History of New Brunswick

Newash then advanced to His Excellency, and presented him with the Black Wampum and Bloody Belt.

His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief then made the Chiefs and Warriors the following answer to the talks or speeches that had been addressed to him in their behalf.

"My Children. – I thank the Great Spirit for his protection of you on your long journey, and I rejoice to meet you at Quebec, the Great Council Fire on this side the Great Lake.

"My Children. – You have freely and forcibly spoken your sentiments, and I am happy to have heard from your own mouths, your thoughts, as I know on these occasions you always speak the truth. I am therefore delighted to hear my red children declare their attachment to the King our Great Father, beyond the Great Lake, and to myself and my Warriors.

"My Children. – I have opened my ears and listened with attention to what you have said. My heart was sore when I heard of the death of a great warrior. It still bleeds when I think of his loss, and the misfortunes my children have met with during the war, in the death of many a wise chief and brave warrior, and some of your women and children who are gone to see the Great Spirit, before whom we must all one day appear.

"My Children. – I thank the Great Spirit that I see you in my own dwelling, and converse with you face to face. Listen to my words – they are the words of truth. You have always heard this from my chiefs, and I now repeat them. We have taken each other by the hand and fought together. Our interests are the same – we must still continue to fight together: for the King, our great father, considers you as his children, and will not forget you or your interests at a peace. But to preserve what we hold, and recover from the enemy what belongs to us, we must make great exertions; and I rely on your courage, with the assistance of my chiefs and warriors, to drive the big knives from our land the ensuing summer.

"My Children. – Our great father will give us new warriors from the other side of the great water, who will join with you in attacking the enemy, and will soon open the great road to your country, by which you used to receive your supplies, and which the enemy having stopped, has caused the distress and scarcity of goods you complain of: for I have never been in want of goods for you, but could not send them.

"My Children. – Our success in the war must depend on our bravery and your young men listening to the advice of their chiefs – this you must always bear in mind. I recommend to you to open your ears when my chiefs speak to you, for they only wish for your good. Tell your brother warriors whom I may not see, that these are my words; and that though they are to destroy their enemies in battle, they must spare and shew mercy to women and children, and all prisoners.

"My Children. – I have but one thing more to recommend to you, which you will not forget – you know that the only success that the enemy gained over us, last season, was owing to the want of provisions. There was much waste at Amherstberg – the consequence was that you and my warriors were forced to retreat. In future you must be careful of provisions, and use only what may be necessary; they are the same as powder and ball, we cannot destroy our enemies without them.

"My Children. – You will not forget what I have said to you. This is my parole to the nations. (Here the black wampum is presented to Newash.) Let them know what I have said. Tell them they shall not be forgotten by their great father nor by me. – Take courage my children – be strong – and may the Great Spirit preserve you in the day of battle." (Here the bloody belt is presented.)

After the interpreter had presented the belt to Newash, he with several of the chiefs chaunted parts of the war song:

"Under the Cloud Island
With this belt I go;
By this my heart is strong,
I shall have courage to die by the foe.

"Now I take hold of this belt,
Light as birds fly in the air;
Strong is my heart, and round I go,
Seeking to die by the foe."

While this song was chaunting, several short speeches were made by the Indians. One of them said – "There is our father – here is the belt – there you are – the Great Spirit presides – now we are one, and none can flinch – if we stand by our father, he will stand by us. Our path is in the west – the war shall brighten there – the sky begins to clear – the light falls on our lands, and soon again shall our women and children be on them. You Saulks – you Chippeways, and all you of different nations, we are all one. We will fight them with our father, and never cease to fight while we have life, or until we have got back our lands."

The names of twelve Indian chiefs, inhabiting the coast of Acadia at the time the French peasants submitted to the British Government, will be found in the appendix to this work.

Lands in New-Brunswick are held in fee simple or free socage. The grants are immediately from the Crown. The subjoined table will shew the fees on single Grants, or where a number of Grantees are included in one patent, at present taken at the several offices.

