278 PAST AND PRESENT OF at la Joie, situated on the west side of the entrance to Charlottetown Harbour . The first missionary to set foot on the Island was the Catholic priest, the Rev. Rene Charles de Breslay, a worthy member of the Sulpitian Fathers, who arrived in the colony in April, 1721. Already had he spent several years in Canada , where, with a zeal worthy of the cause of religion, he la¬ boured long and faithfully for the conver¬ sion of the Indian tribes in and around Montreal. Though considerably advanced in years, being in the sixty-third year of his age when he arrived on the Island, he did not hesitate to enter upon this new and un¬ tried field of missionary labour, and thus re¬ sponding to the wants of those colonists and of the native population, he was ready to spend the remaining years of his life in car¬ rying the gospel of salvation to the new world. It was deemed advisable, however, to have another priest accomapny him, as it was too much to expect that a man of his years could long survive the rigours of cli¬ mate that must be encountered in pioneer colonial life. Accordingly, another Sul¬ pitian priest, the Rev. Marie Anselme de Metivier, was chosen to accompany him and to share with him the toilsome duties of a missionary. In the year 1722 these earnest missionaries built the first place of Christian worship erected on the Island. This was a small church built at la Joie, where the colonists could assemble for divine worship. In the meantime those two good fathers were not forgetful of the Indian population resident on the Island. Immediately cm then- arrival they began the work of preaching and teaching among the natives and it was not long .before a considerable number of the Aborigines were added to the house¬ hold of the faith. From the beginning the missionaries had won the hearts of the In¬ dian tribes and were ever ready to stand be¬ tween them and any oppression or unjust circumvention on the part of the colonists. In the earlier years of colonial life, however, there existed a firm spirit of justice and fair play on the part of the colonists toward the Indian population which the latter ever afterwards loved to dwell upon. In the year 1723 the Francisan Fathers took charge of the missions in St. John's Island and continued their apostolic work in the colony until 1754. The conditions of the colony at that time rendered it most diffi¬ cult to carry on the work of the sacred min¬ istry. Scattered as the colonists were in so many parts of the Island and with no high¬ way or means of travel, it can readily be un¬ derstood what difficulties were to be en¬ countered by these missionaries. During the short space of thirty years upwards of twenty Franciscan missionaries had laboured in the colony and one after another was obliged to relinquish his post of duty on account of broken down health, brought on by privation and hardship. It was no un¬ common thing for those heroic men to be obliged to travel on foot in the dead of winter from la Joie to St. Peter 's Har¬ bour, to or again to Malpeque and other outlying settlements, with no path to guide them save the banks of a river or stream, where it was possible to avail them¬ selves of such a route. The struggle between England and for supremacy in was a great hindrance to religion in the col¬ ony, as well as elsewhere. So much uncer¬ tainty prevailed on account of wars and ru¬ mors of war that no effective plan of immi¬ gration could be organized, and even many of those who had settled in the colony were by