Elsewhere the Basin of Mines has been thus described :

'Swirling round Cape Split, and pressing through the narrow passage like a mill-stream, the turbid waters peacefully expand into the Basin of Mines. The broad basin reposing at your feet looks like a wide-opened hand, sending out long beneficent fingers all round into the heart of a grateful country. One of these fingers touches the valley of the Cornwallis, and into its tips stream the tidal rivers dyked by the old Acadians. On these fat and dyked lands dwells another race, with other customs and language in large modern farm-houses embowered in roses and honeysuckle. In fancy you can rebuild the old thatched cottages beside ancient apple-trees, with tall poplars and young willows branching widely out from decaying roots-sure signs of former habitation — at Grand Pré; the first person you meet points out where the sturdy blacksmith's shop stood, and the village church, and the wells, and the once filled cellars, now only grass depression on the face of green fields. Away to the north, across the Basin of Mines, grand old Blomidon uplifts to the sky his dark forehead.'

(8) It was these shores which exercised such an attraction upon the Protestant Frenchman Sieur de Monts. As Viceroy of Canada, and holding Henry IV's commission, he had set sail from Havre with four vessels in 1604. De Monts held enormous privileges under the terms of his Charter. His followers were men of all classes and descriptions, from the titled nobleman to the humble mechanic, but the general character of the settlement was in the main Protestant. De Monts held the exclusive control of the soil, government, and trade, and freedom of religion for Huguenot emigrants. The tangible result of his enterprise was the founding of Port Royal (1605) by Poutrincourt, as already

noticed. In his desire to strengthen French rule along the eastern littoral of North America, De Monts surveyed those sites and positions which were occupied shortly afterwards by New England.

(9) The possessions of Poutrincourt were in 1607 confirmed by Henry IV, the Pope gave his benediction to many French families who colonised the country with a view to evangelising the heathen, and two illustrious Catholic ladies, Mary de Medici and the Marchioness de Guercheville, gave money and support to the missions. In 1610 the order of the Jesuits, those most important promoters of colonisation schemes, was confirmed in some privileges by De Biencourt the son of the proprietor Poutrincourt. In 1612 De Biencourt himself and a Jesuit named Father Biart, whose zeal has already been alluded to, ascended the Kennebec and converted some of the Canibas, who were Algonkins, and hostile to the English colonists. Whilst Samuel Champlain (1608) was engaged in opening up the St. Lawrence and founding Quebec, De Monts and his successors were developing Nova Scotia and the adjacent mainland. Perhaps it would have been wiser on the part of the French to have founded on a secure and durable basis coast colonies from the St. Lawrence to the Penobscot. In the end the continent was destined to belong to those who held a strong position in the maritime provinces. But De Monts and his successors were unable to carry out any practical schemes of colonisation. A few Indians were converted, and the fur-trade was only taken up to be carried on in a desultory and half-hearted way. Owing to the representations of rivals at home, who had the King's ear, De Monts was recalled and deprived of his office and charter. Here, again, home politics in France interfered with schemes of Transatlantic colonisation.

(10) In 1621, during the reign of James I, Englishmen

made an attempt to succeed where Frenchmen had failed. Sir William Alexander, a Scottish knight, well known at the Court, obtained from the king a Charter granting him the whole of the peninsula, first named in this document as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Gaspé Peninsula. The territory thus granted was to be held at a yearly quit-rent of one penny Scots, to be paid on the soil of Nova Scotia on the festival of the Nativity.' Four years after this Charter was issued Charles I, who had now succeeded James I, created a remarkable order of knights called the 'Knights Baronets of Nova Scotia.' They numbered 150, and each of them was entitled to receive a large grant of land on the condition that he would settle immigrants on it. The English were not allowed to try for a very long time the experiment begun by Sir W. Alexander. Colonial matters were at the mercy of European complications, and by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye between the English and French, signed in 1632, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton were handed back to France. This was disappointing to the settlers, as the English under Sir David Kirke, the Newfoundland settler, had practically expelled the French from Nova Scotia, conquered Port Royal, and even destroyed Tadousac, their fur-trading station on the St. Lawrence, and held Quebec.

(11) The French, however, kept their possessions for twenty-two years undisturbed. England was in the throes of Civil War, and had little time to turn her eyes abroad upon her distant settlements. But in 1654 Oliver Cromwell held the reins of government, and in his hands England's foreign and colonial policy was firm and decisive. The Protector, urged on by the Puritans both in New England and in the mother-country, who had always protested against the surrender of Nova Scotia, resolved to retake the country. This was

done with little difficulty, and the English flag was again hoisted at Port Royal. Sir Thomas Temple was made Governor, and ruled the settlement from 1654 to 1667.

(12) In 1667 Nova Scotia again changed hands in virtue of the Treaty of Breda. But the French and English settlers never agreed cordially. They were constantly disputing about the fisheries or the fur-trade, and intriguing with the Indians; and until the Treaty of Utrecht, there was one long-continued series of petty strifes. At one time the colonists waged war formally with the French. A night raid in midwinter by French and Indians upon the border colonies of New York, New Hampshire and Maine, had made the settlers rise as one man. As already noticed, two expeditions, one by sea against Port Royal and Quebec, and one by land against Montreal, were equipped by colonists and entrusted to the command of colonial leaders. The attack on Port Royal succeeded, but those on Montreal and Quebec failed. In the desultory warfare which followed, there were not wanting adventurers on both sides, both on the mainland and the peninsula, who maintained the strife with unusual means and with extraordinary cruelty. Villebon, the French Governor of Port Royal, retired from his post as being too exposed, and entrenched himself in a forest retreat at the mouth of the St. John's River. He kept large packs of dogs, with which he hunted down his enemies, and did not scruple to use the aid of bands of savage Indians. With Villebon lived a noted pirate, Baptiste by name, who sallied forth and plundered all who were so unfortunate as to come in his way. The deep woods and the wide estuaries of Fundy Bay gave every opportunity to pirates for successfully carrying on their nefarious occupation.

(13) All the devices and stratagems of the border feuds

of the inland provinces and settlements were reproduced along the maritime provinces. The English were destined to win the day in North America, and they won it here in the islands and peninsulas first of all. Subercase, the brave French commander, was compelled to surrender Port Royal, after a gallant resistance, in September, 1710. When the French flag was hauled down, one of the greatest and most important bulwarks of French power in the country was destroyed, and in honour of Queen Anne its name was changed to Annapolis. Shortly after the Treaty of Utrecht, the French built a town at Louisburg, in Cape Breton, which was still left to them, and made it the centre of their power. Thither many

of the French colonists from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia retreated, the place itself occupying a commanding position with regard to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was built on a tongue of land stretching down between the harbour and Gabarus Bay, and was protected on all sides by fortifications. Seaward, there lay a rocky islet called Battery Island, and on the north-east, about a mile distant, was built the fort called the Grand Battery. This place was for many years a standing menace to the British colonists and to British power. A glance at the map will show the strength of its natural position, and it was not long before the final struggle for the Island of Cape Breton took place between English and French colonists.

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