, 1746, lived on the family place at Thornton’s Ferry. According to family tradition, he was active in the revolutionary cause and was a captain of a company of insurgent Americans. Two of his brothers-in- law named Crawford served under him. His company having been mustered out, he went as a civilian in 1777 to look after some property he was interested in near Ben- nington, Vermont. The British were active in that terri- tory. Thornton fell in with the King’s forces, was taken prisoner and impressed to drive one of their ammunition wagons. While so engaged some patriots saw him who knew him. On his return home he was arrested, accused of treason, tried and finally honorably acquitted. But sus- picion and threats followed. Being a freemason he was aided by brother masons in leaving the country and came by boat to St. Andrews, passing the winter alone with his dog on St. Andrews Island. He applied for and received a grant as a member of the Penobscot Association. James Vroom obtained the following statement from Joseph Donald of Dufferin, member of the New Brunswick House of Assembly, whose wife was a granddaughter of Matthew Thornton, the Loyalist: “It has always been known in the family that Mat- thew Thornton of the Penobscot Association was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, though for obvious reasons very little was said about it dur- ing his lifetime. As a Loyalist among Loyalists, he would of course prefer that the fact be forgotten and it would have been more in accordance with his wishes if it had still remained a family secret. Soon after I became acquainted with the family, which was nearly seventy years ago, I first heard it [234] CHARLOTTE’S SHIRETOWN mentioned. This was but a year or two after Mat- thew Thornton died. His widow was still alive. “A little incident that convinced me of the truth of this story took place at the house of his son, afterwards my father-in-law, who was also named Matthew Thornton. A friend had sent me a group of portraits of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. Showing this to Mr. Thornton with- out letting him know what it was I asked him whether he knew any of the faces. He pointed to one and said ‘Why, that’s Father Thornton’ and showed it to his wife, who also recognized the like- ness. Then I told him the pictures were those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the one he had pointed out bore his father’s name and he said ‘Yes, he was a signer.’ ” James Vroom went further. He found a document belong- ing to Nehemiah Marks and witnessed by Matthew Thorn- ton the Loyalist, and also a note of hand given to Aaron Upton in 1813. These signatures and the name signed to the Declaration of Independence are reproduced here.^® 1786. “G. P. CXIII, CXIV; Acad. I, 131. [235] SAINT CROIX NOTES I, 'I'he origin of the name St, Andrews is not known. Its use antedates the coming of the Loyalists who adopted the names of Saints for parishes and towns. It was in use at least as early as 1765 as shown on a map by Charles Morris, Surveyor General, now in the Public Record office in London. Capt. Wm. Owen wrote the name in his Journal in 1770. (Pait- sits edition 128). It appeared at about the same time in the Chalmers Manuscripts now in the N. Y. Public Library. The Indian tradition as given by Chief Francis Joseph at the Boundary Commission inquiry of 1796 was that the French on coming to Passamaquoddy “erected a cross upon St. Andrews Point on St. Andrews Day, celebrated mass there and gave it the name of St. Andrews.” Kilby, 1145 Acad. II, 184, 187; VII, 203. St. Andrews did not become an incorporated town until 1903* 4. Robert Pagan, John Curry, Philip Bailey and Wm. Gallop were ap- pointed on Feb. 18, 1784, as J.P-’s. for the District of Passamaquoddy, County of Sunbury, Nova Scotia. 6. E. F. Slafter, the historian (who studied royal emblems existing before the Revolution) has described this important relic: “Connecticut was the home of another Coat of Arms which is still extant. These Arms are now in All Saints Church at St. Andrews^ N. B. . . . They are in themselves extremely interesting. They are carved in wood, gilded and brilliantly painted and although very ancient are in excellent presentation. They belong to the period of William and Mary and are the Arms of those Sovereigns. They differ in no respect from those of the Stuart family except that they bear on an escutcheon of pretence, the Lion of Nassau introduced by William of Orange who become William III of England.” II. These figures were evidently copied from a book entitled A72 Account * oj the Present State of Nova Scotia by S. Hollingsworth published in Edinburgh in 1786. Page 84. They are also used by Prof. Siebert in Exodus of Loyalists, 25, . , _ , 13. Robert Pagan with his brothers, William and Thomas, migrated to Fal- mouth (Pordand) from Glasgow in 1769. He carried on a shipping and lumber business, mostly to foreign ports, as American representative of Lee, Tucker & Co. of Greenock, Scotland. After the burning of Fal- mouth by Mowat he was proscribed and banished in 1778. At Falmouth he had the largest stock of goods. At Castine he had two stores, a lum- ber yard and two sawmills and at St. Andrews he became one of the most prosperous Loyalists. In a memorial to Governor Parr Oct. 16, 1783, from Fort George, Penobscot River, asking for a grant at Passa- maquoddy the brothers Robert and Thomas Pagan cerdfied that they lost “32 vessels (to the Americans) of all of which they were the sole or principal owners.” Acad. II, 279; Ibid VI, 262. 20. During the 19th century St. Andrews had different newspapers in suc- cession, aU now discontinued. [236] CHARLOTTE^S SHIRETOWN The St. Andrews Coiirant The St. Andrews Herald, Stubbs publisher The Standard, Smith & Son “ The Bay Pilot Magee “ St. Andrews Beacon, Armstrong “ 22. Psalms LXXII. The phrase also occurs in Zechariah IX, “And his do- minion shall be from sea even to sea.” 24. Sir Wm. Van Home bom in Illinois on Feb. 3, 1843, was a telegrapher on the Illinois Central R.R. at fourteen. Serving in various railroad ca- pacities he came to the attention of “Jim” Hill (the super railroad pro- moter of the 19th century) and by him was recommended in 1882 to manage the then stmggling CJP.R. He became Vice President in 1884, President in 1888, Chairman in 1899. See Life and Work of Sir Win. Va7i Horne by Walter Vaughan, N. Y., 1920; Steel of Empire by Gib- bon, N. Y., 1935; Diet, of Can. Biography, 1926. 26. George Inness (1825-1894) an American painter of Scotch descent. His landscapes are famous. In the Art Institute of Chicago there is an Inness entitled “Moonlight on Passamaquoddy Bay,” a painting outlining the town with Greenock Kirk in the foreground and the harbor beyond, which is described by his biographer as “one of the most remarkable canvasses that Inness ever did in point of technic.” Life, Art and Letters of George Inness, 1917, 260. 27. Lord Shaughnessy was bom in Milwaukee, Oct. 6, 1853. Beginning his railway service in 1869 with the Milwaukee and St. Paul R.R. he fol- lowed Van Home in 1882 to the C.P.R. In 1898 he succeeded Van Home as President who said of him “No Rahway in the world has at its head a more capable and devoted man than Sir Thomas Shaughnessy.” When the Duke and Duchess of York (afterwards George V) brought him the rank of Knight from King Edward, Sir Thomas at once sent the news to his parents and added “one owes a great deal to a good father and mother.” He became Baron Shaughnessy in 1916. Steel of Empire 351 et seq.; Diet, of Can. Biog. (1926). [ 237 ] CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Three Men of Campohello C^AMPOBELLO IS FORTUNATE to have had associated with it, in sequence rather than all at once, three men to be remembered. Two of them strutted their stage at Campobello, the other was known in all the world. This island of sun and mist meant much to them. They, in turn, give color to its history. Sir Thomas Rich, whom we met with Captain William Owen at the sea-fowl drive in Con-nos-quam-cook Pond in 1770, took charge, after Captain Owen died in 1778, of his young sons. Probably he was responsible for sending their cousin David Owen in 1787 to look after the family estate. First of th© Owens to spend his life at Campobello, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Senior Wrangler, a bachelor and in Holy Orders, David now became lord of the island in fact as well as in name.^ ^ For an account of David Owen and his eccentricities see Wells “Campo- bello”; Acadiensis I, 2; Paltsits (Appendix); Collections of New Brunswick Hist. Soc., 217. [238] THREE MEN OF CAMPOBELLO In 1771 William Owen had advertised in the Boston Evening Post for settlers without results and a second time, on his arrival in Liverpool, with the promise of free pas- sage, a house, outbuildings, fifty acres, and money advanced for six cows, two oxen, and a sow pig.^ Again there was no response. The isolation and lack of inhabitants of the island must have dampened his enthusiasm. David, on the other hand, had the opportunity to start the settlement toward bigger things. Unlike Captain Owen, he found settlers ready at hand due to the influx of intelligent Loyalists, who would, if fairly treated, have made profitable and companionable tenants for his wilder- ness. Since land was plentiful everywhere a man, taking up vacant land or buying the quitclaim of an earlier settler, would surely feel that he had the right to stay on that land. But David knew that the legal grant of the island was his or at least the family’s and he proceeded to dispossess rather than to compromise. He succeeded in maintaining his position against everyone except the Wilson family, whose adverse rights on one end of the island were upheld by the court.