Glimpses of the Past Part 39

"ASA PERLEY."

Studholme was compelled to take stern and it may even seem terrible measures to repress desertion, as will be seen in the following note which he addressed to James White:

"Sir,--I shall esteem it as a favor if you will endeavour to get some Indians to bring in the three deserters, for each of which I will give Ten Guineas. Should the soldiers make any opposition the Indians are to make use of force, and if compelled to kill them, they are to bring in their Heads, for each of which they will receive Ten Guineas.

"I am, Sir, "Your most obedient servant, "G. STUDHOLME."

Among the important services which Major Studholme was able to accomplish while at Fort Howe should be mentioned the establishment of excellent communication between Halifax and Quebec by way of the St.

John river. This had been the customary route of travel between Acadia and Canada during the final conflict between England and France for supremacy in North America (A. D. 1744-1759) and was well known to the French and their Indian allies; it now proved of equal service to the English.

In order to facilitate communication with Quebec, and at the same time to afford protection to the settlements on the St. John, a block house was built at the mouth of the Oromocto river and a few soldiers stationed there under command of Lieut. Constant Connor. The post was named Fort Hughes in honor of Sir Richard Hughes, the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. A number of log huts, or post-houses were built, at intervals of about a day's journey, from the block house at Oromocto to the St. Lawrence. Over this route important messages were carried between the civil and military authorities of Halifax and Quebec, and sometimes dispatches were sent from the Commander-in-chief of the forces at New York to Sir Guy Carleton and Sir Frederick Haldimand at Quebec. Indians were occasionally employed to carry the messages, but greater confidence was placed in the Acadians. The most famous couriers probably were Louis Mitchel and the brothers Louis and Michel Mercure. The couriers were aware of the value of their services, and they demanded, and generally received, one hundred dollars for each trip from Fort Howe to Quebec. This was regarded as extravagant by Major Studholme and General Haldimand, but they could do no better. They dared not trust the Indians with important dispatches, and when the Acadian couriers were not available messages were usually carried by officers accompanied by Indians as guides.

The route via the River St. John was used both in summer and winter.

It is said that when the water was high the Indians were able to deliver letters from Quebec to the French commander at the mouth of the St. John in four or five days, a distance of 430 miles. This statement is made by John Allan and there is nothing impossible about it. The Messrs. Straton of Fredericton, some years since, paddled in a bark canoe from the Grand Falls to Fredericton, 133 miles, in 14 hours 46 minutes, making a short stop at Woodstock on the way. Short distances have been covered at much greater rates of speed. The Acadian couriers were usually a fortnight going from Oromocto to Quebec in the summer and about double that time in the winter.

Like others of their race the Indians of the St. John were fleet of foot and possessed of great endurance, qualities that are by no means wanting in their descendants. Some forty years ago a Maliseet Indian, named Peter Loler, gave a remarkable exhibition of speed and endurance, which is still talked of by the older residents of Woodstock. The circ.u.mstances, briefly stated, were these. One pleasant summer morning Loler presented himself to the driver of the old four-in-hand stage coach which was just about leaving the hotel at Fredericton for Woodstock, the distance being rather more than sixty miles. The Indian desired a pa.s.sage and offered the customary fare. The driver on the occasion was John Turner, one of the most accomplished whips of the old stage coaching days, and popular with all travellers. As the stage coach was pretty full and the day promised to be very warm Turner, after a brief consultation with the pa.s.sengers, declined the Indian's money and upon Loler's remonstrating, told him in plain Saxon that the other pa.s.sengers didn't like the smell of him, that his room was better than his company. This angered Peter and he said, "All right, John! Me be in Woodstock first!"

At 8 o'clock, a. m., Indian and stage coach left Fredericton together, and together they proceeded and in spite of Turner's endeavor to throw dust in the Indian's face the latter was always a little in advance.

He stopped at every place the stage stopped to change horses (this occurred four or five times on the route) and took his dinner with all the solemnity of his race in the kitchen of the "Half-way House" where the pa.s.sengers dined.

