The Expulsion of the Acadians, and Evangeline

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The Expulsion of the Acadians, and Evangeline

An author known only as W.H.W. from Rice Lake, Ontario wrote an article entitled The Expulsion of the Acadians, which was published in The New Dominion Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 in October, 1868. The article included lines from Longfellow’s Evangeline. It is wanting as a history, but very sentimental and pleasant to read as a story. That article follows.

Evangeline

Photograph by William Notman of an engraving. From the McCord Museum

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The Expulsion of the Acadians

By W.H.W., Rice Lake, Ontario

The prolonged struggle during the last century between France and England, for military supremacy and territorial extension, shook the earth. War, wide-wasting, blazed around the world. On the plains of India, on the waters of the Mediterranean and of the Spanish Main, on the Gold Coast of Africa, on the ramparts of Louisburg, on the Heights of Abraham, and on the banks of the Ohio, the chivalry of England and France met in the shock of battle, with what result all the world knows. The expulsion of the Acadians was but an episode, though a painful and pathetic one, in the tragic drama of the age.

The peninsula of Nova Scotia, originally settled by the French, and by them called Acadia, was, together with Hudson Bay and Newfoundland, ceded to Great Britain at the Peace of Utrecht, A.D. 1713.

It was regarded as of particular importance as guarding the New England colonies against the hostilities of the French at Cape Breton. The Acadian peasants, thus transferred by the fortunes of war, retained their patriotic affinities for the Fleur de lis, and in every rupture between the two Crowns, intrigued with their countrymen at Louisburg, and with the Indians, against the British.

To consolidate the British power in the Peninsula, in the year 1748, Lord Halifax sent out a colony of four thousand persons, and, before winter, a palisaded town of three hundred houses was erected, and named after its founder. This aroused the jealousy of the French, who instigated the Indians to harass the infant colony. Some of the inhabitants they murdered; others they carried to Louisburg, where they sold them to the French for arms and ammunition. The Governor asserted that pure compassion was the motive for this traffic, in order to rescue the English captives from massacre. They demanded, however, an excessive ransom for their liberation. The Indians were frequently, or, indeed, it is asserted, generally led in these murderous raids by French commanders. Upon remonstrance against this violation of neutrality, the Governor of Louisburg disavowed any control over the aggressors, declaring them to be Acadians, resident on the Bay of Fundy, within the British territory. General Cornwallis, Governor of Halifax, was therefore obliged, in defence of the infant colony, to reduce the malcontents by force. They refused to take an oath of allegiance, and, aided by French troops from Quebec, entrenched at Beauséjour, and resisted the British authority. The French and Indians continued to ravage the peninsula. Fire and bloodshed marked their progress. They swooped down upon the little town of Dartmouth, opposite Halifax, and within gunshot of its forts, and carried off a number of scalps and prisoners.

Exasperated by these repeated acts of hostility, the British councils, confounding the innocent with the guilty, decreed the expulsion of the entire French population. They sent a large force by sea, demolished their forts, destroyed their villages, and banished the hapless inhabitants (seven thousand in number) from their hearths and homes. They were conveyed in British ships to various points along the coast from New Hampshire to Florida, where they were dispersed over the continent. Twelve hundred were carried to South Carolina. Many took refuge among their countrymen in Louisiana, and some, by a circuitous route, reached Canada. Families were scattered, husbands and wives separated, many never to meet again. For a long time afterwards advertisements for the strayed and missing in the colonial newspapers attested the efforts of those banished ones to re-unite the scattered links of the broken family circle. Three hundred fled to New Brunswick, but that was too near the scene of hostilities to give them refuge, and they were again exiled. Some tried to return to their blackened hearths, but were ruthlessly shot down by a ruffian soldiery. It is a page in our country’s history that is not pleasant to contemplate, but we may not ignore the painful facts. Every patriot must regret the stern military necessity—if necessity there were—that compelled the inconceivable suffering of so many innocent beings. Save the expulsion of the Moriseoes from Spain, and the Huguenots from France, history offers no parallel to this unhappy event.

An imperishable interest has been given to the little village of Grand-Pré, one of the devastated settlements, by Longfellow’s pathetic poem, “Evangeline,” which describes the fate of the inhabitants, who numbered about two thousand. With true Norman industry, they had reclaimed the fertile meadows, which gave the settlement its name, from the sea, by dykes. Orchards and corn-fields, flocks and herds, rewarded their labors. In the poem the village and its inhabitants are exquisitely described. The writer can testify from personal observation to the photographic fidelity of the portraiture of the physical aspects of the country.

“The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green,
Indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic.”

On the 5^th of September, 1755, the ships that were to bear the hapless habitans into exile entered the harbor, but their errand was unknown. All the men (about four hundred in number) were ordered to assemble in the church to hear the commands of their rulers. They did so. They were forthwith declared prisoners, and confined under guard within the church for four days. On the fifth day, they were marched down to the ships at the point of the bayonets and the work of embarkation begun.

“Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers too late saw their children,
Left on the land, extending their arms with wildest entreaties.”

The night that followed was made lurid by the flames of burning homesteads, well filled barns, and stacks of corn, while herds of affrighted cattle and horses rushed wildly over the meadows.

Thus far sober history carries us. The poet now brings more vividly before our minds the fate of a single family, that of his heroine, Evangeline. Her father, the patriarch of the village, overwhelmed by the disasters which had assailed his people, died on the sea-shore during that awful night of terrors.

“And there ln haste by the sea side,
Having the glare of the burning village for funeral torches;
But without bell or book they buried the farmer of Grand-Pre;
And as the voice of the priest repeated the service of sorrow,
Lo! with a mournful sound, like one voice of a vast congregation
Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with the dirges …
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Spake, and in accents disconsolate answered the wail of the forest.”

In the melancholy cadence of these lines, one may hear the swell and dash of the advancing tide, and the after-sob of the retreating waves, almost as plainly as in the grand old “Poluphloisboieo Thalasses” of Homer:

“Then with the ebb of that tide the ships sailed out of the harbor,
Bearing a nation with all its household gods into exile,—
Exile without an end, and without an example in story;
Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the village in ruins.”

Sadder than this know I nothing in literature, unless, indeed, the departure of Æneas from the ruins of burning Troy, of which, as remarked to the writer by an eminent American professor, now deceased, this passage may be an unconscious imitation.

But these hapless beings founded no new Troy. They were strewn, like sea-weed, along two thousand miles of coast, or scattered like leaves of the forest before the blasts of October. Their only record is the half-effaced inscriptions on a thousand lonely graveyards.

The orphaned Evangeline was severed from her lately betrothed lover in the embarkation, and each was engaged for years in the hopeless quest of the other. From the lowlands of Louisiana to the prairies of Nebraska, or where the mighty Oregon rolls its vast flood—

“And hears no sound save its own dashing;”

whither, as voyageur, or coureur de bois, Gabriel had wandered, Evangeline followed, sometimes receiving tidings from fellow exiles, sometimes meeting recent traces of his footsteps, but never seeing him. Once, on the Mississippi, their barks passed as they sailed in opposite directions, each unconscious of the other.

New Brunswick’s Great Roads, 1856, Part 2 of 2

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The following is from the Report of the Chief Commissioner of Public Works (of N.B.) for the year 1856, by the Office of the Chief Commissioner, C. MacPherson.

MacPherson’s report has been edited, mostly for brevity, and is presented in two parts. This second part includes details for the western part of New Brunswick, from Charlotte County to Saint John, thence up the Saint John River to the Madawaska. The division into two parts explains the sometimes non-sequential item numbering.

The Bridge at Hartland

From before it was covered in the early 1900s. N.B. Provincial Archives

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New Brunswick’s Great Roads, 1856, Part 2 of 2

No. 2, From Saint John to Saint Andrews, 66 Miles.

From Saint John to Lepreau the Road is in very fair condition. From thence to Magaguadavic it is flat, the drainage defective, and the ditches obstructed with fallen logs and brush, requiring skirting and ditching. Beyond Magaguadavic, to Saint Andrews, it is in much better condition, but rough and hilly.

During the last year the Board of Works have erected a new Bridge over the Musquash, and another new Bridge across the Popologan.

No new Bridges of large dimensions will be necessary on this Road for some time, but during the next season there are four smaller ones which it will be necessary to rebuild, at a total cost of £260, and it is desirable that the timber for these should be procured during this Winter, especially for the New River, where the haulage will be from four to six miles, and the procuring of proper materials, except in the Winter, difficult and expensive. The estimate for next year, including the new Bridges and skirting the Road from Lepreau to Magaguadavic is £700; and besides this, there are some steep pitches and bad places, between Saint Andrews and Digdeguash, which might be altered or avoided at trifling expense.

No. 13, From Fredericton to Saint John, 66 Miles.

This Road is generally in good travelling condition. Some of the Bridges are very substantial, with stone abutments, and cedar or hacmatac superstructure; but many are of spruce or hemlock. The Road was opened in 1826, and some of the original Bridges and Culverts of that age yet remain. Of these, some built of cedar are still good; shewing the durability of this timber. The stringers in the old South Bay Bridge, excepting two, were all of cedar, and perfectly sound after 30 years, whilst the other two of white pine one was completely decayed and the other had long been broken in two in the middle. During the last year the Grant has been mainly expended in small repairs, no new Bridges having been built. Next season new Bridges are wanting over the Brizzly Stream, Queen’s Brook, and at the mouth of the Nerepis, at an expense of £350. The repairs of the Road, including a number of small culverts between Saint John and Government House, the skirting of a portion of the north end, and protecting the Road in places from the freshets by stone work, is estimated at £400, making the total requirement for the Road next year £750.

The Bridge across the South Bay, near St. John, has been completed during the year and thrown open to the public; and the reconstruction of the Oromocto Bridge has been determined upon, a contract has been let for the quantity of timber required, to be delivered by the 16^th of next May.

No. 14, From Fredericton to Woodstock, 63 Miles.

This Road runs parallel to the St. John River close to the west bank, and is rough and hilly. It is intersected by numerous ravines and though the quantity of water passing down these rivulets is not very considerable, yet they require substantial work to resist ice jams and freshets. Abutments are often very high. On the whole line there are fifty two Bridges that have cost over £25 each, twenty one varying from £5 to £25 each, and an immense number of culverts and drains. Of the larger Bridges, exclusive of Sullivan’s Creek now bring rebuilt, one is altogether of stone, twenty one have stone abutments with wooden or earthen superstructure, and three of them are laid out for a double track. Of those having stone abutments, sixteen, built during the last three years, have a covering of cedar poles laid longitudinally over the walls, and close together, then brushed and covered with gravel. For all spans under 12 feet these Bridges may be expected to last 50 years. The use of gravel saves the great expense of frequent replanking, besides safer and agreeable for travelers. During the last year, four of these stone and cedar Bridges have been erected at a cost of £150. £40 has been expended in the repairs of Bridges, and the balance of the Grant on the Road.

For the next season the Bridges over Garden’s Creek, Long’s Creek, and Meductic Brook ought to be rebuilt, and there are four others in a very bad condition. The estimate for the seven is £1,050, for the three immediately required £640, and for the repairs on the Road generally £340, making together £980.

In the course of two or three years, the cost of new Bridges on this Road will cease to be great. The large Bridge at Eel River will last probably forty years. Sullivan’s Creek will be permanent work, and when the Bridges now reported upon are finished, only three Bridges will remain out of the whole fifty two, that will cost more than £100 each to rebuild, to require renewal for 10 or 12 years. There are, however, some bad places on the Road to improve, and some of the approaches to the Bridges and steep hills are dangerous and inconvenient. The line is generally in a good state of repair, is very much travelled, and is probably one of the most important through communications in the Province.

No. 15, From Woodstock to the River DeChute, 40 Miles.

This Road in hilly, crossing a succession of ravines and elevations, requiring frequent curvature to obtain a tolerable grade. It is in very good condition, but the soft ground, and the position of the Road immediately on the banks of the River Saint John, render it liable to be washed and channeled in the Spring, and involves annually considerable expense in repairs.

During the season one new Bridge has been erected, and a deviation has been completed, about 3 miles north of Woodstock, to avoid another and reduce two bad hills, besides one or two minor alterations for the same purpose. Next year a new Bridge will be required at Rideout’s, some extensive repairs to the Little Presqu’ile Bridge, and two or three culverts, the estimate for the whole being £300.

No. 16, From River DeChute to Grand Falls, 33 Miles.

This Road has the same characteristics as the last, and is in good repair. During the season, two Bridges have been rebuilt, and others repaired. One of the new ones is over Wark’s Millstream, is 160 feet long and 35 feet high, with cedar abutments; and crosses the ravine by one span of 60 feet. This is in place of a hemlock Bridge, with one block in the middle of the stream. The old Bridge was 140 feet long, cost £90, and had been in use 14 years; the new one, 20 feet longer and 8 feet higher, has cost, well finished and painted, £148.

No new Bridges will be required next year, and £200 will probably be sufficient for all purposes.

No. 17, From Grand Falls to Canada Line, 50 Miles.

This Road is very out of condition. Most of the Bridges were built in 1839 and 1840, and seem to be failing together. The Road materials are bad, and the soft muddy bottom requires a deal of bushing and gravelling before it will be in a proper state. Of the twenty five large Bridges only five are less than 10 years old, and fourteen are more than 15 years, so that the Road will require a heavy expenditure for the next few years to keep it simply passable.

Last season the only new Bridge, was the one over the Madawaska at Little Falls, which is not quite finished, but the expense of which will be covered out of last’s  budget. Next year three new Bridges will be required, a part of the one over the Quisibis will be to rebuild, and four others need more or less repairing, the estimate for all of which is £650. Besides this the Road requires work, for which £200 will be necessary to keep it in a passable state.

No. 18, From Little Falls to St. Francis, 32 Miles.

This is a new Road, still incomplete, and would require a large sum to make it equal to the other Great Roads. This season two new Bridges were built, and a portion of Road at the lower end completed. The upper end has not yet been much used, and the last 4 miles to the St. Francis remain un-open. It is estimated to cost £350 to make it passable for traffic.

Next season a new Bridge is wanted to supersede a very dangerous ford, and a portion of Road to connect it with the present line. This is estimated to cost £175 with the Bridge, and the repairs of the Road from thence downwards will be £75, making a total of £250.

No. 19, From Grand Falls to American Boundary, 3 Miles.

A new Bridge and about a quarter of a mile of new Road have been built near the Line last season. The Bridge is across the Deep Gully, is of very good materials, and will be durable. The other Bridges and the Road are in tolerable condition.

No. 20, From Pickard’s Store to American Boundary, 5 Miles.

This line has no important Bridges, but is incomplete and inferior to the Road at either end of it. A considerable sum would be needed for heavy alterations before it could be considered finished. To keep it as it is will require a small sum annually, and perhaps for next year £100 between this and the previous Road may be found sufficient for all purposes.

No. 21, From Buttermilk Creek to American Boundary, 9-1/2 Miles.

