The following Table of Distances of Post towns from Halifax up to Fort Erie in Upper Canada, will convey an idea of the different positions, or settlements, treated of in the foregoing pages: 72 58 40 24 Grimsby. 99 85 67 51 | 27 Niagara. 106 92 74 58 34 7 Queenston. 448 366 344 317 305 249 190 144 475 393 371 344 332 276 217 171 482 400 378 351 339 283 224 178 492 410 388 361 349 293 234 188 116 102 84 68 44 508 426 404 377 365 309 250 204 132 118 100 84 17 10 Chippawa. 60 33 26 16 Fort Erie. probably have been furiously attacked for neglecting a financial scheme which ought to have engrossed his attention. By his present plan he has conferred a great benefit on the province :-1. By procuring a large loan for carrying on of public works at a reasonable rate of interest. 2. By opening the loan in England he has attracted the surplus capital of the mother country to the colony. 3. The very creation of a loan in England on the security of the revenues of Upper Canada, is a flattering indication of the prosperity of the country, thus attracting emigrants of wealth and skill to the province. There are other beneficial results flowing from the plan, but the foregoing are sufficiently conclusive for any unprejudiced person. The main objection urged by some persons is, that the interest of the loan being payable in England, it is so much loss to Upper Canada; the objectors forget that this allegation cuts two ways-for England loses so much capital sunk for ever in Upper Canada.-On either side there is a quid pro quo; in fine, the Canadians ought to endeavour, by every poзsible means, to get British capital vested in their soil. For Montgomery Martin's History of the British Colonies Vol. iii. Possessions in Nth America Published by J. Codrane & Co. Waterloo Place Pall Mall Nor1834. CHAPTER III. NOVA SCOTIA. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND AREA-EARLY HISTORY-PHYSICAL ASPECT DIVISIONS-GOVERN PRODUCTIONS-POPULATION AND TERRITORIAL MENT, FINANCE-MONETARY SYSTEM-COMMERCE-STATE OF RELIGION -EDUCATION AND THE PRESS-VALUE OF PROPERTY-AND SOCIAL STATE, &c. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND AREA.-Nova Scotia proper connected with the S. E. part of the continent of North America, by a narrow isthmus (eight miles wide), is situate between the parallels of 43. and 46. of north latitude, and the meridian 61. and 67. west longitude: it is bounded on the north by the Strait of Northumberland, which separates it from Prince Edward's Isle ; on the N.E. by the Gut of Canseau, which divides it from the island of Cape Breton, on the south and S.E. by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Bay of Fundy, and on the N.W. by New Brunswick: In length it is about 280 miles, stretching from S.W. to N. E., but of unequal breadth, varying from fifty miles at Black Rock Pier, to 104 miles at Bristol, and embracing a superficies of 15,617 square miles, or 9,994,880 acres. GENERAL HISTORY. Although the territory, known under the title of Nova Scotia, was probably first visited by the Cabots in their voyage of discovery in 1497 (and the ancient authorities state such to be the case), the earliest authentic account we possess of its European colonization was by the Marquis De la Roche, who by the orders of Henry IV. sailed from France in 1598, with a number of convicts from the prisons, whom he landed on the small and barren Island of Sable, situate about fifty leagues to the S.E. of Cape Breton, and thirty-five of Canseau, about ten leagues in circumference, and interspersed with sand-hills, briar-plots, and fresh-water ponds. (See conclusion of chapter IV.) After cruising some time on the coast, the Marquis was 310 EARLY FRENCH SETTLEMENT ON NOVA SCOTIA. compelled by stress of weather to return to France, leaving on Sable Isle the forty unfortunate convicts, who had been landed on this barren spot, where after seven years hardships twelve only were found alive, in a most wretched and emaciated state, on the French monarch having sent Chetodol, the pilot of the Marquis De la Roche, to look after and bring them back to France. The next visitation of Nova Scotia (or, as the French called it Acadia) was by De Monts and his followers, and some Jesuits, in 1604, who essayed for eight years to form settlements at Port Royal, St. Croix, &c., but were finally expelled from the country by the English governor and colonists of Virginia, who claimed the country by right of the discovery of Sebastian Cabot, and considered the French colonists of De Monts as encroachers or intruders on the charter granted to the Plymouth Company, in 1606, and which extended to the 45. of north latitude; the right of occupancy being then considered invalid and the doctrine admitted "A time it was-to all be it known, When all a man sailed by or saw, was his own." Eight years elapsed after the forcible expulsion of the French colonists from Port Royal and other parts of Acadia, before the English began to think of settling on the peninsula, but in 1621 Sir William Alexander applied for and obtained from James I., a grant of the whole country, which he proposed to colonize on an extensive scale; it was named in the patent Nova Scotia, and comprised within the east side of a line drawn in a north direction from the River St. Croix to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Within about a year after the sealing of his patent Sir William Alexander despatched a number of emigrants to take possession of his grant, who, after wintering in Newfoundland, arrived in 1623 at Nova Scotia, where they found many French settlers, the descendants of those who had * This name was given to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and part of the State of Maine. |