Free Nova Scotia by Lesley Choyce Page A

continue exploration. Raleigh went further south, eventually
making the fateful decision to create  pa settlement on
Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. Raleigh returned to
England with Francis Drake, leaving his settlement behind. It was
three years before he could return with supplies, only to find that
thee entire community had mysteriously vanished.
        In 1606, big business came into the picture. The London and
Plymouth Trading companies were granted the right to control a big
chunk of the Atlantic coast from Port Royal and all of Acadia down
to Cape Fear. Jamestown, in Virginia, was settled in
1607.
        The newly formed Virginia Company created a settlement in
Newfoundland as early as 1610 and Virginian John Smith (of
Pocahontas fame) made a fairly extensive exploration of the
Northern Atlantic coast, including Acadia, in 1616. He reported
good land and favourable weather, but could not muster up an
attractive enough picture to encourage settlement at that time.
 
        Despite the fact that the English were not all that excited
about inhabiting Acadia, there was money and hostility enough for
the Virginia Company to launch a raid far northward from their
southern colony to destroy thec tiny French encampment of St.
Sauveur in Maine. Under Samuel Argall, the English ships then
sailed on to the empty fort at Port Royal and rather than occupying
it, they ruthlessly demolished it.
        Monsieur Poutrincourt had hoped to return to Port Royal and
re-establish trade there. He heard the bad news in France and
returned to see the ruins, which discouraged him sufficiently to
give up on the idea of revitalizing Port Royal. However, he did
leave Charles Biencourt behind to maintain a fur trade. The French
occupation of Acadia would remain just a string of small
fur-trading outposts for years to come.
        Renewed interest in this land, however, came from a Scotsman
this time. William Alexander was a titled Scot, a friend of James I
and a tutor of his son. He was also a prolific poet, although never
a very popular one. As secretary of state for Scotland, he was a
powerful and influential man who had visions of establishing his
own colony, independent of that in Virginia or Newfoundland. He
persuaded his friend King James, also a Scot, that there should be
a “New Scotland,” just as there was already a New England, New
France, etc.
        The king liked the idea and granted a charter in 1621 to Sir
William. In Latin, the land would be called Nova Scotia. It
included mainland Nova Scotia, what would later become New
Brunswick and parts of Quebec. Both the king and Alexander simply
ignored the fact that this was the same land that the French had
already claimed and called Acadia. It also meant taking land away
from the grant given to the Council of New England. Obviously,
Alexander was highly thought of at court, because he moved things
even further along and successfully lobbied for a second grant of
land – Cape Breton Island – for his friend Sir Robert
Gorden.
        Alexander himself was too comfortable in his own country to
consider shipping off across the Atlantic to see his new property.
In fact, it was a tough sell even to find volunteers to go across
the sea for whatever opportunities might await them. Everyone knew
of the inherent danger of territorial fighting that might break out
at any time with the French. Nonetheless, a hesitant first
expedition of farmhands, a minister and a blacksmit*h left Scotland
in June of 1622. They ran into a raging storm just as they sighted
Cape Breton in the early fall. This persuaded them to go ashore at
St. John’s, where many of them died during the bitter winter that
they were not prepared for.
        Another ship was sent across in 1623 and took on the ten
survivors in Newfoundland. They sailed to Nova Scotia, all the
while wrestling with difficult winds and impertinent fog. They
explored much of the coast and then returned to England with a
cargo of