168 The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     stock was not numerous, and each husbandman had 
     
     made a clearing for sowing only four bushels of 
     
     wheat; but the faith of the pioneer must ever be “the 
     
     substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
     
     not seen.” 
     
    

    
     As intimated in the letter of Prevost to the Minis- 
     
     ter, November 28, 1751, the original settlements had 
     
     been increased and others added. The Sieur de La 
     
     Roque enumerates settlers in twenty-eight different 
     
     localities always clustering around the coasts or at 
     
     the mouths of rivers or on their banks. This was due 
     
     to the needs of communication as well as to the fact 
     
     that pasture lands were here already provided by 
     
     nature, a matter of extreme importance to those who 
     
     depended so much upon their live stock for the bare 
     
     needs of existence. The total population was 2223 
     
     exclusive of the garrison, of whom 368 were bachelors 
     
     or heads of families. These were distributed as fol- 
     
     lows: 
     
    

    
     Port La Joye, 9 families: 39 persons; Riviére du 
     
     Ouest, 19 families: 109 persons; Riviére du Nord, 
     
     Y families: 44 persons; Riviére du Nord-Est (north 
     
     side), 34 families: 185 persons; (south side) 10 
     
     families: 64 persons; Riviére de Peugiguit (east 
     
     side), 7 families: 34 persons; (west side) 8 families: 
     
     37 persons; Riviere du Moulin-a-Scie, 43 families: 
     
     308 persons; Anse au Comte Saint-Pierre, 4 families : 
     
     $1 persons; Anse au Matelost, 24 families: 153 per- 
     
     sons; Grande Anse, 18 families: 95 persons ; Grande 
     
     Ascension, 11 families: 59 persons ; Pointe au Boul- 
     
     leau, 3 families: 14 persons; Anse de la Boullotierre,