The
fortress was, in truth, slow in building and never more than a
rather desolate outpost of France. It contained in all about four
thousand people. During the thirty years of the long truce it
became so strong that it was without a rival on the Atlantic
coast. The excellent harbor was a haven for the fishermen of
adjacent waters and a base for French privateers, who were a
terror to all the near trade routes of the Atlantic. On the
military side Louisbourg seemed a success. But the French failed
in their effort to colonize the island of Cape Breton on which
the fortress stood. Today this island has great iron and other
industries. There are coal-mines near Louisbourg; and its harbor,
long deserted after the fall of the power of France, has now an
extensive commerce. The island was indeed fabulously rich in
coals and minerals. To use these things, however, was to be the
task of a new age of industry. The colonist of the eighteenth
century--a merchant, a farmer, or a fur trader--thought that Cape
Breton was bleak and infertile and refused to settle there.
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