IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^ ■ 2.5 1^ ■ 16 nil 11.25 iu 1.6 150mm V «P> ^; ^^ *j^ V s^ .^ /; / ->^ w/ V /APPLIED A IIVUGE . Inc .^E 1653 East Main Strit j^= li Rochester, NY 14609 USA ^^p:S Phone: 716/482-0300 .^^.^=. Fax: 716/288-5989 1993, Applied Image, Inc., All Rights Reserved ^\'ns'^ "'^ '''" ^.>' »^v CIHM Microfiche Series (l\/ionographs) ICIMH Collection de microfiches (monographles) Canadian Instituta for Hiatorical Microraproductiona / Inatitut Canadian da microraproductiona hiatariquaa Ttcliniul ^nd Bibliographic Notts / Notit ttchniquts at bibliographiqun Thfl Ini tituM hat atttmpttd to obuin the bait original copy availabia for f ilmirtg. Faaturti of thii copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. □ Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur D D Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagte Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurie et/ou pelliculie □ Cover title missing/ Le titra de couverture manque f A Coloured maps/ 1^1 Cartes gAographiques an couleur D D D D Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.t. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relii avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interim r margin/ La rtliure serrte peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever pouible. these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restturation apparaissent dans le text*, mais. lorsque cela itait possible, ces pages n'ont pas M filmies. L'Institut a microf ilmA le meiileur eremplaire qu'il lui a M possible de s* procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut4tre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans b mithode normale de f ilmage sont indiqute ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pagn de couleur \nz. damaged/ eiKlommagies Th« tot □ Pagn restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurtes et/ou pelliculies Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages dicolories, tachet^et ou piquies □ Pages deteched/ Pages ditachtos □ Showthrough/ Transparence Th€ poa of 1 filn Orlj beg the sloi oth firs sioi ori Quality of print varies/ Qualite inlgale de I'impression Continuous pagination/ Pagination continue Includes index(es)/ Comprcnd un (des) index Title on header taken from:/ L* titre de i'en-tlte provient: □ Title page of issue/ Page de titre de la livraison The she TIN whi Mai diff enti beg righ reqi met D Caption of issue/ Titre de dipart de la livraison I 1 Masthead/ I /I Additional comments:/ I >/ I Commentaires supplimentaires: Gincrique (piriodiques) de la livraison There are some creases In the middle of pages. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* eu taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous 10X 14X 18X 22X 26 X XX J 12X 16X 20X 24 X 28X 22 X lu'il ctt d««ut le ition J2X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated inpression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TINUED' ), or the symbol V (meaning "END "). whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: 1 2 3 L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grAce A la g6n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque natiori j du Canada Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet^ de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim6e sont film^s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporta une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont fiimds en commen^ant par la premidre page qui comporte i^ne empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — »> signifie "A SUIVRE ', le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, 11 est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, t^e gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 'm- L h Lat46. \Dirva P* J/>ry J'/ BongjhtDn IW X'H louffhieu I. 7 ■OtAtrmr J^ *|*Brfta«Bpek» fJtmiAt :—^am. :i^ ii n^ 4.VD as 22 iSSoJii lIJi Q L*Af«l »7 L Xi;>««(n at^ilUi 33 2Z ACCOUNT c> PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, IN TUB aUlPII of St. lajvrence, NORTH AMERICA. CONTAININO III Geograpli), a description of its different Diviiions, Soil, Ctiniate. Srav)!)*, Natural Picduiiiona, Culiivation, Discurerjr, Conquest, Pro^rcsa aud preteiit State of the Settlement, (juTernnieut, Coiutitutiou, Lawf, aiid Jlelij^igu. ■tStO-^t Q. »7 \^ 4* 1« ^uOiUam prodire lenui >i nan duhtr vttra. Br JOHN STEWART. Ei«. Hoxao. a=s? Honlion: Printed hy W. Winchester and So>-, Sinai. ISOG. t ii tl II w PREFACE. I HAVING resided many years in Prince Edward Island, and being much interested in its prosperity, I have ventured (though conscious of my want of abilities to do justice to the subject) to print the fol- lowing account of that Island, which I trust will be found just and correct as far as it goes : the object is to make the Colony better known among those who are interested in its prosperity, or on whose judgment and determinations its future orospetts depend, and I flatter myself, that the acuj^nt which I hare given of the progress and state of the settlement, will shew that any disappointment which has been experienced in regard to its colonization and settlement, is fairly to be charged to the neglect of many of those into whose hands, the property of the lands unfortunately fell, and not to any defect in the climate or soil. The accounts of the Island which were published soou iv P . ih« ,ho„ !„,. g^,„ „,. •okeconveru-d i„.o val„al,l,. .„..„, . ., , "'" and PY^rtU r «^si»ues, by the labour ex.rl.on. of people, who thry exn.^.tcd « I. . fp'opted to retnrf * ^ ^^P'-ctcfl would be P w w retort to, and settle in the Island i • ^•^--nts, ».a„out any .v.^ncn "' '"' p«rt. ^ ^ '" '"' *""«'^« o« their 1^1 J -■f> »CTllurcr« an ' '^^' and .„ „hieh ^ P«.pl. ,rho rlttm«lv„ were .«aH„j „», y Ii in TcghTd lie coiuitry* never snw 't wns to T'lcnco «f » on their uids were lie labour Would be » as their on their igfhboiir- f' vvhic'i. Crown, of arl- wn ex-* n Amc- h thej ent in •e the Jrivate tie ag S n», '.5 ■H t M exertions for the benefit of the co«ntry» or coorri- butiiw; in any respect to alleviate the dithcaltie* iitci* dent to itD sttiMftion imd uireunMt«nce». To this unfortunate inistuke in the conduct of the proprietors, in to be attributed the slow progress tiie colony made for many years ; but tlie priucipal diffi* cultics of a new settlement being now surmounted., better prospects seem to open upo0 its future pro- gress, mony of those, by \vhone eonnectiun with tiM colony its settlement was so long iin[»ede-««„ed..„,.,..„„^j7 ;-'- IWrpOM whew better «,.,„ ■ '^-Porary ■«' "*=«<«>uni which these nnhii .• *^ »-^?e„t «^e of th. H 1 . " "'" °' ^-n..e.„,.e..,.„,„,;:::^;;7-;e^Hi. ttec^ssarv • th^ . ' ^"' become . '^ • ^'^^ account which f hav.^ N ^uuct ot the proprietors of FV;., i^^ ^J-ncl, «5iIJ shew how lil f T • ' ^^"^'^^ ^- -pp.«i„, ,,^. ,;j"^^ '^""'^-- ^^^ere can be « ^uy or them connected with o., u <-sf«,„,„s„„,,, J; ch>>-- concerned i„ oarrvin. « .i„„, "■*■" "«» '-"d. and with res;ec;,„ , * '""'^™"' '■™"' ^^"'- respec* to tl»e coaimoii «^tf] •»a'>y of .be;a are s„ f„ ft„„ ? ■"""' " ?«-« I ect», and tp^ equentljr, and' ^ make such criminal trick the name of themselves, 1 « is possible »nd therefore * temporary hand, but 1 ispired tvitk econd sight," "s give of "ot better - cobnists, rJ verydif- ^'I become ^ given of e £dward -re can be ^ch prac- hem was om Scot- ' a great icoui-aare ■i I etHilgr.aion to the Island, thiit they do every fhmg la thuBtr poner to prevent it: every man that cornea to tfe« colony is looked upon by fnany of the old settlers as a roisf'urtune to liiem, as it lessens the chance of getting the lands escheated for non-performance of the terms of settltinent ; an object which they have long considered as much more interesting to them than any benefit to be expected by encouraging their ffieods in Scotland to become their neighbours. I have more than once, witnessed great chagrin and .disappointment among them on any accession of inhabitants, particularly among the Highlaaders, who being more addicted to raising cattle than agriculture, require, according to the custom of their country, large bounds; which makes them often think thatatownihip is Utile enough for thejn when it does not contain, perhaps, twenty fomilies : these are facts well known jn the island, and ^ill account naturally enough for the dismal letter* "which Mr. Brown states to have been received from that country. Charges of a criminal aiv^isgraceful nature against a distant community of our fellow subjects, who are so situated as to have no means of guarding against or re- pelling such attacks, till after they have, probably, had the full effect intended by tiieir accuiers, does not i tended. ' "' ""« Publiclioiw i„. ^ "'«»"« more authentic evident ,. P«l>Iisb to .he world, that „. "' ""'° ""* "o •""---".r,, dirlTed'"'"^ "'"«•- "•— •'■opurions are held ou, ,o oar,! 7' ""' "'""^ ™.Va.d...i„,„.,.,^:~'T„h„h.ve •ccounl, of the ,.a,e „f ,,., , ' '"'' '» «''» »»ch f'-e,„igra.i„„. S«ha„r "'""""^"^'"o*- '"gge„e«, offence Id „ " ""'" ■"" «"' «-- «1"am.,d With the „,„«," '2"'""' '*™'' •""• » -•• " ••.,„« i3 talke, of a„on. t "^' *" "»' «.ch .„d such " w,„ ° '"»'"•<«*«, or -^•Ha..he,w..,.:v;a::'::r'"''°''°'- -" au,h„ri.^. do t,^ ^„,, « ' «»« ^", ju,. on '-"""C to in,p„,e eouallv „ . P^'fo^ance. "^ to a discus- 9ects the veiy Wications in- h«n can be "Dan were to %ed in the ' that come •ich may he very strong ■ who have give such eter others t fail giv- >n who is Scotland ' say, that rders, or bad as- jnst on finances to their 1 Id ^ great noise has been made about Highland emi- gration, and the public mind has been agitatec^ on the subject by various publicatiops, calculated to alarm the nation as if there was an absolute danger of that dis- trict of the kingdom being depopulated ; and under the impression of this alarm. Parliament was induced to pass an act, which under the appearance of pre- venting emigrants going to America, from suffering any hardship or inconvenience on the passage to that country, enforces a number of regulations to be ob- served on board ships carrying emigrants; which on the whole, rather more than doubles the real expence of a passage across the Atlantic ; this mode of making emigration so expensive, that it must be out of the power pf the very poorer class ; 1 take it for granted was adopted in compliment to the constitution, by which the power of going to, or settling in any country not in an actual state of hostilities with our sovereign, has al- ways been acknowledged ; but I very much doubt whe- ther in ten years it will be found to have diminished emigration, It will certainly have a considerable effect towards preventing people going off in the way that would be most comfortable to tJiem ; men, women and children together, two or three hundred in a ship at a moderate expence, that would leave them something >yherewith to make a comfortable beginning; in their *> our own col„„i„ ^J ' ""' ""^ »' g-"ff '^-"4 will „ "' i""""' "" *"■' " "«' ".^ .oo„ •«■• ■»<• .l.e ™„,be, „f .hi 7""''°"' "'"" '"" fi"!- of Cfyde, and .h« . "" '^"' '" "* ^ ' and the north ©f Irolan/l « n •. . P"fe«., e,„., .„ ,„^ ^„ ^__, ;'»-•"■« be f„„„d «o»fide„.i„vi,uo„„.pp,., A ; r'"^'" '»"•'- "" '0 .be ^„eric,„ S,„,e.. ,„. , "u """■ -■-on„„.,,,H,,,,::;:;^--*eU„.ed Po-er and r«omce, of o-rh """'^ ""' ''-'■•«• I.iso.,r •"' ""' '»°« i»votera,e -''eob„„u::'"''°'.'™'''''""- ''■'•''>». bee. '"""""'«"'-'■ f"'»»ot™o pa., a. L'r XIU ntitge o/« jfce "* ^ compeljf d 'stt'ad of goinj 'f* to be their which alone 1 the great in- he wesf coast ' 'v^iJl be soon -an be done ' of the late POft* \n th* f»n be found as much so J and, J am 'ate act has 'migration^ ► our colo- on for the '2'WnA of tageously '6 United J^ease the ivcierate las been pasf, at I ftie same time that nota wordissaitlof theernigratiou from this end of the island, which is of so much more real consequence. Yet upon enquiry I am confident it will be fourd, that fuil as manj people, and at least,one hundred times as much property, has been carried to the United States by emigrants from the ports of London, Bristol, and Liverpool, within the last ten years as from all the kingdom of Scotland in double that time. As « coj nist I may be permitted to say, without offence to my countrymen in the north, that we would have willingly parted with our share of highland emigration, for a \fity small proportion of the English capital and in- dustry that has been carried to the United States in thU feriod. E N Co CONTENTS. 1* FAOi. Situation and Divisions j Bays, Harbours, Rivers, Headlands or Capes 4 Charlotte Town, George Town, Prince Town 9 Face of the Country f gj Soil and natural Productions 37 Forrest Trees and other Vegetable Productions 36 Native Animals, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles and Insects. . 59 Climate and Seasons 03 Cultivation and Rural Affairs jgj Discovery and Settlement 147 Administration of Lieutenant-Governor Fanning. . . .233 Constitution, Laws, and Religion 266 Fisheries g^^ I^age 9, Line 20, for d.fu^ road aghti,-fo„r ^^ge 12, Line 15. for/>v.zi«. read frai.in. ^age 22, Line 15, for i;«.A read Z>«.yl- " i^age 25, Line 7, for /.a^5 road keep ^age60,Liue,c^foriV..*,,rea,^^,„,,^^ J*age6l,lastliue,3ead^vl^nitselJsa/ac Page 71, Line 10, for «.^./,« read ;,^c/,« ' Page 103, Line 14, for ^chen roud uhere Page 187, Line 2, fo,/i.W,-,y read //,W%. 'Si ll I*'/: SITUATION AND DIVISIONS. ■if P J- RINCE Edward Island i, situated in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, North America: Char- lotte Town, the capital of the Island, is in lati- tude 46- 12 north, and longitude 63 decree, west of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich AH the south side of the Island is in sight of the Continent ; the distance between Cape Traverse on the Island, and Cape Tourmentin m New Brunswick, is only ten miles, and between Carribou Point in Nova Scotia and theoppositepartofthelsland, about twelve •m es. From the east point, a very consider- able part of the west coast of Cape Breton is »een at from ten to twelve leagues distance. f' i Tlie Noi til Cape of the Island, is one hun- died miles due south of Cape Rosier, at the en- trance of the river St. Lawrence. The sea between the Continent and the Island, is known by the name of Northumberland Straits ; the length of the Island, measured along shore from the east point to the North Cape, is about one hundred and forty miles ; the greatest breadth being the division line between King's and Queen's Counties, is little more than thirty-six miles ; towards both extremities the Island de- creases much in its breadth. Prince Edward Island is divided into three counties, and sub-divided into parishes and townships, which last are distinguished by their numbers. The divisions st*:. ! , . Hlows ; King's County has St. George's, St. An- drew's, St. Patrick's, and East parishes, sub-divid- cd into twenty one townships, besides the pro- ^ ;ed town and Royalty of George Town and several Liands. s Queeifs County is divided into five parishes named Cluiilotte, Grenville, Hillsburgli, St. John's, and Bedford parislies, sub-divided into twenty-three townships, and the town and Royalty of Charlotte Town, uhich'is the capi- tal of the Island, and three Islands, two in Hillsburgh Bay, and one between Harris and Harrington Bays. P/ince Coupty is divided into North, Eg- niont, Richmond, Halifax, and St. David\ parishes, and sub-divided into twenty-three townships, and the proposed town and Royalty of Prince Town, this county has also several islands in its bays. The townships, of which there are sixty-seven in all, generally contain twenty thousand acres each, some contain one or two thousand acres more, and lot 66 con- tains only ten thousand acres ; the total con- tents of the Island stand as follows ; King's County 4, igooo acres Queen's County 4,94000 Prince County 4,71000 Total.... 1,381000 A2 Besides the Islands scattered in the dif. ferent Bays, which probably contain about ten tliousand acres among them. Says, Harhoun, Rhers. Headland,, or Capes. This Island is much intersected by water as may be seen by loolcing at the map, the prin- cipal bays on tiie south side are Egmont Halifax, Hillsburgh and Cardigan Bays, all of great extent; on the same side we have also H.Ilsburgh, York, Elliot, Cardigan, Montague, and Brudnel rivers, all of which will admit sh.ps of the line, where they will be completely land-locked and sheltered from all winds • Dnnk, Vernon, and Murray rivers also on the south side, will accommodate vessels of three hundred tons with safe and convenient har- bours ; beside which the whole extent of the coast from West Cape to the East Point, pre- sent, a succession of smaller bays, coves and creeks, many of them forming s.fe and conve- nient harbours for trading vessels. On the north side of the Island we have Holland. r Richmond, Grenville, Harris, Bedford, and St. Peter's bays, all barred harbours, and not fit for large vessels, except the first, which is safe and convenient, its bar being much protected by the land stretching to the northward towards Cape Kildare, and having a sufficient depth of water for ships of five hundred tons burthen on its bar : Richmond, Harris and Grenville Bays have occasionally been frequented by Ships of from two to three hundred tons, and in a Country where good Harbours were not so common, would certainly not be thought bad ones ; many Harbours in Europe, the receptacles of an extensive commerce, are much inferior in every respect. These Harbours areseperated from the Gulph by high sand Hills, narrow cuts through which form the entrances into them ; they have all much the same appearance, and resemble greatly the entrance of Shields or Newcastle River in the North of England, they are all of them ex- tensive- branrliinf* rtMf I«4-^ i: • i .TV, j„^ „„^ ..^^Q nucuiaisana creeks, 6 with from two to five fathom, water, ,„d aft„ carry,„g that depth for a considerable way, -me of them approach so near the heads of "vers and harbours on the south side of the Island, that it is believed there is not a point on the Island which is not within eight mi^ of navgable water. Harrington Bay and S,vage Harbour on the north side also, though bad h^- bou., are extensive sheets of water, and admit small schooners and shallops ; they afford many fine situations round them, and enable the peo- pesettledon their banks to enjoy the benefit of fishing .„ the gulph. Bedford and St. Peter's Bays will admit vessels of an hundred tons, but he channel of the latter has been subject to al- teration for some years past, and it is said not to have so much water on its bar as formerly. The principal Capes and Head-lands, on the north side are North Cape, Cape Kilda,^. Cape Alesbury, CapeTryon, CapeTurner, Shipwreck Pomt. and East Point; on the south side are ^y^t Cape, Cape Egmont, Cape Traverse. , and after able way, heads of ide of the t a point t miles of id Savage I bad har- nd admit 'rd many the peo- e benefit . Peter's ons, but :t to al- I not to on the . Cape ) wreck de are Lverse, Point Prim, the Wood Islands, Bear Cape and Boughton Island; the navigation rounred from the harbour or the opposue shores has a very pleasing, ppej;;;; THe only puMic huil.ing yet erected T la aer::-,."'""'''^— o^o-ehunL ^^^r^::z.t '-''' "^ ''''' -^- '7 ' , *" *' '*°^^"^' " ''-' of seven thousand acres so callp,i ,. i,- ^ townandcommotAal ""''""'' ^'^ both on Hil, K I '" *"'""''*'« fro-t "th on Hillsourgh and Yorlc Ri.ers. Many of these pasture Int^ i., i ^ pastuie lots have been purchased from the Grantees „y a fe. individuals on specu lat...n, and some progress has been made" :::n:rr —-'-.there b::^^.: ve small farms within the Royalty The 'i^htfathoms^tr::::--^--.-' ---essthana^uarteror: Xr^ 11 Vessels of two hundred tons go up the Hills- burgh River fourteen miles above tlie town, which itself is three miles from the harbour's mouth ; the entrance is narrow and is suscep- tible of being strongly fortified : after passing the narrows the harbour opens into an exten- sive bason, which receives the Elliot, York, and Hillsburgh Rivers, each of which have a sufficient depth of water for the largest ships for several miles, where they will be completely sheltered from all winds. The tides are so strong as to enable ships to work out and in against a contrary wind : at full and change they rise about nine feet, neap tides rise be- tween four and five feet, the bottom is either soft mud or strong clay. The greatest in- convenience of the harbour is, that, the flata run ^ut a considerable distance from the shore. Wharfs to receive ships where they would always lay afloat must be run out to the channel, which is near six hundred feet opposite to the town ; there is no danger however in allowing ships to ground upon 12 the flat, as they are all deep mud, and ti.e .hores n..e either sand or soft flat stone, on -h.chhght vessels or small craft can be laid w.th perfect safety. The town is protected « at the west end of the town is mounted "' "'™" ''^'"'y g"ns, so disposed a, to command everypartof.he harbour, the other "paced on the bank of the river i„ front of the town and mounts four guns. „hi,h,,,„ pomt to the harbour and the opposite side of the nve., the entrance of the harbour is de. ftmled by a block-house mounting four guns, .nfrontofwhich is a stone battery mounting fiveguns with a ditch and freezing, the whol! well stockaded, where these works stand the Narrows are scarcely half a musket shot across • here ,s also a battery on the eastern side of hena, "ot at present in repair : from he block-house all vessels approaching the harbour are seen at three leagues distance, « crcumstance of much consequence to the «^fety of the place which has immediate no- 13 ^f and the stones on ■an be laid protected batterieg, mounted sed as to the other in front hich also B side of ur is de- ►ur guns, lounting le whole and the across ; side of •• from "g the stance, to the e no- tice by signal from the block-house of every vessel that appears either by day or night. The whole of the works in their present state are intended against shipping; should it ever be adviseable to fortify the place the situation is such as to admit of its being done very effectually. The barracks are situ^ ated at the west end of the town, and con - sist of two separate ranges of buildings, each 260 feet in length, which front- each other, being divided by a spacious parade ; they are calculated to accommodate upwards of three hundred men with their officers, a handsome colonade runs along the front of each range, the whole are painted white, and though flat roofed have a respectable appearance, and in point of accommodation are not surpassed by any barracks in North America; within the same inclosure are an Hospital, a store for provisions, and another for the ordnance, and a wharf in front of the town 248 feet in length is also a military erection. There is a reser- vation of a trdct of land called the Fort Lot 14 on th. t ,,, „, ^^ ,^^^^^^^^ from the e..t,a„ce of the Narrow, ataost tl the mouth of E,h„t Ri,er, on .hi. tract Fort Amherst for.eri, stood o„ an elevated spo three hundred yards fm™ fi. yiTaa trom the water, it was "ected immediately after .h» Island conquest of th? , "f' ""» '^ '^'S" ^q'-are redoubt with a cannon, and contained handsome barracks- by the Rench and their Indian .Mies, but they faded rn both attempts. The sit ation s commanded b, higher ground at a sma, '"7; °: ""' — t the Fort was dis- untied and destroyed by Governor Patterson soon after his appointment to the govern::: an here being near three hundred acres of fertd clear land within the reservation, «- tremely beautiful in point of situation, th; Go- vernor was temptol to make a grant, of the 01 Kent then commanding Hit 15 extending almost to tract Fort vated spot 5»*, it was est of th? ►t with a pieces of barracks; attacked fies, but situation a small *vas dis- atterson inment sres of •n, ex- he Go» of the direction ling Hi* whole to a person who re-conveyed it to himself, and on this place he built a handsome fann-house and extensive oHices, and laid out large sums in its improvement. The amusements which Charlotte Town can yet afford are only such as may be expected in a young country thinly inhabited : in Spring, Summer, and Autumn, shooting, fishing, riding, and sailing; water parties are frequently made, when each family taking their dish en pic wic M.je.ty. force, in the Nova Scoti. district, «d the same w« «,. aft« vacated, and the place was for wme time considered a. a^ll^j ground, but iniaoOHia Grace the Duke of Portland, then Secretary of State for the Coionie,. wa. pleased to direct Lieutenant-Gonem, Fanning, Lieutenant-Governor of the Island to grant a lease thereof t« the late Monsieur Calonne the French Minister. «ho the.» proposed to settle on the Island with a number of French Royalists, reserving to the Crowu .uch a rent as the Governor might think rea«,nable, which was fixed •t «51. per annum. The building, «.d improvement, m«le bj Governor Patterson had previously been suffered to go into dec.,, having fallen into the hands of soma of his cred.tors. who not being ^guine a. to the solidity of their title did not think fit to be at any expence about them. It i, a fine tract of land and the situation «,d Mpect extremely pleasing. 16 . ".arquee i, pi.che.I at ,„.... of tl.e many charn,.„g ,pot, „„ the bank, of the adjoini„! "ver,, and many happy ,,ou„ ,re thul peasantly .pent. X„ .;„.„ .„„^ ., J .hoot-ng but it is often atte„.,e., With nTe f-gu. than most people would think 'vorth, a, it i, generally „ecessarv to ~oe, whenever we go Off the UT «'e forest. Driving carioles is a ft,„„i,, .musement.t this season, they go with grea P.. d.vers.on. There is an assembly once a fortnight in winter »i„„i, .h- r^ . "^ ^"""ences with the Queen-s birth day, and the party i. .h atncals were attempted for two winters, but some of the party being only tempo,,,; "' ents, that amusement has been given up for the present. ^ If George Town, situated in King's County on a Peninsula between two navigable rivers or arms of the sea, is yet as a Town but in embrio, there being but a f^w lots granted, and only three or four built upon; the situation is very fine, and the Ilaibour one of the best in North America ; like the Harbour of Charlotte Town it has three large branches, v/ith depth of water for the largest ships, besides two fine basons completely land-locked ; in front of the whole there is a capacious roadsted open only to the south east, a wind which seldom blows hard on this coast : An island on each side of the bay makes it very remarkable, and the access is perfectly safe, being quite free from rocks or shoals ; in many parts of the harbour the water is deep close to the land, there are several situ- ations in the different branches where large ships can lay within their own length of high water mark, on the south west front of the town in particular, large ships may lay close to the shore perfectly protected from wind and sea, and the situation large enough to acconx- s . , 18 modate an extensive commerce. It is generally believed in the island that if the capital luid been fixed licre, it would have been before this tmie a large town, as the situation possesses many advantages over Charlotte Town, it being much nearer the ocean and of much easier access! as any wind that will bring ships through the Gut of Canso, will carry them into this harbour with ease, whereas the westerly winds which prevail so much on this coast, render their getting to Charlotte Town more tedious, particularly in the Autunm : its lying very little out of the tract from Canada to Nova Scotia and the United States, and its contiguity to the fishing grounds would probably have made it much frequented by shipping, if it had been settled, and could afford them such necessary assistance as ships usually want coming from sea, as matters ^re, they will find fresh provisions, vegetables, wood, and water, with a safe harbour, that is of such easy access, that they may enter it by their ^barts, without the aid of a pilot. 