THE IMPORTANCE AND ADVANTAGE O F CAPE BRETON, Truly Stated, and Impartially Confidered. With Proper MAPS. -Si quid novisti rectius iftis Candidus imperti: Si non, his utere mecum. HOR. Ep. VI. Lib. I. LONDON: Printed for JOHN and PAUL KNAPTON, at THE PREFACE. THE proper bandling of the following Subject is a Tafk of much greater Difficulty than I at first imagined. I AM fenfible of many Defects in thefe Sheets; but, as I mean nothing more than to open the Eyes of the Publick on fo important an Occafion, fo I have only furnished the feveral Hints that occur'd to me ; and leave the World to improve upon them at their Leifure, and according to their different Capacities. THE Chief of my Care was, that Nothing bad a Place herein, but inconteftable Facts; which, the more they are enquired A 2 enquired into, the clearer and brighter they will appear. • IN defcribing of Cape Breton, I chofe to use the very Words of Pere Charlevoix, and bis Auborities, leaft it might be objected that I had reprefented Places and Things more favourably than they are in Reality. The General Reputation of that Author, for Exactness and Veracity, adds no small Weight to that Part of this Difcourfe; at the fame time that it indemnifies me of all Miftakes or Falsehoods advanced by him. I bave only extracted fuch Parts of his Hiftory as were most necessary to my Purpose ;· and even omitted many, which might have enlarged and embellished this Performance, merely for the fake of bringing the Whole into as narrow a Compafs as might be. I THOUGHT it, however, necessary and proper to introduce the Main Point, by fome Obfervations, leading more easily and naturally to it. For this Reafon it is, that I have begun by fhewing, in general, the Title which the European Nations have to their Poffeffions in America: And, as that Affair turns, or depends chiefly upon the the Treaty of Utrecht, I found it necessary to make an Extract of fuch Articles as relate to the Purpofe; and to remark upon the faid Articles. THE Maps are taken from Bellin, Engineer to the Marine of France; though they differ greatly from all others that have been hitherto laid down. But, as his Obfervations are altogether taken from Charlevoix, fo, wherever there is any material Difference between his Maps and our own, it arifes probably from an Intention in the -Jefuit, to afcertain the Rights and Limits of the French Nation, whenever those Affairs fhall hereafter be debated, in Order to a Settlement of them. IT will at first Sight appear, that the Stile is neither laboured nor fludied; I am rather appprehenfive it may not, in many Places, be correct: But the Validity of the Facts is what I chiefly infift upon, and have endeavoured more at being clear and intelligible, than florid and diffufe, in the Reprefentation of them. I AM |