ing in the scalps
of Englishmen. As for the savages, they had, at least, the apology
that they made war in accordance with the manner of their race,
whereas the proclamation of the Governor of Nova Scotia was unworthy
of an enlightened people. Nothing could be better calculated to lower
and brutalize the character of a soldier than the offer of L25 for a
human scalp.

About this time, two of the New England regiments were disbanded and
returned to their homes, their period of enlistment having expired,
and the difficulty of obtaining other troops prevented anything being
attempted on the St. John for a year or two. Lawrence and Shirley,
however, continued to discuss the details of the proposed expedition.
Both governors seem to have had rather vague ideas of the number of
the Acadians on the river and the situation of their settlements.
Shirley says he learned from the eastern Indians and New England
traders that their principal settlement was about ninety miles up the
river at a place called St. Annes, six miles below the old Indian town
of Aukpaque. He thought that 800 or 1,000 men would be a force
sufficient to clear the river of the enemy and that after they were
driven from their haunts the English would do well to establish a
garrison of 150 men at St. Annes, in order to prevent the return of
the French and to overawe the Indians. He also recommended that the
fort at the mouth of the river, lately abandoned by Boishebert, should
be rebuilt and a garrison of 50 men placed there.

During the years that followed the expulsion of the Acadians
occasional parties of the exiles, returning from the south, arrived at
the River St. John, where they waited to see what the course of
events might be. Their condition was truly pitiable. Some had
journeyed on foot or by canoe through an unexplored wilderness;
others, from the far away Carolinas, having procured small vessels,
succeeded in creeping furtively along the Atlantic coast from one
colony to another until they reached the Bay of Fundy; and thus the
number of the Acadians continued to increase until Boishebert had more
than a thousand people under his care. Some of them he sent to Canada,
for his forces were insufficient for their protection, and his
supplies were scanty.

The locations of the French settlements on the river at this period
are described in detail in Dr. Ganong's "Historic Sites in New
Brunswick." The largest settlement, and that farthest up the St. J