[ganongJ 



HISTORIC SITES IN NEW BRUNSWICK 



277 



have stood at Portland Point, Denys' narrative is perfectly clear and con- 

 sistent ; the placing of the fort on the east side by nearly all the early maps, 

 and its removal to the east side in later and more accurate editions of those 

 V;]iich at first placed it on the west side, is perfectly plain ; and the origin of 

 the fort at Portland Point is explained. While I have never claimed that the 

 evidence is logically conclusive that the fort stood at Portland Point, I do 

 think that the probabilities drawn from the sources mentioned are over- 

 whelmingly in favour of this position, and that a case for the Carleton site 

 can be made out only by neglecting the aggregate evidence and concen- 

 trating attention upon minuti;e in which inconsistencies may be found in 

 the imi^erfect records of [the time. It is by no means unlikely that records 

 will yet be discovered that! will settle this most interesting point. 

 It has been maintained by 



r~ 



Ur. W. P. Dole that Fort La- 



TouY stood where now Fort Duf- 



ferin is, and his argument is 



published in the St. John Sun, 



Dec. 5, 1888. It rests, however, 



chiefly upon traditions, which 



are most untrustworthy for 



events long past. It is said that 



an early battery could also be 



traced here, and that there was 



an old well called locally the 



" (lid French well." 

 E. — Charnisay's Fort. It is recorded 



by Denj^s that Charnisay built a 



fort on a little knoll a short dis- 

 tance beyond the flats and creek 



where the Mill-pond now is in 



Carleton, and the topography 



of that region allows this site 



to have been in but one place, 



namely, on the site of the Old 



Fort in Carleton. It was probably the first fort to occupy that site. 



No. ;17. ) 



In 16Ô9 Temple states that he " had repaired the fort of St. John" 



(Archives, 1894, 3), but we have no hint as to whether it was that at Carle- 

 ton or at Portland Point. 



In grants to Sieur de Marson in 167G he is spoken of as " Proprietor of 



the Forts of Jemseg and of the River St. John." As his S'eigniorial Grant of 



1672 was on the east side of the river, the Fort of the River St. John was 



])rol.)ably there — in all probability on the site of old Fort LaTour. 

 F. — Fort Martigaon. The Sieur de Martignon received a seigniorial grant at the 



moiith of the river, on the west side, in 1672, and the early censuses return 



liim as living there. On a fine map dated 1708, but belonging much earlier. 



Map No. 



Probable site of Fort La 

 Tour. 



(Map 



grapliy'' (p. 3G')) must belong before 1G9G, marks two forts on the Harbour, one ou each side, and 

 names that ou tlie west F. ^^artinnon, and that on the east F. La Tour. The "new fort" therefore 

 of Church must have been the repairing of an older one, or else one on a distinct site, and in any event 

 the new works could not have be^^n important, for the next year tlie site at Carleton was occupied by 

 Villebon as later described. 



