THE CHIGNECTO ISTHMUS.
The discovery of America added nearly a third to the then known land surface of the earth, and opened up two of its richest continents.If such an extent of territory were thrown into the world's market to-day, the rapidity with which it would be exploited and explored, and its wealth made tributary to the world's requirements, would astonish, if they were here, the men who pioneered the settlement of the new country and left so royal a heritage to their descendants.To those who cross the Atlantic in the great ocean liners of our time, and think them none too safe, the fleet with which Sir Humphrey Gilbert crossed the sea to plant his colony in the new land must seem a frail protection indeed against the dangers of the western ocean.
Perhaps in no way can the progress made since the beginning of the nineteenth century be more forcibly brought before the mind than by comparing the immense iron steamships of the present day with the small wooden vessels with which commerce was carried on and battles were fought and won a hundred and fifty years ago.
The Isthmus of Chignecto separates the waters of the Bay of Fundy from those of Bay Verte, and constitutes the neck of land which saves Nova Scotia from being an island.It is seventeen miles between the two bays at the narrowest point, and considering the town of Amherst the south-eastern limit, and the village of Sackville the north-western, it may be put down as a little less than ten miles in width.
The southern slope is drained by four tidal rivers or creeks, namely, La Planche, Missiquash, Aulac and the Tantramar.These rivers empty into Cumberland Basin, and their general course is from north-east to south-west.In length they are from twelve to fifteen miles, and run through narrow valleys, the soil of which is made up largely from a rich sediment carried by the tide from the muddy waters of the basin.
These valleys are separated from each other by ridges of high land ranging from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the sea level.
The Tidnish River, and several streams emptying into the Bay Verte, drain the Isthmus on its northern slope.The Missiquash and Tidnish rivers, each for some part of its course, form the boundary between the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.The tides at the head of the Bay of Fundy rise to the height of sixty feet, or even higher, and are said to be the highest in the world.The mud deposit from the overflow of these tidal waters, laid down along the river valleys, is from one foot to eighty feet deep, varying as the soil beneath rises and falls.
Between Sackville and Amherst there is an area of some fifty thousand acres of these alluvial lands, reclaimed and unreclaimed.Some of this marsh has been cutting large crops of hay for one hundred and fifty years, and there is no evidence of diminished fertility, although no fertilizer has been used in that time; other sections have become exhausted and the tide has been allowed to overflow them.This treatment will restore them to their original fertility.
Cartier was the first of the early navigators to drop anchor in a New Brunswick harbor.This was in the summer of 1534, and the place was on the Gulf of St.Lawrence, near the mouth of the Miramich River.This was on the 30th of June.Landing the next day and finding the country well wooded, he was delighted and spoke of it in glowing terms.
The first white men to visit the Isthmus with a view to trade and settlement came from Port Royal in the summer of 1612.
In 1670, Jacob Bourgeois, a resident of Port Royal, and a few other restless spirits, were the first to make a permanent settlement.These were followed by another contingent under the leadership of Pierre Arsenault.
In 1676, the King of France gave a large grant of territory in Acadia to a French nobleman, Michael Le Neuf, Sieur de La Valliere.This grant included all the Chignecto Isthmus.Tonge's Island, a small islet in the marsh near the mouth of the Missiquash River, is called Isle La Valliere on the old maps, and was probably occupied by La Valliere himself when he lived on the Isthmus.
From this date Chignecto began to take a prominent place in the history of Acadia, and continued for a hundred and fifty years to be one of the principal centres of influence under the rule both of France and Great Britain.
It was here that France made her last stand for the possession of Acadia.It was here that Jonathan Eddy, twenty years later, raised the standard of the revolted colonies, and made a gallant but unsuccessful effort to carry Nova Scotia over to the rebel cause.
From 1713 to 1750 was the most prosperous period of the French occupation.The population increased rapidly for those times.The market at Louisbourg furnished an outlet for the surplus produce of the soil.The wants of the people were few.The Acadians were thrifty and frugal, the rod and gun supplying a large part of the necessaries of life in many a home.The complaint was made by those who at that time were interested in the circulation of the King's silver that the people hoarded it up, and once they got possession of it the public were never allowed to see it again.The houses were small and destitute of many of the furnishings their descendants now think indispensable, but perhaps they enjoyed life quite as well as those of later generations.
Bay Verte at this time was a place of considerable importance.The Abbe Le Loutre lived here a part of the time, and owned a store kept by an agent.The trade between Quebec and Louisbourg and the settlements on the Isthmus was carried on through the Port of Bay Verte, and from there the farmers of Chignecto shipped their cattle and farm products.
