Qualla: Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Mi'kmaq called it Skmaqn -- "the waiting place" -- a name believed to date from the decades between 1725 and 1758, when Mi'kmaq and French leaders gathered here each year to renew their alliance. The French named their settlement Port-la-Joye, the Port of Joy. The British, when they took it, called it Fort Amherst. Each name tells a different chapter of the same story, and none of them tells the whole thing. This point of land at Rocky Point, overlooking the harbour that would become Charlottetown, has been a place of diplomacy, warfare, deportation, and eventually, remembrance.

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: The Port of Joy

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1720, French military personnel from Fortress Louisbourg founded Port-la-Joye on the southwestern shore of the harbour, directly across the water from what is now Charlottetown. Michel Hache-Gallant led the effort, using his sloop to ferry Acadian settlers from Louisbourg on I...

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: Battles on the Hillsborough

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The wars that shaped northeastern North America reached this quiet harbour twice in quick succession. In 1745, following the first Siege of Louisbourg during King George's War, New England troops landed at Port-la-Joye and burned the community to the ground. The French garrison o...

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: Deportation and the British Fort

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The final Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 brought the island under British control for good. Lord Rollo arrived at Port-la-Joye with 500 soldiers expecting a few hundred Acadians. He found between 3,000 and 5,000. His men rounded up roughly 3,000 for deportation to France. The toll w...

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: Mapping a New Capital

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1764, Samuel Holland arrived at Fort Amherst as newly appointed Surveyor-General of North America, tasked with mapping British possessions north of the Potomac River. Finding the fort unsuitable for his needs, he built a dwelling at a spot he called Observation Cove, about 1.5...

Skmaqn--Port-la-Joye--Fort Amherst: The Waiting Place, Remembered

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The site became farmland, passed through various owners -- including the island's first governor, Walter Patterson, who named his property Warren Farm -- and quietly decayed until the federal government purchased it in 1959. A visitor centre opened in 1973. For decades, the site ...