180 The French in Prince Edward Island

The progress of the English establishments at Fort Lawrence and Fort Edward, stimulating as they did the menaces of the French and Indians at Beauséjour, spurred on the Acadians so that in 1753 and 1'754 migration was revived after the lull of 1752. Some 400 passed over to Isle Saint Jean in 1753. This number included 135 who had gone to Ile Royale and settled at Pointe & La Jeunesse, where they had almost starved. The census of 1753 gives a total of 2641, an increase of 418 over that of Sieur de La Roque in 1752. In live stock there were 823 oxen, 1497 cattle, 1651 pigs, 1440 sheep, and 152 horses. On cleared lands 214934 bushels of wheat had been sown and on burned land 60514. There was additional land cleared for sowing 5555 bushels, and burned for sowing 2429 bushels. Of peas 42014, bar- ley 231, rye 5, and oats 43534 bushels had been sown. The dearth of seed had prevented the habitans from using almost two-thirds of their available land; and it required all the surplus crop to provide seed for the following year.

In the spring of 1754, 8000 bushels of wheat, 1000 of peas, and a quantity of oats were sown, and, bar- ring an accident, the Governor of Louisburg looked forward to the prospect of drawing some grain from Isle Saint Jean instead of sending it there as had hitherto been the sad necessity practically every year since its foundation.® Acadians still continued to migrate and would have done so in greater numbers but for the lack of fortifications, a lack which the

6 C11 IV, Vol. 34, p. 33.