Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/37

£100 each for that of the others. All of the party fled for refuge to Machias.^[1]

Shortly after his arrival at Machais, Jonathan Eddy resolved to make a bold attempt to capture Fort Cumberland which he knew to be in a dilapidated condition, ill prepared for resistance and having but a weak garrison. He started from Machias with but twenty men. At Passamaquoddy a few others joined him. They went on to St. Jonn where they did not meet with a particularly warm welcome, although Hazen, Simonds and White very prudently refrained from any hostile demonstration. Proceeding up the river to Maugerville, Eddy met with greater encouragement. "I found the people," he says, "to be almost univers-ally hearty in our cause; they joined us with one captain, one lieutenant and twenty-five men, as also sixteen Indians." The latter were led by Ambroise St. Aubin, the second chief of their tribe, and according to Eddy "behaved most gallantly." At Cumberland the expedition was very largely reinforced by the inhabitants.

The sole exploit of this rashly planned expedition was the capture of a vessel which was found sitting on a mud flat near the fort. The fort itself was gallantly defended by Colonel Joseph Gorham, and the result of Eddy's attack was a dismal failure, and he with his principal supporters—many of them refugees from Cumberland County, retired somewhat crest fallen to Maugerville whence they afterwards went to Machias. According to Calvin L. Hathaway (whose very interesting little work on the history of this province is now exceedingly rare) the settlers who participated in the attack on Fort Cumberland were called upon by the authorities to pay for the vessel and cargo taken by