CHAPTEK XII. 



EARLY HORSE HISTORY CANADA. 



Settlement and capture of Port Royal Early plantations First French 

 horses brought over 1665 Possibly illicit trading Sire of " Old Tippoo ' r 

 His history " Scape Goat" and his descendants Horses of the Mari- 

 time Provinces. 



BEFORE taking up the two provinces of the Dominion Quebec 

 and Ontario to which reference is made in this volume as. 

 "Canada," there is an incident in the history of Nova Scotia, 

 full of sadness, that I cannot pass over without mention. The 

 French made a settlement here in 1602, and named the country 

 New France. The settlement to which I refer was at Port Eoyal, 

 afterward named Annapolis by the English. This seems to have 

 been a thrifty and flourishing little plantation, far removed from 

 all outside associations, except the savages of the forests, with 

 whom they lived in peace. The first horses brought to North 

 America were owned and bred by the people of Port Eoyal. In 

 November, 1613, Captain Argall, of Virginia, organized a plun- 

 dering expedition, and having learned of the defenseless condi- 

 tion of Port Royal from Captain John Smith, he sailed up there 

 with two or three ships, captured the place and carried away 

 horses, cattle, sheep, wheat, farming utensils, and indeed everv- 

 thing their ships would carry, and then sailed away to Virginia, 

 This raid was without authority or orders, but it was winked at 

 by the officials, and forthwith a second raid was made by Argall, 

 and all that had been left in the first was carried away in the 

 second, as well as some of the inhabitants. 



The pacer of Canada, generally believed to be of French origin, 

 has long been an object of diligent investigation, without reach- 

 ing any satisfactory results. Again and again I have gone over 

 the first half-century of the history of the French plantations 

 on the St. Lawrence; examining everything in the English 

 language that held out any hope of throwing light upon the ques- 

 tion, but nothing was revealed. The trouble was that my search 



