CHAPTER IX
OLD PORT ROYAL
At Annapolis, the old Port Royal, Amy and her party were to stay longerthan at any other place. They had engaged rooms at a pleasant housewhere there were no other boarders, and when they had unpacked theirtrunks, began to feel as if they were really away for the summer.
"We have a fine view of the river," said Mrs. Redmond to Martine themorning after their arrival, as they looked from the windows of herroom, which was at the rear of the house.
"River!" sniffed Martine; "I see nothing but red mud and green marshes;I wonder where the water is."
"You won't ask that question at high tide; you'll find water enough tofloat a small vessel," she replied, "and if you look a little beyond ourimmediate neighborhood, you can see the whole Basin, and far, far awaythere in the distance, I suppose, that land is Digby. I am going out tosketch immediately after breakfast; I've seen several photographs of theold fort, and I have special reasons for wishing to make a sketch of it;and you, Martine, will get plenty of inspiration for your water-colors."
Amy was in her element at Annapolis. She had already given some time tothe history of the old town, and anticipated great pleasure in retracingthe steps of the brave Frenchmen who had made it famous.
"More French history!" Priscilla exclaimed, when Amy began to talk aboutDe Monts and Poutrincourt; "when shall we hear about the English?" andPriscilla, with a wry face, continued, "I'm so tired of the French."
"All in good time," responded Amy; "but now we must take things in dueorder and not skip about as we did. Let us go with the others into theport to-day, and while they are sketching I'll talk a little about itshistory."
So it was that, while Mrs. Redmond and Martine were making sketches ofthe sally-port and old officers' quarters, Amy, seated near them, playedthe part of historian and guide.
"This fort, you know, is from Vauban's plans, with four bastions andconnecting curtains."
"Do you suppose there's a moat?" interrupted Priscilla; "it looks as ifthere should be one here."
"There used to be a wet ditch in the eighteenth century, and I supposethat was much the same thing, though it's dry now."
"Oh, I can tell you something more entertaining than that," interposedMartine. "They used to have logs on the top of the parapet ready to rolldown on the heads of assailants. But tell me, Amy, I've forgotten; didChamplain build this fort?"
"My dear Martine, where is your history? Vauban and Champlain; oh, no.Champlain's fort is six miles down the river, opposite Goat Island."
"Then who first built this fort?"
"Probably D'Aunay first planned it, and it was improved by Brouillan andSubercase. You must remember that it has suffered twenty attacks and tenregular sieges. There's little good in talking about it until you knowthe history of the times better."
"Oh, dear," murmured Martine, "of course I knew this was to be animproving trip, and yet I do think it's hard to have to learn history inthe summer."
"I'm afraid there's no escape for it," said Amy; "the fog is rolling in,and this afternoon I will tell you once for all certain things that willgive you great interest in Annapolis during your stay here."
So, undisturbed by further historical information during the morning,Martine, under Mrs. Redmond's direction, completed her sketch of theofficers' quarters within the fort,--a quaint old building, with itsthirty-six chimneys and thirty-six fireplaces, every one of which hadprobably been needed in the long and cold winters of old Acadia.
As Amy had prophesied, the afternoon was foggy, and she felt littlecompunction in insisting that Martine as well as Priscilla should joinher before her open fire while she talked to them of Port Royal history.
"Although some French," she said, "may have visited Acadia as early as1504, our starting point is 1604, when De Monts, who was a nobleman ofthe Court of Henry Fourth, and Champlain, and Poutrincourt, andPontgrave came out on a voyage of exploration. Poutrincourt seems tohave been the one most anxious to make a permanent settlement here.Champlain was the geographer and map-maker of the expedition, and wasalso on the search for ores. The grant of the land known as Acadia hadbeen given by Henry Fourth to De Monts. He, as well as Pontgrave hadbeen on a previous expedition to the New World. At first they weredelighted with Acadia. They saw fine opportunities for fur-trading aswell as for a permanent settlement. But after visiting the shores of theAnnapolis Basin, they made a mistake by going farther south to the St.Croix River, and they spent their first winter on an island somedistance from its mouth. This proved a bad thing, for the climate wassevere and many of the colonists died; so when the weather permittedthey went back to the neighborhood of Port Royal and set up their housesand built a small fort on Goat Island.
"They found the Indians everywhere very friendly, especially the oldchief, Membertou, who was said to be nearly one hundred years old.
