The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760 (review)

Reviewed by: The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760 Julian Gwyn The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760. John Grenier. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 2008. Pp. 288, US$34.95 Rare is the us historian of the colonial era whose interests extend beyond the Holy Thirteen. It is not only Florida that suffers from such neglect, for Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia share the same fate. For Nova Scotia it is as if American scholars remain unaware of land and people across the Gulf of Maine. We thus welcome the publication on warfare in eighteenth-century Nova Scotia, as we have earlier from such American scholars as Faragher (2005) and Plank (2001) on the Acadiens, Mancke (2004) on Liverpool to 1830, and McNeill (1985) on Louisbourg. Dr Grenier has written a very strange book. He passes over the 1710 siege of Port Royal and the 1745 and 1758 sieges of Louisbourg with no more than a mere mention. As well, naval warfare in Nova Scotia waters is scarcely noticed and, like the sieges, few if any details or analyses are provided. Written for American audiences, his book will oblige them to look elsewhere for a balanced picture of war in Nova Scotia from 1710 to 1760. Where then is his focus? It is on the impact on both Acadiens and the Mi’kmaq of British and New England ambitions in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. The centrality of the First Nations in his account explains why the book was published by the University of Oklahoma Press, which has produced an impressive array of publications on Native Americans. His approach leads him, for instance, to entitle his last substantive chapter ‘The Guerrilla War, 1755–1760.’ For historians of the great powers during the Seven Years’ War in North America, when the clash of arms was profound in Nova Scotia, this is astonishing. Instead of requiring him to provide something he ignores, we would have advised him to select a title for his book much more reflective of its contents, which are otherwise cleverly composed. An earlier chapter he calls ‘Father Le Loutre’s War, 1749–1755,’ which pitted a French priest’s efforts to protect both Acadiens and Mi’kmaq in the face of New Englanders’ ambitions, in the form of [End Page 331] Gorham’s Rangers, to destroy both. This focus leads Grenier to downplay the importance of the massive British invasion of Mi’kma’ki when Governor Cornwallis, with the support of three foot regiments, established in 1749 the town of Halifax as the new colonial capital, and began quickly to settle thousands of English and German families. Instead, in his account, Le Loutre’s return to Acadie in 1749 started the war, when his principal purpose was to convince Acadiens to relocate across the Missiguash River, on territory claimed by France. This chapter establishes the context for the British expulsion of the bulk of the Acadien population begun in 1755, and the effective destruction of Mi’kmaw hopes of retaining their ancient way of life. Why he was prepared to provide the background details to these events, which already have been very thoroughly studied, is unclear, when, as he writes elsewhere, the ‘story of New England’s siege of Louisbourg in the spring and summer of 1745 has been told many times and does not need recounting here’ (125). Though we might welcome yet another account of the numerous clashes between the rangers and the Mi’kmaq, his study results in a curiously unbalanced account of Nova Scotia’s warfare history to 1760. A redeeming feature is his skill in linking, where appropriate, ranger warfare against the Mi’kmaq with New England’s contemporaneous clashes with First Nations on its northern and eastern frontiers. Some note must be made of sources on which he has depended. He has made use of very few original manuscripts held in a variety of archives. Instead he relied overwhelmingly on published editions of documents. For instance, for the period before 1745 he makes considerable use of The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series. By doing so he preferred to use a précis of...

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