19 The lands round all the branches of this extensive harbour are remarkably well tim- bered, and as yet in a great degree untouched, which with its other advantages, render it a most eligible situation for ship building and the timber trade. Building lots in George Town contain about half an acre each, with which is granted a pasture lot of ten acres in the Royalty an- nexed to the town, and any person proposing to settle there, on application to the Governor in Council, will readily obtain a grant of a town and pasture lot, the fees on which will amount to about forty shillings. Besides the Town and Royalty of George Town, seven toM-nships of twenty thousand acres each, abutt upon the waters of this harbour ; the -oldest and most forward settlement, is situated .on Township, No. 59, two-thirds of which is the property of Sir James Montgomery, His Majesty's Lord Advocate for Scotland, whose father, the late venerable Lord Chief Baron of Scotland, was one of the few pro- prietors to whose exertions at the beginning of B 2 20 ■the settlement tbe colony is „„der any „Wi^ oons.de,ab.e „..„ber of people on To J 1 No. 53, one third of .,iel, is hb ,„Xt property, and settlements are „„* Ju ^" Jeothett.o.t„i.dsoft„attorshrr;" Earl of Westmoreland, and thr H °'- ^'*' ^^' "•«' 61, those on the twn i ! mentioned, a-e settled without .. ''* ofth^;r, . """" "'e-nten-ention of he,r,espect,ve proprietor, by „h„„.^ - t '™ '""'^'^ "^^'^«ed hitherto • Towl : r. T- " ^^ ^^' -« -"^ -r «mall, „, comparison of the extent of '.arbour, the vacant front on which woufd oommo<,,e five hundred families mo..::! of-h-eh would bound on navigable-watr any obK- : settled a rownship, lordship's aking ou ». by the iiourable ese por- Jiderabk ivnshipsy wo last vention •m they Town- ninha- indeed ;nt of 5f the ivould each ■ PjihccTown, situated on the north side of the Island on a branch of Richmond Bay, is yet like George Town little more than a name, though there are perhaps as many people within the Town and Royalty as at Charlotte T^wni but thinking that agriculture should precede town building, they have neglected the town lots, and by accumulating a number of conti. guous pasture lots each, have formed a number of small farms, which are in a considerably for- ward state of improvement. Richmond Bay, though a barred harbour, is the largest on the north side of the Island, and has from twelve to fourteen feet water on its bar: It has two principal entrances Jbesides smaller ones ; it is very extensive and some parts of it are much exposed in bad weather; there are however several arms of it that are well sheltered and perfectly secure in all weather' that on which Prince Town is situated is a safi harbour for trading vessels. Before the Ameri- can War, Richmond Bay was the principal Station used by the NnvEnglandpeopIe, for carry,„g „„ the cod fishery in the Gulph of St Wence, it contains six islands, three of wh,ch, have above five hundred acre, eacii. llere are seven townships, containins among them one hundred and forty thousand acres, abutting upo Richmond Bay, it has =^30 a .afe inland water communication with Holland Bay, by Cavendish Channel, affording great convenience in the transport of produce from one harbour to the other; two roads, neither of them much above two miles i„ fcngtb, connect it with the lands lying oa Halifax Bay and D„rk River, situated on the south aide of the Island. There are very co„- ».derable settlements on Richmond Bay, which aremcreasmg ve,y fast in population, the land bemgan general very good, and abounding With fine timoer, ^ * FACE OF THE COUNTRY. This Island is in general level, having but few hills, and none of them very high or ^teep, probably the highest spot on the Island does not rise above five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and the soil on the hills is in general the best on the Island, being moister, and less apt to be sandy than the low grounds, the timber on them is in general hard wood, and the tr^es are larger, and stand at a greater distance, than on the low grounds, a sure indication of their superior soil : the highest land on the Island is on the road between Charlotte Town and Prince Town, stretching from the head of Harris Bay to the head ^)f Grenville Bay, and is intersected by several streams which run into these bays : There is also a considerable hill towards th« 24 »-« of Em„.t Eiver, on the road f™„, Cha io«e To.„ eo T.,o„ Settlement an^ abontirr?'"''^""-"-^'- ground about the head of Hillsb„rgh Eiver, particu- their h • , "P"' ^ "> P^"«t he.r being cultivated with ease. Though departs of the coast have alow flat look the greatest part of the face of the countr; " "-•" -aived and often rises into beautiful -«s, and being .uch intersected ,^th a™, of the sea. creeks, and rivulets, present, eve,y ''here . vast variety of fine situations for •'"'Id.ng and improvements. The heads of the "vers and the creeks, are all more or less bor- ^jed by «,t mashes, producing annually -ge crops of strong nutritive grass. wi,ho„^ trouble or cultivation, which makes excellent %. on which the greater part of the cattL a^=supportcdduringthewinter.butitisnoe the.e n^arshe, when dyked i„ f„m the sal 25 tjrater, make the most valuable laniis on tht Island, this however is a work in which no great progress has yet been made. Springs of the clearest and purest water, abound all over the Island, and which not only do not freeze in the winter, but the runs from them into the sea, keeps i channel open, though the ice on both sides thereof will be a foot thick or more on the salt-water. Fine water is also obtained by digging wells at a moderate depth, it being rarely necessary to exceed twenty-five feet, and there is very seldom an instance of being dis- appointed in getting water. There are not many swamps of any extent in the Island, and still fewer lakes or ponds of fresh water in com- parison to the extent of the country. Travel* Jing is not difficult through the woods, even where there a'-e no roads, there being Very little underwood to what is generally found in most other countries covered with forest, nor is it in the least incumbered with rocks, like the neighbouring country of Nova Scotia. The want ©f stone is perhaos the ereaiesA 26 nat„n.lwanti„thel.,a„d,itbe,„gi„gene.., ofa ,0ft sandy nature, and i„ ,„„,e p,,,„ '^'^"'IX ''"""'""'''""■ ^-^"^ has yet been discovered in the Island, though there are strong indications of iron in n,afy P'aces. I« looking at the face of the country every pe.on wiU he a. once struck with t,^ great difference in appearance between it and the neighbouring continent, it having every where „,uch the sa.e appearance, without a y .mpednnent to tl,e cultivation of the w ole, no rocks, no impenetrable swamps, no extensive pi„e barrens to separate the settle- -nessh,, there need not be a waste acre n he I. land, a very uncommon circumstance, -d which must finally enable it to maintain a ■""ch greater population than most other countries of ,be same extent. Koad, are very easily made, from the nature of the soil a„.I chmate, and very considerable progress has been already made in that respect, considering the great extent of the Island, and the smaU number of inhabitants, there being tolerable roads between the capital and all the principal settlements, wliich have been chiefly made by the statute labour, all males from 16 to 60 years of age, according to their different cir- cumstanced, being obliged to perform from four to six days labour on the high roads annually. The facility with which roads can be made, is a circumstance of the most interesting nature, and when viewed in connec- tion with our many navigable rivers and creeks, affording a safe water communication to a great part of the Island, cannot fail to be highly advantageous in every stage of our progress and settlement. The laying out of high roads, erecting of bridges, and appoint- ing and regulating ferries is vested in the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor for the time being, and His Majesty's Council, and a re- servation is made in the grant of every township, of such parts thereof, as may be wanted for high roads, so that there can be no part of the Island in which a just and reasonable claim to a road can be 28 refund. Tl,e Governor and Council are how- ever reatricted from pul,i„g down house,, or destroying orchards, gardens, n,i||,, or mill da™,, ,n laying out road,, and doubtless it mil also become just and necessary in the pro. gres, of the settlement a, road, multiply, to grant a reasonable compensation to the pro. Pnetor, and occupier, of all inclosed and culfvated land,, though which it may be found nece,sary to lay out ne,. road, for the PubLc accommodation, which compensation it W.II frequently be proper to levy on the dis- trict for tlie benefit of which the road i. claimed, i„ order to prevent the wanton abuse too common in new countries on the subject 1!"' 29 SOIL AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. The soil is in general alight red loam, in some places approaching to a tolerable strong clay, but in most districts more or less sandy; but even where the soil may be called sandy, if it incline to a dark color it is very fruitful, and with tolerable cultivation yields good crops : where white sand predominates the land is poor, and wants frequent manuring. The quality of the soil in its natural state, may always be known by the kind of timber it produces ; the best land growing together, large maple, beech, black and yellow birch, mixed with the different kinds of pine and fir, the trees will stand at a distance, and the roots do not appear to run along the surface, which ill general will be found covered with the dwarf yeiv, or as it is commonly called giound I 30 spruce, ,vl„c), is always an i.ulicatiun of .ooj 1"wth of timber is still standing, many parts of them are without useful timber of any kind, and a great deal is overrun with strong ferns, dwarf, laurel, and other shrubs ; the ferns are diffi- cult to be got the better of, they grow in some^es six and seven feet high, and push thetr flps very deep into the earth. The burnt 33 e same ar-^ lands, as tlicse tracts are called, were long thought of little or no value, from an idea that the fire had in a great measure destroyed their fertility. It is prohable, that in general they never were so good as the other parts of the Island, the very circumstance of their original growth of timber having been destroyed by fire, shews that the predominant species upon them was such as indicates an inferiority of soil, as we now know by many years ex- perience, that though the fire will sometimes in very dry years, in the months of May and June, kill and partially burn the timber on our best lands, it never acts so severely on them as to injure their fertility, on the con- trary, the finest crops are procured ly burning all the timber upon them. From the appear- ance of the burnt districts, and the number of old pine trees and stumps still remaining upon them, it is evident that these lands were covered chiefly with pine and other resinous woods, and therefore, the soil in its original stat^' could not have been of the best. There is ^ BOW, -.,.,,„-,J^i...,. 34 now, however, good reason to believe from a variety of trials, that the greater part of the burnt lands will pay very well for their culti- vation; I have lately been surprised to see parts of them which had been long considered of little or no value, brought into culti- vation at a much smaller expence certainly, than it is possible to cultivate the forest lands for : still it must; be confessed, that in general, the lands on which the original gvowth of timber remains, and is such as has been noticed, as indicating the best soil, are much more to be relied upon, though the process of bringing them into cultivation is more expen- sive, and the necessary time greater, than is re- quired for the burnt lands. A settler in indigent circumstances, who relies from the beginning for the means of subsistence on the produce of his labour, must not at first meddle with the burnt lands, he should cut down and clear away the forest, which will never disappoint him. Let him but get rid of the timber, and scorch the surface with fire, whatever seed he com- 35 tnits to the earth, will produce him a good crop, though the stumps of the trees still remain. A settler who is farther advanced, has a stock of cattle, and a capital to com- mand labour, may find it profitable to cultivate the burnt lands, large tracts of which he will be .ble to render tolerably productive, in much less time > an is required to get rid of the stumps oi iiie trees, in the lands which he clears from the forests, a circumstance which forms no trifling temptation to their cultivation ; at the same time it is universally allowed, that our forest lands are much easier cultivated, than the forest lands on any part of the neighbouring Continent, the surface being much easier k- veiled, and almost totally unincumbered with rocks and stones, so that when the stumps of the trees are got the better of, all the diffi- culties to complete cultivation are overcome. c 2 -':shT^-'^"''J9?ng^fli 3« FOREST TREES and other VEGETABLE PROIXJCTrONS. It >'i I regret much, that my knowledge of this part of my subject, does not enable me fo treat it scientifically, but feeling, that in a description of the Island, at least an attempt to bring its natural productions into notice will be expected, I must enter on it, though with •diffidence, Sensible that my knowledge thereof is very imperfect. Beech (Fagus Sylmticd.) This tree grows in great abundance, probably better than one-half of the Island is covered with it, in some districts it forms nine-tenths of the forest, in others, it is more mixed with other trees, its mast is produced in vast quantities in some seasons, the cifects of which shall be 37 mentioned hereafter, it is a^ large handsome forest tree, the timber is sometimes exported, but the chief value of it at present, is for fire wood, for which, no other wood exceeds it. . 1 1' Birch, of this we have four species, 1st.. (betula alba), of this, there are two varieties,, one is the tree common in parks in Eng- land, and in the Island is called grey birch,, the other is a much handsomer tree, and of quicker growth, has a glossy smooth white bark, which divides into lamina as thin as cambric paper, and answers well to write on : in ihe forest this tree grows to a large size, the Indians forming canoes of the bark of a single tree, which will carry five, or six people, the bark is also used for making, various useful articles, such as buckets, bov/ls,. and baskets, they are chiefly made by the Indians, and are sewed when cut to the shape intended, with small slips of the roots of black spruce trees, they are made to hold water, are light, and will last a long time : it is per- 38 haps the only bark which is less liable to decay tilMi the ,.ood which it incloses, when the trees fall ir. the woods, the bark will remaio entire many years after the tree is completely Totten ; it is very inflammable, emitting a strong vmd iiame, and a very thick black smoke, which might be easily condensed and collected « the form of oil. Many fine white birch trees grow in the old P,e„ch cleared lands .n snch situations, it is often a very ornamental tree, growing to a considerable size, and havin.. =« large spreading top with bright green leaves." 2d. Black Birch (heiula nigra.) This is the largest of our deciduous trees, it is common all over the Island, where the original growth of t,mber has not been destroyed by fire; it is much used in all the northern countries i„ America for ship building, it is nearly of the colour of lightmahogany, and takes as good ''Pohsh: it makes handsome bedsteads and Chairs, but does not answer so well for tables being apt to cast in that article. Theexporta^ «. tion of this timber, has long been common from all the neighbouring countries, and a few cargoes have recently been exported from this Island, it is chiefly sent to Liverpool, and other ports in the north of England, and also to Scotland and Ireland, where it is much approved of, several attempts have lately been made to introduce if into the London market, but the timber merchants appear to be against it, and they Ivive too much the command of the trade, to render it practicable to introduce a new article without their concurrence.* • A gentleman who Jately imported a cargo of timber from tlie Island, consisting chiefly of this article, being informed that it was very lit for stocking fire arms, had a few musicts and fowling pieces stocked with it, by an eminent tradesman in that line in the City, who making a fhvourable report of the timber, it was offered to Government, and these articles weie sent to the Horse Guards, for the inspection of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, who was pleased to refer the matter to the Board of Ordnance, who sent tliera to the Tower; here the butmess turned out vecy different from what was expected, none of the customary means to secure a favourable reception had been resorted to, and a report was made against the justice of which, thousands can bear testimony, the timber being represented as inferior to common beech, and too soft to hold the sgrcwR 5 at this time walnuf v\ ii-w,^)t>> ^ T'Hfflw^.sapT^- 40 3d. YelW Birch rAe/«& fe«„.; t1„.^ ^^,^^ grows to a large tree, and i, also used in ship b".ld.ng. It i, strong and elastic, which .a J "much -ed for n,any domestic articles; lands on wh,ch the original timber has been destroyed by fire, frequently g.ow up with ye. ow|,irch, these tracts afford a, rea'td:;; of th,st™ber, of a si« fit for making hoops, for wh,ch it is very proper, .berever it grows m th.s manner, it indicates a better soil than when the young growth consists of white birch • yellow birch trees, growing single on old Cleared lands are frequently very fine orna. mental timber. 4th. Alder Cietula alnus.) This seldom grows into a tree of any value : Us bark »-e wood. .,,ch i3 co™„,o„]y „.ed fo. th« purpose, was not to h, . . ^ nearly equal thereto codd have been sun!,'. '-Ieo.ortHat..e.e.w..e..eJ^:tar:r"^-'"''^^^ the Horse Gnard.. regained there thev ^"-^'"S P"- sent to officer,. a„, ,,e stock, Je . "'"^ "" "''""*' "^"*^-<^ Winced. .h,the Jl .^""'"^^'"'^ ''" ^"''-^ ^ - -, he bcgon hi, apphcation at the wrong end. his often in ship h makes irticles ; as been ip with at deal hoops, grows il than birch ; I old orna. bad at evedto (J the ent to eoce4 COM'' 41 s cut in the tree with a common feUing axe th,s is from an inch and an half to three inched deep, and from six to eight inches long, slantin.. >n the form of the letter V, and should face the south west; the sap will run freely from this gap, from the lower end of which it » guided into a trough placed belovv, by a chip driven into a slight cut just under the gap; a full grown tree will sometimes run up- ward, of two gallons a day; the person, em- ployed m the bu,ines, visit the trees frequently ^. 419 to see that the sap runs fairly into the troughs^ and to collect it into barrels, which arc placed conveniently for that purpose, in them it is drawn on hand sledges to the boiling place, or as it is called the sugar camp: the apparatus for boiling generally consists of three kettles, the largest double the size of the second, and that rather more than in the same proportion to the third, these are suspended over a large fire made in a temporary hut in the forest; the sap is first boiled in the large kettle, and re- moved into the others in succession, as it is reduced by boiling to the quantity each can contain ; when removed into the second kettle the first is again filled with fresh sap, and boiling is continued in all the kettles which are filled up from each other; the liquor requires to be frequently skimmed ; to prevent its rising suddenly over the kettle, a small bit of tallow or butter is occasionally thrown in: when the syrup in the smaller kettle appears of a proper consistency, it is poured into wooden moulds, the kettle is again filled up from the u second, vhich is replenished from the larger, , and that is filial witJi fresh sap; a small quan- tity of lime water is sometimes put into the smaller kettle to promote its granulation. In every stage of the work much attention is re- quired to make good sugar : before boii.ng the sap should be strained to clear it of chips and other adventitious substances. The sugar thus produced is by some rendered as white as the finest Muscovado sugar, but that is by no means generally the case, much of it being made in a very slovenly manner, is very dark co- loured, extremely hard from too much boilin«r difficult to break, and takes a Jong time to dis- solve the manufacture upon the whole is in a very imperfect state in this Island, though it is certainly improving. When well made this sugar is an agreeable sweet, and answers all the purposes of common sugar; very good vinegar is also made by boiling three gallons of sap into one, and then fermenting it with veast. 45 The sugar thus obtained from the maple is all clear gain, being made at a time when very little other out of door work can be performed. Three smart lads working tc^^cih^r, will often make one hundred weight -ach in i;»e course of a fortnight, and sometimes :u ;i fa- )rable year more. The trees are found m more or less plenty all over the Island, where the original growth of forest remains ; the greatest part of the inhabitants supply themselves with all the sugar they consume in this manner, and many have a good deal to dispose of. The maple tree adds much to the beauty of our forest scenery in the Autumn, as the leaves of a tingle tree will assume every tint from green to rich crimson and bright scarlet colour. Elm (ulnus americana) of this tree, I think Ave have only one species, and that not very common, nor in great plenty, in any part of the Island. \.l 46 orB^nl""' ''''"' "^'y' (l«'rcu, rubra) ce. on the neighbouring Continent, I L Pect fro. the difeent appearance of it : omedutnctsfron, other, that .e have .ore than o„e variety of this specie,, the value of Poplar or Aspen (poputu, trmula.) Uis t-e.s,„ some districts of the Island i„g„at P-y, it is not an indication of good's^ the wood when green, is soft and white, it is »uch used for fencing, for .hieh, when spii "to -is, u is .ore valuable than any otL wood produced i„ t,, ,,,„,, ^^^^^ -redurabk;w.,eudry,itisextren,'yha,d and hght, ,.d is very fit for so„,e kinds of turner's work. Swamf Willow (sali..) This is a ve.y use. * rubra) le Island, J is said ame spe- » I sus- of it in ve more ^alue of lite oak Tliis 1 great cl soil, £} it is 1 split other much hard is of use* m less tree, never grows to any size, nor are its twigs of any value, being very brittle, it is the first tree that blossoms in the spring, and its white flowers are to be seen, when all the other trees retain their winter appearance. Ash of two species. 1st. White Ash, or (fraxinus excelsior.) This is a valuable tree, but in no great quantity on the Island, it grows only in good land, is strait and tall, and sometimes found of a large diameter. 2d. Black Ash, or (fraxinus Americana.) Tills is a wood of very little value, the cL>ief use to which it is put at present, is the makiwg of baskets and brooms. Pine, of this we have several species. 1st. The White Pine (pinus strobus) which in point of size, greatly exceeds all the other productions of the forest, being fouad three, four, and five feet diameter, and of a great height, I have seen one made into ft 48 mi„ma.t for a 64 gun ship, without any ad- ditions; but the number of large sticks fit for the navy, i„ any one district, is not so great «» to make them an object worth the attention of government: the quantity of pi„e up„„ the Island is not abundant, it is no where to be found in large groves unmixed »-ith other trees as IS frequently ihe case on the Continent. ' 2d. Yellow Pine 0>/»« ;»«.«; i, harder and heavier than the white pine, but never grows to the same size: the quantity of this wood on the Island is not great, and is chieflv confined to two or three districts of smaU extent. Sd. Pitch Pine (pinus tmda.) Of this we have very httle. and of very inferior value, no attempts to extract tar from it have ever been made, that I am acquainted with, its knots and roots being full of terebinthin oil, afford a fine light when burning, and are sometimes used instead of candles. 49 4th. Larch Cpinm larix.) This is the only tree of the terebinthine kind which sheds its leaves in autumn, its turpentine is said to have powerful medicinal qualities: I have seen it have very good effects in colds arid coughs. The timber is valuable on account of its dura- bility, making the best knees for ship buildfog, and the best trunnels of any wood which grows in this climate. 5th. Fir (pinus baisamia.) This tree yields a fine balsam, contained in small blisters ttn the outside of the bark, (commonly ktloWn by the name of Canada balsam) it is uM both internally ^nd externally. The timber of this tree is coarse and brittle, and is seldom used whete pine cah' be obtained, ^hcre* the grain of a fir tree does not twist- ^o much as to prevent its being split, it mak^s good rails for fencing, for which it is much used, and also for lath wood. Sth. Spruce (pinus canadcmis.) Of this we £ 50 have three varieties, 1st. the black spruce, which often grows into a large tree, fit for masts and spars : of the tops of this tree, the spruce beer, now so well known in England, is made. 2d. White Spruce, this is a wood of very little value, but being light, is sometimes used for spars and rafters, where that quality re- commends it. 3d. Red Spruce, this wood is not oo valuable as black spruce, but much superior to white spruce, it sometimes grows on old cleared lands which have been long out of cultivation, in which situation, it forms very ornamental groves, its figure being regu- larly conical, and feathered to the ground. 