iver Canard in the district of Mines on the 9th of June, 1744. His
father, Michel Bourg, and his mother, Anne Hebert, with most of their
children, escaped deportation at the time of the Acadian expulsion in
1755 and sought refuge at the Island of St. John [Prince Edward
Island], from which place they were transported by the English to the
northern part of France. Young Joseph Mathurin became the protege of
the Abbe de l'Isle-Dieu, then at Paris. He pursued his studies at a
little seminary in the Diocese of St. Malo and on the 13th of
September, 1772, was ordained priest at Montreal by Monseigneur
Briand. After a year he was sent to Acadia as missionary to his
compatriots of that region. He took charge of his mission in
September, 1773. It at first extended from Gaspe to Cocagne, but in
August, 1774, the Bishop of Quebec added the River St. John (including
"Quanabequachies," or Kennebeccasis) and all the rest of Nova Scotia
and the Island of Cape Breton. The bishop also appointed the Abbe
Bourg his grand vicar in Acadia. Almost immediately afterwards he
visited the River St. John and the little settlement at French Village
near the Kennebeccasis where, early in September, he baptized a
considerable number of children, whose names and those of their
parents are to be found in the register which is still preserved at
Carleton, Bonaventure Co., in the province of Quebec.

[Illustration: (Signature) Joseph Mth. Bourg pretre Grand. V.]

The missionary made his headquarters at Carleton (on the north side of
the Bay of Chaleur) but from time to time visited different parts of
his immense mission. During the Revolutionary war he paid special
attention to the Indians on the River St. John, who largely through
his efforts were kept from taking the warpath and going over to the
Americans. The raids made by the Machias rebels under Jonathan Eddy
and John Allan, in 1776 and 1777, interfered in some measure with the
visits of the missionary, for Col. Michael Francklin in his interview
with the Maliseets at Fort Howe in September, 1778, assured them that
Mons'r. Bourg would have visited them sooner but for the apprehension
entertained of his being carried off by the rebels.

The chapel at Aukpaque was not entirely disused during the absence of
the missionary. We learn from John Allan's narrative that while he was
at Aukpaque in June, 1777, a number of Acadians came on Sundays to
worship at the Indian chapel and that he and his prison