90 EEV. GEOEGE PATTERSON ON 



out the scheme iu which he was engaged. Accordingly he obtained a royal letter, in which 

 was administered a sharp rebuke to the author of the petition as interfering with the 

 royal prerogative, and the convention were warned not to do anything against the rights 

 of the said baronets. Orders were also issued to some of the malcontents that they accept 

 the honour. 



In the summer of 1626 Sir William began to make arrangements for sending out an 

 expedition iu the following spring. In January he intimated to the King that he had 

 prepared two ships, one of which was at Dumbarton, with ordnance, provisions and other 

 supplies necessary for the undertaking. 



To meet the expenses of the new expedition money was urgently needed. No part of 

 the ^6,000, for which Sir William had received a royal warrant, had ever been paid, and the 

 King issued a new warrant to the Scottish Treasurer of Marine causes, instructing him to 

 pay the amount " out of the first readiest moneyes that you haue or shall receaue for our 

 part of the prises taken," while in su.bsequent letters to the Privy Council, he urges the 

 completion of the number of knights baronets, with the view of reimbursing Sir William 

 for the extra expenses he had incurred. 



On the 10th of March it is mentioned that the ship "Eagle," of 120 tons, was lying in 

 the Thames "loaded with powder, ordnance, and other provisions, for the use of a 

 plantation" in New Scotland, and also for the supply of another vessel of 300 tons, which 

 was at Dumbarton for the same destination, and orders were given to allow her to pass 

 " without paying customs or any other duties." 



Delays occurred in the sailing of the expedition, and now dangers arose from anoiher 

 source. In the year 1603 the King of France had granted to Sieur de Mouts, a territory 

 in America under the name of La Cadie, covering nearly the same ground as granted by 

 James to Sir William Alexander, under the name of New Scotland, or, as we may call it 

 from this time. Nova Scotia. In the following year he brought out a band of settlers, 

 who entered the beautiful sheet of water then called Port Royal, known now as 

 Annapolis Basin. Continuing their exploration, they spent the winter on an island at the 

 River St. Croix ; but in the following summer they returned and commenced settlement 

 at Port Royal. The visitor to this place is readily told that the site of the present town 

 of Annapolis, situated on a point of land at the head of the basin, marks the spot where 

 was thus founded the first European settlement in Northern America. The inhabitants 

 would probably consider you as attempting to rob them of their birthright, were you to 

 question the accuracy of the statement. Even our historians, as Haliburtou and Murdoch, 

 have made the same assertion. Yet, a mere glance at the map of Champlaiu, one of the 

 party and a comparison of the account given by Lescarbot, the historian of the expedition, 

 will show that the real site of their operations was about five miles further down on the 

 north side of the basin, on what is now the Grranville shore, opposite the present Goat 

 Island. 



Two years after the settlement was abandoned ; but a little later M. de Poutrincourt 

 obtained from the King of France a confirmation of the grant which he had received from 

 De Monts of the land around Port Royal, and in the spring of 1610 proceeded thither to 

 resume settlement. He returned to France in the followi)ig year, leaving the infant 

 colony in charge of his son Bieucourt. In the meantime the Engli.sh had established a 

 colony in Virginia. In the year 1614 the Governor despatched an armed expedition under 