7th, Hemlock (pinus abiesj. This tree in size is next to the white pine, to which, how- ever, it is much inferior ; its chief value is for making wharfs or buildings in the water, w which situation it is more durable than "ny other timber of this climate; the bark is excel- „ lent for tanning leather, and the tops yield a medicine, which has been found very powerful .54 in scorhutic complaints ; some make a decoction of them, boiling them in the same wanner as the tops of the black spruce, for making spruce beer, others bruise them and pour cold spring water upon them, which is allowed to stand twelve hours, and then poured off, when it will be found thick and ropy : I have seen this taken thres times a day with great effect ; a jill before breakfast, the same quantity an hour before dinner, and the like going to bed ; it agrees well with the stomach and gives a power* ful appetite. Wild Cherry (prunus virginiana,) Of this we have several varieties, which have not yet been properly distinguished, but none of them are of any value, the only use ever made of them is to put them to spirits, for which they are said to answer as well as the best cherries, making good cherry rum and cherry brandy, the trees grow in great num- bers in land newly cleared, unless kept down by its being cultivated, and are particularly £ 2 52 fond of situations where the original timber has been destroyed by fire, they are of very » 1* J ; t . * The Black Curtant (riies nigtuih) is very common in low rich moist land, and in its native state, is very harsh and ' disagreeable; whether it is susceptible of improvemeiit by cultivation, I am not informed, no trials that I am acquainted' with, havitig ever been made to cultivate them. ' .'?'■) Wild Goos'el)en*y (ribes grossularia) is klsO very common 'in the borders of the forest, and is often found in the old French cleared lands, they improve very much by cultivation, though they are far from disagreikbleih ttwr liative state, and cbmin'g i^arly, we have thein ' " ■' ' ' ^ tUtH 'iUi r- ii'V 5i for baking, for which they are very good, before any other fruit. The Whortle Berry, or Blue Berry ('vac- cinium eorymbosum) grows in great abundance in many districts, and is very good, a gallon of spirits resembling gin in flavour, has been distilled from a bushel of them, in some dis- tricts they are in such plenty, as to furnish the swine with their chief food for several weeks. The Cranberry (mccinium qjn^coccos) grows on a small low creeping vine close to the ground, in the edge of marshes adjoining 'the upland, and in low, wet, poor, sandy land ; the berries hang on very slender stalks, at first they arc white but turn red as they ripen, and when full grown, are nearly the size of a common cherry, they remain without injury on the vines a|l winter, though they lose somewhat of their acid ; They are much sought for cxportaUon, as they 55 keep a long time ; as a sauce for the table they are generally preferred to any other acid fruit. There is another species of cranberry not so large, nor so pleasant a fruit, but growing in clusters on a very pretty looking shrub, it is very ornamental, the fruit remaining on long after the leaves are fallen, in large bunches of a bright scarlet colour. The Raspberry (rubut idaus) is found in tlicf greatest plenty, M^herever the forest is destroyed by fire, or the timber cut down, and the land left uncultivated, the first thing it produces is the raspberry, which soon covers the whole surface of such places, the fruit is equal to any I ever saw in England, though growino- wild, I never saw the white species produced but in one spot of small extent, at first I was inclined to think they had been imported, but upon enquiry, I was convinced they were like the red, the indigenous production of the soil, though they ai.^reired to be as fine flavoured, and large as any I ever saw. 56 The running Brambleberry (rubus moluc- emus) are sometimes fn,ir ' ' cold moist' sftnations, but are not very common, nor any where in great plenty. The Strawberry (fragana vtica) is very common in lands that have been long cleared, without being cultivated, and are also found in open spots in the fore' t, they are all of the scarlet kind, and though small, are well flavoured, and in some situations, grow large and in great plenty ; it has been remarked,^ that wherever the strawberry grows before the soil is cultivated, it after vards throws up white clover gre.;. abunc.ance. ThcHaJeNuc {cort/lus a. cflana.) is com. mon in many parts of the Island The Baybeiry (mj/rica er a) is a small shrub, seldom lising above two feet and a haT, it yields a strong aromatic perfume, and froni the fruit which clings together in little green 57 clusters, a fine green wax is extracted by boil' ing which makes excellent candles. The Ginseng (panax trifolinum) is found in great plenty in the forest, wh^'re the timber IS large, and the soil good, no attempt that I know of, has ever been made to ascerlaia its value. D -arf Flder ( mon in nch deep soil. ) is very com- The Maic Hair (adianthus pedatuus) is very common m the woods among evergreens. The Sarsaparilla (af-alia) is found in great abundance, and from the warm nature of the soil is said to be much better than any to be found on the Continent, within five degrees of the same latitude. Pigeon Berries ( ) grow in ttle clusters on a sn.all plant, are of a i-tj 58 bright «carl t. and in some districts are in great plenty, they have a mawkish sweet taste, and fatten common fowls very fast. The Night Shade (s^lanum nigrum) is much too common, and has the same poisonous ef- fccts here as in England. Besides tliese, there are several kinds of wild fruit. n,any slirubs, and a variety of plants that are not distinguished by any but trifling names, some of which, arc mucli better known to the Indians, who frequently cure their disorders by means of herbs, without the assistance of any medical person. 59 NATIVE ANIMALS, BIRDS, FISHES, REPTILES AND INSECTS. WE have no animals on this Island but what are met with on the neighbouring continent, and never having been accurately examined or properly classed, neither a perfect catalogue nor a complete description of such as we are enabled to notice can be given ; some of the names, I imagine, are adopted from the resemblance of the animal to those of a different climate, and are sometimes so erroneously applied, that it is to be apprehended they may often mislead. The following catalogue, arranged in the order of Linnaeus, is intended to give an idea of this branch of our natural history. Seal (phoca vitulina). This animal .s very 60 common, and is to be seen in all our rivers and harbours; it is hardly possible to cross either without seeing them ; upon the setting in of the winter, when by the general freezing of the creeks and rivers, tliey are obliged to quit them, they assemble in great numbers on par- ticular parts of the coast, where they know by experience that the surface will continue long open; they often quit the water at this period, and lay in great nunibers carelessly sleeping on the ice : from this habit a curious circumstance happened a few years ago : on the setting in of the winter 1797, a great number of seals had assembled in a part of Hiilsburgh Bay, where the strength and rapidity of the tide had pre- vented the surface from freezing, though all the rest of the bay, the harbours and creeks which run into it were completely frozen, and as «^ial great number of them were laying on the ^ce, wlxen the severity of the frost increased so rapidly, that the whole of this opening, on which they depended for a communication with tir -ea. was frozen up so strongly in a few hours^ 61 tliatwhen they observed their situation they could not penetrate the ice, and as there was no open water in sight of them, instead of going seawawl on the ice, they took to the land, and attempted to cross the Island to get into the gulph at the north side thereof, but this was an exertion for Avhicli tliey were totally unquahfied, and few of them got above two miles into the woods before they were completely exhausted, in this state they were discovered by some of the neighbouring settlers, and several hundred of them killed, proving a valuable booty, as many of them were vfry large. ■ .-v. . Besides the seals v/hich constantly frequent the waters of the Island, there is a larger kind brought on the coast annually in the month of April by the floating ice from the northward, which are often in great numbers, and the taking them is constantly attended to, and is frequently very productive to those who follow the business, the oil is generally carried to Halifax or Quebec, where it sells from twenty-five to as thirty-twa pounds per ton ; the method of taking the seals is by following the ice with schooners, tlie success depends on the quantity of northern ice that may be brought by the wind on the coast; sometimes vast quantities come, other years Uttle or none, wlien the fishermen meet with the ice they either fasten their vessels to it, or if from appearance they judge that to be unsafe, leaving part of their crew on board to manage the vessel, the rest go upon the ice, where they find the seals asleep, frequently many hundreds together, and being an unwieldy heavy animal, which can only move very slowly out of the water, they are easily killed, a great many are shot, some are speared, others are killed by the stroke of a heavy stick on their ijoses, in these ways they frequently in two or three days get as many seals as their vessels will carry ; sometimes the number taken is very trifling, either from there being little ice on the coast, or the weather being so bad as not to permit the vessels going among the ice ; it is a precarious business, and 6d attended with a considetable risk of the livei employed in it. Red Fox (cams dlopex). We have also the grey and the black fox ; the numbpr of foxes taken on the Island is very considerable ; some years ago before bear skins were so much used in England they bore a much higher price, and were more in demand than at present ; foxes do no farther injury than killing a few fowls, they never attack sheep ; they are commonly taken in steel traps, sometimes they are in- veigled to a particular spot in the night by a bait placed for them, here a person is con- cealed with a gun, at such a distance as to make sure of them ; in this way five or six have been killed by one person in the course of a few hours. Wild Cat (feliv lynx) called by the French Loup Cerrier, this is a large animal standing about two feet and a half higii, the head and body of a full grown one, will be about three m hjl w . ^ \ I '*(I "I ■j" ' t I I ( t'r .6^ feet in length, the head is the only part of it that resembles a cat, the tail is only about an inch and a half in length; the colour a light grey, the feet are very large, spreading much to enable it to run on the snow, it is armed with strong claws and looks more formidable than it really is; it lives upon hares and par- tridges which it takes by surprize; they are some- times seen crossing the rivers on the ice in winter ; when punned in that situation by dogs it sits down quietly, until the dogs come up, when it seejns much surprised at their hostility, and in return generally knocks the first dog down with a stroke of its fore paw and then runs off, if it has above half a mile to run before it reaches the woods, the dogs will ge- nerally come up with it, when it is easily Jellied even by a single dog, if it escapes the dogs until it gets into the woods, it immediately runs up a tree, when it is a certain mark with a gun, very few of them have been known to attack sheep or Iambs ; they are chiefly caught m the winter in snares and steel traps ; tlie skin is sold at from ten to fifteen shillings ; the flesh is as white as veal, and has been frequently eaten by epicures and much relished. Otter Cmustek h'Jra.) These have been very plenty in the Island, and are still caught in considerable numbers, some of the skins sell as high 35 six dollars. Martin (mustela.) This is a very shy little animal and is seldom seen in the woods, though some years in great abundance, it is taken In the winter by means of a small log-trap baited ; its fur has been out of fashion for mutfs and . tippets for some years, which has rendered k" less valuable than formerly. "^^^^tl (mustela martes.) This little animal is common, and often destructive among poultry,. Ermine (mustela ermhue.) This beautiful iittle animal is red like a fox in summer and 14; •f '■ •'} i 66 white in winter; it is distinguished fom^the common weasel by the tip of its tail which is always black ; it is not common but is some- times seen in making roads, when it is necessary to cut and remove many fallen trees, in the bodies of which it makes its nest. Bear (ursus arctos.) The Bear known here is the black species, though they arc distin- guished by their muzzles, some having them red, others white, the latter are said not to do any mischief, living upon berries, ants, small fish which they catch in the creeks, and a large insect, which they obtain by tearing the old wind-fallen trees to pieces ; the former are sometimes very destructive among the cattle, and will attack the largest ox or cow : the quantity of black cattle, sheep, and hogs, destroyed by them annually on the Island is very considerable, but like other evils which settlements in new countries ^'•c subject to, it will lessen rapidly, and in less than half a century, I have no doubt but the bears will be 67 entirely extirpated. When we coinpare the fiiischief done by them, to the ravages of the ^volf, in the new settlements on the Conti- nent, it is trifling indeed. The bear, unless surprised and closely attacked, almost always runs away from a man, and except it be the she bear with her young cubs, is very seldom dangerous; in upwards of twenty years re- sidence on the Island, I do not know a single instance of any persons losing their lives by a bear. Ground Mouse (sore^v murinus.) This is the lUtle animal whose ravages have been so much spoken of and exaggerated to almost every person who has ever heard any thing of the Island, being often represented by those ^hb are disposed from interest or otherwise, to de- preciate the value of it, as attacking us pe- riodically; and destroying every kind of ve- getable production, than which nothing can be more groundless, or unfounded. In thirty years I have been acquainted with the Island F 12 Kii 'Am '"■ ».l ?8 and upwards of twenty years actual residence there, I have never known mice do any injury to the crops, two or three years only excepted and then partially, and by no means general through the Island. Yet I am sensible it is often mentioned in Nova Scotia, as what frequently happens, although it might be ex» pected, that the quantity of grain which we send them annually, ought long ago to have induced them to desist from a representation, so palpably erroneous and unjust. The same species of mice are frequently to be met with on the adjacent parts of the Continent, where they occasionally do con- siderable mischief, in those particular districts which happen to be in the neighbourhood of tracts of beech-wood forest. Though the mice may sometimes partially injure the crops, yet there are many years successively in which none are to be seen on the Island, and no person who is well acquainted with it, is under any serious apprehension of injury from them 69 and as the beach-wood forests are dimi- nished, so will the number of the mice de* crease. It being well kno^n their increase is owing to the great crops of beech mast, pro- duced occasionally in certain districts, as a proofof which it is observable, that in those parts that are remote from any quantity of that wood, no injury to the crops has ever been known to happen. Hare (lepus timidus.) Hares are in great plenty all over the Island, they are chiefly taken in winter, by means of long fences or hedges made of brush wood, cut down and piled so closely, that they cannot easily get through, and in every fifteen or twenty yards of this fence a small opening is left, in which » snare is placed. The Musquash (castor zibethkus) Guilds a cabin of mud and sticks in fresh water ponds' he is not very shy, being frequently seen swimming about the ponds. U\'t ■wm 70 The Mink ( j is an amphiboq* animal, and burrows in the earth by the side pf rivers. Its fuf is more valuable than the musquash, it is a mischievous little animal, making its way into out-houses, and destroying poultry and cggf. Of squirrels, we have three species. The red squirrels (sciuru% Jlavus.) The striped squirrel (sciurus strUtus.) Theilying squirrel (sciurui 'loir^m) this is a beautiful lively little animal, it:, fur is extremely delicate and fine, but it is nt . jo common as the two first species, squirrels increase vastly in number like the mice, after an abundant crop of beech mast, particularly the striped squirrel. The only mamillary biped which we have is the Bat (vespertillie murims) they are to be seen in great plenty on summer evenings in the neighbourhood of houses and at the edge of the woods. 71 *rhe following catalogue of birds, though tiot complete, is the fullest I believe that has yet been collected, I'i,'- Bald Eagle Brown Eagle Large brown Hawk Hen Hawk Pigeon Hawk White Owl Speckled Owl Barn Owl Bird Hawk Crow Blue Jay Crow Black Bird Falco kucocephalus. Falco fulvus, not often seen. Falco hudsonius, Falco sparverius. Falco columbarius. Strix myctea^ Strix aluco. Strix pasaerina. Lanius canadensis* Corvus corax Cforvus cristatus. Gracula quiscula. Great red crested Wood Picus piUatus Picut erythrocephalus Pecker Red-headed Wood Pecker White-back Wood Pecker Pkus auratus Speckled Wood Pecker Pirns macutosus King's Fisher Alcedo altyon. •h. t M hmm 4l i-'i^ m t hm pi |,aM m hm \m pHJ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■ii 1^ l£ 1.8 1^ 1 4.0 Ii25 i 1.4 H. 1.6 — 150mm V

^; y Z /APPLIED A IIV14GE . Inc ^^ 1653 East Main street jsy ^ Rochester, NY 14609 USA .a^z -^ Phone: 716/482-0300 .=r.ss= Fax: 716/286-5989 1993, Applied Image. Inc., All Rights Reserved ^^^ >^^^ V^^ '^ P$-U^ Humming Bird White-head Coot Black Durk Brant Goose Wild or Black Goose 72 Trochilus lolubrls. ylms spectabili3 Anas nigra yluas bernicla. Anas canadensis. The last is the largest bird of the goose kind, it is a bird of passage, and gregarious by the mixture of this with the common goose a mon- grel is produced, which is a much finer bird on the table than either of the parents, but will not breed again. Vast flocks of geese arrive from the southward towards the end of March and be- ginning of April, they stay but a few weeks, passing on to the northward as the season ad- vances ; a few of them, however, breed in un- frequented places on the Island, and are some- times caught, both old and young, in the month ofJuly, when neither can fly, they sometimes chuse to lay their eggs in the old deserted nest of the bald eagle, on the top of a dead Pine tree, eighty or ninety feet from the ground, to which they bring their young when hatched ; when 73 they build on the ground, if they find their nest has been discovered and their eggs handled, they will immediately remove them one by one, flying, with the egg grasped between their bill and neck. The geese begin to return from the northward about the 1st of September. In October and November they are in great numbers in all the harbours, creeks and rivers on the Island ; when they return they are at first very poor, but in a few weeks become very fat and fine by feeding on the roots of the salt grass, which every where grows along the shores, and which they dig up out of the sand and mud ; they are never strong nor fishy like the European Wild Goose. The Brant is a still finer bird, and are also in great numbers, they do not leave us so soon in the beginning of the Summer as the geese, staying generally till about the tenth of June, when they collect in prodigious large flocks, and go all away in two days, the noise they make for some days before they go off, 74 when the flocks are collecting, may be heard for many miles; they return about the same lime the geese do, and stay till about the end of November, when they go off to the south- ward, but not with the formality they observe in their migration northward, they never breed on the Island, nor any where round thcGulph, but are known to breed in great numbers on the lakes on the Coast of Labradore, and on Sagany River, which runsjnto the River St. Laurence. Sea Duck Dipper Widgeon Sea Pigeon Blue-winged Teal Grey Duck Red-bellied Sheldrake Pyed Sheldrake Penguin Shag Gannet Loon Anas moUisiima^ Anas albeola Anas penelope. Anas histriomca» Anas discort. Anas sponsa, Mergus serrator* Mergus castor. Alea impennis. FeUcanus graculus. Pelecanus eassanus. Colymhus immer. 75 White Gull Larus canuL Grey Gull Laritsfu^cut. Mackerel GuH Larus ridibundus. Tee- Ait, or fishing Gull Sierna minuta. Crane Ardea canadensis. Wood Snipe Scolopax ftdoa, Grty Curlew Scolopa:» tetanus. Luge-speckled Cu'lew Scolopax lapponica. Beach Bird Black-bre£L3ted Plover Kildee Pyed Plover Partridge Tringa arenaria. Charadrius hiatkula* Charadrius ^ocifcrus. Charadrius apricarius, Tetrao marilandicus. The partridge is very common in our woods, and like the mice and squirrels, become very plentiful, the year after a great crop of beech mast; they are considerably larger than the English partridge; the flesh la as white as that of a pheasant, which it resembles more on the table than a partridge, when disturbed the whole covey fly upon the nearest tree, where they often sit quietly till they are all successively m 7(J ihot ; in the months of April and May th6y are easily found in the woods, from the mult bird making a loud noise, by beatinjg with his wings on an old log, which is heard at a great distance. It has been found necessary to pro* hibit the kiUing of partridges between the first ofApril and the first of September, by an act of the legislature; any person convicted before a magistrate of trespassing against this law, forfeits the sum of ten shillings for every par^' tridge so killed, one half to the informer or prosecutor, the other half to the treasury of the Island: with this exception, every person IS allowed to shoot when and where they please, which with the liberty claimed of fishing in ponds and rivers, measured into the different townships, and for which the proprietors pay quit renr to the crown, is complained of as a hardship: restraining people in both cases to lands owned and occupied by themsehes, or to those totally unsettled and neglected would certainly be more equitable. 77 Wild Pigeon {columbn migratoria.) Wild Pigeons come in the spring from the southward in great plenty, and breed in the woods during the summer months : some years they are in much greater number than others, when the com is cut and in shocks, they come out of the woods in greater numbers than could be wished, and are particularly troublesome in fields near the wi'ods. I'M tit'. p\ b: It' Hi! Robin {turdus migratorius). This bird cornea from the southward in April, they are in great numbers, and are about the 8i2e of an English black -bird ; they stay till November. Snow Bird (jsmheriza hyemalis). The snow bird is about the size of a sparrow, .has a beau- tifully variegated plumage; they are to be seen about the houses aod barn yards in winter, ia small flocks; they are very delicate, and said to be equal in flavour to the European ortalon. Boblincoln Yellow Bird Winter Sparrow Spring Bird Cat Bird Yellow Crown Blue Bird Common Wren Blue Titmouse Tomteet Bank Swallow Whip Poor Will Night Hawk 78 Emberiza oryzivors. Fringilla tristU. Fringilla gris€a Ftingilla. Muscicapa carolinenm. Musckapaflava, Motacilla sialis. Motacilla Irochillus, Parus americanus. Parus virginianus. Hirundo riparia. Caprimulgus europans. Caprimulgus amerieanui There are many other birds whose name. I am not sufficiently acquainted with to enable me to include them in this catalogue. Toad Pond Froff Green Frog Bull Froff Crown Lizard REPTILES. Rana hufo, Rana occellata. Rana arboria. Rana Boons. Lacirta punctata. 79 Brown Snake Green Snake Striped Snake SERPENTS. Coluber sipedon^ Coluber saurita, Anguis eryx. None of these Snakes are dangerous, or their bite in the least poisonous. That there is no dangerous reptile in the Island, must be con- sidered as a very pleasant circumstance, as people can traverse the forest every where, and sleep there without being under any apprehen-. sion of injury, AMPHIBIOUS FISHES. Dog Fish Squalus catulus. Shark Squalus carefuirius. Sturgeon Acipenser sturio. Sharks are not often seen, however, they are to be met with on the Coast of the Island, but have veiy seldom been known to come into the harbours. Sturgeons axe very com- V ' I 80 nion in the summer montlis in all the harbours, the Indians are the only people who catch them, some of them are six and seven feet in Jength. FISHES. Eel (murana anguilla). Eels are in great plenty here, and in no other country finer, they go into the mud in the winter, many feet under the surface ; they are found in greatest plenty in the harbours on the north side of the Island, where they bed in the muddy flats, they are also knoWn to get under the salt marshes in some places, and are particularly fond of situations where there are springs of fresh water issuing out of the earth, they are taken in vinter by cutting holes in the ice, and driving a spear into tht mud, these spears have five prongs, the extremities of which are all turned up inwards, ending in a sharp point, when they happen to strike an eel in the mud, it is held between the prongs which being elastic, open by the pressure, and when pulled up, the sharp turned-up prongs prevent the eels escaping •1 till they are shook off the spear upon the ice, it is very laborious work taking them, but they are well worth the trouble, being ex- tremely rich and fine, a barrel of eels is reckoned of as much value to a labouring family as one of salted meat, they are also taken on the flats in summer nights by torch light; the calm nights which so frequently happen in the months of June and July afford many opportunities for this kind of fishing, which is not an unpleasant amusement, various other fish such as skate, flounders, trout, tom- . cod, bass, and plenty of lobsters are taken at tlie same time, the whole is done by spearing, except the lobsters, which are taken by put- ting a cleft pole over their backs, and pressing it down, until it takes sufficient hold of them, when they are lifted into the boat, by this means the shell is not in the least injured. The fish seem infatuated by the light, and^keep swimming round the boat ; the torches used, are made of the white birch bark tycd up in a small bundle, this easily takes fire, burns G 82 with great brilliancy, and lasts a considerable time, the only apparatus is a cleft 9tick of seven or eight feet in length, which is stuck up in the bow of the boat or canoe, in the top or cleft the torches are stuck, and when nearly burned out, are replaced by a fresh one. The Indians are the most expert hands at this fishery, and their light bark canoes, which they manage with wonderful dexterity, give them a great , advantage over a person in a common canoe or skiff. Haddock Cod Gadus ccglesinus. Gadus morhua. Cod are perhaps no where m greater plenty than on the coast of the Island, all the principal fishing ground in the Gulph of St. Laurence, is in sight of our shores, the Afnericans at present, reap the greatest advantage of the cod fishery Iierc. Tom- Cod or Frost Fish (Gadus luscus.) 