PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

no means satisfied with the prevailing condi- tions and had therefore taken up their abode in other parts of Canada. The colony, how- ever, had made some progress in the num- ber of its people, so that in 1735 it could count about five hundred and fifty souls all Catholic. distributed in various parts of the Island. But the unsettled state of affairs not unfrequently left the people without any clergyman and thus they had to depend upon casual visits from priests residing on the mainland. Amongst the latter the most noted was the Rev. Father Maillard, whose untir— ing and successful labours among the In- dians gained for him the distinction of be- ing known as the “Apostle of the Micmacs.” His first visit to the Island was about the year 1745 and until his death, in 1762, he laboured with the true spirit of an apostle in kindling the light of faith among the Indians. He was truly a great man and n0- ble missionary and deserves the sincere grat- itude of a Christian people.

After the founding of Halifax in 1749 the English began to be less conciliatory towards the Acadians of Nova Scotia. In— deed the treatment meted out to the Aca- dians at this period can never be too severely condemned. To escape the impending troubles which culminated in the expulsion of the Acadians from Grand Pre and vicin- ity, a large number of these people crossed over from the mainland to the Island col- ony, which still remained a part of the French North American possessions. This influx of people added considerably to the population of the colony and new parishes began to be organized. More missionaries began to arrive on the Island and immedi- ately entered upon their duties of attending to the wants of the people, so that in I 752 we find a parish organized at Point Prim,

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with Father Girard as pastor, another at Scotch Fort in the same year, and another at St. Peter’s Harbour, while in the western part of the colony a parish was organized at Malpeque. The above named districts, besides the headquarters at Port la Joie, were each supplied with its own missionary priest and thus for perhaps the first time in the history of the colony was religion placed on a seemingly permanent footing. At the period mentioned, the ecclesiastical affairs of the colony were under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Quebec and owing to the difli— culties of those troublesome times it was no easy matter to furnish missionaries, and had it not been for the earnest zeal of the church in France it would have been impossible, at the time of which we are writing, to make provision for the spiritual wants of the colo- nists of St. John’s Island. The Catholic people of the colony,—and they comprised the entire population,—were by no means exempt from the trials and persecutions which have made the unenviable notoriety connected with the expulsion of the Aca- dians of Grand Pre in 1755. After the final fall of Louisburg in I 758, an expedition was sent to St. John's Island for the purpose of driving out the inhabitants and destroying their property. This expedition was entered upon late in the autumn and its purpose was only too efficiently carried into execution. The result of it was that the flourishing parishes of Port la Joie, Point Prim, St. Louis (Scotch Fort) and St. Peter’s were completely devastated. the buildings burned to the ground, the cattle driven away and the farm products destroyed. The people and their priests were put on board ship to be de- ported from the country; some of them reached their native country, others perished in the deep. Malpeque alone escaped the