86 THEISLAND ACADIANS

Jean-Louis Beaubien. In the autumn of 1814 he informed his bishop that he intended to open a school in order to educate the youth. He wrote:

I believe that a sure way of bringing up young people in piety is to educate them as much as possible. That is why I am going to undertake to have a school built and, since | do not have a schoolmaster as I would like, I shall use my boy who can read quite well, is starting to write and is doing Arithmetic; following that, | shall do my best to keep an eye on the school myself. (TR)?!

The boy mentioned in the letter was Francois Buote, a young man from Rustico who lived with Father Beaubien. On January 3, 1816, Father Beaubien wrote to his bishop a second time, saying simply: “My school is open. There are not many pupils yet. We shall have more towards the spring.” (TR)'?

Nothing is known concerning the fate of this school. It could have been in operation for several years. It is known, however, that Francois Buote took up teaching as a career and is considered to be the first Acadian teacher on the Island. After Rustico he taught in Miscouche and then in Tignish where he retired around 1857 after many years of valuable service to his fellow citizens’.

Another Acadian school was opened around the same time as the one in Rustico. In 1816 a young man from Brittany by the name of Dominique Charles Auffray settled in the Tignish area where he taught for three years'**.

Despite the efforts of a few individuals, the majority of Acadians remained illiterate for a long time. John McGregor, a former member of the Legislative Assembly, wrote around 1830 that the Acadians had virtually no schooling. He also noted that most of the men understood English, but that in his opinion French would continue to be their mother tongue for a long time to come”’. It should be mentioned that settlers, be they Acadian, Scottish, English or Irish, were not particularly concerned about the education of their children. Life was difficult during those years of pioneering; what counted above all was manual labour. Besides, as long as the upkeep of the schools and the teachers’ salaries depended entirely on the parents, education would remain a luxury.