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tinued narrow swamp on the south-west side, and between swamps, lakes and a river on the north-east side. It is of no great height. It seems to be an entire bed of gravel, and serves as an excellent road. In this instance, as in many others, the hand of nature hath saved man a hard task. Quitting the Boar's Back you will soon reach the head of the river of Herbert Bear. This takes its rise in the lakes on the north-east side of the Boar's Back. It begins to flow by the upper hump and runs about due west. The tide also makes up to the head of the river, so that the Boar may alternately drink salt water and fresh in the course of every day; a branch of this river called “Napana” was the scene of one of those barbarous outrages which created a distant likeness between “Scotia junior and Scotia senior.” A party of rangers of a regiment chiefly employed in scouring the country of the deluded French who had unfortunately fallen under the bann of British policy, came upon 4 Frenchmen who had all possible caution, ventured out from their skulking retreats to pick some of the straggling cattle or hidden treasure, The solitary few, the pitiable four, had just sat down weary and faint on the banks of the desert stream in order to refresh themselves with some food and rest, when the party of Rangers surprised and apprehended them, and as there was a bounty on Indian scalps, a blot, too, on England's escutcheon, the soldiers soon made the supplicating signal, the officer's turned their backs, and the French were instantly shot and scalped. A party of the Rangers brought in one day 25 scalps, pretending that they were Indian's, and the commanding officer at the fort, then Col. Wilmot, afterwards Governor Wilmot (a poor tool) gave orders that the bounty should be paid them. Capt. Huston who had at that time the charge of the military chest, objected such proceedings both in the letter and spirit of them. The Colonel told him, that according to law the French were all out of the French; that the bounty on Indian scalps was according to “Law, and, that tho' the Law might in some instances be strained a little, yet there was a necessity for winking at such things.” Upon account Huston, in obedience to orders, paid down L250, telling them that the “curse of God should ever attend such guilty deeds.” A considerable large body of the French were one time surprised by a party of the Rangers on Peticodiac River; upon the first alarm most of them threw themselves into the river and swam across, and by ways the greater part of them made |
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