Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/366

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THE NEW BRUNSWICK MAGAZINE.

According to Mr. Simonds' return all the individuals at Portland Point with one exception, and he an Irishman, were born in America. At Conway all were natives of America with the exception of two persons of English nationality. Mr. Simonds observes in a note appended that there were at this time about thirty families of Acadians on the river.

The Conway people had 2 horses (both owned by Hugh Quinton), 13 oxen and bulls, 32 cows, 44 young cattle, 40 sheep, 17 swine. The return of domestic animals at Portland Point seems defective. However, a memorandum in one of the old account books dated November 29, 1775, show that Messrs. Hazen, Simonds and White owned at that time 14 cattle, 14 sheep, 11 horses, 21 colts, 1 mule and 1 jackass—the last two animals the property of Mr. Simonds. The other settlers owned 8 cows, 4 young cattle, 4 sheep and 6 swine. Total number of domestic animals 232.

The dwellings of the settlers at this time were small and built at little cost, some of them log houses. Mr. Hazen's house was by all odds the most substantia building that had yet been erected.

It was at least a year after the arrival of Simonds and White in the first instance before it was determined to confine the business of the company to St. John. According to the first articles of partnership the sphere of their operations included "Passamaquoddy, St. John, Canso and elsewhere in or near the province of Nova Scotia and parts adjacent"—a pretty wide field certainly. The first indication of making St. John the chief centre of business is contained in a letter dated at "Passamaquada," August 18, 1764, in which James Simonds writes to William Hazen:—

"If you and Mr. Blodget think it will be best to cany on business largely at St. John's we must have another house with a cellar; the cellar is now dug and stoned and will keep apples,
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