89 r This fish is in great abundance in all our harbours, in flavour it much resembles the whiting of the British seas, they come into the creelcs and rivulets to spawn in vast num- bers in the month of December, wlien they are easily taken. Hake Sculpion Flounder Halibut Gadus molva Coitus quadricornis. Pleuronectesjleisus* Pleuronectes Hippoglossm, This is a very large fish, and though often eat is very coarse, the fins only are very palatable, they are sometimes got of 300lb. weight. White Perch Perca lucioperca. Sea Perch Perca undulata, ^^^8 Perca ocelata. Perch are very fine here, and are found ia all our rivers and ponds that have a com- munication with the sea. Bass are in great numbers in all our harbours, they are frequently o 2 84 got at the narrow entrance of the north -side harbours on moon-light nights, with a liook and line ; the line and hook baited with the tail of a lobster is coiled up and thrown into deep water, and drawn on shore quickly, in this way many arc taken, they are also speared on the fiats in the bays and harbours of the south side, where they are in great plenty. Chub H Perca philadelphka. Bream Perca chrysoptera Mackerel Scomber scomber. Mackerel are in great plenty on this coast, and come into all our harbours, in which they are caught from July to November. Salmon (salmo salar.) Though salmon are found in ail our rivers, they are not in such abundance, as in the great fresh-water rivers in our neighbourhood on the Continent, in some of which, are perhaps the greatest sal- mon fisheries in the world, on the north side «f the Island, in all the harbours they may be u seen leaping out of the water frequently in the months of June and July, particularly at St. Peter's Bay, where, aud in the Rive*" Morell, which runs into it a great many arc taken : they do not come into the Hills- burgh River, and the other rivers on the south side of the Island, until the latter end of September, and the beginning of October, when they are on the point of spawning, and are not good. The old French people on the Island say, that salmon were formerly in much greater plenty than they have been for many years past, as a proof of which, they relate that two brigs of considerable burthen, used to load annually with salmon, caught in the harbour of St. Peters, for Rochelle in France. Trout (salmo fario) are found in all our rivers, harbours, and ponds, and having access to the sea, are extremely fine, and often very large. Trout fishing in the bays on the north side in the latter end of May and beginning of June, affordr fine amusement to such as are 86 fond of it, the method is to anchor a boat near the edge of the channel, where there is a con- siderable ripple occasioned by the tide, here an angler is not incommoded with any thing, and he has room to display his skill to the utmost, and is sure of abundant sport. In July the trout go into the fresh water, and in some places are taken in great numbers. Smelt (salmo epcrianus.) Smelts are in great abundance, they are finest in winter, and are easily taken by cutting a hole in the ice, on the salt water close to the shore, where the water is not more than eighteen inches deep, they bite readily at a little bit of white meat. In April they go into the fresh- water brooks and springs, in such numbers that they may be taken up by a scoop nett in bushels, they are much larger, and finer flavoured than any I ever saw in Engiand* Herring (clupea harengus.) This fish fre- quents the coasts, bays, and harbours of this »7 Island, in immense shoals ; in the latter end of April and beginning of May, they may literally be said to fill them, particularly the north-side harbours, and the harbour of George Town ; there is no difficulty in taking them in any quantity in which they can pos- sibly be wanted. Alewife or Gasperaux (clupea serrata,) This species, though not so plentiful as the common herring, are found in great numbers in many parts of the Island, they go into the fresh water to spawn. In the beginning of June, great shoals of them go up the Hills - burgh River, towards the head of which a good many are taken annually. • Skate Thornback Raid hatis. Rata ciavata. There are many other fishes not known to me by such names, as will enable me to arrange mem. 88 Crabs, Lobsters, and Shrimps.- (Cancer), Lobsters are in the greatest plenty in all our harbours and on the coast, they are seldom sold for more than sixpence a dozen, and are often very ne. The crabs are of no value. Shrimps are found on all the flats in our har- bours in summer and are large and fine. VERMES. Sea Clam Squid Hog Clam Razor Shell Fish Long Shell Clam Hohthuriaphantapkus. Sepia media. My a arenaria, Solen etisis, Soliti radiatit. Oyster (ostrea). Oysters are in great plenty in all the^ harbours on the Island, in some places beds of them of several acres extent may be found, most of the lime hitherto used in the Island has been burnt from their shells, and it is commonly the practice to burn the live oysters for that purpose, putting many hundred barrels of them in a kiln toffecner. - o 89 They are preferred to any other American oysters by all Europeans who have eaten thein. Muscle (mytilits edulis). Large beds of muscles are found in most of our harbours, which are never used for any other purpose thaa making lime of their shells. Horned Beetle Lady Fly Fire Fly INSECTS. Scarabcsus simson Coccinella^ several spe* cies. Lampyris lucida. Grasshopper (grillus). Several species which are often injurious to our grass lands and pas- tures in dry summers. Bug Butter Fly Dragon Fly Adder Fir Wasp Hornet Cinex. several species. Papilio numerous species ^Lihellulaf several species } VespOf several species. 90 Bumble Bee Wild Bee Ant Black Fly Brown Fly Horse Fly Mosquito } (Apis) several species (Formica) many species > Numerous species (Tabanusj6e\txBX species (^ulex Pipiens) Mosquitos and the small black or Sand Fly are very troublesome in summer, but they decrease much as the country is cleared ; they are worst in the neighbourhood of salt marshes or wet ground ; in open clear lands that face the south west they are not much felt, except in calm moist weather. Upon looking over this account of our na- tive animals, I found that the sea-cow, formerly so plenty, had escaped my attention, as many people think they will again become so, and as tliey still exist, though greatly reduced in num- ber, it is hoped the following short account of them may be satisfactory. Sea-cow {trichccus viatuitiw). This large am- phibious animal was found in great numbers on the north coast of this Island thirty years ago, but they have now become very scarce, and are seldom seen on shore. From I770 to 1775, they were annually caught in considerable num- bers near the north point of the Island, at that time Governor Patterson assumed the right of granting the sea-cow fishery as it was called, (though the whole business was carried on on dry land^ by an annual licence, upon which a considerable fee was paid, and sometimes it was very profitable, as great numbers were then taken. These animals were accustomed to resort to one or two particular spots near the north cape, and several hundreds would sometimes go on shore at once ; they were left undisturbed un- til the wind blew oif the land, when the people got between them and the sea, and probed those that were next to them with sticks, whose points were brought nearly to the same degree pt b \ V'T m 9t of sharpness as the large tusks of these animals, this set them in motion towards the woods, and they probed on those that were beibrc them, and the whole flock, said sometimes to exceed three hundred, were soon in motion and pro- ceeded into the woods, where they were easily killed with long spears. It sometimes happened that without any apparent reason they would turn back towards the sea, before they had got so far from it as to render the attempt to begin the slaughter safe, and if still in sight of the sea, on their return they kept in a body to which nothing could be opposed with any effect; but when gota considerable way into the woods they appeared to loose their sagacity, and scattered in different directions, seeming at the same time insensible of danger, though the slaughter of their fellows was going on close to them. I have been informed that some of them would weigh four thousand pounds ; their oil is said to be the purest of all animal oil, and the French inhabitants of the island eat it very readily ; some parts of the skins are an inch aid 98 a half in thickness, and prodigiously strong and valuable for making many useful articles, which, if kept dry, are very durable, even without tan- ning or dressing of any kind : the large tusks fyroduce a species of Ivory closer grained than the common Ivory. These teeth are evidently given them by nature to enable them to dig the shell fish out of the bottom of the sea, on which they appear to live, no other substance being ever found in their stomachs. They are not found on any other part of the eastern coast of America, to the southward of Hudson's Bay, than in the Gulph of St. Laurence, all the southern part of which, is of a moderate depth of v/ater, seldom exceed- ing 2i fathoms, and the bottom generally san- dy, and producing vast quantities of shell fish. V 5 (■ 1 'm The coast both to the northward and south* ward of the gulph, for a great distance is every where rocky ground with deep water, which is supposed to be the reason that these animals, who require only a moderate depth of water, and a sandy bottom for producing shell fish, 94. are not found on this coast, but in the gulph ; beside* what were taken annually on this Island in the manner above mentioned, great numbers were taken on and about the Mag- dalen Islands in the summer months, where they resorted much at that season of the year with their young, of which they are so fond, that they will run any risk for their preservation ; and though they were supposed to have de- creased much, they were still found in con- siderable numbers, till after the American war, when 80 many New England fishermen poured into the gulph, and attacked them about the Magdalen Islands in summer, that in two or three years the species were nearly destroyed, few having been seen for several years after, however the breed still exists, and they are now known to be increasing fast, and if the killing them was but under proper regulations, they might again become so numerous as to be an object of great consequence, but this never can be the case while the New England fiishermen are allowed to come into the gulph and destroy thcrn. 9o CLIMATE AND SEASONS. 5> ' .' The climate of this Island partakes in an eminent degree of the well-known healthful- ness of the neighbouring countries of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada, to all of which it is in some respects superior, being in ti rely free froni the fogs by which the two first are so much infested, and unincumbered with lakes of fresh water which so often gene- rate sickly seasons in the latter, producing in- termittent and other fevers, happily unknown here, to which we may add that the cold is not by many degrees so great in winter ; for which our insular situation, and distance from any high land will naturally account ; it is a common expression with Canadians who occasionally visit the Island, when they see the houses of our 96 new settlers, " Jf we were not to use other pre- caution* against the winter, we should be all frozen in our beds :" Canadian houses must be all warmed by stoves, here stoves are by no means common, houses tolerably finished are as completely warmed by a common fire-place as in England, not that we can compare the tem- perature of the two climates as by any means Mmilar, but our fires have only a dry elastic cold to get the better of. English cold is a raw damp obstinate intruder. In Cuuada the severity of the winter otherwise healthyj often produces the pleuresy, which frequently carries off the young and healthy, here the complaint id almost unknown. The seasons here have been variously de- gcribed, often as has suited the humour or views of the relator, and accordingly falsehood has not been spared either in exaggeration or deprecia- tion : if we ]ia had sanguine individuals, who overlooking th^;- f ».t>va;..ages of a winter, of 97 above four months continuance, and all the dilficuitics incident to a new country in such a climate, have injuied themselves and deceived others, the Island has equally suffered from disappointed unprincipled adventurers, some of them speculators in land, others on the pub- lic offices of the colony, the one wild and eytravagant in their expectations, the others turbulent and flagitious in their schemes. The former disappointed bj their own folly, the latter by the good sense and spirit of the colony, have in revenge equally contributed, and often united their utmost endeavours to misrepresent and depreciate the Island, bcch in respect to its natural qualities, and the admini- stration of its public affairs: hence the various r'coirnts in circulation of the climate, soil, <• '• circumstances of the country, than M'hich, nothing can be more contradic- tory. The winter of this climate, is the season which has created the the greatest controversy H 98 among those who pretend to describe it, I shalt therefore begin with that season, and as far as my experience will enable me, en- deavour to give my readers a clear idea of its nature and duration. In the first place, I must state, that the changes of temperature in our winters, are much greater, and more rapid, than any thing of the kind ever ex- perienced in Great Britain, without however producing any ill effects, that I have ever ob- served, on the general health of the inhabitants. The commencement and duration of the winter varies much in one year from another, the Hillsburgh river opposite Charlotte Town, has been crossed on the ice, as early as the first week in December, and on other years has been open as late as the 20th of January, and on several years successively, as late as the 8th or 10th of that month, and in tlie spring w& have the same harbour, sometimes not clear of ice before the 20th of April, and on other years, open at the same time in March ; these are 99 varieties of such an extent as to furnish the means of deception either way, to those who are not very scrupulous, and accordingly accounts are to be met with, which state our winters to be of six months continu- ance, whfle others will allow us to have little more than three ; but, it is to be ob- served, that with respect to the temperature and character of this season, nothing can be concluded from the circumstance of its com^ mencing early, as experience teaches us, that a winter which is early in its commencement, is often mild throughout, and on the other hand, winters late of setting in, are commonly severe in proportion ; our hardest winters however, have a great deal of mild weather, even during that part of the season, when the most severe cold might be looked for. The following cir- cumstances, I think will be readily admitted by all who know the country, as pretty ac- curately describing our winter. The last half of November and the first half of December, — Q-jsii wiUvti wCaincj, someiiuics raming H 2 100 sometimes freezing, sometimes snowing with gales of wind, not often however so hard as is common in Europe at this season, but this period like the whole of our winters, varies much in one year from another ; sometimes a great part of it is real winter weather,, in other years, the whole is quite mild, the ther- mometer often rising higher than it ever does in England at this season, sometimes the first part of this period is a little winter, and the last mild autumnal weather; on other years, the weather continues uninterruptedly mild, till the middle of December, and then the winter sets in steadily at once ; from the mid- dle to the latter end of this month, we gene- rally have the winter set in in earnest, but in other years it is quite mild, till after tlic commencement of the new year ; for two years successively I have ploughed all the last week of December ; this, however, is the natural time to look for our winter, and in which it will be both beneficial and agree- able, , there cannot be a pleasanter contrast 101 in regard to winter weather, than between ou^ dry clear bracing cold, and the raw moist un- steady v/eather which sometimes precedes it, and which is so common for a great part o# the winter in many countries. I may here observe th^t from our latitude, we of course have the sun considerably longer above the horizon than inEngland at this season, which added to the general clear state of our at- mosphere gives us at least two hours more day light than in any part of Great Britain at this period of the year. ^ In January and February we look for a great deal of steady cold weather, yet it often hap- pens, that after fifteen or twenty days severe frost, the weather changes, and it becomes mild for as long a time, the mercury falling only a few degrees below the freezing point, and sometimes by the winds coming to the S. W. for several days together, the weather becomes so wai-m as to form a very extra- ordinary contrast to the surface of the earth > rtiiis' Um ■Hi Ib^ ^^BKa^-^wBB M ■Kl 1 102 and the vaters all covered with ice ; and though we generally have the deepest snows in these months, yet in some years we have much bare ground at this time, which is by no means desirable, as it interferes with our win- ter employments, by preventing the use of sledges on the roads from the want of snow for them to run on, whereby the getting of timber and fire wood out of the wpods, and hay from the marshes is much impeded ; the want of snow at this period is also injurious to our grass lands, by exposing them too much to the severity of the frost when it happens that after a thaw or a tract of mild weather the cold again becomes severe before any snow falls to cover and protect the surface. Though the weather is never so severe in March as frequently happens in the two pre- ceding months, a great part of it is some- times boisterous and cold, and that most fre- quently happens when the preceding part of the winter has been rem.arkably mild, but in what is called a natural winter this month> produces very pleasant weather, the days are now long, the sky in general very clear, and in the middle of the day the heat of the sun very considerable, dissolving the snow and ice rapidly ; it is generally in this month that most of our timber is brought out of the forest, and also a stock of fire wood laid in for the remainder of the year. About the middle of the month the sap begins to rise in the trees, and towards the latter end of it the business of making maple sugar com- mences. The mouths of the harbour's, channels when the tides are rapid, the heads of the livers and creeks which have been frozen during the preceding months now open ; and aquatic birds begin to return from the south- ward. In this and the two preceding months, a freezing rain, or as it is commonly called, a silver thaw, sometimes happens on these oc- casions, the trees are frequently so incrusted 104 with ice, tliat many of tlie smaller branches break with its weight, as the smallest twig will retimes have an inch of ice round it, this state of the weather generally takes place in the night, and continues but a few hours. If the sun happens to shine while the trees are in this state, nothing can exceed the splendor of the forest, every branch seems enclosed in diamonds, and reflects the rays of the sun with the utmost brilliancy ; it is impossible to describe the effects of the scene that this state of tiie weather occasionally exhibits. The month ofAprilis often more varip.ble and unsteady than its predecessors, frequently exhibiting summer and winter alternately in the course of a week ; when the wind is to the soutliward or S. W. we have always genuine mild spring, sometimes indeed very warm for many days together, exhibiting a most tanta- lizing contrast to the surrounding objects, and when lye are expecting that a few days iijofe 105 will secure us against the return of winter, perhaps the wind suddenly chops round to the northward, and it becomes as unnaturally cold, with considerable falls of snow, but which seldom lays on the ground above a day or two ; sometimes there is much easterly wind in this month, which on this coast is always damp and disagreeable, and often attended with rain : in other years, the first part of the month will be cold, aiid all the rest fine steady spring weather, the snow disappearing rapidly, and the ground getting dry very soon, plough- ing often commences about the middle of the month, and in warm sheltered situations, there is a considerable degree of vegetation towards the latter part of it. In some years the spring is so forward as to enable the far- mers to commit a good deal of seed to the ground before the end of the month. The month of May is subject to easterly winds, which are always damp,* chilly, and disagreeable, and we have still occasion- 11-:^ ml iiii- 106 ally Might f.osts after a N. W. wind, but Mhen the wind is to the S. W. the weatlier is very fine, and vegetation advances rapidly; hy the 20th the fields will generally be green, and towards the latter end of the month the trees commonly get into leaf : from the middle of the month, the weather sets in dry, little rain falling from this time, till towards the end of July : rains, with a wind from the eastward in this month, are cold and injurious to vegetation; when they happen with the wind from the westward, they are highly beneficial. In June the face of the country, assumes ihe most vivid appearance, and the air is Jijost delightfully perfumed by the blossoms of the trees, and the flowers of various aromatic .^lirubs and herbs, the atmosphere is so loaded with the farina of the trees, that great quan- tities of it which fall on the water is driven asliore by the winds, and collects at high •-'U-.i nuiK, In liie rorm or a Deautitul yellow 107 powder : from tlie middle of the month, the S. W. wind sets in steadily, and the weather then becomes nearly as warm as in the two succeeding months : it generally blows a fresh breeze during the day, but at sun-set the wind dyes away, and the nights continue calm. In a forward season, a few of our wild strawberries will be found ripe on a southern aspect about the end of the month ; and I have more than once seen gieej;i pease at the same time. In July the weather is very fine and steadily warm, the thermometer standing generally be- tween seventy and eighty, sometimes it rises as high as eighty-six, the wind blows almost con- stantly at south-west a fresh breeze, and coming immediately off -the water serves to temper the heat ; when the wind fails in the evening and the night continues calm, the heat is at this time more disagreeable during the night than in the day, the weather often continues dry tiiFougb the greater part of the month, but we 108 are generally relieved from any drought by heavy showers, though of very short duration, which accompany thunderstorms ; these storms very seldom do any mischief, they are always over in two or three hours, and the weather immediately becomes clear and steady. From the middle of this month most of the vegetables common in England at this season will be found in great abundance in our gardens. About the 20th hay-harvest generally com- mences, and by the end of the month early 3own barleys will often be fit to cut. In August the heat generally continues the same as last month, but commonly more rain falls; heavy dews are frequent when the weather is dry, which are very beneficial ; by the middle of the month the harvest is pretty general over the Island, The first part of the month of September the weather in general is nearly as warm as in August, but about the equinox the winds be^ 109 come more variable, being sometimes to the northward of weat, which soon cools the air and also veering to the eastward with rain, high winds are common for some days after the eqi/mox, and after the middle of the month frosts are frequent about the heads of creeki^ rivulets, and low springy lands: upon the whole the weather is now more like the weather in England at the same season than any other part of the year. October though sometimes wet is often the pleasantest month in the year ; the heats are gone and the weather generally fine ; the gales of wind which happen about the equinox, and the frosty evenings and mornings which arc common, seem to purify the atmosphei^ and the air is remarkably pure, elastic, and exhi- larating. The same kind of weather often con- tinues through the first fortnight of November; sometimes it is so mild that the native straw- berries come into blossom on southern aspects, as Uixuriantly as in the month of Mav: on ''I,;.. m m I i i-lr ' 110 other years it is wet and variable, witli frost and showers of snow, but which does not yet lie on the ground more than a few hours. The leaves fall off the trees during the last part of October and the beginning of November. I have aheady observed that we are in a great degree free of fogs, which will appear the more surprising as we are in the vicinity of countries known to be extremely subject to them, so near indeed, that many people may be inclined to doubt the possibility of our being so per- fectly free from them as I have asserted, to such I can with great truth aver that I have seen two years successively pass without producing one foggy hour, and I am confident I have seen more fog in one month of November in London, than I witnessed in all the time I have passed in this Island ; I have heard many attempts to account for an exemption so singular, but none of them perfectly satisfactory. Some account for it from the high land of the Island of Cape Breton lying between us and the Banks of 111 Newfoundland and tliose on the eastern coast of Nova Scotia, which are tlie great scene* of fog, and from which it spreads over all the sea coast of that country, New Brunswick an(J the coast of New England, particularly the first, where it prevails much in all the summer months; if the intervention of the Island of Cape Breton between us and the Banks is the only reason of our enjoying a clear sky and dry armosphere while the contrary prevails so near, it seems difficult to account for a circum- stance that is constantly observed. By looking at the cliart of this coast it will be observed