64 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     the newly acquired land. The new settlement was called Belle Alliance, 
     
     perhaps in honour of the agreement with Colonel Compton. This 
     
     was how the parish of Miscouche came to be founded in 1817 and 
     
     why the Acadian settlement in Malpeque disappeared. 
     
    
   
   
    
     TIGNISH AND CASCUMPEC 
     
    
   
   
    
     The land problem was not solved by the Acadians when they 
     
     left the Malpeque settlement for Tignish*? and Cascumpec to avoid 
     
     having to pay rent. The Lots (principally 1, 2 and 5) were uninhabited 
     
     when they arrived, but after fifteen or twenty years the pioneers of 
     
     Cascumpeque and several families from Tignish were urged by the 
     
     merchant John Hill to recognize him as their landlord. A letter from 
     
     Father Beaubien to Bishop Plessis in 1817 refers to the problem: 
     
    
   
   
    
     The last news I had from Cashcompeck was not good. It would appear that 
     
     these people, along with a portion of those from Tignish, were being harassed 
     
     by Mr. Hill. (TR)* 
     
    
   
   
    
     Bishop Plessis was not surprised in the least by the difficulties 
     
     the people from Cascumpec and Tignish were having. He replied by 
     
     saying that “it was merely a repetition of what happened in Malpec” 
     
     (TR). He even added: “It is with dread that I foresee the day when 
     
     the poor Acadians will be completely [dispossessed] and shoulder 
     
     their foolish bid based on false confidence” (TR)**. 
     
    

    
     In the fall of 1821*° some of these Acadian pioneers decided to 
     
     sign leases on terms that were far beyond their means. Father MacEach- 
     
     ern noted in 1828 that the Acadians in Tignish and Cascumpec feared 
     
     for their future because they were unable to pay the outrageous rents*. 
     
     Once again, some Acadians who either were unable to honour their 
     
     lease or who refused to become tenants abandoned the land that had 
     
     been improved with many years of hard labour. Consequently, they 
     
     looked elsewhere for a place to settle, always hoping to find a piece 
     
     of land they could actually own. It should be said that the landlords 
     
     were not always sorry to see them leave because cleared land could, 
     
     after all, be leased or sold for a good price. 
     
    

    
     During the 1830s the Acadian tenant farmers in Lots 1, 2 and 5 
     
     learned that they had new landlords. Townships 2 and 5 were bought 
     
     by the great financier, Samuel Cunard, while Township | was trans-