® In doing this he undoubtedly drove away the very settlers whom Captain Owen would have been glad to welcome. But David enjoyed his triumphs. He liked to cross swords, mostly verbal, with his victims. He was not above mean methods in business. His treatment of the wives of Thomas Storrow and Gillam Butler by ejecting them in winter in the absence of their husbands was a local scandal. With those who conceded his paternal overlordship, how- ® (See Note 2). ® (See Note 3). [239] SAINT CROIX ever, he could be congenial. He was Justice of the Peace, preached in his rustic chapel, married off his people, played the fiddle at their dances, and directed the social life of the island. He kept a voluminous diary. Many of his closely written manuscripts came into possession of the later Cam- pobello Company and are as yet unpublished. His corre- spondence was large for he bleed to air his fancied slights and grievances. Oddfish as he must have been, tradition says people bked him. Having plenty of time on his hands he frequently ad- dressed the British Admiralty with advice or complaints. To the Committee of Pubbe Safety at Eastport during the British occupation, he wrote with some scorn that he “could have taken it, Eastport, with a gun brig and my own militia.” He seems to have resented the presence of the English almost as much as of the trespassing Americans, in spite of the fact that the advent of Sir Thomas Hardy, whose society he enjoyed, brought him a break in the monotony of his exile from home. Even Royalty did not escape. He petitioned George, Regent of England, to stop the Commandant at Eastport from daring to order inhabit- ants of Campobello “to be taken off the land for militia duty,” actually threatening that it would result in re- belbon, “against the very government [Engbsh] they have hitherto handsomely maintained.” In short, David’s was to be a one-man empire, free and independent of all the world. “The Crown alone, without our consent,” he said, “has no right to tax us and no right to sever Campobello from Nova Scotia by the erection of a Province of New Bruns- wick in which Campobello was included.” [240] THREE MEN OF CAMPOBELLO Evidently David exceeded in zeal even the patriots of 1775 and, if a little saner, would have made a good Ameri- can. With final dignity he declined to have further com- munications with the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London until he should have “some assurance that they would be received without inattention.” When it came to dying, however, in 1829, David would have none of Cam- pobello. He said he wanted to be and was buried at his ancestral home in Wales. Kate Gannett Wells in her sketches of Campobello perpetuates what must have been local gossip that Admiral WilHam Fitzwilliam Owen was a natural son of Captain William Owen. She pictures him a pathetic boy of five, being asked his name, and replying “I don’t know. Mother can tell you.” But Dr. V. H. Paltsits, the historian, who edited the Narrative of Captain William Owen, states without qualification that “Admiral W. F. W. Owen, born in Manchester, England, September 17, 1774, seems to have accompanied his parents early to India.” Owen himself wrote in later life from Campobello that his father “brought out from England a colony of 70 persons and among them my mother, who bore him a son there, since well known in the pubhc service, [and] having settled his colony to his liking, he returned and about four years later she bore Me.” If the Admiral was illegitimate, I think that his elder brother must have been so too. Admiral W. F. W. Owen was a distinguished naval surveyor. By purchase he acquired the rights of his cousins and in 1 83 5 came to Canada with his wife and four children to claim his ancestral domain. This he ruled in the tradition [241 ] SAINT CROIX of an English squire—the great house with its silver and fine hnen where island guests were entertained and the tenants in their cottages to be directed in health and cared for in sickness or adversity. His life on his island seems to have been a happy one. Surrounded by an adoring family with means enough (his attempts to promote the island were not financially important), he went his daily rounds, sometimes in his coach on dusty roads, visiting the cottages, kissing the children and no doubt their buxom mothers, distributing scoldings and largess both received of course with the acclaim due the great man of the island. Ever The Admiral, he built himself a quarter deck on which to pace and scan the sea. There he mounted his brass cannon captured from Spanish pirates. Forceful, benevolent and eccentric, his rule was popular. The period of The Ad- miral is quoted as the golden age of Campobello. Mourned by his people when he died in 1857, he was carried by them to a grave on the island he loved.^ The Owen Estate finally sold Campobello, as already stated in Chapter XI, to a Boston syndicate® and historians are likely to associate its American ownership with the happy and adventurous upbringing of an American president. It was characteristic of Franklin Roosevelt that, soon after he became president in 1933, he should return to his island home in a sailing craft, hand on tiller, as in the days of his boyhood.® The mighty cruiser Indianapolis’ lay at anchor in full sight of the yacht-club lawn where he was * Campobello, Wells, Boston, 1891; Brass Cannon of Campobello, Wells; Quoddy Hermit, Owen, 16 et seq.; Paltsits (Appendix). ®St. John Daily^ Sun, July 21, 1882. ®Eastport Sentinel, June 28, 1933. St, Croix Courier, April 19, 1945, ^ (See Note 7). [242] THREE MEN OF CAMPOBELLO sitting, a symbol of his position and power, but uppermost in his mind was the pleasure he felt at being back again in the home of his youth. To be again pilot of his yacht in the familiar waters of Passamaquoddy was the longed-for re- ward of his game fight for health. The young Franklin had been first brought to Campo- bello in 1884, the year his father finished the cottage at Welchpool. Summer after summer he grew up there learn- ing to sail and exploring the coast. The effect of Campo- bello is apparent. There he learned self-reliance and de- cision. Charles Cline, who taught him how to sail, describes him as “a good boy, greatly interested in sailing and gunning sea birds, somewhat headstrong about carrying sail and often had to be restrained from adding too much sail. He enjoyed going out in company with the large boat when they would lunch together on some island or shore spot and race home, always beating the larger boat to the moorings and usually going back to meet his parents com- ing in and jolly them about it.” ® Soon expert in handling small boats and a competent navigator of the tides of the Bay of Fundy he set out at fifteen with a friend in his knockabout, the New Moon, to hunt for the hidden treasure of Capt. Kidd at Grand Manan. It was not to be found there, but the sea was in his blood. Inevitably it led him to propose at sixteen to join the U. S. Navy in the war with Spain, to collect ship prints and gather sea lore, to accept the post of Assistant Secre- tary of the Navy imder President Wilson and to spend more days on the ocean then any other President. Sarah ® St. Croix Courier, June 7, 1945. [243] SAINT CROIX Delano Roosevelt in her book “My Boy Franklin” has told of his feeling for his island home. “I really think Franklin had what amounted to a real affection for Campobello. So many of the ex- citing adventures that filled his early life were bound up in the tides and swells of that rocky coast. So many of the experiences he likes best to remem- ber were enacted there and some of them were fraught with real danger although he scofied at the mere suggestion of such a thing.” ® On shore at Campobello his interests were varied. He learned the ways of birds and collected specimens, got up a golf club and laid out its course, made his debut as a speaker in an island debate^^ and in later years was the leader in a series of meandering walks, famous for their difficulty.^ They were planned no doubt in imitation of his strenuous kinsman President Theodore Roosevelt whom he much admired. Some persons will remember those Washington adventures in Rock Creek Park when, flat- tered to be asked, the unsuspecting follower of the first Roosevelt suddenly found himself hanging by a mere twig over some rocky precipice on a day not to be forgotten. It was on this island of his youth that Franklin Roosevelt met the greatest tragedy of his life. And the way he met it was his greatest triumph. When his superior officer in the Surety Company with which he was affiliated asked him in 1922 to join up for a cruise he accepted on condition it ® Sarah Delano Roosevelt, My Boy Franklin, 7 et seq. Cf. Country Squire in the White House, Flynn, 9 et seq. Life Story of FDJi., Ross and Grobin. St, Croix Courier, Oct. 5, 1944. “ Courtesy of Miss Frances R. Porter. [244] THREE MEN OF CAMPOBELLO would include Campobello/^ On that fateful visit a series of misadventures aided the development of the polio germ he was carrying. First he fell overboard when rigging fishing tackle, then he went ashore to fight a serious forest fire. Too tired even to change his clothes he tried reading his mail. Chills seized him. He told his biographer Emil Ludwig: “I never felt that way before. The next morning when I swung out of bed my left leg lagged but I managed to move about and to shave. I tried to per- suade myself that the trouble with my leg was mus- cular, that it would disappear as I used it. But pres- ently it refused to work and then the other . . .” In his fortieth year, suddenly stricken with paralysis from the hips down, one would hardly prophesy that he could rise above such an affliction to go forward again to an active life and lead a great nation successfully in its mighti- est effort. As he lay on his sick bed there was no thought of self- pity at his cruel fate. Instead he said “It’s ridiculous to tell me that a grown man can’t conquer a child’s disease.” At that moment he made his entrance into history, “the great- est example,” says Ludwig, “of that power of action which a decade later was to take the world as its stage. Here lies the great break in Roosevelt’s life, the instant in which he rises above the mass of humanity.” To his wife he said “I’ll beat this thing.” To the doctor who told him that the struggle must be maintained daily and hourly he replied, ^ J. L. Davis, A Great Sportsman; My Boy Franklin, 98. '^Roosevelt, a Study in Fortune and Power, Emil Ludwig 87. Ibid, 96. [245] SAINT CROIX “all right, when does the cure begin and what have I to do?” After some weeks at Campobello he was moved to a hospital in New York. In the years of straining on parallel bars to exercise his legs without putting weight on them and finally at Warm Springs, Georgia, where greater im- provement began, a grim sense of adventure in his battle for health sustained him. Yet he never lost touch with life outside himself. You would never have learned of his grief from him.