Table of Fees on Grants.

On Grants where more than one person is concerned, His Excellency has seven shillings per hundred acres; and the public offices have half the above-mentioned fees for each additional name, with the exception of the Attorney-General, who has nineteen shillings and two-pence for each additional name. The purchase money (which is a sum of five shillings sterling for every fifty acres above two hundred, payable to His Majesty, and called the King's purchase money,) is included in the above scale of fees to the Receiver-General. According to the Royal Instructions, a single man is entitled to one hundred acres of land, with an additional quantity provided he can produce sufficient testimonials of his ability to cultivate more. A married man is entitled to two hundred acres, with an additional quantity on proof of his ability to cultivate more: but no more than five hundred acres is allowed to be granted to any person by the Colonial Government.

The method of laying out lots in this Province, of a narrow front and extending a great distance back, is very inconvenient to the settler. Being confined to a narrow front when he commences, clearing, supposing, (which is often the case,) the land adjoining to be unoccupied, he merely makes a lane through the wilderness, not half of which will produce a crop, on account of its being shaded by the adjoining woods: which not only exclude the sun, but impoverish the land by drawing the nourishment from the plants to the adjoining trees. To obviate this, and many other inconveniences, it would be far better to lay out settlements, where the face of the country would admit of it, in square blocks, or parallelograms; to contain two ranges of lots, with roads at proper distances. The fronts of the lots to be extended, and their length contracted. The lots to abut on the road; and extend back one-half the depth of the block: – The rear of the lots in one range, abutting on the rear of lots in the next range. Or else, the settlements might be divided into squares and sections, after the method adopted by the United States in laying out new settlements, of which the following is a short outline:

Their townships are laid out in blocks of six miles square, the whole area containing 23,040 acres. Those squares are divided into thirty-six smaller squares or sections of a mile square, containing each 640 acres. The sections are numbered from right to left, and left to right, as in the following plan: —

The sections are again subdivided into quarters and half quarters. A quarter section is half a mile square, and contains one hundred and sixty acres. The sixteenth section of each township is reserved to maintain schools, and the sections two, five, twenty, twenty-three, thirty, and thirty-three, are sold in half-quarters.

By this method the limits of counties and parishes are accurately defined; the settlements are every where interspersed with roads, and each man's field, instead of a narrow strip of irregular figure and uncertain boundary, is a square laying compact and near a road, whose contents are always easily ascertained. The rectangular method of laying out settlements, cannot always be followed, on account of rivers, &c. which will cause gores and inequalities; but whenever it can be adopted it offers many advantages.

The estates of persons dying intestate are distributed analogous to the custom of gavelkind in Kent. The heir at law of such intestate shall be entitled to and receive a double portion or two shares of the real estate left by such intestate, (saving the widow's right of dower.) The remander to be equally distributed among all the children or their legal representatives, including in the distribution the children of the half blood; and in case there be no children, to the next of kindred in equal degree, and their representatives. Provided that children advanced by settlement, or portions, not equal to the other shares, shall have so much of the surplusage, as shall make the estate of all to be equal, except the heir at law, who shall have two shares, or a double portion.

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Having for reasons stated in the commencement of this Work, given up my first design of adding a brief connected history of the Province, I have inserted a few extracts relating to this Country, in an Appendix; as they may be satisfactory to the reader, and useful in conveying some knowledge of the early history of the Country. My reasons for abridging this Description I have also stated, and have omitted many particulars necessary in a full description of a Country, such as tables of Animals, Plants, Minerals, Weather, &c. as I could not obtain the necessary materials, as but little attention has been paid to these subjects by persons qualified for the task.

I have endeavoured to be as correct in what I have stated as possible, but no doubt many inaccuracies will be discovered, as the information I have collected from different sources is liable to error. But it must be remembered that in a first Work like this many difficulties will occur, and having no tract to guide me, I have frequently wanted the necessary information. The Work, however imperfect, must be useful, as giving the first general outline of the Province, and interesting to every person who possesses a feeling of interest for his own fireside. In short, persons who strike out a first tract in any thing, may be compared to pioneers who trace a road for others to use and improve.

