Le Comte de Saint Pierre A5

to winter 250 inhabitants, as they were coming every day from Acadia.’

As the above description was discussed in France on January 28, 1721, it must have been despatched before the close of navigation in the preceding autumn. It obviously gives de Gotteville’s first im- pressions and was no doubt written within a month after his arrival while he was busy with the erection of new buildings and had little opportunity to ex- plore. Although from the census rolls of a later date® we know that two Normans, Francois Douville and Charles Charpentier, had settled independently at St. Peters in 1719 and that Mathieu Thurin, a Canadian, had settled at East Point in the same year, de Gotteville does not mention either place or settle- ment. Even Port La Joye is not mentioned as such. But the catch of fish was evidently made at St. Peters, which was always the chief fishing center under the French. It is therefore probable that these place-names were not chosen immediately.

De Gotteville and de La Ronde were eager for personal distinction and to lay well the foundations of the colony. The buildings which they erected to house the colonists, the workmen, and the garrison of thirty men were hastily constructed but survived with slight repairs until they were destroyed by the New Englanders in 1745. One of these buildings was to serve as a chapel, was dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and placed in charge of a Sulpician

7C11 I, Vol. 43, p. 58. 8 G1, Vol. 4672.