As they drew near their destination the Indian's savage nature seemed to a.s.sert itself; he ran like a deer, waving his cap at intervals as he pa.s.sed the farm houses, and shouting defiantly. Turner now began to ply the whip, for he had no intention of allowing the red-skin to beat him out. The pa.s.sengers began to wager their money on the result of the race and grew wild with excitement. The Indian village, three miles below Woodstock, was pa.s.sed with Loler fifty yards in advance, but the village was not Peter's destination that day. He saluted it with a war-whoop and hurried on. It was still early in the afternoon when the quiet citizens of Woodstock were aroused in a manner entirely unexpected. The stage coach came tearing into town at the heels of an Indian who was yelling like a demon and running as for his life, John Turner plying the whip in lively fashion, and four very hot and tired horses galloping at their utmost speed. The finish was a close one, but the Indian was ahead. As soon as he had regained his breath sufficiently to speak, Loler walked over to where Turner was standing and philosophically remarked, "John! me here first!" Turner's answer is not recorded.

Our story should end here, but alas for poor human nature, it remains to be told that the Indian was soon surrounded by a crowd of friendly admirers, and before the close of the day was gloriously--or shall we say ingloriously--drunk.

From the year 1779 onward the cutting of masts for the navy became an industry of growing importance on the River St. John and Col.

Francklin's efforts were largely directed to the protection of the workmen so employed from being molested by the Indians. The consideration of the "masting" industry will be taken up in the next chapter.

Michael Francklin died Nov. 8, 1782, deeply lamented by all cla.s.ses of society. His last general conference with the Maliseets was at Oromocto in the month of November, 1781, when he distributed presents to nearly four hundred Indians who had a.s.sembled there. On this occasion he settled amicably some jealousies that had arisen about the election of chiefs. He tells us that the Indians were eager to go to the defence of the block house on the occasion of a recent alarm, that they were grateful for the continuance of their missionary Bourg and were resolved to again plant corn on the river. At the close of the conference they quietly dispersed to their hunting.

In spite of the interference of war the traffic in furs with the Indians was still very considerable, and about this time Hazen and White sent a consignment to Halifax in the ship Recovery, to be shipped to England for sale, which included 571 Moose skins, 11 Caribou, 11 Deer, 3621 Musquash, 61 Otter, 77 Mink, 152 Sable, 40 Fishers, 6 Wolverene, 11 "Lucervers," 17 Red Fox, 6 Cross Fox, 9 Bear.

Michael Francklin continued to the last to cultivate the friendship of Pierre Thoma the old Maliseet chieftain whose descendants, it may be observed, are numerous at the present day. The name of this well known Indian family (variously spelled Thoma, Toma, Tomah, Tomer) is clearly of French origin, and was originally Thomas, which p.r.o.nounced in French fashion sounds like Tomah. The name Pierre Thoma was very common among both the Micmacs and the Maliseets, so common indeed as to make it difficult to distinguish between individuals. A few observations will enable the reader to see what splendid opportunities there are for confusion with regard to those Indians who bore the name of Pierre Thoma.

In the month of August, 1827, the Lieut.-Governor of New Brunswick, Sir Howard Douglas, visited the historic Indian village of Medoctec, where he was introduced to an Indian name Pierre Thoma (or Toma Pierre) aged 93 years. The old warrior, who had lost an eye and an arm in the battle of the Heights of Abraham in 1759, was carefully provided for by the kindly hearted governor. Our first conclusion naturally would be--this is the old chieftain of Revolutionary days.

But further investigation shows such a conclusion to be very improbable. If old Tomah, who greeted Sir Howard Douglas, were 93 years old in 1827, he must have been born in 1734, and in that case (supposing him to have been Francklin's old ally) he would have filled the office of supreme sachem or head chief of the St. John river when about thirty years of age, which is very unlikely. But this is not all. In the sworn testimony submitted to the commissioners on the international boundary in 1797, John Curry, Esq., of Charlotte County says that when he came to the country in 1770 there was an Indian place of worship and a burial ground on St. Andrew's Point at the mouth of the River St. Croix, and that among those whom he recollected to have been buried there were John Neptune (alias Bungawarrawit), governor of the Pa.s.samaquoddy tribe, and a "chief of the Saint John's Tribe known by the name of Pierre Toma." There can be little doubt that the latter was our old chief Thoma. His wife was one of the Neptune family whose home was at Pa.s.samaquoddy. The burial ground at St. Andrew's Point was abandoned by the Indians when the Loyalists settled at St. Andrews in 1783. We may therefore conclude that Pierre Thoma did not long survive his old friend and Patron Michael Francklin. Their acquaintance began as early at least as the summer of 1768, when Governor Thoma and Ambroise St. Aubin had an interview with Lieut.-Governor Francklin and his council at Halifax. At that time the chiefs made a favorable impression. They requested that their missionary Bailly, lately arrived might remain with them, complained that rum was much too common for the good of their people, desired lands for cultivation and that their hunting grounds should be reserved to them. Having completed their business they stated "We have nothing further to ask or represent, and we desire to return soon, that our people may not be debauched with liquor in this town."

