St. John Rivers

“ This was not the case with the other missionary priests, however, who influenced by patriotic motives and encouraged by the French authorities took quite an energetic part in helping on the warfare against New England. The French owed much of the aid afforded their cause, including the co-operation of their Indian allies, to the zeal of the missionaries settled on the different rivers, Ralle on the Kennebec, Thury on the Penobscot and Simon on the St. John. The only woman who lived within the ramparts of Fort Nashwaak seems to have been the wife of the armorer. ”

“ John river on application to the missionary Loyard, who was empowered to grant them and in the course of time a number of families resorted thither.
When Loyard went to France in 1722 he represented to the home government that the English were making encroachments on the “rivers of the savages”—meaning the St. John, Penobscot and Kennebec. “Why is this?” he asks, “if not for the purpose of continually advancing on Canada?” He points out that France has not cared for the savages except when she has had need of them. ”

“ John from Grand Falls to Fredericton is the district herein described.
Like many of the great rivers that have numerous tributaries and increase in their descent almost to the proportions of inland seas, the middle waters of the St. John, deep in places, have shallow reaches and rapids where the current is very swift. Some distance above Fredericton it becomes turbulent and foaming in many a seething descent; but it is possible to take an outing over a considerable distance, without portages, in a canoe with two men using poles. ”

“ John.
“Our guides,” the bishop says, “in order to take the shortest road, conducted us by a route not usually traveled, in which it was necessary sometimes to proceed by canoe and sometimes on foot and this in a region where winter still reigned; we had sometimes to break the ice in the rivers to make a passage for the canoes and sometimes to leave the canoes and tramp amid snow and water over those places that are called portages (or carrying places) because it is necessary for the men to carry the canoes upon their shoulders. ”

“ Considering the length of the road by land from New England to Port Royal and Acadia, the obstacles to be encountered in the rivers that fall into the sea along 109 the coast, which will be more difficult to cross near the mouth; all these circumstances render the communication by land a veritable chimera; the more so that the way by sea from the remotest part of New England to Port Royal is so short and so easy, while that by land would be long, painful and difficult. ”

“ The Metabetchouan, an important stream, also flows into Lake St. John; and these rivers with the Chicoutimi, Marguerite, Ha-Ha, and numerous smaller rivers, all unite to swell the great flood of the almost bottomless Saguenay. There are numerous lakes north and south of the river, and, almost needless to state, the whole district abounds in mountain, gorge, and waterfall scenery of the wildest kind. Tumultuous rapids are everywhere ”

“ Here the high ridge of the Alleghany range, which divides the head waters of the Mohawk and the Ontario streams from the Susquehanna and other Atlantic rivers, crosses the Mohawk Valley, and in ages long past, ere the great Falls of Niagara existed, doubtless formed the crown of a cataract almost as magnificent, when the waters of Ontario covered the upper valley, and a portion of its flood here found its way into the great lake that filled the Hudson basin, whose outlet, in turn, was among the rugged hills of the Highlands at West Point and vicinity. ”

“ Wild fowl of all kinds abounded along the marsh, and interval lands of the St. John, and the river itself—undisturbed by steamboats and unpolluted by saw mills—swarmed with fish. And so those soldier-traders lived on the spoils of forest, ocean and river, a life of careless freedom, undisturbed by the politics of the world and little crossed by its cares. Within the fort, Lady la Tour led a lonely life, with no companions but her domestics and her children, for her lord was often away ranging the woods, cruising on the coast, or perhaps on a voyage to France. ”

“ Those of Telingana are sandy, the plains there are covered with brushwood, the hills show no vegetation, and fantastic-shaped rocks and crags give to the scenery a wild and, in some places, weird appearance. The rivers run dry in the hot weather, and if water were not stored in tanks, little or no agriculture could be carried on. ”

“ At a point where the high, rocky banks of the stream are contracted to a width of less than five hundred feet, two splendid bridges span a restless chasm. From this vantage-point we may observe the spectacle of a river flowing three ways at every change of tide—downward, on a level and upward. The dignified St. John having throughout its course of four hundred and fifty miles received the tribute of countless minions in Maine and New Brunswick,—having drained great lakes and wide inlets, is confronted in its augmented majesty by a tortuous channel-gate at the very jaws of the Bay of Fundy. ”

“ The river saint John is to the Northwest of Port Royal, the intermediate space being occupied by French Bay, 14 leagues wide. The entrance to this river is very narrow and very dangerous: for the ship has to pass between two rocks where the current of the tide is tossed from one to the other, flashing between them as swift as an arrow. Beyond these rocks lies a frightful and horrible precipice, and if you do not pass over it at the proper moment, and when the water is smoothly heaped up, of a hundred thousand barques not an atom would escape, but men and goods would all perish. ”

“ In this situation we left the river, and for a straight course steered by a compass thro’ the woods, [138] encamping out several nights in the course, and went as far as the Oromocto, about seventy miles up the river, where is a block-house, a British post.” “The St. John is a fine river, equal in magnitude to the Connecticut or Hudson. At the mouth of the river is a fine harbor, accessible at all seasons of the year—never frozen or obstructed by ice.... There are many settlers along the river upon the interval land, who get their living easily. ”

“ A document of the year 1695 [94] shows that their claims to land on the St. John river were rather extravagant and hardly in accord with the terms 251 of their concessions. Louis d’Amours, sieur de Chauffours, claimed as his seigniory at Jemseg a tract of land extending two leagues along the St. John, including both sides of the river two leagues in depth. He also claimed another and larger seigniory, extending from a point one league below Villebon’s fort at the Nashwaak four leagues up the river with a depth of three leagues on each side. ”

