Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/164
The St. John river Indians still possess a traditionary knowledge of the treaty made at Fort Howe in September 1778, and refer to it as the time when the white man and the Indian were made "all one brother." Some of the Indians assert that by virtue of the understanding then arrived at, the Indian has today the right to cut an ash tree to obtain splints for his baskets, or to take the bark of the birch tree for his canoes wherever he likes, as also the right to pitch his camp upon the shores of any river or stream. In many parts of the province there is an unwritten law to that effect and the Indian roams at pleasure through the white man's woods in quest of the materials for his simple avocations and pitches his tent where he wishes without let or hindrance.
THE ACADIANS DESOLATE.[1]
. . . . Just here, it will be interesting to pause for a moment, and, having made known him who came to save the Acadians, show who and what, in 1864, these Acadians were. This retrospective glance is essential to a clear understanding of the work of regeneration begun at Memramcook.
At the time of his departure from Quebec, Father Lefebvre's knowledge of the country to which he was going and of its people was restricted to the meagre information laconically given to him by the Bishop of St. John. The news of the existence of a group of French Acadians in New Brunswick had come to his order as a veritable revelation, such as would be the
- ↑ Though Hon. Senator Poirier's work "Le Pere Lefebvre et L'Acadie" has reached a third edition in the French language, it is still unknown to a large number of the English readers of the Magazine. The translation of an extract from it which Senator Poirier has funished for this number will therefore be read with both interest and pleasure. The picture of the condition of the Acadians is a striking one, and the translation, while faithful to the original text, is admirable for its forceful English.—Editor.