First Century Afterthe Expulsion 61

At the time of the 1798 census, the Acadian population of Mal- peque was concentrated mainly in Lot 17 which William Townsend and Edas Summers purchased in 1798 when they also acquired Lot 43 in Bay Fortune. Once again they demanded several years of back rent from the Acadian farmers*®. Their demands resulted in the depar- ture of numerous families who moved from Malpeque to Lots | and 2 where they founded the settlement of Tignish in 1799, and to Lot 5 where they founded Cascumpec in 1801.

Lot 17 did not remain in the hands of the associates Townsend and Summers for long. Colonel Harry Compton became the new landlord in 1804. He was so interested in his acquisition that he actually left England. In the beginning it would appear that he got along well with his tenant farmers, as Father Angus B. MacEachern explained in 1805:

A Lt. Col. Compton has bought the French Settlement of Malpeque, is very good to the people, and has let lands to them on very reasonable terms. He is a good friend to our Religion.*°

However, this understanding appears to have deteriorated. Ten- sions increased between the Acadians and their landlord and their English neighbours. Perhaps in an effort to solve the problems with his Acadian tenants, Compton offered in 1812 to sell them the lands they were occupying at the rate of one pound per acre*’. The Acadians felt this price was too high, given the fact that they had cleared the land. Beginning in the fall of 1812 the Acadians gradually started leaving Compton’s estate and moving to Lot 15, still uninhabited, where they founded the settlements of “La Roche” (Egmont Bay) and “Grand Ruisseau” (Mont Carmel). In 1813, Father MacEachern wrote the following about this move:

lam very sorry to hear that the poor Acadians of Lot 17 are to move to Egmont Bay, Lot 15. It is said that their neighbours are troublesome to them in temporals and spirituals where they are.**

A ballad telling the story of the departure from Malpeque and the arrival at Egmont Bay has been handed down by oral tradition. The song was composed by Julitte Arsenault, one of the pioneer women of the parish, and gives a good description of these people’s