ve and a half inch brass mortars, and 8 iron guns; the latter
comprising 2 eighteen-pounders, 4 six-pounders, and 2 four-pounders.
In the barracks were twelve rooms for the officers and accommodation
for 100 men.

The guns of Fort Howe would be no better than pop-guns in modern
warfare. Indeed they appear never to have been fired upon an invader.
On Royal anniversaries and in honor of national victories they
thundered forth a salute from their iron throats, and we may believe
that on the ever memorable 18th of May, 1783, they gave a right royal
welcome to the Loyalist founders of the City of St. John.

Scarcely had Major Studholme got his defences in order at Fort Howe,
when the old Machias pirate, A. Greene Crabtree, reappeared upon the
scene. He had disposed of his former booty and returned to complete
the work of destruction. In order to accomplish his design he landed a
party from his eight-gun vessel at Manawagonish, and proceeded through
the woods intending to surprise the settlement at Portland Point; but
in this case the surprise was his own. The sight of the British flag
waving from the ramparts of Fort Howe was quite sufficient; he showed
no inclination to try the mettle of Studholme's garrison, and beat a
hasty retreat.

General Massey, who had sent Studholme's party to St. John, was of the
opinion that a rigorous policy should be set on foot against the
privateers, and in a letter to Lord Germaine laments that Arbuthnot
did not command the naval squadron. "If he did," he says, "these
trifling pirates could not appear on the coast without meeting their
deserved fate." In the course of the next summer Captain Fielding
succeeded in destroying six privateers in the space of three weeks
time, and this served to render the Bay of Fundy coast a little more
secure. But already much damage had been inflicted. In the township
of Conway, on the west side of St. John harbor, the settlers had been
obliged to abandon their homes. Daniel and Jonathan Leavitt built
small houses in Carleton near old Fort Frederick, where they were
under the protection of Fort Howe. Messrs. Samuel Peabody, Gervas Say,
Elijah Estabrooks, James Woodman, Thomas Jenkins, Zebedee Ring, John
Bradley, John Jones and Peter Smith were so harrassed "by the
continual robberies of the Rebel boats" that they were compelled to
move up the river to escape the dangers of their exposed situation.

James Simonds also decided to change his residence at this