Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/298
Defence, that of I'lle-aux-Noix, in the county of St. John, where many fierce encounters have been witnessed, and that at Chambly, which latter runs back to 1711. In New Brunswick, none actually of the old forts exist In St. John, the theatre of the heroism of Madame LaTour, the spot where the old fort was, is to-day a matter of conjecture. It is not known where it stood. It is a pity, because that is a spot which should be commemorated by some monument; but it behooves the city of St. John to take care of its past glories. Such other old fortified grounds as Jamsec, Gaspereau, Baie Verte, are laid waste and uncared for. There was, not many years ago, in New Brunswick, a fort, the only one dating back to the time of the great war for supremacy between the French and the English, which was in a remarkable state of preservation. I remember when I was very young going thither myself and taking some United States and Canadian tourists who wanted to see it I refer to Fort Beausejour. There were at that time seven of the old French cannon still mounted. In fact, the structure was a fine specimen of the old-time forts. Under an inglorious Minister of Militia the cannons were sold as scrap iron for the manufacture of stoves and plough-shares, and nothing now remains of those valuable works, built in the style of the great Vauban. The spot is on the line of the Intercolonial Railway, near the boundary between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It is to-day a lonely, barren and desolate field, and the young generation who read history cannot go, as at one time they could, and learn the history of their country from the very monuments that made it. That fort, which was an object lesson, is gone, and gone forever. This is, indeed, an irreparable loss for all time to come. If we go to the province of Nova Scotia, where so many famous fortifications existed that had withstood sieges, we find there again that the old block-houses have all been demolished, excepting the one at Windsor. At Annapolis, the old Port