On the passage down the river several Indians were seen on the banks of the stream, but none of them made any trouble.  After eleven months absence the Captain found himself at Fort Frederick once again.  Captain Godfrey said to his wife, “Margaret, what changes are often wrought in a few months.”  “Yes! true!” she replied, “we have lost our property, but we have escaped with our lives and those of our children.  Our reputations are not dimmed, neither has the Lord forsaken us.  The best of our fortune remains with us.  An honourable foundation remains on which we can re-erect our future structure.  Let us thank a wise, over-ruling providence that a fortune still remains to us, though we have passed through great misfortune.”

CHAPTER III.

Arrives off fort Frederick—­Paul guidon.

After the arrival of the sloop at the mouth of the St. John, the Captain was compelled to leave his wife and family.  There was not a morsel of food of any description in the locker.  The necessaries that had been supplied by Crabtree for the voyage were entirely consumed.

The day following the arrival off Fort Frederick, Captain Godfrey set sail in his small boat for Passmaquaddy, eighteen leagues distant.  The boat was the same one in which he accomplished his successful journey to Annapolis Royal.  His intention in setting out for Passmaquaddy was to visit a settlement belonging to a Lieutenant of the Royal Navy, and there procure some supplies for his family, and sails and rigging for the sloop.

He left his family in a most destitute condition, they having neither shoes nor stockings to their feet, and every other article of their clothing being in rags and tatters.  While the Captain was absent, his wife and family were obliged to traverse the shore seeking for small fish, which they were sometimes fortunate in securing.  The second evening after Captain Godfrey had left for Lieut.  Owen’s settlement, being a clear, moonlight one in June, Mrs. Godfrey thought she saw an object floating leisurely down the river in the direction of the sloop.  She went below and brought on deck one of the old muskets which did such valuable service at Grimross.  Charlie, her twelve-year old son, said to his mother:  “Do you see Indians?” The little fellow was so agitated he could scarcely speak.  She cautioned her son to remain perfectly quiet, and not to utter another word.  Brave, calm, unmoved, she stood over her boy at the bow of the sloop.  On the nearer approach of the object she discovered it was a canoe, with someone leisurely paddling it along.  It had almost drifted by the vessel when, to her surprise, it suddenly turned, and ran straight as an arrow for the side of the sloop.

Mrs Godfrey, in a loud, firm tone, sang out: 

“Pull away, or I’ll shoot you!”

The canoe was turned about in an instant, and as quick came floating over the water the words: