342 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90. 



prisal, closely akin to piracy, was carried on at 

 intervals in Acadian waters by French private 

 armed vessels on one hand, and New England 

 private armed vessels on the other. Genuine 

 pirates also frequently appeared. They were of 

 various nationality, though usually buccaneers 

 from the West Indies. They preyed on New Eng- 

 land trading and fishing craft, and sometimes at- 

 tacked French settlements. One of their most 

 notorious exploits was the capture of two French 

 vessels and a French fort at Chedabucto by a pirate, 

 manned in part, it is said, from Massachusetts. 1 A 

 similar proceeding of earlier date was the act of 

 Dutchmen from St. Domingo. They made a 

 descent on the French fort of Pentegoet, on Pen- 

 obscot Bay. Chambly, then commanding for the 

 king in Acadia, was in the place. They assaulted 

 his works, wounded him, took him prisoner, and 

 carried him to Boston, where they held him at 

 ransom. His young ensign escaped into the woods, 

 and carried the news to Canada ; but many months 

 elapsed before Chambly was released. 2 



This young ensign was Jean Vincent de l'Abadie, 

 Baron de Saint-Castin, a native of Beam, on the 

 slopes of the Pyrenees, the same rough, strong soil 



1 Meneval, Memoire, 1688 ; Denonville, Me'moire, 18 Oct., 1688 ; Proces- 

 verbal du Pillage de Chedabucto ; Relation de la Boullaye, 1688. 



2 Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674 ; Frontenac a Leverett, gouverneur 

 de Boston, 24 Sept., 1674 ; Frontenac to the Governor and Council of Massa- 

 chusetts, 25 May, 1675 (see 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 64) ; Colbert a Frontenac, 

 15 May, 1675. Frontenac supposed the assailants to be buccaneers. 

 They had, however, a commission from William of Orange. Hutchin- 

 son says that the Dutch again took Pentegoet in 1676, but were driven 

 off by ships from Boston, as the English claimed the place for them- 

 selves. 



