The marshes along the mouth of the Orwell River first attracted an Acadian settlement, La Grande Ascension. These same marshes provided pasture and hay for cattle for the Scottish settlers that followed -- the Curries, MacDougalds. MacDonalds. MacLeods. Nicholsons. and Rosses (Orwell Guide 1983). These settlers then began to open the forest up, with

farms, roads. mills and shipyards.

The MacDonalds, from Tracadie and originally from Glen— aladale Scotland, took up lands in Orwell in 1818. In coming -they opened a trail from the head of Vernon River through Uigg T to Orwell crossroads. By 1821, the MacLeods, MacDonalds, and

Rosses had settled from Orwell bridge to Kinross.

It was in 1821 that Walter Johnstone visited the Island. In this report he described the roads available and the method by which they had been made. First the trees would be chipped to mark a trail, then cut down to allow a single path. widened to allow a horse or cart to pass. ditches dug and the earth piled in the middle. Johnstone thought the roads good, in contrast to later commentators. though he does admit that in low places softwood logs had to be placed across the roads, and that in some of the newer roads the trees were so close to the traveller that there was a danger of their blowing onto his head. The new roads at Orwell. just three years old. must have been in this primitive condition but the main arteries were, at least. already in place by 1821. Johnstone

describes the roads from Charlottetown to Orwell.as, "A fourth

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