Chap. III. of the ENGLISH in A M E R I C A. 147 
20 Degrees farther North than the Bottom of Hudfin" s 
Bay ; and the French from Canada^ travel through, and 
live in thefe very Countries of which we are fpeaking, 
with as much Eafe as the Savages themfelves ; and, in- 
deed, why fhould they not, or why fliould we imagine 
that one Man, or one Race of Men, can do mjore than 
another ? Our Anceftors were of this Opinion, or at leaft 
they thought that if fuch a Race of Men there were, they 
might be found in this Ifland : And here, if properly 
encouraged and due Regard diewn to their Virtue, they 
will be always found, for it is not the People but their 
Governors that alter, and therefore ^we have a Right to 
blame thofe who took fo little Notice of what Sir Fbomas 
Button performed, and fo little attended to what might 
be made of, thefe Countries, as we certainly ought to 
commend fuch as contrived or promoted the Law lately 
palled for encouraging private Perfons to attempt once 
more the Difcovery of a North-weft Paflage, by fecuring 
to them a Reward from the Public, which, without doubt, 
they will juftly deferve. 
13. The next thing that occurs in order of Time, is 
the aflerting our Right to that Part of the Continent 
of America which lies North from New England^ and 
which is now called Nova Scotia^ but was then looked 
upon as Part of North Virginia, and as fuch within the 
Charter of the V/eftern Company,, who gave ftrifl Orders 
to thofe in their Service to prevent foreign Nations fet- 
tling in their Limits ; by which means this Country of 
Acadia, or Nova Scotia, which is of fo great Confequence 
in itfelf, and for the Security of our other Plantations on 
the Main, was preferved. The Bounds of this Province 
are the Ocean to the North, Cape Breton JJland, and the 
Bay of St. Laurence to the Eaft, Canada to the Weft, 
^nd New-England to the South-, it lies from 43 to 51 
Degrees North Latitude, and from the River St. Croix 
the neareft to New FLampJhire, to the great River of St. 
Laurence, has almoft fix hundred Miles of Coaft, but 
moft of it uninhabited and defert, the Indians themfelves 
making little or no Ufe of it. 
Sir Samuel Argali, then Governor of Virginia, made 
a Sort of cruizing Voyage round the Coaft North- 
wards, as far as Cape Cod in New England, in the Year 
1618, five or fix Years before the Englijh, -who intended 
to fettle, arrived in that Country. The Indians inform- 
ed him that fome white Men, like himfelf, were come 
to inhabit to the Northward of them. Sir Satnuel Ar- 
gali, who took all that Country, as far as it had been dif- 
covered by Cabot, to belong to the Virgmia Company 
his Employers, failed thither, found a Settlement and a 
Ship riding before it, which belonged to fome Frenchmen 
Argali drew fo clofe to it, that, with his fmall Arms, 
he beat all the Men from the Deck, fo that they could 
not ufe their Guns, their Ship having but one Deck ; 
among others there were two Jefuits aboard, one of 
which endeavoured to fire off one of their Cannon, and 
was fhot. Argali having taken the Ship, landed his Men, 
marched to, and fummoned, the Fort to furrender : The 
French afked Time to confider of it, which was denied, 
upon which they got privately away and fled into the 
Woods. The Englijh entered it, and lodged there that 
Night, and the next Day the French came and yielded to 
Sir Samuel, cancelling the Patents that had been granted 
them for their Settlement by the French King. Sir Samuel 
permitted fuch of the French as were fo difpofed to take 
Paffage for Europe in the fifhing Ships, and took the 
reft with him to Virginia, according to their Choice. 
The French had another Settlement at a Place they 
called Fort Royal, on a Bay on the South-weft Coaft of 
Acadia, which the two Jefuits had left out of Pique to 
their Governor M. Biencourt and with thefe Frenchmen 
feparated from the others. Father Biard, the furviving 
Jefuit, out of Malice to Biencourt, informed Sir Samuel 
of the Settlement at Port Royal, and the Eafe with 
which he might reduce it, which he found to be true 
and, on the Surrender of the French, he did no Damage 
to their Houfes, their Barns, and Mills, but obliged 
them to quit the Country ; they had fowed and reaped, 
and thofe of them that did not care to return home, re- 
moved to the Pviver of St. Laurence, where now is the 
Capital of Canada or New France. 
