Reunion to the Royal Domain 67 
     
    
   
   
    
     ably accurate account of the state of the colony at 
     
     the end of 1731.** 
     
    

    
     According to de Pensens, Port La Joye and the 
     
     Northeast River were the most considerable areas in 
     
     which the land was cultivated. Twenty-eight habi- 
     
     tans were settled there, several of whom sowed five or 
     
     six hogsheads of grain, others sowed four, three, or 
     
     two, and the poorest was self-supporting. 
     
    

    
     At the head of the Northeast River there was a 
     
     portage three-quarters of a league long to Savage 
     
     Harbor on the north shore of the island. Of the seven 
     
     habitans established there, three sowed three or four 
     
     hogsheads of grain but the others had not yet cleared 
     
     enough land to provide subsistence for their families 
     
     although they would be able to do so in the following 
     
     year. 
     
    

    
     St. Peters was the most thickly settled of all the 
     
     establishments. Most of the inhabitants were deep- 
     
     sea fishermen or masters of shallops of whom there 
     
     were twenty-four or twenty-five. Only eight habitans 
     
     were engaged in clearing land suitable for wheat. 
     
     Although the fishing was good and much less costly 
     
     than at Ile Royale, the fishermen had all they could 
     
     do to make both ends meet for lack of equipment. In 
     
     spite of the fact that a ship had come from France 
     
     each of the last two years the fishermen had been 
     
     under obligation to merchants in Louisburg and com- 
     
     pelled to buy their provisions there at an increased 
     
     cost of 50 per cent. This made it difficult for them 
     
    
   
   
    
     18 C11 IV, Vol. 12, p. 92.