ANNAPOLIS ROYAL

formerly (until 1713) Port Royal, town, seat of Annapolis county, southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. The town lies at the mouth of the Annapolis River where it enters Annapolis Basin (an arm of the Bay of Fundy), 126 miles (203 km) by road west of Halifax. Founded in 1605 as Port Royal by the explorers Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, it was the first French colony in North America and is Canada's oldest settlement. Destroyed by the British in 1613, it was later reconstructed and resettled by Scottish colonists, only to be turned over to the French in 1632 by the Treaty of Sainte-Germain-en-Laye. It was abandoned soon after, when the fort was moved to its present site about 6 miles (10 km) to the east. The new settlement, repeatedly under British attack, was finally captured in 1710, formally ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), and renamed Annapolis Royal in honour of Queen Anne. From then until the founding of Halifax in 1749, it served as the capital of Nova Scotia. Once an important lumbering, shipbuilding, and administrative centre, it is now a quiet market town and tourist resort with apple growing, dairying, and sawmilling interests. The old Fort Anne (built 16871705), on the site of an older French fort built in 1636, is preserved within a national historic park, as is a reconstruction of the Port Royal Habitation (settlement) of 1605. Pop. (1991) 633.