SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 103 



the French kiug authorizing him to effect the removal of all subjects of G-reat Britain 

 from Quebec, Port Eoyal and Cape Breton. He was also furnished with letters patent 

 from King Charles under the great seal of Scotland for the surrender of Port Hoyal, 

 and a letter from him to his subjects there commanding the demolition of the fort 

 and the abandonment of the place. He also carried a letter to the same effect from Sir 

 William Alexander to Captain Andros Fonesteo in command of his colony there. On his 

 arrival the place was surrendered to him, the fort having been previously destroyed. 

 Razilly had brought out colonists, but he preferred Lahave as the site for a settlement 

 and removed thither. The old site was now abandoned, and the Port Royal of De Monts 

 and Champlain, of Lescarbot and Poutrincourt, of Membertou and Biencourt, of La Tour 

 and Alexander became a waste. When Haliburton wrote, about the year 1828, he says 

 that " the remains of the fort could be traced with great ease. The old parade, the em- 

 bankment and ditch had not been disturbed." But since that lime the ground has been 

 so frequently ploughed over that the site is barely recognizable. Afterward when the 

 French settled here, they chose the present Annapolis as the site of their town and fort, 

 being probably attracted by the rich meadows there, which still constitute so much of 

 the wealth of the inhabitants.' What became of the settlers we are not informed. When 

 the king's orders were carried out for the destruction of the fort and other buildings, 

 they probably removed some to New England and some to the old land. Lamothe 

 Cadillac mentions that in 1635, he found two of them there who had married French 

 women and turned Catholics, while their mother was still living in Boston at the age 

 of 90. As we have seen that in the first band there were seventy men and only two 

 women, it was not surprising that some of the men should have taken up with French 

 women, and remained with them. 



And so ended the attempt to found a new Scotland on the western shores of the 

 Atlantic. A pretext of continuing the project was still kept up. On the 11th May, 1633, 

 Sir William (Qu., the younger) obtained a royal patent "for the sole trade in all and 

 singular the regions, countreys, dominions, and all places whatsoever adjacent to the 

 river and gulf of Canada, and the s-ole traffick fiom thence and the places adjoyniug, for 

 beaver skins and wool, and all other skins of wild beasts for 31 yeares." (Colonial Papers, 

 p. 165.) And on the 28th June, the Scottish Parliament passed an act, ratifying the 

 grants made by James and Charles of New Scotland to Sir William Alexander, with all 

 the privileges therein conferred, and also the act by which the order of knights baronets 

 was created, and all the grants made under it. But as the country had been given up 

 to the French such proceedings were little better than a sham. 



As to the final disposal of his rights a cotemporary - asserts that he sold them to the 

 King of France for five or six thousand pounds sterling. But this is the obiter dicium of 

 a hostile critic who is not deemed of any authority, and it is contradicted by the facts of 

 the subsequent history. 



Again, it is asserted that he transferred his rights in Acadia to La Tour. This is 



' At wliat tiine the first fort was built on the site of the present one is uncertain. Some years ago a stone was 

 dug up near wliat Hahburton calls " the eastern parapet" of the old Scots fort with the inscription " Lbcel, 1643," 

 which would seem to indicate that till that date it was still occupied by the French. 

 ■ Sir Thomas TJrquhart of Cromarty. 



