Thomas Akins - History of Halifax City

It may here be mentioned that several batteries have already been erected on George's Island, 28 28 This Island is called in the old French maps Isle Racket or the Snow Shoe Island, being in the shape of a snow shoe. and expensive earth works had been thrown up.

Towards the close of the year Mr. Joshua Mauger, a gentleman from England, who came out at the commencement of the settlement to trade and distil rum for the soldiers, was charged by government with having attempted to make Halifax the repository for Louisburg merchandize, brought up secretly and to be carrying on an illicit traffic, he being at the time agent victualler to Government. Governor Cornwallis, upon information, caused Mr. Mauger's stores to be searched for contraband articles brought from Louisburg. Much discussion ensued, and the settlement was for some time thrown into commotion, by what Mr. Mauger called in his letter to England, the high-handed proceedings of the Governor.

In January, 1752, Mr. Collier, who had been acting as Chief Justice, and Captain Frotheringham, were called to the Council in place of Mr. Salisbury and Col. Horseman, who had returned to England. On 3rd February, a public ferry was established between Halifax and Dartmouth and John Connors appointed ferryman for three years, with the exclusive privilege, and ferry regulations were also established. At the same sitting of the Council, an order was passed for the recording of deeds and mortgages, making all papers unrecorded void against those which had been registered. Col. Horseman's stone building was purchased for a prison in place of that before used.

April 29th, Charles Morris, James Monk, John Duport, Robert Ewer, Joseph Scott, John Wm. Hoffeman and Leonard Christopher Redolf were appointed Justices of the Peace. It was resolved in Council at their sitting on 12th June, that a lottery should be held for building a Light House near Cape Sambro, to raise £450. One thousand tickets at £3 each. Prizes from one of £500 to £7 the lowest. Two hundred prizes, in all amounting to £3000, 15 per cent. to be deducted from the prizes, to be drawn publicly in the Town House at Halifax, under the direction of managers to be appointed by Government.

The winter of 1751-2 had been severe, but the harbour had not been frozen or at all impeded by ice, and the spring opened early, and preparations for prosecuting the fishery were soon in active operation.

The Government mills at Dartmouth, under charge of Captain Clapham, were sold at auction in June. They were purchased by Major Gilman for £310.

16th July – An order passed to strike off the victualling lists all the German and Swiss settlers, who had arrived in the Speedwell.

In the spring of 1752, a number of settlers arrived in the Nancy, under the charge of Lt. Young. About the same time the Marquis DeConte, a Sicilian nobleman, and a number of other foreign settlers, came to Halifax from the island of Tercera, one of the Azores, and settled in the town.

Governor Cornwallis having obtained permission to resign the Government, the Hon. Peregrine T. Hopson, was appointed his successor, and was sworn into office before the Council on Monday, 3rd August. Mr. Cornwallis, however, did not leave the province until after the 10th of October, as he appears to have attended the Council held on that day. 29 29 On September 29th, 1752, the first fire regulations were published at Halifax, among which are found the following: Two or three Magistrates may order a house to be pulled down or blown up to stop a fire, the owner to be indemnified by the house owners of the Town. The fire wards to be appointed by the Justices of the Peace, each to carry a red staff 6 feet long, with a bright brass spear 6 inches long on it; and other regulations. This custom is still kept up in the City, or was until very lately.

In September, 1752, John Baptist Cope, commonly called Major Cope, a Mic-Mac chief, head of the Shubenacadie Indians, came in with terms of peace, which were agreed to. This bears date the 15th September, in that year. Immediately after this document was signed, Cope left town in a vessel, having requested Capt. W. Piggot should be sent to Indian Harbour, to meet the Indians there, to ratify the Treaty. Mr. Piggot was accordingly dispatched, and brought up with him two or three Indians, who appeared before the Council, after which they were sent back to Beaver Harbour, under the conduct of Mr. Piggot, with blankets, provisions, etc. The terms of the Treaty were agreed to and confirmed in Council, and the whole was engrossed on parchment and ratified on 22nd November, 1752. The names of the Indian delegates on this occasion were, Andrew Hodley Martin, Gabriel Martin and Francis Jeremiah. Mr. Saul received directions to issue provisions, according to the allowance of the troops for six months, for 90 Indians, that being the number of the tribe under Cope, occupying the eastern part of the province.

This treaty does not appear to have been respected by the Indian Chief, who we find, not more that eight months after its ratification, refusing to respect the pass of Governor Hopson to one Anthony Cartel, who had been captured by the Indians, in one of the harbours eastward of Halifax, and carried through the country to Shubenacadie, the head-quarters of Major Cope, from whom he was ransomed by a French inhabitant. It would appear that the terms of amity, entered into by Cope and his men with the Government at Halifax, had been in some manner without the sanction of Abbe LeLoutre, who, when Anthony Cartel was brought before Count Raymond at Louisburg, was present, and as Cartel expresses it, inveighed bitterly against Governor Cornwallis, and said if he wanted peace he ought to have written to him, and not to have treated with the tribe of Indians. That he, Cartel, might depart, having been ransomed, but that the first Englishman he caught should be retained until he, LeLoutre, had full satisfaction for himself and his Indians.

In April following, two men named John Connor and James Grace, arrived at Halifax in an Indian canoe, bringing with them six Indian scalps. They informed the Council that they and two others, having put into a place between Tor Bay and Country Harbour, in a schooner, were captured by the Indians, and carried ten miles into the country, where their two companions were murdered; that they had surprised the Indians at night, killed several, whose scalps they secured, and having escaped to the seaside, seized a canoe, and made their way to Halifax. Along the coast, both east and west from Halifax, Indian massacres had been frequent. Those persons engaged in the fishery, who were compelled to land for wood and water, were chiefly the sufferers.

Much had been said and written in Europe at the time, relative to the aggressions of the French, during the suspension of hostilities between the two nations. The Indians, from their religion and trading intercourse, more favourable to the French in Canada and Acadia, were made use of to harass the British settlers, who (though the two nations were then at peace) were looked upon with a jealous eye by the resident French population. A French writer, (I refer to a little work, now a scarce book, published during the second siege of Louisburg), states that the English neglected to cultivate an acquaintance with the manners and customs of the Indians, and it was therefore not surprising at the time, that they should show less affection towards them than towards the French, who had great regard to their humours and inclinations.

"So strong is their aversion to despotic power," says the author, "that force will never do; they will yield to nothing but persuasion. Though they know nothing of precepts or subordination, yet they enjoy almost every advantage derived from well-regulated authority. Their laws and customs appear impressed on their hearts. In order to gain an ascendancy over them, you must gain their esteem, for they never confide in a person whom they do not value, and this esteem is very difficult to obtain."