Among the Isles of Charlotte

Year
1892
Month
7
Day
21
Article Title
Among the Isles of Charlotte
Author
--------
Page Number
1
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
AMONG THE ISLES OF CHARLOTTE. The round trip advertised by the International Steamship Company and the Shore Line Railway, from St. John to Eastport, St. Andrews, St. Stephen, and returning over the Shore Line, is one of the pleasantest that has been projected this year. The Isles of Charlotte are full of interest, not only because of their natural beauty, but also from the historical associations connected with, them. The earliest fisheries at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy were among the Islands of Passamaquoddy Bay, the fishermen of France being found there during the latter part of the sixteenth century. One of the islands on the St. Croix River, now known as Doucette Island, was the first settlement made by the French in Acadia and antedates the landing of the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth by 16 years. It was Champlain and De-Monts who founded this settlement on St. Croix Island and they landed there in the month of Jane, 1604. St. Croix Island is 16 chains in length and seven in extreme width and has an area of about 10 acres. It was covered with cedars when Champlain first visited it, but these were cut down for material for the houses to be erected. Before the winter set in the northern end of the island was covered with buildings surrounding a square. On the right was a spacious house, which was the residence of De Monts, behind it and near the water was a long covered gallery, for work or exercise in bad weather. Champlain and the Sieur d’ Orville had a house built for themselves, opposite that of De Monts, and the remainder of the square was occupied by store houses, a magazine, workshops, lodgings for the men, and a barrack for the soldiers, the whole enclosed with a palisade. Here 79 spent the winter of 1604-5, but the scurvy broke out among them; and 35 of them died before the spring. That winter ended the history of St. Croix Island as a colony, and it has never been occupied since as a residence, except by the keeper, of the lighthouse which in modern times has been placed upon it. St. Croix Island became the subject of an interesting controversy arising out of the boundary between the British possessions in North America and the United States. On the part of the latter country, an attempt was made to show that the desorption of St. Croix Island given by Champlain would agree with that of one of the islands in the Magaudavic river, and that the latter was therefore the true St. Croix. The matter, however, was settled by the discovery in 1797 of the foundations of the actual buildings erected by De Monts, so that no further doubt was left as to which river was the true St. Croix. This island, however, is only one of the objects of interest on the round trip already referred to. Eastport itself has quite a history, having been captured by the British during the war of 1812, and not surrendered until the year 1818. In the old French days, according to the census of Acadia in 1686, there was a small Freeh settlement on the St. Croix, and long before the time of the Loyalists, as early as 1760, one or two English settlers from New England had found their way there. St. Andrews, was in the time of the Loyalists, one of the first settlements formed, and at one time seemed likely to rival St. John with respect to its trade. Independently of these historical associations the whole country about Passamaquoddy Bay is picturesque in the extreme, and abounds in natural beauties. There can be no more delightful trip, and our people who have not made it, cannot spend a day or two, or even a week, to greater advantage than by going over this round of travel.