There are no important Bridges on this line, and its location was very bad. During the season an alteration has been made near the Boundary, the Road turnpiked, and graveled 9 inches thick, and this part of the line which was almost impassable, is now the best on the route. A second deviation to avoid some hills has been laid out, and the land damages paid. This deviation, and another near Buttermilk Creek, will be needed before the Road can be satisfactorily established. It will require £100 for this work next season.

No. 22, From Woodstock to American Line, 11 Miles.

The only Bridge of any consequence has been rebuilt this year with cedar logs, and covered with the earth taken from one of the approaches, and the grade reduced. An alteration commenced has been completed, obviating reconstruction of another Bridge that was decayed. The land damages on the deviation were heavy, and discharging costs absorbed the greater part of last year’s Grant. During the last four years great improvements have been made on this Road; 27 stone culverts have been put down, replacing others of temporary construction. The repairs of the Road have been neglected to carry out these various alterations. This line, continuing the Great Military Road through the State of Maine, is the principal communication between that State and the River St. John, between the lumbering on the upper Rivers and Bangor; and with heavy traffic, and but little repairs on the Road for three or four years, it is now out of condition. The estimate for next year is £150. A moderate sum afterwards, should keep it in good order.

No. 23, From Fredericton to Saint Andrews, 78 Miles.

Some of the Bridges on this line are old and worn out, and the one over the Magaguadavic fell last Summer and is being rebuilt; the Road is generally fair but is worn flat in places, and drainage is poor.

During the season about 5 miles of Road between Clarke’s and the Red Hill have been remodeled, turnpiked, skirted, ditched, and a new stone Bridge is been built over the Waweig. This Bridge has the abutments and shearwater of large split granite, and the superstructure of pine and cedar, and presents an excellent model where materials can be procured. The walls forming the abutments are 20 feet long, and the shearwater extends 24 feet additional on the upstream side. The bottom courses are laid with large stones running through the wall 6 feet wide; above the third course the wall is coursed off 2 feet at the back, and batters 1 inch to the foot high in front, and the pine stringers are bolted on to the top course. The clear span is 30 feet. The whole cost, including 5 inch cedar flooring, stringers, and railing, is only £76. This is the second Bridge of this construction on this line, and as granite exists throughout the district and almost up to Eel River, the additional expense, with proper arrangements for winter haulage, would be very little, if any, over timber for the abutments. Next year one new Bridge will be repaired over Trout Brook, heavy repairs to the Digdeguash and Johnson’s Cove Bridges, and two others in the County of York must be re-covered. The new Bridge across the Magaguadavic will be finished before April, at a cost of £125. Exclusive of this, the estimate for next year is for the new Bridge £55, repairs to others £110, and to Road generally £135. Total £300.

No. 24, From Waweig to Saint Stephens, 9 Miles.

This Road is in very good condition and Bridges are of excellent workmanship and materials. Heavy repairs have been put upon them during the season, and the long Bridge across the Waweig has been entirely rebuilt above high water. One abutment is of split granite, the whole cost having been £336. Two other Bridges have been repaired, one almost amounting to a renewal, and the other two on the Road have stone abutments and cedar covering. The cost of keeping the Bridges will not be very heavy for some years and the estimate for next year’s operation is only £75.

No. 25, From Roix to Oak Bay, 16 Miles.

The Grant last year was spent for repairs to the Road. The only Bridge, across the Digdeguash, is in good order. A Grant of £75 per annum will be sufficient for the next year or two.

No. 26, From Oak Bay to Eel River, 60 Miles.

Beginning at St. Andrews, 10 miles of this Road is very good, to Smith’s Mills; 8 miles more are turnpiked, but in bad condition, and the remaining 12 miles to Little Digdeguash are but little better than a winter Road. It would require £700 to make the last 20 miles equal to the first 10. From the Little Digdeguash to near Howard Settlement, for 15 miles the Road crosses a granite ledge, and is scarcely passable as a winter Road. 400 rods of this portion were let last summer to be leveled 18 feet wide, which cost, £184 13s 4d, and took nearly all the Grant for the upper end. This is at the rate of £150 per mile, and the estimate for the 15 miles is put down at £2000. From near Howard Settlement to Eel River 15 miles, the Road is in a good condition. The 6 Bridges on the line are all in good order, the principal one across the Digdeguash having been rebuilt, taking about half the total Grant for the lower end, the balance being expended in repairs near Saint Stephens.

For next year, the 15 miles at the north end, and 18 miles at the south, can be kept in repair for £100, and the Bridges in the intermediate distance will require no outlay for a year or two. With respect to the remaining portion, a moderate sum might improve the 12 miles to the Digdeguash to make it a passable Road; but the other part, north of this, requires too heavy an outlay to be for the present system and it is a question whether this middle portion should be permitted to remain as it is till further action becomes necessary. The former course would materially assist the operation of the Railway now in progress through this district. Under the present system Grants are mainly expended on perishable works and small patches along the line, and though they have averaged for 11 years, the same sum as granted last season, £470, it is doubtful whether one half the new work is really completed.

No. 27, From Dead Water Brook to Saint Stephens, 17 Miles.

The western portion of this Road is much travelled, leading from an agricultural district to St. Stephens, Calais and Baring, and were the eastern part opened through, this would be the main route from Fredericton to the State of Maine. From St. Stephens to the intersection of the Woodstock Road is in pretty fair order; from the Woodstock Road to the Fredericton Road requires the making of three miles of new Road, and the building of a Bridge across the Digdeguash. The whole expense of opening this line would be under £1000, and its completion would open up a good country, and form a line of communication. The expenditure the last year has been confined to improvements in the Road between the Woodstock line (No. 26) and St. Stephens. Next year a new Bridge is required across Dana’s Stream and which will probably cost £250. The repairs of the Road besides, excepting new work, will not be heavy, and an allowance of £300 will cover everything.

No. 28, From Lower Trout Brook to Magaguadavic, 38 Miles.

This is another unfinished Road, intended to form a branch from the Fredericton and St. Andrews Road to St. George, passing down the Magaguadavic through am agricultural district. Though some time on the Great Road system, little has been done except by statute labour to the greater portion of it, the only part that is thoroughly complete is from the Town of Magaguadavic to the Second Falls, on an old Road. This section of nine miles is now in very good condition, the Grants for the two last years having been principally used in rebuilding two Bridges, and repairing up the Road between these points. From the Second Falls to the intersection with the other Road at Lower Trout Brook, the whole distance has been cut out, and some portion is passable for wagons, statute labour annually applied, improving the communication every year. The works generally are not difficult, and no important Bridges are required on the unfinished portion. For next season, the same remarks apply as to the two preceding Roads. When necessary to open them up, a special and sufficient Grant should be made in one or two seasons at most; till then, the local wants of the settlements are easily relieved, if one end of the communication is maintained in good condition, whilst statute labour keeps open the Road to each new settlement as it is formed. The present system is partial and extravagant, fails to do the work thoroughly or render what is done a public benefit; holds out no stimulus to local exertion, and interferes with the application of statute labour. The amount for this Road next year is £100, exclusive of any appropriation deemed advisable on the unopened portion.

No. 29, From Salisbury to Harvey, 44 Miles.

A liberal sum has been expended over the small Bridges, culverts, and roadwork for the past season, and the whole distance is now in fair condition. A new Bridge has been built over Turtle Creek, of a durable description, the abutments and stringers being of pitch pine, at a cost of £49. Many of the small Bridges might be built with stone abutments without any marked increase in expense. Improvements are needed by cutting down hills, and filling up ravines and hollows, and in some places a heavy coating of gravel is necessary to make a firm bed. £50 is asked next year to be applied to this purpose. One new Bridge is requisite, and repairs to three others. This with the gravelling and ordinary repairs is estimated to require £300 for next season.

No. 35, From Nerepis to Gagetown, 23 Miles.

Last year’s Grant was spent repairing the Road which is now in fair condition. The Bridges are not in good order, and next season the one over Queen’s Brook must be rebuilt. The present one was reported unsound before, and is now quite decayed. It will cost £125; the foundation is bad, and the approaches expensive, the ground being a soft intervale, and the River altering its channel continually. Total requirements, with the Bridge, £175.

No. 36, From Fredericton to Jemseg, 30 Miles.

This Road is overflowed annually by the spring freshet, which occasionally inflicts serious damage. Last season past quietly, and the outlay in repairs has been small. One old Bridge has been improved, and the rest of the Road is in as good condition as the ground allows. The requirement for next year depends upon the freshet, but if similar to last season, £100 will suffice. The Easty Creek, at present crossed by a floating Bridge, has been the subject of a Report by Mr. Wilkinson to the Board of Works, who recommends a permanent water-tight dam, of sufficient width and solidity for the support of the roadway and to resist the freshets. The estimate for such a work, made of large timber, is £850, if masonry is preferred, £2,500.

No. 37, From Jemseg to Finger Board, 29 Miles.

This Road is now in very good repair. During the season one Bridge has been built over Foster’s Mill Stream, and upwards of 40 culverts put down. These are all alike, built with hemlock mud-sill below the water, and tamarack or pine above. These are crossed by tamarack stringers, let in 2 inches onto the walls to keep them apart and crossed with poles of the same material and the Road on either side leveled off to the same height. These culverts cost from 10s to 12s 6d each, will probably last 25 years, and in a district where no stone can be obtained, are the best substitute. The old culverts consisted of 4 logs thrown together, were always unsafe for horses feet and their average durability might be 4 or 5 years. The Bridge built over Bellisle in 1855, has three spans of 40 feet, and one 36 feet long. They are unsupported by any truss, and are too long and vibratory. The stringers are laid upon their corners, and the piers are built in the form of a diamond up and down stream. The material is principally hemlock, and the Bridge of doubtful stability. One small Bridge over a Mill Stream will be necessary next season, and a portion of the Road requires skirting the estimate for all being £150.

No. 41, From Tilley’s Landing to Little River Mills, 12 Miles.

This Road, with the exception of two miles of intervale, is in a very satisfactory condition. Two Bridges have been repaired this season, and will last for two or three years longer, the rest are in good condition. A portion of the last Grant has been applied to repairing the Wharf at Tilley’s Landing, at the Saint John River end of the Road. For next year a portion of the intervale ought to be turnpiked and graveled, and the estimate for ordinary repairs, and to do this gravelling, would be £150.

Saint John, and an Outdated Account of Who the Loyalists Were – 1895

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Steamer David Weston, near Indiantown, in about 1890

From the N.B. Museum via the McCord Museum

Douglas Wheelton-Sladen was an Englishman who was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and relocated to Australia while still in his twenties. He became a lecturer in history at the University of Sydney and was also a writer of novels and anthologies. He travelled widely and wrote about these wanderings also.

One of his books was On the Cars and Off, London, 1895, which described his journey from Halifax to Victoria. The following description of Saint John and the river leading to Fredericton is taken from that book, with only very light editing.

His historical sketches may seem inadequate, but what interested me was his description of the Loyalists as men of the best blood and brains in America, who came to pioneer in the wilderness rather than forswear their allegiance to Great Britain. Their portrayal as noble patriots of gentle birth ignores the fact that most of them were of more common stock and were refugee survivors of a lost battle against a revolution. Sladen’s interpretation no longer prevails.

Saint John, and an Outdated Account of Who the Loyalists Were – 1895

We were on the sea, crossing the Bay of Fundy bound for New Brunswick, when a white wall, many feet in height, flew after us faster than our swift little steamer. It turned out to be one of the sudden fogs of Fundy, which roll up in this way. The other phenomenon we saw when Mr. Bliss Carman, the delightful Canadian poet who has just taken literary England by storm with his Shelley-like poeticality of vision, drove us out just before dinner to see the falls of the noble river from which St. John takes its name. These are, in a way, the most remarkable in the world. Through a gorge with angry black cliffs the river at low tide hurls itself in a mighty waterfall into the harbour, while the incoming tide when it gets sufficiently high pours back over the wall of rock into the river; and at certain states of the tide there is no fall at all, but a smooth river safely navigable by boats and rafts, the fact being that there is a wall of rock running across the bed of the river in a closely shut-in gorge.

When the phenomenon was explained to me by Mr. Carman, and I saw the mad swirl as the huge volume of water poured over the cliff at the turn of the tide, I said I thought it was very high-spirited of the citizens to preserve this wonder of the world when a dollar’s worth of dynamite would blow up the barrier and make everything plain sailing. Then he expounded the origin and use of this lusus naturӕ. A volcanic upheaval elevated a strip of the New Brunswick coast, leaving the fertile country behind, lying round the stately river with its tributaries and lakes, about the best land in Canada, below sea-level; and if it were not for the double waterfall, the ravening tides of Fundy would turn the garden of New Brunswick into another Zuyder Zee.

Few things in Canada impressed me more than St. John, a city of spires, built upon a lofty acropolis, dominating one of the world’s great harbours.

As we steamed up to the Market Slip below King Street, Mr. Carman reminded me that it was at the head of this estuary that La Tour built the famous fort from which he defied the superior authority of Charnisay, the representative of the most Christian king in Acadia, who lorded it at Port Royal. In the slow days of the seventeenth century sailing ships the authority of the King of France was more or less shadowy on the other side of the stormy Atlantic, and La Tour was so eager in his struggle for independence against Charnisay that he did not hesitate to call in the aid of the English in Massachusetts.

For a long time La Tour maintained himself against the superior authority and power of Charnisay, and one attack on the fort at the mouth of the St. John, during his absence, was beaten off by his beautiful and spirited wife. But the second time he was away the attack was more successful; and Madame La Tour surrendered, only to find the terms of surrender scornfully repudiated when the invaders had taken possession. Charnisay hanged every man in the garrison, and only spared Madame La Tour when he had subjected her to the ignominy of witnessing the executions with a halter round her neck and wearing fetters. One at least of the best Canadian historical poems deals with this subject.

After this there were various small settlements on the St. John of the English from the eastern colonies. But they are lost sight of in the surpassing interest of that grey morning in the May of 1783 when the five thousand Loyalists, men of the best blood and brains in America judges, lawyers, clergymen, doctors, and the principal merchants and landowners came to pioneer in the wilderness rather than forswear their allegiance to Great Britain. In one day the city of five thousand people was founded and was christened Parrtown, a name which was almost immediately changed to St. John; and about the same time what is now New Brunswick, and had previously been included in Acadia, was erected into a separate colony.

The United Empire Loyalists, as they are called, have thriven exceedingly, and today St. John is the fifth town in Canada for population, and the first for the tonnage of its shipping. For this latter it has the special advantage of being one of the two great seaports in Eastern Canada open to navigation all the year round.

Truly impressive is it to land at St. John. It rises up so quickly from the water’s edge; and no town in Canada has statelier streets. These are due to a blessing in disguise, the great fire of June 1877, in which nearly a couple of thousand buildings were burnt; and though the city felt the rebuilding severely from the financial point of view, there is no doubt that the streets gained immensely in regularity and magnificence.

