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
Historical Figures and Their Time on Cape Breton Island
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
Podcast Episode 04 – Explorers La Pérouse and Cook Converge on Cape Breton, 1758
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ilmyG6y6Z0&t=518s In the age of Pacific exploration, two men spearheaded expeditions to parts of globe previously uncharted by Europeans - Jean François de La Pérouse and James Cook. Although La Pérouse and Cook would never meet, both men would converge on Cape Breton Island in the year 1758, near the beginning of their careers. This … Continue reading Podcast Episode 04 – Explorers La Pérouse and Cook Converge on Cape Breton, 1758
Podcast Episode 03 – French Explorer La Pérouse and the Shores of Cape Breton, 1757
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUn_42Xt4nE Video credits: — Shipwreckcentral.com Photo credits: — Lewis Parker, artist — Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Gallica — the Normal B Levanthal Map & Education Centre Music: -- Les Habitants - "Le 31 du Mois d'Août"BIBLIOGRAPHY: — J.S. McLennan. Louisbourg from it’s Foundation to its Fall, 1713 -1758. MacMillan, 1918. p.203 — “Where Fate Beckons: … Continue reading Podcast Episode 03 – French Explorer La Pérouse and the Shores of Cape Breton, 1757
Podcast Episode 01 – John Montresor’s Overland Trek from Louisbourg to the Bras d’Or Lakes, 1759
In our first episode, we introduce the Lost World of Cape Breton podcast series. We also follow John Montresor, an engineer in the British army, overland from Louisbourg to the shores of the Bras d'Or Lakes as he embarks on an "inland scout" in the months following the fall of Cape Breton Island to the … Continue reading Podcast Episode 01 – John Montresor’s Overland Trek from Louisbourg to the Bras d’Or Lakes, 1759
“The Worst Place There is in the World”: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Aide-de-camp in Louisbourg – part 2
Having miraculously survived an apocalyptic 66-day North Atlantic crossing, the Chevalier de Johnstone arrived in Louisbourg on the 13th of September 17501 aboard L'Iphigénie, a merchant ship owned by Louisbourg businessman Michel Rodrigue2. She limped into Louisbourg harbour a shell of her former self, dismasted and carrying a desperate assortment of tattered worn-out canvas. During … Continue reading “The Worst Place There is in the World”: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Aide-de-camp in Louisbourg – part 2
“The Worst Place There is in the World”: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Aide-de-camp in Louisbourg – part 1
The Chevalier de Johnstone was a miserable man - cynical, critical and abrasive. No doubt he was a miserable man well before the more disappointing moments of his life, but the hardships of his later years surely exacerbated a bitterness that was already malignant. He is known to have at one time escaped imminent danger … Continue reading “The Worst Place There is in the World”: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Aide-de-camp in Louisbourg – part 1
An Introduction to the Sea: Jean-François de La Pérouse’s First Port-of-Call
Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, by Genevieve Brossard de Beaulieu (1778) On the morning of January 24 1788, two French frigates, the Astrolabe and La Boussole, stood in towards the sheer cliffs of New Holland and made their way along the coast to Botany Bay. There, on the far side of the … Continue reading An Introduction to the Sea: Jean-François de La Pérouse’s First Port-of-Call
“An Inland Scout”: John Montresor’s Trek into 18th Century Cape Breton
Fort Duquesne. Quebec. Fort Detroit. Lexington. Bunker Hill. Brooklyn. Brandywine and Germantown. In a time when people generally didn't travel more than thirty miles from their homes, John Montresor, an engineer in the British Army and later Chief Engineer in America during the American War of Independence, saw more of the North American continent than … Continue reading “An Inland Scout”: John Montresor’s Trek into 18th Century Cape Breton
The Lost World of Cape Breton Island 