First Century After the Expulsion 79

General of the eastern missions. He thus was required to travel throughout the Maritime region and only visited St. John’s Island on rare occasions’.

From 1785 to 1790, with the exception of a few visits from Father Bourg, the Island Acadians had to be content with the services of missionaries from Arichat (Cape Breton), Saint Mary’s Bay (Nova Scotia) and Memramcook (New Brunswick)''®. It was not until 1790 that the Island received its second resident priest: Father Angus Ber- nard MacEachern, a Scot who was to become the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlottetown after thirty-one years of Apostolic service. Father MacEachern had some knowledge of French and devoted con- siderable energy to the Acadian missions, much to the displeasure of the Scots who often found themselves without a priest and who felt the Acadians were not contributing enough towards his mainten- ance'''. On several occasions Father MacEachern and his compatriots expressed their disappointment with the meager support provided by the Bishop of Quebec for the Acadians in particular and the Catholic community on the Island in general. In fact, the problem was a delicate one for the prelate whose inadequate resources could not fulfil the constant demands of the numerous missions throughout his vast diocese. In addition, he was obliged to show a certain discretion in sending priests into colonies which were under the jurisdiction of Protestant governors.

In 1798, another Acadian delegation from St. John’s Island went to the bishop’s palace in Quebec to request a French-language priest. Monseigneur Joseph-Octave Plessis promised to undertake the neces- sary steps, since he appears to have had Governor Fanning’s backing in order to bring out an émigré priest from revolutionary France'’’. As a result, in 1799 two French priests arrived on the Island via England: Father Jacques-Ladislas-Joseph de Calonne and Father Amable Pichard. Like many other priests they had fled France during the Revolution.

These priests discovered on their arrival that the scattered Cath- olic population on the Island was comprised of Micmac, Acadians, Scots and Irish. Father de Calonne wrote that “the French are the ones to whom we can be most useful but whose need for our services is the least pressing” (TR)'”®. He noted that they were very well grounded in their religion and carried out their duties faithfully. These French priests thus shared the ministry with Father MacEachern.