PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. * i liberty, within a year, to remove to any other place, and consequently, a goodly number came here. During the next forty years this slow colonization was kept up until about 2,000, it is believed, were settled on the Island, But in the year 1775 the British decided on the expulsion of the Acadians, claiming that they were giving aid to the enemies of Britain—these being their com¬ patriots at Quebec and along the River St. Lawrence . In place- of tamely getting on board the ships provided by the British, and being conveyed down the American coast to Louisiana, Virginia and other places on the southern coast, many preferred to flee and shift for themselves. Thus a natural selection took place, the more vigorous com¬ ing north. Another reason doubtless was that they might have had relatives here. In consequence in a short time the population doubled. In this county the first settlements were around the shores of . Evi¬ dently when they fled from Acadia they aim¬ ed for the upper waters of , crossed overChign^ctQNeck,skirtedtheshore of Bale Verte and, reaching- tine, took the Indian course to the shores of . Some, in place of crossing over to the north side of the Island, settled down around this bay; in fact, the evidence is that they formed sparse settlements from Cape Traverse and up along the shore, Try- on and Bedeque being especially mentioned. Here they built log huts for their shelter. The logs near the ends were notched on one side and the other side hewed so that it would fit into the notch of another log laid across and helping to form the end of the house, and thus log upon log the low wall was built. Moss was used to make the joints between the logs wind proof. Here amidst great privations they lived, and up some of the streams the remains of mill dams are still seen, showing that they must have thrived. They combined fishing with the tilling of their small clearings to eke out a living for themselves. But a few years later Quebec surrendered to the British and in 1763 the treaty of Fon- tainhleau was signed ceding to the British all of Canada including this Island. When this took place a panic ensued among the French settlers, induced no doubt by their treatment in Acadia, and many again fled back to the mainland, numbers of their clear¬ ings, mills and such like being abandoned. But many remained and were scattered around when the first British emigrants reached there. In these early days after the Island had been granted in lots or townships to applicants (among them being army officers who had rendered valu¬ able service in Canada to the Government) the French became, by purchase from the proprietor, the owners of some 6,000 acres on the northern portion of Lot 17, of which Miscouche formed the nucleus. This is km i \vn among the inhabitants as the "French Purchase" and included all the unoccupied land of the township. In the early days these people had a log church at Raynor's Creek, Lot 19, near the early Indian line of travel from New Bruns¬ wick, but this was afterward moved to the Pavilion Farm , the residence in these early 1 lays of Ci 1I1 >nel C( >mpt< >n. from win >m the land around Miscouche was bought. . After the purchase another log church, the largest at that time of any on the Island, was erected almost on the identical spot where the pres¬ ent station house is situated. Owing to its size it was called, among the inhabitants, "The Cathedral." It was built in 1824 and