The city is piled up on the rocks very much after the manner of Torquay, and but for the prevalence of summer fogs it would be very hot in that season.

Mr. Carman, who made himself our host while we were in New Brunswick, only let us remain a few days in St. John; it was glorious summer weather, and he was so anxious for us to be ascending the St. John River to Frederickton. “The St. John has been called the Rhine of America,” he said laughingly, “but without any particular reason except that it is a fine river.” There were certainly magnificent stretches of water in it, like the Grand Bay, nine miles broad, and the Long Reach, twenty miles long and three to five miles broad, lying between high shores of softly rounded hills, some richly cultivated and some yet forest.

Puffing up the eighty-four miles from Indiantown, the suburb of St. John above the falls, to Frederickton in the comfortable David Weston was our first experience of the delightful Canadian river trips Mr. Carman had told us about, where the traffic is not too great for the captain and passengers to form themselves into one large picnic party. “If you’ve nobody else to talk to, or want any information or even a shot at a shell-duck, you will always be welcome in the wheel-house,” he said.

In the glorious Canadian summer without a cloud on the sky, with the weather just as warm as one can comfortably bear it, a river trip in a moderate-sized steamer is about as delightful a thing as one can imagine. There is plenty of incident in it. Mr. Carman had warned us that every now and then the river would be so choked with log-rafts that we might just as well be in the Polar Seas; or the steamer be stopped off a mud-bank to wait for a slow little scow containing an old woman, dressed in the fashion of a generation back and armed with some preposterous bundles, who would at once be recognized and treated as a personage by the captain.

All along the course of the mighty river Mr. Carman pointed us out little places which have recorded themselves in the Provincial history. Maugerville, he told us, was the first English speaking settlement in New Brunswick, colonized from Andover in Massachusetts as far back as 1763, and the village of Maugerville was almost the only part of what is now Canada that took the side of the rebels in the War of Independence. And the old Fort of Oromocto had stood a notable siege from the Indians. But for the most part the river was like, either a broad Devonshire estuary with tiny hamlets and decaying piers dotting its banks at intervals, or like the long arm of Sydney Harbour known as the Paramatta River, with its broad stretches of shimmery water, its lush marshes, its trees, rising as it were right out of the water; though here they are silvery alders instead of shining mangroves.

Towards the end of a long day we reached Frederickton, and stepped off the sunny upper deck where we had feasted all day on the Canadian kindness to strangers, which we perhaps enjoyed to a special degree, as nearly everyone on board had known Mr. Carman from his childhood.

John Allan on the Saint John River in 1777

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Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) at French Village, Kingsclear, ca 1887

From the New Brunswick Provincial Archives

John Allan on the Saint John River in 1777

The story of John Allan’s campaign to enlist the Wolastoqiyik people of the Saint John River as allies in the American Revolution was told in this blog in June, 2023 and can be found at https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/john-allans-invasion-of-the-st-john-river/. That telling of the story was by W.O. Raymond, who got his information from Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia During the Revolution, edited by Frederick Kidder and published in Albany in 1867. That volume includes many of Allan’s journal entries and correspondence.

This blog post expands upon two matters from the record, namely:

1. Allen’s opinion of the white settlers in Maugerville at that time, and
2. Conditions around Fort Cumberland at the same time.

1.  John Allen’s Opinion of the Maugerville Settlers in 1777:

The Maugerville settlers had declared their support of the American Revolution, and were determined that the Saint John River should be part of the new republic. Another action in support of the Revolution occurred in 1776 when Jonathan Eddy led an assault on Fort Cumberland. Several Maugerville men participated in that assault, which did not go well. The rebels were soundly defeated and arrived back on the River in desperate shape. That story was told here: https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/jonathan-eddys-account-of-the-attack-on-fort-cumberland-november-1776/. The British then dispatched a ship to the River and invited the Maugerville settlers to sign loyalty oaths. They had no option but to comply, so it would be better to substitute forced in place of invited.

John Allan arrived on the river in 1777 to campaign among the Wolastoqiyik people to join the Revolution on behalf of the Americans. Arriving at Saint John, he wrote:

“Passed the Falls with all the Boats & Canoes. The whole having arrived by 4 o’clock P.M., I Encamped about one mile above the Falls, where I received a more certain account of the different movements, and I am sorry to say that the people has not acted with that Spirit as becomes the Subjects of Liberty. Much Division has been among them, those who were Spirited in the cause followed too much the method of the Continent by letting the disaffected go about & Insinuate Different Tales, & having no incouragement of succor from the Westward and being Surprised so Suddenly, the whole gave up & are now become the Subjects of Britain.” He then added, “All that I can say for the Inhabitants is this, that they might have very Easyly defended the mouth of the River by Securing the Falls against 1000 men, but they neglected this from Various obstructions in their Consultations; they admitted The Britains about 100 men to Surprise them Suddenly, and Passively Submitted & took the oath of allegiance. Many of them were Rob’d of their all, many were those who had taken the oath; they appeared by what I can learn dejected & forlorn & Sorry for what is done, but how to manage the affair they appear at a Loss, stupid & fluctuating.”

2.  Conditions Around Fort Cumberland in 1777:

Eddy’s assault on Fort Cumberland in the previous year had resulted in a clampdown on dissent in that area. Allan’s account of conditions there in 1777 are from his war journal and a private letter, and would benefit from corroboration. Nonetheless, they appear to have been severe:

“I have Received no Particular news from Cumberland nor do we Know any thing of the State of the Familys Since Decem^r, Any more than In General, the Property of persons absconding & those who Refuse the oath is mostly seized & sold. Several Familys turned out of their houses. I am rather afraid to send to Know, for fear of Exasperating & to hear of more cruelty. I Little Expect to see my family this year if ever.”  He continued, “I have just heard of an oportunity down the River; have only time to acquaint your Honors that a Number of the unhappy people of Cumberland arrived here, being forced from there by the Severe & Rigid mandates of the British Tyrant, whose subjects are persecuting the unhappy sufferers with unrelenting malice and fury. The common appellation is to Women Damn’d Rebel Bitches & whores, Excuse the rough Expression, & often kicked when met in the street. My unhappy Wife has been often accosted in this manner. No man whatever called an American is permitted to appear in Court even those who have taken the Oath. Majistrates sends warrants by any person; peoples Effects are taken and immediately put up for sale. However they are much Intimidated and from their Cruel Behavor, Consciencious Guilt flies in their face, dread & fear is about them.”

Allan’s remarks about Colonel Gorham at Cumberland were surprisingly positive, but the situation remained bad. “Col Gorham has acted the Humane part. The Yorkshire men from England Lately are the most Villianous set of miscreants, it is them who occation this horrid Scene. Gorham acts Counter to them. There is Great Dissentions among the Officers in the Garrison, several duels fought this winter, many Tryals for meeting. Gorham it appears does not keep Company with but 2 or 3 of his own officers. Two of the officers about three weeks ago, (one of which was a French officer, who Deserted from the Line at Cambridge named Buordyne) fought a duel, when the Frenchman was shot dead upon the spot.”

The Bus and the Blunderbuss

From the blog at https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com

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The following is not a history, nor is it “founded on facts.” It is a short story and was published by Isaac Allen Jack in 1900. There is a hand-written note at the top of page one reading:

“The following … was … and appeared in the first … of the [‘Freeman?’],..  W.K. Reynolds, editor. Dated Jan. 6, 1900. — D.R. Jack”

David Russell Jack, 1864-1913

Author, member of the St. John City Council, editor and publisher of Acadiensis, and active member of the N.B. Historical Society, and other societies. From the N.B. Museum, via the McCord Museum

Isaac Allen Jack (1843-1903) was a lawyer who also wrote historical and literary and other essays and poems. David Russell Jack (1864-1913) was a cousin of Isaac’s and was also a writer. Several of D.R.J.’s works appear in this blog. He and Isaac were both members of the New Brunswick Historical Society and other similar organizations.

This is the story of a foolish old man who goes off like Don Quixote to rescue his honour and that of his wife. He succeeds, but in an unusual way.

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The Bus and the Blunderbuss, a Story of the Past in New Brunswick Founded on Facts

Abner Crandall came to the door of his inn, smoking a long clay and looking and feeling contented. He was in his shirt sleeves, but that helped to show that waist-coat was a fine one and that it was rather long. Upon the whole, notwithstanding the absence of his coat, what with his dark knee breeches and stockings and his shining shoe buckles, there was a good deal about him of the modified fop. Certainly anyone who saw him, where he lived in the woods, would have regarded him, for his costume alone, as an unexpected reminder of life not in or of the country. But though art may have been kind to him, nature, on the contrary, had treated Abner rather scurvily. He was a tall though not a very straight man, and almost everyone beholding him was led to believe that it was originally intended that he should have been large in every way physically, if not mentally. There was a great deal about him that was large, and there was nothing insignificant about his ears or his nose or his mouth. But his eyes and also his calves were abnormally small, and what was particularly sad about his features of magnitude was that they did not match nor serve to constitute a harmonious or properly proportioned whole. It must also be confessed that his complexion suggested neither roses nor lilies nor any attractive or healthy natural object or tint but, simply or solely, putty. Appearance, however, as every one knows, is not everything in a man. It is much more important than painting his physical portrait to know who he is and what he does.

Now, irrespective of what he was and what he intended to do at that particular lime, it may he stated that Abner, in his day, had been an important functionary, especially in a new country had largely to stand aside until the vulgar body could be decently housed and fed. He had been, in short, such an one as Ben Johnson described, as a “poor pedantic schoolmaster, sweeping a living from the posteriors of little children.” Not, that he had been very poor. He had never been quite that, and, had he been better paid, he would have been fairly rich, as he had few wants and rarely tried to supply the wants of others.

Many tried, but all failed, to guess by what arts he had succeeded in gaining the hand and, perhaps, the heart of Nancy, the pretty daughter of old man Folkins, the proprietor of the principal tavern and changing house on a well-travelled king’s highway. Seth Clowes said it was because Abner talked Latin, which Nancy could not understand, and on the undertaking that he would give up singing his only song that she had promised to take him.

But Seth was an old hanger on of Nancy, and, to use a vulgar but expressive, word of today, which Seth’s acquaintances would not have used, because it had not then been invented, he was decidedly disgruntled and besides, he was always a bit crabbed in his talk. Probably the old man had a good deal more to do with making the match than his daughter, but certainly Abner had not neglected his opportunities with either of them. He and the innkeeper, although inhabitants of a British province, had at one time been neighbors in Long Island till the war made it too hot for them, and they liked to talk of old times over their rum and water and pipes. And regularly every year a brother of Abner used to send him a barrel or box, the contents of which, costing him nothing, he generously shared with his heart’s delight and her father. It is not indeed recorded that either shagbarks or ribston pippins [hickory nuts or a kind or apple?] ever promoted matrimony, but there is no knowing what credit they deserve among those who have achieved connubial bliss. It is now, however, quite out of the question to gather the incidents of a long-forgotten courtship, and it is sufficient to state that the lover, with his gimlet-hole eyes and shrunken shanks, led to the altar the fair country maiden: that, within a year, her father died, and that the united pair thereupon entered into possession of the snug hostelry with its not unremunerative business and well-stocked outhouses and barns.

Ungifted with prescience, though abounding in many natural and required powers, the ex-dominie [schoolmaster] concluded his pipe, uninterrupted by untoward event or disturbing thought, and, first stretching his arms in the way that oftener indicates contentment than fatigue, strolled off to a neighbouring building which lay to one side and in advance of the house. Thence, in a short while, the sound of a bucksaw struggling with more or less knotty wood, followed by occasional noises from far-pitched billets, proclaimed that he was attending to one of the chores which men would fain neglect in summer weather.

II

It was not many minutes after the rasping saw was heard, that the youthful mistress of the inn appeared at its door, and seated herself on the step with a pan of pease, which she forthwith proceeded to .shell in the bright but pleasant sunshine. She certainly winsome to look upon, not that she reminded one of great beauties or even of the picture of any one of those of the past. But it might, at least, be said of her, without exaggeration, that she fairly realized the ideal of an artistic and poetic soul, of a country girl which, in actual experience, not very often assumes material form. It is needless to say more, to seek to multiply the number of those induced to abandon food and waste breath in sighing by reason of her attractions, either from sight or report. Let then exact description be omitted, excepting only as to her hands which rested inert and pink among the green pods, as she paused from her task and raised her head to listen.

Half a mile away where the forest, which continued till it reached the score or so of acres under cultivation, was thickest, someone was having a canter and was approaching. There was no doubt of that, and Nancy could not but congratulate herself on the prospect of a break in the anticipated monotony of the day. “He who canters,” thought she, “has a horse that is not spiritless from dull farm work; he may have fine clothes and some ideas beyond those which have been passed about and worn threadbare among the country folk.”

It was not long before the rider appeared, and it was inevitable that he would tarry at least long enough for sit and sup, if he had any inkling of the most respected rule of that particular road. He was a gentleman, every inch of him, any Chesterfield and any hypercritical player of the hot goose would have said at once, while his horse would have passed muster at Tattersall’s or anywhere. A good looking man of thirty five or so, with a face which suggested rather a knowledge of men and women, rather than of books, and a desire to stand well in this world without any pressing anxiety as to what his chances might be in another.

 “Mistress Crandall,” quoth he, after he had had brought his horse to a halt and greeted her with graceful courtesy. “I see that holy matrimony has diminished neither your beauty nor your industry. It pains me much to have to interfere with the latter only to shorten my enjoyment of the former: but as you know needs must when the devil drives, I have, indeed, to ride far and fast, but not without your aid. So, Nancy as you love me, or rather as you ought to love worthy Master Abner, get me what delights my heart to drink, and do not fail to make it strong, and get it quickly.”

If Nancy failed to satisfy his first Requirement, which need not be presumed, she at least lost no time in procuring from the house something in a drinking vessel, the strength of which she proceeded to modify from the contents of a dipping bucket which, aided by the long swinging pole, she drew from the well which flanked the inn, in sight of the thirsty traveler. Lightly stepping on the boulder from which riders mounted, at which he was stationed, she presented the goblet to the horseman, and waited there till he had satisfied his thirst. He drank, and then, as he returned the cup, he deftly put his arm about her waist and kissed her.

“O, Squire,” she cried, wholly taken by surprise and blushing, “how could you?”

But he, with a smile and a merry farewell put spurs to his horse and rode away.

There are no specific directions for the conduct of those who have been kissed against their will, though, doubtless, repeated experience, may induce an individual to determine what in each instance, for complete identity of incidents in every case is improbable, is the proper thing to do. Now, both history and tradition are silent as to whether Nancy had ever been kissed before by any one who had not an absolutely perfect, not merely an implied, right to the sweets gatherable from her lips. As she made no special commotion, it may be fairly inferred – but no, upon the whole, no incontrovertible inference can he draw: there is, after all, something in the recorded incident akin to the tale of the lady and the tiger; the reader can arrive at some conclusion, satisfactory it may be’ hoped, without the writer’s aid.

