68 ‘The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     to pay their debts and at the same time to provide 
     
     for their families during the winter. 
     
    

    
     On the north shore also there was a settlement at 
     
     Tracadie consisting of six families. ‘They were well 
     
     on the way to self-support but had found unusual 
     
     difficulty in clearing the land which was covered with 
     
     large oak. However, when cleared, it proved fertile. 
     
    

    
     Malpeque, further west on the north shore, had a 
     
     beautiful harbor and good soil, but it also was 
     
     covered with oak and pine. An island in the harbor 
     
     was the headquarters of the savages who grew Indian 
     
     corn. That the land was fertile could be seen from the 
     
     rich returns that their crude husbandry brought. All 
     
     they did was to make, with a piece of wood, a hole 
     
     in the ground, in which they planted their corn not 
     
     touching it again except to hill it when it had grown 
     
     well up from the earth. Even so, their smallest crop 
     
     was a hundred hogsheads. In time it was expected 
     
     that this district would be the most densely inhabited. 
     
     Four Acadian families had already established them- 
     
     selves there, and had reaped ten to one of their sow- 
     
     ing, with greater prospects for their next crop. They 
     
     had also built a mill, the advantage of which, added 
     
     to the fertility of the soil, would attract other Aca- 
     
     dians. 
     
    

    
     The total population of these six settlements, to- 
     
     gether with two families of fishermen at East Point, 
     
     ten souls in all, was 347. 
     
    

    
     Port La Joye, the center of the garrison and the 
     
     capital, though possessing a magnificent harbor was 
     
     not suitable for agriculture. It produced neither hay