The four sons of the first Port Royal Le Blanc settled upon the present Grand-Pré lands very soon after Melanson had become established on the Gaspereau and Terriot on the Cornwallis. The village, Jean Le Blanc, in 1775, had eight families. Village Pierre Le Blanc had fourteen, and Grand Le Blanc had thirteen. The Le Blancs appeared also in other villages. This family was related to all the older stock of Acadian families, to be found in 1755 throughout the whole of settled Nova Scotia. The history of Grand-Pré, by which is meant, the annals of the country contiguous to the Memorial Park, the Grand-Pré of the present day, in a sense, is the family history of the Le Blancs. One member of the family, René, was an historical character. Other Names In the census made of Minas in 1618, about five years after Pierre Melanson's advent to the Gaspereau, the families of Pierre Melanson Martin Ancoin, Phillippe Pinet, Etienne Hebert (Forebear of the sculptor mentioned previously--author of the Evangeline statue), Noel de la Bove, Francois la Pierre (or la Roche), Etienne Rivet, Pierre Terriot, are mentioned with particulars of their worldly condition and size of family. * * * * * Three of the Minas inhabitants mentioned on the 1686 list, de la Bove, la Pierre, and Rivet, were newcomers to Acadia, and for some reason failed to make headway in the country. Their descendants were few, and the names disappear from the annals. The Canard District The Melansons', Terriots', and Le Blancs' holdings all extended east or west, south of the Cornwallis River. North of this stream, another section was expanding, but more slowly, although conditions were favorable there for colonization. * * * * * As the Canard region become populated, crossings were made to reach the villages at low tide over the Cornwallis River. A road was made connecting the up-river settlements with Grand-Pré to the Gaspereau, where the principal centre of Minas developed, with its church, its protected landing-place and port for vessels, its store-house, and the office of the Deputy, where deeds and important documents were kept. * * * * * Thus Canard grew, and finally a beautiful church was built there. The Cornwallis River divided the parishes of Canard and Grand-Pré, but the whole region was rapidly growing in population and wealth, till it was entering upon the period preceding the Deportation. A thousand Acadians departed from Minas about 1750, so that in 1755 there were about three thousand remaining in the two parishes. Leading Up to the Expulsion