Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/234
The particulars may be gleaned from the advertisement below:—
Commissary General's Office, Fort Howe,
February 10, 1784.
Many applications having been made to this office by people desirous of being employed in public works until they have lands assigned them to settle upon, this general notice therefore, is given that the cordwood for the use of the garrison is to be brought up from the beach to a certain spot on the hill fixed upon for a wood magazine until further orders. Persons willing to provide themselves with hand sleds at this season will meet with encouragement by applying to the subscriber,
Fred Wm. Hecht,
Senior Assistant Commissary in Nova Scotia.
The price paid to James White for 172 cords of wood furnished during the year 1782 "for the service of His Majesty's Troops at Fort Howe and the Post at Oromocto" was twenty shillings, or four dollars, a cord, which seems a fairly good price considering that wood was at this time so abundant and labor so cheap. James White presented his bill to Commissary General Brook Watson and was paid the amount due him, nearly $700. This sum of money in the current medium of the day—silver dollars—was in weight equivalent to more than thirty pounds of silver, a rather inconvenient sum for the pocket of an old time merchant.
The requirements of the garrison secured to Hazen and White a ready market for all the produce they and their tenants were able to raise, and at times it was necessary to send up the river for supplies. One of James White's old memorandum books shows that when the garrison was first established at Fort Howe, in November, 1777, he made a trip to Maugerville where in the course of a few days he bought nine yoke of oxen from Asa Perley, Thomas Barker, Daniel Jewett, Henry Miller, John Estey, Nathan Smith, David Dow, Peter Moores and Richard Barlow. The conditions in each case were similar to those in the following agreement: