fishing settlement was established by de Roma and a few other French Merchants at Trois Rivieres.* De Roma desired contact with other French settlements on the Island. St. Pierre, considered the commercial capital, was naturally considered an important contact. By today's standards, this initial road would be considered a bush trail, but it was nonetheless, one of the first roads St. Peters . (2) French Engineer, Colonel Franquet , who visited the Island in 1751 made note of a road which began at present day Mount Stewart led to St. Pierre. Like the road built by de Roma, it was rough and according to Franquet ~s account ...It was an unimproved road, six or seven miles in width, with trees cut down and stumps removed, but not leveled. All the natural irregularities, and those caused by the removal of stumps, had been left, so that the only vehicle that could travel on it was a cart pulled by oxen. (3) With the arrival of the British, we find further documentation of the early roads leading to St. Peters . Samuel Holland was careful to document existing Island roads on his 1765 map of the Island. The portage trail used by the Mi'Kmaq between the Fortune and Rivers is clearly shown on his map as having developed into a well- traveled road between and St. Peters by 1765. When the Island's first Governor, Walter Patterson , arrived on the Island in 1770, he thought the improvement and creation of roads imperative to the Island's development. Patterson saw the need to open up the Island and connect its communities and "maintained that roads to Princetown ,* St. Peter 's, and Georgetown were absolutely essential." (4) The roads to St. Peters and Princetown , in 1770-1771 were thirty feet wide, others twenty feet wide, with sixty acres consumed by the highway system. (5) The St. Peters Road , referred to today as Route 2, was initiated during the French Regime and, during Patterson's term as Governor, further extended to connect with Charlottetown . After arriving on the Island in August of 1803, Lord Selkirk pointed out, 'There is but one road in the Island ( Charlottetown to St. Peters ) practicable for a wheel carriage." (6) Visiting the Island in 1820, Walter Johnstone further describes the conditions of the roads in the St. Peters area in vivid detail: The one that claims my attention first is the road to St. Peters . This is the most public and best-finished road in the Island...All this way the road is good, and any vehicle may pass it without much danger or difficulty. When we reach St. Peters the road turns a little to the Trois Rivieres is present day Georgetown . Princetown is present day Summcrside. 206