6 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In the history of Nova Scotia thorc liave been several well marked 

 epochs of colonization and settlement. 



The French Acadian settlement. 



Tiie foundation of Halifax. 



The immigration from New England. 



The coming of the Loyalists. 



The Scotch settlement. 



The influx bf Irish. 



In the course of the following pages I shall endeavour to show the 

 salient features of the migrations of peoples who have had such import- 

 ant influences on the development of .Nova Scotia. 



II. French Settlement of Nova Scotia.— The seventeenth century is 

 famous in the annuls of North America as the period in which France 

 and England became rivals for the possession of that continent. On the 

 banks of the beautiful basin of Port Royal, now known as Annapolis 

 Royal, by the side of the James River in Virginia, on the heights of 

 Quebec, and on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, during the first quarter 

 of that memorable century, were planted the germs of the Dominion 

 of Canada and the United States of America. The ruins of a church 

 tower, covered with ivy, and some mossy gravestones, are the only 

 remains of the first permanent colony made by Englishmen in Virginia; 

 but memorials of the French occupation of Acadia can still be seen in the 

 sleepy town of Annapolis, with its tinkling ox-teams, apple orchards and 

 old mansions ; while picturesque Quebec, with its crowning citadel and 

 ancient walls, its sombie convents and churches, its steep, erratic streets 

 and its French people, recall the story of the bold Frenchmen who landed 

 there one year after the English founded Jamestown. 



Sieur de Monts, Samuel Champlain, and Baron de Poutrincourt were 

 the pioneers and explorers of Acadia. They were the first to recognize 

 the beauty of the basin of Annapolis when they entered it in the month 

 of June. 1604. Their first post was erected on a little island, now known 

 as Douchet Island, within the mouth of the St. Croix River, the present 

 boundary between the state of Maine and the province of New Bruns- 

 wick ; but this spot was very soon found entirely unsuitable, and the 

 hopes of the pioneers were immediately turned towards the beautiful 

 basin, which was first named Poit Royal by (Jhamplain. The Baron de 

 Poutrincourt, an enterprising and wealthy nobleman, who accompanied 

 De Monts, obtained a grant of land around this basin, and determined to 

 make his home in so lovely a spot. De Monts, whose charter was 

 revoked in 1607, gave up the project of colonizing Acadia, wliose history 

 from that time is associated for years with the fortunes of the Biencourts, 

 the family name of Baron de Poutrincourt ; but the hopes of this 

 adventurous nobleman were never realized. In 1613 an English exjtcdi- 

 tion from Virginia, under the command of Capt. Samuel Argall, destroyed 



