Le Comte de Saint Pierre 53

Moras, while the dog-in-the-manger attitude of the Count found expression in preying upon the hardy fishermen from St. Malo who would have been fit subjects to build up the empire of France. Finally, the King listened to their plea and on October 13, 1725, the exclusive fishing rights of the Comte de Saint Pierre were revoked.”° The losses which he had sustained became a subject of controversy for many years while his title to Isle Saint Jean served as a barrier to immigration until it also was annulled in 1730.** Ten years later he was granted a pension of 3000 livres to be continued to his son, de Crévecceur, upon his death; and with this pension he ceases to be of interest in the history of Isle Saint Jean.”

But the failure of Comte de Saint Pierre did not mean the ruin of the colony. The independent fisher- men and the Acadians clung to their new homes, although immigration from both France and Acadia practically ceased for the next three years. The census rolls for 1730, which give the names of the colonists and the date of their arrival, show that in that year there were still 155 persons in the colony who had arrived or been born between 1719 and 1724; eighteen in 1719, fifty-nine in 1720, twenty- five in 1721, twenty in 1722, eight in 1723, and twenty-five in 1724. These were the pioneers of Isle Saint Jean, and they, while eking out their livelihood from the sea, adhered to the soil. Their presence as

20 C11 VI, Vol. 12, pp. 237-251.

21 B, Vol. 542, pp. 578-581. 22 B, Vol. 71.