and the
commencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen were
informed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton to
France with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the best
means of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion of
Shirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an English
population into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strength
instead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the year
of the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was founded
on the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadian
history as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of Governor
Cornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the foot
and on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by a
noble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of Great
Britain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known as
Fort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who {229} built
it--afterwards governor of Nova Scotia--and intended to be a protection
to the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, who
were always numerous at the French posts and settlements on the
isthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquash
a fort of five bastions known as Beausejour, and a smaller one at Bay
Verte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping up
communication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in some
measure. At Fort Beausejour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continued
to pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among the
French Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving the
English from the former possessions of France.

Though war was not formally proclaimed between France and England until
many months later, the year 1755 was distinguished in America by
conflicts between the English and French--a prelude to the great
struggle that was only to end in the fall of New France. The French
frigates _Alcide_ and _Lys_ were captured on the coast of Newfoundland
by vessels of a fleet under Admiral Boscawen, who had been sent by the
English Government to intercept a French fleet which had left France
under Admiral de la Mothe, having on board troops under Baron Dieskau
and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in the
government of Canada.

In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposing
forces