^® Campobello’s contribution to the making of this man is considerable. His character, his courage and his humanity were developed there in formative years. When his place in world events and values is determined in the years to come these three qualities will be given high rank. What- ever the verdict of political history may be, the legends of Campobello will forever celebrate the adventures and habits of his boyhood. They helped Franklin Roosevelt gain the courage and self-reliance which scorned the handi- caps of a great affliction. NOTES 2. The Boston Evening Post on Feb. 14, 1771, printed the following ad- vertisement: “Any families that may be disposed for settling on the fer- tile, healthy and well situated island of Campobello, commonly called Passamaquoddy, may depend upon the most undoubted title and every possible encouragement from Wm. Owen, Esquire, the principal pro- prietor, now residing at the town of Warrington on said island—the earlier the better they apply in the spring.’’ 3. The land title of Robert Wilson based on continuous possession from 1766 is the oldest title of Charlotte County. G.P. XXXVIII. 7. The Indianapolis, commissioned in 1932, was a favorite with F.D.R. The Indianapolis carried across the Pacific the atomic bombs that fell ^Ibid, 102. “ (See Note 16). [246] THREE MEN OF CAMPOBELLO on Japan. She was destroyed in Philippine waters in July, 1945. N, Y, Herald Tribune, Aug. 15, 1945. 16. The following appraisal of F.D.R. by a Republican was printed in the Emporia Gazette after the Conference at Teheran: “Biting nails—good, hard, bitter Republican nails—we are compelled to admit that Franklin Roosevelt is the most unaccountable President that this United States has ever seen. He has added a vast, impudent courage to a vivid but constructive imagination and he has displayed his capacity for statesman- ship in the large and simple billboard language that the common people understand; moreover that the people admire even when it is their deadly poison. We have got to hand it to him. . . .We, who hate your gaudy guts, salute you! 1” Autobiography of William Allen White, N. Y. 1946, 647, 648. [ 247 ] CHAPTER NINETEEN The Fenians and a Hurricane I T IS EASY ENOUGH TO LAUGH at the Fenian Invasion of Canada in 1866 as her histori- ans do now^ and Americans on the Saint Croix border did then. But the descendants of the Loyahsts took the propaganda and the threat very seriously at the time. Perhaps the reason was the boldness of aims of the Irish Republic Brotherhood. Fenians they called themselves. Starting widi the idea of freeing Ireland their aims ex- panded. England was to be occupied and treated much as in the proposed Nazi invasion. With church lands and all property of any anti-Fenian confiscated (they estimated this would cover eight-ninths of England’s surface), the invaders planned to divide the booty and do away with all titles of nobihty, the right of seniority in famihes and other good old English customs.^ The stunt of separating Canada from the British Empire ^ (See Note i). ^Secret History of the Fenian Conspiracy (Rutherford) I, 67. [248] THE FENIANS AND A HURRICANE may have been an afterthought. It probably was inspired by the intense opposition in some parts of Canada to the idea of Confederation which was being urged by Queen Victoria’s government in England. New Brunswick as a Crown colony with a separate identity and accountable only to London had defeated Confederation in 1865 by a large majority.® This defeat was known to the Fenians with headquarters in New York. New Brunswick was selected as the first Province to be invaded. The Fenians seem to have had the impression, because of the Confederation dispute, that the people of New Brunswick were dissatis- fied with their form of government and were anxious for the protection of the United States.^ Using the familiar slogans of conspirators, “for liberty and free speech,” the Fenian movement flourished for some time in the United States. Civil War armies had just been disbanded and the restless search for adventure which follows wars led a considerable number of Irish Americans to join the pro- posed invasion. The Fenians could not have picked upon a more un- likely place for local support than the peaceable and neigh- borly American shore of the St. Croix. Across the river, however, the Loyalists were taking no chances. By March 1866 all the New Brunswick settlements of the St. Croix had mustered for defense. Volunteers drilled by day and watched anxiously by night.® When a citizen of Eastport who was visiting friends in St. Andrews said with little tact that he thought 60,000 Fenians could easily capture all ^History of New Brunswick, Haimay II, 233, 244, 250. (See Note 3). * Ibid, 250. ® Eastport Sentinel and St. Croix Courier, March and April issues (1866). [249] SAINT CROIX Canada and for that was arrested as a public enemy, the Eastport Sentinel replied editorially with some heat that: “There is no doubt that our Provincial neighbours are labouring under a terrible scare. How much reason exists for so great an alarm we know not but we do know that some of the doings of the Provincialists not only border on the ridiculous but actually pass over the border and become downright folly.” ® At Calais an Irish sympathizer, to add to the scare across the river, arranged a series of bonfires on a two-mile front of the river bank. They were lighted at night to indicate the bivouac of an army. Shots were fired from old fowling pieces. Fire bells rang. The hose and ladder company came out. There was much confusion. In St. Stephen, men, women and children rushed into the street as the report spread that Calais was filled with “wild Irishmen” ready to attack at dawn.'^ Calais had a front seat at the comedy and her citizens evidently enjoyed it. Their attitude is shown in a letter dated March 1 8, 1866, giving home town news to a North- ern soldier on garrison duty in the Southern States: • “There is a great deal of excitement and alarm man- ifested by our friends in St. Stephen and the Prov- inces, owing to an expected visit there by the Fe- nians. There are all sorts of rumors in circulation in regard to their movements, mostly without any foundation whatever. The St. Stephen Rifle Co. keep guard every night assisted by volunteers. One night last week someone fired a few guns on this ° Sentinel April 4, 1866. 1bid j Feb. 9, 1898. [250] THE FENIANS AND A HURRICANE side of the river which made the inhabitants of St. Stephen feel quite nervous. I understand everyone was up and dressed in a very short time but as morning approached without the appearance of these dreaded Fenians they undoubtedly were re- lieved and thankful that it was a false alarm. It is amusing to think how matters have changed within the past year. One year ago the St. Stephen folk laughed at us for our fears of (confederate) raiders, now we can have the pleasure of returning the compliment. I do not wish to have our friends over the river hurt in the least but I must say I like to see them a little frightened.” ® It is therefore no wonder the Sentinel, which fully chronicled all the activities taking place in the new Fenian capital of Eastport, remarked on April ii, that rumors were “as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa.” Killian, their chieftain, and many others had arrived by steamer.® Some Fenians came in their own schooner full of arms. The leader of the Irish adopted the pretense that his followers had gathered on the St. Croix to hold a convention. He in- serted this ad in the local paper: “On receipt of necessary intelligence the President will proceed to develop the subject matter to be discussed by the Convention. For the time being the Del- egates will fraternize with the good peo- ple of Eastport.” B. Doran Killian President of Convention ®E. C. Young to Capt. W. M. Young, Both U. S. Colored Inf., Shreveport, La., courtesy Henry Tompkins, Calais. ° Sentinel) April ii, 1866. (See Note 9). [251] SAINT CROIX The “necessary intelligence” probably had to do with the opportunity of gaining his nefarious ends. But before anything serious could happen United States authorities seized the schooner with one hundred seventeen cases of arms and ammunition. President Andrew Johnson took prompt action. As soon as it was known that Killian and his followers had arrived at Eastport, General George G. Meade of Gettys- burg fame also appeared with his staff to keep control of the border and preserve neutrality. A news item in the Sentinel of April 25 tells us “Maj. Gen. Meade arrived Thursday morning in the Steamer Regulator.^’’ Accom- panied by Generals Ruggles and Barstow he proceeded in his steamer to Calais where he was “enthusiastically re- ceived.” We learn this, too, from the Saint Croix Cour- ier. No doubt the presence of U. S. “brass hats” at Calais brought comfort to the jittery readers of that journal. The attempt by the Fenians reminds us of Benjamin Church’s raid in 1704. Both were historic fiascoes. From a distance there seemed a mirage of opportunity hovering over the St. Croix which didn’t really exist on closer ap- proach. In 1866 after General Meade appeared at Eastport the Killian Convention found no “subject Matter” so fitting to be discussed as a motion to adjourn. It must have been quickly carried for the next issue of the Sentinel announced that “The Fenians are all going home on the steamer New Brunswick.” “ Ibid,, Apr. 25, 1866, Wilmot and Tilley, Hannay, 247, 249. ^Sentinel May 2, 1866. Correspondence respecting the recent Fenian ag- gression on Canada, London, 1867. Cf. Wilmot and Tilley, 247. (see Note II). [252] THE FENIANS AND A HURRICANE The hero of Gettysburg had stopped the invasion of Saint Croix. Little did the invaders realize what a good turn their un- welcome visit to the Border did to the proponents of a united Canada. The question was on everybody’s hps “What if a real invader should pick on New Brunswick standing alone?” The answer of course was “Confedera- tion.” Although there was no good reason for saying that its opponents were disloyal they could not face the stigma of being called enemies of the nation. Their ranks thinned rapidly.