First Century Afterthe Expulsion 65

ferred to Edward Palmer. Around 1835 Cunard sent an agent to make the occupants of his estate sign leases. Through threats and bribery, the agent succeeded in making numerous Acadians accede so that for the first time in thirty years they became tenants. The agent even forced them to pay arrears. Nicholas Conroy described this case to the Land Commission of 1860 which was established to inquire into the unique land problems on Prince Edward Island. He gave the following description:

The leases were for a term of 999 years, and at 1 shilling sterling an acre. In addition to this, they signed notes of hand for 10 pounds, to be paid up to the 25th March, then last past. Your Honours will remember that another year’s rent was then nearly due, so that by the coming 25th of March, which was about one month hence, they were involved in 15 pounds arrears. Now, some who signed those notes of hand, were very poor, and for them to make good their notes was impossible. In the meantime, the proprietor pressed and threatened them, so that the greater number left their farms from sheer inability to pay these arrears.*’

The Acadians who abandoned their farms resettled on new wood- lots for which they signed leases. The farms they had lost were then sold, usually to more well-to-do English farmers. Many Acadians had to move away from their farms situated along the coast to the interior of the Island where land was often low-lying and less productive.

After 1840 the situation in the Tignish area became more and more critical. On the whole, the tenant farmers were so indebted they could not pay their rents. Over a period of three years a resistance movement was organized against the proprietor and his agents**. The farmers refused to pay rent and protected each other from foreclosures. The matter came to a head during the winter of 1844 when the entire population decided to resist the agent who wanted to seize their properties. When the sheriff, accompanied by several peace officers, arrived in Tignish to carry out the foreclosures and arrest the leaders of the resistance, he was confronted by a population ready to defend itself. Approximately five hundred men, determined to prevent them from executing their plans and armed with sticks and rifles, gathered in front of the officers of the law*’. The attempt appears to have failed because The Royal Gazette published, on July 9 1844, a list of thirty-four individuals from Lot 1 whose lands had been seized*.