Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/369
achusetts. The frame of the vessel was on the stocks and partly planked but she was destined never to sail the seas: her fate will be referred to in the next paper of this series. James Woodman lived near the site of the present village of Fairville. He was employed in 1779 by James White in building the "Indian House" at the landing above the falls.
The mention of the Indian House leads naturally to a few words about the attitude of the Indians towards the white settlers in these early times. In the main they were peaceably disposed till the outbreak of the Revolution, although occasionally the cause of some annoyance. A treaty had been made with them at Halifax in 1760 and for a while they seemed to have observed it fairly well. No doubt the establishment of a garrison at Fort Frederick had its influence in overawing them. In the year 1765, however, the white settlers, who had only begun to establish themselves on their lands, were very much alarmed by the Indians who threatened to take the war path on the ground that the whites had interfered with their hunting rights by killing moose, beavers, and other wild animals beyond the limits of their farms and improvements. Sentries were doubled at Fort Frederick and precautions taken against a surprise. Through the efforts of the government the difficulty was satisfactorily adjusted and hostilities averted.
In all Nova Scotia there was at this time but one newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, of which the first number was published March 23, 1752, and among the earliest local items of news furnished by St. John for
owned by David Jones, a descendant of the old pre-loyalist settler named above. John Jones had a large family of sons and daughters whose descendants in the province are numerous. One of his sons, Samuel, born while his father lived at Manawagonish, in the township of Conway, from the year 1804 to 1815 carried the mails from St. John to Fredericton once a week. At first the mail from Halifax was not opened until it reached Fredericton, the headquarters of the province, whence letters were returned to St. John. The needless delay of a week in transit naturally caused some grumbling on the part of St. John people.