t necessary to discuss at length the origin of the Indians who
lived on the banks of the St. John at the time the country became
known to Europeans. Whether or not the ancestors of our Indians were
the first inhabitants of that region it is difficult to determine. The
Indians now living on the St. John are Maliseets, but it is thought by
many that the Micmacs at one time, possessed the valley of the river
and gradually gave place to the Maliseets, as the latter advanced from
the westward. There is a tradition among the St. John river Indians
that the Micmacs and Maliseets were originally one people and that the
Maliseets after a while "went off by themselves and picked up their
own language." This the Micmacs regarded as a mongrel dialect and gave
to the new tribe the name Maliseet (or Milicete), a word derived from
Mal-i-see-jik--"he speaks badly." However, in such matters, tradition
is not always a safe guide. It is more probable the two tribes had an
independent origin, the Micmacs being the earlier inhabitants of
Acadia, while the Maliseets, who are an offshoot of the Abenaki (or
Wabenaki) nation, spread eastward from the Kennebec to the Penobscot
and thence to the St. John. The Indians who are now scattered over
this area very readily understand one another's speech, but the
language of the Micmacs is unintelligible to them.

The Micmacs seem to have permitted their neighbors to occupy the St.
John river without opposition, their own preference inclining them to
live near the coast. The opinion long prevailed in Acadia that the
Maliseets, were a more powerful and ferocious tribe than the Micmacs;
nevertheless there is no record or tradition of any conflict between
them.

That the Maliseets have for centuries inhabited the valley of the
River St. John is indicated by the fact that the Indian names of
rivers, lakes, islands and mountains, which have been retained by the
whites, are nearly all of Maliseet origin. Nevertheless the Micmacs
frequented the mouth of the St. John river after the arrival of
Europeans, for we learn that the Jesuit missionary, Enemond Masse,
passed the winter of 1611-2 at St. John in the family of Louis
Membertou, a Micmac, in order to perfect himself in the Micmac
language, which he had already studied to some extent at Port Royal.
The elder Membertou, father of the Indian here named, was, perhaps,
the most remarkable chieftain Acadia ever produced. His sway as grand
sagamore of the Micmac