72 J. G. BOURINOT ON 
gifted with practical foresight, they would have seen that the possession of Acadia was 
an absolute necessity to a power which hoped to retain its dominion by the St. Lawrence 
and the great lakes. 
The history of the first fort raised by the French in Acadia illustrates the difficulties 
with which the pioneers of France on this continent had to contend from the very outset 
of their perilous experiment of colonization. When the adventurers came to Acadia with 
DeMonts—the feudal lord of half a continent by virtue of Henry’s royal charter—there 
was not a single European settlement from the frozen Pole to the ancient Spanish town 
of St. Augustine, among the swamps of Florida. When the rock-girt islet of the St. Croix 
was found altogether unsuitable for their first settlement, the French with one accord 
sought the lovely basin, surrounded by wooded hills and a fertile country abounding with 
game, which is now known as the basin of the Annapolis, one of the inlets of the Bay of 
Fundy, so noted for its “tides” and “bores.” Two hundred and seventy years ago, the 
first timbers of the fort were raised on the banks of the Equille, now the Annapolis river, 
by the command of Baron de Poutrincourt, who was the first seignior of that domain. The 
French were enchanted with the scenery and their new settlement. ‘It was unto us a 
“ thing marvellous,” says the first historian of America, “ to see the fair distance and the 
“ largeness of it, and the mountains and hills that environed it, and we wondered how so 
“ fair a place did remain a desert, being all filled with wood. At the very beginning we 
“ were desirous to see the country up the river, where we found meadows almost conti- 
“ nually above twelve leagues of ground, among which brooks do run without number, 
“ coming from the hills and mountains adjoining. The woods are very thick on the shores 
“ of the water.” 
A chequered history was that of Port Royal from the day of its foundation. Men 
who have played a prominent part in the colonization of this continent were among the 
first inhabitants. Champlain, the founder of Quebec ; DePoutrincourt, the chivalrous, 
zealous chief of Acadian colonization ; L’Escarbot, the genial, chatty historian ;—are among 
the men who throw a bright halo around the history of the first fort. L’Escarbot has left 
us a pleasing description of the trials and successes of the pioneers, in which we see illus- 
trated all the versatility and vivacity of the French character. When we read his account 
of the doings of the colonists, we must regret that there had not always been a L’Escarbot 
in after-times to describe the varied incidents of the career of the fort, until the fleur-de-lis 
was lowered for ever on its bastions. Let us briefly describe three scenes which show the 
varied features of Acadian life more than two hundred and fifty years ago. 
Let us go back, in imagination, to a winter day in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. The hills and valleys of the surrounding country are covered with snow, but 
the pines and spruce are green as ever. The water is frozen around the shore, but the tides 
Still rush in and out of the spacious basin, and keep it comparatively free from the ice bonds 
which fetter the rivers and lakes of the interior. On an elevated point of land, near the 
head of the basin, and by the side of the river, we see a small pile of wooden buildings, 
from whose chimneys rise light columns of smoke in the pure atmosphere, to speak of a 
bounteous cheer and grateful warmth ; but a very unpretentious pile of buildings to hold 
the fortunes of ambitious France on a wilderness continent! A quadrangle of rudely con- 
structed buildings surrounds a court-yard, and comprises the stores, magazines and dwell- 
ings of the French. The defences are palisades, on which several cannon are mounted. 