^^ In a new election Confederation was overwhelm- ingly approved by the New Brunswickers. A more damaging experience in the same decade came to both sides of the St. Croix in 1869 in the form of a tropical hurricane, the first and last reported in its history. It is strange that the volume on “Historical Storms of New England” by Sidney Perley published in 1891 makes no mention of this storm, the only one apparently which has a name. It was foretold by Lieutenant S. M. Saxby of the Royal Navy and struck the coast at Saint Croix on the date predicted, October fourth. The usual tidal wave came with it. More than one hundred forty buildings were destroyed, two covered bridges were blown into the river and sixty- seven vessels driven ashore. Many casualties resulted. The damage to the forests was especially heavy. A prominent merchant sent a crew into the woods to reconnoiter. His men reported that they could “walk ten miles at a time on the trees down without stepping on the ground. In some places for half a mile about every tree is down.” ^ History of New Brunswick, Hannay, II, 244. [253] SAINT CROIX This Storm was centered on the river and did not extend much more than fifty miles to the east and west of it. The Saxby Gale has gone into local history as its most destruc- tive visitation. Otherwise nature blessed the St. Croix with a serene freedom from earthquakes and other forms of natural violence.^® ^ The Naturalist of the St. CroiXy Boardman, Bangor, 1903, 57. NOTES I. W. H. Withrow in his History of Canada, 469, says: “In the month of April 1866 a foolish attempt which ended in a ridiculous fiasco was made by a handful of ill equipped would-be warriors against the New Bruns- wick frontier. They did not venture across the line. The theft of a Cus- tom House fiag was claimed as the gallant capture of British colors.” 3. The fight over confederation in New Brunswick was very bitter. An imaginary dialogue between one speaker (Wetmore) and his little son was used with telling effect. Son (lisping): “Father, what country do we live in?” Father: ^‘My dear son, you have no country—for Mr. Tilley has sold us to the Canadians for 80 cents a head.” 9. (Vallombrosa. The original is from Milton’s Paradise Lost (Book I line 302) “Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa.”) II. Little Indian Island which, as we have seen, had been a stepping stone to most St. Croix activities in the past was the only soil of the Province actually landed on by any Fenian with evil intent. A Custom House had been maintained there since early smuggling days. A British flag was either stolen unawares or taken by force when a party of Fenians from Eastport landed there one evening. The clearest account we have of what happened seems to have been given by a correspondent of the St. John Globe. It shows that apprehension was not confined to St. Stephen and St. Andrews. “Monday night last was one of the most eventful since we landed. About eleven o’clock we were startled from our slumbers by the cry of Tenians are in our midst’ from the watchful sentry. Presently sev- eral heavy guns boomed forth. The blue light was shown from H. M. S. ‘Niger’ and several rockets went up. In a few minutes the whole Island was under arms. Capt. Hall detached six men from our Company and went out to find out what the trouble was, leaving the rest m the Barracks under arms, in charge of Ensign Earl. You may imagine what a night we had when I tell you it was pouring rain, and we could scarcely see a foot ahead of us, expecting every moment to go into action, and we did not know how many of us would meet [254] THE FENIANS AND A HURRICANE again at breakfast next morning. However, I am happy to say that the men on Indian Island were on the alert. Two boatloads of Fenians landed and were ordered off by the sentry but would not obey, they were then fired into which compliment they returned by a volley of revolver shots. Perhaps if it had not been for the timely assistance of the ‘Niger’ all our men might have been killed, but not one was even wounded. Judging by the yells of the men in the boat, it is probable that some of the Fenians were killed.” St. John Globe April, 1866. Reprinted in St. Croix Courier. [255] CHAPTER TWENTY Flood Tide and Ebb smells of lumber, new-riven spruce, a resinous aroma that is pleasant to the sense. It is different from the scent of sawed pine which in its day was the Calais odor. That day was long ago. Calais does not ship a tenth of what it did four decades ago. The old-time hustle has passed. A man out of the West came to the loungers who always sit in a row in front of the Old St. Croix hotel and said to one of them: “Why, I don’t see but you have as much of a town here as any of us—electric lights, plate glass store windows, lots of trade going on, well-dressed folks. What do people find to do here?” “Well,” replied the inhabitant, “on this side of the river are the moving pictures; on the other is the hospital. When we get too feeble to go to the one they take us over to the other.” [256] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB The above words were written in 1918 for The Boston Transcript in an article entitled “Calais on the St. Croix the once famous lumber shipping Port.” A Crucian may well see no justification in the cavalier remark of the Westerner; yet the Transcript article aptly serves to call attention to the fact that there was a flood tide in lumber and shipping on the St. Croix which turned to its ebb while Victoria still reigned. The growth of the river’s trade had been gradual. In 1808 there were only one single and five double sawmills at the Schoodic Falls.^ In 1831, Governor WilHamson of Maine, who kept a note- book of his journey from Bangor to Calais, then recorded a substantial increase: “3 toll bridges from Calais to St. Stephen, 4 dams in the river, 3 6 American and 6 Canadian sawmills, 2 3 lath mills.” ^ By the middle of the nineteenth century the mill gangs had increased to seventy-five with a total output of 65,- 000,000 feet of long and well over 100,000,000 of short and miscellaneous lumber.® The gradual decline in mill operation and river traffic may not have been perceptible to the Crucian on the spot but the man from the Transcript noted it as we have shown. Leaving only the crumbs of the forest for the present generation, the pioneers in their century feasted well. There was something of romance and poetry in the ordered rhythm of the long-lumber business that is lacking in the neatly parcelled rolls of paper which now come out of the woods of Maine. The cycle of making lumber be- ^ Select British Documents of the War of 1812, I, 146. ® Bangor Hist. Mag. IV, 57. ^Forest Life and Forest Trees, John S. Springer, Harpers, 1856. (See Note 3). [257 ] SAINT CROIX gan each aufumn in the bracing days of October. A tree destined for the journey to mill and market sometimes took two years to arrive. Drought and other misadventures often happened on the way. Once the summer trees had shed their leaves, lumber- jacks went into the woods to select and cut spruce and pine before snowfall. Clad in bright-colored homespun they left camp at dawn. And the sound of chopping echoed through the forest all day long. When snow had levelled the wood-paths an endless procession of horse-sleds drew the logs to nearby stream, lake or river. Meantime logs must be polliwogged by markings clipped at each end to distinguish those of the several operators down river.* During the spring freshet the river-drivers broke jams with their peevies and rode the logs to still water where rafts were chained in booms for the tow through the lakes to the outlet. Then the rushing current of the swollen river took on the work, swirling logs over the falls past the junction of its east and west branches into their home booms. On reaching the mill-sluices, marked logs were fed to the right mill whose gang-saws and circulars chunked and screamed day and night for more deal, boards, laths and shingles for the schooners in the tidal river below. The schooners lay at wharves taking on cargo from the countless piles which six-horse teams and the river-bank railway kept supplied from the mills.® Their network of shadows cast a profile over the houses of the bustling city. The square-riggers at the Ledge received their lumber from scows towed down by the tugs. With loading done, each ^ (See Note 4) . ® (See Note 5). [258] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB sailing took on the spirit of adventure. It meant breasting an open sea whose manners were uncertain and capricious. Yet the sailors were ready. And the captain, hustling to the Custom House was soon back to find blocks creaking, sails hoisting and the harbor tug waiting on the tide. An English traveller approaching these busy river towns in 1850 by the road from St. Andrews described them as follows: “A striking view presents itself. On the right and sweeping far behind is the semicircular [St. David] ridge cleared to the summit, while in front and on the left are the rival towns of Calais and St. Stephen with their churches and numerous whitened houses on opposite shores. Of the two towns Calais is the larger, has the greater number of churches and other public buildings and by much the more numerous fleet of ships along its wharves and jetties. . . . Certainly it [is] a pleasant sight to look upon a scene of so much industrial life as the head of the broad tide-water channel of the St. Croix River presents.” ® From the time of the first shipments of rough lumber out of small mills on the Bay destined for the West Indies to the days of mass production at Calais, many barques, brigs and schooners were launched on the river. In the beginning the shipyards were at St. Andrews, Digdeguash, Chamcook and Bayside. Soon Calais, St. Stephen and Robbinston were busy as well. Brandy Cove at St. An- drews, said to take its name from the consumption of liquor at its many launchings, turned out some of the finest ships of the 1840’s and 1850’s at the hands of master builders. Big ships were also launched in the deep water just across the river at Robbinston. ^ Notes on North America^ Johnston, Boston, 1851, II, 157. [259] SAINT CROIX Sailors and builders were alike superstitious about omens and alert to prevent any bad luck being attached to their ships. Local gossips still repeat the story of the Black Swan, a ship built on the edge of Water Street in St. Andrews which was freed of her curse at birth by prompt action of her sponsor. On the day set for launching the workmen couldn’t budge her. Because the foreman had forbidden an old woman known as The Witch of St. Andrews to pick up fire-wood in the shipyard they vowed there was a curse on the vessel. The foreman had to go and placate the woman to remove the curse. Sure enough, the next day when they shimmed up the ways and made ready, the Black Swan slid easily into the harbor. Some ships were sold abroad as soon as launched and ended their careers on foreign seas or shores. One, the barque Arabian, built in Calais, became a slave ship under the name Caribbee with a record for murders and a log of speed it would be difficult to surpass.’