Rustico, were assigned to Hope River. The river at New Glasgow provid- ed a natural boundary. Most of these one hundred families would be of Acadian descent and so it is fitting to record here a brief history of the

Acadians in P.E.I. or Ile St. Jean as it was called. The arrival at Port La Joie (Charlottetown) on August 23, 1720 of

three small ships from France carrying 300 passengers marked the begin— ning of French settlement on Ile St. Jean. Michael Haché-Gallant was one of the first Acadians to arrive at Port La Joie in 1720. With the fail— ure of the company of Comte de Saint-Pierre in the Fall of 1724, many of the colonists from France returned home.

The first census of Ile St. Jean taken in 1728 shows a population of 297 plus 125 fishermen not listed. By 1748, the total Acadian population

of Ile St. Jean was only 735.

Over the years, Acadia, which comprised much of the Maritime region, had become a pawn in the power struggle between the two great Imperialistic powers, France and England. Subject to continual wars, the Acadians had developed a policy of neutrality as being their wisest

course. With the founding of Halifax in 1749, the English authorities now

demanded that the Acadians take an unconditional oath of allegiance. This demand led to a large-scale movement of Acadians across to Ile St. Jean. The census taken by Sieur de la Roque in 1752 gives the population

as 2,223 souls, a marked increase in only four years.

The expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755 brought a second large influx to Ile St. Jean. Crossing over without warning or resources, some 2,000 Acadians made their escape almost doubling the Island population overnight.

During the next few years, things went from bad to worse for the inhabitants of Ile St. Jean. The inhabitants had hardly been able to pro— vide themselves with the bare necessities of life let alone help their poor destitute brothers and sisters from Acadia. The plight of the Acadians is well stated in a letter dated April 18, 1757 written by Vaudreuil, the Governor at Quebec, to the Minister in Paris: "The women and children dare not go out, being unable to hide their nakedness. It is the same with a number of men. Ile St. Jean deserves attention."

Tragically, those Acadians who had escaped to the Island faced yet another expulsion. In the Fall of 1758, approximately 3,500 Acadians were expelled from Ile St. Jean and the settlements in different parts of the Island were ordered destroyed. Approximately 1,100 people were able to escape deportation, but not all of these remained on Ile St. Jean.

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