extensive trade in fish and lumber with Great Britain
and the West Indies. Ship-yards were built, from which
was launched the first ship built in Nova Scotia after
the British occupation. Shops, taverns, churches,
coffee-houses, sprang up. At one time no less than three
newspapers were published in the town. The military were
stationed there, and on summer evenings the military band
played on the promenade near the bridge. On election
day the main street was so crowded that 'one might have
walked on the heads of the people.'

Then Shelburne fell into decay. It appeared that the
region was ill-suited for farming and grazing, and was
not capable of supporting so large a population. The
whale fishery which the Shelburne merchants had established
in Brazilian waters proved a failure. The regulations of
the Navigation Acts thwarted their attempts to set up a
coasting trade. Failure dogged all their enterprises,
and soon the glory of Shelburne departed. It became like
a city of the dead. 'The houses,' wrote Haliburton, 'were
still standing though untenanted: It had all the stillness
and quiet of a moonlight scene. It was difficult to
imagine it was deserted. The idea of repose more readily
suggested itself than decay. All was new and recent.
Seclusion, and not death or removal, appeared to be the
cause of the absence of inhabitants.' The same eye-witness
of Shelburne's ruin described the town later:

The houses, which had been originally built of wood,
had severally disappeared. Some had been taken to