EARLY HISTORY It is not accurately known at what year an English speaking person first set foot on this part of the Island, but among the oldest surviving inhabitants there lives a tradition, that about 1760 two men named MacKay and Grant from the mainland spert a winter on the Island and lived on Lot 20. It is also related that the Indians, who were numerous, hid their eel-spears and could not be induced to bring them forth, until the "palefaces" agreed to give part of their clothing in trade. It is not known how MacKay and Grant got here or how they left, but it is known they returned to the mainland and both lived to be 100 years old. Before the forests succumbed to the woodsman's axe, theie was a heavy growth of spruce, hemlock, fir and pine along the shore and extending nearly ten miles inland, while beech, maple, and birch clothed the highlands of the interior. These highlands formed a watershed from which the streams flowed to the South- West River. When the first settlers came to Prince Edward Island , the waters around the coast and up the rivers literally teemed with fish; cod, mackerel, herring, lobsters, eels, oysters and gasperaux. Men have told us that, even in the latter half of the nineteenth century, they could take a basket down to the shore of the South-West River , wade out and fill it with lobsters. With boais of their own construction, the settlers caught large quantities of fish which they exchanged for necessary supplies. They found a ready sale for their fish and other products at stores in the grow¬ ing communities. Is it any wonder that the first settlers made their homes not far from the shores of rivers or creeks? These were the men who, leaving all that was near and dear in the land of their birth, and braving the perils of a long and dangerous passage, came to their home of adoption and laid the foundation of settlements that now form one of the most pros¬ perous parts of the province. In 1767, Prince Edward Island was balloted for and divided among persons who had claims on the British Government, on the ground of military or other public services. It was divided into 67 lots. Lot 20 was drawn by Thead, Haltain and Capt. T. Basset . The quit-rent rates on it were 6 shillings per 100 acres. With many others, Lot 20 passed through the hands of sev¬ eral owners. At the end of the 18th century it was owned by an Englishman named Cambridge , and it is evident that the terms of settlement were not carried out, for in 1798 there were living on the whole lot only twenty families, with a total population of 67.