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were put to the trouble and expense of conquering them they must expect to lose their lands and property. The immediate consequence of this was a general meeting of the inhabitants, in which among other resolutions the following was unanimously adopted:—
"That it is our minds and desire to submit ourselves to the government of Massachusetts Bay, and that we are ready with our lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however God in His providence may order it."
A committee of twelve persons was appointed to make application to the Massachusetts congress for assistance. In a former paper of this series reference was made to the humble apology of the same people to Colonel Arthur Goold when he came to the river the next Spring with a detachment of British troops. In their apology the settlers asserted that their attitude in the past had been largely a matter of self preservation; but it is impossible, in view of all the evidence bearing on the subject, to believe that it was not also a matter of inclination—at least with the majority. After all, when the circumstances are temperately considered, the action of these New Englanders—for such they were by birth, education and early associations—was perhaps not an unnatural one.
Two members of the Maugerville committee were sent as a deputation to the Massachusetts congress bearing a copy of the resolutions signed by 125 persons and it was claimed that only twelve or thirteen heads of families had absolutely refused to sign, of whom nine resided at the mouth of the river. The commissary at Boston was directed to furnish the delegates with a barrel of gunpowder, 350 flints, and 250 pounds of lead from the general stores, and they were also granted a permit to transport the goods to Nova Scotia. The attitude of the St. John River Indians at first