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fire to the chapel and other buildings and ruthlessly killed the inhabitants with little regard to age or sex. On their return they treated the settlements at Oromocto, Grimross and Nerepis in much the same fashion. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, Commander in Chief of the forces in America, refers to this transaction in two of his letters to Governor Lawrence. He says in the first: "You will have heard of the accident poor Capt. McCurdy met with as likewise of the success of his Lieut, in demolishing the settlements at St. Anne's. On the recommendation of Major Scott I have preferred Lt. Hazen to Capt McCurdy's Company." In the second letter he writes: "Major Morris sent me the particulars of the scouting party and I gave a commission of Captain to Lieut. Hazen as I thought he deserved it. I am sorry to say what I have since heard of that affair has sullied his merit with me as I shall always disapprove of killing women and helpless children: poor McCurdy is a loss he was a good man in his post."

Confirmation of the barbarity practised on the occasion is found in the journal of Rev. Jacob Bailey of Pownalboro 1 Maine, a prominent Loyalist and afterwards Rector of Annapolis, N. S.^[1] Mr. Bailey on the night of Dec. 13, 1759, chanced to lodge at Norwood's inn in Lynn, and speaking of the company he found there he says: "We had among us a soldier belonging to Capt. Hazen's company of Rangers, who declared that several Frenchmen were barbarously murdered by them after quarters were given, and the villain added, I suppose to show his importance, that he split the head of one asunder after he fell on his knees to implore mercy. A specimen of New England clemency."

When James Simonds first visited St. John he was a young man of about twenty-five years of age. He was descended from Samuel Simonds of Essex,