PRELIMINARY NOTES.
By E. D. BACON.
Canada is said to have been discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 1497, but this is not certain. In 1525 the French took possession of the country in the name of the king of France, and ten years later Cartier explored the St. Lawrence, so naming that splendid river from having entered it on St. Lawrence’s Day.
In 1608 Quebec, the first settlement, was founded. The town succumbed to the British forces under General Wolfe, and in 1763 the whole territory of Canada was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris.
In 1791 an Act of Parliament was passed dividing Canada into two Provinces, Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec), and establishing a constitution for each. The provinces were afterwards re-united in 1840.