https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C3sznDnUbU 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. … Continue reading Podcast Episode 07a – The Chevalier de Johnstone: From Culloden to Cape Breton
Cape Breton Island
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzTl-qI9gto 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 … Continue reading Podcast Episode 05 – The Lost Harbour of Saint Esprit
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 Wrong “Caledonia”: the Origins of a Traditional Cape Breton Song and How It Was Popularized in the U.K.
Header image - A view of the steamer SS Marion in Sydney, ca. 1900. Beaton Institute - reference number: 77-584-718. The first time I heard the song "When I First Went to Caledonia" (the traditional Cape Breton song alluded to in the title of this article), I was listening to the group Open The Door … Continue reading The Wrong “Caledonia”: the Origins of a Traditional Cape Breton Song and How It Was Popularized in the U.K.
The Lost Settlements of 19th Century Cape Breton – the Old French Road, Clarke’s Road and Pollett’s Cove
Figure 1.1 - Cape Breton Island in 1831. By this time, Scottish immigration has been ongoing for more than two decades, and the island's communities and the roads that link them begin to look familiar to the modern eye. For the full size image from Archives Nova Scotia, click here. Drawn by John L. Johnston. … Continue reading The Lost Settlements of 19th Century Cape Breton – the Old French Road, Clarke’s Road and Pollett’s Cove
The Lost Settlements of 18th Century Cape Breton – St. Esprit, Allemands, Rouillé and Espagnole
Figure 1.1 - Map of Isle Royale, 1749 by Robert de Vaugondy. This map of Cape Breton Island is recognizable to us today, but a closer look helps us to appreciate just how different Île Royale was from the Cape Breton Island that emerged during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Certain French place … Continue reading The Lost Settlements of 18th Century Cape Breton – St. Esprit, Allemands, Rouillé and Espagnole
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 02b – Helen Creighton and the Mystery of “Louisbourg’s Lament”
The second part of episode 2 analyzes the lyrics of “Louisbourg’s Lament” in order to see how it holds up against the historical record of the fall of Louisbourg in 1745. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_rYFb7FbVM Video credits: - "Louisbourg Under Siege", National Film Board of Canada Photo credits: - Lewis Parker, artist - “Plan de Philisbourg, 1750”, Bibliothèque … Continue reading Podcast Episode 02b – Helen Creighton and the Mystery of “Louisbourg’s Lament”
The Lost World of Cape Breton Island 