We Are One: Surveyor James Cook worked with Surveyor General Samuel Holland to map the new British territories in Canada after the French and Indian War. Cook created this map of Halifax in 1766. Previously, the fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island was the principal French settlement in Nova Scotia. During the French and Indian War, however, the British successfully used Halifax as a counterforce to Louisbourg. Halifax served as a British naval base throughout the war and became Nova Scotia’s major city and port after the British victory.