Section II, 1921 133] Trans. R.S.C. 



Earliest Route of Travel between Canada and Acadia. Olden-time 

 Celebrities Who Used it. 



By W. O. Raymond, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1921) 



In prehistoric days the River St. John and its tributaries furnished 

 important links in the line of travel for the native races of Canada 

 and Acadia, both in peace and war. When the first European 

 explorers visited Acadia there were three well-known Indian villages, 

 or towns, on the River St. John, viz., Ekpahawk (or Aukpaque) 

 at the "head of the tide," a few miles above Fredericton; Medoctec, 

 on the Middle St. John, eight miles below Woodstock; and Madou- 

 eska, at or near Edmundston on the Upper St. John. The pioneer 

 white settlers, soon after their arrival in the country, learned from 

 the aborigines their traditions of bloody conflicts in prehistoric days 

 between the native tribes of Acadia and their hereditary foes, the 

 Iroquois. A traditional incident in this warfare is related in the 

 lately published Histoire du Madawaska, which is here quoted in 

 translation.^ 



"jThe Madawaska tribe of Malacites occupied the valley of the 

 Saint John from the Grand Falls as far up as Seven Islands, including 

 the region of Lake Témiscouata. Their chief village, from time 

 immemorial, was at the mouth of the river Madawaska. This 

 Indian town was fortified by a strong palisade firmly planted in the 

 earth, which constituted an enclosure almost impregnable to an 

 enemy from without. The Indians of the Lower St. John and those 

 of Penobscot and Kennebec also sometimes sought refuge in this 

 redoubt on the occasion of any great incursion of the enemies of their 

 tribe. 



"Although far removed from their inveterate foes, the Iroquois, 

 the latter on various occasions came to engage them in bloody conflict. 

 Indian tradition tells of two great incursions on the part of the Mo- 

 hawks, who burned their fort and massacred a great portion of the 

 occupants. The most remarkable of these war raids was that of a 

 party of two hundred Mohawks from Upper Canada, who came to 

 exterminate the Malacites. 



"The Iroquois reached the River St. John by way of the little 

 river Etchemin. When they arrived at the village of the Madawaska 



^See Histoire du Madawaska, by l'Abbé Thomas Albert, p. 12. 

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