198 OVER ON THE ISLAND

Down at Low Point is the site of this old French village, chapel, and cemetery. By the year 1846, it was covered with a thick grove of fir and spruce trees.

At this point also the sea has advanced rapidly upon the shore and has intruded upon the ancient cemetery . . . I collected all the bones I could find in the tideway and by the aid of the Indians, who considered it a very unpleasant task, they were reinterred some distance from the shore. This spot has long been a favorite spot for money diggers.

So wrote Abraham Gesner in his geological report of the Island.

It is not at all surprising that people have dug for money here. The point has a twofold advantage. Not only is it the site of an old French village, but it also has splendid hiding-places for Captain Kidd’s treasure, if he ever left it here. We decided to dig, too; but, first of all, we had to see the transferred cemetery. The Indians still know the place well. As we were floundering around in the rain looking in vain for anything resembling a cemetery, a fine-looking, young Indian came down the shore to meet us. Without his aid we should never have found the cemetery. It was hidden in a grove of trees about two hundred yards from the wharf and was not discernible from the shore.

Only two monuments are left to mark the resting— places of those restless and courageous pioneers of yore. One, remarkably well preserved, has the date “1807” ——apparently not a Frenchman. The other is illegible. Unlike the monuments in the cemeteries at Belfast and Scotchfort, these stones are shaped like modern monuments.

And now for the gold digging. We had waited a long time for such an opportunity, so we decided to