Il was of course quite proper that Nancy should look at the receding Horseman, and she did so till he vanished in the distance. It was equally proper that she should look towards the structure which concealed her spouse; it is a question whether she should not have looked there first, though nothing was thereby revealed to her enquiring eyes. And yet, to her woman’s wit there was a revelation in the perfect stillness in that quarter. In the cessation of the sound of the saw and tumbling chunks of wood, something amiss might, with reason, he suspected: and with natural intuition and what was akin, yet only akin, to the pricks of conscience, she felt that there was danger in the air, and fled to one of woman’s citadels, her kitchen.

III

Absolute silence, even in remote country places, is rare, There is generally some man or woman or beast or, perhaps, a buzzing or chirping insect ready to prove his, her or its vitality and importance, or, in default of these, a babbling, dashing or tinkling brook. With the disappearance of its mistress, however, all about the roadside tavern became very still, so still indeed that a grass-hopper, after crying “clip! clip! clip!” in one short flight, at once disappeared back into the field and instructed its comrades and laid down the rule for itself to be entirely quiet.

Under such favorable conditions, the sensitive Remenyi might have played his violin in the sweetest temper, nor should it be wholly a cause for wonder that Abner, having the divine gift, proceeded to sing. It has been hinted that his musical repertoire was limited, and in truth, although he could and did, on Sundays join heartily in the psalms, he knew but one secular song. But this to him was what the “Wearing of the Green” is to Irishmen of the South, Boyne water to those of the North, the Star Spangled Banner to a citizen of the great American Republic, or, rather what some grand old Latin hymn is to a learned prelate with poetic and tuneful sympathies.

It served, indeed, in some inscrutable way, to inspire Abner, when languid and aimless, and to develop his reasoning powers when life presented some knotty problem for his solution. And then he had brought to bear upon this song all his powers: warbling, crescendo, diminuendo, staccato or larghetto, according to his conception of the appropriate, and extracting from the words pathos, energy and, indeed, any and every quality which no one before supposed them to contain. There had not then been a Browning; consequently, there were no Browning societies to bring forth jewels of thought out of the turgid, wordy depths, or elevate the trivial into empyrean.

Had there been such, how profitably the members might have employed themselves with these verses:

Our Josiah and Uncle Sam,
They built up a ship in the shape of a clam,
On the north side of Nantucket P'int.
They histed her jib to wear her around,
And she with her starn went plump aground,
On the north side of Nantucket P'int.
Then Josiah began to cry,
And Uncle Sam he swore he would die,
All for the loss of the ship Punkln’ Fly!
On the north side of Nantucket P’int.

The final stanza ended with a positive wait, reflecting not only on the unhappiness of the two men of Nantucket, but the sad perplexity of the singer.

And surely, in spite of the attempts of Chaucer and others to extract merriment out of tales of those ignoring marital rights, this man had reason to be very angry and perplexed. It will, indeed, be a very unhappy day for society, much as it may, as a rule abhor monopolitics, when it does not accept that a husband has a complete right to guard his wife from the audacious lips of a stranger.

Abner always thought more strongly than he spoke, but if he did no, on this occasion, rave and swear, it is certain that his heart was filled with anathemas against squirearchies and all the classes claiming or exercising privileges. Yet, all his wrath was directed against the squire, for, to his credit, he entirely exonerated his wife, not only from blame but from the slightest suspicion of impropriety.

But what could he, and what should he do? He knew what gentlemen had done under like circumstances. Indeed, it was then not so long ago when poor Hamilton had fallen in a duel while more than one affair of honor had happened in his Province. He even knew the fitting language for a cartel, and could readily refer to the form in The Complete Letter Writer, which formed one of the cherished volumes which he possessed.

He sat and thought for fully an hour; then he slowly returned to the inn. Nothing was said by either of them of what had taken place, or even of the visit from the squire, and Nancy almost began to think that, after all, Abner had not seen the equestrian or his amatory salutation. But, before long, she was led to fear that something was wrong and that something was wrong. Abner talked less than usual and indulged in unwanted abstraction, and he had been alone in the kitchen, for an hour or so, very late one night and, next morning, she had found an iron ladle out of place

Had she been trained to reason, she might from such premises as these have guessed his intention, and taken means to avoid a catastrophe. She, however, neither guesses nor suspected more than a small fraction of what was in his mind, indeed merely a part of his trouble and none of his purpose, and as her head failed to help her, she contented herself with following the promptings of her heart.

During the ensuing week, she was like an angel in the house. Twice, she made him blueberry pudding, and each day she gave him lump sugar in his tea.

But more than once when she was alone, she aroused herself from a brown study, and exclaimed, with warmth – Drat the squire.”

IV

More than twenty miles from the scene of the events recorded, the highway on which the osculatory horseman had ridden, reached one of a series of soul-satisfying scenes. On one side, distant less than a quarter mile, a pleasant little bay lay smiling, guarded at one of the points which flanked its entrance by a crane. The sentinel was never absent during the hours of daylight, there had never been a time when the bird or one of his ancestors had not been there. Above the road the land sloped upwards, terminating in what could scarcely be designated a mountain, but was certainly a mountainous hill. Its peak was bald or merely covered with turf, but on its sides maple, birch, fir and other trees clustered closely, reflected on one side by a lake and abruptly terminating on the other by a pasturage. Below this, and surrounded by other trees, chiefly ash, birch, and elm, stood a stone dwelling, with long sloping roof and, under the bedroom flat, a veranda with trellised front and sides, covered with climbing roses and vines. From the house an avenue led to the road through a well trimmed lawn, with trees sufficient in number to provide shade without interrupting the view.

It would have been difficult to find a more refreshing place on that quiet midsummer afternoon, with the heat, although diminishing as evening approached, yet still intense, then the room fronting on the lawn. The colors of wallpaper, curtains and carpet were so well harmonized that he detection of details of tinting was difficult, especially in the subdued light. The massive, but not ungraceful, mahogany furniture, the cabinets filled with knick-knacks, the china jars and plaques and the oil paintings, were heavy with gilt frames, suggesting taste and comfort and ancestry. Then there was that flue commingling with odors from potpourri and from blooming roses which stood in clusters in vases or guarded, outside, in front of the open encasement windows.

Mrs. Wentworth was alone in this cozy apartment and, as usual when her day’s work was over, she was reading. A calm faced woman with an air of refinement that was nearly queenlike, but was so tempered by a gentleness manifested in every varied expression of her intelligent and mobile face, and in every gesture, that no one would suspect her of harboring pride or even being quite aware of her many and varied personal attributes and legitimate claims. For some years she had been the loved and loving wife of the kissing rider and dratted squire and, although her affection did not render her blind to his faults, she had every confidence in his good intentions and in their ultimately accomplishing permanently good results. His rather free and easy life, when single, was not unremembered or wholly unmentioned by his associates, and, more than once rumors of occurrences to his discredit had reached her ears. They made, however, no lasting serious impression on her mind, nor was she disconcerted when, occasionally it became manifest that he was not always able to escape from the influence of former habits. But she was no Evadne, of the Heavenly Twins, and, if she had ever encountered one of Evedne’s kind, she had not yielded to  her reasoning.  She looked to her husband, indeed, to produce good grain, but if it should be found to contain a few wild oats, she saw in that no reason to condemn the crop in its entirety. At least once a day she presented little parcels of what she chose, but few others would have thought necessary, to designate sins before her God and asked to be forgiven on their account. But her request was coupled with a condition that their forgiveness should always be preceded by forgiveness on her part of every wrong which had been done to her, and with that condition, in its fullest meaning. she absolutely complied.

She was almost wholly immersed in the volume before her, when her attention was diverted by the short click of the closing of the gate at the end of the avenue, and, raising her eyes, she saw someone whom, at first, she failed to recognize. “Surely,” she thought as she beheld Abner, for it was he, “the crane has at last left the shore and is coming to leave his card.”

Slowly and wearily the unhappy man approached, but, although faint in body, his determination held good, and so he walked, without a pause, till he reached the door, and there he knocked. Mrs. Wentworth herself opened it and greeted him. “Why, Master Crandall! How tired you Look; come in at once and let me get you a glass of wine and something to eat.” .Abner, notwithstanding much pressing, refused point blank to enter, but asked to see the Squire, and learned from her that he was absent and would not return till the morrow.

The expression of her visitor’s face and his entire demeanor convinced her that there was something serious on his mind; then it quickly dawned upon her that the thing which he held in his hand, awkwardly wrapped in some cheap fabric, was n lethal weapon with a bell-shaped mouth.

With Mrs. Wentworth, when it seemed necessary, to think was to act, and so, in spite of his efforts, firm at first but gradually weakening, to conceal the facts, she finally extracted from the ex-school master the truth, and it may be added, nothing but the truth. Then she looked at him, with humorous solemnity, and said: “Master Crandall, you foolish, foolish man! So the squire kissed your wife. Well then; you kiss me.”

The old gossips used to say that Abner got his glass of wine, and that, the next day, he was heard, on his homeward way, caroling so blithely of our Josiah and Uncle Sam that you would have supposed they had launched, not wrecked, their clam shaped ship. It may be added, in conclusion, that, many years afterwards. a newspaper man was presented with s queer old fashioned weapon with n bell-shaped mouth, in which a bullet was firmly jammed, found, as it was alleged, by a dredger in the bay described. As there was no one to give n proper explanation, the journalist recognized his obvious duty, and accounted for the discovery, by the former presence in the locality of the multi-topical Captain Kidd.

New Brunswick’s Great Roads, 1856, Part 1 of 2

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The following is from the Report of the Chief Commissioner of Public Works (of N.B.) for the year 1856, by the Office of the Chief Commissioner, C. MacPherson.

The condition of New Brunswick’s great roads in 1855 was the subject of an earlier blog posting, but that author had little information to share and his paper was mostly an apology that N.B. was, after all, a young province where poor conditions might be expected.

The following work is quite different. It was written by actual facilities managers with detailed knowledge of each road. It reveals not only the condition of New Brunswick’s roads, but also the general state of highway engineering in those days. The author was a professional, but not an ‘engineer’ in today’s sense.

MacPherson’s report has been lightly edited, mostly for brevity, and is presented in two parts. This first part includes his ‘General Observations’ plus details for the eastern part of New Brunswick, from Saint John to the Nova Scotia border, and northward to Dalhousie. The lines from Newcastle to Fredericton and from Fredericton to Kent County are also included. This division into two parts explains the sometimes non-sequential item numbering.

The Restigouche River near Campbellton, 1882.

Image from the N. B. Museum, via the web site of the McCord Museum

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New Brunswick’s Great Roads, 1856, Part 1 of 2

General Observations

The Board of Commissioners had only recently been established, and there had not been time to implement necessary improvements. The Board had even inherited the present year’s budget, for example. Nonetheless, there were changes that needed to be made.

The main problem was that maintenance and construction had been left to local contractors who worked with very little or no supervision. Anyone could bid on projects, whether or not they were qualified, and it was required by law that the lowest tender be accepted. This resulted in ridiculously low bids by incompetent contractors, and work quality of the meanest possible description. The contractors’ objective was to make as much money as possible while doing as little as possible. Several of the great roads were not complete, albeit contracts had been let year after year. Some latitude in the awarding of contracts was therefore recommended.

Another problem was that the government’s Supervisors were employed only between April and October and the law required, again, that no road work be done out of season. Therefore, bridges were being built using green timber cut from alongside the road at the height of the growth season, and this timber soon succumbed to rot. Entire annual budgets were being expended to replace bridges which should not have required such early replacement. If Supervisors were available in the winter, then they could buy cured timber for the coming year and the quality of the bridges would be improved. Aggregates and masonry and other materials could also be hauled in the winter when the expense was one half, and made ready for upcoming work season. It was therefore recommended that the number of districts and Supervisors be reduced, so that the Supervisors could become full-time.

In general, “the number of miles of Great Road in the Province is 1,630; of larger Bridges, 470; and of smaller ones, about 1,400. Of the former only 3 are entirely of imperishable materials, and 36 have stone abutments with wooden superstructure. About 100 of the larger Bridges have cedar abutments, well built, and of durable character; the rest are principally of hemlock, much of it cut the wrong season of the year, peeled for the sake of the bark and to lighten the haulage, and improperly notched down and secured; these Bridges all fail within 12, and many of them within 10 years, and the perpetual repetition of the same description of work, has made some of the worst Roads in the Province by far the most extravagant in outlay.”

The Great Roads

No. 1, From Saint John to the Nova Scotia Line, 132 Miles.

This Road is in good repair. The Bridges damaged by the great Freshet of 1851, have been rebuilt and, with the exception of the one at Hampton Ferry, are all open to the public. Besides these, two new Bridges have been built over the Mill Stream and Fox Creek. The latter is a short Bridge on framed bents of Spruce; the former has Hacmatac abutments hewn 10 inches square, and bolted together from top to bottom; 75 feet span, supported with Queen post trusses of Pine and Hacmatac, and Pine plank flooring, planed, and painted.

Besides the new Bridges, some heavy repairs have been put upon the others. The long Bridge across the Aboideau near Saint John has been walled up on each side, raised solid with stone, and fenced, at a cost of £125.

The Bridge over the Marsh at Groom’s Cove has been reframed and partially refloored, at an expense of £55. This Bridge is nineteen years old and the present repairs are to keep it safe until the new one is built. Its original cost was about £400, and the new one will cost about £800.

The Bridge at Roache’s, 45 miles from St. John, built in 1855, was strained by having a herd of cattle driven over it, and has been strengthened and repaired at a cost of £24, to guard against a recurrence of the mischief. This shews the advantage of having such bridges built narrow; as the weight of such a drove on a wider span might have caused the destruction of the whole.

Between Saint John and Hayward’s Mills, 65 miles, there is only one small Bridge, excepting Groom’s Cove mentioned above, that will require rebuilding for a number of years. This is over a ravine at Morton’s, Upper Sussex, has been standing 17 years, and will cost next year about £125 to replace. There is however a very heavy traffic and the repairs of the Road are estimated at £500 per annum, for this distance.

Between Hayward’s Mills and the Nova Scotian line, 67 miles, the expenditure the last season has been principally in turnpiking and gravelling, which though expensive, makes the most durable and ultimately economical road. The Bridges will need some repairs next season, and the estimate is £700.

The Bridge over the Tantamar River, on Town’s lattice principle, has been for some time in a bad state. Last Spring the centre pier was again badly damaged by the ice, and several of the beams and braces of the truss were broken. Its reconstruction next year will be necessary. The remaining large Bridges are in a very fair condition, and likely will need nothing for some time, but the ordinary repairs.

No. 3, From the Bend to Shediac, 14 Miles.

