FORT LA JOYE AND MICMAC TALES 45

allegiance to the English king, but with the inhabitants of Isle St. Jean it was entirely different. The territory they occupied was very fertile, most advantageously situated for the fishery, and occupied a strategic position as the gateway of Canada. If the French were allowed to build a settlement there it would always be a menace to British territory. And most important of all, in 1758, the immediate deportation of the inhabitants would effectively prevent assistance being rendered to Quebec either with men or with provisions.

I am writing this at Fort la Joye. Across the harbour Charlottetown stands in her new-built glory— a phoenix from the ashes of the old fort. On three sides the water laps the shore as if trying to entice the little point away from the scene of earlier days. A short distance along the shore the ferry plies back and forth across the harbour with dogged determination.

There is not much left of the old fort now. There was not much of it there when Holland saw it. To him it was “only a poor stockaded redoubt with barracks scarce sufficient to lodge the garrison, and the houses that were near it were all pulled down to get material to build it.” It must have been of some value though, for it repulsed two attacks by the French and their Indian allies. When the first English governor took possession of the Island, he had Fort Amherst destroyed. It was not suitable, he said, for defence purposes. So perished the Island’s best link with her interesting past.

I am not the only one enjoying Fort la Joye. Directly across the fort from me is a family of four, equipped with at least fifteen books. The father seems deeply interested in his assorted library. He