that the Gut of Canso divides the Island of Cape Breton from the peninsula of Nova Scotia, the eastern end of this strait terminates in Chedabuctou Bay on the coast of Nova Scotia, it is often observed in the montlis of June and July that this Bay and all the land around it is frequently enveloped in fog for eight and ten days together, and that the fog seldom comes entirely through the Gut, which is only twenty one miles in length, for several days together '1 'f 112 it will not come above two or three miles into it, and sometimes not at all, when it does come through the Gut it seldom lasts above a few hours. It is also observed that the mouth of the River St. Laurence, and the coast from Cape Rosier to the Bay of Chaleur, though not so much subject to fogs as the coast of Nova Scotia, has a good deal of foggy weather in the spring and the first part of the summer, yet the wind blowing directly from thence over the Gulph, does not bring the fog to this Island. It has been often said that we are to attribute our freedom from fogs to the nature of our soil, which is warm and dry. and also to the small depth of water in all the southern part of the Gulph, which seldom exceeds twenty five fathoms. It is probable that an attentive consideration an4 comparison of the circumstances by which we are favoured with so fortunate an exemption may hereafter enable Naturalists to account in a more satisfactoiy manner than has yet been done, for tiicse fogs which are so injurious to some of the neigh- 115 boudng countries : intailing on them ttie utt pleasant prospect of continuing for ever, sub- ject to the necessity of relying on the im- portation of bread-corn for their daily con- sumption. The north east winds are always attended with rain from May till the middle of No- vember, after that they generally bring snow, all our heaviest falls of snow come with them. After a fall of snow if it comes to blow fresh before the surface hardens, the snow drifts much on the cleared lands, and on the ice, which makes travelling difficult till the wind subsides, it also fills up the roads, which must be beat again ; in a populous neighbourhood that is soon accomplished, by every person turning out with their sleighs and teams for that purpose. In the forest the snow never drifts, which makes travelling thete more com- fortable at this season. the light frosts which have been mentioned I CO 114 commence after the micUlIe of September, do, not affect the high open lands for many weeks, after that period, being chiefly confined to the heads of creek^, the neighbourhood of springs, and low wet land« :. near the sak water in. places open to the W. and S. W. it will often be the latter cad of October before the potatoe tops are affected by it. It is not till after the middle of September, that afire, evening and morning, becomes a desfrable companion, atid it does not come into constant use till November. In April it is not steadily attended to, in May it is often allowed to go. out, and early in June is generally given up, excepfe during a north-east wind. Cattle are seldom regularly housed till the beginning of Deiem^her, and hy many not till the latter end of that month, and some remain out in the forest a great part of the winter, which season they frequently survive when strayed, living lik« deer by brouzing upon the young wood. In the summer a white mist rises in the 115 night, upon the creeks and runs of fresh water, which is always an indication of fine weather for the ensuing day ; when these mists do not rise on the creeks at this season, rain may be expected in the course of the ensuing day : they do not spread above a few yards be- yond the water from which they originate, and are always dissipated before the sun is half an hour above the horizon. The Aurora Borealis is observed at all sea- sons of the year, and is commonly the fore- runner of a southerly wind and rain : this lumi- nous appearance is sometimes extremely beau- tiful, and in our pure atmosphere is seen to great advantage, it generally begins in the north, runs up to the Zenith, and sometimes overspreads the whole concave with streams of light, variegated with blue, red, and yellow of various tints; in a calm night, the sound caused by its flashings, may often be distinctly heard. I 3 UMm 116 Many people will be apt to conclude that the great and rapid changes to which our climate is subject, must have a bad effect on the health of mankind, yet I think I may venture to assert that it will be very difficult to mention another spot on the face of the earth, where the inhabitants enjoy more un- intevrupted health. The fevers and other diseases of the United States are entirely un- known here, no person ever saw an intermit- tent fevT produced on the Island, nor will that complaint when brought here, everstandabovea few days against the influence of the climate I have seen thirty Hessian soldiers who brought this complaint from the southward, and who were so much reduced thereby, as to be carried mi shore in blankels, all recover in a very short time ; few of them had any return or fit of the complaint, after the first forty-eight hours from their landing on thclsland. Pulmonary consumptions which are so common, and so very destructive, in the northern and cen- tral States of America, are not often met 117 with here ; probably ten cases of this com- plaint have not occurred since the commence- ment of the settlement. Colds and rheu- matisms are the most common complaints, the first generally affects the head more than the breast, and the last seldom proves mortal. A very large proportion of people live to old age, and then die of no acute disease, but by the gradual decay of nature. Deaths between twenty and fifty years of age, are few, when compared with most other countiies ; and I trust I do not exaggerate the fact, when I state, that not one person in an hundred (all accidents included ) dies in a year. It follows from what has been said, that mankind must increase very fast in such a climate, accordingly, large families arc almost universal, six or seven children in as many years, seems to be the common rule, and few leave off without doubling that number. We sel- dom find a pair without a family where they have come together under such circumstances as to 118 give them a reasonable ground of hope on that subject, and instances have sometimes occur- red when •'^ople who had given up every idea of the kind, by removing to this Island have had large families. Many people here grow to a large size, perhaps in no other country will the proportion of men of six feet high be found greater j the countenances as well as stature of the young people, whose families came from the highlands of Scotland, often exhibit a remarkable contrast to the hard features, and low stature of their parents ; plenty of wholesome food, as well as salubrity of air, no doubt contributes to this difference. Industry will alM'ays secure a comfortable existence, which encourages early marriages, the women are grandmothers at forty, and the mother and daughter may frequently be seen with each a child at the breast at the same time. . People determined upon going to America, ^yili do well to compare this, wilh the lepre- 119 /< « ^ntation given by that celebrated writer and traveller, Volney: Speaking of the climate t)f the United States, under his third general head, he says : " Autumnal intermittent fe- " rers, or qaotidian agues, tertian, quartan, " &c, constitute another class of diseases, that prevail in the United States to a de- gree, of which no idea could be conceived, ^* They are particularly endemic in places re- ** cently cleared, in valleys on the border of ^' waters, either running or stagnant, near *' ponds, lakes, mill dams, marshes, &c. In ** the autumn of 17^, in a journey of more " than seven hundred miles, I will venture to " say, I turc, few of them had any desire to abandon it for the fishery : before any country can supply itself with the necessaries of life, to hold out incentives to its inhabitants, that must in their nature operate against, the cultivation and improTcment of the country, must surely be the highest folly. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and pease, are cul- tivated, and produce good crops, the wheat is however mostly summer wheat, but winter grain is also raised, and by many preferred to the summer wheat, and will probably become more general : both kinds are heavy, weigh- ing from sixty to sixty-four pounds per bushel ; the produce is various, depending much on the industry, skill, and management of the farmer, I will not say, that we get as many : ;^» i^^i ill ii iiil 11 ; Uiilffi P'l i lll^^li 1 ijniMfjHii WM H^ 11 tt^H^'^^^ffl II 124 buabel, per acre as i„ E.g^nd, b„t j fi,„,, Mirve, ,l,at «-ere tl.c cultivation equal th, average pro.luce per acre, mouI.I „„t fall much short of that. .Barley and oat, both yield fine crop,,, and are readily bought up on the Continent, at from sixpence to . »hillin? per bushel more than their own produce, I will venture to assert, that no person ac quainted with this Island will contra.lict me wh.n I say, that it i, the first country i„ North America for both : I have seen the best oats sent from Mark Lane for seed, compared with the produce of what had been sown two years on the Island, which upon being weighed turned out to be full a, heavy as the English oats : people who have seen American oats upon the Continent, can say how contemptible in comparison to this they are generally met With, nor do I think either barlev or oat, under proper care and management liable to depreciate by time, though no doubt here, a« every where el.e, a judicious change of seed will be found beneBcial. 125 Kye produces good crops, and is a very weighty grain, particularly the winter rye ; it is a very sure crop, and l,ardly ever suhject to any accident. Pease tl.rive very welF though they are not so much cultivated as might l,e expected • beans, except the kinds for the tabic, are not cultivated, though it is knou-n they do very well. Hops grow remarkably well, and as f.u I can judge, do not seem liable to fail so fre- quently as in England, though as vet they are only cultivated by a few who a.'e beginl ning to brew malt liquor for domestic use. Potatoes are raised in great abundance, and >n no other country better. I have had, three Imndred bushels an acre with cultivation, very short of what is generally given them in England, they grow very well in the forests lands, when first cleared, and though not so ^ !J i ■jjMI mm iByiil I^Hl^liiuB mm IsH'^'ii^y m^ ^^1 ■» ri H PI mm 126 large a crop, they are in such situations, more delicate, and much £ner flavoured than any I ever saw elsewhere. Land that has been manured for a crop of potatoes, is next year sown with spring wheat, sometimes red clover is sown with the wheat, which will keep the ground two or three years ; though no grass seed is sown, if any thing like common jus- tice has been done to the land, it will throw up an abundant crop of natural white clover of itself the year after the wheat, an advan- tage that makes people less solicitous about red clover, which, though more productive, is not so much esteemed for hay. Turnips are universally raised as winter food for cattle and sheep, though not to such an extent as might be expected ; the seed is sown from the twentieth of July to the tenth of August, and by the latter end of Octobei, they are a fine crop though never hoed ; this circumstance alone will shew how little the agriculture of the Island is calculated to do 127 jnstice to the soil : as the manure made in the winter (un^er our present defective system of management) is expended in the spring, the prac- tice is to cow-pen and fold sheep upon the laad* intended for turnips ; the effects of even a slight dressing of this kind are very great, tolerably done it communicates a fertility, that is very evident for several years, under what in Eng- land would justly be thought the most abomi- nable management, as three crops of grain, each with a single ploughing, are often takca without rest. The turnips are taken up m November, and are housed or laid in heap* in the fields, and covered over with such a quantity of earth, as to exclude the frost* of winter, and afterwards removed into the house as they are wanted, taking a mild day for that purpose. The Swedish turnips are found to answer very well, even when sowed as late as the common turnip, and in situa- tions where they are. covered all winter with , snow, stand out that season with very little loss, and, under a^more perfect system of "^'Ji ■•"li *** 1^8 * management, I have no doubt will be found to afford a most valuable supjify of food for sheep in the spring, when it is of most con- sequence. ' ' Many people yaise some Indian com or maize, which generally grows very well ; it is of the short or Canadian kind, and though not so productlv.e perhaps as in the United States, it is of a much richer nature than tlic southern corn, which is .flinty and harsh in comparison ; it is certainly a valuable grain, and the cultivation of it for domestic use, may be very proper, but it can never come into competition with wheat, for which the climate and soil of the Island are much better suited in every respect. ' All kinds of garden vegetables that are com- mon in England, grow here with very slight cultivation, but from the length of the winter, are of course later in their season : asparagus from the middle of May to the middle of 129 June according to the age of the beds, green pease are not in plenty until the middle of July, cabbages and savoys about the middle of August, and new potatoes about the same time. English gooseberries, blacV. red, and white currants, grow remarkabh veil, are large and well flavoured, and the bushes produce in greater abundance than I ever saw any whert else. I A,a Apples, cherries, and plumbs also grow weU, it is probable that the winter i, too severe for the finer kinds of stone fruit, but as yet no trials have been made, on which a judgment can be formed, A great many old apple trees left by the French, are still alive and bearing and though it might be seen by them, whal the chmate was capable of producing, it was long after the commencement of the settle- ment, before any attention was paid to this branch of husbandry : it i, chiefly to our late 130 worthy Lieutenant-Governor General Fanning, that wc are indebted for spreading, by his example, a taste for fruit trees, which, though not so general as could be wished, is increasing, and enough has been done to thew, that per- fect reliance can be placed upon our climate, for producing abundance of valuable fruit, when I state that some of our fruit, the natural produce of ungrafted trees is superior to the produce of any trees we have yet imported j fruit gardners will be able to judge what may be expected from our climate, under a wdl' directed system of management. J Horses, black cattle, sheep, and swine, are in great abundance considering our long win-^ ters, which render the procuring so much dry food necessary : the horses, are in general small, but strong, active, and hardy, and being seldom subject to any complaints, live to a great age ; it is a common thing to take them off the grass, and ride them thirty or t Mr. Beers of Cherry Vallty, is said to have alrcadj five huudred )b«aring trees, 131 forty miles, dming v I.ich they have to swim three or four times perhaps, across broad creeks or arms of the sea, and after perform- ing such a journey with great spirit without being once fed on the way they are turned out to grass at the end of it, and probably per- form such another journey the next day equally well, and without appearing to be hurt by such hard usage : before the commencement of the late war, they were commonly sold for eight and ten guineas a head, but during His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent's residence at Halifax in Nova Scotia, he purchased se- veral of them, and was pleased to approve so much of them, that they are now in request in that country, which has raised the price of them to twelve and sixteen guineas : but un. less some other market is found out, they must soon fall again as the increase is much greater than the demand for them. In some parts of the island they are allowed to run out all win- ter, when they are not used, and maintain themselves by scraping away the snow with their hoofs till they come to the grass, on 1S2 which they live, and keep in tolerable order till spring. Many of the farmers have large stocks of rattle, and, indeed, it is too common to see them keeping more than they can winter well, it must be acknowledged, however, that the want of an adequate market is often the oc- casion of this apparent bad ^lanagemcnt ; oxen are used in agriculture and for drawing timber out of the woods more than horses, and when the mode of working them in har- ness is introduced, they will be found still more beneficial ; though the cattle are in ge- neral small in comparison with English cattle ; oxen have been known to rise to one thousand weight, seven and eight hundred weight, in- dependent of the hide and tallow is common enough. Our cattle will no doubt improve in size, when the farmers are more generally enabled to keep their stock in proper inclo- sures as owing to the necessity they are now under of letting them run at large, the heifers 133 commonly produce calves at two years old, a circumstance which must evidently hurt the size of the cattle. The quantity of butter and cheese made in the Island bears but a small proportion to the number of cattle, from this practice of permitting them to run in the woods, by which means, it often happens that a great part of the milk is lost, as they cannot always be found to be regularly milked, this is an evil which time will gradually over- come, hy enabling the settlers lo get enough of cleared lands within their fences, to main- tain their cattle, without being under the ne- cessity of allowing them to roam at large, as is too much the case at present. 7he but- ter is in general very good, but there is very little good cheese made in the Island, not from any natural defect in the climate or soil, but truly because there are very few in the Island, that know how to make a cheese properly, the greatest part of the inhabitants having ori- ginally come from countries where the art of making cheese is not understood. Wi'i Hi ■^ffiflF Ij P|||;||jg: wMIbI mm 134 ' The mutton and lamb are allowed to be very well flavoured, the sheep very commonly pro- duce two lambs and are never subject to the rot nor to any other disorder; they are in gene- ral small seldom rising above sixteen pounds a quarter, yet there are people who by care and a superior mode of management raise them to a much larger size. I have seen the four quarters and kidney fat of a weather not quite two years old, weigh one hundred and seventeen pounds, and the four quarters and tallow of a lamb six months old weigh sixty-seven pounds, and these were the common breed of the Island : that so many of them are small will not surprise any body when it is known that the ewe lambs are al- lowed to run with the flock, and that they generally become mothers by the time they are a year old : The n-ool is soft and fine but short, the fleeces weigh from three to six pounds ; stockings made of our native wool are universally preferred to any imported, and the coarse cloths the produce of our domestic ma- nufacture in point of warmth and durability, 135 ekceed any thing of the same appearance I ever saw, though they are not properly dressed or even dyed of a good colour. The proper management of sheep has hitherto been little understood, the general practice has been to house them in the winter which not only hurts the quality of the wool, but renders the animal delicate and less healthy: feeding them in sheltered places out of doors has been lately in- troduced and is found to answer much better : Though nothing like the large flocks of sheep kept ill England will be found here, the num- ber of sheep on the Island is very considerable, I believe greater in proportion than will be found in any other part of America, many farmers have ten times the number that Mr. Parkinson states General Washington's flock at, upon his celebrated farm at Mount Vernon. Swine are in great plenty on the Island and thrive well, particularly the Chinese .breed which has been lately introduced j they run at mm I. L 136 large in summer feeding on grass and fern roots, in the autumn they go into tlie woods where they feed on the beech mast, which in some years is so plentiful as to make them completely fat without any other aid, but pork thus fed is not reckoned good, being soft and oily; the beech mait is however of great use in bringing forward the store pigs that are to be kept over the winter, as it makes them grow very fast and they are easily wintered after a good run in the woods. Pigs are seldom kept more than two winters and many kill them at a year and a half old, and where the winters are so long, it is perhaps the most profitable practice : when put up to fatten they are first fed with boiled potatoes and finished with broken barley, oats, and pease : for many years past pork has been sold at, from three-pence to four-pence per lb. being about the general price of beef and mutton. Domestic Poultry of all kinds is raised in great plenty and perfection, and sold at a rca, sonable rate. 137 Cutting down the woods and putting the land into cultivation is differently performed, some cut down all the wood, pile and burn it, others prefer grubbing up the smaller trees and bushes, and kill all the large trees by girdling them in the beginning of the summer, which prevents their vegetating the following year, this last is the easiest method but as far as my experience goes I prefer the first, as the labour of removing the branches and trunks of the dead trees as they fall is more tedious and ex- pensive in the end than getting rid of all the timber at once. A good axe man will cut down an acre in eight days, pile all the brush, and cut the trunks into ten feet lengths : these must afterwards be rolled together and such of them as are not taken away for other purposes burnt; when the timber is heavy this part of the business will be but glowly performed by one man alone. The months of June and July is the best time for clearing land in this way as the leaves are full grown and the stumps of trees cut at this season decay soon and are not him 1 f'm #1 133 so apt to throw out suckers as those cut at other peuods : tlie leaves will not drop from the timber cut down now hut remain on all wiii- terj and greatly assist in burning the timber the following year, which is generally done in May : if there has been a considerable propor- tion of evergreens mixed with the other timber their tops and branches will now be in such a state as to insure the burning of the whole, the larger the piles the better chance there is for getting what is called a good burn ; where there has been few or no evergreens mixed with the timber about to be burned, greater attention will be required in heaping the piles of brush close and rolling the logs together. If the wea- ther has been dry for some time before this ope- ration, care must be taken to prevent the fires running into the forest among the crowino- wood which it will often do at this time of year, and kill the timber for many miles ; many people will be apt to suppose that this may be an advantage and aid in clearing the country, but that is by no means the case, as in general 139 it only scorches the trees or burns tliem s6 little that by far the greatest part of them is left standing, and become so hard as to make it more difficult and laborious to cut them down than if they M'ere still growing ; and if the h\id is good and not brought into cultivation j, jon, a growth of young timber will spring up u: a few years among the dead trees that will soou render such land more difficult to clear, than that whereon the original growth is still intire : the first year after fire has run over a piece of land and killed the timber, if it is not cultivated, a very large annual weed called fire weed, springs up spontaneously; this plant has a large succulent stalk, and long jagged leaves, it grows the height of four, five, and six feet according to the strength of the soil, it bears a white stinking flower and disappears after the second year which is very lucky,, as it is a great exhauster and injures land much. Besides increasing the difficulties of clearing and bring- ing the land into cultivation, these fires often destroy a great deal of valuable timber which, ** ||;i mm P II |4]i^| mlm 140 if left growing would soon come into demand for exportation, and the want of which even for domestic purposes may become a serious loss, for though the trees will stand many years aft«r they are killed, all except the pines soon become unfit for use, upon the whole I am per- suadcd that no man who understands the pro- per management of wood lands will ever wish to see the timber on them killed by fire until he has a prospect, of being able to bring them into cultivation. Aftir the operation of burning a piece of new land is completed, expert cultivators manage to plough among the stumps, this is done with a short one-handled plough, with the share and coulter strongly locked together, and drawn by a pair of stout oxen ; they dont pretend to make a straight furrow, the object is to stir as much of the surface as possible, they are often stop, pcd by the roots, some of which the plough will break, others they are obliged to cut with an axe, which mu.f always be at hand on these occasions ; an expert workman will cdn^ 141 trive, in this way, to turn up more ground than could be believed by tlitse unacquainted with the business ; in some lands this method of ploughing at first is impracticable, from the roots of the trees running so much along *he surface : such land must be stirred with hoes, first sowing the seed on the burnt sur- face; in other places after what is called a good burn, the surface will sometimes be- come so soft and mellow, that the seed may be covered by means of triangular harrows with wooden tines, taking care to stir such places as the harrow does not touch with hand rakes. If potatoes are to be planted in new land, round holes are made in the surface ten or twelve inches in diameter, and t^ree inches deep, the holes should be two feet apart, three or four sets are planted in each hole, and the surface mould returned upon them, they re^ quire being twice well hoed in the course of the season, and will produce a fine crop, and leave the land in good order for a crop of wheat the ensuing year. klit " o^ It ' if> H l&< 'id 142 People unacqu^n ted with clearing woodlands, are apt to be frightened with the apparent difficulty, and an idea has been propagatecf, that Europeans who are mostly unused to the axe in their native country, seldom make good axe-men, and no doubt but some continue long