Nova Scotia is a peninsula between 43° 46′ N. lat., and 61° 67′ W. long., connected with New Brunswick by an isthmus about 14 miles wide. Its length is about 300 miles, and its breadth about 100 at its widest, with much variation. The island of Cape Breton, separated by the Gut of Canso, forms part of the province. It contains an area of 20,907 square miles, about one-fifth part of which consists of lakes, rivers, and inlets of the sea.
Nova Scotia was discovered by John Cabot in 1497; it was colonized by the French in 1598, who gave it the name of _Acadia_. It was taken by the English, and a grant of it made to Sir W. Alexander by James I. in 1627; and it was this monarch who altered the name to Nova Scotia. In 1632 it was restored to France, with Quebec, by the Treaty of _St. Germain-en-Laye_, but again ceded to England at the Peace of Utrecht, in 1714. After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, a settlement of disbanded troops was formed there by Lord Halifax, and the city which now bears his name is the capital of the province. Cape Breton was not finally taken from the French until 1758. From 1784 to 1819 it formed a separate Colony.
Thanks to Mr. Donald A. King’s persevering assiduity in hunting up official notices, and other particulars connected with the stamps of this Colony, we have from him what may be considered almost a complete history of their introduction and use. His papers are most interesting and valuable, as they elucidate many previously obscure points in regard to these stamps, and I think the Society has acted wisely in republishing them as they originally appeared in _The Halifax Philatelist_. Amongst other information Mr. King gives from the Report of the Postmaster-General of Nova Scotia for the year 1852 occurs this sentence: “Postage stamps valued at One Shilling, Six Pence, and Three Pence have been procured from Trelayney Saunders, Esq., stationer, of London.” Trelawney (as the name should be spelt) Saunders is given in Kelly’s _Post Office London Directory_ of 1851 as a “mapseller, publisher, and stationer, agent by appointment for the ordnance maps and admiralty charts,” &c. &c.; and his address was 6, Charing Cross. He it was who evidently received the order from the Colony for a supply of postage stamps, which he must have entrusted to Messrs. Perkins, Bacon, and Co. to carry out, as it was this latter firm who engraved the stamps.