rt left his sick at Miramichi, and having sent sixty
prisoners, whom he had taken on various occasions, to Quebec, he then
took part in an expedition against Fort George, on the coast of Maine,
where he gained more honor than at the seige of Louisbourg.[36] He
returned to Quebec in November, and about the same time there was an
exodus from the River St. John, both of Acadians and Indians, the
reason for which the next chapter will explain. From this time the
Sieur de Boishebert ceases to be an actor in the events on the St.
John, and becomes merely an on-looker.

[36] The Chevalier Johnson writes, "Boishebert came early in the
Spring to Louisbourg with several hundred men, 12 Canadian
Officers and 6 others from the garrison of Louisbourg; and he
kept his detachment with such prudence so concealed at Miry
during the siege, five leagues from Louisbourg, that neither
the English nor the garrison had ever any news of them."

[Illustration: MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT MONCKTON.]

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE RIVER ST. JOHN.

The territory north of the Bay of Fundy, which now forms the Province
of New Brunswick, was for nearly half a century a bone of contention
between the French and their English rivals. It might indeed be said
that from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 to the Treaty of Paris in 1763
the controversy continued to disturb the peace of Europe. Sometimes
the points at issue were warmly debated at the council board, where
the representatives of either nation vainly tried to settle the limits
of Acadia, and sometimes they were yet more fiercely disputed amidst
the clash of arms and bloody scenes of the battle field.

But as years passed on, and the growing power of the English colonies
began to overshadow that of "La Nouvelle France," it seemed that the
Anglo-Saxon race must in the end prevail. The policy of the governors
of Nova Scotia and New England became more and more aggressive. In
vain did the valiant Montcalm, as late as the year 1758, represent to
his country that in fixing the limits of New France it was essential
to retain possession of what the English claimed as Acadia as far as
the Isthmus of Chignecto, and to retake Beausejour; also that France
should keep possession of the River St. John or, at least, leave the
territory there undivided and in the possession of its native
inhabitants: no such compromise as this would now satisfy t