^ The Fille de Pair, a barque of four hundred sixteen tons was built at St. Stephen in 1864 on a special model of English design said to be for blockade running. Whether from hidden curse or not, there were many wrecks of the large St. Croix fleet, most of them in alien places. One remembered ship, the Lord Ashburton, built at St. Andrews in the year of the Treaty and named for the British Commissioner, came home to her grave. Bound for St. John she was blown off her course one wintry night in 1 857 to meet her fate on the stormy end of Grand Manan. Vessels were called after owners and members of their families; others had fancy names: (See Note 7). [ 260 ] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB Homeward Bound, Island Light, Break of Day, Liberty, Union, Colonist, Dictator, Reciprocity , Sea, Sea Gem, Sea Crest, Sea Chief, Mist, Rolling Wave, Challenge, North Star, Star of Empire, Utica, Virginia, Cuba, North- ern Chief, Jupiter, Lady Milton, Carbon, Birkenhead, Grasmere, Windermere, and, since it was the age of Scott, of course Talisman and Red Gauntlet. On launching, the Sea Gem made the passage from the Ledge on the St. Croix River to Liverpool in fourteen days during the summer when winds were light and variable, one of the fastest voyages on record for that season. A product of the shipbuilding era that remains as a monument to those bygone days is the Mansion House at Robbinston built by General John Brewer on a bluff, skirted with pointed firs and white birches, which pro- trudes itself into the St. Croix tides.® A manuscript diary of the period states that General Brewer gave a New Year’s Ball in 1824 which would seem to fix the approxi- mate date of the house. According to tradition it was built about that time to accommodate the many visitors whom the great activity in wooden shipbuilding brought to the river. The Mansion House has been called “Mount Vernon of the St. Croix,” ® not inaptly, from the similarity of their porches and command of a broad river as well as of un- rivalled distiuction in their neighborhoods. Unique fea- tures are its double stairway and in its roof a lantem-Hke lookout from which approaching ships could be seen. A jotting in the diary of Aaron Upton of Saint Stephen for July I, 1818, which reads: “This day fresh winds N * (See Note 8). ® (See Note 9). [261 ] SAINT CROIX by W. Tending Stoar. Mr. Pike fell out of his boat near General Brewers and drowned. . . .” tells of the first important event which occurred in the life of James Shepherd Pike, Calais son of the drowned man, who be- came a national figure in journalism, politics and diplo- macy. Although reared in poverty and fatherless he yet had the vision, courage and judgment to resolve a career for himself beyond his native horizon. Soon gaining a modest competence through local trading he was able to try his hand at writing and make it his life’s work. Self- taught he developed a clear, direct and forceful style. In 1833 he became a correspondent of various newspapers, after that principal writer to the Boston Courier, and be- fore the Civil War, Washington Correspondent of the Nenv York Tribune. Humorous, sarcastic and terse, he was a powerful influence in the anti-slavery crusade. Through the Tribune he pointed out there had been common agreement, when the Union was formed and the Constitution adopted, that slavery was a nuisance and an evil to be got rid of at the earliest practicable moment.^^ Since comparative harmony through compromise had not worked he prophesied that the repudiation of emancipa- tion by present-day slaveholders meant inevitable war.^^ He called attention to the fact that the sale of slaves in Virginia at an average price of $1,000 per head accounted for the sum of $15,000,000 annually which was three- quarters of Virginia’s whole export trade. This profit Vir- ginia was unwilling to forego. On this situation Pike com- Courtesy of Evans Hill of St. Stephen. ^ (See Note ii). First Blows of the Civil War, J. S. Pike. New York, 1879, 252, 254. [ 262 ] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB mented with savage scorn: “Deprived of the glorious privilege of selling off her own children at remunerative prices, what will become of the miserable remnant of prosperity that remains to that Most Ancient and Re- nowned Commonwealth.” It is certain that his vigorous preachments did much to inform and rouse not only his fellow citizens of the Saint Croix valley but the whole North to combat slavery. He was also active in promoting the new Republican Party which won the election of i860. Appointed United States Minister to the Hague by Abraham Lincoln, Shep- herd Pike served with distinction during five years of try- ing times in American diplomacy. Holland was the first European state to take the position desired by the United States with regard to the rights of belligerents. Returning from Europe he settled in Robbinston. He bought the Mansion House and equipped it with Delph tiles and other furnishings from Europe. There he continued to live and write until his death in 1882, an outstanding man among the natives of Saint Croix. The Victorian era which was the apogee of the river brought pleasant living conditions to Calais and Saint Stephen. With the forest as bank account their leaders drew on it liberally while it lasted. Gala days were spent in summer on river picnics whose merrymakers hired flag- decked tug or steamboat for a trip along the wooded shores of river and bay, stopping at some favored spot to enjoy with contentment native chowder and other savory ^IMd, 388. ^ A full account of the career of J. S. Pike is given in Hist. Coll. (M.H.S.) 2nd Series, I, 225. [263] SAINT CROIX dishes. Lands, mills and ships came in the course of time under control of a few families, most of whom lived on the Canadian side and prospered on the American.^® Employ- ment was general and recreation available. In a country full of game, with lakes full of fish, time was taken out for such pursuits by almost everybody. The flow of the river regulated the lives of the pioneers and their descendants in the nineteenth century. It supplied both livelihood and recreation. And what Crucians may then have lacked or regretted was offset by their affection for and pride in a river whose landscape, “Consoling and kind, Pours her wine and her oil On the smarts of the mind” Although nature intended the two sides of the Saint Croix to be as one, the dictate of man caused a line to be drawn between them. One side faced east and listened to a British sovereign, the other looked to the west. Differences in laws and allegiance, inconveniences in the same com- munity from two different zones of time (Eastern and Atlantic), the former habit of driving to the left in Saint Stephen and to the right in Calais,^® the annoyance of being held up by Customs officials (particularly on the American side) have emphasized nationality and tended to prevent community cooperation. Nevertheless these neighbors, disregarding any surface roughness, have always found level going in times of crisis and o'f celebration. “ (See Note 15). (See Note i6). [264] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB Under the title of “Practical Internationalism” the issue of Time magazine for May 21, 1945, cites this border river as a good example of it: “Highlighted,” says Time, “when the citizens of Calais and Saint Stephen staged their VE Celebration together. The two towns have been practicing internationalism for more than 100 years. Rev. Duncan AlcColl is given credit for the meeting of Ameri- cans and Loyahsts in 1812 which sealed the truce and friendship of that war. I’ve christened you and married you and buried you,’ he said, ‘and I’m not going to let you fight now.’ ” So the gunpowder Saint Stephen had col- lected was turned over to Calais for its Fourth of July Celebration. Saint Stephen supphes Calais with its water and principal hospital service. Calais hghts Saint Stephen. The fire department of each covers the fires of both. Said the Mayors of the twin settlements (in unison) ‘If anyone wants to see a good neighbor policy that really works, let him come here.’ ” Today this one-time Sentinel River, once a pawn of nations, rests at ease, her bosom gently swelling with each rise and fall of Fundy’s tides. No doubt she has not di- vulged all her secrets of centuries past, adventures bold or legends strange. Yet she has told how the French first came to settle America, how the Enghsh defied the French, how John Allan and his Indians held back the English. And in the Tories of the Revolution, and the Americans who met them on her banks, she has shown that former enemies can profitably cooperate and unite in common aims. Other nations may with time and patience learn the same lesson. ^^See Chapter XVI, note 2; Knowlton, 60. Copyright Time^ Inc. 1945. [265] SAINT CROIX The Saint Croix, a great flowing milestone, marks not for civilization but for herself man’s advance along the road to peace. NOTES 3. Under custom laws and practice logs cut on either side of the St. Groix River, if manufactured on the opposite side, produced lumber freed from duty in both countries. 4. The origin of the name for log marks is not known, probably from the tadpole shape of an early mark. Its short form was “poll mark.’* Cf. Belmore, Early Princeton Maine, 1945, 82. 5. Before 1831, lumber from the mills above the flowage of tide reached salt water by means of a sluice one and one quarter miles long, nearly four feet wide and fourteen inches deep. When water was low during summer months, oxen were used. St. Andrews Courant, May 27, 1831. 