Free Nova Scotia by Lesley Choyce Page B

Newfoundland fish. Oddly enough, these hearty souls must
have decided to put a positive spin onto the tale of their misery
and woe, for they told Alexander enthusiastic stories of fertile
land, rivers, abundant wood, furs and, of course, lots of
fish.
        Undoubtedly, Sir William was being told what he wanted to
hear and the news was enough to continue his efforts to settle Nova
Scotia. The only problem was that the first two voyages had used up
what available money he had. It would not be the last time in
history that Nova Scotia would encounter financial hardship.
Alexander decided to put his poetic skills to work to muster
interest from the Scottish landholders for his endeavours. He
penned a neat little bit of propaganda that he called “An
Encouragement to Colonization,” and spread the good tidings of this
already precarious business venture.
        Conspiring with King James, Sir William came up with a
sure-fire gimmick to raise the needed cash. For three thousand
“merks” a gentleman could become a “Knight Baronet of Nova Scotia,”
complete with a whopping 30,000 *acres of land. The gentlemen
would, however, be obliged to send settlers west to occupy the
foreign estate. Land to Sir William was cheap and disposable, even
though it’s hard to figure exactly how he had any moral ownership
to any of it – he’d never even been there.
    A Conflict of Claims
    In 1625 James died and his son,
Charles I, took the throne and continued to support the idea of
baronets. By May of that year, there were eight baronets in all;
the order kept going until 1638 and it earned a lot of money for
Sir William. One sticky part of the deal was that you could not
fully become a baronet until you actually stood on Nova Scotia
soil. The would-be buyers complained that Nova Scotia was simply
too far away, that the journey would be uncomfortable and dangerous
and they shouldn’t have to put up with such inconveniences. Before
he died, King James and Sir William fine-tuned the agreement by
declaring part of the castle yard in Edinburgh as Nova Scotian
soil, which it remains to this day. So all you had to do was pay
the cash, get touched on the shoulder with the sword of the king in
downtown Edinburgh and receive your credentials as a knight. Even
at that, it was a tough sell.
        Nonetheless, enough money was raised to send ships and men
for another attempt at settlement. Two groups were sent off.
William Alexander the Younger (Sir William’s son) was in command of
one and Lord Ochiltree was in charge of another. Along with the
less-than-enthusiastic colonists, Ochiltree’s group arrived at
Baleine, near Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. They started to
clear some land and build a fort for protection from the French.
Lord Ochiltree, however, anxious to see some profit from his
charter as baronet of this new territory, set about collecting a
tax of one-tenth of all the fish caught by foreign vessels off
these shores. This turned out to be a decidedly bad move on his
part.
        The French, of course, had also laid claim to Cape Breton.
One day, a French captain by the name of Daniel became separated
from his fleet and was sailing off the coast of Cape Breton. From
the fishermen he met, he heard of the tariff imposed by Ochiltree
and was incensed by the audacity of this less-than-diplomatic
Scottish lord. His ship assaulted the fort at Baleine, destroying
it and taking all of the settlers as prisoners. They were carried
to St. Ann’s, and treated to hard labour but finally put on ships
and sent back to Scotland. Lord Ochiltree and a few others were put
in prison in France and then released two years
later.
        William the Younger had gone on to settle at the vacated site
of Port Royal, where his group actually did quite well for a couple
of years.
     
    Chapter 9  
    Chapter 9  

     
    One Hundred Associates
    Despite the pull-out from Port
Royal, the French had not entirely given up interest in Acadia. If
there was profit