Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/216

shine far out to sea, twinkling like bright stars in the distance, and reflected from the heavens, illuminating the country for miles around. Our little knot of villagers in the olden days used to gather in their one little store to discuss the days doings; small was the company and narrow was their field of observation; and their feeble gossip is today replaced by the rapid click of the telegraph instruments, the rolling of the steam-driven printer's press and the cry of the newsboy at every corner; the events of all the continents are proclaimed in our streets almost as soon as they occur.

And yet, from all the luxury and ease as well as from the anxiety and care of this busy energetic nineteenth century life, we sometimes like to escape and get a little nearer to the heart of nature; we like to adopt a life of rural simplicity, content for a brief space with some little cottage remote from the bustle and din of city life; practically to approach as nearly as we can to the primitive life of Portland Point in the year 1764. True, we soon tire of it and long for our substantial comforts and conveniences again.

But it is high time to "hark back" to our story of the early history of St. John. To the writer, if not to the reader, it is much more enjoyable to find ideas in the field of imagination than to dig and delve amidst the musty records of the past; nevertheless in the realm of history what we want are facts, and to facts the element of romance must be subservient. And as facts are wanted it may be well here to amend the statement, made in the first paper of this series, that James Simonds was a descendant of Samuel Simonds of Essex, England, who came to America in 1630 with Governor Winthrop. Mr. C. E. A. Simonds of Fredericton, who has made a pretty thorough investigation of the genealogy of the Simonds family in America, says:—