"When their buildings were finished, De Monts sailed back for France,knowing that he could be spared until after the harvests were gathered.Pontgrave was left in charge of the colony in his absence, assisted byChamplain and Champdore. When the spring of 1606 came and De Monts hadnot returned, the colonists were alarmed. They needed the supplies thathe had promised to bring them, and they were afraid that something hadhappened to him. So, late in July, Pontgrave started off to see if hecould not find some fishing-vessel to take them all back to France.
"In the meantime, De Monts in France had had trouble in getting peopleto interest themselves in the Port Royal Colony. But Poutrincourt, whohad returned with him, proved his best friend, and helped in fitting outa vessel called the 'Jonas,' and promised to return to Acadia with DeMonts, and take his family with him, to establish a permanent colony.
"With them came Lescarbot, an advocate of Paris, who afterwards wrote afull account of his residence in Acadia, from which we learn manyinteresting details that, but for him, we would not know. Pontgrave fellin with a shallop from De Monts' vessel and all returned to Port Royal.De Monts wasn't perfectly satisfied with Port Royal for a permanentsettlement, and he persuaded Poutrincourt to make a journey farthersouth to find a better place; but this expedition ended badly, andPoutrincourt returned, convinced that he could be better off at PortRoyal than anywhere else in the New World.
"Unluckily, the merchants in France who had supplied money for thistrading colony sent word that they had decided to give it up. Withoutmoney with which to trade, the colony could not prosper, and so themajority of the colonists decided to go back to France. Poutrincourt,however, was determined to come back, and he took home with himspecimens of grain grown in Acadia, and various animal, vegetable, andmineral products, to show the King what could be raised in Acadia. TheKing encouraged him to go back, and ratified the grant of land that DeMonts had given him.
"So Poutrincourt returned to Acadia, and it is greatly to the credit ofthe Indians he had left in charge that all the buildings were unharmed.A new crop of grain, planted by the Indians, was growing finely, andMembertou and savages welcomed him very cordially.
"The King had given him a grant of money to be used for the Church andhe brought with him a Jesuit priest, who baptized the savages bywholesale.
"In the summer of 1610, Poutrincourt sent his son, Biencourt, back toFrance to report the conversion of the savages and the generalprosperity of the colony. Things in France were not going to be veryfavorable now for Poutrincourt. When Biencourt arrived in Paris, it wasnot long after the assassination of Henry Fourth. The Jesuits were nowanxious to get control of Acadia, and, to make a long story short,Madame De Guercheville obtained a grant from the King of the very landthat De Monts had granted to Poutrincourt; Biencourt had to take certainJesuits back with him to Acadia; and there was much dissension in thelittle colony. But what really proved its downfall was an attack made in1613 by the Virginian Argall, who killed and captured many of theinhabitants and burnt all the buildings to the ground. Poutrincourt madeno effort to re-establish Port Royal, but Biencourt, his son, remainedin the woods, living, with a few
companions, the life of an Indian."
"Oh, yes, it was he, was it not," said Priscilla, "who was the friend ofCharles La Tour down at Fort St. Louis?"
"The very man," replied Amy. "I often think that if Biencourt had left arecord of his wanderings we should have something very interesting. Heand his father made a good fight for New France, but circumstances weretoo strong for them."
"Thank you," said Priscilla. "I understand better than I did before howthe French happened to settle Port Royal."
"Why," asked Martine, "did that Virginian--Argall, I think you calledhim--wish to interfere with the French? Jamestown had been settled onlysix years when he came up here and attacked Port Royal, and there wasn'tany Plymouth, then, Priscilla."
"He had no real right to interfere, but the English, even then, claimedthe whole coast of North America, basing their claims on the discoveriesof the Cabots; Argall himself, however, is considered little more than apirate, and no Englishman justifies his destruction of the prosperousand peaceful colony at Port Royal.
"The next settlement here was under the auspices of Sir WilliamAlexander, a friend of James the First. You remember that he made LaTour a Baronet of Nova Scotia. He had great plans, and his colony wasnear Goat Island. I am told that some people here in Annapolis stillspeak about the Scotch fort, some trace of which is yet to be seen.
"War between France and England finally put an end to Sir WilliamAlexander's colony, and it was Charles La Tour who did more than any oneelse to make Acadia of some importance to France. He claimed thatBiencourt, Poutrincourt's son, when he died in 1623, had left all hisclaims to Acadia to him, including the position of Governor."
