Nooks and Corners of the New England CoastDrake, Samuel Adams
History
Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast
Drake, Samuel Adams
New England -- Description and travel
Although the King of France testified great displeasure because the
forts in Acadia were not restored to him, Cromwell continued to hold
them fast, nor were they given up until after the treaty of Breda, when
Pentagoët, in 1669-'70, was delivered by Sir Thomas Temple to M. De
Grand Fontaine, who, in 1673, turned over the command to M. De Chambly.
[Illustration: COLBERT.]
On the 10th of August, 1674, M. De Chambly was assaulted by a buccaneer
that had touched at Boston, where an English pilot, as M. De Frontenac
says, was taken on board. An Englishman, who had been four days in the
place in disguise, gave the pirates every assistance.[37] They landed
one hundred and ten men, and fell with fury on the little garrison of
thirty badly armed and disaffected Frenchmen. After sustaining the onset
for an hour, M. De Chambly fell, shot through the body. His ensign was
also struck down, when the fort surrendered at discretion. The
sea-robbers pillaged the fort, carried off the cannon, and conducted the
Sieur De Chambly to Boston, along with M. De Marson, whom they took in
the River St. John. Chambly was put to ransom of a thousand
beaver-skins. Colbert, then minister, expressed his surprise to
Frontenac that the forts of Pentagoët and Gemisée had been taken and
pillaged by a freebooter. No rupture then existed between the crowns of
England and France.
Another subject of Louis le Grand now raps with his sword-hilt for
admission to our gallant company of noble French gentlemen who have
followed the lead of De Monts into the wilds of Acadia. Baron La Hontan,
writing in 1683, says, "The Baron St. Castin, a gentleman of Oleron, in
Bearne, having lived among the Abenaquis after the savage way for above
twenty years, is so much respected by the savages that they look upon
him as their tutelar god."
Vincent, Baron St. Castin, came to America with his regiment about 1665.
He was ensign in the regiment Carignan, of which Henry de Chapelas was
colonel. Chambly and Sorel, who were his comrades, have also left their
names impressed on the map of New France. The regiment was disbanded,
the governor-general allowing each officer three or four leagues' extent
of good land, with as much depth as they pleased. The officers, in turn,
gave their soldiers as much ground as they wished upon payment of a
crown per _arpent_ by way of fief.[38] Chambly we have seen in command
at Pentagoët in 1673. Castin appears to have plunged into the
wilderness, making his abode with the fierce Abenaquis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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