7. The amazing “Story of the Arabian” was written for HarpePs Magazine by Thomas V. Briggs of Robbinston. Through the courtesy of Robert B. Applebee, an official of the U. S. Customs at Washington, D. C., who has a copy of that article and is engaged in research on sailing vessels built in the Passamaquoddy Cus- toms District, it is possible to list here a few of the ships and builders of the St. Croix River. The principal builders on the Canadian side were John Wilson, John and Robert Townsend, Alexander Anderson and J. and C. Short. Charles Short, who later built many vessels at St. Stephen was known as “the Donald MacKay of Charlotte County.” Joshua Briggs and J. N. M. Brewer as Briggs and Brewer had yards at Brandy Cove and at Robbinston. On the American shore, Wm. Hinds who designed the Arabian, Briggs and Brewer, James W. Cox, J. Porter & Co., O. B. Rideout, and Joshua Pettigrew appear to have been most active. At least fifteen yards were located from Red Beach to Robbinston where the river was free of ice the greater part of the year. 8. General John Brewer was an important pioneer citizen of Eastern Maine. He came from Roxbury, Mass, to Robbinston before 1790 (his name appears in a census of that date). He was Postmaster, Notary Public who took the oaths of witnesses before the Boundary Commission in 1797, General of the Militia for the Eastern Maine District of Massachu- setts and a leading shipbuilder. In the life of General John Cooper, who founded and gave his name to nearby Township No. 15, it is stated that General Brewer surrendered (by General Cooper’s orders) the town of Machias to the British in 1814. General Brewer died in the Mansion House at Robbinston March 5, 1832, See Manuscript Diary of R. V. Hayden (Calais Public Library) Life of General John Cooper, B.H.M. II, 33- [266] FLOOD TIDE AND EBB 9. This name originated with Charles F. Todd, Esq. of Milltown, N. B., a keen, public-spirited citizen of the St. Croix. II. James Madison (afterwards President of the U. S.) proposed in 1786 a general emancipation of slaves. Jefferson’s absence in Europe and Judge Whyte’s inability (being on the Bench) to support it politically caused nothing to come of it. But opinion then was: “Every reason to suppose that the proposition will be successfully renewed.” Travels in America^ Chastellux. II, 335 (Note). 15. “There were no less than twenty-five firms engaged in the business of manufacturing and shipping lumber; among them the great names of Christie, Hill, Todd, McAllister, McAdam, Eaton, Boardman and Mur- chie take high rank. Indeed no more remarkable group of business men have been produced in any section of the provinces or the states than those who rose to afiluence and power by virtue of their ability in de- veloping and gaining control of the vast lumbering interests of the St. Croix valley during the last half century.” The Naturalist of the St. Croix, 1905, 13 et seq. This interesting book, devoted to the contributions to science by a Calais man, contains a letter from a Crucian (who had spent his boyhood on the river and settled in the West) which shows the local pride. “As I remember business men on the St. Croix river. Captains of in- dustry as they are now termed, I believe there were more men living on the St. Croix at that time who were fitted to be President of the United States and more women who were endowed with gifts entitling them to reign than in any community in which I have since lived.” Whether we accept this frank appraisal or not it is worth while to men- tion that George A. Boardman, the Naturalist above mentioned, was said to have been known from Maine to Florida as the “best wing shot of his day,” a record sportsmen may think more exceptional than that of producing presidential timber. 16. In 1922, New Brunswick discontinued the English rule of driving on the left of the road and adopted the right-hand (American) manner of passing other vehicles. [267] Index A Abenakis, 59, 100, 119 Abowadowonit, Passamaquoddy Chief, 105, 109 Acadia, 14, 15, 16, 21, 67, 75, 77, 79, 84, 1 19 Acadian Classics, 54 Acadians expelled (1755), 127 Adams, A. Leith, 64 Adams, John of Massachusetts Hostility to Tories, 161, 179, 185 Appointed Commissioner to make peace with England, 160 His attitude and actions, 161-165 Testifies before Boundary Com- mission when U. S. President, 170 Adams, John of Nova Scotia, 122 Adams, Samuel of Massachusetts, 89 Advocate Harbor, 24 Aernouts, Captain Jurrieu, 87, 88, 89 Agguncia, 16 Alexander, Sir William, 82, 84, 157 Algonquin Hotel, 62 Allefouss, Johan, 17 Allan, Col. John His life in Nova Scotia, 144, 154 Obliged to leave, 144 Appointed Supt. of Eastern Indi- ans, 144 His narrow escapes, 145 Expedition to Saint John River, 146 Activities at St. Croix, 1 47-1 50 After war settled at Eastport, 154 Reported arrival of Loyalists at St. Andrews, 190, 191 His reputation in N. S., 156 How he met Benedict Arnold, 156 American Navy at Castine, 150, 155 Anderson, Alexander, 267 Animal Ancestors of Indians, 67 Anabasis of Xenophon, 21 Andrews, Rev. Samuel, 223 Annapolis, 13, 23, 123, 126 Anticosti Island, 13 Applebee, Robert B., 266 Arabian (Ship), 260, 266 Arbuthnot, Col., 126 Argali, Sir Samuel, 34, 78, 79 Armouchiquois Indians, 70, 72, 74 Arnold, Benedict, 156 Ashburton, Lord, 178, 182 Assoquad, Passamaquoddy Chief, 124 Aubrey, Nicholas, 31, 37 Auk, 29 Austin, James T., 176 Ayer, Elijah, 155 B Babcock, Wm. H., 5, 7, 8 Baird, Prof. S. F., 69 Ball, Ebenezer, 208 Bangor, Me., 37, 66, 71 Barclay, Thomas, 181 Baring, Alexander, 182 Bashaba, The Great, 66 Bates, Walter, 186, 187 Bathurst, Earl, 212 Bay of Chaleur, 61 Bay of Fundy, 6, 7, 8, 13 Beaumont (French pioneer), 41 Beaumont, Francis R., 139 Beaver Harbor, 196 Belcher, Jonathan, Gov. Mass. Bay, 125, 127 Bell, Robert, 147, 148 Bellamont, Earl of, 180 Bellevue (Belleview), 196 [269] INDEX Benson, Judge Egbert, 174, i8r Bernard, Francis (Gov. Mass. Bay) Appointed (1759), 127 Explores Maine Coast, 127 Mt. Desert Island granted him, 1762, 128 St, Croix land granted him, 1765, 130 His qualities, 128 He designs Harvard Hall (Harv. CoU.), 128 His popularity, 128 His unpopularity, 129 He returns to England, 1769, 127, 129 Is created Baronet, 127, 137 Bernard, John, 128, 202, 208 Biard, Father (Jesuit), 33, 37, 42, 49, ^8, 77, 78, 79 Biencourt (Son of Poutrincourt) His activities in Acadia, 83 He collects St. Croix revenues as overlord, 77, 78 His friendship with Charles de la Tour and death, 83, 90 Bituani, 47, 48 Blinn, Capt James, 122 Blowers, Judge S. S., 156 Bocabec, 64 Bonney, Moses, no Boston, 71, 83, 96, 98 Boston State House, 204 Boston Weekly Newsletter, 125 BouiUan (Gov. Acadia), 97 Boulay (French pioneer), 41, 42 Bourg, Father, 146 Bowdoin, James (Gov. Mass. Bay), 205 Boyd, James, 131, 132, 138 Breard, Charles and Paul, 35 Brewer, Gen. John, 261, 266 Briggs and Brewer, 266 Brouage, 21 Brown, James, 131, 138 Brown, Mrs. Wallace, 4, 17, 100, 103 Bucknam House, 215 Bugginett, 122, 137 Buildings on St. Croix Island, 39, 41 [270] Bulfinch, Charles, 204 C Cabot, John and Sebastian, ii Cadillac, M. De la Mothe, 96 Calais, 7, 95, 199, 200, 250, 252, 256, 259, 265 Caleff, Dr. John, 165, 179, 180, 189 Campbell, Patrick, 225 Campbell, Lord Wm., 131, 132, 134, 138 Campobello, 46, 63, 132, 134, 135, 136, 139, 238-247 Canada, 13, 17, 114, 136 Canada Company, 1 31, 132, 136, 138 Canadian Pacific Railway, 229, 230, 231, 232 Caner, Rev. Henry, 165 Cape Ann Assoc., 184, 194 Cape Breton, 6, n, 14, 33, 73 Cape Canso, 23, 35, 45, 86, 125 Cape Cod, 23, 33, 67, 70, 72, 112 Cape Race, 13, 22 Cape Sable, 23 Carleton, Sir Guy (Lord Dor- chester), 192 Carleton, Thomas (Gov. N. B.), 195 Cartier, 49 Castin, Baron, 66, 88, 97 Castine Me., 81, 150, 188, 189, 190 Castle William, 129 Chaffey, James, 13 1, 138 Chamcook, 62 Champlain, Samuel de Bom at Brouage, 21 His character, 19, 32 His celebrated Narrative, 19, 54 Visits W. I. and Tadoussac, 21 Is chosen pilot by De Monts, 22 His voyage to Acadia, 23 He discovers St. Croix River, 24^ His maps, 40, 43, 173. Places named by him, 21 He hunts for mines, 45 He explores from St. Croix Island, 1604, 46 Explores with De Monts, 1605, 71 INDEX Explores with Poutrincourt, 1606, 70 Witnesses Indian burial, 74 Revisits St. Croix Island 76 Returns to France, 1607, 36, 76 Transfers activities to St. Law- rence River, 83 Dies at Quebec, 1635, 36 Ships used by him, 35, 36, 37 Champdore (French pioneer), 41, 42, 50. 17 Charles River, 72 Chamisay, 86, 87 Charters (See grants) Chartier, Sieur Michel, 93, 94, 96, 115, 116 Charybdis, 7 Chase, Capr. Ephraim, 147 Cheputnatecook River, 158 Chignecto, 112, 117 Chipman, Ward, 156, 176, 181, 192 Chubbs, Capt., 120, 12 1 Church, Col. Benj. Decides to avenge Deerfield mas- sacre, nr Raises army and sails for St. Croix, 112 His adventures on Indian Island, “3 A night among the whirlpools, 95. 1 14 The battle for St. Andrews, 1 1 5 Ascends the St. Croix River to St. Stephen, 116 His gallantries, 117 His retreat to St. Andrews, 117 Goes to Chignecto and returns to Passamaquoddy, 117 A feast from empty dishes, 112 Clinch, Peter, 189, 197 Cline, Charles, 243 Clinton, Gen., 164 Coat of Arms (St. Andrews), 223, 236 Cobscook River, 158, 169 Cocagne, 98, 99 Cole, Capt., 1 14 Collier, Sir George, 147, 155 Columbus, Christopher, 10 Colonial dispatch routes (See end papers), 60, 69 Confederation of Canada, 249, 253 Con-nos-quam-cook (St. Andrews), 62, 106 Copley, J. Singleton, 128, 137 Cornwall, Captain, 124 Cortereal (Portuguese explorer), 18 Council for New England, 82 Courthouse, St. Andrews, 221 Covenhoven, 231, 232 Cox, James W., 267 Cromwell, Oliver, 87 Crucian, 4, 26, 55, 95, 127, 138, 257, 264 Cura9ao, 87 Curry, John, 131, 138 D DaHleboust, Paul (Sr. de Perigny), 93 Dambois, 122 Deaths of Colonists (St. Croix Is- land), 46 De Chambly (Gov. Acadia), 88 De Chastes, Aymar, 22, 27 De Gargas, 95 De Loutre (Priest), 119 De Menou, Charles (see Chamisay) De Monts, Sieur (Pierre du Gua) Account of his life, 28 Tribute by Lescarbot, 28 Henry IV grants him Acadia, 1603, 22 His voyage, 1604, 23 He discovers and names St. Croix Island, 26 His winter on St. Croix Island, 46, 48 His return to France, 1605, 75 Comments by Champlain on De Monts, 30 Declaration of Independence, 185 Deer Island, 5, 7, 8, 17, 13 1, 139 Deerfield, Mass., iii, 117 Delaware River, 73 Delebat, 53 [271] INDEX Delesdemier, L. F. Sr., 152 Delesdemier, Lt. L. F. Jr., 145, 146, 152^ Delute (DeL’outre), 98 Denny, John, Nicholas and Michel, 209 Dennysville, 203, 209 Denys, Nicholas, 17, 54, 64, 68, 86 Des Antons, Sieur, 73 Devil’s Head, 130 Diereville, Sieur de, 54, 56, 98, 99 Digdeguash, 64, 13 1, 132 Dochet Island (see St. Croix Is- land) D’Orville, 41, 42, 52 Downes, John S., 208 Drake, Samuel Adams, 7 Drummer, Wm. (Gov. Mass. Bay), 124, 140 Du Gua, Pierre (See De Monts) Du Quesnes, Marquis, 119 Du Thet, Father Gilbert, 37 Dudley, Thomas (Gov. Mass. Bay), III, 112 Dudley’s Island (See Treat’s Island) Duke, John (Lord Coleridge), 209 Du Val, Jean, 44 Dunbar, Colonel, 140 Dunbar, John, 225, 226 Durell, Captain, 125 E Eastport (Moose Island), 7, 205, 207, 211, 215-17, 252 Eastport Sentinel, 250, 252 Ecclesiastics of Episcopal Seminary, 93. 