"Amy," said Martine, yawning slightly, "this is all very interesting,but unless I have time to digest it I shall forget it entirely. Let usput history aside until another day and see if we cannot find somethingmore amusing."
"I'm going downstairs for a moment," said Priscilla; "I have an idea themail has come."
In a moment she returned with a handful of letters.
"Boston, Plymouth, two from Shelburne--where's that? I suppose that Imay look at the postmarks?"
"Give, give," cried Martine, and Priscilla put a couple in her hand.
"Only one for me," said Amy, "and it's from Fritz; he's at Shelburne.Did you have one too, mamma?"
"No," replied Mrs. Redmond, who had just entered the room.
"Oh, I thought there were two Shelburne postmarks."
Priscilla noticed Martine's heightened color, and an idea that had cometo her at Yarmouth now returned. As it was a matter in which she had noreal right to meddle, she said nothing.
"What does Fritz say?" asked Mrs. Redmond, turning to Amy.
"That he's having the time of his life, that he and Taps have found thebest fishing in the world, and like Nova Scotia so much that they maybring a party of their own here next summer. What he writes about theFrench of Pubnico sounds exactly like Meteghan and Church Point, so I'llskip all that; Shelburne seems more romantic, and I almost wish it hadlain in our path. He says it has one of the finest harbors he ever saw,but I will read you a little in his own words.
"'Shelburne, my dear Amy, is like the ghost of a city, to one who hasimagination. It was planned to be the chief city of Nova Scotia, andthere is something rather tragic in looking at the broad streets thatwere meant for a larger city. Hardly one of the fine old houses remains.They say that twelve thousand Loyalists came here just after theRevolution, and most of them were rich and influential. The frames oflarge houses were brought and set up here; people tried to live as theywould in a great city, with servants and every luxury. With such a greatharbor they expected to have a great seaport; but the trouble was, therewas nothing in the country back of them. There was no farming land, andno farmers to supply produce for the ships in the harbor to carry awayin exchange for other goods. After a while people found they had used upthe money they had brought with them from New York and other places.Then those who could left Shelburne. Some went away leaving their housesfully furnished, and they never came back. They went to Halifax, toAnnapolis, or even back to New York and Boston after the bitter feelingover the war had gone down.
"'If you were here, Amy, you'd find plenty of material for poems inShelburne, especially on moonlight nights like last night, when Taps andI wandered up and down the broad streets, trying to imagine whatShelburne must have been in the days of its greatness. I hope that youand the others are enjoying yourselves as much as you expected to,without me or any other masculine disturber of the peace. I haven't adoubt that your mother thinks we've been pretty badly treated. Shealways was an unusually sensible woman, and we'd have been useful tocarry your bags, if nothing more; however, mark my words, before yourjourney is over you will sigh for me more than once, and the day willcome when you'll really need me.'"
"He thinks enough of himself, doesn't he?" said Martine.
"Oh, he's not really conceited," replied Amy, "and I dare say that hewould liven us up a little; but on the whole things are best as theyare."
"Aren't you quieter than usual, Martine?" asked Amy that evening.
"Well, I had a letter from papa to-day," she said, "and he says thatmamma is really very ill, and that they may have to stay abroad allsummer. I have just written him about Yvonne; but of course it will besome time before I can get an answer."
"What do you want him to do?" asked Amy,--"to let you adopt her? She'salmost as tall as you are."
"Well, I'm not sure what I want, but I know that if Yvonne should haveher voice cultivated she'd be a great prima donna, and what a feather inmy cap to have been her discoverer!"
"I fear that your father would need more than your opinion to enable himto decide a matter like that. In fact, only an expert musician couldmake a safe prophecy about Yvonne."
"Well, at least, I hope that he will consent to letting her go to Bostonto study next winter. We could find a doctor to help her eyesight."
"Why not ask your father to invest in Alexander's gold mine?" asked Amy,with a smile; "then he could do everything for Yvonne himself."
"That isn't the point. I've really taken a great fancy to Yvonne, and Iwant to have her near me. Have you written to Pierre yet?"
"Oh, yes; I went out this morning and bought him a copy of Longfellow.He had never owned one himself, and was anxious to have it. I have askedhim to write us so that we shall get the letter at Grand Pre."
