THE FIRST ENGLISH IN CANADA.
The First English Conquest of Canada : with Some Account of the Earliest Settlements in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. By Henry Kirke, M.A., B.C.L., F.R.G.S. Second Edition, Enlarged and Illustrated. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)— Dating the real conquest of Canada by the English from the latter half of the eighteenth century, one may easily forget that there was a much earlier time when the English flag waved over Quebec. This was in the year 1629, and it was hoisted there by Captain Lewis Kirke, who accompanied his brother, the famous but unlucky coloniser Sir David Kirke, on an expedition against the French, then in possession. In 1632 Charles I. gave back Quebec and the other Canadian forts to the French as part of the price of a peace with Louis XI'!. which brought little advantage to England. This is a timely reprint, with additional matter and very interesting illustrations, of a little book published nearly forty years ago, giving a full account of all these transactions. The first colonising of Canada is a curious story, in which, as it happens not seldom in history, the heroes of the fight have a much finer record than the Governments which encourage and then forsake them. Such stories make us admire our forefathers ; they remind us how slowly, how gradually, the Empire of Britain was built up by the individual energy of her sons.
Previous page
