16 Early Settlement When Lieutenant Governor , Edmund Fanning , toured the eastern part of the Island in 1787, he was quite impressed with what he called, "the beauti¬ ful little village" at Fortune and, in answer to their petition wrote: I will take upon myself to promise that you shall have permanent leases agreeable to the promises and on the same terms mentioned to you by Mr. Higgins ..."29 The Acadian petition requested title to 1300 acres of land they occupied, cancellation of arrears of rent and license of occupation to 100 acres of marshland in the adjoining Lot 56 . Fanning was able to have Council put through warrants of occupation for the 1300 acres, a 100 acres to each of the petitioners as follows: Joseph Bourke , Sr.; Ambrose Bourke , Sr.; Ambrose Bourke , Jr.; John Bourke ; Belonie White ; Joseph Peters ; Amis Michelle; Paul D'Aigle ; George White ; Paul Doucette ; Peter Long apee; Joseph White and John White .30 No mention was made of the marshland or rent arrears. The marshland consisted of two areas near a branch of the Fortune River , in Lot 56 , on which the Acadians had built four to five foot dykes. Here they cut the marsh hay, stacked it and later, during the winter months, hauled it over the frozen marshland and river to their settlement in Lot 43.31 The warrants that Fanning was able to have the Council grant to the Acadians were not titles but, even so, they were apparently revoked by the British Government in London. Samuel Holland , David Higgins and Lieutenant Governor Fanning tried, each in turn, to provide the Acadians with title to their land without success. The proprietors, from the year 1767, owned all the land on the Island; the government had no land to grant. Even those who lost all their possessions by remaining loyal to the British Crown in the American Revolution could not be given a title to a piece of land until the proprietors turned over a portion of their lots to the government for redistribution. Many United Empire Loyalists became discouraged and, they too, left the Island. In 1792 ownership of Lot 43 fell to Richard Burke Jr. , who sent his cousin by the name of Hennessie out to the Island to be his agent. Hennessie granted some leases and collected some rent.32 When Burke died in 1794, the property went to his mother Jane Mary Burke who sold to William Town- shend in 1799.33 The new proprietor treated the settlers of Lot 43 harshly, expecting them to take out leases and pay high rent and arrears on land they had cleared and improved many years before. The greater number of families on the Lot: MacDonalds, Mclntoshes, MacPhees, McCormacks and others were at Naufrage . These, under the coaching of Captain John MacDonald of Tracadie (himself a proprietor), came to a settlement with William Townshend which did not necessitate their leaving. But, when the Royal Gazette of June 20,1805 notified the settlers of Lot 43 that " John Webster was empowered to collect and receive rents payable..." the remaining Acadians at Fortune moved to the adjoining Lot 44 and bought or leased land from John Cambridge . Because they were required to pay unfair and unexpected rents in Lot 43, they could only purchase small, uneconomical farms in Lot 44. Today a monument, erected in 1929 marks the site of their first cemetery at the mouth of Fortune River . In the year 1804, the Acadians who moved to Lot 44 built a small log church near the shore. Here, too, is the site