J.S. McLennan, Louisbourg: From Its Foundation To Its Fall (Sydney: Fortress Press, 1969), Chapter 6

© Fortress Press

The connection of St. Ovide with Isle Royale began when he landed with the one hundred and forty founders of Louisbourg in 1713. Four years later he became its Governor. By the time of his retirement he had seen most of the little harbours along the coast become fishing establishments, and the civil population of the island grow to something over thirty-eight hundred, and the commerce, which had begun with the few vessels which the people of Placentia had brought with them, increase to a fleet of great importance. In 1738 seventy-three vessels came from France, forty-two from New England and Acadia, and twenty-nine from Canada and the West Indies. At the latter date some fifty-four vessels of the inhabitants were engaged in coasting and trading, besides sixty odd schooners and one hundred fishing-boats which pursued the staple industry of the coast, cod-fishing. The value of this industry was about 3,000,000 livres, and the overseas commerce of the island, one year with another, was about an equal amount. Shipbuilding was established in the island and was carried on on the Miré as well as at Louisbourg, although many vessels were brought from New England. A little later the British authorities complained that " in the fall, after the British guard-ship has left Canso, the French go to Pictou, build vessels, and cut some of the finest mast timber in the world and take it to Louisbourg in the early spring." [1] 

The project of fortifications as originally laid down was finished. Beginning at the water front on the harbour side, the Dauphin bastion and spur protected the principal approach to the town, and swept the water front of the harbour. Between it and the King's bastion ran an ascending curtain wall to the height on which the citadel was placed. Across its opening on the town side stood a stately stone building, the Chateau St. Louis, of four stories with slated roof. The only entrance was across a draw-bridge thus described by a New England observer : 

" The entrance is by a large gate over which is a draw-bridge over a small ditch through the whole building, in passing which on the left hand the door opens into a King's 

1. C.O. 217/31 Cf. Appendix.

Chappell, on the right hand into a dungeon, one of which has a greater resemblance of Hell than the other of Heaven." [1]

The Citadel contained, on the southern side, the apartments of the Governor and the King's Chapel, which served as parish church ; the other half was occupied by the barracks. The whole work was the Bastion du Roy, the centre of the system of fortification. Between this and the sea coast were the Queen's bastion and the Prince's half-bastion. These works by 1735 were in an advanced state, although but a few guns were mounted, for at this time the defence of the town depended on the island battery, protecting the mouth of the harbour with a battery of twenty guns broadside to the narrow entrance, and on the shore of the harbour, facing its entrance, the Royal battery completed with its towers and with its guns mounted. After that date there was taken up by the Engineers the fortifications of the eastern part of the town as shown in the plans. 

There is some material to make a picture of the town. Monsieur Verrier, the Engineer, whiled away the hours of the winter of 1731 in making a drawing of the town from the harbour side ; another from the sea, drawn by Bastide, shows it substantially as St. Ovide left it ; but in the way of description little exists, except the few references to the condition of the people, given by Don Antonio d'Ulloa, a Spanish man of science and captain in her navy, who was at Louisbourg in I745 under circumstances to be recounted later. [2]

Verrier's view is confirmed by the written description, and by those which are found ornamenting some of the maps, notably that of the first siege. The houses were built for the most part in wood on stone foundations, and were from eight to eleven feet in height ; but some of them had the first story in stone, the upper in wood. This description and Verrier's view would seem to indicate that the restrictions as to height had been disregarded, but justify D'Ulloa's description. The hospital would, in the general coup d'oeil, go far to redeem the appearance of the town, for it dominated it as the Chateau of St. Louis the citadel, and their slender flèches, so characteristic of French architecture of the period, would, from sea, have been a guide as certain and as visible as the lighthouse. It is also characteristic of the methods of the two peoples, that there seems to have been in all the British colonies no buildings so imposing as those which the French Government thought suitable for this little establishment. 

