Page 55 - Gobineau: Cape Breton's People, 1859

ISSUE : Issue 54

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1990/6/1

Quinan when he wrote that he "was a courteous gentleman as well as a zeatous priest. He was a living example of what a priest should be"' I must repeat it, though, such priests are sun-ounded by a profound affection! We went to visit French Village with Father Quinan; we filled several carriages and I was with him, in his own, a sort of small two- seater charabanc. (Frenchvaie in Cape Breton County, near Svdnev. Land was granted in Mav 1823 to several members of the Gautereau family, said to have come from Miouelon. where a great many Acadi? ans fled during the deportations after 1755. In 1826 the settlement consisted of 55 families. In that year, the settlers asked that a lot be set aside for the building of a school and a church. Father James Qui? nan opened the first register of this mission of the parish of Svdnev on 3 August 1853 and he served the mission, under the patronage of St. Man/'s of the Assumption, until November 1869. when it was trans? ferred to be part of the parish of Little Bras d'Or.' We had seen very littie because heavy rain started falling and no effort to defy it was successful, so that we had to seek refuge in the village church, situat? ed in the middle of the forest, but not before we were thoroughly wet while waiting for the key which was brought from the caretaker, the nearest neighbour, who lives a quarter of a league away. We lunched in the vestry where there was just a little less water than outside, and we admired the sanctuary, built of wood, like in a church in Lapland, with a large stove in the middle. During our progress through the countryside, during the morning, we were able to admire the activity and the industriousness of the inhabitants since we had good weather and the roads seemed remaricable, even nwre so since they mn in all directions throughout the forests and lead nowhere. They are built in this fashion unlike Europe where they link inhabited areas, already settled, but here they are meant to attract peo? ple in order to bring them further inland in the hope that they will settle the country. During the morning, pleased with our praises, Mr. B(ourinot), full of patriotism, had often repeated:~ Is it not tmly remari

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