CHAPTER XI.

Biographical Sketches :—Bishop McEaehern—Rev. Donald McDonald—Rev.. Dr. Kier—I—Ion. T. H. Haviland—Hon. E. Whelan—Hon. James Yeo—- Hon. George Coles—James D. Haszard.

gig MONG the early settlers of the island, prominent alike- L“ if because of his aptitude for his position and the dignity with which he filled it, is the venerable figure of' Bishop hIcEachern. While yet in early boyhood, about the year 1775, he was sent by the Scottish Bishop, John McDonald, to the Scotch Ecclesiastical College at Valladolid, in Spain. Having finished his studies there, he was ordained priest, and returned to Scotland, where he worked as a mis- sionary for five years, under the Right Reverend Bishop Alexander hIcDonald. He arrived on the island either in August or September of 1790, and took up his residence at Savage Harbor. The church at Scotchfort was then the only catholic church on the island, and missionary duties were dis- charged at the residences of individuals in difi'erent parts of the colony. He acted as road commissioner, and laid out all the roads in the eastern portion of King’s County. His assistant in this duty was a Presbyterian clergyman,—the Reverend ‘W’illiam Douglas. He was a man of such a stamp as sometimes we find, under severe difficulties, execu- ting work so arduous that it seems only the language of truth to call his deeds heroic. He was, in his day, the only catholic priest on the island. His flock was widely scat- tered. Roads were few, and travelling, always difficult, was often attended with danger. But neither difficulty nor danger could daunt the zeal of the missionary. Now in his