The French Régime in Prince Edward Island

mm. L3 Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from University of Toronto littp://www.arcliive.org/details/frenclirgimeinpOOIiarv THE FRENCH REGIME I N PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND THE FRENCH REGIME IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND BY D. C. HA R VE Y, M. A. ASSISTANT PBOFESSOE OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVEBSITY OF MANITOBA NEW HAVEN YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 19 2 6 COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS Printed in the United States of America mi / PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF THEODORE L. GLASGOW The present volume is the ninth work published by the Yale University Press on the Theodore L. Glas- gow Memorial Publication Fund. This foundation was established September 17^ 1918, by an anonymous gift to Yale University in memory of Flight Sub-Lieuten- ant Theodore L. Glasgow, R.N. He was born in Montreal, Canada, and was educated at the University of Toronto Schools and at the Royal Military College, Kingston. In August, 1916, he entered the Royal Naval Air Service and in July, 1917, went to France with the Tenth Squadron attached to the Twenty- second Wing of the Royal Flying Corps. A month later, August 19, 1917, he was killed in action on the Ypres front. T MY ISLAND HOME PREFACE The names of Prince Edward Island have been as varied as its fortunes. The Indians according to their mood called it Abegwet—resting on the wave, or Minegoo—the Island. To the French it was Isle Saint Jean ; and tliis name was retained in the Eng- lish form of St. John's Island until 1798 when, owing to the frequent miscarriage of mail, it was changed to Prince Edward Island, in honor of the Duke of Kent. In 1780 at the instigation of Governor Patter- son, an Irishman, it narrowly missed being called New Ireland; but the Home Government disallowed the act of the local legislature and suggested New Guernsey or New Anglesea. Fortunately neither of these suggestions was adopted. In journalism the island is frequently called "The Garden of the Gulf," and after a recent general election it was facetiously referred to as "Little Quebec"; but it will probably continue to make its contribution to history as Prince Edward Island. For this reason I speak of the French Regime in Prince Edward Island while in the text I use the name of the contemporary docu- ments—Isle Saint Jean. My interest in the history of this island is of early date. I was born within two miles of an old French settlement at La Traverse, now Cape Traverse; within five miles of a settlement at Riviere des Blonds, now Trj'on, where the remains of an old French burying ground may still be seen as well as X Preface those of an aboiteau; ^'ithin ten miles of Crapaud and fifteeen of Bedeque and Malpeque, all of which perpetuate French names and serve as mute remind- ers of ruined French hopes. The school in wliich I learned to read was on the left bank of Cape Trav- erse River and the voice of my first schoolmaster used to blend through the open window with the sound of the mowers in the marshes as thej^ cut the hay which was once an object of so much solicitude to the Acadian immigrants. Here too I memorized Longfellow's Evangeline and tried to picture the liv- ing Acadians on the banks of the stream from which the pungent smell of marsh-ha}' came as an aid to the imagination. As I grew older and developed an interest in histor}' as distinct from legend and in histori- cal justice as distinct from patriotism, I searched in vain for a continuous or detailed account of the Aca- dians in my island home. At last I decided that I should undertake the task myself, and this volume is the result. Throughout the volume I have been constantly impressed by the difficulty of elevating individual pioneer efforts to the plane of history and by the equally difficult task of making a consecutive narrative out of detached letters and occasional docu- ments, but I believe that I have exhausted all avail- able information and that I have set dowTi nothing as fact that is not sufficiently authenticated. My discussion of the oath of allegiance and of the expulsion of 1755 is introduced not as a solution of these prob- lems but rather to show their effect upon Acadian Preface xi migration to Isle Saint Jean. The narrative as a whole is based upon transcripts from original sources as found in the manuscript division of the Public Archives of Canada. This material is arranged in two main series copied from the Archives Nationales and the Archives des Colonies in Paris, namely, series C^^ and series B. Series C^^ is composed of official and miscellaneous correspondence and other papers received from Canada, He Royale, Isle Saint Jean, etc. Series B is composed of registers or letter-books in which were copied despatches, memoranda, and other papers sent by the King and the Minister to officials, ecclesiastics, and private persons in the colonies. The minor series have also been consulted as well as the English state papers dealing with Acadia. In presenting this narrative to the public I have much pleasure in acknowledging the courtesy of Dr. