PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, FLAG OF

Canadian provincial flag consisting of horizontal stripes of red and white bearing an elongated golden lion on the red stripe and three oak saplings and an oak tree on the wide white stripe; the three fly edges of the flag have alternating red and white rectangles. On July 14, 1769, the new seal for the British colony then known as St. John's Island bore the Latin motto "Parva sub ingenti" ("The small under the protection of the great" or "The small beneath the vast"), which was also represented graphically by an oak tree with three smaller trees at its side. These represented England and the three counties into which the colony was divided. As a province in the Dominion of Canada, Prince Edward Island acquired a coat of arms on May 30, 1905, utilizing the old seal design as the basis for its new shield. The red chief (upper part of the shield) bore a yellow lion, which referred to the English origin of the settlers and to the coat of arms of Prince Edward, for whom the island was named. In anticipation of the confederation centennial celebrations in 1967, a provincial flag was developed from the coat of arms by Conrad Swan, the first Canadian to serve in the College of Arms. The flag is an armorial banner with the coat of arms spread out as its field. Along the three outer edges a border of alternating red and white rectangles was added. The flag was approved by the legislature on March 24, 1964. Whitney Smith History Before European colonization, Micmac Indians from the mainland used the island for fishing, hunting, and some planting in the warmer seasons. Present-day descendants of these Indians subsist mainly on a small island in Malpeque Bay on the north shore. Legend suggests that John Cabot, the English-sponsored Genoese-Venetian explorer, may have seen the island in 1497, although historians credit its discovery to Jacques Cartier, the French navigator, in June 1534. Claimed for France in 1603 by Samuel de Champlain, the first governor of French Canada (who called it le Saint-Jean), it was not colonized until 1720, when 300 settlers from France established Port la Joie at the entrance to the harbour of Charlottetown. In addition, fishermen and trappers from the French-speaking mainland colony of Acadia established several other small communities on the island. The French regime lasted only 38 years until the British occupied the island in 1758, dispersing more than 3,500 of the settlers. The island was formally ceded to Great Britain in 1763, and six years later the colony was separated from Cape Breton and its first governor was appointed. Under British administration the island was surveyed and divided into three counties, each with a township and "royalty," and 67 lots or townships of about 20,000 acres each. In 1767, proprietors, who were expected to promote settlement, were awarded 64 of these lots by ballot, and for the next century absentee-landlord problems beset the colony. Representative government was granted in 1851, and the Land Purchase Act of 1875 ended the controversial land tenure system. By 1900 the population reached 100,000. In 1864 a conference called to discuss the Maritime Provinces' union prepared the way for the confederation of all the Canadian provinces. This Charlottetown Conference was the forerunner of the Quebec Conference of 1867, which actually resulted in the founding of the Dominion of Canada. Prince Edward Island has thus been known as the "Cradle of Confederation," even though it did not finally join the union until 1873, when forced to do so by severe financial troubles. Resourceful politicians then persuaded the federal government to make concessions that enabled the province to purchase the lands still held by foreign proprietors and resell them to resident farmers, to assume the debt of the island railway, and to obtain assurance of continuous communication with the mainland. Despite these advantages of confederation, the economy of Prince Edward Island remained chronically depressed and dependent on federal assistance through most of the 20th century. Brendan Anthony O'Grady