The post office in Halifax was the first opened in the provinces now of the dominion of Canada. It was established as part of the general scheme for closer and more regular communications between the colonies and the mother country which was set on foot as a consequence of the general alarm which seized the British colonies after the annihilation of Braddock's army by the French and Indians at fort Duquesne. With the placing of a direct line of packets on the route between Falmouth and New York for the conveyance of mails and despatches a post office was demanded at Halifax, in order that Nova Scotia might participate with the other colonies in the benefits of the new service. When in 1755 the post office was opened at Halifax, the English settlements in the Maritime provinces were very recent and very few. The city was founded but six years before, for the purpose of providing a military and naval station; and in the year following, the capital of the province was transferred thither from Annapolis. In 1751 the only other settlement attached to the British interest at this time was commenced. A number of Germans, attracted by the advertising of the British government, arrived at Halifax. After a short stay most of them re-embarked, and sailing along the southern shore reached Malagash harbour, where they laid the foundation of the town of Lunenburg. The settlement was augmented by further arrivals in the two following years, and in 1753 its population numbered slightly over 1600. In 1755 the total population in the two settlements of Halifax and Lunenburg was about 5000, and these comprehended all that could be regarded as British subjects. Few additions were made to the population within the next few years, though the government made a strong effort to re-people the districts from which the Acadians had just been expelled. The only other new settlement founded in the Maritime provinces until the French power in America was broken by the capture of Louisburg and of Quebec, was at Windsor, where a group from New England entered upon the lands from which their former possessors had been removed. With the passing of the danger of molestation by the French, there was an active movement into the provinces for a few years. The beginnings of settlements were laid all along the Annapolis valley from Windsor to Annapolis; also at several points on the south shore between Halifax and Liverpool, and at the western extremity of the province in the present county of Yarmouth. Little groups established themselves at Truro and Amherst, and on the adjacent lands of New Brunswick, at Sackville and Hopewell.