crossing to the headwaters of the latter through an 

 intricacy of forests, hills, ponds and marshes, it was 

 possible for a small band of hardy men to reach the 

 Canadian capital — as was done long after by the fol- 

 lowers of Benedict Arnold. Hence, it was thought a 

 matter of the last importance to control the river. 



Since the wars of D'Aunay and La Tour, this wilder- 

 ness had been a scene of unceasing strife; for the Eng- 

 lish drew their eastern boundary at the St. Croix, and 

 the claims of the rival nationalities overlapped each 

 other. 



Along the lonely coasts one might have sailed for 

 days and seen no human form. At Canseau, at the east- 

 ern end of Nova Scotia, there was a fishing-station and 

 a fort; Chibuctou, now Halifax, was a solitude; at La 

 Heve there were a few fishermen; and thence, as you 

 doubled the rocks of Cape Sable, the ancient haunt of 

 La Tour, you would have seen four French settlers and 

 an unlimited number of seals and sea-fowl. Ranging the 

 shore by St. Mary's Bay and entering the Strait of 

 Annapolis Basin, you would have found the fort and 

 settlement of Port Royal, the chief place of all Acadia. 

 It stood at the head of the basin, where de Monts had 

 planted his settlement eighty or one hundred years be- 

 fore. At the head of the Bay of Fundy were two other 

 settlements, Beaubassin — the Beautiful Basin — and Les 

 Mines — the Place of Mines, comparatively stable and 

 populous. At the mouth of the St. John were the aban- 

 doned ruins of La Tour's old fort; while at some dis- 

 tance up the river stood the small wooden fort of Jem- 

 sec, with a few intervening clearings. Still sailing west- 

 ward, passing Mount Desert — another scene of ancient 

 settlement — and entering Penobscot Bay, you would have 

 found the Baron de Saint-Castin, with his Indian house- 

 hold, at Pentegoet, 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 



10 



