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by another, and he took to the lifestyle. Sort of. He liked the booty and the clothing
it enabled (crimson waistcoat, scarlet plumed hat, gold necklaces), but he disliked
booze and gambling. He also encouraged prayer among his employees. No one
mutinied though, because his pirating prowess was legendary. For example, in 1720
he sailed into Newfoundland's Trepassey Bay aboard a 10-gun sloop with a crew of
60 men and they were able to capture 21 merchant ships manned by 1200 sailors.
Halifax put a unique spin on its pirate history when the local government began
sponsoring the plunder. The pirates were called privateers, and during the War of
1812 the government sanctioned them to go out and get the goods and then
provided them with waterfront warehouses to store it all. You can see where the ac-
tion took place at the Privateer's Warehouse. The South Shore town of Liverpool
commemorates the era by hosting a rollicking Privateer Days festival.
Settlers Move In
So we've got fish, furs and nice juicy chunks of land - is it any wonder Europe starts sal-
ivating?
St John's lays claim to being the oldest town in North America, first settled in 1528. It
belonged to no nation; rather it served fishing fleets from all over Europe. By 1583 the
British claimed it, and St John's had the distinction of being the first colony of the Em-
pire.
The French weren't just sitting on their butts during this time. In 1604 explorer
Samuel de Champlain and his party spent the winter on St Croix Island, a tiny islet in the
river on the present international border with Maine. The next year Champlain and his
fur-trader patron Sieur de Monts moved their small settlement to Port Royal in the Anna-
polis Valley, which would soon become an English-French flashpoint.
The French revved up their colonization in 1632 by bringing in a load of immigrants
to LaHave on Nova Scotia's south shore. More settlers arrived in 1635, and soon the
French had spread throughout the Annapolis Valley and the shores of the Bay of Fundy -
a rich farming region they called Acadia.
French & English at War
The French were galling the English, and the English were infuriating the French. Both
had claims to the land - hadn't Cabot sailed here first for England? Or was it Cartier for
France? - but each wanted regional dominance. They skirmished back and forth in hos-
tilities that mirrored those in Europe, where wars raged throughout the first half of the
18th century.
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