420 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Your memorialists therefore humbly pray your Excellency will he pleased 

 to consider their situation, extend your benevolence to them and order them 

 a grant of their old settlements, and by sO doing your Excellency will place 

 them in such a situation and restore them to that peace of mind which will 

 ever endear you to their memory. And your memorialists will, as in duty bound, 

 for ever pray, &c. 



Signed for & in behalf of yr. memorialists, 



AUGUSTIN LEBLANC. 

 Parr 24th Nov'r, 1784." 



This memorial is dated three days after the governor landed in 

 Parr-town. It was soon after considered in Council and it was agreed 

 that the memorial be referred to his Excellency's personal considera- 

 tion after his return from St. Anne's. In due time the petitioners 

 received a grant of 2,665 acres on the north side of the Saint John 

 below the Keswick stream, a few miles above St. Anne. 



Before we proceed further in our consideration of the measures 

 adopted by Carleton and his advisers with regard to the Acadians, a 

 short account of the origin of their settlements on the Saint John will 

 be of interest. 



The very beautiful part of the river just below the entrance of the 

 Keswick stream attracted the attention of travellers in early times. 

 René d'Amours, sieur de Clignancourt, lived there as early as 1686, 

 with his wife and four children, and traded extensively with the 

 Indians. He established himself at an island, now called Eccles 

 Island, formerly called Cleoncore, a corruption doubtless of Clignan- 

 court. Speaking of this locality in 1686, Bishop St. Vallier observes: — 



"It seemed to us that some fine settlements might be made between Medoc- 

 tec and Jemseg, especially at a certain place that we have named Sainte Marie, 

 where the river widens and is interspersed with a large number of islands which 

 apparently would prove very fertile if they were cultivated. A mission for the 

 Indians might well be established there; the land has not yet any owner in 

 particular, neither the King nor the Government having made, up to the present, 

 a grant to any one. 1 



This place was afterwards known as Aukpaque, or Ekouipahag, 

 from the Indian Ek-pa-hawk, signifying "head of the tide" or "begin- 

 ning of the swift water." 2 There was a large Indian village here and 

 some Acadians lived in the vicinity. A more extensive Acadian 



1 Estai présent de l'Eglise et de la Colonie Française dans la Nouvelle Frame, par 

 M. l'Evéque de Québec, Paris, 1688, pp. 80, SI. Medoctec, mentioned above, 

 was a well-known Indian village, situate a little below Woodstock, about 138 miles 

 from the mouth of the St. John river. At Jemseg, about 50 miles from the mouth 

 of the St. John, there was a fort which was at one time the headquarters of French 

 authority in Acadia. 



2 The tide of the Bay of Fundy is manifest as far up the river as Aukpaque 

 which is ninety miles from the mouth of the River. 



