17 @152 Garden of 
     
     @arzuact 
     
    
   
   
    
     land on the 22nd of june the courts of common pleas and 
     
     general sessions of the peace were opened and justices of 
     
     the peace were sworn in. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Early SettlementS.—Notwithstanding the difficulties of 
     
     colonization, the Island gradually became populated with 
     
     very desirable settlers, who devoted themselves to farming 
     
     and fishing. These settlers formed separate communities 
     
     and each long preserved its national Characteristics. The 
     
     French were the first arrivals, and naturally located in low 
     
     sunny districts alongr the coast and on the shores of the most 
     
     accessible bays. Their earliest settlements were Port la joie 
     
     (Charlottetown), Pinette and Crapaud, followed later by Saint 
     
     Peter’s, Rollo Bay (named after the British commander), 
     
     French Fort, Rustico (settled in the early part of the eight- 
     
     eenth century), Tryon, Miscouche, Cape Egmont, Holland Bay 
     
     and Tignish. The English located at Little York, Winsloe, 
     
     Suffolk, Covehead (settled in 1770), Bideford and New 
     
     London, where a ship arrived from London in 1774. The 
     
     Scotch settled at Malpeque, Princetown (1770) and Murray 
     
     Harbour. Highlanders located at Tracadie, Strathalbyn and 
     
     Brown’s Creek (settled from the Isle of Skye), East Point, 
     
     Dundas and Belfast (1803). Of Irish settlements, the prin- 
     
     cipal were Monaghan and Newton, in Queen’s County, 
     
     adjoining Belfast. Loyalists located in 1785 at Lots 49 and 
     
     50, Pownal, Bedeque and Richmond Bay. A settlement of 
     
     Guernsey people was made at Murray Harbour in 1788. The 
     
     western coast had a scattered population of Scotch, English, 
     
     Irish and French. 
     
    

    
     In 1780 the legislature, on the suggestion of Governor 
     
     Patterson, passed an act changing the name of Saint john to 
     
     that of New Ireland, but this was disallowed. The original 
     
     name was retained until 1799, when, on account of the 
     
     inconvenience arising from the fact that towns in two 
     
     neighbouring colonies bore practically the same name, and 
     
    
   
   
    
     also out of compliment to the Duke of Kent, father of the 
     
     8