Reunion to the Royal Domain 57

English with confidence should they attempt to estab- lish themselves there.* St. Ovide readily seconded his wishes to the Minister while de Pensens himself wrote reminding the distinguished Comte de Maurepas that he had served the King faithfully for thirty years, part of which time he had been Lieutenant de Roi in Newfoundland. He added pathetically that it was rather discouraging to be rewarded for his services by having his command reduced from sixty to thirty men.”

Both his request and the recommendation of St. Ovide fell upon deaf ears, for the time being, and on July 2, 1726, de Pensens was appointed Command- ant in Isle Saint Jean with a detachment of twenty- five or thirty men, and one ensign.* Thus, it was a discouraged old man, worn out in the service, to whom the future destinies of the deserted colony were entrusted. ‘T’o the historian of another race, poring over the scant records that have remained, two hun- dred years later, the wonder is not how little but how much was accomplished under such trying condi- tions, for this little band of soldiers, who left Louis- burg so unwillingly, was to confirm possession of a thriving colony that was lost to France, not through any fault of theirs, but rather through European rivalries which were fought out in America and brought only sorrow, bloodshed, and ultimate extinc- tion to the faithful men and women who braved the

1C11 IV, Vol. 7, p. 153.

2C11 IV, Vol. 7, p. 220. 3B, Vol. 492, p. 573.