This Road is in tolerable condition, but the materials in the area are of a poor quality, and the traffic upon it is so great that it requires a large sum to keep it in repair. There are no Rivers on the route, and the largest Bridge has been rebuilt the last season at an expense of £18. The Grant last year was £200, and the estimate for this year is the same.

No. 4, From Dorchester to Shediac, 21 Miles.

A large outlay would be needed to improve this Road. The Bridges are old, and the Road material is poor. Most of the annual Grant has been spent on repairs to the Bridges, leaving only a small sum for improvement elsewhere. During the last season the Memramcook and Scadooc West Branch Bridges have been repaired; but the former still needs to be rebuilt; and both it and the Dorchester Bridge will need heavy repairs next year. The estimate for these two is £90, and the rest of the Road can be kept to its present condition for about £60, making a total requirement of £150 for the incoming season.

No. 5, From Shediac to Richibucto, 36 Miles.

This Road has in that distance 113 Bridges of large size, and 9 of smaller dimensions, costing from £12 to £25 each, and 94 culverts costing from £2 to £10 each. The Bridges across the Cocagne, Shediac, Big and Little Buctouche, and Richibucto, are collectively upwards of one and a quarter miles in length, and cost together £6,900.

During the last two years, all the Bridge coverings have been renewed and the other portions repaired, so that there will be no new Bridges or heavy repairs next year. Probably £50 will do for the Bridges. The side drains for the greater part of the Road have never been cleaned since the Road was made, and other portions are worn flat, but generally good. For the next season £250 will be sufficient to maintain it in the same condition. The large Bridge across the Richibucto begins to shew signs of weakness, but will probably not require any outlay for some time. It was built in 1848, and cost £2,400.

The culverts in this district require renewing every sixth year, the covering of the large Bridges will scarcely stand five years, and all logs above low water mark require renewing every fifteen years. Next year’s estimate of £300 is consequently less than the ordinary annual requirement of the Road.

No. 6, From Richibucto to Chatham, 40 Miles.

240 feet of the south end of the Big North West Richibucto Bridge were rebuilt this year at a cost of £135; and the north end was built in 1845 and repaired at a cost of £100, making the whole good for a further 15 years. The Bridge across the Little Bay de Vent has also been repaired, but will require rebuilding next year. The rest of the Bridges are in a very good state. The Road is generally is in fair condition.

From Chatham to Black River, 8 miles, has been repaired this season, and is in very good order; from thence to Dickens’, 8 miles, is low swampy land, many parts requiring to be turnpiked; thence to Kouchibouguac, 10 miles, has been repaired lately and is in a very fair state; to Kouchibouguacis, 7 miles, will require some work next season; and to Richibucto, 7 miles, has been nearly all turnpiked this year. Heavy travel and the nature of the clay soil is liable to cause the road to be cut up. The total estimate for next year, including the new Bridge, which will cost £69, is £400.

No. 7, From Miramichi to Pokemouche, 62-¼ Miles.

Annual appropriations have been principally expended in opening the line to Pokemouche, and eliminating numerous ferries. The amount left for the Road itself, after repairing Bridges, has been small, and it is now worn so flat as to retain water. This is especially the case above Tabusintac, where the Road was originally badly located and where two important deviations have been laid out. To complete the diversions will involve construction of three miles and a half of new Road, and a further outlay of £375. Two of the old Bridges on the line are very decayed, and one especially at Alex Stewart’s is now in a dangerous state and must be rebuilt next year.

The principal work this year has been the Bridge at the Little Tracadie, to eliminate the Ferry. This is now complete, except the railing. £240 had been expended on materials and, during the past season, completion of the Bridge has cost a further expenditure of £575. The whole structure is 617 feet long, has two spans of 70 feet each, and a draw to allow boats to pass, the remainder being built up solid with hemlock logs, cut in the winter, well fastened down, and covered with gravel, for a road way. The spans are supported by double Queen post trusses, the materials of which, as well as the stringers and flooring, are entirely of white pine. The whole cost of this Bridge has been up to the present time £813 14s 8d, of which £100 was expended in 1854, £138 10s in 1855, and £575 4s 8d in 1850. Of this, £50 has been derived from a special grant of the County of Gloucester, and the balance from the Great Road money. The draw, though not included in the original estimate, was found necessary and has been included.

The next heavy expenditure on this Road will be the Bridge to supersede the present Ferry at Tabusintac, thirty four miles from Miramichi. The breadth of the stream at this place to be spanned originally was 1600 feet, and by reference to the last Report, it will be seen that at that date 1100 feet at the north end had been completed, and the remaining 500 feet, to cross the current, was estimated to cost £700. Since then the arrears on the part finished have been discharged, and a contract has been let for the timber for the remaining portion. This timber is to be on the ground by the 1^st of June next, the hemlock being all cut during the present winter. As at Little Tracadie, it is found necessary to introduce a draw for the purposes of navigation. The cost of completion will be about £900, including the contract for the timber, which amounts to £328 6s 2d. When completed, there will only remain one ferry, across the Big Tracadie, between the Pokemouche and Miramichi. The estimate for the next year includes £120 for the Bridge at Stewart’s Brook, £150 for general repairs to Roads and Bridges, and £330 for timber, &c. for Tabusintac. Besides these expenditures, amounting to £600, there are still to complete the alteration at the north side of Little Tracadie £250, the deviation at Big Tracadie, 1¼ miles long, £125, and the erection and completion of Tabusintac Bridge £500, a portion of which may probably be postponed to another season.

No. 8, From Bathurst to Pokemouche, 51 Miles.

Last year’s work has been principally upon the Road, which was in very bad condition. More than 12 miles have been repaired at a cost of £130. One small Bridge has been built, and repairs made upon 8 others. The south abutment of the Bridge over the North Branch of Caraquet, 32 miles from Bathurst, built in 1847 of small sapling pine, sided, and notched down close, then filled up with marsh mud and gravel. It was contracted to be emptied and restored, but it was so decayed as to involve the building. This will be attended to, and it is proposed to reconstruct it of cedar. There are two other Bridges which will require rebuilding next year; both of them are now 20 years old, and very much dilapidated. The estimate includes £300 for these three Bridges, and £100 for the general repairs of the Road and culverts; making a total of £400 for next year.

No. 9, From Bathurst to Belledune, 23 Miles.

This Road is now in very good repair, and the Bridges, though most of them 12 or 15 years old, are also generally good. One new Bridge has been erected this year, and repairs have been made to two others. The gravelling of the Road, and the substantial repairs, and the general use of cedar in the Bridges, has made them very superior to those on many other lines. New covering will be necessary on two Bridges next season. This and other work will require £200.

No. 10, From Belledune to Metis, 62 Miles.

The Road from Belledune to Jacquet River is well made, drained and graveled; from there to River Charloe, 14 miles, is worn flat, and wants regravelling at on expense of £336. Thence to Dalhousie and Campbellton is in good order; and from Campbellton upwards, 16 miles, is soft and undrained, and will require repairs next season. A new Bridge is required over Eel River, £700. The present one will probably not withstand the next Spring freshet.

The outlay the last year has been principally upon the culverts, drains, ditches, and gravelling. Two new Bridges have been built, and four old ones repaired.

The estimate for next year, exclusive of Eel River Bridge, includes an embankment 386 feet long to approach the Jacquet River Bridge, which requires wharfing up to protect from high tides and railings, £80; a ravine at M’Neil’s, which requires wharfing up, is the worst place on the line, and at present dangerous, £50; repairing Road above Campbellton, £300; and regravelling half the distance from Jacquet River to River Charloe, £170. Total £600. There are 29 large and several small Bridges on this line, and a principle has been adopted with the short spans and deep ravines that answers the purpose. The timber employed is altogether cedar logs wharfed up a certain height to form the abutments; then three tiers of stringers, with cross-ties every 9 feet between each tier, the upper tier supporting a row of cedar poles, laid close together, over both abutments and span, and the whole brushed and covered with gravel. This superstructure is as durable as the Bridge itself, protects the timber from the wear and weather saves all hewing, sawing or fitting together, and employs the cedar in its natural and most advantageous shape; and decay is dependent only upon the well-known properties of the timber, and its freedom from rot. Bridges of this sort may be expected to last without important repairs for 40 years. The average cost of the 18 now on this Road is only about 10s per running foot, whilst the average on all the Great Roads together is more than double this sum.

No. 11, From Newcastle to Bathurst, 50 Miles.

This Road is very out of repair, compared with the line round the coast. The Road is especially bad from Bathurst to Tabusintac, the greater part requiring to be turnpiked, graveled, and in many places widened, the soil being a heavy clay. The Bridges over the Bartibog and Little Bass Rivers are completely decayed, and must be renewed next year, and the north span and abutment over Tracadie Brook is also in a bad state. The other Bridges are nearly new, and generally in good order. During the last year new Bridges were built at Douglastown, and over the Little Escadilic. The estimate for the ensuing year, includes the Bartibog Bridge £200; Little Buss River £100, and part of Tracadie Brook £120; repairs and re-covering Bridge over Carman’s Lake £25, and general repairs to Road £155. Making a total of £600.

No. 12, From Newcastle to Fredericton, 102 Miles.

This Road is out of repair in many places. The Bridges and culverts are numerous, and built with barked hemlock and are generally decayed and dangerous. In many places good wood cannot easily be obtained. Repairs have been made in a temporary and inefficient manner because the amount of work to be done has far exceeded the means. The Bridge across the North West Miramichi, built by a company as a Toll Bridge, has been bought and thrown open to the public. This Road has required constant attention and some improvements have been made. The travelling is now safe, but it is not equal to the other great Roads out of Fredericton, and it will be some time before the expenditures can be brought into line. Two new Bridges have been built, and a third is under construction. During the next year there will be three new Bridges, all of them small, and a deviation to avoid a fourth; four Bridges require reflooring, and near the Nashwaak the Road is narrow, and subject to landslides. The estimate for all purposes being £950. The great trouble on this Road is the material of the bridging, and it is a matter of great consequence to have good timber procured in the winter. There are thirty Bridges altogether on the line, four belong to the largest class, and have cost, collectively, over £9,000. All but five have hemlock abutments, generally summer cut. These Bridges have cost nearly £13,000, and the cost of rebuilding will amount to £900 per annum. It is further observable that the average price of the whole Bridges on this Road exceeds £2 per running foot, which is four times the cost of the durable cedar Bridges, and double the cost of the stone abutments on other Roads near Fredericton. Besides the thirty large Bridges, there are fifteen smaller ones under £25 value, all of hemlock. There is one Bridge with stone abutments and a long span, over Indiantown Brook, but the truss was not well connected with the stone work, and has settled about two feet on one side. The expenditure on this Road the test year was £850.

No. 30, From Isaac Derry’s to Point Wolf, 25 Miles.

The eastern section from P. Styles’ to Bray’s, near Cape Enrage, is now tolerably passable, but being over a clay bottom, ungraveled, it will require constant attention to keep it in repair. Good ballast is not easily obtainable, but much expense would be obviated if such were spread over the worst places. The western section from Salmon River to Point Wolf, about half the total distance, is very bad, never having had sufficient expenditure to make it suitable for a carriage. This part is rocky and hilly, but if thoroughly turnpiked would be durable and easily kept in repair. There has been one new Bridge built this season, over Anderson’s Hollow; no further outlay will be necessary for some time, either for new Bridges or heavy Bridge repairs, so that unless they are injured by accident, the whole of next year’s expenditure will be made available for Road improvements which are very much wanted. The estimate for this purpose is £200.

No. 31, From Saint John to Crooked Creek, Albert County, 73 Miles.

This Road was laid out for the settlement of immigrants, and to secure a favorable alignment was less an object than the opening up a new country for cultivation, leaving improvements to be made when the state of the District should render them more important. Expenditure have been confined to the erection of Bridges, and the opening up of the route for carriages, with little surplus for any other improvements. The greater part is therefore still unfinished, many miles have never been turnpiked or made smooth, and before the Road can be equal to the travel likely to come upon it, a greater portion will have to be remodeled, long deviations made to avoid the hills, and extensive improvements and alterations in almost every portion. The establishment of Mail on this route between Saint John and Albert requires these repairs at once, and nearly all the expenditure for the next two or three years can be made on the Road. The amount required to complete this to a fair travelling condition will be from £3,500 to £4,000, and there is a risk that a great portion of it will be wasted on portions of the line that will subsequently be abandoned. The Chief Commissioner therefore suggests, as with other similar unfinished Roads, that before any portion of this outlay is incurred, a thorough and careful resurvey of the whole Road should be made, the deviations staked out. By this means much useless outlay will be saved and the line brought much sooner and more economically into a proper condition. During the past year a new Bridge has been built over Board’s Brook, at a total expense, including land damages, of £208, and a piece of new Road has been opened and turnpiked round the Four Mile Hills (so called) in Saint John County. Between Wallace’s and M’Manus’, 6 miles. Near the King’s County Line the Road was only opened 10 or 12 feet wide; this portion has been widened and turnpiked, and in Albert County, the expenditure has been laid out entirely upon the Road, though it is as yet scarcely passable for carriages. Next season a new Bridge will be required across Crooked Creek, to supersede a pile Bridge which, though only ten years old, is in a precarious state. The estimate includes £300 for this, and £300 for the Road, besides any sum that it may be desirable to expend upon its permanent reconstruction after the surveys have been made.

No. 32, From Saint John to Quaco, 30 Miles.

Last summer the Botsford Mill Road, commencing at the Forks near the Aboidoau at the City line, and meeting the old Road at Bartrim’s, was included as part of this, having been adopted by the late Chief Commissioner as a part of the Great Road between Saint John and Quaco. About £100 has been expended upon it, and as it is in very bad condition and will require £250 to put it in order.

The wharved Road round Vaughan’s Creek Head in Quaco, has been extended this year at an expense of £28, and will require £100 more to complete it. It is twelve feet high on the side next the Bay, and 28 rods long, built up solid with wood against the water, brushed and filled with stone. A Bridge has been also built over Garden’s Creek at a cost of £25, with other improvements at a cost of £100, the Road being now in a fair state of repair. The estimate for next year, exclusive of the Botsford Mill Road, includes the completion of Vaughan’s Creek, repairs to two small Bridges, and general outlay on the Road, altogether £250.

No. 33, From Hampton to Bellisle, 8 Miles.

This Road has no Bridges of any size and is in good order. The annual Grant of £25 is sufficient.

No. 34, From Scribner’s to Bellisle, 25 Miles.

There is only one Bridge, and it and the Road are in good repair; £50 will be sufficient for next season.

No. 38, From Cole’s Island to Cape Tormentine, 40 Miles.

This Road has not been a Great Road for very long, and was in a very imperfect condition. Since then the annual appropriations have not been sufficient to do the repairs, and the foundation is so soft and marshy that the thaws will damage it every spring unless it is Macadamized. There are a number of small Bridges on the line, costing from £5 to £15 each, which are old and decayed, and the renewal of these will be the principal requirement of another season. To put the Road in repair would involve a heavy outlay, and before this is attempted the line should be resurveyed. For present purpose £100 is sufficient.

