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Perhaps the best map available today is the one made by Captain Lewis* at the time of the destruction of the Acadian village of Tatamagouche in August of 1755. On his map, the road is marked a "horse road". In the Fall of 1755, after the Expulsion, a map was prepared of Nova Scotia, by the direction of the chief surveyor, Morris**. On it, there is marked, as well, another road from Tatamagouche in about the same place as the present "Old Truro" road and which came out at Cobequid at or a little above Bible Hill. This is the only map that I have seen which indicates that there was more than one road between Tatamagouche and the Cobequid settlements. A perusal of Willard’s diary, however, leaves the impression that he returned to Cobequid by a different route than the one by which he came. For centuries before the coming of the Whites
the Indians of nomadic habits had been continually traversing the country
between Tatamagouche and the Bay of Fundy, and naturally had explored its
various streams and in time formed near their banks , paths and trails
which the French by convenience followed. It is probable, then, that while
there was more than one route, the one starting at Isgonish and coming out
on the West side of the French River was the one most often used. I have
heard old residents at Belmont speak of the "French Road" which, according
to them, ran somewhere near Frog Lake and in the vicinity of the "Isgonish-New
Annan" road, which was laid out as a public road in 1842, and ran North
from Frog Lake to the West side of Johnson Lake and thence down the
Johnson Brook to New Annan. Back |
