Clmpler ()m' l 3 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     few of those deported returned home. Well before 1799 
     
     the Acadians already knew much of what there was to 
     
     know about survival and independence. Co-operation too 
     
     had been part of their lives, at least since their forebearers 
     
     arrived from France. In addition, everyone wished to keep 
     
     their own habits and customs - and to live as far away 
     
     from the English as possible. For some years in the late 
     
     eighteenth century, Malpeque, a particularly rich 
     
     agricultural region, was one of their principal settlements. 
     
     It was further to the northwest than any British settlement 
     
     on the Island. 
     
    
   
   
    
     When we meet the future founders of Tignish, they 
     
     are quietly farming land around Malpeque Bay. Or rather, 
     
     they had been quietly farming it. Settlers of British origin 
     
     were moving into the area quite rapidly; they coveted 
     
     the Acadians’ farms. Neither group could buy the land 
     
     because, in 1767, the entire Island had been divided into 
     
     lots of 20,000 acres each and auctioned off to wealthy men 
     
     in Britain. Most of these absentee landowners and their 
     
     successors had never been on Prince Edward Island, but 
     
     collected rents from the British colonists and “squatters," 
     
     the latter of whom included the Acadians. The greedy 
     
     colonists had used harassment and threats, which 
     
     included putting notices on some of the Acadians’ 
     
     buildings to say that if they did not move away, their 
     
     houses and barns would be burnt. At the same time, a 
     
     rent collector made his rounds. Some of the Acadians 
     
     paid, but a small groUp of them refused or were unable 
     
     to pay. Matters reached the point where these families 
     
     were planning to move far beyond the reach of rent 
     
     collectors, who were about to prosecute those in arrears. 
     
     A number of families decided to move to “Lot One”, the 
     
     area just south of North Cape. 
     
    
   
   
    
     How did these Acadians know that this site might 
     
     be a suitable place in which to settle? There are two 
     
     possible answers, both of which seem likely. The Acadians 
     
     were friendly with the Mi’kmaq, an hospitable and