When Sir Ferdinand Gorges was Prefident of the Few 
England Company, he propofed to Sir William Alexander 
to procure a particular Grant for the Land to the North- 
ward of their Patent, v/hich was eafily obtained of King 
James I. and a Year after, 1622, Sir William, and fome 
others whom he had got to be concerned with him^ 
fent a Ship with Pafiengers to plant and fettle there, 
Newfoundland was then very w’ell known on account of 
the Filhery, and the Ship being late in her Voyage the 
Mafter put in and wintered there. The next Year they 
fet fail, and made the Promontory at the North Shore 
of Cape Breton Ifland : They coafted it along till, they 
came to Cape Sable in Acadia, where they found three 
good Flarbours, and went afliore at one of them, v/hich 
they called Luke's Bay ; in which was a large River that 
had eight Fathom V/ater at ebb. This Ship failed up 
one of thefe, and, according to the Accounts that were 
publifhed by thofe that were to be Sharers in the Patent, 
this Country is defcribed as a kind of Paradife : With 
a View, no doubt, to have engaged People to go over 
thither to fettle, to v/hich End Sir William Alexander the 
original Proprietor, afterwards created Earl of Sterlings 
wrote and publifhed a Book, and his Sovereign King 
James eredfed a new Order, called the Knights of Fova 
Scotia, to facilitate this Plantation. 
But, notwithftanding all the Care that was taken of it, 
this Projedl proved abortive, and, which is very extraor- 
dinary, modern Authors have taught us to condemn and 
cenfure fuch as forefaw the Confequence and Importance 
of this Country to the Britiflo Nation, when unfettled and 
unimproved, and to treat as weak and pufillanimous the 
Condudl of thofe Times, when in full Peace the French 
were, by Force of Arms, compelled to quit a Country, 
which, though fettled by them, was difcovered by us j 
and from thefe Fugitives it was that the more Northern 
Settlement of the French took Birth. The Expedition 
of Sir Samuel Argali was certainly both a vigorous and 
a right Meafure and the Grant to Sir William Alexander 
was a very fenfible thing, though the Defign of it is now 
not well underftood, or rather forgot and therefore, 
though it may take up fome Room, I fhall endeavour 
to revive and to explain it. It was fuggefted to King 
James that the Tradl of Country on the Continent of 
North America, belonging to his Crown, being very large 
and not likely to be planted in any reafonable Space of 
Time by the Englijh, it would be a very wife and pru- 
dent Meafure to grant under the Great Seal of Scotland, 
a Part of it to his Subjefls of that Kingdom, upon a 
Suppofition that it would be more beneficial for them, 
and more for the Intereft of the united Kingdoms if 
they went over and fettled there, than if, as to that Time 
they had frequently done, they tranfported themfelves 
to Poland, Sweden, and Ruffia, in which Countries there 
were at that Time many thcufand Scotch Families. 
Such was the original Scheme of fettling and planting 
Nova Scotia ', and if the Courtiers of thofe Times made 
a Jobb of this, and thereby defeated the Scheme ; hov/- 
ever this may refledt on their Memories, it ought to 
draw no fort of Odium on the Project itfelf, which was 
very well and wifely laid, if it had been as honeftly and 
wifely executed. There was afterwards another Grant 
made of the Northern Part of this Country, to Sir Da- 
vid Kirk, from whom the French King bought it, or at 
leaft contradled to give him 5000 /. for it a very plain 
Proof that even the French acknowledged the Right by 
which he held it ; and a French Nobleman likewife bought, 
many Years after that. Sir William Alexander^ Property. 
It may be enquired why the Crown of Englamd did not 
interpofe and prevent thefe Sales, as might, no doubt, 
have been done ; and the plain Anfwer to this is, that the 
French Proteftants being principally concerned in thefe 
Settlements, the Crown had a Tendernefs for them. 
But Oliver Cromwell fent Major Sedgwick to difiodge 
the French from Port Royal, which he did, and though 
the Protedlor afterwards confented that a French Pro- 
prietor fhould enjoy the Country, yet it was upon Con- 
dition 
