GCHWAPTER VI 
     
     Roma and His Settlement at Three Rivers 
     
    
   
   
    
     I NDIFFERENT alike to the hopes and the fears of 
     
     de Pensens, to his devoted service, and his sympa- 
     
     thetic attitude toward the struggling offshoot of 
     
     Acadia, neither the King nor his advisers manifested 
     
     any desire to assume full responsibility for the wel- 
     
     fare of the colony which had been deserted by Comte 
     
     de Saint Pierre. Little more than a year after it had 
     
     been united to the Royal domain a large portion was 
     
     granted to the Company of the East. 
     
    

    
     On July 17, 1731, at Fontainebleau a grant, signed 
     
     by Louis XV and Phelypeaux, Comte de Maurepas, 
     
     was made to Srs. Cottard, du Bocage, ’Narcis, and 
     
    
   
   
    
     Roma of 3500 arpents frontage and forty arpents, ~ 
     
    
   
   
    
     depth in the eastern portion of Isle Saint Jean, com- 
     
     prising the lands drained by the three rivers now . 
     
     known as the Brudenell, the Montague, and the 
     
     Cardigan, but not to include any lands already con- 
     
     ceded to inhabitants or cleared by them. It meant the 
     
     creation of a large feudal estate, on the tenure of 
     
     franc aleuw noble, to be free from all Royal dues but 
     
     to be held in homage to Louisburg. The only obliga- 
     
     tion placed upon the corporation was the conserva- 
     
     tion of oak suitable for shipbuilding, the report of 
     
     mines to the King or his officers, and the grant of 
     
     such lands as the King should need for forts or pub- 
     
     lic buildings. Justice was also reserved to the King 
     
     and to be administered by the Sub-delegate of the