Beginning at the water front near the Dauphin gate, the principal entrance to the town, the first buildings were the King's store-houses, and lodged in the space between this and the inner angle of the King's bastion were the dwellings 

1. C.O. Ad. Captains' Letters, No. 2655. 
2. B.N. Geo. C, 18,830. Brit. Mus., King's, 119, 95 A. A facsimile is in the Archives at Ottawa, and another in the possession of the writer is given as a frontispiece; of the former, Bastide's view is opposite.

of four military officers. Next on the water front were the establishments of some merchants, and the official residence of the Commissaire-Ordonnateur, which De Mezy had built for himself in stone at a Cost of 20,000 £. Next to this house was one belonging to Madame Rodrigue, widow of one of the principal merchants in the place, which was 22 feet square on a piece of land 44 x 150 feet, which Bigot certified in 1739 to be worth 5500 £. [1] This family, like many others of the merchants, were well off, "fort à leur aise," enriched by their commerce with Europe and America ; their prosperity all founded, to the amazement of D'Ulloa, on their single product the cod of Isle Royale, which he states is the best from American waters. 

Next to these came the Chapel and Convent of the Recollets, and then along the water front some properties belonging to the civil staff. About the centre of the town the Sisters of the Congregation had made a somewhat improvident bargain, as it was regarded at the time, in buying from De Beacours a lot on which they established their convent and school. So large a part of the town was occupied by government buildings and the properties of the military and civil staff, that the working population must have been placed along the shores of the harbour, on which one still sees the foundations of many buildings. Verrier, the Engineer, had a lot on the corner of the Rue d'Estrées and Scatarie running through to the newly opened Rue de l'Hôpital, where his principal neighbour was Cailly, Lieutenant of the Swiss, who had bought from the heirs of Baron de L'Espérance the adjoining property. On this Verrier had built his modest habitation, not much exceeding, he says, the estiniated cost of 6000 £. [2] This consisted of a ground floor, which held a kitchen, and annexed thereto a scullery and a room for a servant, a dining-room, a principal bedroom, and two small closets, and in the attic his study, and some small bedrooms for his family. The only other description of a house is that of Delaforest, who came to Louisbourg in 1714 as clerk, and in 1728 had risen to be Procureur in the Admiralty Court. This he had to demolish because it was under the little hill which was to be occupied by the Dauphin bastion. The house was 50 feet long, 15 wide, built with pickets and was covered with boards. The principal room was 15 feet square, with two large glazed windows looking out on the harbour, and a glazed door opening out to the garden. It had two cabinets, each with a window, a kitchen 15 by 14 with two windows, all of them with a loft over. There was a lean-to store-house, 15 by 12, against the gable of the house, a court of 30 by 70 in front surrounded by pickets and with a large gate. At the back was a garden of 60 feet square, also fenced in, which was in an excellent state as it had been well manured. 

The normal increase in the population was good. In 1726 it had been 

1. Ulloa, vol. ii. p. 140. 
2. Its cost was 28,945 £., for which St. Ovide was reprimanded.

951, in 1734 it was 1116, and in 1737 was 1463. They were a fruitful people. There were 157 families, in which the wife was resident, in 1737, and the number of children 664. The custom of sending women to the colonies did not affect Isle Royale. Many Canadians had come and married immigrants from France, while Acadia supplied all the marriageable maidens the growth of the population required. 

These figures include neither the garrison nor the official classes, nor apparently the ecclesiastics, of whom there were five Brothers of Charity at the hospital, three Recollet monks, and five Sisters of the Congregation. The daughters of some of the officers were sent to Canada or to France for their education, but after the establishment of the Nuns at Louisbourg their school seems to have provided adequately for the education of the young people of the place. There does not seem to have been, however, any school for boys, and yet they all seem to have written fairly well, and show no more inaccuracy as regards grammar and spelling than the majority of young New Englanders of the time. 

The population also had become, with the growth of the town, somewhat more complex. There was a gardener in the town, a Master of Hydrography, and the ladies of the town had the choice of two dressmakers. One Marie Paris, born in Louisbourg, apparently had the larger establishment, for with her lived three sisters and a maid ; while the widow Radoub, who belonged to St. Malo, lived by herself, and, if her name had any significance, exercised a humbler form of the art. Nor was the gardener the only person who promoted the amenities of life ; one Simon Rondel had come from Namur to carry on his profession as a teacher of dancing. 