No. 39, From Fredericton to Kent County Line, 56 Miles.

This is n new Road, scarcely all the way for wagons; the land is good and well settled; the travelling increases every year, and when rebuilt this Road will be a great boon to the district. From Fredericton to Queen’s County line the Road in many places has a rocky foundation, and originally large stones were left undisturbed. During the summer a party was collected, and the whole of these have been removed; and the Road, though not yet turnpiked all the distance, is in a very passable state. The Bridges are in good condition, and one new one across Burpee’s Mill Stream has been built. From Sunbury County, through Queen’s, to Kent County Line, the Road is not yet as good; but no Bridges were required last season and the whole of the Grant has been expended in improving and completing the thoroughfare where before it was impassable for wagon traffic. There remain 9 miles to turnpike and two small Bridges to build which is estimated will require £300. The total requirement for next year, to put this line in a position equal to the value of the district through which it runs, to complete the cross-water drains, and turnpike the whole distance, is £450. When open through to Richibucto, this will be one of the most important in the Province, connecting the Gulf Shore with the Valley of the Saint John, and intersecting the country about equidistant between the Fredericton and Miramichi Road, and the Saint John and Shediac line. It crosses no large Rivers like the others, requiring heavy expenditure to make and maintain a thoroughfare, and is less liable to accident from Freshets.

No. 40, From Kent County Line to Richibucto, 44 Miles.

This Road, an extension of the last, is, it is understood, in a very imperfect condition, but there has been no opportunity for any member of the Board to examine it, and the Supervisor has not deemed it a part of his duty to reply to the communications addressed to him from this office, or to make the usual annual Report. From the accounts transmitted to the Auditor it would appear that £510 has been expended this year, which at £12 per mile ought to have produced a marked improvement on a Road only 44 miles long, with no important Bridges or difficulties to contend with along its length.

These two Roads Nos. 39 and 40, which form a line from Fredericton to the Gulf Shore, were for some years under the supervision of John A. Beckwith, Esq., who reported in 1853—“In October last I was enabled to travel in a wagon from Fredericton to the Gasperau, (about half way.) From the Gasperau to Pine’s on the Richibucto, (about 30 miles) on horseback, and in a wagon from Pine’s to the Town of Richibucto.” Since Mr. Beckwith left the Road, it has been generally under two, and last year under three Supervisors; and Mr. Sowerby, the Supervisor of Kent in 1855 reported that “the dishonest way in which contracts for turnpiking have been performed would suggest the necessity of dividing any future Grant made for the Kent portion of the Road, and appointing two Supervisors, (making four on the whole line) one at the Salmon River side of the County, and one at Richibucto, the present state of the Road rendering it impossible for one at either end to give it that necessary supervision.” The expenditure during the last five years has been under five different Supervisors, the Grants have been £4,750, or nearly £10 per mile per annum, and the Road is evidently in very much worse condition than it was five years ago. Mr. Sowerby’s being the last information as to the state of the Road, it is really impossible to form an estimate for next year, and as the expenditure has hitherto far exceeded the average of the rest of the Province, and the Road apparently becoming worse under its present management, it remains for your Excellency to determine the best course to be pursued.

No. 42, From Sussex Vale to Upham, 12 Miles.

The expenditure last season has been for repairs of the Road, which is now in a fair state. Next year a new Bridge will be required over Jeffries’ Mill Stream; and a rampart to raise the bank of the Stone Quarry Brook, and prevent it flooding the Road. The estimate for this embankment and for the Bridge at Jeffries’, is £75, and the total requirement for the Road for next year, including these, will be £150. There is a deviation in Sussex Vale that it would be desirable to avoid a bad hill, the expense of this will be about £50, but it is not recommended for next season.

On the Hunting of the Gaspesians

From the blog at http://JohnWood1946.wordpress.com

Also on Twitter @JohnWoodTweets

Chrestien Le Clercq was a priest who worked to convert the Gaspesians to Christianity. Gaspesia was what he called the Gulf of Saint Lawrence region, and the Gaspesians were the Mi’kmaq. He produced a book about his experiences, and William F. Ganong translated the book into English in 1910 and published it as New Relations of Gaspesia, With the Customs and Religion of the Gaspesian Indians. This blog posting comes from Ganong’s translation and describes the hunting practices of the Mi’kmaq and the abundance of animals that existed at that time.

The references to guns are notable. There was active trade with the French, and the availability of guns was just one way in which the lives of the Mi’kmaq were changing, even at this early date, being the mid-17^th century.

A Group of Mi’kmaq by a River, ca. 1820

Anonymous, from Library and Archives Canada

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On the Hunting of the Gaspesians

Our Indians have, apart from war, no occupation more honourable than hunting; and they acquire no less glory and reputation from the number of Moose and of Beavers which they capture, and which they kill in the chase, than from the number of scalps which they take from the heads of their enemies.

The hunting of the Elk, or Moose, is followed at all times of the year. That in winter is the easiest and most like to succeed, especially when the snow is deep, solid, hard and frozen, for because of this the Indians, having snowshoes on their feet, easily approach the elk, which sinks in and cannot escape the pursuit of the hunters. It is different in summer, because these animals run with such speed that it is almost impossible to overtake them, sometimes not even after ten days of pursuit.

The Moose is tall as a horse; it has grayish hair and a head almost like that of a mule. It carries its antlers branched like the stag, except that they are broad as a board, and two to three feet long; they are provided on both sides with prongs, which fall in autumn and are renewed in the spring with the addition of as many new branches as there are years. It browses on grass, and grazes in the meadows along the margins of the rivers, and in the forests during the summer. In winter it eats the tenderest tips of the branches of trees. Its hoof is cloven, and the left hind foot is a remedy against epilepsy; but it must be secured, say the Indians, at a time when the animal is itself ill from this malady, of which it cures itself by placing this left foot to its ear. In its heart is found a little bone which the Gaspesians call Oagando hi guidanne; it is a sovereign remedy for easing the confinements of women, and for relieving the spasms and the sufferings of childbirth, when taken in broth after having been first reduced to powder. This animal weeps like stags and hinds when it is taken and cannot escape death; the tears fall from its eyes as large as peas. It does not fail, however, to defend itself the very best that it can; and an approach to it is somewhat dangerous, because, thanks to a road which it has the cunning to beat out with its feet, it charges at times with such fury upon the hunters and their dogs, that it buries both the one and the other in the snow, with a result that a number of Indians are often crippled by them, while their dogs are killed on the spot. The hunters know the places where the moose have their retreat from certain gnawed or broken tips of branches, which they call Pactagane, that is to say, the depredations of the Elk. They chew this wood, and they recognise from the taste of the branches the time since these animals have passed this place. They capture them sometimes from ambush, and also by use of certain nooses made of large leather thongs set in the usual trail of this animal.

The most ingenious method which our Gaspesians have for taking the Moose is this. The hunters, knowing the place on the river where it is accustomed to resort when in heat, embark at night in a canoe, and, approaching the meadow where it has its retreat, browses, and usually sleeps, one of them imitates the cry of the female, while the other at the same time takes up water in a bark dish, and lets it fall drop by drop, as if it were the female relieving herself of her water. The male approaches, and the Indians who are on the watch kill him with shots from their guns. The same cunning and dexterity they also use with respect to the female, by counterfeiting the cry of the male.

The hunting of the Beaver is as easy in summer as it is laborious in winter, although it is equally pleasing and entertaining in both of these two seasons, because of the pleasure it is to see this animal’s natural industry, which transcends the imagination of those who have never seen the surprising evidences thereof. Consequently the Indians say that the Beavers have sense, and form a separate nation; and they say they would cease to make war upon these animals if these would speak, howsoever little, in order that they might learn whether the Beavers are among their friends or their enemies.

The Beaver is of the bigness of a water-spaniel. Its fur is chestnut, black, and rarely white, but always very soft and suitable for the making of hats. It is the great trade of New France. The Gaspesians say that the Beaver is the beloved of the French and of the other Europeans, who seek it greedily; and I have been unable to keep from laughing on overhearing an Indian, who said to me in banter, Tahoé messet kogoűar pajo ne daoűi dogoűil mkobit “In truth, my brother, the Beaver does everything to perfection. He makes for us kettles, axes, swords, knives, and gives us drink and food without the trouble of cultivating the ground.”

This animal has short feet; those in front are formed like paws, and those behind like fins, very much as in the Seals. It walks very slowly. For a time it was considered amphibious, half-flesh half-fish, because it has a tail of appearance very like a sole, furnished with scales which are not removable; but at present it is eaten like fish in Lent, whether it be so in fact, or whether it is in order to obviate abuses which had crept in, some reducing to tail more than half of the body of that animal. It has a large but short head; its jaws are armed with four large cutting teeth, to wit, two above and two below, which are suitable for polishing gold or silver, since they are both hard and soft at one and the same time. With these four teeth the Beaver cuts little poles for building its house, as well as trees as large as the thigh; these it can fell exactly in the very spot where it foresees that they will be most useful and most needed. It cuts these trees into pieces of different lengths, according to the use it wishes to make of them. It rolls them on the ground or pushes them through the water with its forepaws, in order to build its house and to construct a dam which checks the current of a stream and forms a considerable pond, on the shore of which it usually dwells. There is always a master Beaver, which oversees this work, and which even beats those that do their duty badly. They all cart earth upon their tails, marching upon their hind feet and carrying in their fore-paws the wood which they need to accomplish their work. They mix the earth with the wood, and make a kind of masonry with their tails, very much as do the masons with their trowels. They build causeways and dams of a breadth of two or three feet, a height of twelve or fifteen feet, and a length of twenty or thirty; these are so inconvenient and difficult to break that this is in fact the hardest task in the hunting of the Beaver, which, by means of these dams, makes from a little stream a pond so considerable that they flood very often a large extent of country. They even obstruct the rivers so much that it is often necessary to get into the water in order to lift the canoes over the dams, as has happened several times to myself in going from Nipisiguit to the River of Sainte-Croix, and in other places in Gaspesia.

The Beaver’s house is of some seven to eight feet in height, so well built and cemented with earth and wood that neither the rain nor the wind can enter. It is divided into three stories, and in these the large, the mid-sized, and the small beavers live separately and sleep upon straw. And the following circumstance is also worthy of remark, that when the number of these animals, which multiply rapidly, comes to increase, the older yield the house to the younger, which never fail to aid the others in building a house. It is as if these animals wished to give a natural lesson to both fathers and children mutually to aid one another.

The Beaver does not feed in the water, as some have imagined. It takes its food on land, eating certain barks of trees, which it cuts into fragments and transports to its house for use as provision during the winter. Its flesh is delicate, and very much like that of mutton. The kidneys are sought by apothecaries, and are used with effect in easing women in childbirth, and in mitigating hysterics.

Whenever the Beaver is hunted, whether this be in winter or in summer, it is always needful to break and tear down the house, all the approaches to which our Indians note exactly, in order, with greater assurance of success, to besiege and attack this animal which is entrenched in his little fort.

In Spring and Summer they are taken in traps; when one of these is sprung a large piece of wood falls across their backs and kills them. But there is nothing so interesting as the hunting in the winter, which is, nevertheless, very wearisome and laborious. For the following is necessary; one must break the ice in more than forty or fifty places; must cut the dams; must shatter the houses; and must cause the waters to run off, in order to see and more easily discover the Beavers. These animals make sport of the hunter, scorn him, and very often escape his pursuit by slipping from their pond through a secret outlet, which they have the instinct to leave in their dam in communication with another neighbouring pond.

I pass here without mention the different kinds of hunting of Otters, Bears, Deer, and a number of other animals of Gaspesia, because they exhibit nothing of especial importance; and it will be more to the purpose to give the reader some knowledge of the different kinds of wild beasts, birds, and fish which occur in Gaspesia. One sees there, first of all, three kinds of Partridges, of which some have the eye of a pheasant, and a plumage mottled with black, with white, with gray, and with orange. The others are gray, and I have seen a number during the winter which were entirely white. The Partridges of Canada perch and roost in trees; and they eat the birch or the fir, which imparts to them a little of its bitter taste. Their stomachs are white and delicate like that of a capon, and those which eat only birch arc excellent, in whatsoever manner one prepares them. The hunting of them is easy, especially in Spring, when they seek to lay their eggs; because then they make a noise, by beating with their wings, and this reveals them to the hunter. And they are so little wild that one can drive them like chickens before him; and they even allow themselves to be approached near enough to permit one to extend a noose attached to the end of a pole, through which they pass the head, and thus render easy this method of capture.

The Canadian Ducks are like those which we have in France. There is, however, one different species, which we call Canards Branchus; these perch upon trees, and their plumage is very beautiful because of the pleasing diversity of the colours which compose it.

The Humming-bird, which some call the Bird of Heaven, is of the size of a nut. Its beak is slender and pointed as a needle. It lives solely upon the nectar of flowers, like the honey flies. Its plumage is of ravishing beauty, notably that of the throat, which is adorned with an azure and a dazzling red, which one cannot sufficiently admire, especially when it is exposed to the sun. Our Gaspesians call it Nirido, and it is hunted solely as a curiosity. The guns are loaded with sand, because even the smallest shot would be too large for killing this tiny bird, which is dried in the oven and in the sun, for fear lest decay come in a body which seems wholly plumage.

The Woodpeckers, which we call by this name because they take their food by pricking the trunks of rotten trees, are marked by two kinds of plumage. Some are spotted with black and white, while others are wholly black, and bear on the head a remarkably beautiful crest. They have extremely tough tongues which are as sharp as needles, and with these they make holes in the trees large enough to insert the fist.

The Eagles, the Sparrows, the Song Sparrows (whose song is not so pleasing by a great deal as those of the nightingales of Europe), the Canada Goose, the Snow Goose, the Ducks, the Swans, the Cormorants, the White-throated Sparrows, the Gull, the Gannet, the Snipe, the Sandpipers, the Snow Buntings, the Thrushes, the Robins, the Jays, the Ravens, the Dippers, birds entirely white, entirely red, blue, yellow, and an infinity of others, are very abundant in Gaspesia, but are unknown in France. An account of them would be useless, since there is nothing about them more curious than the names they have been given.

There occur also among our Gaspesians three kinds of Wolves. The Lynx has a silvery fur, and two little tufts, of wholly black fur, on its head. Its flesh is pretty good, although it has rather a rank taste. This animal is more frightful to the eye than savage. Its skin is very good tor making furs.

The Seal is a kind of fish, with a mottled skin and a black and white fur. It bears its young upon land, or upon some rocks or other. The mother has the instinct of carrying them on her back in order to teach them how to swim when they become too wearied in the water. Their feet are very short, those in front being paws and those behind fins. They do not walk, but creep on the sand, where they sleep and disport themselves in the sun, especially when the tide is low, which is the most suitable and convenient time to hunt them. This is very profitable, as much because of their oil as for the considerable trade there is in the skins of these fish, of which some are large and stout as horses and oxen. These seals are called Metauh, to distinguish them from the common kinds, which are called Oűaspons. Their flesh is passably good, and the pluck appears to be of as good a taste as pork. The other wolves are very much like ours in Europe, excepting that they are not so vicious or cruel.

