to the eastern limit of the grant to Sir William Alexander. By the accession of James II, or, as some maintain, by the act of attainder, it matters not which, this Province reverted to the Crown, and was by it granted, in 1691, to the colony of Massachusetts. In the same charter Nova Scotia also was included. This has been called a war grant, as in fact it was, and the colony of Massachusetts speedily availed themselves of it by conquering the whole of the territory conveyed except the island of Cape Breton. The latter, too, fell before the unassisted arms of the New England Provinces in 1745, at a time when Great Britain was too deeply engaged in the contest of a civil war to give aid either in money or in men to her transatlantic possessions. [Footnote 46: Sebastian Cabot, in the employ of Henry VII, discovered the continent of North America 24th June, 1497, and explored it from Hudsons Bay to Florida in 1498. Columbus discovered South America 1st August, 1498, while the voyage of Vespucci, whose name has been given to the continent, was not performed until 1499.--HUMBOLDT.] [Footnote 47: See Note VI, p. 147.] The colony of Massachusetts, therefore, could not be charged with any want of energy in asserting her chartered rights to the territory in question. It is, in fact, due to her exertions that both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick came at so early a period into the possession of the British Crown. In 1654 the French settlements as far as Port Royal, at the head of the Bay of Fundy, were reduced by Major Sedgwick, but by the treaty of Breda they were restored to France. In 1690 Sir William Phips, governor of Massachusetts, with a force of 700 men, raised in that colony, again conquered the country, and although on his return the French dislodged the garrison possession was forthwith resumed by an expedition under Colonel Church. Acadie, however, or Nova Scotia, was ceded again to France by the treaty of Ryswick. After several spirited but unsuccessful attempts during the War of the Succession, General Nicholson, with a force of five regiments, four of which were levied in Massachusetts, reduced Port Royal, and by its capitulation the present Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were permanently annexed to the British Crown.[48] Finally the militia of Massachusetts, during the War of 1776, took possession of the territory, and occupied it until the date of the treaty of 1783. This occupation was not limited by the St. Croix, or even by the St. John, but included the whole of the southern part of New Brunswick, while the peninsula of Nova Scotia was only preserved to Great Britain by the fortification of the isthmus which unites it to the mainland.[49] [Footnote 48: Haliburton's History, Vol. I, pp. 83-87.] [Footnote 49: Haliburton's History, Vol. I, pp. 244-289.]