aukward, and so they would at any other employment to which they were not early ac- customed ; but so far from that being gene- rally the case, that I have seen many young men from Scotland on this Island, who would lay wagers before the end of the first winter with the most expert axe-men in their neigh- bourhood, and before they were two years on the Island, would earn as much money at clearing woodland, as any American in the country. It is this terror of encounter- ing with the supposed difficulties of clear- ing woodland that induces so many people from Great Britain and Ireland, to prefer the American States to our own colonies in Ame- rica, expecting from the more advanced state of improvement and settlement in the former that they will be able to get into lands already 143 cleared and cultivated : but for such lands they will pay very high, and will often find them worn out, and not worth the occupying; so perfectly is this understood among them, that it is generally accounted more profitable for a young farmer settling in life to go upon new, than to remain upon old cultivated lands, and this change they are frequently enabled to make to great advantage, by the avidity of Europeans for old cultivated in preference to forest lands ; Volney in his view of the states which has been already quoted, puts this traf. fie in a very clear light. Very little use is made of any manure except stable and cow dung, penning cattle and folding sheep : on the north side of the Island most of the inhabitants are so situated as to have a great abundance of sea ware in their power, which is driven ashore in great bodies all along the coast in the autumn, and considerable use is made of it with great advantage; but not a 20lh part of what comes on shore is ever used, indeed the settlements along the coast are too far apart for that. Dung is seldom juffcred to re- ''I m sMi m W'i'&i i:-:t& 144 tnain in a heap over the summer to ferment and destroy the seeds of weeds, but is taken every spring from the cow-liouses and stables, and either spread on the ground and ploughed in, or put into the drills for potatoes, the conse- quence of such v/retched management is an abundance of couch grass in a few years, Avhich few have the resolution to attempt getting rid of in any other way than letting the land out to pa:sture, which in five or six years will destroy this powerful obstacle to cultivation. Compost heaps are seldom formed, though many districts abound in valu- able materials for that purpose. Besides the im- mence beds of shell fish that many of our bar- Lours contain presenting a most valuable manure lo the adjoining lands, the flats in all our rivers are composed of a deep black stinking mud, consisting of decayed animal and vegetable substances, which have been accumulating for ages, the quantity of it is inexhaustible and easily obtained, and though very little use has yet been made of it, enough is known to ascertain that it makes a valuable manure. l; ' f 145 Flax and hemp, particularly the former thrive well, and every farmer raises a patch of it yearly, which is manufactured into lineu for domestic use ; hemp is also raised in small quantities, tlie inhabitants in general cloath themselves in their ord inary and working cloaths, most families »naking between woollen and liue^ from two to three hundred yards of cloth a year. It is much to be regretted, that so few of the inhabitants came from countries wh^r^ agri- culture is understood, an intelligent cultivator will at every step have occasion tp remark how much more might have been done by the same number of people had they been ac quainted with husbandry 39 it is practiced m England ; when I state that not one farmer in twenty, ev^r thinks of cither raising or pur. chasing grass seed of any kind, my readern wiU be able to conceive, bow little our soil if indebted to our system of management ; at present I firmly believe that the simple alter*, tion of every farmer in the Island seeding :iMiiil 146 properly such land as he lets out for grass, would have the effect in a very few years of doubling the quantity of agricultural produce of every kind. Indeed the conduct of our rural affaini inmost respects is ex j-remely defective, there are few cultivators an :»xig is who theorize, and still fewer who read ; ver agriculture is, and must long continue to It the chief pursuit of the inhabitants of this Island, if they attend to their true interest : every tree which is cut down in the forest opens to the sun a new spot of earth, which, with cultivation, will pro- duce food for man and beast : as the country becomes more and more clear, pasture for cat- tle will increase, and the manure of our stocks will enable us to enrich our lands, and extend our cultivation. It is impossible to conceive what quantities may be produced of beef, pork, mutton, butter, poultry, wheat, barley, oats, and pease, articles which, from our maritime situation and the wants of our neighbours, will always find a ready and p'-o^table market, DI fe This] Naviga circumi the absi Naval C first Ian land, ii entered have sec cape of leagues ( land. I of the di the Eng the esta 147 I■,.,.^^l 1^ DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. This Island was first discovered by the English Navigator, Cabot, in 1497, June 24, from which circumstance it took the name of St. John; from the abstract of his voyage published in Lediard's Naval Chronicle, it appears to have been the first land he met with after leaving Newfound- land, it was probably foggy weather when he entered the Gulphof St. Lawrence, or he must have seen the Island of Cape Breton, the north cape of which is high land, and only eighteen leagues distant from Cape Ray in Newfound- land. No claim to the Island in consequence of the discovery seems to have been made by .he Enghsh Government of that day ; upon the establishment of the French in Canada, i ' ' ,ir " ' , 1"! r. ik'i ft'^fll'^ I I 148 it was claimed by them as within the hmits of New France. In 1663 it appears to have been granted in fee by the Company of New France, together with the Magdalen, Bird, and Brion Islands to the Sieur Doublet, a captain in the French Navy, to be held in vassalage of the Company of Miscou. The Sicur's associates were two companies of fishing adventurers from the towns of Granville and St. Maloes, and nevermadeany permanent settlement on tha Island, or any improvements beyond the ne- cessary establishments for their fishing posts, which were very trifling, and confined to two or three harbours. From the best infor- mation it does not appear that any settlements with a viet«r to cultivation, were made by tht French on the Island, till after the peace of Utrecht ; and it is said their government never encouraged the settlement, and refused after the Sicur Doublet's patent was vacated, to give grants in perpetuity, to the people who had settled upon the Island, with a view to force the settlement of Cape Breton, and ta draws the dif Con tin It is people from tl; improvi could h of them tinent o in Novi to the I fiiey CO! English Hiatthe part of besides a the Fren for colle( bourgh, liver «t ^ pleased t 149 draw as many people as they could round the the diflFerent fortified posts they held on the Continent It is said that there were near ten thousand people on the Island in 1758, but it is evident from the appearance of the remains of their improvements, that the greater part of them could have been but a few years settled, many of them were probably driven from the Con- tinent on the loss of the French fortified post! in Nova Scotia in 1755, and 1756, and retired to the Island as a place of security, from which ?^iey could fit out privateers to cruize upon the English commerce. At this time it appears Ihat the gairison of Louisbourgh drew a great part of their subsistence from this Island, besides an officer who was called the Governor, the French had two commissaries on the Island for collecting cattle and vegetables for LouU- bourgh, which the people were obliged tode- liver at whatever price tliese g?- ticmen were pleased to fix, eight and ten dollars was the ifiiiyf 150 value generally allowcti for a fat ox. The French had never erected any fortifications on the Island, and had only a few guns ;uounted in an open battery at the mouth of the harbour of Charlotte Ic^rn, which by them was called Port le Jflie, i'wm its safety and beautiful ap-* pearance ; thty had also a trifling breast-work on the north side of the Hill&burgh River, nine miles above Charlotte Town, where the cinnnel of the river is much contracted by an Island ; this situation commanded the access by water to iheir principal settlements, which lay round the head of this river ; and at St. Peter's eight miles distant on the north side of the Island ; there being at that time ^^o road from the harbow better than an Indian path, which led along the south side of the Hi^^s' urgh thro- gh the forest. The French seulements round Hillsb*rgh Bay on what now forms the town- ships, N". 45, 50, 57, and 58, were a,, > .«r^ 8idera,ble and exte ded from the mouth of lue harbour Point Prim, both sides of which being a very fine piece of land, and also part r ■< vr 151 of lot 60 appear to have been occupied ; th« quantity of cleared land in this district was very considerable, though a great part of it is now again grown up '.vith wood ; from the remains of their improvements it must have been a beautiful settlement, and the people are s^id to have been in good circumstances, and had a great many vessels ; from the number of creeks and small harbours in the district, al- most every settler would be enabled to have one at his own u ir. The other principal settlements were in ' district which now comprehends Towl hips * », 26, 17, and 28, between the two fti^t h>s the fine harbour of Bedeque or Dunk River, on the two last tiierc are considerabe tracts of marsh land along several beautiful creeks that run into Iheir fronts ; the lands in all theseTownships ace remarkably good and well timbered. Townships 13 and 14 had also on their fronts a large tract of cleared and cultivated land, which was the only considerable settlement to the westward of Richmond Bay. 1 e north fronts of Towi ships 34 and 35 seem to have been well settled, par- • * 'a V ' ' r ^ I r ii' nu If/' ■h. 1^ Miml fit 152 ticuUrly near the entrance of Bedford Bay, where there was a handsome aettlemcnt, the •oil and situation being both very good. In general the oktas. and most considerable of the French settlements nrlM be found in the neighbourhood of extensive tracts of marsh grounds, where they could easily procure food for their cattle; the fine harbour of George Town, seems to have been overlooked by them from the circumstance of there being very little marsh ground in its vicinity : their only settle- went on it was on the point between Brudnell and Montague Rivers, which is said to have been made at the expence of their government, upon some scheme which was afterwards aban- doned, the situation a fine peninsula of sound land lying between two navigable rivers, with deep water in both, and the ground very com- manding, on this there seems to have been about 200 acres of cleared fend. In 1758 tlie Island was surrendered to Great Britain by the capitulation of Lwiisbourgh, and 153 a detachment under the command of Lieute- nant-Colonel Lord Rollo, wai sent by General Amherst to take possewion thereof, on which occasion, it is said, that a considerable number ofEngUsh scalps were found hung up in the French Governor's house; the Island having been for two preceding years, the head-quar- ters of the Meekmak Indians, and it is not denied by the old Accadian French stili re- sident on the Island, that they were very par- tial to this savage practice of their Indian neighbours, with whom indeed they were very much assimilated in manners and customs. It having been found after fifty years expe- rience, that no dependance could be placed in the Accadians ever becoming good subjects to Great-Britain; they were by order of Go- vernment, removed from this Island, and also from Nova Scotia; some were permitted to go to Canada, part were sent to the southern Co- lonies, and a good many were sent to France^ where they were very ill received, and much blamed for their obstinate hostility to theBritish ..M,' J' ■ ', IfMf 154 Government This measure was not executed so strictly as was intended, and a good many families by concealing themselves in the forest escaped this transportation, and were afterwards allowed to remain undisturbed in the Country, in confidence that their di- rainished numbers would oblige them to desist from all future hostility, and the conquest of Canada soon after removed all apprehension on the subject. ' At the conclusion of the Peace in 1763, upon the arrangement of the conquests made ftom France, this Island and Cape Breton were an* nexed to the Government of Nova Scotia, but no plan for the settlement of either was im- mediately adopted ; In I764 a general survey of the British Empire in North America was begun by order of Government, and an annual estimate to defray the expence thereof was granted by Parliament, which was continued until the commencement of the American War •topped the further progress thereof. The immense vey was sary to Northern Cape Bn gland, P Pensylvai the Surv< sistants. Summer c tions by ( of this Isl In the me for the cu among o first Lord it on a Paramour divided in held of hi] or Castle, and with and servii 155 immense extent of Country, which this sur- vey was intended to embrace, made it neces- sary to divide it into two districts, the Northern including Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Island, St. John, the New En- gland, Provinces, New York, the Jerseys, and Pcnsylvania, were allotted to Captain Holland, the Surveyor General of Canada, and his As- sistants, who arriving in America early in the Summer of this Year, commenced their opera- tions by order of Government, with the survey of this Island, which w^as compleated in 1766. In the mean time various schemes were proposed for the cultivation and settlement of the Island, among others the late Earl of Egmont, then first Lord of the Admiralty, proposed settling it on a feudal plan, his Lordship to be Lord Paramount of the Island, which was to be divided into a certain number of Baronies to be held of him, every Baron to erect a strong Hold or Castle, to maintain so many Men in arms, and with their under-tenants to perform suit and servictt, according to the custom of the 356 ancient feudal tenants in Europe ; it seems hardly necessary to say that his Lordship»s plan could not have answered his expectations ; the time for reviving feudal estabUshments was'even then gone by, and whoever will advert to the state of the neighbouring continent at the time, will ftnd in it circumstances that must have rendered success in such a plan almost impos- sible; and it appears to me a very fortunate thing for his Lordship's family, that he did not obtain a grant to have enabled him to try the experiment, which could not fail being attended with an enormous expence, unless his Lordship should, like the greater part of those to whom it was finally granted, forget after he got his patent, that it was necessary to perform the terms and conditions on which it was to be held. Upon the rejection of Lord Egmont^s scheme, it was determined to grant the Island to indi- viduals upon a plan recommended by the Board of Trade and Plantations, and there 157 being a great many appHeations, it wag thought, proper that the different Townships should be dmwn for by vr»y of Lottery, which took place before that Board; some obtained a whole township, to others half a township was given, and in some instances a Township was alloted among three, but the whole, with two excep- tions, were drawn for by way of lattery ; f many of the grantees were officers of the army and navy who had served in the pre- ceding war. Tli€ terms and conditions of settlement under which the lands were to be held, are expressed ia the following resolutions of the Board of Trade and Plantations, which have been introduced into the respective patents by which the different Townships were granted. " Resolyed, that a quit-rent of six shillings t The two Townships not drawn for. were 40 and 69. wUich were then partly occpied bj a «l,hi„g company, who had sat down «p«n »I«!»*> with the consent of Gorewnieflt. i'l I'M .11 i 'ndi.' 158 *' per hundred acres be reserved to His Majesty " his Heirs and Successors, on townships " Nos. 5, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, *' 26, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 54, 55, 56, '* 57,58, 59, 63, and 64. " That a quit-rent of four shillings per hun- " dred acres be reserved on townships 6, 8, " 9, 10, 11, 12, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 31, *' 36, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, '■' 49, 50, 53, 61, 62, and 65. " That a quit-rent of two shillings per *' hundred acres be reserved on townships *• Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7. 30, 30, 51, 52, 60, " and 67. , *' That the several foregoing quit rents be •* payable on the feast of St. Michael or within " fifteen days after in every year, to commence " and become payable upon one half the lands " on the said feast of St. Michael, which shall *' first happen after the expiration of five years *' from *' able ( " or wit ** quant " hke qi " Tha " his He " each t ** been si ** necessj " tificati( " yards, ** venien< *' of the ] '' That '' part of ** for the " a Minis " for a scl '' That ; 159 « from the date of the grant, and to be pay- " able on every ensuing feast of St. Michael, " or within fourteen days after, and the whole *' quantity to be subject in liko manner to tlie « like quit-rent at the expiration of ten years. " That there be a reservation to His Majesty " his Heirs, and Successors, of all such parts of " each township respectively as have already " been set apart, or shall hereaftsr be thought " necessary to be set apart, for erecting for- " tifications, building wharfs, inclosing naval *' yards, or laying out highways for the con- *' venience of communication from one part ** of the Island to another. fi: '* That there be also a reservation in a proper *^ part of each township of one hundred acres *' for the scite of a church, and as a glebe for " a Minister of the Gospel; and thiviy a. res " for a school-master. ** That in order to promote and encourasre (( It ts M tt it U «t tt u 160 the Fishery for which many parts are con- veniently situated there be a clause in the grant of each township that abuts upon the sea-shoifc, containing a reservation of liberty to all His Majesty's subjects in genera! of carrying on a free Fishery on the coasts Ihe said township, and of erecting stages and othcf necessary buildings for the said fishery within the distance of SOO feet from high- water mark. » ♦* That there be a reservation to **is Ma- "jesty, His Heirs, and Successors, of all ♦* mines of gold, silver, and coals. " That the Grantees of each Township do " settle the same within ten years fron> the " date of the Grant, in the proportion of one " person for every two hundred acres. "That if one-third of the land Is not set- " tied in the above-mentioned proportion, * within four years from the date of the grant. *' the " His " be I " as ar " or SI (< Majc years The . the Proi each tov signet w the same to the gc ing him ships to 1 above- re( nianclami Thus M small resei 161 I. . .i i T;| " ;,'p: 1()8 No. 18, twoof tlie proprietors of this town- ship came t ) the hhnu\ in 1770, and another in that and the fb!lo\\ing- year sent near three hundred people from Scotland to the Island. Lot 19, on this township the proprietor set- tled a number of French Accadian Families in ^773, Avho had before been settled on a dif- ferent part of the Island. Lot 20, nothing done. Lot CI, on this township a handsome settle- ment was begun in 1773, and carried on for several years at a considerable expence. Lot 22, nothing done. Lot 23, the settlement of this township was begun in 177.*J. Lots 24, 25, 2(), and 27, nothing done. Lots ment v diatcly Lots ; Lot ; families Lots ; Lot 3( ment wa number ( proprictc Lot 3^ Lot 36 1772, ah by the p Lot 37, this iot, J 169 Lot 28, on this township a handsome settle- ment was begun by the proprietor, iinmei .hip No. 36. Ct" the 48 townships whi-h were neglected duri;ig th.s j)eriod by thtr respective pro- priei; rs, the Lots 13, 14, an' 35, were partly oc-cuj>it^d by the people broijhi to the Island by the propiietors of Lots 18 ud 36. 'i' 4 1 1 It may easily be conceived, iiat so many of the proptitrtors neglecting their mds was very injurious to the Island, and extremely dis- couraging to the few who had conmenced the settlement on the laith of the wholttaking their just proportion of the burthen therof, and, in fact, the active proprietors were al great suf- ferers, though at this day, I belief; there is Its'!' 't- Sla (»!Hf :J : 174 no person acquainted wtli the Island, but what will readily admit, that if the whole of the proprietors had beei equally active, all must have been great gainers by the colony, which by this time would have been a populous, well-settle* country : it has been alledged in excuse for this general failure on the part of the prc()rietors in performing their terms of settlement that they were prevented by the American var, from engaging in the settlement of th' Island ; on which I have to observe, thatby these terms one-third of of the requiredpopulation wasto be settled in five years froi the date of the Grants, the mandamus for which, were issued in 1767 and all the Crants were or might have been taken out irthat and the following year, it will not thei be unreasonable to say, that ac- tive exertJns might have been expected from all tfc proprietors immediately after they had procued the Island to be erected into a separate ^vemment, at all events the Ameri- can war did not commence till April 1775, .jfi 173 and it surely was not more difficult for the whole to make a beginninij before that period, than for the few who actually commenced the settleuient, and who were by no means, with one or two exceptions, of tiie wealthiest class of the proprietors, at tlie same time a great majority of those who failed in peiforming their terms of settlctneut, were people cf large fortune who were well able, had they bfen in- clined to disburse the necessaiy sums reiuired for that purpose. This very extensive defalcation on the part of so many of the proprietors in )er. forming tlie terms of settlement, was vry distressing and severely felt by nw.L of those who had engaged therein, they hadto begin mostly on new lands, and to impor a great part of their daily subsistence fom other countries, they were scattered in srall iettlements at a great distance from ech other, in a country totaUy without roads, nd »' f ''i\, t ' 17« many of the first settlers cither from their own ignorance, or that ot' those hy wliom tliey were sent to the Island, were lautled without provisions or any means of supporf, and umiy on that account were obh'ged to ab^ndoji ihc settlenieit, which hrouglit much unjust ocUum on the colony, for as too often happens, men were viUing to attribute their failure to any tiling hut their own misconduct or imprudence. Thou;h a good many people were thus lost to the Hand, industry and perseverance enabled thos; who remained gradually to surmount ther difficulties, and as they acquired expe- rieice of the climate and soil, they becam# nwre firmly attached to the country. iis Majesty having been graciously pleased b> His Royal Commission to the Governor, iiiier the Great Seal of Great- Britain, to grant a omplete Constitution to the Colony, and th« Royal Inptructions having directed the Gi'crnor to put the same in operation, by caang a General Assembly as soon as he should 177 judge llie Island to be in such a state of set- tlement as to admit thereof; His Majesty's gracious intentions were caniel into effect in 1773, by the met ting of the first legislature of the Island, since uliicii it lias met re«ni- larly as in tiie olhcr colonies. Various laws suited to the situation and circumstances of the colony have been passed, and a foundation laid for raising a permanent revenue for the support of Government. One of the iirst objects wliicli engaged tlie attenti>rder that the whole of that money " may be applied to the purposes for which the '* same was granted - A copy of this minute t Qv wbich day the estimate voted fcy Parliament sommfiie^d. 181 was delivered to the Governor for his infor- mation and guidance, but iiaving so recently succeeded in getting the establishment pro- vided for in the manner mentioned, chiefly througji the interest of some of the proprie- tors, he did not think proper immediately to enforce the measures directed by this minute, nor was there any receiver of the quit rents then on the Island to carry the directions thereof into effect, so that nothing was at- tempted to be dbne under the authority of this minute till four years afterwards; of the transactions which then took place, an ac- count shall be given in its proper place. Upon Governor Patterson's return to En- gland in 1775, the government of the Island devolved upon the late Mr. Attorney General Callbeck as Senior Member of His Majesty's Council, the Lieutenant-Governor being aisc, absent. Towards the close of the year^ two occurrences happened, which were at the time very distressing to individuals, and ir.. :»" '^ Mi 182 jurious to the progress of the settlement. In the beginning of November a ship valuably loaded from London, with a number of settlers on board, suffered shipwreck on the north side of the loland ; the people were saved, but their effects and the cargo were almost totally lost ; the small part that was recovered, having been long under water, turned out of very little value, the effects of this disaster were for a long time severely felt. Soon after two Ameri- can armed vessels which had been sent by Con- gress to cruize in the Gulph of St. Lawrence for the purpose of intercepting some ordnance store ships then supposed to be on their voyage for Quebec, having failed in that ob- ject, thought fit to visit Charlotte Town the Capital of the Island, which was at this time totally unprotected; they landed before the hostile nature of th^ir visit was known or even suspected, and immediately made prisoners of Mr. Callbeck, the President, and the other officers of Government, and proceeded to plunder the place, taking every linng that was ;■ . M 183 of any value, they also carried off Mr. Call- beck and Mr. Wright a Member of the Coun- cil, and Surveyor-General of the Island : upon the arrival of these gentlemen at the head- quarters of the American army then at Cam- bridge in New England, it appeared that the rebel officers had acted in this manner totally without any orders from their superiors ; they were immediately dismissed from their com- mands, and told by General Washington, in