 |
W3C CSS Validation Service |
| Note: In the version above the text is the same as the text in the original article, but several improvements have been made in the formatting. This version will work properly with whatever typeface may be available in the viewer's computer – in contrast to the original version that requires the viewer to download and install a special rarely-used typeface. In this version the numerous non-standard characters, that appear in the original, have been eliminated; they have been replaced by standard characters that will display properly in many more browsers than the original version. This version adheres to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for HTML documents; that is, it passes the W3C validation test while the original version does not; the practical effect of this is that this version will display properly in any standards-compliant browser. |
Jean Baptiste Kopit: a true hero
by Daniel Paul
Jean-Baptiste Cope
Wikipedia
Jean Baptiste Cope: the architect of peace
Heroes of Hants
Peace and friendship treaty between
His Majesty the King and Jean Baptiste Cope
22 November 1752
“...The Treaty of 1752 continues to be in force and effect...”
The Supreme Court of Canada decision
that upheld Cope's 1752 Treaty
21 November 1985
|
The following is a different account of the events involving James Grace, John Conner, Captain Bannerman and Anthony Casteel:
In November 1752, the preliminaries of a treaty of peace between the governor and the Micmac chiefs were arranged at Halifax. Three years before, a similar peace had been signed with the Indians of the St. John River, and until now this peace had not been broken. However, this peace was so short that Le Loutre and the French are almost invariably accused of having prevented the treaty from being concluded. This might be considered probable if we had not manifest evidence of the contrary. The act which gave rise to this accusation was the following : In April 1753, two inhabitants of Halifax, John Conner and James Grace, came before the council and presented seven Indian scalps for which they claimed the usual bounty. They related how that, with John Poor and Michael Hagarthy, they were wrecked on the coast ; that their companions were killed and scalped ; that, after several days of captivity, they took advantage of the absence of the Indians to butcher the woman and the child that had been left with them ; and that, on the return of these Indians, they had fallen upon them, killing and scalping them. The tale was improbable. It was hard to explain why they had been left alone with a woman and a child, and still more difficult to account for their not having run away instead of waiting for the return of the Indians. This was, doubtless, the impression produced on the council, which ordered : "that John Conner and James Grace do give security for their appearance at the next general court, in case any complaint should be Brought against them by the Indians." "This is the substance of their story," said the surveyor Morris, afterward judge of the province, writing to Cornwallis, who was then in England ; "but, as the Indians complained, a little after the sailing of Conner's schooner, that one exactly answering her description put into Jedore, where these Indians had their stores, and robbed them of forty barrels of provisions given them by the Government, 'tis supposed that these men might afterwards have been apprehended by some of this tribe whom they killed as they describe. "If this be the case, 'tis a very unhappy accident at this juncture, and time only can discover what its consequences will be. The chiefs of every tribe in the Peninsula had sent in messages of friendship, and, I believe, would have signed articles of peace this spring, if this accident does not prevent them." The Reverend Andrew Brown, who comments on what Morris called an unhappy accident, adds these remarks : "Thus far Mr. Morris ; but the facts were still blacker than he suspected. After having robbed the Indian store-houses, Conner and the crew of his unfortunate schooner were obliged to encounter the fury of the deep. They suffered shipwreck ; the two survivors, Conner and Grace, were found by the Indians drenched with water and destitute of everything, were taken home, cherished, and kindly entertained, yet watched their opportunity, and to procure the price of scalps, murdered their benefactors, and came to Halifax to claim the wages of their atrocious deed. "The Indians, as may well be supposed, were exasperated beyond measure at this act of ingratitude and murder... To procure immediate retaliation they sent some of their warriors to Halifax, to complain of the difficulty they found to keep their provisions safe during the fishing season, and to request that the Governor would send a small vessel to bring their families