Lower River Inhabitants is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Richmond County in Cape Breton Island. The River Inhabitants is born out of tributaries from the hills of Kingsville, Inverness County. These tributaries join to first form two branches of the River Inhabitants in Kingsville, which join together at Princeville, Inverness County. The main river then flows down through the communities of Princeville, Riverside, Cleveland, Grantville, Hureauville, and Lower River Inhabitants/Evanston to join Inhabitants Bay, known locally as Basin Inhabitants or Whiteside Basin. Port Hawkesbury is the market town of Lower River Inhabitants communities. Settlement history The Mi'kmaq are Cape Breton's indigenous population and their encounters with Europeans began with explorers and traders, then the colonizers. There are no current Mi'kmaq communities in Lower River Inhabitants, the closest being Potlotek/ Chapel Island. The French The land along the River Inhabitants was first settled, in the early 1600s, by the French from France and some Acadians from mainland Nova Scotia, when Cape Breton Island was owned by France and called Ile Royale. This was done under Sieur de Mont, and the settlers known to the French Government officials as habitants, were supplied by that government with tools, seed, food enough for two years, and farm animals to begin their farming along the river. That is why the river was called Riviére des Habitants, now known in English as River Inhabitants. At that time some family names to be found along the river were, Boudrot, Boucher, Decoste, Fougére, Hureau, Landry, LeBlanc, Nagereau, and Richard. After the last fall of Louisburg in 1758, when Ile Royale became Cape Breton under the English, the English Government's policy of expelling all Acadian and French settlers was extended to the island. However, this phase of the expulsion was less successful than that carried out on the mainland from 1755 on, because the Acadian and other French settlers on Cape Breton knew what had happened on the mainland. Therefore, when the settlers saw British Man-of-war Navy ships or any other ship flying a Union Jack Flag coming into sight, they fled into the woods, if they could do so, and remained there until the ships and any British soldiers had gone. Only a small number were captured and expelled. The others, however, could not always return to their farms, for farms along the River Inhabitants were burnt by the British on