their own style, " That they had done those " things which they ought not to have done, " and left undone those things which it was " their duty to have done;" their prisoners were immediately discharged with many polite expressions of regret for their suffer- ings, and the plundered property was all honourably restored. '^ir- f: i From this descent, and our lying so near the tract to Quebec, it became evident, that without protection, the colony would become liable to many such visits, to guard U9 against 184 •vvliich tlie [uln)iral comnianding in America wa» directed by government early in the cnsuino- year, to station an armed vessel at Charlotte Town, for the protection of the Island, and in jMay the Diligent armed ' -'";, commanded by Lieutenant, now Athuirul Duud, arrived for that purpose. In the month of November Mr. Dodd was relieved by the Hunter sloop of war, Cap- tain Boyle, who wintered with us, and re- mained on tlie station till November I777. This ship arrived at a very critical period for our protection, as our neighbours in the county of Cumberland in Nova Scotia, encouraged by the arrival among them of about thirty rebels in two whale boats, from Machaias in Massa- chussets, broke out into open rebellion and laid siege to Fort Cumberland, then garrisoned by a newly-raised provincial corps under the com- mand of Colonel, afterwards Major-General Goreham, at that time in a very incomplete state. By these rascals a second plundering expedition to Charlotte Town was intended, but having no craft to carry off a number of dismou of Fort jects, t Pictou the inh; sion of loading knowin Island 1 of Verti tiates, Cumbei tills per; to Char] bad bee was imr and senl Lieuten comjng Verte, f( the rebe leinforci up to th 183 dismounted cannon then lying about the ruins of Fort Amherst, wliich was one of tlieir ob- ' jects, they first paid a visit to tlie Harbour of Pictou in our neigh bourliood, where several of the inhabitants joining them they got posses- sion of a valuable armed merchant ship, then' ' loading at that port for Scotland, but not knowing exactly in what state of defence the Island might be in, they stood up into the Bay ofVerte, in order to receive from their asso- ciates, then engaged in the siege of Fort Cumberland, a reinforcement of men ; just at tliis period the Hunter arrived, and in her way to Charlotte Town having retaken a sloop wliich had become one of their prizes at Pictou, she was immediately fitted out by Captain Boyle, and sent after the ship under the command of Lieutenant, now Admiral George Keppel, who coming up with the ship next day in the Bay of Verte, found that in consequence of the defeat of the rebels at Fort Cumberland by the arrival of reinforcements from Halifax, she had been given up to the Male ; the rebels making their escape i 'Mm t • u . ' HiJ ■ .il 186 on shore. She was then brought into Char- lotte Town by Mr. Keppel, and given up to her commander, who not thinking it safe in the then state of that part of Nova Scotia to return to Pictou, she remained the winter with us. In 1777 besides the protection afforded us by the Hunter sloop of war, Mr. Callbeck, the president, was directed by Lord George Ger- niaine, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to raise an independant company for the defence of the Island, but most of those who were inclined to become soldiers, had previously, enlisted with different recruiting officers who Jiad come to the Island to raise men for the two new regiments commanded by Colonels Maclean and Goreham, from which circum- stance and the small number of people then in the colony, this company, which was always weak never was compleated : this deficiency was, however, amply made up to the Island in the en- suing year by the care and attention of govern- ment; four |;rovincial companies being sent 187 from New York under the command of Major HieiHky, an old officer; and at the same time the commanding engineer in Nova Scotia was directed to erect barracks for their accommo- dation, and also such necessary works of de- fence as were suitable to the situation and cir- cumstances of the Island. From this period, excepting now and then a few sheep taken at distant parts of the Island, by the enemy's privateers men, and the robbery of some valuable property from the Harbour of George Town, the Island remained perfectly undis- turbed during the remainder of the war; the frigates which annually brought out the Quebec convoys, generally spent part of the summer with us, by them and other cruizing ships which were occasionally sent into the Gulph, several of the enemy's armed ships captured in our neighbourhood were brought into Char- lotte Town and their crews landed, and after- wards sent over to Nova Scotia, and marched through the woods to Halifax, under the escort of detachments from our small garrison. f'!.i itf^-i}t: L" » .•'11 t ml m i 188 III the latter end of October 1 779, part of the Hessian regiment of Knyphausen, on their way from New York to Quebec under convoy of the Camilla twenty gun ship, commanded by Captain, afterwards Sir John Collins, meeting with very hard gales of wind, in the River St. Laurence, were obliged to give up the attempt to get to Quebec, and came into the harbour of Charlotte Town, where the troops were landed, as being the nearest spot to their place of destination in which they could be accom- modated ; there was no barracks for them, but being a veteran corps, commanded by Colonel De Borck, an experienced officer, they soon hutted themselves in a most comfortable man- ner, many of them when landed were ill with intermittent fevers, and I have already had occasion to notice the rapid effect our climate had in restoring them to health. So great an accession to our numbers not having been foreseen at head-quarters, our commissaries' stores were of course not pro- 189 Tided for tliem, but the deficiency was amply made up from the produce of the Island, whici) was purcliased by Govern- ment for tlieir supply, a circumstance which considering the infant state of the colony, and our small numbers may be mentioned to the credit of our agriculture in that early period of the settlement. The Hessians staid with us till the month of June following : both officers and men were mucli pleased with the Island, and some of the latter found their way back to it many years afterwards, from the heart of Germany, In 1780 Governor Patterson returned to the Island fromEngland ; and there being no receiver of the quit rents on the Island, he appointed Mr. Nisbet, his brother-in-law, then Clerk of the Council, to the office of Receiver of the Quit Rents, and under colour of the Trea- sury Minute, dated the 7th of August, 1776, which has been already given, he directed him early in 1781, to commence proceedings 'if0 iH' [ 19() ill the Stpreme Court of the Island, a«rainst all the townships enumerated in the act of 1773, which were tiien in arrcar of qait rents, and in Novemher following brought nine whole, and five half townships to the hammer ; these sales were soon after complained of to governmenf. and upon some enquiry into the transaction a bill for regulating the future proceedings in the re- covery of the quit rents was prepared in 1783, and sent to the Island, and the Governor was directed to lay the same before the legislature to be enacted into a colonial law; in this bill a clause was inserted, making the sales of 178I voidable, and allowing the original proprietors to re-enter into possession of the lands then sold under the Qult-Rent Act of 1773, upon the repayment of the purchase money, interest, and charges incurred by the purchasers and a fair allowance for such improvements as might have been made on the lands since the sale thereof : the purchasers on their parts ac- counti.ni. :•«: the original proprietors for the receipts, .s,..^s, ^nd promts. In the recital 191 which which led to this enacting clause, tU circumstances attending the sales in 1781 were stated diflereuLly from what really took place. Taking advantage of this mistatc* mcnt, ihc Governor instead of obeying tha order, and laying the bill before the Assembly, submitted the business to the consideration of the Council, who were equally implicated with himself by this recital, and it ^ras finally re- solved to transmit to the Secretary of State, a representation of all the circumstances at' tending the sales in 1781, and to rely on that representation as a justification for not obey- ing the order to lay the bill before the Assembly, This representation wlicn taken into consi- deratio' hv the Committee of the Privy Coun- cil for Trade and Foreign Plantations, did not appear to justify in the opinion of the Board, the conduct of the Governor in aith-holding the bill from the Assembly, but no order was for some time niade therion. ,n ••• i^:fe 192 •*In the mean time the Governor who was resolved to make every exertion to retain the lands, determined to be provided with an House of Representatives if possible, such as he. could rely upon for supporting his views, in case he should be again ordered to propose to the Legislature an act for making the sales voidable; accordingly early in 1784 he dissolved the Assembly by proclamation, and in March following a general election took place, and the Legislature soon after met, when it soon appeared, that the Governor had not succeeded in his object, for the House of Representatives entered into enquiries respecting different acts of his administration, and seemed particularly dis^ posed to condemn the management at the sale of the lands sold in 1781, although neither they, nor any other perion in the Island, were then acquainted with the proceedings that had taken place in England on the subject, which had only been communicated by the Governor to the Council under their oath of secrecy ; after various sharp messages and replies be* tween Govcri a conq: in prep by Pro The in takii at the House more fa the obj( he had ing bin for mak now to which t last Hoi office in would h cessors site light and a 193 tween the House of Representatives, and the Governor, that body resolved upon presenting a complaint to the King, and were employed m preparing the same when they were dissolved by Proclamation. The Governor spent the remainder of 1784, in taking more effectual measures for securing at the next general election the return of a House of Representatives which should be more favourable to him than the last, besides the object of being prepared for an order which he had reason to expect from England direct- ing him to lay before the Assembly the bill for making the sales of 1781 voidable ; he had now to provide for taking off any impression which the charges made against him by the last House of Representatives, might make at office in this country ; this he naturally thought would be most effectually done by their suc- cessors putting his conduct in an oppo- site light in their addresses and proceedings, and a variety of circumstances concurred i-^ii * w m4 wliioh -were favourabJe 'to his Tiews -and in- terest : in consequence of the evacuation of Ne.w York the preceding autumn a number of the loyalists .and disbanded troops came to seek a settlement on the Island, who were chiefly dependent on him in respect to the di«iribution of the donations allowed by the l?ounty of Government to enable them to com- mence their new settlements with advantage, he had also the direction of locating them on the lands on which they were to be placed, no inconsiderable part of which, consisted of the lands sold in 1781. From these circumstances, hy far the greatest part of these new settlers be- came interested in his support, he also found means to divide his opponents, and to buy some of them off, and in March 1785, be again ven- tured to try the success of a general election, on wiiich occasion he succeeded in securin'>- the return of a House of Representatives which was perfectly to his mind, and ready to support all his measures, this was not ac- complished however without a severe struggle, 195 Tnuch illegal conduct, and an enormous ex- pence, considering our small numbers and the infant state of the colony f. s • ■ • The Legislature met in a few days after the election, but no farther directions respecting the lanv'. sold in 1781 having been yet re! ceived from England, the subject was not mentioned during the session, which was chiefly spent in adopting such measures as were deemed necessary to do away any im- pression the proceedings of the last Housp of Representatives might make against the Go- vernor, who was represented in their addresses, and proceedings as the best of men, while all that opposed him M-ere stigmatized as factious and unj)rincipled. At the next session which commenced in March 1786, the Governor being still without any orders from England relative to the sales of 1781, and being now secure of t It wUl no doubt lurprise mj English reat^ento be teW thtt this ejection cost the GoTernor and bi> frieuds near t«o tl,oui •lerling. pouad« I' ' I'll !'*■' « (J p. WM' m ■ If' li I : ! the unaiiimous support of the Legislature, determined on a measure which he expected Would secure against all future attempts, the purchasers at these sales ; for this purpose a 1?ill was brought into the Lower House and soon after passed into a law, entitled, ** An " Act to render good and valid in law, 'all and V everif of the Proceedings in the years one ** thousand seven hundred and eighty, and one " thousand seven hundred and eighty -one, ** which in any respect related to, or concerned " the suing, seizing, condemning, or selling of " the Lots or Tozvnships herein-after mentioned, " or any part thereof." This audacious at- tempt immediately decided Government with respect to Mr. Patterson, who was soon after superceded ; His Majesty's disallowance of the act being at the same time signified, and the bill for making the sales voidable also returned, with directions to lay it before the Assembly. Before the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Fan- ning, who was appointed to succeed Mr. Patterson, the latter met the Assembly, and 1.97' laid the bill before them which they- imme-- tliately rejected ; it was not indeed to be expected, that the ^aine men who had only six mouths before pared an act tp confirm these sales should .so soon adopt a directly contrary measure which would have deprived them of all pretence to propriety or con- sistency of conduct. It appears however, that Mr. Patterson was at Jast seriously alarmed, and determined to make an effort to satisfy the proprietors of the sold lands, and if possible to conciliate government, for wliich purpose a private bill was brought forward, stated to be at the request of the purchasers in 178I, and passed into a law for restoring the lands then sold, to their original proprietors : but this mode of proceeding was entirely dis- approved of, and the act disallowed ; besides the objections to the manner in which the measure was brought forward, the provisions of this act left it much in the power of the purchasers at the sales in 1 781, to load the property to be restored with such an accu- ' I I i.' i ;;tii . : ii',: c" 198 4 mulation of expence as might perhaps equal its full value : and it also confirmed all aliena- tions of any parts of the lands while in the hnuds o^ the purchasers, whether the same had .icen made for a valuable consideration or otherwise. 11 Thus disappointed the proprietors preferred a criminating complaint to His Majesty against Lieutenant Governor Patterson and others therein named, being members of His Majesty's council ill the Island, in respect to their con- duct with' regard to these sales and their re- sistance to the measures directed by Govern, mfent for the relief^'of tlie complainants, and in 1:^89 an investigation of the said complaint took place before the Right Hon. Committee of the Pfivy Council fo/ trade, plantations, "when it wis determined ty the committee,' that the reasons'ariedged in behalf of the respondents, dill not justify their conduct in the transactions complained of : in consequence of this decision the members of the Colonial Council implicated ' ''•.11 199 in the complaiiit were dismissed from their- seats at that hoard, and the Attorney General of the Island from his office ; Mr. Patterson having been previously dismissed, and the ob- ject Of the coniplaint 'in regard to him ob- tained, no farther notice was tai«en of his con- duct. It was' expected that this proceeding would have been followed by a final determina- tion respecting the fate of the lands which wdre • the object of so much controversy, yet neither on this occasion nor at any time since, has any > directions been given by Government on the • subject, and the proprietors on thfeir parts ^ have been equally silent thereon.-. Butin 1792, when tlieCommitteeof the Privy r Council for Trade and Plantations, were en- gaged in investigating certain other complaints ' from the Island which I shall have occasion to notice hereafter, an attempt was made to charge the then Colonial Government, with beino* confederated ^vith their predecessors in opt position to the restoration of the lands sold m m\ til! li '•I'-i W i)?;i m I I 5; I 200 ih 1791, and it required some exertion to repel the charge, though the same was per- fectly groundless. It appearing on this oc- casion to be still the opinion of that fioard, that these lands should be restored to the original proprietors or their representatives : at the next meeting of the Colonial Legislature, an act was passed for rescinding, annulling, and making void the sales in 1781, and permitting the original proprietors or their representatives to re- enter into possession ; but as this measure was adopted without any directions from office on the subject, merely in consequence of what pas- sed on the above occasion, it was thought necessary to annex to the act a clause sus- pending its operation in every respect, until His Majesty's Royal Assent thereto should be signified, in the usual form. When this proceeding was known in this coun- try, a petition was presented on the part of sonns of the purchasers under the sales in 1781, praying to be heard by their counsel against the pas- 8mg of being Commi Privy tions, . Commi Burke, under 1 opinion to be It from wj has beer the Isia royal as nor has the subj or the o which ^ ever sin< possessic 1781 ; £ rious hai ber of ■I t 20t smgof this 'law, which petition with the act being refenad to the consideration of the Committee of Mis Majesty's most honorable Privy Council for trade and foreign planta- tions, Doctor Laxorcnce was heard before the Committee on behalf of the late Mr. Richard Burke, junior, who had become a purchaser under the sales in 1781, on this occasion the opinion of the Right Hon. Committee seemed to be much changed with respect to these sales from what it had formerly been, and the>result has been that the act passed by the legislature of the Island in 1792 never received His Majesty's royal assent, and has been entirely laid aside ; nor has any other proceedings been adopted on the subject either on the part of Government or the original proprietors, of course the lands which were the object of this measure have ever since remained in the quiet and peaceable possession of those claiming under the sales iu 17s I ; some of them have passed through va- rious hands and are parcelled out amonff a num- ber of purchasers, and they have in some >i' ^i H 502 \ instances become securities for ilebts, and in outers the objects of testamentary and family settlements, in perfect confidence that the. claims of the original proprietors, whatever may l)e their grounds, cannot now after the lapse of so. many years, be again brought forward >vith any effect |. t It ippcars by the different proceediugi before the Privy CouncUte have been olways the iotention of Government, that in the event of these lands being re.tored to the original proprietors by any legislative pro- ceedingiiftbel»land. that they or their represenUtivei should on g,uh mtorati(jn pay to tho purchasers under the eales in 1781, the amount for which these lauds were (hen sold, anieaiure which qecessarily grew out of the ciicumitance of their havingbeeB sold for the arrears of quit then due on them. This many of the original proprietors or those acting for them, do »iot s«f ra at any time w^iijing to have conjplied jvith, and it would appear that since the rejection pf the act passed in 179$ for their rehef, they have, given up all ideas of any farther proceedings on the subject, not thinking the property worth their acceptanc. on the proposed terras. Of the lands sold in 1781. the half Tow.ship. ^o. 18. was confirnwd to U.e purchaser »t these sales for a valuable consideration. The half Township, No. 26. has been restored to the representative of the original proprietor on the terras of the bill sent out in 1783, for malting the i.les voidable. '1 he Tpwnship, No. 3a has been restored to the representative of the ori, - jjinal grantee, by a compromise with the person into whose hands it fell since the sale of 1781. The Township, No. 35, has also bean restored to »i.e orfginal proprietor by a private agreement. The half Township, No. 48. 203, As these sales, with the different proceedings to which they have given rise agitated tho^ colony for some years, and were much talked of in this country among those connected with, the Island, and having also hecome an object, of inquiry before the Privy Council, I thought that this account of the proceedings to wliich they have given rise, would be acceptable to people interested in the colony. Having already stated what was done to; wards complying with .the terms of settlement from the commencement thereof, until 1779 inclusive, I shall now proceed to state what attempts were made durin^r the next twenty years, for complying with these terms as th^ not having been improved by the purcha«r, the orfgina! proprietor finding .10 perwn in possewion re-entered without oppowtion. The Tomwh'ip, No. 49 was recovered by tie original proprietor by a suit at law. Tha half Township, Ko. 65. has been coutirmed to the possesior under th« sale in 1781 by a private agreement with the representative of the original grantee. And the half Townships. Nos. 17 and 25. and the Townships ^^o. 24, 31, 33, 57, and No. 67 remain in the baad* of propriatoM *!riving tlieir rities ^ii^cr the sales of t?a*, * i ii it \m. 204 •urcst criterion on which a judomcnt can be formed how far the progress of the settlement has answered the exertions that have been lAade ; Cfiis seems to me the more neccssiry, as oh one hand the proprietor* are said to have done nothing towards settling the colony, and on the other some of them have claimed much credit for expenditure and exertions, of which nothing has ever been known in the Island, but which have been clamorously stated to Government as a ground of farther indulgence with respect to the payment of their quit rents. It has been already shewn, that of the sixiy^ seven Townships into which the Island is di- vided, th^jt on ten only, were the terms of set- tlement in respect to population complied with in the first ten years from the commencement of the settlement, and that forty-eight Town- ships were totally neglected during this period by their respective proprietors. During the period now under consideration, I may be per- 205 mitted to say without offence, tliat the excrtiorii of the proprietors were feeble in proportion to their obhgationj, and the length of time the period embraces, and the opportunities it af. forded as tl^p following summary will shew. Townships Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, nothing done. . 1' Township No. 5. The proprietor of thi»- township, in 1783, resigned one fourth thereof for the accommodation of such American loy- alists and disbanded troops as might claim the same; in consequence of which a few people under that description, had lands laid out to them thereon, but it being at that time at a great distance from any inhabitants they never settled upon them. In 1 78(5 a fishery was esta- blishcd on this Township, and in the course of a few years several vessels were built, a saw- mill was erected and a considerable quantity of timber exported, but little or nothing was done towards peopling or cultivating the soil, whicli should certainly have had precedence of every ikT. 206 other consideration if compliance with the terms oq, which it is granted was intended. Township No. 6. This township has been claimed by the same proprietor as the pre- ceding for many years past, but only three families were settled on it during this period. No9. 7, 8, o, 10, 11, and 12, nothin done. No. 13, On this lot it has beeii already ob- served that a few people brought to the Island by other proprietors settled early, but nothing was done during this period by the proprie- tor^ in compliance with the terms of set- tlement. No. 14, On this lot like the preceding nothing was done by the proprietor during this period, but some people settled on it of their own accord. No. No. 1783, accomi disban( thereon took u| and the parts of prietor ( No. ] townshi] French j on it hsLi of popul Lot 1 having ei dred pec improver dual advj 507 No. is, Nothing done. No. 15, The proprietor of this township fa 1783, resigned one fourth part thereof for the accommodation of such American loyaHsts and disbanded troops as might chuse to settle thereon, and some people of that description took up part of these resigned lands, but that and the acquisition of a few settlers from other parts of the Island, has been all that the pro- prietor ever did for its cultivation. • No. 17, Some loyalists were settled on this township in 1785, which, together with the French people we before-mentioned as settled on it has fully compleated the required amount of population. Lot IS, The proprietors of this township having early in the settlement sent three hun- dred people to the Island, its cultivation and improvement has ever since been making gra- dual advances, in which respect however it'has ' i 1 ih' ,} t« 208 "teen much injured by the temptation which the neglected state of the neighbouring town- ships have offered to its settlers, many of whom have removed and settled on such lands, with the hope of acquiring a right to their pos- sessions "by time, or the default of thp pro- •pri^tors in performing their terms of settlement. Lot 19, In 1783 one- fourth of this town- ship was resigned for the benefit of the loyalists and disbanded troops, several of whom took up grants thereon. . Lot 20, On this township a considerable number of people were settled during this pe- riod, but they were such as came to the colony of themselves without any encouragement from, or connection with, the proprietors. Lot 21, The settlement of this township was commenced early in our first period as we have already seen, and though from a con- currence of unfortunate circumstances it has J09 not advanced in proportion latterly, it is gtiK going on. Lot 22, Nothing done. Lot 23, Though the settlement of this township began early it has yet made no great progress in comparison with many others. .