Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/45

from him I learned the exodus of his father and grandfather from Port Royal, their stay of several months at French Cross, on the Bay of Fundy shore, their removal to Grosses Coques river, as he called it, their departure from there in the spring of 1756 for New Brunswick, etc. He knew the most minute details of the where-abouts of this caravan of fugitives. He told me also that several deaths occurred among them on Piau's Island, very soon after their arrival there.

I bade adieu to my dear grand uncle and a month later I was visiting the spot, on the shore of St. Mary's Bay, where my great great grandfather, Pierre Belliveau, with his companions in misfortune, had remained dur-ing the winter of 1755–6. This was in February, 1885, and it was my first visit to Clare. The island I expected to find was no more. The narrow gully of nearly a mile long which separated this spot from the mainland had been partly filled in, and the island had become a part of Major Doucet's Point. It name was still known by the old folks, and I learned it was called Goulet-des-Chiens de Mer (Dogfish Gully). It stood at the end of a beautiful ridge, extending from the south side of Belliveau's Cove towards the Grosses Coques Village, for a distance of a good mile and a half, alongside the shore of St. Mary's Bay. This ridge or point, as it is now called, was in September, 1768, the cradle of Clare Settlement by Acadians. It is surrounded on the south and east sides by the Grosses Coques river. The Goulet-des-Chiens de Mer opened on the north, on the curve of the bay which forms Belliveau's Cove, and ran almost in a straight line till it met the mouth of the Grosses Coques. Piau's Island was between this gully and the shore of St. Mary's Bay. It was a about a quarter of a mile wide by a mile long. Formerly a dense forest of large firs and spruces covered this historical spot. But they have now all disappeared,