CHAPTER I.	CHAPTER II.	CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.	CHAPTER V.	CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.	CHAPTER VIII.	CHAPTER IX.
APPENDICES.

{3}

HISTORY OF HALIFAX CITY.

CHAPTER I.

Halifax, the metropolis of Nova Scotia, and the chief City of theAcadian or Lower Provinces, was founded in the year 1749, at theexpense of Government, under the direction of the Lords of Tradeand Plantations, and was named in compliment to George Montague,Earl of Halifax, then at the head of the Board, under whose immediateauspices the settlement was undertaken.

From the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when Acadia was ceded tothe Crown of Great Britain, to the year 1749, no progress had beenmade by the British in colonizing the country. The inhabitantsconsisted of a few thousand Acadian peasants, scattered aroundthe shores of the Basin of Minas, Chignecto and the Valley ofAnnapolis. The Governor resided at Annapolis Royal, a small fortifiedport, with a garrison of two or three hundred regular troops, andwas, in a great measure, dependent on New England for his necessarysupplies. This was the only British port within the Province,with the exception of that of Canso, where, during the fishing season,a number of French, with a few Indians and New England fishermen,assembled, and where a captain's guard was usually stationedto preserve order and protect the rights of property. The Frenchpopulation, though professing to be neutral, had refused to take theOath of Allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain, and were continuallyin a state of hostility to the British authorities in the country.Their poverty and ignorance placed them completely under thecontrol of a few designing emissaries of the French Governor atQuebec, who incited the people to resent British rule, and frequentlyput all law at defiance, by assuming to themselves the sole managementof municipal affairs in the settlements most remote from theseat of Government. The Governors of Canada had undertaken toclaim all the country from the River St. Lawrence to the Bay ofFundy, as comprehended within their jurisdiction, confining the{4}territory of Acadia as ceded under the Treaty of Utrecht, to thePeninsula alone, and had actually commenced to erect forts on theRiver St. John and the Isthmus while the nations were at peace.

The necessity of a permanent British settlement and MilitaryStation on the Atlantic Coast of the Peninsula, had long been consideredthe only effectual means of preserving British authority, aswell as for the protection of the coast fishing, which, at this time,was deemed of paramount importance to British interests. Butlately the continual breaches of neutrality on the part of the French,together with the loss of Louisburg, under the Treaty of A

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!