Prince Henry Sinclair Part IV

  Antonio Zeno said that Prince Henry sent the fleet away and retained only rowing boats. He kept only those who wanted to spend the winter. That means his Templar's!

   It is said that 500 of the warrior Monks accompanied him with at least part of the treasure which is known as the Holy Grail. He spent at least one winter in Nova Scotia and perhaps two.

  Antonio says that Prince Sinclair conceived the idea to start a settlement, evidence shows that perhaps he started two or more. He made friends with the Micmac Indians which are indigenous to the area which are part of the greater nation of Algonquin Indians. 

  The Algonquin Nation extended into present day Maine and into New England at least into Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the area of Newport.

  These Indians were quite friendly, intelligent and were quite open to learning new methods. They had a advanced form of communication for this time.

 They would write symbols on tree bark or etch it into stones or wood and send it to another group of Indians that would respond in like, using the same bark or stone. Just like we would send letters or notes today. Prince Sinclair became part of their legends and history and they called him Glooscap;

"Glooscap being a handsome and very stately warrior

with the air of a great chief, was admired by all,

Especially by the women, so that everyone felt honored

whose wigwam he delighted to enter.

He read the thought of men as though they were the

strength of wampum seeing deep into everyone's heart

He was ever a boon companion and a right valiant smoker

In the entire world no man was who loved a well filled pipe

of good and fragrant pipe tobacco so heartily as he."

  The Indians were amazed at his tireless exploration of the country. Micmac legends state that he crossed the Nova Scotia peninsula to the Atlantic and returned to the Bay of Fundy. He crossed to the Atlantic by first paddling southwest along the Bay of Fundy to the site of present day Digby.

 From Digby he followed the shore to modern day Annapolis where he discovered the mouth of the Lequille Stream. He would following this as far as possible by canoe “ a short but rugged portage” would have brought him to the Liverpool head lake.

The lake was a long system running the length of the peninsula and drained by the Mercy River which drains into the Atlantic at present day Liverpool.

 The route was all by water except for the short portage This was the easiest way across the widest part of the Nova Scotia peninsula. Nova Scotia is a peninsula not an island. There is a 17 mile land bridge connecting it to the continent.

 He very well may have crossed at its narrowest point by following the shore of Mahone Bay to the south he would have noticed a medium sized island about 2 miles to his left and would Probably have stopped to explore it and perhaps spent the night.

 About 20% of the island had spruce trees growing, the rest of it was mainly flat with a lot of underbrush and bramble, perhaps some berry bushes like most lake islands.

 They probably hiked the shore line before entering into the interior of the island. On the north shore of the island, looking across Mahone Bay to the western shore of the Peninsula, there were a couple of small islands, not much more than mudflats.

  Past them to the south is an expanse of water which is the entrance to the Gold River, leading to the interior of the peninsula. Prince Sinclair probably would have followed this river because there was a very high point that he would have been able to climb and get quite an expansive view of the peninsula and both bodies of water.

  Half way down the island was an indentation at the narrowest point of the island, with a swamp crossing it from shore to shore. He probably went to the center of it and commenced an expanding rectangle search pattern noticing the quality of soil, signs of wildlife, and any signs of habitation.

  He probably split his crew into several groups each taking a section of the island. The crew taking the southern portion of the island came across a depression of earth with a covering of branches and old brush that didn't look natural, more like it was a pile of brush, walking across it, the feel of the ground was distinctly different.

  Probing the ground with a walking stick they encountered a large flat stone. Strange because there weren't any stones or rocks that size and type anywhere around it.

  They pried it off the ground and to their surprise it was covering an entrance. They cleared rubbish out of the entrance and about two feet down there was another flat stone protecting the entrance.  They proceeded to remove that stone also and then there was blackness, one of the men dropped a stone down and no sound was heard.

 The tunnel was very exciting to the crew, but Prince Henry decided to re-secure the sight and planned for further investigation, they retired to their camp site and planned for an early departure at oh dark thirty the next morning.

  They departed across Mahone bay from the north shore of the island, and 2 miles later they were traveling with the incoming tide up the Gold River.

   They traveled along the river making a map as they proceeded along the very scenic river banks lined with oak and elm maple and spruce trees.

 After a 17 mile trip they made camp at the foot of a very tall rocky hill which they planned to climb in the morning to catch the view from the top.

 At daybreak the following day they climbed the hill arriving at it close to noon, and what they found was quite interesting. A Castle, falling apart and in disrepair, but a fortress none the less.

  With a working well none the less. With an incredible view up and down the peninsula and both the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic were also plainly visible and cape D' Or was visible to the north.

 The island they were at in Mahone Bay was also plainly visible, along with the river called the Gold River, which came to an end at the foot of the hill, where they made a camp site last night.

  Interesting enough, just a short distance off, it started up again and flowed into the Bay of Fundy. This River is called the “Gaspereau”. Interesting though, another island lay a short distance off the mouth of the river draining into the Bay of Fundy.

  OK time for me to digress, first with the hilltop castle. The Zeno map of the north shows two settlements marked by castle's on the Zeno map.

  One at the river hilltop site which is called the cross and the other in the northern part of the island on the bay called Pictou. The Indians call it the “ town of a hundred wigwams”.

  The location of the castle at the cross is now part of a hilltop village. It is owned by a couple who are descendants of Eric the Red and also of Robert the Bruce through the Stuart dynasty.

 They came over from England specifically for this property. They have tried to have the site professionally excavated by the government but it’s being delayed by politics, they don't want to have to rewrite the history books.  Just wait till I start beating up on John Cabot!

  Just to satisfy their curiosity they started a very small dig. The property still has the crumbling walls of the castle with rubble stone construction. They dug down four feet and noticed that the stone had changed to squared stone, that was fitted together and squared.

  At four feet in depth they still hadn't reached the foundation. They decided to halt the dig at that point to maintain an undisturbed site. They recovered a few stone implements. They recovered a stone called a herm, a roughly man made cut stone which was on the property.

  It had a Celtic style known as a petromantic. There was also a portion of a flaked stone knife, it appeared to be Celtic from the Neolithic period as late as the Julian conquest of Gaul.

 They also had a very corroded pin or “fibula” and a portion of a sword blade, also a dagger blade. The sword blade could just as easily be from a piece of farm implement, but never the less significant.

                     To be continued