Originally the land of the Maliseets, Mi'kmaqs, and Passamaquoddies, and settled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by marsh workers and farmers from northwestern France and thousands of Loyalist refugees from a newly independent United States, New Brunswick has a colourful and significant history. Today it is the only officially bilingual province in Canada. After a golden age of lumbering, shipbuilding, and overseas trade in the nineteenth century, its economy declined and adjustment to the new continental economy was slow and trying. A lively narrative drawn entirely from published sources, this book is recommended for those interested in the development of the province.