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The Scottish Catholics in Prince Edward Island 1772 - 1922
Chapter XV


The foregoing pages contain an account of the principal Scottish Catholic settlements, formed throughout Prince Edward Island in the early days of the Colony. It would be impossible within the limits of this small Volume to enter into the history of the various families, or to delineate the details of the various happenings, that marked their evolution from poor and obscure beginnings to the religious and civil development, that challenges our admiration at the present day. But if we listen to the echoes of the past, each settlement will tell its story of determination and endurance on the part of the devoted people, who, exiled from their Motherland for conscience sake, crossed the stormy ocean and forced the wilds of Prince Edward Island to lay aside their terrors, and yield up a home and a living to these hardy adventurers.

Could the screen artist of the present day go back one hundred and fifty years and reproduce the scenes, that met their gaze on their arrival on Prince Edward Island; could he picture their landing at Scotchfort amid the gloom and loneliness that surrounded them ; could he show us the pioneers of Prince County making their way westward, the speaking stillness of the primeval forest beckoning them farther and still farther into its disheartening obscurity: above all could he make those actors speak and tell us what were the feelings that welled up within them, what were their misgivings, their doubts, their anxieties and fears, whilst every hill and brook and tree seemed to speak of hardships and toil and want to be endured even until death: and all this not for their own sake but for the sake of their descendants, that peace and plenty and comfort might be their birthright in the land of their adoption: what a glorious panorama he would unfold. What a sermon more eloquent than the most thrilling passage of the world's greatest orators. What a story he would tell of unswerving attachment to parental duty, of keen appreciation of holy religion, of unselfish devotion to God and Country, virtues stamped over the entire face of Prince Edward Island, by the martyr-like devotedness and heroic tenacity of purpose, that characterized its Scottish Catholic Pioneers.


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