Expeditions of Honour

Colonial administrator and diarist John Salusbury (1707-1762) was a witness to the imperial chess game played by Britain and France for control of the New World. A founder of the city of Halifax, he kept a diary while in Nova Scotia, capturing valuable first-hand information about the struggles faced by settlers caught between the disputed borders of English and French North America. Expeditions of Honour presents the entirety of Salusbury's diary, supplemented with a biographical introduction, historical notes on events and major figures, and the letters he sent to his wife. Selected in 1749 to serve on the first Halifax council and to supervise the granting and allocation of land, he eventually lost the confidence of Governor Edward Cornwallis and was gradually excluded from his inner circle. Salusbury turned to his journal, where he documented such matters as the colony's lack of funds, the encroachment of commercial influence from New England merchants, and the ways in which public officials inflated their reputations. A fascinating glimpse into the life on an early settler, Expeditions of Honour also offers an account of the conflict between imperial powers and some of the factors that lead to the Seven Years War.