and their stores to Halifax. In compliance with this desire, the vessel and crew mentioned in the Journal of Anthony Casteel were engaged, tho' several suspected from the first that it was an Indian feint to spill blood. The ruse the Indians had adopted for the sake of revenge met with complete success. A schooner was put at their disposal in order to bring back their families to Halifax. The crew consisted of Anthony Casteel, messenger of the council, of Captain Bannerman, of a Mr. Cleveland, and of four sailors. All were butchered and scalped except Casteel. How he was saved is explained minutely in the journal he kept, which, on his return, was sworn to and transmitted by the Governor to the Secretary of State. It is a thrilling tale and shows the base treachery of which Conner and Grace, had been guilty against the Indians. Casteel, after the massacre of his companions, was dragged from Jedore, not far from Halifax, to Bay Verte. Near this place they reached a camp of almost five hundred Indians, who made a circle around him. After deliberating on his fate, an old man, the father-in-law of the chief whose prisoner Casteel was, declared to him that his life would be spared on payment of a ransom of three hundred livres. "We were on the point of signing a lasting peace," said the old man ; "we had for a long time abstained from any act of hostility against your countrymen ; but now that the English have begun, we will not stop. "We had sheltered two shipwrecked men, who, the day before, had stolen most of our provisions ; they were almost lifeless ; we had brought them into our camp, where we fed and took care of them ; we were soon to take them to Halifax when, taking advantage of our absence, they massacred during the night two men, three women and two children, one an infant at the breasl. In return for such a deed our vengeance would not be satisfied even if we had killed as many English as their victims had hairs on their heads. We have hitherto always spared women when we could ; henceforth, we will not even spare the infant in its mother's womb." Then he tore up before Casteel the paper that bore the preliminaries of the treaty. These facts, Casteel goes on to say, were confirmed by other persons. The culprits were Conner and Grace, who, some weeks before, had brought to Halifax seven scalps, for which they claimed the bounty. The chief who held Casteel prisoner stopped at the house of an Acadian named Jacques Vigneau dit Maurice. There he met some Indians and a French officer. One of them asked him what ransom he wanted for his prisoner. "Three hundred livres" said Casteel's master. "I will give them to you," said another Indian, "my father was hanged at Boston." He rushed at Casteel to stab him ; but the French officer, who had been watching the Indian's movement, gave Casteel a great shove that stretched him on his back and saved him from the blow. The sons of James Vigneau carried him into a little room, where he swooned away. When he came to himself, Vigneau's wife offered him a glass of wine and asked him if he was wounded. He said no. She then went to a chest, opened it and took from it fifty pieces of six livres forming the three hundred livres of his ransom. Jacques Vigneau called Casteel's master and counted out the money to him saying : "This man belongs to me ; let none of you come here to molest him, or I will break his bones." "I then asked Vigneau," says Casteel, "if he would take my note, he answered no ; that he believed I was an honest man, but, if he was never to receive one farthing, that should not hinder him saving the English to the utmost of his power, even to the last shirt on his back. The next day Vigneau gave me a shirt, a few other articles, a six-livres piece, and we parted." I have dwelt at some length upon these two incidents, the Conner and Grace butchery and Casteel's adventures, because all the historians that mention them point to the murder of Casteel's companions as to an infamous crime traceable to French instigation. Some of them, literally believing the declaration of Conner and Grace, count this as another crime referable to the same source, although the companions of these two miscreants really perished when their vessel was wrecked... Excerpted from Acadia: Missing Links of a Lost Chapter in American History by Edouard Richard, published 1895 |
|
This webpage has been archived
Jean-Baptiste Cope
More Historic Biographies
And more Historic Biographies
These links were accessed and found to be valid on 22 November 2013. |
Hits per calendar month
2013 Oct 78
2013 Sep 117
2013 Aug 135
2013 Jul 94
2013 Jun 49
2013 May 83
2013 Apr 114
2013 Mar 12
2013 Feb 13
2013 Jan 22
2012 Dec 9
2012 Nov 20
2012 Oct 17
2012 Sep 14
2012 Aug 10
2012 Jul 13
2012 Jun 13
2012 May 15
2012 Apr 15
2012 Mar 10
2012 Feb 8
2012 Jan 17
|
|
W3C CSS Validation Service |