66 THEISLAND ACADIANS

As was the case in Rustico, several years were to pass before the land question was finally resolved in this part of the Island.

EGMONT BAY AND MONT CARMEL

The Acadians from Malpeque who settled on Lot 15 from 1815 and onwards had better luck than all of their other compatriots. In 1817, the Island government confiscated this Lot because the pro- prietor had done nothing with it. The Acadians were thus able to buy the land from the government for the sum of 4 pounds 10 shillings per hundred acre. The rate was later increased to 100 pounds for the same acreage®!—which posed problems for those who did not have the means to pay for such highly priced land. In 1850 and 1852, the Legislative Assembly intervened on behalf of the Acadians (whose rights, it was recognized, had been infringed upon) in order to lower the price of land in Lot 15°*. In 1852 the government offered the Acadians the possibility of obtaining fifty acres in Lot 15 for the modest sum of 10 pounds (4 shillings an acre)*?.

This sale affected the inhabitants of the parish of Mont Carmel and part of the parish of Egmont Bay. The other part of the latter parish was located in Lots 14 and 16. By 1814 the Acadians resettled in Lot 16 had already signed leases for the proprietor, Stephen Sullivan, as had those living in Lot 14 when Samuel Cunard became the proprie- tor. Once again the Acadians found themselves victims of a type of feudal system that was to last until the 1870s.

In conclusion, the Acadians adapted very badly to the absentee landlord system. Impoverished people with neither economic nor political power and almost entirely devoid of educated leaders, they were highly vulnerable to exploitation by the proprietors or their agents. The traditionally independent nature of the Acadians forever compelled them to seek a “country” where they could live in peace, away from proprietors and people who were hostile to their culture and their values.