“ The houses had been burned and the cultivated land was fast relapsing into a wilderness state. Nevertheless the early English settlers reaped some advantage from the improvements made by the Acadians, for we learn from Charles Morris’ description of the river in 1768, that at the site of the old French settlement at St. Anne’s Point there was about five hundred acres of cleared upland in English grass from whence the inhabitants of Maugerville got the chief part of their Hay for their Stock. ”

“ While the first recorded exploration of the southern shores of New Brunswick is that of de Monts and Champlain in 1604, there can be little doubt that European fishers and traders had entered the Bay of Fundy before the close of the 16th century and had made the acquaintance of the savages, possibly they had ventured up the St. John river. The Indians seem to have greeted the new-comers in a very friendly fashion and were eager to barter their furs for knives and trinkets. ”

“ John river region should be left undivided and in possession of its native inhabitants. As early as the year 1716 the Marquis de Vaudreuil had stated to the French government: “The English wish to seize upon the lands that the Abenakis and Indians of the River St. John occupy, under the pretext that this land forms part of Acadia ceded to them by the king. The Indians so far from withdrawing on this account have answered that this land has always belonged to them, and that they do not consider themselves subjects of the French, but only their allies.” ”

“ To every private man, 50 acres.
Like grants of land were to be made to retired officers of the navy who had served on board a ship of war at the reduction of Louisbourg and Quebec.
Petitions and memorials of retired officers of the army and navy who were desirous of obtaining lands in Nova Scotia as a reward for their services, now flowed in upon the provincial and imperial authorities. The desire to obtain land on the River St. John became so general that government officials, merchants and professional men joined in the general scramble. ”

“ Not long after I saw one of my fellow-captives who gave me a melancholy account of their sufferings after I left them.
“After some weeks had passed,” Gyles continues, “we left this village and went up St. John’s river about ten miles to a branch called Medockscenecasis, where there was one wigwam. At our arrival an old squaw saluted me with a yell, taking me by the hair and one hand, but I was so rude as to break her hold and free myself. She gave me a filthy grin, and the Indians set up a laugh and so it passed over. ”

“ He cared little for the dignity or honor of his position provided he could use it for his own benefit. He established a small settlement at the River St. John and engaged in fishing and trading. Many complaints were preferred against him by rival traders. They alleged that he encouraged the English to fish on the coasts, granting them licenses for the purpose, that he traded with them in spite of the king’s prohibition; also that he robbed and defrauded the savages. ”

“ Give orders for landing. Having got a body of about 700 Men on Shore, we march to the further end of the Village, being about a league. From whence, by the tracks we found, we judged that the Inhabitants had but lately retired and drove off their cattle. Here we found the Lime that had been taken in a schooner in the spring, which they had landed as our Pilots supposed to lighten the schooner, to get her higher up or to hide her in some Creeke—as they supposed that they would certainly have carry’d the Lime up to St. Anns would the depth of the River have admitted of it. ”

“ At the bend of the Peace River, where a lofty ridge runs out from the southern side, and the hills along the northern shore rise to nearly 1000 feet above the water, stands the little fort of St. John. It is a remote spot, in a land which is itself remote. From out the plain to the west, forty or fifty miles away, great snowy peaks rise up against the sky. To the north and south and east all is endless wilderness—wilderness of pine and prairie, of lake and stream—of all the vast inanity of that moaning waste which sleeps between the Bay of Hudson and the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ It gives name to the British court.
St. John, a river of North America, rises in the highlands of North Maine and crosses the continent in an easterly direction and falls into the Bay of Fundy after a course of 450 m., of which 225 m. are in New Brunswick; is navigable for steamers as far as Fredericton.
St. John (39) , embracing the adjacent town of Portland, chief commercial city of New Brunswick, on the estuary of St. John River, 277 m. NW. of Halifax; has an excellent harbour; shipbuilding, fishing, and timber exporting are the chief industries ”

“ John River—the latter routes being of most importance.
"Of all Indian routes," writes Dr. Ganong, "in what is now the Province of New Brunswick, the most important by far was that along the River St. John. This river was, and is, an ideal stream for canoe navigation. It not only has easy communication with every other river system in this and the neighbouring provinces, but it is in itself very easy to travel. . . The St. John rises in Maine and its head waters interlock with those of the Penobscot, and with the Etechemin flowing into the St. ”

“ The shadows deepen as we return to the Point, and soon the little windows of the settlers’ houses begin to glow. There are no curtains to draw or blinds to pull down or shutters to close in these humble dwellings, but the light, though unobstructed shines but feebly, for ’tis only the glimmer of a tallow candle that we see or perhaps the flickering of the firelight from the open chimney that dances on the pane.
In the homes of the dwellers at St. John Saturday night differs little from any other night. The head of the house is not concerned about the marketing or telephoning to the grocer ”

“ The importance to coming generations of the “black spruce, fit for yards and top-masts,” was little dreamed of by Charles Morris. However, it seems that in accordance with his recommendation the region of the upper St. John was at this time reserved to the crown because its towering pines supplied the best masts in the world for the British navy, and at the close of the American Revolution it was still unbroken forest.
After the formation of the County of Sunbury, April 30, 1765, magistrates and other officers were appointed and representatives chosen to sit in the House of 259 Assembly. ”

“ John's about eleven o'clock in a light wagon, accompanied by the young man who acted as guide among the old military remains. There is but little in the appearance of St. John's to distinguish it from a large village in the States, but the moment we emerged into the country I felt that I was in a strange land. The road traverses the line of the Chambly Canal, which runs parallel with the Richelieu or Sorel River. The farm-houses are thickly planted by the roadside; so thickly that all the way from St. John's to Chambly and Longueuil we seemed to be in a village suburb. ”