In the subsequent interview with the savages, Father Germain and Captain Edward How acted as interpreters, and the missionary wrote an account of the interview to the governor of Quebec, in which he mentions the fact that Cornwallis, the governor of Nova Scotia, claimed jurisdiction over the St. John river region and beyond it to Passamaquoddy, deeming it a part of Acadia according to its ancient limits. Boishebert, in his letter to the Count de la Galissonniere, says that one of the best reasons the English had for laying claim to the territory north of the Bay of Fundy was that the commission of Subercase, the last French governor who resided at Annapolis Royal, fixed his jurisdiction as far west as the River Kennebec. In the spirit of a true soldier, Boishebert wishes that war might speedily recommence, and that France might be more fortunate as to the conquest of Acadia than in the last war. Meanwhile he had arranged with Capt. Rous to remain undisturbed on the River St. John until the next spring, on the understanding that he was to erect no fortification. The St. John Indians having made peace with the governor of Nova Scotia at Halifax, it was decided that a present of 1,000 bushels of corn should be sent "to confirm their allegiance"; and it seems their allegiance needed confirmation, for a little later Father Germain warned Captain How that an Indian attack was impending. Nor was it by any means a false alarm, for on the 8th of December about 300 Micmacs and Maliseets surprised and captured an English officer and eighteen men and attacked the fort at Minas. Father Germain evidently was a warrior priest and had used his powers of observation to some purpose; he strongly recommended the erection of a fort for the defence of the river at the narrows ("detroit") about a league and a half above where the river enters the sea. The English, he says, could not pass it with 600 men if there were but 60 or 80 men to oppose them.