a”:

We??? of b a.

OUR ISLAND STORY

THE FIRST CHAPTER Discovery and Early Settlements by the French:

“All the said land is low and plaine and the fairest that may possibly be seen, full of goodly meadows and trees.” That was the statement of Jacques Cartier, the first European who landed upon Prince Edward Island.

On the 20th of June, 1534, Cartier passed by the Northern shore of this Island to which was subsequently given the name, “Isle St. Jean.” He was oh the way Westward toward the site now occupied by Quebec and Montreal. In his log book he stated that “we with our boats went on shore in many places; and among the rest we entered into a beautiful river, but very shallow, which, we named the “River of Boats” because that there we saw boats full of wild men that were crossing the river.”

For a century and more there is no record of another visit by white men to this “gem of the Northern Sea.” Meantime, it was the summer resort of fishermen who came and caught shiploads of fish and returned to France and Spain, but left no evidence of their stay, save the flakes upon which they cured their cargoes, and the log huts in which their fish-curers lived while here.

There is some doubt about the names of those who first obtained from the King of France the right to settle and fish and do business in and around this Island. It was stated by the Abbe Casgrain that Nicholas Denys came to Acadia in the year 1652; that, in the year 1656, he obtained from “La Compagnie de la Nouvelle France” a concession of several Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and that included in these Islands was the Isle St. Jean. By others it is stated that Captain Doublet of

the French Navy, obtained this concession.