t. We may be
perfectly sure that if the English were masters of all the territory
they claim they would never journey over it, and the only advantage
they would find would be to deprive the French of a necessary route of
communication. We do not fear to say that the object of the English is
not confined to the country they claim under the name of Acadia. Their
object is to make a general invasion of Canada and thus to pave the
way to universal empire in America."

It is little to be wondered at that the French nation should have been
very reluctant to part with their control of the St. John river. From
the days of its discovery by Champlain it had become of increasing
importance to them as a means of communication between the widely
separated portions of New France. But more than this the river was in
many of its features unrivelled in their estimation. Its remarkable
falls near the sea, its massive walls of limestone at "the narrows"
just above--which the French called "cliffs of marble"--its broad
lake-like expansions, its fertile intervals and islands, the fish that
swarmed in its waters and the game that abounded in its forests, its
towering pines and noble elms were all known to them and had been
noted by their early explorers. Champlain, L'Escarbot, Denys, Biard,
La Hontan, Cadillac and Charlevoix had described in glowing words the
wealth of its attractions. It is worth while in this connection to
quote the description which Lamothe Cadillac penned in 1693--just two
hundred and ten years ago:

_River St. John._--"The entrance of this river is very large. Two
little islands are seen to the left hand, one called l'Ile
Menagoniz (Mahogany Island) and the other l'Ile aux Perdrix
(Partridge Island), and on the right hand there is a cape of which
the earth is as red as a red Poppy. The harbor is good; there is
no rock and it has five or six fathoms of water.

_Fort._--There is a fort of four bastions here, which needs to be
repaired. It is very well situated and could not be attacked by
land for it is surrounded by water at half tide. Less than an
eighth of a league above there are two large rocks, perpendicular,
and so near that they leave only space sufficient for a ship
cleverly to pass.

_Gouffre._ Just here there is a fall, or abyss (gouffre), which
extends seven or eight hundred paces to the foot of two rocks.
There is a depth of eighteen fathoms of water here. I think that I