Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/106
of the meaning of a very common English word, I feel that I can ask the readers of this paper to assume the position of judges and to decide for themselves between the reasonableness of Dr. Ganong's view of the subject and my own.
For the proofs of his theory that Fort LaTour stood at Portland Point, and that the fort on the Carleton side, now known as Old Fort, was the one built by d'Aulnay Charnisay, LaTour's enemy, Dr. Ganong relies on a description or St. John written by Nicholas Denys, who had visited Fort LaTour in the lifetime of its owner, and also on the evidence of maps which place Fort LaTour on the east side of the harbor of St. John. Naturally and properly he depends mainly on the testimony of Denys, which is that of a contemporary and eyewitness, and I shall follow his example in this respect. I therefore repeat the quotation from Denys which appeared in Dr. Ganong's paper in the July issue of this magazine and which is as follows:—
This entrance is narrow, because of a little island which is to larboard or on the left side, which being passed the river is much larger. On the same side as the island there are large marshes or flats which are covered at high tide; the beach is of muddy sand which makes a point, which passed, there is a cove (or creek) which makes into the said marshes, of which the entrance is narrow, and there the late Sieur Monsieur de la Tour has caused to be made a weir, in which were caught a great number of those Gaspereaux which were salted for winter, [here follows an account of the fish caught]. A little farther on, beyond the said weir, there is a little knoll where d'Aunay built his fort, which I have not found well placed according to my idea, for it is commanded by an island which is very near and higher ground, and behind which all ships can place themselves under cover from the fort, in which there is only water from pits, which is not very good, no better than that outside the fort. It would have been in my opinion better placed behind the island where vessels anchor, and where it would have been higher, and in consequence not commanded by other neighboring places and would have had good water, as in that which was built by the said late Sieur de la Tour, which was destroyed by d'Aunay after he had wrongfully taken possession of it, etc."
Dr. Ganong in his paper proceeds to identify the various localities referred to by Denys, and up to a certain point I agree with him. I admit that the island