SITE OF FOET LA TOUR &Î 



map accompanying this paper, a copy of a portion of Bruce's chart of 1761, which, made 

 irom surveys, is quite accurate and shows the harbour unmodified by modern changes, 

 Denys' description can be readily followed; as, indeed, it can be without a map by those 

 familiar with St. John Harbour. 



Is it possible to doubt that the island on the left of the entrance mentioned by Denys 

 is Partridge Island, or that the marshes and flats on the same side as the island are the 

 Carletou flats, extending all along the west side of the harbour aud merging into the great 

 marshy mud flats now for the most part filled in except for the Mill Pond ? How can 

 the flats so described by Denys possibly be the Courtenay Bay flats as required by Mr. 

 Hannay's theory ? The beach, which is composed of muddy or miry sand, and which 

 extends out into a point, is mentioned next. Can it be doubted that this point is that 

 which is now Sand Point ? A modern chart shows even better than the Bruce map the 

 extent and form of these flats, and how well Denys' description applies thereto. This 

 point being passed, he tells us there is a cove (or creek) making into the said marshes, 

 across the narrow entrance of which La Tour built his weir. Can any description be 

 clearer than this ? What are the " said marshes," if not the Carletou flats already referred 

 to, noW' filled in except for the Mill Pond ? And the creek is shown with the most satis- 

 fying clearness in Bruce's map just above the beach of gravel. Where are the places on 

 the east side of the harbour to which these words would apply ? 



And now comes the crucial point : " A little further on, beyond the said weir, there 

 is a little mound where d'Aunay built his fort," says Denys. There is such a mound pre- 

 cisely where Denys says ; and upon it long afterwards Fort Frederick stood ; there is no 

 other with which it can be confounded. Here then was the site of Charnisay's Fort. 

 How can this description be possibly so forced as to place it at Portland Point, as Mr. 

 Hannay would have us believe ? But this is not all ; Denys tells us more : " I have not 

 found [it] well placed according to my idea, for it is commanded by an island which is 

 very near and higher ground, and behind which all ships can place themselves under 

 cover from the fort, in which is only water from pits [or wells], w^hich is not A^ery good ; 

 no better than that outside the fort." There is but a single island in the harbour above 

 Partridge Island, and that is very near the mound. It is to-day of about the same height 

 as the site of Fort Frederick, but even now at low tide vessels could lie behind it out of 

 reach of the guns of a fort on the shore. There is good reason to suppose that the island 

 was higher nearly tw^o hirndred and fifty years ago.' As there is but a single island in the 

 harbour, this one apparent inconsistency as to its height cannot throw us off the track. 



' The island is washing away very rapidly indeed, the estimate of a resident being that 150 feet of the lower 

 end have disappeared within thirty years. Its highest point is at present twenty feet above higli tide, about the 

 height of the " Old Fort" site. It was probably formerly wooded, and large stumps can still be seen in silu upon 

 its northern beach. It is known to be steadily sinking, but the movement probably affects the mainland as well. 

 It consists of gravel overlying slate, and even its higliest part may have been lowered much in two hundred and 

 forty years. It is quite possible, too, that the old fort site is higher than when Cliarnisay built his fort upon it, 

 as the successive rebuildings upon the site would tend to raise it somewhat. An old resident on the island told 

 me that very large numbers of cannon balls had been exposed in the washing away of a clay bank at the north- 

 ern end, balls which seemed to have been shot from the opposite, i. c. the Portland, shore. It seems certain that 

 these mu.st have been tired from tlie fort on Portland Point. Is it not probable that they came from Fort La Tour 

 against the ships of d'Aulnay during its vigorous defences? And do they not increase the probability that it was 

 La Tour's fort which stood there, and not Charnisay's, « bich was temporary and probaljly never'besieged, as he 

 had no enemies after it was built ? 



