CONDITION UNDER THE BRITISH. 383

dered the town and fortifications to be demolished, and it‘has ever since remained in ruins, notwithstand- ing its excellent harbour, and the extraordinary im- portance attached at the time to its conquest.

During the period that France held the colony, the inhabitants were chiefly engaged in the fisheries. In this trade were employed near 600 vessels, exclu- sive of boats, and between 27,000 and 28,000 sea- men; and the French ministry cpnsidered this fishery a more valuable source of wealth and power to France than the possession of the mines of Mexico and Peru would be. Thevprincipal settlements at that timewere within the Bras d’Or, at Port Dau- phin (St Ann’s), Spanish Bay (now Sydney), Port Toulouse (St Peter’s), Arichat, Petit de Grat, and River Inhabitants.

Cape Breton, after its conquest, remained neglected by the British; thinking it unworthy of settlement, and only fearful that it might again be taken pos— session of by France. Twenty years had elapsed, and no progress had been made of any consequence towards colonizing it. A few fishermen, who planted themselves at some of the harbours, and whose exist- ence was scarcely known, formed its only inhabitants. During this time, it was an appendage to the Govern- ment of Nova Scotia.

Soon after the peace which followed the American revolutionary war, Cape Breton was made a distinct government from Nova Scotia, and its administration vested in Lieutenant Governor Desbarres, and an executive council. Sydney was laid out and built for