204 The French in Prince Edward Island

Father Breslay records another tragedy common to every group of pioneers in a wilderness: that Etienne Poitevin, aged eight years, was lost on June 6, and has not yet been found.

In the absence or scarcity of notaries the priests often performed secular services for the inhabitants not only in arbitrating disputes but also in putting family settlements into something like legal form. On November 16, 1736, in the presence of Pére Angélique Collin, in default of a notary, Michel Haché and Anne Cormier his wife, on the one part; Michel, Joseph, Marie wife of René Rassicot, his children on the other part, agreed that the said chil- dren should each undertake to give ten livres per annum to their father and mother during their life, commencing from that date, the said children agree- ing that the right of the father and mother to leave their property to whom they should think fit, was not to be affected by this agreement.

But such entries are rare and deal with the less ordinary affairs of life. The records naturally deal almost entirely with marriages, births, and funerals. The witnesses in most cases were unable to sign their names, but their marks signify their presence and also their response to the meaning and duties of life. Marriages and births were times of rejoicing and the families turned out en masse to do honor to the occasion.

Occasions of rejoicing were not numerous in Isle Saint Jean. The earlier settlers soon appropriated the marsh lands and natural meadows and as popu-