99 Edee, Sergeant, 112, ii6 Eddy, Jonathan, 152, 156, 204 Egeremont (Passamaquoddy Chief), 120, 121 Eggemoggin Reach, 97 Ericson, Leif, 5, 6 Etechemins Indians, 60, 66 Etechemins, River of, 66 F Falmouth (Portland), 189 Falstalf, 1 13, 1 15 Fegundez, Joam Alvarez, 12, 13 Fenians Their name and aims, 248 They decide to invade N. B., 249 Their leader, 251 They select Eastport for base of operation, 249, 251 Excitement at St. Andrews, 249, 250 Preparations at St. Stephen, 249, 250 Invasion of Indian Island, 254 Hilarity at Calais, 250, 251 Fenian Arms confiscated by U. S., Gen. George G. Gordon in com- mand, 252 Invasion ends, 252 How it helped Confederation, 253 Ferdinando, Sir Simon, 13, 14 Ferrell, Thomas, 131, 139 Ferry Point, 200 Fewkes, J. W., 17 First Settlers Calais, 200 Campobello, 13 1, 138 - Deer Island, 139 DennysviUe, 203 Digdeguash, 13 1 Eastport, 201 x Grand Manan, 195 Indian Island, 131 Pleasant Point, 13 1 Princeton, no St. Andrews, 99, 131 St. George, 189, 197 St. Stephen, 94, 95, 197 Fisher, Richard, 14 Fiske, John, 19 Florida, 50, 70 Flour War (Eastport), 207 Flying Horse (Frigate), 87 Fort Cumberland, 152, 204 Fort Frederick, 126 Fox, Charles James, 161 Fougeray (French pioneer), 41 Fountain, John, 139. [272] INDEX Fouques, Captain, 42, 45 Franchesco de Souza, 12 Francklin, Michael, 142, 150 Franklin, Benjamin, 152, 160, i6i, 180 Freetown (Eastport), 205 Fritot, Capt. Pierre, 44 Frontenac, Count (Gov. Canada), 88, 96 Frost, Jeremiah, 131, 138, 200 Frost, John, 91, 131 Frye’s Island, 196 Furdistrander, 6 G Gallatin, Albert Volunteers to help American Independence, 152 His career, 151 His activities at St. Croix, 153 Ganong, Prof. W. F., 21, 57, 92, iji Gates, Sir Thomas, 78 George, Prince Regent, 240 Germain, Pere, 109 Germaine, Lord George, 142 Gerrish, Moses, 195 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 13, 14, 18 Glansevem (Wales), 134, 136 Glooskap, 1 00- 108 Goldsmith, Henry, 224, 226 Goldsmith, Oliver (English), 226 Goldsmith, Oliver (Canadian), 226, 227, 228 Gorham, Colonel, 113 Gorham, Joseph, 132, 139 Gosnold, Bartholomew, 23 Gourdan, 114, 115, 117, 118 Grand Falls (Mohawks’ Destroyer Place), 105 Grants (free) of St. Croix territory Joam Alavarez Fegundez (1521), 12 Marquis de la Roche (1598), 15, 18 De Monts (1603), 22 Virginia patent (1606), 76 Council of New England (1620), 82 Sir Wm. Alexander (1621), 82 Razilly (1632), 85 St. Aubin (1684), 93 Seminary of Foreign Missions (1685), 93 Jean Meusiner (1691), 93 Sieur de Perigny (1693), 93 Sieur Michel Chartier (1695), 93 Mass. Grants (1762), 133 F. Bernard (1765), 130, 138 Canada Co. (1765), 13 1 Other Eng. Grants (1767), 132, 134. Loyalists (1784), 193-196 Forfeited, 139 Grand Manan (named by Cham- plain), 8 Grave, Francis (see Pontgrave), Grave, Robert, 38, 42, 77 Greenland, 10 Green Mansions (Hudson), 100 Greenock Kirk (St. Andrews), 221, 237 Gudrid, 5 Guercheville, Madam de, 37, 38 Gyles, John, 53, 65, 66, 70, 141 H Half Moon (Ship), 70, 88 Halifax, 109, 134, 140 Halifax, Earl of, no, 130 Hanney, James, 55 Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman His British Squadron, 214 His written demand of surrender, 218, 219 Eastport surrenders (1814), 213 His career, 214 Bucknam House his headquarters, 215 Oath of allegiance modified by him, 216 Harbour de L’Outre, 122 Harvard College, 128, 133, 137 Haugen, Prof. Einar, 6, 17 Havre de Grace (Le Havre), 23, 33 , 35 Hawkesbury, Lord, 175 [273] INDEX Head Harbor, 24 Helliker’s (St. Croix) Island, 80 Helluland, 6 Heriot, George, ^28 Hessians, 185 Higginson, Henry L., 139 Highlands (International boundary), 166 Hill, Daniel, 200, 208 Hinds, Wm., 266 Holland, Capt. Park, 201, 202 Holmes, John, ij6 Homen, Diego, 13 Honfleur, 36 Hosmer, Miss Olive, 230 Howell, David, 172, 181 Hudson, Henry, 70 Huguenot Minister, 31, 44, 50 Hutchinson, Thomas (Lt. Gov. Mass, Bay), 128, 13 1, 164 I Incorporation, dates of Baring, 182 Calais, 208 Dennysville, 209 Eastport, 205 Lubec, 219 Machias, 208 Pembroke, 209 Perry, 209 Princeton, no Robbinston, 209 St. George, 197 St. Stephen, 236 Indian Blood freshner, 49, 53 Indian burial, 74 Indian camps, how built, 52 Indian French Names, 99 Indian Island, 17, 113, 131 Indian Island Custom House, 254 Indian traditions, 4, 10 Indian wooing, 66 Indianapolis (U. S. cruiser), 242, 246 Inness, George, 237 Iroquois Indians, 73 Isle au Haut, 71 J Jamestown, 78, 83 Jay, John, 160, 167 Jefferson, Thomas, 15 1, 207 Jemseg, 102 Joe’s Point, 94 Jones Plan (Clalais), J99 K Kadesqnit (Bangor), 37 Karlsefini, Thomnn, 5, 6, 7, 8, lo Katy’s Cove, 62, 70 K’chi-Quabeet (Great Beaver), 102 Keelness, 6 Kenduskeag, 71 Kennebec River, 61, 71, 86, 137 Kennebecasis River, 103 Kilby, W. H., 168 Killian, B. Doran, 251 Kilmarnock Head, 138 King Charles I, 184 King Charles II, 87 King Francis I, ii King George I, 124, 140 King George III, 220 King George V, 232, 237 King Henry IV, 15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 28, 33 i 75 King Henry VII, 10, ii King James I, 15, 34. 82 King John II of Portugal, 10 King Louis XIII, 69, 83 King Louis XV, 96 King Manuel of Portugal, 12 King of the Belgians, 178 King’s Mast-road, 14 1 King’s Orange Rangers, 184 King Phillip’s War, in King, Rufus, 175 King Street (St. Stephen), 141 Kirk, Sir David, 84 Knox, Gen. Henry, 203 Knox, Wm., 164 L Labrador, ii, 13 Lake Utopia, 86 [274] INDEX Lamotte-Bourioli (pioneer French- man), 41 LaTour, Charles de Appointed Lt. Gen. of Acadia, 84 Refused Baronetcy offered by England, 85 Given jurisdiction from St. Croix River to Canso by Raziiiy, 86 Rival of Chamisay for control of Acadia, 87 Their battles at St. Croix, 86 Fued finally ends when LaTour marries Chamisay’s widow, 87 Granted territory including St. Croix River by Cromwell (1656), 87 Sold grant to Sir Thomas Temple, 87 LaTour, Claude de, 84, 85 LaTour, Lady de, 84, 87, 90 Latredle, 113, 117 Lawrence, Lt. Col. Charles (Gov. N. S.), 126 LeClerq, Father Chrestien, 54, 57 Legends Great Beaver, 102 Song of Summer, 103 Thunder Spirits, 104 The Destroyer Place, 105 Lacrosse game, 105 Duel (Mohawks and Passama- quoddies), 106 How the Mayflower grew, 107 Priest and Pastor, 32 Settlers earlier than the French, 4 L’Etang Harbor, 98 Le Tete, 7, 26, 95, 98 Le Gua, 28 Leigh, Charles, 14 Leonard, Daniel, 165 Leonard, George, 206 Lepreaux, 98 Lescarbot, Marc Accompanied Poutrkicourt to Acadia, (1606), 75 Explodes myth of Norumbega, 4 His tribute to De Monts and Ode to St. Croix Island, 28, 29 [27s] He returns to France (1607), 36, 76 His history of New France, 54 Levett, Christopher, 57 Lewy’s Island (Princeton), 107, no Libby, Jacob, 200 Lincoln, Abraham, 19, 184 Lincoln, Gen. Benjamin Appointed Commissioner to locate St. Croix River, 203 He buys two townships, 203 Arranges first organized migra- tion to American side of river at Dennysville, 203 Lincoln, Theodore, 203, 209 Lincourt, 95, 96 Log Cabin, where first built in America, 44 Lords of T. and P., 125, 180 Lost Towns of Passamaquoddy, 196 Louisiana, 96 Lovewell’s War, 12 1, 137 Lowell, John, 203 Loyalists From what sources recruited, 183, 184 Quaker Emancipation Proclama- tion, 184 The Penobscot Association, 189, 190 The Port Matoon Association, 193 The Cape Ann Association, 194 Unclassified soldiers, 194, 195 Hardships, 189 John Adams’s attitude, 161, 185 Effect of Declaration of Independ- ence, 185, 186 Grim humor of N. Y. Resolution, 188 Experience of Walter Bates, 186, Migration from Castine, Maine to St. Andrews, 189, 190 Col. Allan’s Account of Arrival, 190, 1 91 Evacuation of N. Y. by British, 192 Arrival at St. Stephen, 193 INDEX Arrival at St. George and St. John, 189 Capt. Mark’s diplomacy, 193 Grand Manan settled, 195 Suspicions of Br, Govt., 195 The Lost Towns, 196 Lubec, 217, 219 Ludwig, Emil, 245 Luis, Lazaro, 112 Lux, 107 M Machias, 112, 140 Madison, James (President), 267 Madockawando (Penobscot Chief), 66 Magaguadavic, 132 Maliseet Indians, 59, 60, 63, 67, 119 Mansion House, Robbinston, 261 Maps Portuguese, 13 Italian, 16 Champlain’s, 40, 43, 173 Ganong’s, 57, 92, 171 Mitchell’s, 163 Southack’s, 159 David Owen’s, 171 Babcock’s, 9 Bay of Fundy, 20 St. Croix River, 25 St. Croix Island, 40 Boundary, 177 Calais, 199 Portages (see inside cover) Margaretta (Schooner captured by Americans), 141, 155 Marie de Medici (Queen Regent), 32, 83 Markland, 6 Marks, Capt. Nehemiah, 193 Martha’s Vineyard, 10, 23 Mascareen, John, 132 Massachusetts, 155 Mass. Grants (1762), 133 Master William, 47 McCall, Duncan, 218, 265 Meade, Gen. George G., 252 Membertou (Maliseet Chief), 68, 69, 74 Meusnier, Jean, 93 Messamouet (Guide), 45, 77 Mickmack Indians, 119 Middens, description of, 64, 65 Milltown, N. B., 68 Minas Basin, 13, 24 Mirick, Captain, 114 Mitchell, John, 129, 163, 167, 168 Mohawk Indians, 105, 106, 107 Monhegan Island, 73 Moore, Lt. John, 155 Moose Island (Eastport), 7, 127 Morel, Captain, 42 Morris, Charles, 169, 197, 236 Morris, Charles Jr., 221, 197 Morristown, 193, 197 Mosur Wood, 4, 6 Mt. Desert Island, 37, 71, 96, 128, M’teoulin, 104 Mut-an-ag-wes, 35 Mutchignogos, 17 N Names, origin of Acadia, 16 Baileyville, 225 Bay of Fundy, 13 Calais, 208 Canada, 13, 17 Charles River, 72 Cooper, 266 Dennysville, 209 Dochet, 79 Grand Manan (Index) Indian French names, 99 Katy’s Cove, 70 Kang Street, 14 Labrador, 13 Lubec, 219 McMaster’s Island, 139 Mt. Desert, 71 Anticosta, 13 Baring, 182 Brandy Cove, 259 Campobello, 135 [276] INDEX Cape Race, 13 Charlotte County, 220 Deer Island, 139 Devil’s Head, 52 Eastport, 205 Indian Island, 17 Isle au Haut, 71 Kilmarnock, 138 Kousak, 1 81 Lincourt, 96 Minas Basin, 13, 24 Morristown, 197 New Brunswick, 220 New England, 82 Neptune Sagamores, 66 Nova Scotia, 82 Passamaquoddy, 60 Pendleton’s Eland, 139 Penniield, 184 Port Matoon