; but when I saw the blood run and felt the smart I at
him again and bid him get up and not lie there like a dog--told him of
his former abuses offered to me and other poor captives, and that if
ever he offered the like to me again I would pay him double. I sent
him before me, took up my burden of wood and came to the Indians and
told them the whole truth and they commended me, and I don't remember
that ever he offered me the least abuse afterward, though he was big
enough to have dispatched two of me."

The unfortunate conduct of some of the New England governors together
with other circumstances that need not here be mentioned, led the
Maliseets to be hostile to the English. Toward the French, however,
they were from the very first disposed to be friendly, and when de
Monts, Champlain and Poutrincourt arrived at the mouth of our noble
river on the memorable 24th day of June, 1604, they found awaiting
them the representatives of an aboriginal race of unknown antiquity,
and of interesting language, traditions and customs, who welcomed them
with outward manifestations of delight, and formed with them an
alliance that remained unbroken throughout the prolonged struggle
between the rival powers for supremacy in Acadia.

[Illustration: Indian Encampment and Chief]

CHAPTER II.

THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN.

There are yet to be found in New Brunswick forest clad regions, remote
from the haunts of men, that serve to illustrate the general features
of the country when it was discovered by European adventurers 300
years ago. Who these first adventurers were we cannot with certainty
tell. They were not ambitious of distinction, they were not even
animated by religious zeal, for in Acadia, as elsewhere, the trader
was the forerunner of the priest.

The Basque, Breton, and Norman, fishermen are believed to have made
their voyages as early as the year 1504, just 100 years before
Champlain entered the mouth of the St. John river. But these early
navigators were too intent upon their own immediate gain to think of
much beside; they gave to the world no intelligent account of the
coasts they visited, they wave not accurate observers, and in their
tales of adventure fact and fiction were blended in equal proportion.
Nevertheless, by the enterprise and resolution of these hardy mariners
the shores of north-eastern America were fairly well known long before
Acadia contained a single white inhabitant.

Adventurers of Port