282 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



to enable us to lociit^.- his settlement. The topography of the river on the 

 maps of 1755 is so distorted as to be of little use in this connection. They 

 represent settlements on both banks below the Bend, but it is quite 

 impossible to locate them further, unless one lussumes that they stooil near 

 the largest marslies. M. (îaudet, our best authority on matters relating to 

 the history of the Acadians, writes me that an Acadian village stood on the 

 present site of Moncton,' but later the settlers moved to CoverdaU-, where 

 their village was known as Village de Babineuu. This is confirmed by a 

 " Carte Réduite du Golfe de St. Laurent" of 1754, whieii marksa " mission " 

 on the east side of this river at about the Bend. 



An old plan in the Crown Land Office applies the name VUl(if/r I'oinI to 

 the point on the north of the Petitcodiac just above Mill Stream, which is 

 above the mouth of Turtle Creek. Probably this marks the site of a 

 French settlement, especially a« there is dyked marsh near. 



It is said locally that the burial-ground adjoining the Baptist Cliurch at 

 Hillsboro is on the site of an old French burial-ground, and that the first 

 settlers of Hillsboro in 1765 found cleared fields, fruit-trees and broken 

 dykes. 



It is said in Cockburn's Report on Emigration [of 1S27] that the French 

 fonnerly occupied the intervales at the Forks of Turtle Creek, calling the 

 place Fourche à Crapaud. It is very likely that they occupied locations on 

 this, Coverdale and Pollet Rivers after the expulsion in order to be above 

 the reach of English ships, as they probably occupied the French Lakes and 

 other places difficult of access on the St. John for a similar reason. 



Pote, in his Journal of 1745, mentions that he marched past several 

 Frencli houses by the side of this river, the hist of which was that of bon 

 Soliel [Beausoleil]. One of the Parkman MS. [New France, I., 265] states 

 that in 1756 there were six or eight houses on the Portage from Shediac to 

 Petitcodiac. The present Acadian settlement of Fox Creek was foimded, 

 according to M. Gaudet, in 1767, and occupies the site of an old settlement. 

 I. — Shepody. A full account of the foundation of the settlements on this river in 

 1698 is given by Rameau de Saint Père (I., 237), but none of the records 

 nor maps of the time give any idea of their precise location. There are, 

 however, in the Crown Land Office in Fredericton several old plans which 

 show the location of the old French dykes at Shepody and thus allow an 

 inference as to the location of Ihe settlements. An " old French Dyke " is 

 given on the north side of the entrance to Shepody River, and an "old 

 dyke," with an " Abois D'Eau," between Beaver Brook and the next creek 

 to the eastward of it, called on the plans (Jerman Creek. These, however, 

 can represent but a small portion of the dyked lands on this river, of which 

 one of the early maps says "Shepody, one of the best French settlements." 

 Tradition places a large French settlement at Hopewell Hill, and assigns to 

 many old dykes a French origin. 



1 This is confirmed by the following statement from an historical article in the Moncton Times of 

 December 11th, 188!». "Previous to the arrival of tlicse immigrantg from Pennsylvania (in 17C5)the 

 country in the vicinity of Moncton, in common with other parts of the province, had boon inhabited 

 first by the Indians and afterwards by the Fruiuh, and the ruins of a rude chapel and graveyard were 

 found near where tlio sugar refinery and gas and water ofTloe building now stands, at the lower end of 

 Main street. The late James Beatty, senior, built a liouso on thiH Kite about tlie year 1m:!ii. and in 

 making excavations for a cellar, some sixteen cofllns were dug U|i containing remains supposed to be 



those of early French settlers The bones were respectably interred in the old burying ground 



near by." 



