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THE NEW BRUNSWICK MAGAZINE.

pledges[1] for their debts, were also taken. Even the rigging and stores saved from the wreck of the company's old schooner, Merrimac, were carried off. John Allan makes mention of this transaction in a letter written at Machias, November 18, 1777, in which he says:

"Capt. A. Green Crabtree arrived here yesterday. He has been to the mouth of the St. Johns where he found a Truck House erected by the Britons under the care of Messes Hazen, White & Simonds. He took everything of their property only. Also all the Indian Pledges he has bro't and delivered me, expecting some payment. I cannot say how far this was legal for a Privateer. but I am extremely glad it is done."

So defenceless was the position of the people at Portland Point that, after Crabtree's departure, James White and James Simonds put on board a gondola a quantity of salt, that chanced not to have been taken from the store, and Mr. White started up the river to sell it in order to prevent its being plundered and lost. It was in the month of November, and he could get no further than the house of a Mrs. Price at Gagetown, so he left it with her and she sold it to the farmers and others at ten shillings per bushel.

The situation of the poor people at the mouth of the river had now become intolerable; the visit of the last privateer well nigh beggared them, and the end, so far as they knew, was not yet. A strong representation was made to government and the appeal was not entirely in vain.

James Simonds, however, decided to endure the situation no longer. Accordingly in the mouth of May. 1778, he procured a small vessel lying above the falls and removed his effects over land to her (the falls not being passable on account of the freshet) and with all his family proceeded up the river some sixty miles, to a tract of land on the east side of the river at what

  1. ↑ Some of the Indian pages were quite valuable. Mr. Han says that a few articles escaped the notice of the privateer's crew, among them eight silver arm clasps, two of which he afterwards sold for £4.
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