Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/91

mouth of the river and the settlers of the township of Maugerville were naturally very intimate. The vessels which were owned or chartered by the company supplied the readiest means of communication with New England, and the account books show that many individuals, and sometimes whole families of settlers, came to the St. John river as passengers in these vessels, bringing with them their household effects and sundry articles on which they paid freight. Captain Francis Peabody, for example, paid Wm. Hazen £11 for the freight of goods he shipped from Newburyport to St. John, in the schooner Wilmot, in November, 1764, and in January following he paid the freight on nine heifers and a lot of sheep, besides the fare of four passengers at 12 shillings each. In the same schooner came Jacob Barker, Oliver Perley, Humphrey Pickard, Zebulun Esty and David Burbank. The latter hrought with him a set of mill irons. Each of these gentlemen was charged 13s. 6d. for "his club of cyder on the passage."

The names of nearly all the heads of families settled at Maugerville appear in the earlier accounts of Messrs. Simonds & White, and later we have those of the settlers at Gagetown, Burton and Ste. Annes. After a time it was found desirable for the convenience of the inhabitants—and probably for the interests of the company as well—to establish what were practically branches of their business up the river, and the account books contain invoices of goods shipped to Peter Carr at Musquash Island (just below Gagetown), to Jabez Nevers at Maugerville, and to Benjamin Atherton at Ste. Annes Point. These goods were evidently sold on commission and the returns made for the most part in lumber, furs and produce. It was no doubt in view of this trade with the white inhabitants that James Simonds, in a letter to Mr. Blodget dated October 1st, 1764, enquires the Boston prices of "oar rafters, shingles, clapboards,