172 ‘The French in Prince Edward Island

have settled here have not been able to seed their lands this year, but it must be taken into consideration that this was due to the bad seasons from which the unfor- tunate settlers have suffered, during three consecutive years. The first year the trouble was caused by field mice. A prejudiced, ignorant and vulgar people did not long hesitate in ascribing the coming of this plague to some evil spirit working against the island. Suspicion fell on a man named St. Germain dit Perigord. This sus- picion coming to the knowledge of the Indians, they took the man Perigord, put him to death and buried him on the Isle of Comte de Saint Pierre, which lies to the larboard as you enter Port La Joye.

The second bad season was caused by innumerable legions of locusts of a prodigious size. They were of so voracious a species that they ravaged all the growing grain, vegetables and even the grass and the buds on the trees.

The last year the wheat crop was totally scalded. These are the events of those three years of anguish, that have reduced these poor settlers to the depths of poverty, so that for at least six months the greater number amongst them had not even bread to eat, but subsisted on the shell fish they gathered on the shores of the harbor when the tide was out. It is certain that un- less the King makes them a gratuity, or a loan of seed grain, to seed their land this coming spring, the settlers will be under the bitter necessity of abandoning the dis- trict, if they would escape death from hunger, as they have no other source of livelihood.

The condition to which the settlers on the harbor of Macpec have been actually reduced, demonstrates that it is an important and absolute necessity that they