16 HISTORY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

may be made before the arrival of the survey or not I can- not certainly say, but we wait patiently for it, and hope it will be done accurately as to Hundreds, Manors, Free- hold Villages, Towns, and Capitals, that a moment’s time may not be lost afterwards in proceeding to draw the lots, and then in proceeding to erect the Blockhouses of the

Hundreds on a determined spot, which is the very first'

work to be put in execution, and agreed to be completed by all the chief adventurers within one twelvemonth after the grant shall be obtained.” This communication leads to the conviction, that if the island had been then granted no time would have been lost in erecting the strongholds referred to. It is evident that the erections were intended to consist mainly of wood. The adventurers were, for the most part, wealthy and influential, and under their auspices thousands would have emigrated to the island. It were vain to specu- late as to the effect which would be produced if Egmont’s scheme had been put in execution. In looking over the list of those to whom Hundreds were to be allotted, we find that of the forty persons specified, thirty-two were military or naval oflicers,~——men whose profession did not, as a rule, fit them for the direction of the settlement of a new colony. It is probable, however, that the expense to which, at the outset, the forty Lords of Hundreds were to be put would prompt them to take a more lively interest in their property than was exhibited by the subsequent grantees. It is, how- ever, possible that not a few of the proposed lords intended to dispose of their property to the highest bidder soon after the lots were drawn, and thus to avoid the expense of the blockhouse erections, such a transference of interest being allowable under the proposed original grant. That Egmont intended to carry out his scheme in its integrity, there is no room to doubt. He must have employed the

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