been made in 1874 for French Canadians repatriated from the New England states, and had given rise to the establishment between 1876 and 1885 of ten new French settlements in Western Canada. Following this meeting the two aristocrats purchased fourteen quarters south of the Pipestone in Township fourteen (all of sections 31, 33 and 35 and all the east half of section 34) and fourteen quarters north of the. valley (all of sections 2 and 9, the north halves of sections 4 and 5, and the south half of section 3). This land in turn was sold to the Diocese of St. Boniface at or near cost. Once having secured the land, the January 1891 issue of The Colonist tells us, de Roffignac and Van Brabant induced a number of French families "to transport themselves across the Atlantic and locate within the limits of the settlement." They promised their compatriots "free and comfortable homes, liberty and remunerative employment," and one homestead quarter for each family-head. Partially with the business of recruiting settlers in mind, de Roffignac had returned to France in 1889. Van Brabant spent the winter of 1891 in France "attending to immigration business in connection with the colony." The colony soon enjoyed a large measure of success. According to Father Fallourd, eighty-eight French and Belgians arrived at Rolanderie between March 26, 1892 and October 4, 1893. De Roffignac's and van Brabant's plans to establish the settlement as a French-speaking Catholic community dovetailed nicely with the plans of the aristocrats to develop the area into an agricultural-industrial centre. As The Colonist explained: "The general objective of the promoters (of colonization) was to enter largely into the cultivation of chicory and sugar beet and the raising of horses, cattle and sheep." By working in these and other enterprises, the new settlers could earn enough money to establish themselves on their homesteads. They moreover had a place to stay, usually in the small houses built on or near the main farm yards at Rolanderie, Richelieu, and the others. The presence of the new settlers would solve a recurring problem that 'the Counts' had had to deal with. While 'the Counts' had brought with them from France several gardeners, servants, farm labourers, lease tenants, they still were in need of large manpower reserves. One enterprise they established in 1891 (the gruyere cheese factory), for example, would employ fifteen men in the winter