7. THE MARITIME PROVINCES TO CONFEDERATION. The early history of the three eastern seaboard provinces of Canada is an important incident in the long dramatic struggle between France and England for world-empire. Their place on the map linked their destinies with those of New France on the one hand, and of New England on the other. The tale of their settlement and or ganization into communities is part of a greater story, the overflow of European peoples into the New World. They have been profoundly affected by great events outside their borders, European wars and political changes on this continent; and if they have not as yet reacted on the history of the world, as a nation they are young; their history is yet to make.
Nova Scotia.— In 1604, Sieur de Monts, a Huguenot gentleman adventurer and trusted soldier of Henry IV, made a voyage to the great Atlantic peninsula, which is now called Nova Scotia (cot.). He was to found a colony in return for his broad patent to trade in furs. After exploring the rugged eastern and south ern coast-line, he discovered the beautiful Annapolis Basin, and wintered, suffering ter ribly, on the island of Saint Croix. The next year, after searching as far south as Cape Cod for a suitable place, he turned back to the Annapolis Basin, and planted his colony on its shores, naming the cluster of huts Port Royal. The colony did not flourish, and, in 1613, it was destroyed by a force under Argall from the newly-founded colony of Virginia.
The French name for the country was Aca die, a musical native word, often mistaken for Arcady. It means ((abounding as in Shu benacadie, and covered an ill-defined tract of wilderness, comprising what is now Nova Sco tia, New Brunswick (q.v.) and part of Maine. In 1621, this territory was granted by James I to Sir William Alexander (q.v.), a Scottish gentleman, to be colonized on a plan distinctly mediaeval. Alexander was to parcel out his province in six miles long by three deep, to gentlemen, who were to uplan0 them with settlers. Each baronet was to have almost regal powers within his own domain, even striking his own coinage, and ((repledgingn criminals from the King's courts of law to his own. The colony was to be a new Scotland, even by a legal fiction, part of the county of Edinburgh. One small settlement was actually
made on the Annapolis Basin in 1629, but it came to nothing, and the whole province was handed back to France in 1632, by the treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye. Still, to this day, the baronets of Nova Scotia form a distinct order in the British aristocracy, and the provin cial flag hears the azure saltire of Sir William Alexander and the ruddy lion of Scotland ramping in gold.
For 22 years, the French had undisputed possession, and succeeded in planting a colony on the feudal pattern, as far removed as pos sible in principle from republican New Eng land. The government was military and paternal; the land was held by seigniors and tilled by a docile tenantry. The habitants were chiefly unlettered peasants from the country about Rochelle. In Acadie, they found broad marsh lands beside tidal waters, resembling the country they had left. Here they settled, built long dykes of logs and earth on the river banks, and peacefully cultivated the rich fields the salt tides fertilized. Population grew slowly. In 1671, there were 378 persons in the colony; in. 1683, 600, chiefly about Port Royal. An interesting census of Acadie was made in 1686 by de Meulles, intendant of New France, who visited the scattered settlements and numbered the families, acres of cleared ground, boys, girls, fusils, horned cattle, swine and sheep in each. The population had grown to 915, in cluding 30 soldiers at Port Royal. Although thickest about the seat of government, the Acadians had spread along the coasts and so far as Beaubassin at the head of the Bay of Fundy. They were a race of husbandmen, growing wheat, pease and rye and raising cattle, sheep, swine and poultry; they also built small boats for the shore fisheries. An observer relates that when the manure-heaps beside their barns grew unmanageable, they moved the barns. Few women came with the first settlers, who married with the Indians, and always lived on friendly terms with them. Priests of the Sulpicians and Missions-Etrangeres were their trusted guides both before and after the English conquest. See article ACADIAN REF UGEES.