A prisoner is marched down the street in disgrace and in irons. The charges are then being read out to the population, and the sentence is proclaimed. A prisoner could be here for anything from steeling fruit or vegetables to much more serious crimes such as murder.

The prisoner has been convicted of steeling a bottle of wine, and must spend his punishment time chained to the post in the Town Square. Many times the prisoner will endure the wrath of his victims, by being pelted by rotten fruit or vegetables. The wooden notice on his chest says in French 'voleur' or 'thief'.

The building with the curved arches is the guard house to the most important building at Louisbourg, the Governor's Residence and Soldiers Barracks. The picture at the main entrance has a soldier in Red uniform, he is not British, but a Swiss mercenary, on a 5 year contract to train the French soldiers.

The chapel is just inside the main entrance.

The 4th photo is taken in the rear court yard.

A large parade ground surrounded by ramparts is at the rear of the Governor's Residence, but the actual fortifications were not as strong as those protecting the harbour, where the majority of the guns were pointed. During the siege the British actually set up their positions in the swamp area to the rear of the fortifications and the French did not have the fire power to defend themselves in the seaward direction.

The Govenors Residence was very well appointed from his bed room and study to his dining room and the kitchen where all the meals were prepared.

Baddeck

Baddeck is an attractive little town that draws a large tourist population in the summer. Located on the Bras d'or Lakes the town has a very active yacht club that sponsor's a race week with a large number of local and visiting yachts during the season. One of the main attractions in town is the excellent Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site. His life story is well recounted from his childhood in Scotland to his invention of the telephone. His life work included aeronautics, marine engineering and medical science with the hearing impaired. His father was a teacher of the deaf and developed a sign language, Alexander further developed it and also met his future wife at his fathers school. The Silver Dart the first aircraft to fly in Canada is on display as is a full scale model of his high speed hydrofoil. Bell's house and property is still in the family and only a few kms out of town.

The first 3 photos were taken at the museum, the lighthouse is just outside Beddeck and the final photo is on the route to Sydney, from here we headed down to sea level and across the rather narrow bridge!

After lunch we headed east to Sydney and on to our campsite just outside of Louisburg.

Hector and Pictou

Thunder, wind and rain has Dutchess surrounded by water this morning. After breakfast we head into town to visit the Hector and the Interpretive Center. The original Hector arrived in 1773 with 179 settlers from the Scottish Highlands. The ship is very small for that number of people and the conditions that they must have endured on their 2 month passage were hard to imagine.

By noon we had the wagon train assembled and the 4 of us were on our way to stay at the Bras d'or Lakes campground just south of Beddeck.