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
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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 