[boukinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 87 



In later years a steady tide of Scotch population flowed into eastern 

 Nova Scotia and did not cease until 1820 and even later. The tinst direct 

 migration of Scotch arrived at Sydney in August, 1802. A great current 

 of population then began to flow into Cape Breton from the islands and 

 northern parts of Scotland where the great landlords wished to rid their 

 estates of their peasantry and turn them into pasture lands for the 

 raising of cattle and sheep, just as in later times they have driven oft' the 

 humble crofters from lands which they wish to make preserves for deer. 

 This Highland migration settled the counties of Pictou and Antigonishe, 

 in Nova Scotia, and then began to find its way to Cape Breton, at first to 

 the western coast. From the close of the last century, when this popu- 

 lation first came into the country, until the reunion with Nova Scotia 

 when it began to practically cease, at least twenty-five thousand persons 

 are estimated to have settled on the public lands, waste for so many years. 

 Cape Breton from that time was no longer a French but a Scotch colony, 

 whose old homes must be sought in the Hebrides, on the rocky, windy 

 shores of far away Lewis or Stornoway, or in some rude shelling by the 

 side of a lonely loch or stream amid the mountains of northern Scotland. 

 The Scotch population in the early days of settlement led quiet unevent- 

 ful lives on that remote island of eastern North America, though some- 

 times their thoughts went back to the islands of their native land. 



" From the lone sheilinj; of the misty island 

 Mountains divide us, and a waste of seas, 

 Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland 

 And we, in dreams, behold the Hebrides. 



" We ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley 



Where, 'twixt the dark hills, creeps the small clear stream, 

 In arms around the patriarch banner rally, 

 Nor see the moon on royal tomb-stones gleam. 



" When the bold kindred, in the time long vanished, 

 Conquered the soil and fortified the keep. 

 No seer foretold the children should be banished 

 That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep." i 



But memories of the " lone sheiling of the misty island " were soon 

 eff'aced by the struggle for existence in the new world, and the descendants 

 of the Highlanders even learned to forget their poverty and wretchedness 

 and the greed of the great lords under whom they lived, and to congratulate 

 themselves on the complete freedom which they enjoyed on lands which 

 were now their own, and which with industry and patience gave them at 

 least a comfortable subsistence. The waters that surround the island, and 

 the numerous streams which everywhere find their way to the sea, abound 

 in fish of all kinds, and it was easy for them to live comfortably in this 



1 These verses are taken from a translation of an alleged Gaelic Canadian boat 

 song that appeared in Taifs Magazine for June, 1849. 