The previous summer (12th August, 1767) Rev. Thomas Wood officiated at a notable wedding at Halifax the contracting parties being a young Indian captain named Pierre Jacques and Marie Joseph, the oldest daughter of "old King Thoma." An English baronet, Sir Thos. Rich, and other distinguished guests were present on the occasion. However this Thoma was not our old Maliseet chief, for Mr. Wood observes of him, "Old King Thoma looks upon himself as hereditary king of the Mickmacks." Moreover the date is too nearly coincident with an interesting event at Aukpaque in which Pierre Thoma was concerned. The event was a christening at the Indian chapel the particulars concerning which we find in the old church register. The Abbe Bailly on two consecutive days baptized thirty-one Indian children, viz., sixteen boys on August 29th and fifteen girls on August 30th. Among the boys we find a son of Ambroise St. Aubin and Anne, his wife, who received the name of Thomas and had as sponsors Pierre Thoma, chief, and his wife Marie Mectilde. The following day the compliment was returned and Ambroise and his wife stood as sponsors at the christening of Marie, the daughter of Pierre Thoma.

The next year (June 5, 1768) there was a double wedding in the family of Governor Thoma at which the Abbe Bailly officiated and which no doubt was the occasion of great festivity at the Indian village. The old chief's son Pierre Thoma, jr, wedded an Indian maiden named Marie Joseph, and his daughter Marie Belanger married Pierre Kesit. The younger Pierre Thoma was most probably his father's successor as chief of the Maliseets. At any rate when Frederick Dibblee[112] made a return of the native Indians settled at Meductic in 1788 he includes in his list Governor Thoma, his wife and four children. The Indians were always migratory and two years later we find Governor Thoma living at the mouth of the Becaguimec and tilling his cornfield since become the site of the town of Hartland. This Governor Thoma, may be the same referred to in the following paragraph in the Courier of January 6, 1841:[113]

"Friday last, being New Years day, a large body of the Milicete tribe of Indians including a considerable number of well dressed squaws, headed by their old-old-chief Thoma, appeared at Government House to pay their annual compliments to the representative of their Sovereign, and were received by His Excellency with great kindness. His Excellency availed himself of the occasion publicly to decorate the worthy old chief with a splendid silver medallion suspended by a blue ribbon, exhibiting a beautiful effigy of our gracious sovereign on one side, with the Royal Arms on the reverse."

[112] Frederick Dibblee was a Loyalist, a graduate of Columbia College (N.Y.); afterwards rector of Woodstock, N. B. He went to Medoctec as a lay missionary teacher to the Indians under an arrangement with an English Society for the propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians. There were at Medoctec in 1788 about seventy Indian families including 98 men, 74 women, 165 children; total, 337 souls.

[113] The author is indebted for the above extract to the kindness of Mr. Ward.

Many of the Thoma family were remarkable for their longevity. When the writer of this history was a boy there lived at the Indian village, three miles below the Town of Woodstock, a very intelligent and industrious Indian, whose bent, spare figure was a familiar object to travellers along the country roads. It would be hard to count the number of baskets and moccasins the old man carried on his back to town for sale. He was born at Medoctec in 1789 and died at Woodstock not long ago at the age of nearly one hundred years. The old fellow was famous for his knowledge of herbs, which he was wont to administer to the Indians in case of sickness; indeed it was not an uncommon thing for the white people to consult "Doctor Tomer" as to their ailments. In the year 1877 "Tomer" came to pay a friendly visit to Charles Raymond, the author's grandfather, who was then in his 90th year and confined to his room with what proved to be his first and last illness. The pleasure of meeting seemed to be mutual. The two had known one another for many years and were accustomed from time to time to compare ages. "Tomer" was always one year younger, showing that the old Indian kept his notch-stick well. He is believed to have been the last surviving grandson of the old chieftain, Pierre Thoma.

While speaking of the Maliseets and their chiefs, mention may be made of the fact that the Indians, as a mark of especial confidence and favor, occasionally admitted one of the whites to the order of chieftainship. This compliment the Maliseets paid to the French Governor Villebon, when he commanded at Fort Nachouac, and a like compliment was paid some sixty-five years ago to the late Moses H.

