194 The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     meet with your approval and will deserve your protec- 
     
     tion. This is the favor that I beg you to grant me.° 
     
     I am with very profound respect, My Lord, 
     
     Your very humble and very obedient servant, 
     
    
   
   
    
     RovussEAv DE VILLEJOUIN. 
     
    
   
   
    
     A letter from Boscawen to Pitt, September 13, 
     
     1758, based upon a report from Lord Rollo reveals 
     
     the English ignorance of the island at this time as 
     
     well as their credulity. In this letter he says: “By the 
     
     number of the inhabitants on this island, and the 
     
     plenty of corn and cattle they have, you will see the 
     
     great importance of it to the French, by the best 
     
     accounts I can get, they have been the only supply 
     
     for Quebec of corn and beef since the war except 
     
     what has been brought from Europe, having at 
     
     present above 10,000 horned cattle, and many of the 
     
     inhabitants say they grow each of them 1200 bushels 
     
     of corn annually, they have no other market for it 
     
     but Quebec. They have been an asylum of all the 
     
     French inhabitants of Nova Scotia, and have from 
     
     this island constantly carried on their inhuman prac- 
     
     tice of killing the English inhabitants for the sake 
     
     of carrying their scalps to the French who paid them 
     
     for it, several scalps were found in the Governour’s 
     
     quarters when Lord Rollo took possession, I have 
     
     wrote to his Lordship to desire he will send a particu- 
     
     lar account of the island, its produce, and if possible 
     
     how this great increase of inhabitants came about. 
     
     As the Island hitherto has been thought of small 
     
    
   
   
    
     5 C11 IV, Vol. 88, p. 269.