The Hares of Canada are very different from those of France, and they resemble rabbits. Their flesh, nevertheless, is delicate enough, especially when it is used in a meat pie or as a stew. Many have a bitter taste, because of the fir which they eat during the winter, though it is very probable that they feed on grass in summer. It is a curious feature of these animals that their fur changes colour according to the seasons of the year. It begins to turn white on the approach of winter, and it is wholly white when the land is covered with snow. But it loses this whiteness and becomes entirely gray in the Spring and during the Summer.

The Bears, the Wolverene, the Deer, the Foxes, the Caribou, Martens, Porcupines, Muskrats, Squirrels, &c. are as many animals as occur commonly in Gaspesia. Here also are seen prodigious quantities of all kinds of fish, Cod, Salmon, Herring, Trout, Bass, Mackerel, Flounders, Shad, Sturgeon, Suckers, Pikes, Pond-fish, Eels, Squid, Pickerel, Oysters, Smelt, Skate, Whitefish. In a word, one can say that the hunting and fishing there are profuse, and that one can find, without much difficulty, everything necessary for life.

It is interesting to see there, likewise, the immense number of Whales, and especially the terrific combat of this mammoth fish with the Swordfish. The latter bears upon its back a kind of sword, or harpoon, which serves it as arms for offence or defence, and for attacking and defending itself from the flippers and the tail of the Whale. It is wonderful to see the approaches and the mutual attacks of these two powerful enemies, which bellow like bulls when inspired by rage and fury. The Swordfish darts itself out of the water and falls with all its power upon the Whale, turning over, meanwhile, in order to pierce the latter with its harpoon. The Whale plunges under the water, and escapes the blows of the Swordfish, which it tries to strike and to beat with its tail and flippers; and the noise is audible more than a league away. The sea appears all stirred up by the movements and violent efforts of these formidable fish, and it becomes all reddened with their blood, which pours profusely from their wounds. These sometimes cause their death. Such was the case with the whale which we found stranded on the coast some fifteen leagues from the river of St. Joseph, surnamed Ristigouche. The sand which covered it kept us from seeing the fearful blows which it had received from the Swordfish. We saw only two or three of these, which seemed very large and deep. Although the Whale is a fish of prodigious bigness and strength, nevertheless it cannot overturn nor shatter ships with its tail, as some are persuaded a little too easily.

The Shark, which some call requiem is a very dangerous fish, armed with two to three rows of teeth; it is four to five feet long, and proportionately thick. It is very dangerous to bathe in the places where this fish ordinarily resorts, because it runs after those whom it perceives in the water and bites away an arm or a leg, which it eats and swallows at one operation. I recall that a poor passenger who had thrown himself into the sea for amusement, in order to bathe during a period of calm, fine, and serene weather, was so unfortunate as to encounter one of these sharks; it did him no injury so long as he was in the water, but so soon as those on the ship set to work to save this poor fellow, the shark darted upon him, and bit off his leg before he was inside the boat, where he died two hours later.

A Ramble Through Cape Breton in 1867

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A Ramble Through Cape Breton in 1867

John George Bourinot was a journalist, an historian, and a civil servant, and eventually became chief clerk of the House of Commons. He refers to himself simply as a journalist in this article about Cape Breton. His Notes of a Ramble Through Cape Breton was published in The New Dominion Monthly in 1868, and tells of his tour of the Island in the previous year. These Notes are presented below with only minor editing.

Bourinot clearly loved the Island, but was not shy in pointing out the lack of economic progress. Wherever he makes such a comment, however, it is accompanied with the hope and expectation that such a place must eventually prosper.

A View of, Mabou, Cape Breton

From Nova Scotia Tourism, Photograph by Len Wagg

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A Ramble Through Cape Breton in 1867

By J. G. Bourinot, Nova Scotia

In the month of August last, tired of the dust and noise of the city, the writer decided to spend a few weeks in visiting a portion of the New Dominion but little known outside of the Maritime Provinces. I had been struck, a few years previous, by the richness of Cape Breton’s resources and the variety of its exquisite scenery. Nowhere, I knew, could the tourist find more invigorating breezes, better sea-bathing, more admirable facilities for fishing and sport of every kind. So, in that island I determined to spend the few holidays I could snatch from the treadmill of journalism.

On a fine summer evening I found myself on board one of the Cunard steamers at Halifax; and, in the course of twenty-four hours after steaming out of the harbor, we arrived at the port of North Sydney, where the principal coal mines of Cape Breton are situated. For the space of a month I rambled through the island. I visited many of the villages, and partook of the kind hospitality of its people. I ventured into the depths of its wilderness; saw many relics of the days of the French dominion; fished in its streams; and passed many delightful hours on the waters of its great lake. Now, on this bleak January evening, with the wind whistling shrilly around the house, I recall those pleasant summer days, and reproduce from my notebook many of the facts that I gathered in the course of my rambles. Sydney harbor is justly considered one of the finest ports in America, though it is unfortunately ice-bound during the winter months, from the first of January to the first of April. The mines of the Mining Association of London are at the entrance of the harbor, and are connected by rail with the place of shipment, which is generally known by the name of the “Bar.” This place does not present a very attractive appearance to the visitor, the houses being ungainly wooden structures, disfigured by huge, glaring signs. Six miles further up the river is the capital of the island, the old town of Sydney, which is built on a peninsula. As the stranger comes within sight of the town, he does not see many evidences of progress or prosperity. The houses on the street fronting the harbor are, for the most part, very dilapidated and sadly in want of paint and whitewash. The town, however, is very prettily situated, and possesses many pleasing features. In former times, Cape Breton was a separate province, and Sydney had a resident governor and all the paraphernalia of a seat of government. A company of regular troops was stationed there for many years; but, now-a-days, the old barracks and a tall flagstaff, on which the Union Jack is never hoisted, are the only evidences that remain of those gay days when Her Majesty’s forces enlivened the monotony of the old town.

Sydney certainly is not a prosperous town. The shipping mostly congregates at the Bar, where the coal is shipped. The new collieries, opened up during the past six years, are situated a considerable distance from Sydney, and have drawn away a good deal of trade which had previously centred in the town. An effort is now being made to build a railway to connect some of these new mines with the harbor; and when that is accomplished—as it must be, sooner or later—we may date the commencement of a new era in the commercial history of the old capital. At present, the charm of Sydney is its pleasant society. In no place of similar size in British America, will you find gentlemen possessed of more general information, or ladies of better tone and manners. In fact, there still cling to Sydney the attributes of an old government and military town. Sydney has, at present, the honor of being constantly visited by the ships of the French navy, and less frequently by English men-of-war. At the time of my visit, the Jean Bart, a training ship for cadets, and the Semiramis, bearing the flag of Admiral Baron Megnet, commanding the French fleet in American waters, were anchored off the residence of the French consul, who is also one of the senators of the Dominion. Some years ago, the late Judge Halliburton, better known by the sobriquet of “Sam Slick,” endeavored to create a little sensation in England by an article, in which he declared that the French were, contrary to treaty, forming strong fortifications at St. Pierre de Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland; and he also mentioned the frequent visits of the French ships to Sydney as an ominous fact. But the old Judge was only indulging in chimeras, for there are no fortifications whatever at St. Pierre; nor are the good people of Sydney fearful that their loyalty is in peril because the tricolor waves so often, during the summer months, in their noble harbor, from His Imperial Majesty’s ships. On the contrary, they would feel deeply disappointed if these ships were now to cease their periodical visits; which tend so much to enliven the town, and are so very profitable to the farmers of the surrounding country.

Of course, Louisbourg will be one of the first places visited by the tourist in Cape Breton. The old capital is about twenty-five miles from Sydney, and is quickly reached, for the roads in Cape Breton, as a rule, are excellent. Never have I visited a place that more strikingly realizes the idea of perfect desolation than Louisbourg. The old town was built on a tongue of land near the entrance of the harbor; and, from the formidable character of its fortifications, was justly considered the Dunkirk of America. The fortifications alone cost the French Government the sum of thirty millions of livres. The houses are mostly of wood, though the official residences were built of stone imported from France. The position of Louisbourg, and its many advantages as a harbor, naturally attracted the attention of the French in those days, when they entertained such ambitious designs with reference to this continent. As an emporium for vessels sailing between France and Canada, and for the large fleet annually engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries, the town was always considered of great importance by French statesmen.

Louisbourg was first taken by Warren and Pepperel; the latter, a merchant of New England, was the first colonist that ever received the honor of a baronetcy. At the time of its capture by the colonial forces in 1745, the walls were forty feet in thickness, and of considerable height; they were mounted with a hundred and twenty cannon, seventy-six swivels, and some mortars. The harbor was defended by an island-battery of 32 guns, which were then considered of large calibre, and by a battery on shore, which mounted 30 large guns, and was surrounded by a formidable moat. The success of the colonial troops naturally attracted a great deal of attention throughout England. The victory, too, came at a very opportune time for the mother country. At the time the colonists were gaining laurels at Louisbourg, the British troops were being beaten on the continent of Europe. “We are making a bonfire for Cape Breton, and thundering for Genoa,” wrote Horace Walpole to one of his friends, “while our army is running away in Flanders.”

By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Cape Breton fell once more into the hands of the French, who immediately renewed the fortifications of Louisbourg. At the time the negotiations for this treaty were going on, the French court instructed its envoy to take every care that Cape Breton was restored to France, so important was its position in connection with the trade of Canada and Louisiana. Peace between France and England was not of long duration in those times, and among the great events of the war that ensued was the capture of Louisbourg by Wolfe and Boscawen. Great were the rejoicings when the news of the fall of the “American Dunkirk” reached England. The captured standards were borne in triumph through the streets of London, and deposited in St. Paul’s amidst the roar of cannon and the beating of kettle-drums. From that day to this, Cape Breton has been entirely forgotten by the British Government. Fifty years after the fall of Louisbourg, Lord Bathurst ordered all American prisoners to be removed from Halifax to Louisbourg, as a place of safety.

After the fall of Louisbourg, its fortifications were razed to the ground; and a good deal of the stone, as well as all the implements of iron, were carried to Halifax. As the visitor now passes over the site, he can form a very accurate idea—especially if he has a map with him—of the character of the fortifications, and the large space occupied by the town. The form of the batteries is easily traced, although covered with sod, and a number of the bomb-proof case mates, or places of retreat for the women and children in the case of siege, are still standing. Many relics, in the shape of shells and cannon balls, are to be picked up amid the ruins. A person who dwells near the old town told me that he had recently dug up an old cellar full of balls.

The country surrounding the harbor is exceedingly barren and uninteresting, and the houses, which are scattered about at distant intervals, are of a poor description; whilst the small farms in the vicinity do not appear to be at all productive. A lighthouse stands on one of the points at the entrance of the harbor, which is always open in winter, and easily accessible at all times from the ocean. It is certainly strange that Louisbourg, notwithstanding its great advantages as a port, should have remained so entirely desolate since it fell into British hands. Whilst other places, without its great natural facilities for trade, and especially for carrying on the fisheries, have grown up, the world has passed by Louisbourg, and left it in a state of almost perfect solitude. A few hovels now occupy the site of the old town; a solitary “coaster,” wind-bound, or a little fishing-shallop, is now only to be seen on the waters of the harbor where once vessels of every class rode at anchor. Nothing breaks the silence that prevails, except the roar of the surf on the rocks, or the cry of the sea-gull.

Wherever you go in Cape Breton, you come upon traces of the French. Many of the old names are, however, becoming rapidly corrupted as time passes, and their origin is forgotten. One would hardly recognize in “Big Loran” the title of the haughty house of Loraine. The river Margarie, remarkable for its scenery and the finest salmon-fishing in the Maritime Provinces, is properly the Marguérite. Inganish was formerly Niganiche. The beautiful Bras d’Or, of which I shall speak presently, is still correctly spelled, and so is the Boularderie Island at the entrance of the lake, which is thus named after the marquis to whom it formerly belonged. Port Toulouse—where a canal to connect the ocean with the lake is now in course of construction—is now known as St. Peter’s. The present name of the island is an evidence of the French occupation. Some of those advantageous mariners who have been visiting the waters of the Gulf for centuries, first gave the name of Cape Breton to the north-eastern point of the island. It is believed by some writers that the Bretons and Basques were the first discoverers of the Continent of America. Certainly, it is well known that, in 1504, the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland were prosecuted. In 1517, fifty Castilian, French and Portuguese vessels were engaged on the banks at the same time.

Many interesting relics are now and then turned up by the plough in the old settlements. I remember seeing, some years ago, a fine bell which was discovered at Niganiche, and which bore an inscription.

With these few references to the past history of the island, I will now proceed to note a few of its present characteristics.

Among the features of interest are the collieries, of which there are a large number in Cape Breton. Up to 1854, the coal mines of the Province were under the sole control of the Mining Association of London, but during that year an arrangement was made between the Nova Scotians and the Association, by which the coal mines, with the exception of certain acres reserved to the latter, were thrown open to capital and enterprise. The result of this arrangement has been most beneficial to the whole Province, and especially to Cape Breton. There are now at least sixteen mines in operation, and others on the point of being opened. At Glace Bay and Cow Bay the mines are most vigorously worked, and a large number of buildings have been erected. The residences of the managers are very fine and commodious edifices. Artificial harbors have been constructed at an enormous cost by enterprising companies, and now shipping of every class can anchor where, only the other day as it were, a vessel of any size was never seen. The total quantity of coal raised in Nova Scotia, in 1865, was 657,256 tons, nearly two-thirds of which came from the Cape Breton mines. During the past two years, the mines were not so actively worked, and the quantity of coal raised was somewhat less. Up to 1866, operations were carried on with great vigor, and there was every prospect of a new era in the commercial history of the island; but the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty produced a very injurious effect on the trade. The principal mines are carried on with American capital, and all of them find their chief market in the United States. It is to be hoped that the people of Quebec and Ontario will be induced to become large consumers of the coal of Cape Breton, which cannot now find a remunerative sale in the American market. If the coal trade was vigorously carried on, the prevalent dullness would soon disappear.