Perley. In early life Mr. Perley was very fond of the woods and frequently visited the Indian villages on the upper St. John to buy furs, which he paid for in silver dollars. So great was the confidence reposed in him by the Indians that he became their agent with the provincial government, and was in the end adopted as their chief. In 1840 he visited England and was presented to Queen Victoria in the character of an Indian chief, wearing on the occasion a very magnificent costume of ornamental bead-work, plumes, and so forth. He received at the Queen's hands a silver medal three inches in diameter, on the edge of which was engraved, "From Her Most Gracious Majesty to M. H. Perley, Chief Sachem of the Milicetes and Wungeet Sagamore of the Micmac nation. A. D., 1840." This medal is still in the possession of Mr. Perley's descendants.

It will be noticed that the St. John river Indians are termed "Milicetes" in the above description. The form Milicete, or Melicete, used by Dr. Gesner and Moses H. Perley, has been followed by the majority of our provincial writers. Dr. Hannay, however, in his history of Acadia, retains the spelling of Villebon and the early French writers, Malicite, which is almost identical with the Latin form, Malecitae, on the stone tablet of the chapel built by the missionary Jean Loyard at Medoctec in 1717. Either of these p.r.o.nounced in French fashion is practically identical with Maliseet, the form adopted by modern students of Indian lore, and which the writer has followed in this history.

CHAPTER XXVII.

MASTS FOR THE ROYAL NAVY.

The enormous lumbering operations carried on upon the St. John river and its tributaries in modern times had their small beginning, two centuries ago, when masts for the French navy were cut by order of the King of France.[114] The war of the Revolution obliged the English government to look for a reserve of trees suitable for masts in the remaining British colonies. In the year 1779, arrangements were made with William Davidson to provide a number of masts at the River St.

John.

[114] Mon. Diereville states that in 1700 the man of war Avenant, of 44 guns, shipped at St. John some very fine masts for the French navy, which had been manufactured by 14 carpenters and mast makers. These were safely delivered in France after a prosperous voyage of 33 days.

Colonel Francklin was quite aware of the necessity of giving careful attention to the Indians at this juncture, for the Machias rebels threatened to destroy the "King's masts" and endeavored to get the Indians to hara.s.s the mast cutters and obstruct, them in every possible way. In consequence Francklin sent the following letter to Pierre Thoma by James White, his deputy:--

"Windsor, 29th November, 1779.

"My Brother.--Mr. Davidson is now employed on the River St. John for the King my Royal master. I therefore request you will afford him and all his people every a.s.sistance and protection in your power.

"My Brother,--I request and flatter myself if any party of Rebels or Indians should attempt to disturb Mr. Davidson that you and your people will prevent it, and if necessary take up arms for that purpose.

"My Brothers,--The Governor of Nova Scotia sends to Major Studholme some presents for you; they are intended to encourage you to protect Mr. Davidson; receive them and be true to the trust that his Excellency reposes in you.

"My Brother,--Major Studholme is your friend and your advocate and desires that all your faults may be overlooked and buried, therefore they are all forgot and will be thought of no more.

"My Brother,--Present my best compliments to all the Captains, Councillors, and other Indians of the River St. John, and I do not forget their wives and children.

[Seal.] "MICH. FRANCKLIN."

The Indians promised to protect the workmen who were employed in cutting masts. Francklin soon afterwards sent a consignment of goods from Windsor to Fort Howe in the schooner Menaguashe, as a further inducement to them to protect Mr. Davidson's men in their work. In the letter accompanying the presents he says:--

"Brethern,--King George wants masts for his ships and has employed people to provide them on your river, depending on you to protect them in cutting them and conveying them to Fort Howe. The Governor sends you some presents, which Major Studholme will deliver you.

They are intended to bind fast your promise that you will protect the Mast Cutters."

The presents were delivered at Aukpaque by James White[115] and the masts were brought safely to Fort Howe. The first cargo of masts arrived at Halifax on 22nd November, 1780, in one of the navy transports.

[115] Among the James White papers is the following:

"Aupahag, 26th June, 1780.

"Received from James White, Esq., agent to Indians, River St.

John, the goods sent them by the Governor for the purpose of protecting the Contractor, his people and masts from the Rebels, etc., etc.

(Signed) Francis Xavier, Nichola Nepton, Francis Joseph, Andrew Fransway, Joseph Pemahawitt, Pierre Meductsick.

The River St. John now a.s.sumed an importance in the eyes of English statesmen it had not before possessed. England's power, then as now, centred in her navy, and the larger warships required masts of such magnificent proportions that pine trees suitable for the purpose were rare. The rebellion of the old colonies having cut off the supply in that quarter the reservation of suitable trees in the remaining colonies became a matter of national concern.