The earlier disapproval by the authorities of having negroes in Cape Breton had broken down through the intercourse with the West Indies, and several of the families had negro servants brought from the French islands.[1] They were baptized, and in the majority of the cases the godfather and godmother were sons and daughters of the officers of the garrison. 

The three bells for the chapel in the citadel were blessed and baptized as St. Louis, St. John, and St. Anthoine-Marie, the last being named for Sabatier, who was acting at the time, 1733, as Ordonnateur, and for Madame Bourville, wife of the King's Lieutenant. The bells for the Recollet church in towil were also baptized, with De Lort, a merchant of the town, as godfather, and Marie, the wife of Despiet, an officer of the garrison, as godmother. 

The illegitimate children of the town were cared for by people of position taking the responsibility of godfather and godmother to these un-fortunates. These were not numerous, considering the fact that it was a large 

1. St. Ovide to the Minister, Nov. 27, 1724, vol. 9. 

garrison town, frequented by fishermen for six months of the year, and was the home of families from which the husband was often absent. Practically the full number is known owing to the necessity for baptism among Roman Catholics. 

In the environs the twenty-five years of settlement had developed the country, as is shown on a contemporary map. A road " on which two carriages could drive abreast," still passable except for the bridges, had by 1738 been opened through to the Miré, which it reached opposite Salmon River. On the beautiful meadows which form its banks, St. Ovide had his concessions, and in his neighbourhood were settled some few retired soldiers. 

The Sieur Jean Milly, a principal merchant of Louisbourg, had an establishment not distant from that of the Governor. It is probable that these were the two estates which were described by Gibson, who led a party to the Miré in 1745. [1] 

"We found two fine farms upon a neck of land that extended near seven miles in length. The first we came to was a very handsome house, and had two large barns, well finished, that lay contiguous to it. Here, likewise, were two very large gardens ; as also some fields of corn of a considerable height, and other good lands thereto belonging, besides plenty of beach wood and fresh water . . . . The other house was a fine stone edifice, consisting of six rooms on a floor, all well finished. There was a fine wall before it, and two fine barns contiguous to it, with fine gardens and other appurtenances, besides several fine fields of wheat. In one of the barns there were fifteen loads of hay, and room sufficient for three score horses and other cattle." 

Living people have seen the brick floors of a large byre with the bones of many cattle on it on the southern side of the Miré, near Albert Bridge. The properties of M. de Catalogne and the Fathers of Charity ran along the Mir6 River and shore of the bay, into which it empties, and Lagrange, a sergeant, and Boucher, the Engineer, owned the lands behind the Lorambecs, and caused much dissatisfaction to the fisherfolk by refusing permission to cut the wood necessary for their flakes. The description of these farms would indicate that this outflow of enterprise and population would come from a more thriving town than the official letters described. Scarcity of food is a serious thing, but satisfaction, with her offspring comfort and energy, treads close on the heels of supply. It was only after St. Ovide's time that the accounts indicate stagnation from want. 

The officers were approximately of the same social grade, and that noble. They were of different origins : some, as Bourville, were Normans ; the Du 

1. This identification is not certain. Gibson's distances seem all inaccurate, but Milly was the only known proprietor likely to have so important an establishment, unless St. Ovide had built after his absence, which is not likely. The direction by which the scout marched, west-north-west, prevents these being those of the Pères de la Charité and Catalogne. There is some evidence that Du Vivier had in 1745 a farm on the Miré. 

Chambon and Dangeac families, as well as St. Ovide, were from the south-west provinces of France ; the Perelles were Parisian, and the Canadian connection was kept up by D'Ailleboust, after the younger Rouville, born in Isle Royale, had returned to Canada ; while the families of De Gannes and De la Tour were Acadian. Catalogne, a Protestant of Béarn, who had been admitted to the Catholic Church, had come to Isle Royale after a distinguished service as Engineer in Canada, apparently possessed of some means, for he not only bought property in the town, but an extensive tract of land along the slopes of that lake which was then known as the Barachois de Miré and is now called by his name. 

