The early history of the place may be summed up in a few words. In 1606, an addition to the little colony was made of more French emigrants; cultivation of the soil, and the breeding of cattle occupied the peaceful inhabitants; and they lived in perfect amity with the surrounding Indians. Difficulties having arisen about the original charter, Potrincourt went to France, and secured from the King the grant of the territory: subject, however, to a distasteful condition, that he should take two Jesuit priests with him on his return. He did so; but made them as uncomfortable as he could, and in 1613, they left him to join a settlement, also near the Bay of Fundy, vowing vengeance against him in their hearts. Although England and France were at peace, a sea rover from Virginia, named Argoll, came with his ship, and pillaged the Jesuits' new home, killing one, and making the other prisoner. Fired by his success, and urged and guided by the revengeful priest, he next fitted out an expedition against Port Royal, and succeeded in destroying the fort, and scattering the settlers, some of whom joined the neighbouring Indian tribes. During the next few years, more French immigrants settled in a scattered, unmethodical way, over the province of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, as it was called; and some coming to Port Royal, the little colony commenced to revive.
But in 1627, Kirke's fleet sailed from England to destroy the French settlements in Nova Scotia; and among others, he ravaged unhappy Port Royal. And from this time dates the struggle in America between France and England, which lasted a hundred years. In 1629, it may be said, that we had added Nova Scotia to our possessions; but in 1632, we gave it back to France; Charles I. having been in treaty with the French King, even while our expedition in America was at work, and having consented to let the French have Quebec and all our recent American conquests back again. In 1655, Cromwell recovered Port Royal, by means of an expedition he sent for that purpose, under one Major Sedgwick. The fort had by this time been strengthened and armed; but it had to surrender to the impetuosity of our troops. Much labour and money was now spent on the fortifications by the English, but all to no purpose, for by the treaty of Breda, Charles II. ceded Nova Scotia to the French again. Certainly, the Stuarts were cruel to our colonies; and it required all the enterprise of our merchants, and all the courage and skill of our seamen and fishermen to resist utter extinction under the treatment they received. The day was to come – and to last for many a year, when a worse evil than the Stuarts was to blight our colonies – the nightmare of the Colonial Office. As the former was the positive, so it was the comparative degree of colonial endurance. Is it true that a superlative degree is coming on them now? Is it true, that in our Statesmen's minds there exists a coldness, an indifference to our colonies, which in time of trial or danger will certainly pass into impatience, and anxiety to be free from colonial appendages?
If it be so, then, indeed, the superlative degree of blundering and misery is approaching; but the misery, like the blundering, will be found this time, not in the colonies, but in England.
For sixteen years after the treaty of Breda, Port Royal was left comparatively undisturbed; the French population reaching, in the year 1671, 361 souls; 364 acres having been brought under cultivation, and nearly 1000 sheep and cattle being owned by the settlers.
In 1680, however, the English again, for the fifth time, obtained possession of it; and again lost it. After its recapture, and before 1686, considerable additions had been made to the fortifications by the French; and in the treaty of that year between France and England, it was resolved – a resolution which was never kept – that although the mother countries might quarrel, their respective American subjects might continue to maintain mutual peaceable relations. After the Revolution of 1688, war broke out in Europe once more between France and England, and their American children followed suit. Port Royal being the head-quarters for the French ships attracted the attention of Sir William Phipps, who after capturing and pillaging it abandoned it again to the French.
And the treaty of Ryswick again officially announced that the whole of Nova Scotia was French territory.
In 1699, and again in 1701, considerable labour was devoted by the French to strengthening the works of Port Royal; an increase to the garrison was made from France, and the militia in the surrounding settlements were carefully trained and armed.
Every difficulty was interposed by the French governors between the settlers and the New England merchants, who were mutually eager for trade. Exasperated by prohibitory duties on their wares, the latter first tried smuggling, and then hostile expeditions. One such was made from Boston in 1704; and although Port Royal made a successful resistance, much damage was done to the surrounding country.
In 1707, two expeditions were made from New England, and a large force of militia accompanied them. They were convoyed by a man-of-war, and would undoubtedly have captured the place, had it not been for the personal energy of Subercase, the French governor, who rallied the neighbouring inhabitants, and drove back the English, thoroughly dispirited. On the second occasion, the English attempted to float their artillery up the river with the tide by night, and attack the fort from the land side. The rise and fall of the tide in the Bay of Fundy and its inlets are very great, often reaching sixty feet. The French governor, seeing the enemy's design, lit large fires along the banks of the river, and exposed the drifting boats with the English guns on board to the view of the artillerymen in the fort, who opened a fire which utterly prevented the English from advancing further, or effecting a landing. By the 1st of September, the New Englanders were utterly foiled and dispirited, the object of the expedition was frustrated, and the fleet weighed anchor and returned to Boston. After these two attempts, rendered unsuccessful by the marvellous tact and energy of one man, Port Royal enjoyed comparative rest, and the leisure of the inhabitants was devoted to strengthening the works during the next two years.
Before describing the circumstances of its final capture, let some explanation be given of the incessant war which went on for so many years between the French and English colonists in North America. It was not a burning interest in the European questions agitating the parent countries that animated their Western children; the parent quarrels were an excuse, but not a reason, for their mutual aggression; and the absence of such excuse did not ensure peace in America. The cause lay in the two feelings which prompt most wars: thirst for revenge and love of trade. The way in which the last acted has already been hinted at. There was undoubtedly a market among the French colonists, which was all the New England merchants could desire; and so ready were the French peasants to trade, that no prohibitory action of their rulers could conceal their desire, although in a great measure it might prevent its gratification. The knowledge of this made the New Englanders frantic. They were men of immense energy, as they are now; they were of magnificent physique, made for war and hardship; and they rebelled against any obstacle to what they deemed their legitimate wishes. Their anger became intolerance; their intolerance became aggressive; and the result was first smuggling, then privateering, and finally war.
But another motive was thirst for revenge. And why? Was there not room on this vast continent for both nations to plant any wandering or surplus children, without the vile passions seeking place, which thrive in the hot-bed of crowded, neighbouring, and rival states? Here the old poet's words come in most truly: "Cœlum, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt."
National jealousies were reproduced: the French allied themselves in Canada with the Indians, and incessant incursions were made thence by them on the English colonies. Hardly a child grew up in New England who did not know of some hideous tragedy in the domestic life of his immediate neighbours, if not in his own family; from infancy one of the articles of his creed was detestation of the French; and this feeling found ready and revengeful expression whenever opportunity offered. But revenge is not always true in its aim, is indeed often wofully blind; and too often when maddened with thoughts of cruelty and outrage on his wife or sisters – and what thoughts stir the Anglo-Saxon more fiercely? – he would avenge himself wildly and recklessly on victims who mayhap were innocent. And so the ghastly vendetta crossed from hand to hand, from one side to the other, and hardly a year passed without its existence being attested by tales of horror