niers' story the French did all they could to save Allan's men
and for recompense had their houses pillaged and burned and some of
themselves made prisoners by the English. It was reported that the
English soldiers had expressed their determination to follow Allan to
the gates of hell to take him--they would at least follow to Medoctec.
All this time Pierre Tomah was trying to make terms with the British
and was much dejected that he could not carry his tribe with him.

Allan now donned the garb of an Indian chief, resolved to wear it to
Machias. On his arrival at Medoctec he was in such a sorry plight that
he wrote to his friends "I am at present destitute of everything, I am
forced to put up with the fare the Indians can provide. I must again
implore some help for the Indians; I am still suspicious if I leave
them they will turn."

Arrived at the old historic village of Medoctec (eight miles below the
modern town of Woodstock) John Allan and his dusky companions did not
long hesitate what course to pursue. Two Indian scouts sent down the
river quickly returned with information that the English had given up
the chase of West and his party, who fled by way of the Oromocto
river, and were on their way to Medoctec in pursuit of Allan. This
decided the Indians to proceed at once to Machias. The exodus was a
remarkable one even for so migratory a people as the Maliseets. On
Sunday, July 13th, a party of about 480 Indians--men, women and
children--embarked in 128 canoes. The journey to Machias occupied
three weeks and the party had a sorry time of it. The midsummer heat
was excessive, the mosquitoes abundant, provisions scanty and the
lowness of the streams greatly retarded the progress of the canoes. At
each of the carrying places along the route a lively scene presented
itself. "It is incredible," says Delesderniers in his diary, "what
difficulties the Indians undergo in this troublesome time when so many
families are obliged to fly with precipitation rather than become
friends to the tyrant of Britain. Some backing their aged parents,
others their maimed and decrepid brethern, the old women leading the
young children, mothers carrying their infants, together with great
loads of baggage. As to the canoes the men make it a play to carry
them across." The Indians after a time became impatient and desirous
to return. They represented to Allan that they had abandoned the
fertile banks of the St. John, their cornfields and hun