4 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Thanks to the labours of Rev. Dr. Silas T. Rand, Baptist missionary to the Micmacs of the Maritime provinces from 1849 till his death in 1890, we know the Indian names of many other places. Wagwak for example is that of Egmont bay and Elsetkook that of Hillsborough bay, but these names appear never to have been used by the French. The Indian name of Prince Edward Island is Epagwit, meaning “resting on the waves” and many think it is a pity that this name was not retained for the island which was known to the French as Ile St. Jean and to the English as St. Johns Island before the name Prince Edward was adopted. Rand is the authority for the Micmac names and meanings given in this compilation, except in the case of Miminegash, which he does not mention. The names surviving from the French regime, untranslated, include Courtin island, Crapaud settlement, Deroche point, Fortune bay, Fortune cove, Gaspereaux settlement, Morel river, Naufrage pond, Pinette river, Plat river, Prim point, Rustico, Sable river and

Souris river.

A number survive in translation such as St. Peters bay and island (in French St. Pierre), Wood island, Three Rivers, and Bear cape.

This brings us to the British occupation. After the ratification of the treaty of peace with France in 1763, the British Government bestirred itself to colonize Prince Edward Island. As a preliminary Captain Samuel Holland, an officer in the army, was instructed to survey the island, which he did in 1765. Holland named about 150 prominent features, most of which retain his names till this day, a remarkable record in place—naming. Most of the names he gave were personal ones. A number of features he named after distinguished soldiers and sailors with whom he had served at the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec. Such are Wolfe cape, Monckton cove, Colville bay and river and Murray river and harbour. Others he named after the Lords Commissioners of Trade and

Plantations, under whose immediate instructions he was working. Holland did his best to abolish the Indian names by giving them subordinate positions on

his map, but luckily without success.

Only smaller natural features remained to be named after Holland’s survey and the names since are mainly those of the settlements and Villages that have grown up with the passing of years. Several of these names are interesting, such as Belfast, Cavendish, Dundee, and Park Corner. Many indicate the place from which the settlers came, be it England, Ireland, Scotland or else-

where.

The principal French names appear on the map made by Nicolas Bellin, the French hydrographer, for Charlevoix’s “Histoire Générale de la Nouvelle France” published in Paris in 1744. It is entitled “Carte de l’Accadie. Dressée

sur les manuscrits du Dépost des Cartes et Plans de la Marine.”

After the transfer of Cape Breton island to France in 1749, to make Louis- bourg secure against attack, Louis Franquet, an engineer of distinction was sent out to Louisbourg as director general of fortifications. He sailed from Brest in June, 1750, on the Mutine with the Marquis de Chabert, detached from sea duty to correct the maps of Acadia, isle Royale and Newfoundland. Franquet made several plans of Prince Edward Island. Chief of them is “Carte de l’isle St. Jean, dans le Golfe de St. Laurent au Canada, 1751.” A

manuscript copy is in the Public Archives, Ottawa.

A fuller record of the French names is found in the journal of the sieur Joseph de la Roque, a land surveyor who by order of le Comte de Raymond, Governor of Isles Royale, St. Jean, etc., made a tour of inspection and a census of Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island in 1752. The journal, the original of which is in the Archives in Paris, is reproduced in the Canadian Archives

report for 1905.