APPENDIX No. 1

Speech of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor at the meeting of the General Assembly, at Fredericton, February 1, 1825

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of His Majesty's Council,

Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

I have much satisfaction in meeting the Legislature of New-Brunswick – I am well persuaded that you will continue to promote and support the Interests and Institutions of the Province in a manner that will not fail to receive from me that ready and cordial concurrence which it will be my greatest pleasure to bestow upon all measures that may be calculated to advance the public good.

It affords me great pleasure to have it in my power to congratulate you on the very prosperous state of the Provincial Finances. The Revenue of the last exceeds greatly that of any former year, and yields a large surplus beyond the charges incurred, within the corresponding period.

Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

I shall direct the Treasurer's Accounts to be laid before you, I rely upon your making the usual provisions for the Ordinary Services of the Province; and I am happy to acquaint you that the state of the Treasury is such as to enable you to provide for other objects of public interest and utility, to which your bounty has already been extended, and also to promote other important services which I shall hereafter bring before you.

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of His Majesty's Council,

Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

Watching assiduously over the Public Interests, I shall have to submit to you, by Message, various measures which it will be necessary to bring under your consideration in the course of the Session, but whilst I reserve matters of detail for that mode of communication, important considerations and general views, which require to be fully and forcibly put to the Country, and which could not be properly treated in partial or very concise form, render it expedient, on this particular occasion, to lay before you such a statement of public affairs, as may embrace, generally, all interests, and leave nothing in doubt as to our real situation, in the more important branches of our well being.

I have great pleasure in stating to you that I find the affairs of the Province to be generally in a very prosperous condition. It will be useful however, to observe closely, how far this prosperity depends upon adventitious circumstances and in what degree it rests upon our own inherent means and resources: for it is necessary to contemplate the condition in which the Country might be placed, by alterations in such of her transactions as may be deemed precarious, to feel, with due effect, the necessity, which I earnestly represent, of attending zealously to those internal resources which are not of that uncertain description. The trade of the Province is, at present, very active; but much of that activity depends obviously, upon external circumstances, on the permanency of which, it were imprudent to continue to stake so exclusively, the well being of the Country. It will be prudent, therefore, to endeavour to open channels by which we may make our Commerce more general, consequently less precarious, and particularly to establish and improve commercial intercourse with our sister Colonies. Taking from them, what we require, we may make returns by some important operations of our industry, and particularly by the proceeds of an advantageous trade which this transaction would greatly extend; contributing thus to each others wants, in a way mutually beneficial: and, in an union of interests, promoting and consolidating strong and lasting ties.

Other channels for commercial operations of very advantageous natures invite us to cultivate with increased activity, that rich source of wealth (one of our natural advantages) which our Fisheries present! These, if rendered more productive, will afford us great additional facilities in trade with the new States of South America: and there are favourable openings in the liberal policy of the present times, which should encourage us to cultivate, by every means, commercial intercourse with those States. By your wisdom and bounty the Fisheries have been improved on remote parts of the coasts of British America; but I recommend you to consider whether the Home or Coast Fisheries might not be brought more under the fostering and stimulating influence of your bounty by some extension of its provisions. The main branch of our manufacturing industry (Ship-Building) has increased prodigiously, and is now carried on to an extent beyond that of any former period: but it is submitted to your consideration whether it is not accompanied by some disadvantageous circumstances which detract vastly from the great value it might be made to produce, and to leave in the Province; and for which I have no doubt, you will adopt prudent remedies that will render this branch of industry more staple, as well as more beneficial.

Vast sums are sent from this Province, in specie, for the purchase of foreign agricultural produce. This enormous burthen operating in fact, as a tax raised by foreign industry on our food, contributes to raise high above the rate in surrounding Countries, the wages of labour here, and to lay the Province under corresponding difficulty and disability in every branch of its industry. It comes home to us, grievously, in various forms, in every operation of our domestic and political economy; and I appeal to your wisdom, to your patriotism, to the real interests, and to the public spirit of the Country for zealous co-operations in the measures and exertions necessary to relieve the Province from this most serious difficulty.

