1670-90.] STATE OF ACADIA. 337 



fowl. Eanging the shore by St. Mary's Bay, and 

 entering the Strait of Annapolis Basin, you would 

 have found the fort of Port Royal, the chief place 

 of all Acadia. It stood at the head of the basin, 

 where De Monts had planted his settlement nearly 

 a century before. Around the fort and along the 

 neighboring river were about ninety-five small 

 houses ; and at the head of the Bay of Fundy were 

 two other settlements, Beaubassin and Les Mines, 

 comparatively stable and populous. At the mouth 

 of the St. John were the abandoned ruins of La 

 Tour's old fort ; and on a spot less exposed, at 

 some distance up the river, stood the small wooden 

 fort of Jemsec, with a few intervening clearings. 

 Still sailing westward, passing Mount Desert, an- 

 other scene of ancient settlement, and entering 

 Penobscot Bay, you would have found the Baron 

 de Saint-Castin with his Indian harem at Pente- 

 goet, where the town of Castine now stands. All 

 Acadia was comprised in these various stations, 

 more or less permanent, together with one or two 

 small posts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the 

 huts of an errant population of fishermen and fur 

 traders. In the time of Denonville, the colonists 

 numbered less than a thousand souls. The king, 

 busied with nursing Canada, had neglected its less 

 important dependency. 1 



Rude as it was, Acadia had charms, and it has 

 them still : in its wilderness of woods and its 



1 The census taken by order of Meules in 1686 gives a total of 885 

 persons, of whom 592 were at Port Royal, and 127 at Beaubassin. By 

 the census of 1693, the number had reached 1,009. 



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