I4 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Canada, together with that portion of Acadia which now com- prises the Province of New Brunswick.

No sooner had the French Acadians understood that their country had been given up by their king, than their eyes were turned towards the Island of St. John, to where many of them subsequently moved, choosing to encounter the hardships and privations incident to the settlement of a new country under their own beloved banner, rather than be subject to the rules of a foreign flag. Thus the permanent settlement of the Island became established, and as the fertility of the land became better known, each summer brought additional numbers of settlers,——still the progress was slow.

Their earliest settlements appears to have been Pinette, Port-le-Ioie, Crapaud, Point Prim, St. Peter’s Bay and Savage Harbor. But a few years later, Souris, Rustico, Malpeque and other settlements on the north shore began. The settlers managed to provide themselves with log huts, and by fishing, and the cultivation of a patch of ground they passed their days.

The Island was then gradually attracting the attention of fashionable society, inasmuch as men of means were encourag- ing trade and emigration. During the year 1720, Count de St. Pierre, to whom His Christian Majesty granted the Isle St. Jean, having organizeda commercial company, arrived at Port-le—Joie with some vessels laden with horses, cattle, provi- sions and implements of industry. These vessels also brought passengers. A site for a business establishment was chosen on the west of the basin near the harbo‘r’s mouth. A clearing being made in the green woods where the land sloped towards the water, a Governor’s house, barracks for a company of soldiers, a church, and storehouses were erected. There was a Governor and an Intendant having supervision over finance, justice and police ,- while an assemblage of Mic-macs bid them welcome to the hunting ground of their forefathers. The Abbe Breslay was the first missionary amongst the Indians of the Island, having arrived in I721. Members of the highest families in France were at times included in this garrison, while the fleur-de-lies waved proudly Over the ramparts 0f the little fort.

A commercial company was likewise established at the head of a Bay on the North Side, thirty odd miles from Port- le-Joie, by Count St. Peter, where it expended large sums of