Thomas Davies, "vue du pont de la rivière du Sault a la Puce pres de Quebec, au Canada, prise en 1790." Although depicting a scene outside of Québec City, the road and bridge seen in this painting would have been similar to some of the ones built by the French on Cape Breton Island. English … Continue reading Off The Beaten Track: The Old Roads, Trails and Footpaths of Cape Breton, 1713 – 1758
Author: J.M. Bourgeois
Podcast Episode 07c – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
The finale of our three part series on the life and times of James Johnstone. Follow the Chevalier de Johnstone's escapades in Cape Breton from 1756 through to 1758 and see how this Scotsman's memoirs tell the long forgotten stories of Cape Breton's past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWOqYsSQjLg&t=169s SHOWNOTES - MUSIC: Concerto Grosso for Strings “Palladio”: Allegro … Continue reading Podcast Episode 07c – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
Podcast Episode 07b – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
Travel back in time to the year 1753 and see Cape Breton Island through the eyes of Scottish exile the Chevalier de Johnstone. We will also bridge two very different eras in Cape Breton's past - the French colonial period of the early 18th century, and the era of Scottish migration that took place in … Continue reading Podcast Episode 07b – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
Podcast Episode 07a – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
The Chevalier de Johnstone is one of the most colourful personalities to have come through Cape Breton in the 18th century. A Scottish exile who was involved in the 1746 Jacobite Rebellion, Johnstone was likely one of the only - if not the only - Scotsmen in Cape Breton during the time of Louisbourg. He … Continue reading Podcast Episode 07a – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
Podcast Episode 06 – Allemands and Rouillé: The Mira River’s Lost Settlements
Near the shores of the Mira River halfway through the 18th century sat two small villages now lost to time - Village des Allemands and Village Rouillé. Though existing for only six short years, the stories these villages tell reflect the greater challenges that typified the Canadian maritime region during the 1750s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn3ucFG4CA0 SHOW NOTES: MUSIC - Violin … Continue reading Podcast Episode 06 – Allemands and Rouillé: The Mira River’s Lost Settlements
Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 3
The next leg of the French engineer de Poilly's journey, as found in the document “Plan et memoire d’un voyage fait pendant l’hiver de 1757, autour de l’Isle Roïale,” takes a very dangerous turn. Poilly and his travelling companions enter the Bras d'Or Lakes - an unfamiliar place to the French living in Cape Breton … Continue reading Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 3
Podcast Episode 05 – The Lost Harbour of Saint Esprit
For centuries, Cape Breton Island has seen waves of settlers come ashore from many different parts of the world. The ebb and flow of peoples spurred on by the effects of war, by enterprise or by the simple desire to put food on their table has shaped the cultural fabric of the island for hundreds … Continue reading Podcast Episode 05 – The Lost Harbour of Saint Esprit
Remarkable Stories From the Lost Settlements of 18th Century Cape Breton
Figure 1.1 - "A plan of the island of Cape Britain reduced from the large survey made by the orders and instructions of the right honorable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations" by Samuel Holland, April 1767. To view a larger version, click here. The settlements of St. Esprit, Allemands, Rouillé and Espagnole no … Continue reading Remarkable Stories From the Lost Settlements of 18th Century Cape Breton
Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 2
Header image: Following the Moose, Cornelius Krieghoff (1860) The next portion of the journal "Plan et memoire d’un voyage fait pendant l’hiver de 1757, autour de l’Isle Roïale," prepared by Monsieur Grillot de Poilly, details their journey from Spanish Bay to Port Dauphin, known today respectively as Sydney and St. Ann's. If anyone out there … Continue reading Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 2
Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 1
Header image - Winter Landscape, Laval by Cornelius Krieghoff (1862) François-Claude-Victor Grillot de Poilly (or Monsieur de Poilly for short) was an Engineer in the French army who served at Louisbourg from 1755 to 1758. In February 1757, when the rivers and lakes had finally frozen over and travel on foot was now possible, he … Continue reading Monsieur de Poilly’s 1757 Winter Tour of Cape Breton Island – Part 1
The Lost World of Cape Breton Island 