[raymond] THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW BRUNSWICK 443 



This agreement was signed by the Acadians, each making his 

 mark, in the presence of Augustin Le Blanc and Joshua Naylor. In a 

 subsequent memorial the signers explain that they had settled on 

 their lands promiscuously, but finding that there was likelihood of a 

 grant they entered into the above agreement and asked that the 

 tract above the Keswick stream be granted to them as a company 

 of settlers, the government indulging them with the liberty of dividing 

 it among themselves according to their mutual agreement. The 

 petitioners state that they are induced to enter their plea in conse- 

 quence of his Excellency's benevolence to the Acadians living below 

 the Keswick stream in giving two hundred acres of land to each settler. 

 It was agreed in Council that the memorial be complied with. 



The settlers referred to as living on the river below Keswick 

 were Maturin Gautreau, Pierre Mazerolle, Alexis Thibodeau, Joseph 

 Roi, Louis Lejeune, Baptiste Vienneau, Baptiste Daigle, François 

 Gaudin, Pierre Pinette, François Hébert, Maturin Mazerolle, Paul 

 Mazerolle. Their locations were opposite Sugar Island and Savage 

 Island and were interspersed among the lands granted to the Prince 

 of Wales American Regiment. They were included as grantees in 

 the grant made to that corps on the 15th October, 1784. 



Farther down on the same side of the Saint John were lands for 

 which Augustin Le Blanc submitted a memorial on the 24th November, 

 1784 1 It was resolved by the Governor in council that an assurance 

 be made in writing that each inhabitant shall have 200 acres surveyed 

 to him; the said allotments to extend in front on the river 40 rods 

 where the situation will admit of it, in other cases the front taken 

 up to be equally divided between the occupants, and that grants 

 should in due time pass for the same. 



Any one who reads the minutes of the proceedings of the Governor 

 in Council will be struck with the number of instances in which the 

 interests of the Acadians were considered. In many cases the matters 

 discussed were not of great importance, but they were patiently dealt 

 with and in a spirit of fairness. As an example let us take the 

 matter complained of in the following memorial: 



"To His Excellency Thomas Carleton, Captain General and Governor in 

 Chief, &c, &c, &c. 



The Memorial of Amand Cormier and François Cormier most humbly 

 sheweth — 



That your memorialists about sixteen years ago settled on a vacant tract of 

 land on the River of St. John where they have resided ever since; have each 

 built a house & barn, cleared, improved & cultivated a considerable quantity 

 of land. 



1 This memorial has already appeared in this paper, see p. 419 ante. 