Assoc., 193 Port Royal, 24 Robbinston, 204 St. Andrews, 236 St. George, 196, 197 St. Pierre Island, 13 St. Stephen, 197 New France, 12 Norumbega, 16 Oak Bay, 29 Pembroke, 209 Perry, 209 Princeton, no Rollingdam, no St. Croix Island, 26 St. John River, 24 Schoodic, 68, 158, 208 Nat. Geog. mag., 7 Nauset, 72 Naval Battle, first of Revolution, 141, 155 Nelson, Horatio Viscount, 214 Neptune, Louis, 150 Neptune Sagamores, 66, 70 New England Emigration, 131 Newfoundland, n, 13 New France, 12, 82, 120 New Scotland, 82 New York, 70, 87 New York Tribune, 262 New Warrington, 138 Newburyport, 132 Newton, Hibbert, 122 Newspapers (St. Andrews), 237 Noddle’s Island, 71 Norseman, 4 Norse Sagas, 5, 6 Norumbega, 4, 16, 17, 27 North, Lord, 165 N. W. Angle of Nova Scotia, 166 Nova Scotia, n, 75, 82, 121 Nova Scotia Volunteers, 185 Nugget of Diplomacy, 88 Nutting, John, 164 O Oak Bay, 26, 29, 102, 132 Oagimont (Passamaquoddy Chief), 58 Oats, Lt., 212, 213 Oliver, Peter (Chief Justice), 165 Ordre de Bon Temps, 46, 47 Orion, 46 Oswald, Richard, 129, 130 Otter Harbor, 123 Outer Island (see Campobello) Owen, David His arrival at Campobello, 136, Eccentricities, 240 His death, 241 His map of St. Croix River, 171 Owen, Admiral Wm. F. W. He succeeds David Owen, 136, 241 Conduct of affairs, 242 Golden Age of Campobello, 242 His death and burial, 242 Owen, Capt. Wm. R. N. Account of his life, 134 Granted Outer Island (Campo- bello), 132, 134 He arrives and runs his settlement, H5 Attends sea fowl drive (St. An- drews), 62 Advertises for settlers, 239 He returns to England, 135 [277] INDEX P Pagan, Robert, 167, 189, 191, 236 Pagan, Wm., 222, 236 Paine, Dr. Wm., 196, 222 Paltsits, Victor, 134 Panounias, 71, 74 Parlcman, Francis, 22 Parr (Gov. of N. S.), 17:. 221 Partridge Island, 103 Passamaquoddy Indians Their origin, 59, 60 Their habits, 55, 56, 58 Their legends, 1 00-108 Their calendar, 59 Fondness for the French, 54, 98 Adoption of French names, 99 English treachery at Pemaquid, 120, 1 21 Make opening attack of Love- well’s War, 12 1 Treaties with English, 124, 126 Their sea fowl drive, 62 Letter from George Washington, 143 Passamaquoddy River, 158 Pastancy, 78 Pemaquid, 61, 120 Pembroke, Me., 209 Pemskudek, 208 Pendleton, Gideon, 139 Penobscot Indians, 59, 66, 70 Penobscot River, 3, 13, 71, 96 Penn, Lady, 152 Pennfield, 184, 196 Pentagoet, 81, 88, 89 Periginy, Sieur de, 93 Perley, Israel, 129 Perry, 153, 209 Petitpas, Jacques, 97 Pettigrew, Joshua, 266 Phillips, General (Gov. Nova Sco- tia), 121 Pier Neptune, 122 Pike, Edward C, 139 Pike, James Shepherd His background and career, 261 Washington correspondent N. Y. Tribune, 161 Helps organize Republican party, 263 Civil War Mimster, 263 Returns from Holland and buys Mansion House, 263 Death in 1882, 263 Piikington, Col. A., 215, 219 }?inlai£y, Wm., 176 Plans (see Maps) Platrier, Captain, 78 Pleasant Point, 55, 13 1 Plymouth, 12, 72, iii, 112 Plymouth Company, 82 Pocahontas, 78 Pondicherry, 134 Pons, 28 Pontgrave With Champlain at Tadoussac, 1603, 22 Sails to Acadia, 1604, 25 An Appreciation, 37 Owner of ships, 22 ' In Charge of Colonists, 1605, 42 _ Poohogan, 67 Pope Alexander VI, ii Portages, 60, 69 Port aux Coquilles, 46, 85 Port des Mines, 24 Port La Tour, 84, 85 Port Matoon (Port Mouton), 193 Port Rossignol, 44 Port Royal, 13, 24, 32, 37, 56, 73, 74, 81, 83, 85 Porter, Alexander, 139 Porter, Joseph, 266 Portland, 71 Portrait of Champlain, 27 Portuguese Names, 13 Portuguese Explorations, ii, 12, 13, 18 Pote, Wm., 63 Poutrincourt (Baron of St. Just) At St. Croix Island, 1604, 41 Given grant there of Port Royal, 45 Revisits St. Croix Island, 1606 and 1610, 77 [278] INDEX Pownell, Thomas (Gov. Mass. Bay), 127, 129, 130 Preble, Capt. John, 149 Prehistoric dyke, 4 Prevert, Sieur, 21, 22, 24 Priest, Aubrey, 31, 44, 50 Prince, Charles, 153 Prince, Rev, Thomas, 125 Prince of Orange, 87, 88 Princeton, 107, no, 130 Pring, Martin, 23 Privy Purse, ii, 17 Province House, Boston, 128 Putnam, Major Perley, 212 Putnam, Gen. Rufus, 201 Q Quantin, Father, 37 Quebec, 61, 88, 120 Queen Charlotte, 220 Queen Elizabeth, 13, 14 Queen Victoria, 249, 257 Quoddy Head, 127, 219 Quoddy Indians (see Passama- quoddy) R Rafn, Prof. Carl C., 6, 17 Railroad (first in N. B.), 229 Rallaeau, 45 Ramilies (Warship), 212 Raymond, Archdeacon W. O., 183, 224 Razilly, Isaac de (Gov. Acadia), 85, 86, 130 Regiments (Loyalist), 184, 195 Reversible Falls, 102 Rhoades, John, 88 Rich, Sir Thomas, 62, 238 Richelieu, Cardinal, 85 Rideout, O. B., 266 Robbins, Edward H. Speaker and Lt. Gov. Mass., 203 Buys township 4 (Robbinston), 204 Buys part of township 5 (Calais), 200 Heads Commission to build Bos- ton State House, 204 Supplies columns for its front from trees in township 5, 204 Roche, Marquis de la, 15, 18 Robbinston, 204 Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Brought to Campobello in 1884, 243 His life there, Stricken with infantile paralysis at Campobello, 245 His return as President, 242 What Campobello did for him, 243. 245 Roosevelt, Sarah Delano, 244 Roosevelt, Theodore, 244 Rose Standish (steamboat), 7 Rossignol, 44, 45 Rothesay, 103 Royal Fencible Americans, 184 Royal Garrison Battalion, 184 Rule of Road changed (N. B.), 267 Ruscelli, Girolamo, 16 Russell, Thomas, 203, 209 S Sabine, Alonzo, 207, 215 Sable Island, 15 Sagadahoc River, 73 Sagas (Scandinavian), 5, 6 Saltonstall, Commodore, 155 St. Andrews, 55, 94, 95, 99, 146, 167, 172, 174, 176, 188, 190, 191, 193, 196, 205, 220-35 St. Aubin, Joseph (Indian Chief), 122 St. Aubin, Sieur de, 93, 94, 95, 97 St. Castin, Baron, 66, 88, 97 St. Croix Courier, 213, 252 St. Croix Island Its different names, 79 Discovered and named, 26 Layout of island, 40, 41, 51 Use by Indians, 34, 35 Its white inhabitants, 41, 42, 44 Their struggle, 44-49 Deaths, 46 [279] INDEX Abandoned, 78 Ode to, by Lescabot, 28 Revisited, 76, 77 Twilight of, 50 Later history, 80 Possible restoration, 52 St. Croix Lumber Firms, 267 St. Croix men and women appraised, 267 St. Croix River Norsemen possible early settlers, 4-10 Indian life on, 54-68 Discovered and named, 24-^ First specific place named in any American grant (1621), 82 Granted again (1633), 85 Boundary between domains of La Tour and Chamisay, 86- Boundary between New England ' and Nova Scotia (1621), 82 Boundary between U. S. and Canada (1783), 172, 174, 180 Its location disputed, 157, 158, 167 Where claimed, 168, 169 Identity fixed by treaty (1798), 167, 172 Early French grants, 93 French settlements at Calais, St. Stephen (Lincourt) and St. An- drews, 94, 95 English grants, 13 1, 132 Arrival of Loyalists, 183 Yankee shore settled, 200-204 Fenian invasion (1866), 248-252 Shipbuilding era, 259-261 Flood tide and ebb in lumber pro- duction, 256-258 St. Croix shipbuilders, 267 St. Croix whirlpools, 7, 114, 17 1 St. George, N. B., 132 St. George River (Me.), 87 St. John, 103, 109, 132 St. John River, 13, 24, 27, 67, 102, 126, 129, 131 St. Lawrence River, 16, 82, 83 St. Malo, 36, 73 3t. Mary’s Bay, 23, 27, 31, 33, 35, 39 St. Pierre (Island), 13 St. Stephen, 94, 95, 131, 193-^9^^ 200, 250, 252, 259, 265 Salmon Falls (see Schoodic Falls) San Sauveur, 37, 79 Sarreau, Jean (see St. Aubin) Savage, Mr. & negro servant, 122, 123 Saxby Gale, 253 Schoodic Falls, 27 Schoodic River (skudek), 131 Sea Fowl Gala, 62 Sentinel River (see St. Croix) Secoudon, 77 Serre, Henri, 152, 153, 156 Settlers, number of (St. Croix Is- land), 44 Shamanism, 104 Sharkee (see Chartier) Shaughnessy, Baron Thomas, 232, 237 Shaw, Quincy A., 139 Shelbum, Earl of, 129 Sherbrooke, Sir John Cope, 213, 215 Ships French pioneer (1604), 35, 36, 37 English coasters (1763), 132 St. Croix shipyards (1820-60), 267 Shirley, William (Gov. Mass. Bay), 126 Short, J. and Charles, 266 Simond, James, 44, 132, 133 Smuggling, 205, 207 Snorri (first white child born in America), 5 Southack, Capt. Cyprian, 159 Southampton, Earl of, 23 Stage Harbor (Chatham), 70 Stamp Act (1765), 128 Stenvyck, Cornelius (Dutch Gov. of N. S. and Acadia), 89 Sterling, Earl of, 90 Stoughton, Wm. (Lt. Gov. Mass, Bay), 120 Straumey, 5, 6, 8, ro Straumfiord, 6 Sullivan, James, 169, 172, 181 Swedes, 44 Sydney, Sir Philip, 14 [280] INDEX T Tadoussac, 21, 45, 61 Tarleton’s Dragoons, 184 Temple, Sir Thomas, 87 Thevet, Andre, 16 Thomas, Waterman, 200, 208 Thomaston, Me., 33 Thorall, 10 'Thornton, Matthew, 233-235 Tilley, Sir Leonard, 230 Time magazine, 265 Timothee, Captain, 42 Toma, Pier, 150, 156 Tories (see Loyalists) Townsend, John and Robert, 267 Treaties referred to Indian (1725), 124 Indian (1760), 126 St. Germain (1632), 85 Breda (1667), 87 Utrecht (1713), 117, 120 Paris (1763), 109 American Peace (1783), 165, 180 Jay (i 794 )» Unratified (1803), U5 Ghent (1814), 176 Webster-Ashburton (1842), 178, 179 Treats Island, 138 Trenton, Battle of, 144 Tucker, John, 132 Tupper, Sir Charles, 230 V Van Home, Sir Wm,, 230-232 Vaudreuil (Gov. of Canada), 120 Verazzano, ii Vergennes, Count, 161 Vessels (see ships) Victory (Nelson’s flagship), 214 Vinland, 5, 6 Virginia, 73, 76, 262 Vroom, James, 17, 68, 181, 233, 235 Vulture (Sloop of war), 126 W Wadsworth, Gen. Peleg, 155 Walker, John, 13 Wallingford, Conn., 223 Warm Springs, Ga., 246 Warren, Richard, in Waweig, 26, 102 Washington, George, 19, 192 Water miU (Red Beach), 50 Webster, Daniel, 178 Wells, Kate Gannett, 241 Wells, Samuel, 139 Wentworth, Sir John, 124, 191 West Quoddy Head (Lubec), 219 Westbrook, Colonel, 124 Weston, Jonathan, 176 Weymouth, Capt, George, 33, 73 Whirlpools, 7, 114, 171 Williamson (Gov. Maine), 257 Wiljiard, Josiah, 125 Wilmot, Montagu (Gov. N. S.), 13 1 Wilson, Squire John, 229, 267 Wilson, Norman and Hon. Cairine, 230 Wilson, Robert, 13 1, 138, 246 Wilson’s Beach, 13 1 Winslow, Col. Edward (Loyalist), 1 81, 184, 228, 230 Winslow, Col. Edward (Mass.), 125 Wolves (Islands), 24, 95 [281] iTi'WJwcojiftef o' Shippegan K Gulf o/ Ra^nt Lamrence Magdalene ^Cape Nort [5LANBv 1 / ^ / 1 \ f, «JCape Tormentine St George ^ \ ^ \ v^* toff >/ <5®® St.Pete r s^ y^^^ j""^ Miehou G»Y-^boro^A^^^„„„yiy C:^^^'^*-'''’'’''^^ Canso S_t^f^ys^ h "Wolves Cape Spencer \ ^-4-: l/» X-J Cnignecto ^OOddle Harbor ©oos@ 1* jX^WedgeJj: ^jAscomb Harbor ^ Grand flA [Manan {A !' ^ J yisji> Harbor . '“‘X^nnapolh Ip^Basin (Halifax Harbor ’\f Jeddore Prospect t^rospect JVJV Mount Desert b ^ I. iMnenburg Harbor La Havluarbor ^Liverpool Bay Yantxoutli^ Cape Foorc/ju^'®|M Tusketlsl*! Jr.peSaW. ''^<.,7 v-lli 128 383 UNIVERSAL LIBRARY