Among this little group of people marriages were frequent. It might almost be said that they were all connected. Villejouln, for example, came to Isle Royale in 1714, dying there four years later. After a widowhood of ten years, his wife married D'Ailleboust, connected with the Perelles ; their son married a De Gannes-Falaise, whose mother was a De la Vallière ; while another sister married Couagne, an officer. La Vallière intermarried with the Rousseau Souvigni, and a daughter of the latter family became the wife of Chassin de Thierry, the grandson of an Ecuyer de la Bouche de sa Majesté (Louis XIV.). The daughters of the De la Tour family married, as might be expected ; Jeanne was the wife of Rousseau Souvigni, but the brother, judging from the names of his two wives, married among the bourgeois, and so on through the list. The older Catalogne came to Louisbourg as a married man, and one of his four daughters married before she was of age a De Gannes-Falaise. While these were socially correct marriages, others went outside of their own class. The young Baron de I'Espérance, an officer of the Swiss companies, married a Demoiselle Rodrigu e. Young Bois Berthelot married a Des Goutins. Two of the descendants of the Baron de la Poterie married Daccarettes of the superior bourgeoisie. A D'lle la Vallière, apparently after a hasty courtship, for the vessel was not long in port, married Fierrot, a lieutenant of a ship of the East India Company which in 1744 called at Louisbourg. Another sister, Barbe, married Delort, a merchant of the town, an alliance more unusual than the military men marrying the daughters of merchants. The Dangeac family apparently married into the bourgeoisie in the second generation. The first to serve in the colonies was the older Gabriel, who began his career in 1685. He was transferred to Cape Breton, where he died in I737. His son served in Isle Royale, became Governor of St. Pierre, and died in 1782 after fifty- seven years in the King's service. He made at Louisbourg in 1735 a misalliance which enhanced the vigour of his race, for there are letters extant from his two daughters, one aged ninety-four, and another, Charlotte, aged eighty-nine, written in 1830. As these old ladies, when Queen Victoria was in her teens, could have boasted that their grandfather was alive when Charles the Second reigned in England, it illustrates the extraordinary space of time which can be covered by three generations. 

As somewhat unwelcome members of this community came, in 1721-22, two detachments of the Swiss Regiment of Karrer, raised by the King to supplement the naval troops. The officers and men were Protestants, but, notwithstanding the friction at first, they adjusted themselves. Some of the non- commissioned officers married ; and the elder De I'Espérance, a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire and son of the Lieut.-Colonel of the regiment of the Duke of Wurtemburg, was admitted to the Catholic Church and married Margueritte Dangeac, a step which he represents as costing him his patrimony.

Complaints were made that the Swiss troops held tenaciously to their privileges as Protestants, but the example of De l'Espérance was followed by not an inconsiderable number of his men, mostly among those who were married and were householders. Other cases occur. A native of " Hampcher," an English Calvinist, a Dutch Lutheran, and one " Gyleis," an Irish Anglican, made their peace with the dominant Church, while here and there occur entries in the register which indicate that the French wandered into New England colonies. Couples remarried after living in Massachusetts, children born in New England were baptized, all this showing the benign influences of mutually profitable trade, and a zeal on the part of the Recollets or their parishioners, which, like the care of the negro and the unfortunate, give fairer impressions of the community than we get from some reports of scandalous conduct. 

The high - sounding names of these officers did not imply any great splendour in their way of life. All of these families, by the census of 1734, except that of the Dangeacs, had two servants. In food they had good material to work with. Fish and game were abundant.[1] Voltaire somewhere draws a comparison between the splendid equipages of Lima and their absence in Louisbourg ; a more significant indication of the modesty in life in Isle Royale is that although every year one or more men-of-war visited it, remaining usually several weeks in port, none of their officers married into its families, while many daughters of planters in Martinique and St. Domingo became the wives of naval men. [2] 

