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
New France
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
“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
The Lost World of Cape Breton Island 