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., Keeper of the Public Rec- ords, and of his staff. In particular I would refer to the assistance received from Miss E. Arma Smillie, M.A., Custodian of Manuscripts; to M. Placide Gaudet, Acadian Genealogist; and to Mr. H. R. Holmden, Chief of the Map Division. D. C. Harvey. Winnipeg, July 23, 1924.. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Unknown Isle 1 II. The Fur Trade and the Sedentary Fishery {la pesche sedentaire) 11 III. Migration from Acadia after the Eng- hsh Conquest 30 IV. The Failure of le Comte de Saint Pierre 40 V. The Island Reunited to the Royal Do- main 56 VI. Roma and His Settlement at Three Rivers 73 VII. De Pensens and Duchambon: Lieuten- ants de Roi 94) VIII. In the Hands of the English 109 IX. Rebirth of the French Colony 121 X. Franquet Makes Plans 146 XL The Census of Sieur de La Roque : 1752 163 XII. The Shadow of Calamity 175 XIII. The Expulsion of 1758 188 XIV. Social Life and Institutions 201 XV. The French and the Micmacs 212 XVI. Epilogue 233 Appendix A. Officers of Government 239 Appendix B. The Clergy 240 Appendix C. Census Returns 243 Appendix D. Voyage of Gauthier 244 Appendix E. Loss of the Duke William 247 Index 261 CHAPTER I The Unknown Isle I T has been the fashion among historians of an older generation to discuss at length the rival claims of French and English to prior discovery of Isle Saint Jean. In an age when such claims were important in determining ownership, there may have been some justification for detailed discussion ; but the modern historian accepts the maxim that "prescription with- out possession availeth nothing," and concerns him- self only with "effective occupation" of the lands in dispute. Thanks to the scholarly articles of Dr. S. E. Daw- son, Dr. W. F. Ganong, and others of lesser note, one can dismiss with an easy mind the thought that Cabot ever entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but that English fishermen, from 1500 onwards, sailed through the Strait of Canso and explored the waters of the Gulf is highly probable. For personal reasons, and through fear of competition, their discoveries would be kept secret. Further, they were not of the class that received notice in high places, and conse- quently their knowledge has been buried with them, whether in the land of their fathers or among the mermaids at the bottom of the sea. The first white man, who landed on the shores of the future "Garden of the Gulf" and left a record of what he saw, was Jacques Cartier, in his voyage of 1534. It is not unlikely that Cartier had learned the 2 The French in Prince Edward Island art of navigation in frequent excursions to the fish- ing grounds off Newfoundland before he ventured upon those voyages of discovery which made for him a place in history and gave to France a new outlet for her energies. It was the French who followed up his discoveries by attempting settlement both on the shores of the Gulf and on the banks of the River St. Lawrence. By settling the mouth of the river they hoped to make good their claim to all the hinterland through which it flowed. Hence it transpired that from Cartier's first voyage in 1534 until the final expulsion of its inhabitants in 1758 the destinies of Isle Saint Jean were in the keeping of the French. With a Royal Commission in his pocket, master of two ships each of about sixty tons burden, Cartier set out from St. Malo on the twentieth of April, 1534, with a total crew of sixty-one men, which he had obtained only by the intervention of authority, —so keen was the interest in the Newfoundland fish- eries, so sceptical were the merchant kings of his daring idealism and of his hope of reaching Cathay. His voyage to Newfoundland was uneventful. He made land at Bonavista, refitted at Catalina, and on the twenty-first of May proceeded northward, reaching the Strait of Belle Isle on the twenty-seventh. He spent two weeks in exploring and traversing the Strait, reaching Brest (Bonne Esperance Harbor) on the tenth of June.

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