Costebelle was in financial difficulties, but in his time he occupied the first position in the colony. The returns of his goods sold at auction in 1720 for the benefit of his creditors give some details. The first article offered was a yellow satin dressing-gown lined with blue taffeta. It was followed by a scarlet coat embroidered in gold, a suit of coffee-coloured cloth lined with silk and 

1.  The latter was cared for, for twice at least the shooting of partridges was prohibited. Forest fires, however, which also made fuel dear, were their greatest enemy. 
2 Among them, two M'Carthys, obviously Irish, and presumably Jacobites, who were in the French Navy, became rich by such alliances.

embroidered in silver, which, bringing ninety livres, made it less valuable than another cloth suit, bordered with gold, which brought one hundred and seventy livres. Twenty-one shirts were sold and nine cravats. In silver there were apparently only ten table spoons and forks, and two silver candlesticks, his table service being made up by three dozen pewter plates and fourteen dishes, while there were only eight table-cloths and three dozen napkins, which would indicate either a meagre supply for the position he occupied, or that not all of his household goods were then disposed of. The proceeds of this sale were distinctly less than those of a ship's captain who died in port and whose personal effects, in which were twenty-four gold buttons, brought 1600 francs. 

But there were brighter sides to life in Louisbourg than these details of circumscribed conditions and narrow incomes. It was permanent, for there were very few changes in the garrison or civil officials. There were the pleasures of the chase for those who cared for them.[1] Gaming was common and excessive in the later years of the town, and with its prevalence in France it probably at all times passed away many hours for society. [2] The town appealed to a New England chaplain, who writes of the fine walk along the ramparts.[3] 

They had public celebrations which kept them in touch with events in Europe, and made it evident that Isle Royale was a part of a great kingdom. A Te Deum was sung for the restoration to health of the King in 1721, and another for the birth of a Princess in 1728, but the greatest entertainment was at the time of the rejoicing for the birth of the Dauphin. [4] On the 26th of October I73o, at daybreak, there was a salvo of artillery, another during the Te Deum at High Mass, and a third with a discharge of musketry at nightfall. Bourville, the acting Governor, gave a dinner to eighty military officers, followed by a ball. De Mezy, at his house, had a dinner of twenty-eight for the civil officers and the principal merchants, and the following days gave two dinners of sixteen for the captains in port, and of twenty to the staff, his house being too small to entertain, at one time, all whom he wished. The festivities closed by the officers of the garrison giving a feast for eighty, followed, like that of De Bourville, by a ball. No such rejoicings seem to have taken place in Louisbourg since Meschin's dinner in 1716, whereat the tally of salutes was lost in the mists of his exuberant hospitality. 

Cape Breton has weather as dreary and disappointing as well can be conceived. There are weeks in autumn when a dull earth meets a leaden sea, in winter when the ground is white, the sea sombre. In spring the sea

1. Le Normant's bag one morning at Baleine was forty birds.
2. Verrier's picture of the town designates by the local standard a rather imposing house on the Rue du Port as " le billard." We have no indication as to whether this was a club or a public place for the game.
3 William's journal.
4 Vol. 11, f. 21.

is white and glistering with drift ice, the land dreary with dead vegetation. In early summer sea and land are dank with fog, and at any time occur gales of wind which are always blustering and often destructive. Although by the accounting of the meteorologist the difficult or unpleasant conditions predominate, the good weather so far surpasses in degree the bad, that, the latter past, it seems but naught. On fine days the moorland is a sheet of glowing russet and gold, the rocks are so noble a background, for the most pellucid of seas, the clouds which hang in the overarching blue are so monumental in shape, the line of coast which dies down to the eastern horizon is so picturesque in outline, that they, seen through an air sparkling, limpid, exhilarating in the highest degree, make of Louisbourg a delight which must have appealed to its people in the past, as it does to the visitor of to-day. Above all, when the inhabitant reached the turning-point of his promenade at the ramparts, he looked out over an ocean which stretched unbroken to southern polar ice. That ocean was the only highway of important news. On it mysterious sails appeared in the offing and pirates plundered. Each ship which worked in from its horizon might bring tidings of adventure or of consequence to the onlooker or the community. With such a prospect life might be hopeless but it could not be permanently dull.