84 The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     60,000 livres of expenses and losses due to proper 
     
     causes, while the director has received very little from 
     
     the colony—about £90,000—half of which he has re- 
     
     turned in codfish in the vessels of the Company and the 
     
     other half expended usefully. When one knows posi- 
     
     tively these things many merchants would wish to pick 
     
     up the wealth that my partners are blind to, although 
     
     the example of what has happened cannot redound to 
     
     the public good of the colonies. 
     
    

    
     And now, gentlemen, to put you in a position to 
     
     adjudicate upon all the essential points which have 
     
     been. touched upon, I think that it will be sufficient to 
     
     give you an outline of my project and an exact state- 
     
     ment as to the extent of its execution—together with a 
     
     table of the works which have been carried out for the 
     
     establishment. 
     
    

    
     As to the reproaches which have been lavished on me, 
     
     I believe that I would injure myself if I should under- 
     
     take to vindicate myself before a tribunal such as ours. 
     
     I leave that to public opinion, such as you have yourself 
     
     formed or have been able to gather, and to your equity. 
     
     I shall undertake a public vindication for my own honor 
     
     and that of my children, after my winter’s work on the 
     
     keeping of accounts will have permitted me to gather 
     
     irrefutable evidence of the calumnious charges that 
     
     have been made against me at Louisburg.” 
     
    

    
     Roma, Directeur de la Compagnie de l’Isle St. Jean. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The statement of work done by Roma during the 
     
     years 1732-1734 is very complete. Each work is de- 
     
     scribed minutely and its aim and use carefully set 
     
     down. While one may smile at the picture of a con- 
     
     scious pioneer counting the stumps removed from his 
     
    
   
   
    
     10 F, Vol. 148, p. 60.