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112 Cape Breton and tie de Saint Jean. [1629-1713 St John, furthest from New England, and, facing Port Royal, the most suitable for the defence of the Bay of Fundy. Unfortunately a special commissioner, sent from France, decreed its abandonment. In 1704 Port Royal, once more a fairly prosperous colony, was again cruelly wasted by the English. Again it was built up, and in 1710, with about eight hundred inhabitants, could make a brave defence against Nicholson, and only surrendered with the honours of war, on a promise that the inhabitants should be transported to France. In 1707 the census gave to the whole of Acadia a population of 1838, with some 7500 head of live-stock. By the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, all "Nova Scotia, formerly called Acadia, with its ancient boundaries, together with the city of Port Royal," was ceded to England. What the ancient boundaries were nobody knew; but of course the French now wished Acadia to mean a small tract, not a large, while the English had equal reason to make a 'volte-face in the opposite direction. The English commissioners of 1755 assumed that the right bank of the St Lawrence was their northern boundary certainly an extravagant claim ; and the French, with as little show of reason, said that the treaty ceded only a part of the peninsula now called Nova Scotia and none of the mainland. But as La Gallissoniere had succeeded in planting French forts on the neck of the peninsula, it seemed possible that they might by force make their claim good, for the Acadian population was purely French till 1749 ; and the strong French colonies in Cape Breton and the lie de Saint Jean offered plenty of support. The two large islands off the coasts of Acadia, originally called Cape Breton and lie de Saint Jean (now Prince Edward Island), naturally formed part of the Acadian dominion. Cape Breton is severed from the mainland only by a narrow gut, and the tie de Saint Jean lies along the shores of the neck of land which attaches Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. Both were important centres for the fishery, but neither had offered much attraction to colonists so long as there was space in lands of milder climate and happier conditions. At the outset, here as elsewhere, it was the old story of rival pretensions based on flimsy pretexts, and of the ultimate success of the most patient competitor. At the time of Sir William Alexander's grant, which included Cape Breton, it had seemed possible that the Scotch might make a lasting settlement, for in 1629 Lord Ochiltree built a fort on the island. But a Frenchman destroyed it and built another, to be deserted in its turn. When in 1632 the way lay open for France, Nicholas Denys, into whose hands this part of the Acadian dominion fell, did no more than establish trading-posts and quarrel with rival adventurers. No permanent settlement was made until by the Treaty of Utrecht this island, with its neighbour Saint Jean, acquired a wholly new importance, as the only sea-board from Florida to Hudson's