To the lover of nature, the island affords a large fund of amusement. For variety of beautiful scenery, the Bras d’Or cannot be surpassed in British America. You will see all the attractive features of the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers as you pass over the magnificent lake which, from its great size, is deserving of being called a sea. The air was hushed and still as I took my seat, on a summer morning, in the little steamer that plies weekly between Sydney and Whycocomagh, at the head of the lake. The sun was just scattering the morning mist and revealing the fine farms that surround the harbor. The water was undisturbed except by the ripple from the paddles of the boat. In an hour’s time we had left the harbor and passed into the Little Bras d’Or, one of two arms that lead into the lake. This arm is very narrow in many places, and resembles a beautiful river. It is full of the most delightful surprises, for you would think yourself perfectly landlocked, when suddenly you would see a little opening, and find yourself, in less than a minute, shooting into a large bay. The banks were wooded to the very water’s edge; whilst shady roads wound down, in most perplexing fashion, to some rude wharf, where was moored a fisherman’s boat or coasting schooner. Fine farms were to be seen on all sides, and, now and then, we caught a glimpse of a tall white spire. By and by we passed within a stone’s-throw of a lofty islet, wooded so deeply that the branches kissed the very water. Anon, we shot out into the Great Bras d’Or itself, where the waves were much higher; in fact, at times they were apt to become a little too boisterous for comfort. Far to the northward we could catch glimpses of the highlands, which terminate in the promontories of Cape North and Cape St. Lawrence. We soon came to Bedeque, or Baddeck, as it is now commonly spelt, the principal village on the lake, which is only a collection of a few houses, set down without reference to order. We spend two hours more on the lake, and then come to Whycocomagh, a little Scotch settlement, situated on a prettily sequestered bay. Here the tourist can find an hour’s amusement in visiting a cave of marble, comprising several chambers, in which a man can stand erect. The marble is said to be of good quality, though it has not yet been worked. Whilst at Whycocomagh, I found the people considerably interested by the news that a New York Professor was visiting the quarry with a view of testing its quality. Chance threw the gentlemen subsequently into my path, and the “Professor” turned out an illiterate marble-cutter who had found his way, somehow or other, to this remote section of the Provinces. I do not think, however, from what I have heard, that he had “hoodwink” the people of the settlement, who, if not very highly educated, have a pretty accurate idea of the qualifications of a real Professor. The Yankee element, I may here add, is becoming very prevalent in Cape Breton, as well as in Nova Scotia, generally. Not only many of the coal and gold mines, but the principal stage-routes and the telegraph lines, are in the hands of the Americans; and it would be well for the interests of Cape Breton if more of their energy and enterprise could be infused into its people.

From Whycocomagh you have a drive to the sea coast of about thirty miles, over one of the most picturesque roads in Nova Scotia. The tourist will, in all probability, have to be satisfied with a vehicle entirely destitute of springs and cushions, but he will not mind a little discomfort in view of the exquisite scenery that meets the eye wherever it wanders. Those who have travelled over Scotland cannot fail to notice the striking resemblance that the scenery of this part of Cape Breton bears to that of the Highlands. Indeed, the country is Scotch in more respects than one; the inhabitants are all Scots, and, as a rule, are a well-to-do class. Some of the best farms in the Province are to be seen here, proving conclusively the fine agricultural capabilities of the island. As the carriage passed along the mountain side, we overlooked a beautiful valley, where one of the branches of the Mabou River pursues its devious way, looking like a silvery thread thrown upon a carpet of the deepest green. Every now and then we pass groups of beautiful elms, rising amid the wide expanse of meadows. No portion of the landscape was tame or monotonous, but all remarkably diversified. The eye lingered on exquisite sylvan nooks, or lost itself amid the hills that rose in the distance. The air was perfectly redolent with the fragrance from the newly-cut clover, and the wild flowers that grew so luxuriantly by the wayside. Everything, that summer evening, wore the aspect of Sabbath stillness, the rumble of the waggon wheels and the tinkle of the cow-bells from the meadows below were the only sounds that broke upon the ear.

At Port Hood, on the Gulf shore—an insignificant village, though the Shiretown of Inverness county—we took passage on board a fine steamer that plies between Pictou and Charlottetown, and early next morning we found ourselves in the prosperous town of Pictou, whence the railway carried us to Halifax. So much for the most delightful trip that I have ever taken anywhere in America. If any of my readers wish to make themselves acquainted with one of finest sections of the Maritime Provinces, and to enjoy an exceedingly cheap and pleasant trip, let them .visit Cape Breton next summer, and go through the Bras D’or, and the valley of the Mabou, as I did.

My notebook is full of many references to the scenery of Cape Breton, but my pen cannot do justice to it, and I must pass on to other matters connected with the island. No one can travel for any length of time through the island without seeing the evidences that it is far behind all other parts of British America in the elements of progress. As a rule, the people are poor and unenterprising. The great majority of the people are Scotch, many of whom exhibit the thrift and industry of their race. The descendants of the old French population are an active, industrious class, chiefly engaged in maritime pursuits. A portion of the inhabitants is composed of the families of American loyalists, and the original English settlers. Agriculture is largely followed by the people, and with success in the interior, especially in the vicinity of the great lake. On the sea coast the fisheries predominate, though the people more or less cultivate small farms. The collieries absorb a considerable number of men, but only in particular parts. A good many persons are also engaged in the coasting trade, especially at Arichat, in the county of Richmond which, in 1866, owned 300 vessels, comprising 21,049 tons, and valued at $575,164. The number of the present population of the island is about 76,000 souls. The Catholics and Presbyterians predominate.

There are about five hundred Indians in the island, all belonging to the Micmac tribe. As is the case in other parts of America, they are slowly dwindling away. The majority of the tribe live in a very picturesque section of Cape Breton, in the vicinity of the Bras D’or Lake, where they have some fine farms, and worship in a large chapel. Once every year, in the summer, they assemble at Eseasoni, and have grand services. For months before, they save all the money they can collect from the sale of baskets, tubs, and fancy work, in order to display a little finery for this grand event of the year.

No part of British America is richer in natural resources, and all those elements necessary to create wealth and prosperity; but unfortunately for Cape Breton, its progress has been retarded by the want of capital. The tide of immigration to America has passed by its shores, and very little capital has come in to develop its capabilities. The new collieries are carried on for the most part, by Now York and Boston capital, and no English money is invested in any of the mines, except those worked by the London Mining Association, whose establishment dates a great many years back.

Cape Breton is on the very threshold of the finest fishing ground in the world. Its coal fields are the most extensive and important in British North America. Quarries of marble, gypsum, limestone, and other valuable stones abound, and gold has also been found in several places. The natural position of the island is remarkably advantageous for trade of every kind. It stands like a sentinel at the very gateway of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which it must command most effectually in the time of war. Its coast is indented by a large number of noble harbors, one of which, Louisbourg, is open at all seasons, and is situated on the very pathway of European traffic. No one can doubt that at no very distant date, when capital and enterprise come in and develop its resources, it must occupy a prominent position in the Dominion of Canada.

Champlain’s Long Resume

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Champlain’s Long Resume

Champlain is rightly celebrated in Canada for his many discoveries and adventures, especially in the Maritime Provinces. The story of that terrible winter on Saint Croix Island appeared in this blog in 2022, and is repeated here: https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com/2022/03/23/the-winter-of-1604-05-on-the-st-croix-river-a-firsthand-account/. Another blog post in 2018 told of de Monts and Champlain’s relocation to Port Royal in 1605 and a late-summer exploration along the east coast. That post is here: https://johnwood1946.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/champlain-in-1605-exploration-adventure-and-murder/.

Neither of these posts revealed much about Champlain’s previous experience as a sailor and an explorer. The following information was therefore gleaned from N.E. Dionne’s, Champlain, Toronto, 1912.

Samuel de Champlain before 1604

From McGill-Queens University Press

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Champlain was born in a village in the French province of Saintonge in about 1570. His father was a sailor, which explains Champlain’s early interest in the sea. Before developing these skills further, however, he enlisted in the Catholic army in an almost ten year campaign against the Huguenots.

Following that service, Champlain decided to make a voyage to Spain “to acquire and cultivate acquaintance, and make a true report to His Majesty of the particularities which could not be known to any Frenchmen, for the reason that they have not free access there.” And there lies another hint of why his many later adventures were valuable at the time. Champlain writing would be popular, especially with the King of France who named him to the position of royal geographer.

This trip took him to locations, ranging from Cape Finisterre in the northwest to San Lucar de Barameda just north of Gibraltar. He also visited Seville, where he made surveys. While Champlain was in Seville, news was received that the English had launched a fleet and intended of attack Porto Rico. This prompted the King of Spain to raise an armada which included the ship Saint Julien which was commanded by Champlain’s uncle. This would have given him an opportunity to join the fleet, but his uncle had other obligations and Champlain was finally awarded command of the ship himself.

Thus began a voyage that lasted for more than two years, beginning in 1599. Champlain visited La Désirade near Guadeloupe, and then proceeded to San Juan which was abandoned following an attack by the English. He then continued on to Porto Rico which was abandoned following the English attack, Then came a month near Mexico City with which he was very impressed. “It is impossible to see or desire a more beautiful country than this kingdom of New Spain, which is three hundred leagues in length, and two hundred in breadth. . . . The whole of this country is ornamented with very fine rivers and streams . . . the land is very fertile, producing corn twice in the year . . . the trees are never devoid of fruit and are always green.” In visiting Panama Champlain became the first person who was ever recorded as having suggested the canal. “One may judge 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 fifteen hundred leagues; and from Panama to the Straits of Magellan would be an island, and from Panama to the New-found-lands would be another island, so that the whole of America would be in two islands.”

Chaplain returned to France in 1601 and wrote a memoir of his findings. The King was impressed enough that he was granted a pension, and was appointment the royal geographer.

And so, Champlain’s reputation as a mariner and a geographer were well established before his visit to Canada’s Eastern shore. Of sailing, he said “that of navigation has always seemed to me to occupy the first place. For the more hazardous it is, the greater the perils and losses by which it is attended, so much the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being wholly unsuited to the timid and irresolute. By this art we obtain a knowledge of different countries, regions and realms. By it we attract and bring to our own land all kinds of riches; by it the idolatry of Paganism is overthrown and Christianity proclaimed throughout all the regions of the earth. This is the art which won my love in my early years and induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me to explore the coasts of a portion of America, especially those of New France, where I have always desired to see the lily flourish, together with the only religion, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.”

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Dionne’s book also includes information about scurvy, which ravaged the would-be settlers at Saint Croix Island. Of 79 persons on the Island, 35 died and at least 20 others were near death. Dionne notes that Jacques Cartier had weathered the same disease in 1535-36, when out of 110 men, 25 died and only three or four remained healthy.

Impressions of the Saint John River in 1785

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Impressions of the Saint John River in 1785

Following is a description of the Saint John River valley in 1785, from The Winslow Papers, 1776 to 1826, edited by W.O. Raymond in 1901.

Raymond explains in a footnote that “William Donaldson was a Virginia Loyalist. His losses consequent upon the Rebellion were estimated at £3,000. He went at first to Shelburne and afterwards to St. John. He was extensively engaged in business and William Garden of Fredericton was a partner. He became financially embarrassed and was forced to leave the province. He died in 1797.”

The West Head Mill in Saint John, ca. 1865-70

From the New Brunswick Museum via the McCord Museum

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Extract from a letter wrote by Willm. Donaldson to Thos. Newland, Esquire, Merch’t in London, dated the 9^th Feb’y, 1785, and sent pr. the Medway, Capt’n Miller, for London; viz.—

Sir;—After the peace finding no good business to be done in the States and a prospect of things being worse, besides having all my lifetime lived under a British Government I must confess I have not only the strongest attachment to it but would wish to end my days under one. These considerations, with some little business, induced me to visit this Country when after exploring it almost thoroughly, I sat myself down at the mouth of the River St. John, west side of the Bay of Fundy. You will I hope pardon my saying a few words about this new Country.

The summers here I find exceedingly pleasant and healthy and the winter by no means so cold as I expected it; it is more steady, and I think not so cold as at New York. The River St. John’s, up which I have been about 120 miles, is pretty well settled and since the arrival of our new Governor, is settling fast. The lands are exceedingly rich and good and the River is the noblest I have seen in America, and I have now travelled in it almost from the extremes of the South to that of the North. It is navigable for vessels of considerable burthen as far as St. Anns, about 90 miles up. St. Ann’s is an old cleared spot and is the most centrical and beautiful situation for a town I ever beheld. About it and near it on both sides the River is the land allotted for the Officers and Privates of the Disbanded Corps, who are making rapid progress in their new settlements and think themselves amply paid for their toil by the generous increase. This River is navigable for small craft to the Great Falls, about 150 miles above St. Anns.

To view this Town in so short a time would astonish every stranger as it would to see the improvements going on in the Country. The number of Saw Mills erected are very great, and can only be imagined from the noble prospect this Country opens for Lumber, and which is not to be equalled in any of the States. The only wood that is scarce is White Oak; red and gray Oak there is in abundance, and the most convincing proof I can give you of the fair prospect there is in this article is, that a few days ago in consequence of proposals I received from a merchant of eminence at Halifax to load two vessels here in the Spring, I sent him an answer lately what I could contract for, and every article in this infant country was considerably below what he could be supplied with in New England or any of the States, and in a few days I expect his answer to conclude the Contract for upwards of 2,000 tons timber, consisting of white, red, and grey Oak, Elm, Beech, Birch, Pine, Spruce, Black Birch, & Rock Maple timber for ship-buildings assorted as Spars, Masts, Keel pieces, top-masts, yards, plank, barrels end staves.

Ship-building where every material is, or may be, got on the spot, cannot fail to be an article of great importance in this Country. Many vessels large and small are now building on the River, and as the materials are of the best sort, it may be expected that vessels will be lasting and durable and have a preference at foreign markets.

The preparations also making for the fishery is very considerable, and if encouragement is given, which I hope and doubt not will, no country bids or can bid fairer soon to be the pride, envy and admiration of her neighbors.

As for a grazing country nature has been so bountifull to this, that it cannot fail even with common attention, to be the first or among the first on this Continent.

As I am informed Brook Watson, Esquire, has the interest of this country much at heart, and tho’ I know that Gentleman yet I have not the honor of corresponding with him, I will therefore trouble you to communicate that part of this letter to him that respects the Country as I know it will give him pleasure, and I will send another copy of it to my worthy friend Edward Winslow, Esquire, now at Annapolis, who is as much interested in its prosperity as any man existing, and who disinterestedly has taken more pains and done more for its happiness and interest than any man I know.

Excuse my saying so much but I could not well say less in justice to the people and prospects of this promising Country.

One thing I had almost forgot, and which is highly necessary to mention, the fallacious idea that has crept into Lloyd’s Coffee House about the danger and difficulty of the navigation of the Bay of Fundy. This doctrine must have been set up by some designing people and is so notoriously false that it hardly deserves a serious answer. The Harbour is a very good one, many excellent wharves are raising, the navigation of the Bay is safe and easy, and it abounds with a number of commodious bays and harbours. As a proof of this hardly an accident happens in a Twelve-month to the numerous shipping that have come here, and our harbour has this further advantage that it is open at all seasons of the year and we have arrivals during the whole winter. As I hinted before. I am fully convinced that this ill natured report has been propagated with a view to injure the settlement so I am equally sensible that it will of itself speedily fall to the ground, having no foundation in truth.