"It's time Priscilla had a protegee," said Martine, "though she doesn'tseem the kind of person to adopt anything very warmly except her ownopinions."
This was a rather sharp remark for Martine to make, and it convinced Amyof something that she had tried to doubt--that the two girls were reallyrather far apart, "and both such charming girls," she said to herself.
Martine's letters with the Pubnico and Shelburne postmarks had givenPriscilla considerable concern. Though not a meddler, she yet sawMartine's lack of frankness about those letters. Priscilla knew thatneither was in the handwriting of Fritz Tomkins, and she was sure thatthey were written by the Freshman with him whom she knew only by thename of "Taps." She was now quite convinced, also, that it really wasMartine whom Amy had seen wheeling through the streets of Yarmouth withthis same youth. That it was no concern of hers she realized perfectly;and yet, she wondered if it might not be her duty to tell Mrs. Redmondwhat she knew. Priscilla was over-conscientious; she was always moreready to disclose her own faults than to conceal them,--to disclose, atleast, faults that she herself recognized. She did not altogetherrealize that a certain form of censoriousness was growing upon her; thatshe was too much inclined to measure all people by her own standard.
Thus many little things that Martine did quite innocently and naturallyseemed to Priscilla bits of affectation. Martine's hand was ever in herpocket. When it was a question of buying books or fruit or some otherlittle thing for the traveller, Martine always managed to pay for it,and Priscilla thought that her readiness to do this came from a desireto display the size of her allowance. P
riscilla herself, on the otherhand, had to be careful about little expenses, and while their presenttrip called for no great expenditure, she hated to be obliged so oftento thank Martine for small luxuries. Then, too, Martine had anextravagant way of talking that disturbed the serious Priscilla. Shecould not say that she had ever found Martine in a real untruth. Still,Martine's way was not her way, and instead of drawing nearer together asthe journey progressed, the two girls were farther apart.
Martine, on her part, thought Priscilla rather old-fashioned, butaccounted for the seriousness of her dress and her manner by the factthat she was still in mourning for her father, who had died of fevercontracted in Cuba at the beginning of the late war.
Perhaps it was because she realized that her prejudices were a littleunreasonable, that Priscilla hesitated about speaking to Amy or Mrs.Redmond regarding the suspicious postmarks.
The long "historical disquisition," as Martine called it, that Amy hadgiven them on their first day at Annapolis, was not immediately followedby another. Their mornings were spent in sketching in the neighborhood,and their afternoons in driving. One day they crossed the GrandvilleFerry and went down to the old fort near Goat Island. But though theyall professed to see slight traces of the earthworks, it requiredimagination rather than eyesight to discern even a slight trace ofPoutrincourt's fort.
"It's one of the ironies of history," said Amy, "that tradition shouldspeak of this as a Scotch fort, for the Scotch were here so short a timebefore the French were again in power."
"What became of the Scotch?" asked Priscilla.
"It is supposed that most of them went back home, and that the few whostayed intermarried with the conquering French. Sir William Alexanderand his Baronets of Nova Scotia made little impression on Acadia."
"Amy," said Martine, "of all the people you've told us about the mostinteresting to me is young Biencourt, wandering about in the woods andliving like an Indian; I even dreamt about him the other night. How didhe happen to escape when Argall destroyed the fort?"
"Oh, he and some of his companions were up there where Annapolis now is,working in their grain fields; you know they had a mill up there, andrich fields of grain. The fort itself was not in a good location,--atleast for farming. It is said that Argall and the other Virginians werenot aware of the existence of the mill and the fields, and when they haddestroyed the fort, thought that there was nothing left for the French."
"You may be pretty sure," said Martine, "they wouldn't have let anythingescape if they'd known; the English are always greedy."
"They are not a bit worse than the French," retorted Priscilla. "Justthink how cruel the French were during the Reign of Terror."
"Oh, that's an entirely different kind of thing; the French are neverhalf as anxious to grab other people's land as the English are."
"There, there," interposed Amy, "I'll have to be a Board ofInternational Arbitration; in other words, let us have peace. There'sone thing," she continued, "I feel as if young Biencourt kept alive thelove of the French for Port Royal. Charles La Tour was himself only aboy like Biencourt when he first came to the New World. The King hadcertainly given Poutrincourt rights in Acadia, and he had passed them onto his son. Poutrincourt was killed at the Siege of Marye in 1610,scarcely three years before Argall's destruction of Port Royal."