Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/92

staves, spars, &c." The following spring he wrote to Mr. Hazen:—"I have been up the river and seen the scarcity there. The people have but little money, their pay must be shingles, clapboards, rafters, &c; pray send word whether it will do to take such pay for goods."

It was soon discovered that it would be necessary to take whatever the settlers could give, for at times life was with them a struggle for existence. In the spring of the year 1769, for example, Mr. Simonds says, "The English inhabitants are more distressed for provisions than they have been since their settlement on this river," and he goes on to speak of the impossibility of collecting the debts due by them. The invoices of shipments show, however, that pine boards, shingles, clapboards, cedar posts, cord wood and spars were from time to time sent to Newburyport, besides some 50,000 white and red oak staves, most of these articles undoubtedly having been taken in trade. A few chaldrons of "pit coals" were also shipped showing that the Grand Lake coal was attracting some attention even at that early period.

The presence of the garrison at Fort Frederick was quite an advantage to the company. It afforded protection and also supplied quite an amount of patronage for the store at Portland Point. The old account books contain the names of Lieut. John Marr, Lieut. Gilfred Studholme, and Commissary Henry Green, who were at Fort Frederick in 1764; a captain Pierce Butler of the 29th Regiment was there the year following. Messrs. Simonds and White also supplied the garrison with wood and other articles, and no doubt it was not the least satisfactory condition of their business in this quarter that "John Bull" was the paymaster. Mr. Simonds wrote to Hazen and Jarvis in May 1765:—"On ye 20th March we rec'd the contents