While the French settlement of Port Royal on the eastern shore of the Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia) slowly prospered, the English colony of Virginia grew rapidly. Faced with a steady flow of English colonists, the governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale, decided to gain control of the bountiful fisheries in the Bay of Fundy. He commissioned Captain Samuel Argall to achieve this goal.
Argall put several small French fishing settlements to the torch along the eastern shore of the Bay of Fundy. He encountered little resistance at Port Royal and razed the settlement to the ground. Nonetheless, the French would return to rebuild Port Royal the following year, and the settlement would eventually play an important role as the English and French struggled for control of North America.
