PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. I7

whence supplies of provisions could be pro- cured. Mr. Stewart informs us that, at this period, the garrison of Lousisburg drew a great part of its subsistence from St. John’s Island. The French maintained an officer here, who was called the governor, and, in addition, they had two officials or commis- saries on the Island, whose duty was to pro- cure food for the forces in Cape Breton. These officials themselves fixed the prices which the people were obliged to accept, and we are told by the same excellent authority that they generally put the price of a fat ox at eight to ten dollars.

Upon the fall of Louisburg, in I 758, St. John’s Island, the store-house of Cape Bre— ton, became a part of the British empire, and General Amherst sent Lord Rollo with a de- tachment to take possession. His name is perpetuated in that of Rollo Bay, in King’s county. Thenceforward the Island has re- mained subject to the crown of Great Britain.

' There is a great difference in the esti- mates of the population of St. John’s Island at the close of the French regime. Mr. Stewart tells us that there was said to be nearly ten thousand people on the Island in 1758, but that, from the appearance of the remains of their improvements, the greater part could have been but a few years settled. This would bear out the statement that there ,had been a considerable recent influx from the mainland. But, from the non-committal way in which Mr. Stewart writes. it may be assumed that he, though writing less than half a century after the event, was dubious as to the correctness of this estimate.

Mr. Bourinot, whose extensive reseaches and painstaking accuracy in investigation en- title whatever he says to the greatest weight, places the population at about four thousand

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souls, engaged in fishing and farming, and composed principally of Acadians who had commenced to cross from Nova Scotia after the Treaty of Utrecht (A. D. I713), who were able to supply Louisburg with pro- visions, as no agricultural operations of im- portance were carried on in Cape Breton. He also tells us that there were several pros- perous settlements at Port la Joie (Char- lottetown) , St. Pierre, and on the bays of the low-lying coasts.

The French had no fortifications on the Island, though they had a few guns mounted at the mouth of Charlottetown harbor, at the North side of the Hillsborough river, oppo- site what is now McNally’s Island, and at St. Peters. They had a fine settlement from the mouth of the harbor round to Point Prim, and St. Peters had long been settled, and there the fishing industry was carried on. In Prince county they had settlements along the Dunk river and on Lots 27 and 28. They had also a settlement on Lots 13 and I4, and round Richmond Bay. A considerable settle- ment flourished near Bedford bay, where the pursuit both of agriculture and the fisheries could be prosecuted. There was a small set- tlement between the Montague and Brudenell rivers, said to have been founded by the French government, but the splendid harbor of Georgetown seems not to have been touched. Their principal settlements were in the neighborhood of marsh lands, whence they could procure food for their cattle. They also possessed many boats and some small vessels, with which they engaged in fishing - and in trade with Cape Breton and the main- land, and possibly, to some extent, in pri- vateering. '

The struggle between Great Britain and France for supremacy in North America con- tinued fitfully for a few years longer, but,