SAINT DUNSTAN‘S COLLEGE

CuAnLontrowu PRINCE EDWARD [sum

-2-

' cDonald, who had undertaken to assist his oppressed and persecuted countrymen to igrate, had sent his younger brother Donald with a band of mechanics to erect ildings and make some preparation for the accomodation of those who were to be enants on the Glenaladale estate. In this pioneer band was one McRae who had a ones a few miles above the portage where the "Alexander” anchored, in a district hich, in opposition to the old French fort they had passed on their way from Port-

-Joie, the emigrants dubbed Scotch Forts, a name it retains to this day.

t is probable that McRae's house was the first erected and that his fellow artisans ought its shelter after their day's work was over, as well as in the months when the term King rode abroad in the forest and on the river, driving even these hardy moun-

aineers in doors to seek the comfort of a blazing wood fire and a consoling pipe.

ow they must have talked of home on such occasions, and visited in spirit the misty teens and rugged isles, where their dear ones were praying for the untried future in

he new world. Tradition tells, that, in one compartment of that first log house,

he faithful would distinctly hear the words of the Holy “ass, as if an invisible riest, were offering the sacrifice for them in their midst, even the tones of his

ice were clearly audible as he addressed the Almighty in the grand invocations of

the Canon. The old people further tell you that when Father James AcDonald landed from the "Alexander" his first mass on Canadian ground was offered in McRae's house, and those who had preceded the priest into exile recognized his tones as those they had heard during the past winter when no mass was being celebrated within many miles of their cabin. Be that as it may, it was in that part of Tracadie known as Scotch Fbrt and in the house of Donald hacflae that Father James hacDonald took up his abode, and

from there he started in his canoe voyages to minister to the sick in other parts of

the province.