upon the territory. The good old rule obtained thus--

"That they may take who have the power,
And they may keep who can."

or, to quote the words of another writer--

"For the time once was here, to all be it known,
That all a man sailed by or saw was his own."

It is due to Sir William Alexander to say that he gave the province the
proud name which at present it enjoys, of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, a
title much more appropriate than that of "Acadia,"[C] which to us means
nothing.

[B] This William Alexander, Earl of Sterling, was the ancestor of
General Lord Sterling, one of the most distinguished officers in the
American Revolution.

[C] The name "Acadia," is, no doubt, a primitive word, from the Abenaqui
tongue--we find it repeated in _Tracadie_, _Shubenacadie_, and elsewhere
in the province.

At this time the French Colony was slowly recovering from the effects of
the Argall expedition, that eight years before had laid waste its fair
possessions. Among a number of emigrants from the Loire and the Seine, two
gentlemen of birth and education, La Tour by name, father and son, set out
to seek their fortunes in the New World. It must be remembered that in the
original patent of Acadia, given by Henry IV. to De Monts, freedom of
religious opinion was one of the conditions of the grant, and therefore
the fact, that both the La Tours were Huguenots, did not prevent them
holding commissions under the French crown, the father having in charge a
small fleet of transports then ready to sail from the harbor of Brest; the
son, being the commander of a fort and garrison at Cape Sable, upon the
western end of Acadia.

Affairs being in this condition, it chanced that the English and French
ships set sail for the same port, at about the same time; and it so
happened that Sir William Alexander's fleet running afoul of the elder La
Tour's in a fog, not only captured that gallant chieftain but also his
transports, munitions of war, stores, artillery, etc. etc., and sailed
back with the prizes to England. I beg you to observe, my dear reader,
that occurrences of this kind were common enough at this period even in
times of peace, and not considered piracy either, the ocean was looked
upon as a mighty chessboard, and the game was won by those who could
command the greatest number of pieces.

Claude de la Tour, not as a prisoner of war, but as an enforced guest of
Sir William, was carried to London; and there