Monbeton de Brouillan, dit Saint-Ovide, Joseph de (1719-1732) (Governor at Louisbourg). Letters to the Minister of the Marine:

1719: 4 October. [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 4, fols. 181-181V]

1725: 18 December. [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 7, fols. 200-203]

1726: 18 September. [PAC, AC, C”B, Vol. 8, fols. 34-38v]

1726: 20 November. [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 8, fols. 55—64v]

1726: 28 November: Letter 1 (with Mézy). [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 8, fols. 10v-13]

1726: 28 November: Letter 2. [PAC, AC, C“B, Vol. 8, fols. 66v—67]

1727: 10 November. [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 9, fols. 52-54]

1727: 21 November. [PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 9, fols. 72-78v]

1728: 3 November. [PAC, AC, C“B, Vol. 20 [sic], fols. 41-46)

1732: 18 November (with Le Normant). [PAC, AC, C”B, Vol. 12, fols. 210-212]

Joseph de Saint-Ovide (the name by which he was generally known) (b. 16 76, d. 1755/, as the governor of lie R0 ya/e, a post he held for over twenty years (from 7718 to 1739), also had official responsibility for lie Saint-Jean. With the collapse of the company of the Count of Saint-Pierre, lie Saint-Jean again came under his direct control in 7 725, and he made his first visit to the island in June 7726 in the company of Jacques de Pensens, the newly appointed commandant of the island. Thereafter Saint-Ovide continued to make summer visits to Port La-Joie in order to distribute gifts and weapons at the annual assembly of the Mi ’kmaq of both the island and the mainland — a practice designed to encourage the loyalty of the latter while living under British rule. Even before his first visit in 1726, and more so thereafter, a topic recurring in his official correspondence is the potential of lie Saint-Jean to become a supplier of pine masts for the French navy. As is evident from his letter of 7725, the exploitation of the island ’5 mast resource had already been taking place when the island was under the control of SaintvPierre’s Company, and from 1726 to 7729 Saint-Ovide was to be especially involved in an exploratory attempt by the department of the Marine to ship island masts to France. Saint-Ovide spent almost his entire career in the New World, at first at P/aisance (Placentia, Newfoundland) arriving there as an ensign at the age of 16, and after the loss of Placentia to the. English in 1773, at lie Roya/e, where he was to remain until the end of his governorship, at which time he returned to France.

REFERENCES: Harvey, D. C. (1926) The French Regime in Prince Edward Island. Yale University Press. pp. 58-59.

Pothier, B. (1974) Monbeton de Brouillan, dit Saint-Ovide, Joseph de. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, lll:454-457.

Upton, L.F.S. (1979) Micmacs and Colonists. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver. p. 37.

1719: 4 October

The island L’on me marque aussy que plusieurs de ses habitans [de I’Acadie] se disposent a has lots of passér avec leurs Effets et Bestiaux sur L’isle 8‘. Jean que I’on asseure estre de plus fine wood. belles et de plus abondantes en beau Bois et en paquage.

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 4, fol. 181]

1 725: 18 December

Oaks at . L’isle 8‘. Jean qui se decouvre de jour en jour plus particulierement par les Three Rivers. personnes qui y resident . H y a quantité de Beaux chennes et particulierement dans un endroit qu'on apelle Les trois Rivieres, que I’on m’asseuré estre un tres bon port ou tous les Vaisseaux presque de toute grandeur peuvent entrér, L’on m’a aussy

Also pine masts. asseuré que I’on trouveroit dans une de ses trois Rivieres quantité de mature de pin,

i| s’y trouve aussy partout des prairies considerablement. lfol. 201] A useful source ll est de la derniere consequance tant pour le Bien du Service que pour celuy de cette 0’ ”733’s and colonnie que cet Isle soit Reunie au domaine de sa Majesté dont elle peut Retirer par

Wild/7’9 WOOd’ Ia Suite de tres grands avantages par la quantité de Mature et de boys de

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