(ZJUfT^ '-.y ■- vVX^ THE CATHZDPAL PARISH OF ST. DUlASTAN CHAFLOTTETOViN, PRINCE EWARD ISLAKD Chapter I In the year 1812 there were only two priests in all Prince Edward Island . One of the3e two, the Rev. ^eneas IV.cEbChern, resided chiefly in the parish of St. Andrew, and from tnere started in canoe or cariole to minister to the various Scottish missioiBof the colony. Tne other priest, the Rev. Jean Louis Beaubien , made his home at Pustico, and to his care were entrusted the French missions which then numbered five, namely, Rustico , Malpec, Cascumpec , Tigrish and Hollo Bey. In those days the Catholic population of Charlottetown was small and unimportant. The glory of Port-la-joie had departed and the majority of the population of the new town springing up on the northern bank of the Hillsborough was severely Protestant, while the military and government officials prided themselves on being members of that dignified English establishment, which called his I^jesty King George the Third "Defender of the Faith". In the year I803 Kgr. Denaut, Bishop of Quebec , paid a pastoral visit to his Maritime dependencies, but there is no record of his having tarried at Charlottetown . He probably made St. Andrews his headquarters and from there visited the Acadian missions. In the last year of the eighteenth century the .r.bbe de Calonne, brother of the Frima Mnister of , being for political reasons obliged to leave his native land, csme out to the then almost unknown colony of St. John's Island, and established himself upon his estate near the ruined fortress of Port-la-joie. Having been invested witn faculties from the Bishop of Quebec and acting as Vicar general of that Prelate, he assisted Father I-fcEachern in his priestly duties, and, in obedience to his Bishop, furnisned a report of tne existing state of , not very flattering to that youthful metropolis.