bones, etc. that had fallen out of the bank, which they re-interred in the Island." The same account mentions traces of a red sandstone house cov¬ ered with oyster shells, presumed to have been the eating place of the aborigines. The Acadians As the pyramids of Egypt are the most enduring relics of the pharaohs, so the great dykes raised along the Hillsborough stand as an enduring memorial to the people with whom the Indians were eventually forced to share their hunting grounds. Early in the 18th century it be¬ came an article of French colonial policy that Isle St. Jean, as Prince Edward Island was then called, should be developed as a producer of food for the sustenance of the garrison of the great fortress of Louisburg on Isle Royale (). Following their traditional custom of settling along the rivers and bays, the Acadian farmers, for the most part Breton French, soon reached the valleys of the Hillsborough and Rivers and such adjacent regions as Tracadie , Savage Harbour , French Village and St. Peter 's. A system of ditches and protective dykes was utilized to drain the salt marshes, and the adjacent forested uplands were cleared of their growth of virgin timber. When parts of these uplands were recleared 150 years later, the old narrow ridges ploughed by the Acadians were still visible. Some of the ditches and most of the dykes are still very much in evidence. It is fortunate that the diaries of Colonel Franquet and the Sieur de la Roque, mid-18th century visitors to the Mount Stewart area, are still extant. Franquet was an engineer who had been sent from France to superintend the new fortifications of Louisburg and to devise a system of fortifications for other French possessions in the area. As Isle St. Jean was located within his terms of reference, he undertook a tour of the colony in August of 1751. Travelling in a flat-bottomed barge towed by a small schooner, Franquet started up the or Hillsborough River on August 9th. Taking note of the changing scenes that presented themselves on either side, Franquet was particularly charmed with the view up the Pis- quid Valley . He was told that the settlement was an old one and that every farmer in it had enough to satisfy all his wants. About three miles above what is now Mount Stewart, the party arrived at the home of the widow Gentil where it was customary for travellers on the river to halt for rest and refreshment before beginning the arduous overland journey to St. Peter 's. Franquet 's description of the area indicates that the inn, which was on the right bank of the Hillsborough , was located at the point where this stream is joined by Tannery Run. The colonel later traced the course of the Run, known to the Indians as "Minnewauken," and found that it originated in a spring whose waters were of exceptional purity. The Spring, called the "Medical Spring" in Meacham's 1880 atlas, was known to the French as 'La Grande Source." Franquet 's account of the journey through the woods to St. Peter 's Harbour is less precise; however, Mr. J. Bambrick , a 19th century anti¬ quarian who lived at Glenroy , apparently made a tour through the area and concluded that the trail, "De " to the French, was part of the present road through Canavoy . —2—