Agricultural, Emigrant, and other Societies should be encouraged to extend and exert their influence in every way that can tend to promote, improve, circulate and distinguish the modes and means most favourable to augment the production of subsistence. By such means, too, we may reasonably expect soon to possess a population sufficient for the operative parts of all other branches of industry; and when these several operations shall all be executed by British Subjects and British Colonists, the Province will feel and exhibit in her condition the good effects of having closed those drains that have long carried off much capital which otherwise would have been laid out in the Merchants' stores, in the cultivation of the soil, and in other productive enterprizes of vast advantage.

Large sums have been expended on the Great Roads of this Province; but their condition shows the inefficiency of the present system, in appropriation and execution. This arises, chiefly, from having tried too much, and in such attempts dispersing limited means, to superficial and endless labor; on works far too numerous and costly, to be all substantially improved at the same time. Such appropriation, therefore, should be made of the sums which may be allotted to the Great Roads as may ensure effectual exertion upon them in succession, and in the order of their importance; and at the same time preclude those partial and general alterations in the lines of Roads, from which vast sums of public money have been uselessly expended. The Public Service has been exposed to very serious inconvenience by irregularities incident to the present line of communication between the Seat of Government and the City of Saint John. To remedy this, whatever it may be necessary to do in other times and seasons, I earnestly recommend the expediency of completing such a communication with Saint John, for a winter travelling and Post Road, as may not be subject to those serious interruptions and dangers to which the present line must always be exposed, during the greater portion of the year.

Fully impressed with the importance of attending to the efficiency of the Militia, I have derived much satisfaction from what I have witnessed of their appearance and public spirit. The Militia Law will have to pass under your revision, generally, and I recommend the amendment of those clauses which press so severely upon the Militiamen in regard to the distance of travel to their drill, and also with respect to age, at unnecessary cost of time, and inconvenience to the people.

I earnestly recommend to your continued patronage the several Institutions for the Education of our Youth; and I may have occasion hereafter to recommend measures for giving security and encouragement to those Provident Institutions, which I am happy to acquaint you have been established in this Province, under very promising circumstances, highly advantageous to the Country.

I have great satisfaction in acquainting you that our Most Gracious Sovereign has condescended to patronize the College of New-Brunswick with his gracious Favor, and to bestow a Grant from His Royal Revenues in this Province, to place that Institution upon a very improved establishment; and I rely upon such gradual provision being made hereafter, in addition to your last vote, as may enable the Governor and Trustees, to proceed in the erection of a suitable building. His Majesty's Secretary of State has further dispensed the grace and favour of the Crown in a manner that cannot fail to be duly and fully appreciated, and to sustain those principles of attachment, and loyalty which distinguish the origin and course of this Colony.

In addition to the provision made for the Madras Schools, generally, and to that of the African School at St. John, I recommend some provision for a similar establishment at the Seat of Government, to bring more generally within the influence of these excellent Institutions, a portion of the human race to whom we owe kindness, charity, and benevolence, and for whom we should provide religious, moral and industrious education.

In the very prosperous condition which the affairs of this Province may now permanently take, I perceive, that the period is arrived for entertaining enlarged views and scope of system, necessary to supersede some very disadvantageous circumstances which should be gradually corrected, and to raise the Province to that consideration, value and importance, which it will soon assume, if the management of its affairs proceed upon sound views and estimates of her true situation, and be conducted according to fixed and solid general principles. But great misery and embarrassment may be inflicted on young and advancing Countries, if disturbed by doubts, or exposed to quick transitions arising from different schemes of temporizing policy, and I desire to point out the errors and dangers of all contingent measures and pursuits made only to comply with chance circumstances, temporary interests and adventitious excitements.