Brouillan now succeeded to the command. He found the fort at St. John in good order, as was to be expected, it having been just rebuilt, but in the opinion of the new governor it was of little use for the glory of the King or for the preservation of the country. He condemned the situation as being commanded on one side by an island at the distance of a pistol shot, and on the other by a height at the distance only of a hundred and odd fathoms (toises), and with a very insufficient water supply. He therefore caused the fortifications to be razed, demolished the houses, and carried away the guns and everything else of a portable character to Port Royal. The inhabitants living on the River St. John were left without protection and they seem almost without exception to have removed, some to Quebec and others to Port Royal. The valley of the St. John was thus left as deserted and desolate as it had been previous to the arrival of Champlain. The Indian might wander at will among the ruins of forts and dwellings abandoned to his care, or left to be converted into hiding places for the wild beasts and wonder at the folly of the white man who had forsaken the finest river in all Acadia with its wealth of forest and stream and its fertile lands awaiting the hands of industry and thrift. CHAPTER VII. THE BROTHERS D'AMOURS. Among the young adventurers who came to Acadia towards the close of the seventeenth century were four brothers, sons of Mathieu d'Amours[9] of Quebec. The father's political influence as a member of the Supreme Council enabled him to obtain for each of his sons an extensive seigniory. That of Louis d'Amours, the eldest, included a tract of land of generous proportions at the Richibucto river; the grant was issued September 20, 1684, but the seignior had already built there a fort and two small houses, and for two years had been cultivating a piece of land. His sojourn was brief, for in a year or two we find him living on the River St. John, where his brothers Mathieu and Rene were settled and where they were not long after joined by their brother Bernard. [9] This gentleman married in 1652 Marie, the eldest daughter of Nicolas Marselot of Quebec; she was a very youthful bride, being only 14 years old at the time of her marriage; she was the mother of 15 children. As mentioned in a previous chapter, it was customary among the French noblesse for each son to take a surname derived from some portion of the family estate; accordingly the sons of Councillor d'Amours figure in history as Louis d'Amours, sieur de Chauffours; Mathieu d'Amours, sieur de Freneuse; Rene d'Amours, sieur de Clignancourt and Bernard d'Amours, sieur de Plenne.