BOOK III. NEW BRUNSWICK. CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AREA, AND HISTORY. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.-New Brunswick, as an eastern section of the continent of North America, is situate between the parallels of 45° 5′ and 48° 4′ 30′′ north latitude, and the meridians of 63° 47′ 30′′ and 67° 53′ longitude west of Greenwich; bounded on the north by the Bay of Chaleurs, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (separating it from the district of Gaspé), and by the River Ristigouche, which in its whole course, from its source to its estuary in the Bay of Chaleurs, divides the province from the county of Bonaventure, in Lower Canada; on the south it is bounded by the Bay of Fundy and Chignecto Inlet, which nearly insulate Nova Scotia, the latter being divided on land by a short boundary line (drawn from Fort Cumberland to Bay Verte, in Northumber land straits, an arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence), which separates the county of Westmoreland, in New Brunswick, from that of Amherst, in Nova Scotia; on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait, which separates it from Prince Edward's Island; and on the west by the United States territory, commencing on the south coast at Passamaquoddy Bay in the Gulf of Fundy (embracing the islands to the northward of 44° 36′, such as the Grand Monan, Deer, and Campo Bello), proceeding northward along the River Scodie or St. Croix'; the River Chiputnetikooh to a chain of lakes, thence from a boundary line commencing at a monument on Mars' Hill, 100 miles west of Fredericton, in latitude 45° 57′ north, longitude 66° 46′ west, and running northerly to about four or five miles west of the River St. John, to the source of Ristigouche River; the whole province containing 27,704 square miles, or, 17,730,560 acres. GENERAL HISTORY.-The early details of this colony are comprised in those of Nova Scotia, of which it formed a part, and which the reader will remember to have been finally ceded (after conquest) to Great Britain, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but until the final extirpation of the French power in North America, in 1758 and 1759, Great Britain could not be said to have peaceable possession of New Brunswick, since which time it has remained in our possession 2. 1 See Appendix for the Boundary Question, as regards this river. 2 I pass over throughout this work all petty or minute de GENERAL HISTORY. 127 In 1785 the present limits of New Brunswick were fixed, and the territory was separated from the province of Nova Scotia-erected into a separate government, under the administration of Col. Carleton, and a Legislative Assembly was summoned at St. John's. The county was then thinly peopled; the judicious-the paternal conduct of Governor Carleton, unremittingly pursued for twenty years, raised it from a wilderness to comparative civilization, leaving no other duty to the historian than to record the virtues of its founder, and the sufferings of the New England, and other American loyalists, who were in a great measure the early settlers in this now important section of the British Empire. I must not, however, omit to notice the dreadful fire at Miramichi, on the east coast, in 1825, as it is one of the most terrible natural conflagrations of which we have any record in the history of the world. The person who has never been out of Europe can have little conception of the fury and rapidity with which fires rage after a continuation of hot seasons in North America and New Holland, when the dry underwood and fallen leaves, in addi tails of controversy; for instance, those that took place between the early French and English settlers in New Brunswick would not interest the general reader, and while occupying a considerable space, they would distract the attention from the main points of the history, such as the acquisition, &c., which, in a work of this nature, is alone essentially necessary: I make this observation in order that critics may not suppose me ignorant of events, which I have not considered it necessary to detail. tion to the resinous quality of the timber, afford combustible materials in the greatest abundance. I have seen the side of a mountain, thirty miles long, burning in New Holland, and illumining the sky for many miles; but the following description by an eye witness (Mr. Cooney) of the Great Miramichi fire, exceeds any thing of the kind that ever occurred. The summer of 1825 was unusually warm in both hemispheres, particularly in America, where its effects were fatally visible, in the prevalence of epidemical disorders. During July and August, extensive fires raged in different parts of Nova Scotia, especially in the eastern division of the peninsula. The protracted drought of the summer, acting upon the aridity of the forests, had rendered them more than naturally combustible; and this facilitating both the dispersion and the progress of the fires that appeared in the early part of the season, produced an unusual warmth. On the 6th of October, the fire was evidently approaching Newcastle; at different intervals fitful blazes and flashes were observed to issue from different parts of the woods, particularly up the north-west, at the rear of Newcastle, in the vicinity of Douglastown and Moorfields, and along the banks of the Bartibog. Many persons heard the crackling 1 During the greater part of the year 1825 I was on the coast of Eastern Africa and Madagascar, in His Majesty's ships Leven and Barracouta, where I found the temperature dreadfully hot, although on board ship: the drought also was very great, and I observed forest fires on different parts of the shore, from Patta and Lamoo, near the equator, down to Mozambique. GREAT FIRE AT MIRAMICHI. 129 of falling trees and shrivelled branches, while a hoarse rumbling noise, not dissimilar to the roaring of distant thunder, and divided by pauses, like the intermittent discharges of artillery, was distinct and audible. On the 7th of October the heat increased to such a degree, and became so very oppressive, that many complained of its enervating effects. About twelve o'clock a pale sickly mist, lightly tinged with purple, emerged from the forest, and settled over it. This cloud soon retreated before a large dark one, which occupying its place, wrapt the firmament in a pall of vapour. This incumbrance retaining its position, till about three o'clock, the heat became tormentingly sultry. There was not a breath of air— the atmosphere was overloaded; an irresistible lassitude seized the people; and a stupifying dulness seemed to pervade every place but the woods, which now trembled, and rustled, and shook with an incessant and thrilling noise of explosions rapidly following each other, and mingling their reports with a discordant variety of loud and boisterous sounds. At this time the whole country appeared to be encircled by a fiery zone, which gradually contracting its circle by the devastation it made, seemed as if it would not converge into a point while any thing remained to be destroyed. A little after four o'clock an immense pillar of smoke rose in a vertical direction, at some distance north-west of Newcastle for a while, and the sky was absolutely blackened by this huge cloud; but a light northerly breeze springing up, it gradually distended, and then dissipated into a variety of shapeless mists. About an hour after, or probably at NOVA SCOTIA. K |