>y\ Lot 2^4, This township is one of those which were sold for non-payment of quit-rents itt 1 7S 1 . and though the uncertainty with respect to the ultimate fate of these sales, for some time operated as a discouragement to those into whose hands it fell ; considerable exertions have been made for its settlement and it is now one of the most populous on the Island. Lot 25, The settlement of this township wa^ begun in 1785, and it has since been making gradual advances. Its improvement has been much retarded by a dispute relative to :;. 210 the .property of one half of the township which is not yet settled. Lot 26, On this township a settlement was begun in 1785, and one of the proprietors || has advanced large sums tbr its improvement, the settlers on it have rendered themselves conspicu- ous by raising more wheat in proportion to their nimibers than any other people on the Island. They are chiefly composed of American loyalists and their success proves, what might have been expected from that description of people, had any considerable numbers of them been brought to the Island, instead of being encouraged, and in some measure compelled, by the over- bearing influence of a few individuals, to settle themselves on the barren foggy shores of the southern coast of Nova Scotia. Lot 27, This township was long neglected by its proprietors ; but in 1790 a settlement on one half of it was begun, and it has now pro- H Robtrt Gordon, Eiq. of th« LIsnd of St. Viaceit. 211 bably the required amount of population on it • the otlier moiety has been entirely neglected, Lot as. The settlement of this township early* begun as has already been mentioned, has been making a steady progress in improvement and population. Lot 99, On this township nothing dom during this period. Lot 30, On this township a settlement wa^ begun in 1785. but has made very hltle pro- gress, a circumstance chiefly to be attributed td its local situation, and the neglected state of the adjoining townships; its proprietor thtf late Lord Chief Baron of Scotland, having made great cflbrts for the settlement of his pro- perty in the Island, and advanced his money liberally for that purpose. Lots 31 and 32,^ On the first of theis (owijr :k,' •;.: 212 ships, it has been seen that a settlement was early commenced, and it soon after spread to the other, but as they were both included in the -rles of 1781, the uncertainty in which the property stood pending the proceedings con- sequent to that transaction, the improvement of them during this period was much retarded. Lot 33, On this township nothing was done during this period more than permitting some families from the adjoining township. No. 34, to settle thereon. Lot 34, The settlement of this township early begun at a considerable expence, has been steadily advancing ever since. Lots 35 and ^6, The first of these townships was one of those sold in 17«1, and in 179-1 restored to its original proprietor in consequence of a private agreement between the parties, it was early occupied as has been already mentioned by people brought to the Island by the pro- 213 prietor of Lot 36, whose property it now is, both townships are considerably improved. Lot 37, This township has been many years in an advancing state of improvement, though neitlier of its original proprietors ever con- tributed any thing irther to its population than the two families which one of them brought to the Island in an early stage of the settlement as I have already noticed. Lots 38 and 39, These townships with one third of the adjacent Lot, No. 40, were at the commencement of the settlement the property of the same person (the late Captain George Burns) the most fortunate adventurer that has hitherto speculated m lands on tlie Island, for owing to the circumstance of a great part of the front of these townships having been clear- ed by the French previous to the conquest of the Island, they soon became in request, and for many years have been gradually selling off Wt\ in small tracts for which large prices hav6 |)een given. lot 40, This like the two preceding having fceea early settled, has been gradually ad- vancing in improvement. lots 41 and 43, The settlement of these townships did not commence till 1/93. butthev Jiave since been advancing rapidly in popula- tion, Lot 43, This Township as has been men- tioned in the summary of the first ten years having been occupied early by the original French inhabitants, is now in a considerably advanced state of improvement and papulation. Jot 44, The settlement of this Township onty c„«<,! ha„K„., .ho 0,..o. coupled .ith ol, tl« monificn.ion, tl'.7 Imve .0 submit ,<.. 3n.u„g „ people whose principal c„jn;,ment, appear ,o nri.- f:„,„ insul.i,,, an., abusing ,hat country from which they de..vetheir o,i,l„ • rf,, ^hcre a «enera, deterioration of the morals cf ...cetyi, rapidly l„,„.,.h. f„u,.„«,i„,„ „f ,.ew revolntions which „,„« /l..Hlly a. n<. very di.t.-.at jeri.d lay their tu, bul«t republican LLer.y at the ie., of son. hold ,civen,u: er .h„se power and ,ucce« may prcu.e aocc-y • respite fiom the miserie* ol a.iarchy and civil war. 220 bring the subject under the consideration of His Majesty's ministers, tl>at body having taken the matter up, after a strict enquiry and mature deliberation, came to the following resolutions with the hope of putting the subject in as clear and forcible a light as possible. 1st, Resolved that it appears to this house after having fully investigated with the strictest attention the state of the lands in this Island, That Lots or Townships, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 22, 29, 44, 45, 46, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 60, 62, 66, and 67 containing in the whole 458,580 acres, have not one settler resident thereon. 2d, Resolved that Lots or To\vns]r:ips, Nos. 4, 5, 6, 11, 23, 30, 31, 55, 6l, 63, 64, and 6,5 containing together 243,000 have only hc- twcen them, thirty-six families, which upon an average of six persons to a family, amount to two han«riod two At three huAdied souls each ; though lonieof them, I am coniidfur, were short, of the required number5, ami it is also to be observed that the state of each townsliip iu re- tpect to population, is put down without regard to the ciicuuistauce, thattlie «aiuc was obtained bj the vuluntarv resort of people in some iiistauci'i to *>" i' I. 522 33, 34, 3S, 36, 37. 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 49^ 50, 54, 56, and 59. ^th. Resolved, That it appears to this house, that although the Townships No. 7, half No. 12, No. 30, and No. 51, are not settled according to the terms and conditions of the grants, the proprietor, the Rigiit Hon. James Montgomery, Lord Chief Baron of His Ma- jesty's Court of Exchequer in Scotland, has been ever active in his exertions, and has ex- pended large sums of money in the settlement of other lands in this Island. Also that the following persons, Mr. Edward Lewis, and Mr. John Hill, proprietors of township, No. 5, and the late partnership of John Cambridge and company, proprietors of Townships, Nos. 6S, and 64, have made different attempts to settle them, beside expending considerable sums of money thereon. diffe(ent towu.hip8. without the interference or ever the knowledge of the proprietors, from which it will evidently appear that there was no intcntiou ou the part of tl,e J.ouse to exaggerate the e»J complained of. 323 6th, Resolved, That it appears to this house, that the failure of so many of the proprietors in performing the terms and conditions of their grants has been highly injurious to thp growth and prosperity of this Island, ruinous to its in. habitants, and destructiv.e of the just expec- tations and views of Governu.ent in its colonic zatiop and settlement. 7tb, Resolved, Tha.a- h the opinion of this house-, that the various indulgencies and Jong forbearar?ce of GoverAiment towards the pro- prietors \iho have failed in performing the terms and conditions of their grants, have had no other eifect than enabling them to retail their lands without exertion or expence, spe- culating on the industry of the colony, and the .disbursements of a few active proprietory in forwarding the settlement thereof. 8tb, .Resolved, That it appears to this Jiouse, ^nd seems universally admitted that this Islanfil was it fully settled, is adequate to the imilu- M '■> I ■ f n 224 tenance of upwards of half a million of infia- liitants ; and in which case it would be of great importance to the mother country, not only in the consumption of its manufactures, but as a nursery for seamen from a very ex- tensive fishery which might be carried on around its coasts independent of the commerce which from its other productions would na- turally arise. 9th, Resolved, That it appears to this house that the progress which has been made in the neighbouring colonies, and their flourishing state and rapid increase in population since the close of the American war, is chiefly to be attributed to the general escheat and forfeiture which has taken place of all the unsettled grants, and the regranting of such lands in small tracts to actual settlers. 10th, Resolved, That it appears to this house that the greatest part of the population and improvements in the neighbouring provinces. 225 are situated upon l^ncjs escheated ^s abprp-men \ tioned, and which had been originally grj^nted nearly at ihe same time, and on similar terms and conditions with the land of this Islantj. ■ * file facts set forth in these resoliitions yy^iQ stated to Government in the form -of a peti- tion from the Assembly, concluding with 4 prayer, that such measures might be tai:eR as were necessary to compel all the Proprietors to fulfil the terrn^ ancj conditions on which their lands were granted, or tha^ the same should be escheated, and regranted in ^iflal| tracts to actual settlers, on such terms and con- ditions as His Majesty might be grapionsly pleased to direct. And the Lieutenant-Governor was requested to forward the said repreien- tation and petition to England, an4 at the same time to represent that the Asseinbly had no other views than bringing the facts stated in the resolutions fairly before Hii Majesty's ministers, confident that all His Majesty's subjects in the Island would che^r- ml 2^6 fiilly and dutifully conform themielres to whati ever determination might be made thereon. This representation, which was addressed to his Grace the Duke of Portland, in whose de- partment as Secretary of State, the manage- ment of colonial affairs then rested, was well received, and his Grace was pleased soon after to inform the Lieutenant-Governor had been taken into consideration by Hia Majesf's confidential servants, and that as soon as the state of public affairs admitted thereof, such a determination on the subject should be made as would not fail to remedy 'the evil com- plained of. Though this proceeding was very agreeable to a great majority of the Island, and became to a certain extent a duty upon the Assembly, judging from what they had seen done in the neighbouring colonies ; yet it must be confess- ed, that the cases were not perfectly similar, and that however faulty or ipadequate the 227 plan adopted for the settleijientpf the co- lony had hitherto proved, it had certainly made too great a progress to be materially changed without greatly injuring the proprie- tors who had hitherto carried on the settle- ment, who on their parts were decidedly against the proposed change wliile any other adequate means remained In the power of Government to compel all the proprietors to comply with the terms on which their lands were held. . This state of things placed the colonial government for many years in a very disagree- able and difficult predicament, it was im^s- sible not to feel severely the extensive injury arising from the neglect of so many of the proprietors in leaving their lands in a waste and uncultivated state, whereby the colony was subjected to all the evils and inconveniences of a feeble and unnecessarily protracted state of infancy, at the same time any proceeding whereby such lands should generally become '£1 !■ i; 228 "forfeited for non-performance of the terms of settlement, was liable to many weighty ^objections which could not be easily over- .iooked. What was to become of the in- terest of the proprietors who had hitherto car- lied on the settlement of the colony in the event of such a proceeding taking place, many of them had invested their all in its suc- cess, and it was principally by their perseve- rance and exertions, that it was enabled to overcome all the early difficulties incident to such undertakings, difficulties of which it is not now easy to form an adequate idea, and which nothing could have enabled them to surmount but the most enthusiastic attachment to the country, and the hopes that a steady perseverance in their object would finall} be crowned with success, whereby they would be enabled to leave handsome properties lo their families ; yet it is evident that they would be the first and principal suffisrers by any proceeding whereby the lands on which the 229 terms of settlement have not been fulElIed should become forfeited ; though the greatest part of such lands it is true were the property of non-residents many of them unknown ia the colony, and who on their part had generally a» little intercourse or connection with the Island as with Japan or Formosa, and who would lose little more by having their lands escheated, than the uncertain prospect of being permitted to hold them without expence or exertion until they might perchance become of value : at the same time the forfeiture, and regrantingof such lands in small tracts, to actual settlers as was aimed at by the Assembly, would have been immediately and severely felt by the proprietors whose lands were ia a course of settlement, who must not only expect to lose a great part of the people they had already settled, and thereby the fruit of much expence and exertion, but tliey must also submit to the prospect of being unable either to sell or let their lands If i; t : I n I i 'iJ 230 in rdtjre,* until agrent part of what was likely t6 C6me into the hands of Government by this ppoceeding should be regranted and occupied, ai^d when it is considered, and that the lands liable to this process comprehended very lately one-half of the Island ; their fears with respedt to the effect of such a measure will appear" very reasonable, and their opposition thereto pbfectly justifiable. Such a contrariety of interest and views it may easily be believed would occasionally agitate the colony, and afford the means to factious • Because every man will naturally prefer taking up a grant of lands /rom the Crown« either to purchaiiog or renting from bis fellow subjects; it t^as beca said, indeed, that this objection might iu part be got the better of by confining the grants of nuch lands entirely to such settlers ea should cotne to the Island subsequent to the period iu which these ImAdi may cotne into the handsel Govemrocnt, but this I think would be found a most inviiiiious distinction, as it would have the appearance of putting those on whom much of the first diiculties of the settlement fell, on a worse footing than any other class of people who tnight now chuse fo Mute in tbe colony. 231 and unprincipled individuals some cf whom are every where to be found to propagate dis- content and divisions in the colony : poorly as it may seem our public offices are likely to remunerate any man of common talents they hafve been as eagerly coveted as if each pro- duced ten times its actual income, and most of those who have held them iiavc been attacked by every means that the common routine of colonial affairs affords to the outs against the ins, and in no dependency of the British empire perhaps li we such things been carried to a greater or more unjustifiable length, yet it is but doing justice to the colony to state that such conduct has been confined to a few ambi- tious turbulent individuals, and that by far tho greatest part of our population have firmly and decidedly supported those to whom the ad- ministration of the public affairs of the colony has been entrusted for the last twenty years, and notwithstanding the noise that a few factious discontented individuals have occasionally made, I believe I may venture to say, that for the u 1 ■J ^ 233 ADMINISTRATION OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR FANNING. M ri*# During the last years of Governor Pu't rsoli'/c administration his great object was to ^.. the sale of the lands sold in 1781, for non-payment of quit rent confirmed to the purchaseiu In was always very sanguine in his expectations of the rapid settlement of the Island, and ap- peared to think that if he could secure him- self in the lands acquired at these sales, the influence arising from such an extensive and valuable property would give him more conse- quence in the colony than any Governor could acquire with the small salary and patronage an- nexed to the office, and that he would in effect continue to direct the affairs of the Island, though the government thereof should be no- minally transferred to another. He had, as we have already seen, procured the return of a House of Representatives that were compleatly 1'! ; :'-(• « ;..'i^ i: ! m. ^34, rferoted to his inferests, and he soon after con- trived to get rid of such of the members of the council as were not equally so. In this situation upon the arrival of Lieutenant Governor Fan- ning from Nova Scotia, with the Kings com- mission in the usual form appointing him Lieutenant Governor of the Island, in the room of Mr. Patterson, the latter affected to think tbat his immediate removal from the adminis- tration of the government was not intended, that the appointment of Lieutenant Governor Fanning was only a temporary measure to pro- vide for carrying on the public service during his absence in England, to which he was directed to repair, that he might personally satisfy His Majesty's Ministers with respect to bis conduct relative to the lands sold in 1781 ; this he affected to consider as an object which he was certain of accomplisliing, and that in the mean time he had a right to retain the com- mand until it was convenient for him to set off on his voyage to England which, owing to the advanced state uf the winter, could not take !235 place till the next spring. On these pretences,; to the surprise of every thinking man in the Island, Mr. Patterson refused to give np the government, and the council (then composed of members, all of whom had been nominated by himself) thougli they saw the madness of such conduct, and individually did every thing in their power to persuade him to desist theie- from, yet as a body they had the weakness to countenance this criminal insult upon the authority of their sovereign, by meeting him m council, and acting with him in all respects as if he had been still His Majesty's legal representative. Under these circumstances Lieutenant Governor Fanning remained for some months as a private person, con- fident that this audacious conduct as soon as known, must produce such orders as would leave Mr. Patterson without the shadow of aa excuse, and that in the mean time the peace of the colony would be preserved, and all ap- pearance of farther disobedience avoided. Mr. Patterson had met the Assembly a few days p i;- '•■ 1 , (' ■ ;' !?■ 236 befoFd the arrival of Lieutenant Governor Fanning, and they were then sitting, he had kid the Bill before them for making the sales of tiie lands sold in 1781 voidable, agreeable to the orders of government, which they imme- diately rejected : the private Bill stated to be at the request of the purchasers was then brought forward and passed as we before mentioned ; it was expected that this measure, which had the appearance of being nearly the same in effect with the Bill sent from England, would satisfy government, Mr. Patterson's friends in this country had also found means to divide the proprietors in opinion respecting his conduct, and some of them had even come forward with a strong representation in his favour; these measures were now followed up by equally strong addresses and representations in his fkvour from the Council and Assembly, and upon the whole he and his friends had the strongest hopes that he would be continued in the command of the Island. On the other band representations were sent from the. Island, 237 by which it appeared that the proceedings of these bodies by no means spoke the general sense of the colony, the management with respect to the lands sold in 1781 was clearly pointed out, and other acts of official mis* conduct brought forward, and above all the dangerous example of disrespect to the Royal authority in presuming to retain the adminis- tration after the arrival of Lieutenant Governor Fanning. K During the winter addresses from various parts of the Island were presented to Lieutenant Governor Fanning, requesting him to assume the command of tke Island according to His Majesty's Commission, and eiarly in April before the arrival of any intelligence from England, he published his proclamation notifying his ap- pointment and calling upon the inhabitants to obey him as the King's representative ; in this measure he was chearfully and readily obeyed by a great majority of the Island. Mr. Pat- terson however next day, thought proper to I 238 publish a counter proclamation asserting his light to the administration, calling Lieutenant Governor Fanning an usurper, and commanding the inhabitants to obey himself as the Kino-'s legal representative; no tumult or disorder however happened in consequence of this ex- traordinary state of things, every one saw that it could last only for a few weeks at most, perhaps only for a few days. In a short time the spring Letters from England arrived, when it appeared that the conduct of Mr, Patterson in not surrendering up the Government to Lieutenant Governor Fanning upon his arrival, was highly disap- proved of by Hi, Majesty's ministers, and he wa.s commanded without farther delay to give up the Great Seal, and all the public documents and official papers in his possession to his suc- cessor whose appointment in the Governmeuc ivas confirmed. This change was extremely agreeable to the Island in general, and would have been much more beneficial could the latp 239 Lieutenant Governor and his friends liavc given up all idea of his restoration to the Go- vernment, hut that was an event for which they were yet determined to struggle; and after an absence of a few months at Quebec, Mr. Patterson returned to the Island, and set up 4 systematical opposition to the adminisiralioa of his successor ; having been long in the Government, many of the first people in the Island had been under obligations to him, and he of course had a considerable influence, every effort that was possible in the infant state of the Colony was tried to render the administra- tion of Government in the hands of Lieu* tenant Governor Fanning impracticable ; a prudent and steadily moderate conduci; however, enabled the latter to overcome every difficulty, and Mr. Patterson after a fruitless struggle of nearly two years left the Island and came to England, where he expects ed to resume his old influence among the proprietors of the Island by whose interest Jip }M originally got the government, but N'M ■!m^ 240 lif re too he was disappoiakd, the hcATSng .';f the criminal complaints preferred against imy hy the proprietors of the lanl'n sold m )7a^^v lUFiicd out so Hiuch against him, that he lost all influence among that body, aad with thai ev€iy hope o^ z yestoralion to the Govern* • mtm of the lAjarui ^o whiclt he never after^ wards returned .• i^r-l having fallen intodistressy- hh extensive apd valuable possessions were soon after sacrificed for not a fifth of their leal value, under the operation of colonial laws passed during his administration. These laws it has since been found necessary to re* peal, indeed they ought never to have existed, and what is very remarkable by a concurrence of fortunate circumstances very different front the views with which they were enacted, it so happened that while they were in operatiort very little other injury resulted from them than what fell on Mr. Patterson's property*. " * Bj these lawi a creditor wu* enabled to attach his debtor** pr^ - ferfyatthetiaichelookftut hi. fi, ■ . -qpess against him without -waitiii^i , fee ittlgiBPnt; and lands might be sc : : . v execution in six months withov.> •w'v ft^uify of ted«mption. ihe 241 Itn%ht have been expected after the de- cision of the Privy Council on the coniplainb against Governor Patterson and his adherents in 1789, that all farther attempts to disturb U^e colonial government, would have heen abandoned, but an unfortunate misunder- sUnding between the officers of the customas, and the merchants of the Island in I791, gave that party a« opportunity of making a last effort to regain their influence in the colony ; by their management a complaint was preferred to government against the Lieutenant Governor, the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and the Collector of the Customs, which these officers were obliged to answer, and the matter was lieard before the Right Honourable the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade and Plantations, when after an expensive investigar tip? they were all honourably acquitted; as this business is now so long past and many of those concerned therein have seen their error and the parties have in general been long recon- ciled to each other, I shall not now enter into R il S N l:f IJb.. 242 -the circumstanws : some things have since come tb light by which it has appeared that the 'real complainants were not entirely without 'bause of complaint, though by no means such % to justify the extent to which the charges "wttr^ carried ; it was one of those party stnig- ^leS t6 which every society of freemen is liable at times, and in which all the factions, the discontented, and those who have any thing to expect in the scramble, eagerly join ; but which 'bn this occasion it is- now well known, never would have been brought to the length it was, 'but for the Jesuitical management of one, who %as equally the enemy of the accused and the accusers, and who not being entitled to inter- fere in the public affairs of the colony, has for 'many years past, employed the whole of his time in endeavouring to render them impracti- 'Cable in the hands of those to whom the ma- nagement of them has been intrusted. * ■• ft* As I am certain that every child of ten yean old in the Uand,. and e»ery penon in England, in the least acquainted with or concerned it> the aiTairs of the colony can at once name the man, I think it unnecessary t« do it here. ■ ' ' 243 ' Our fislieries which had been gradually re- viving since 1784, promised to become agaiji considerable, and afforded the meana of iecom- ineneing a trade with the West India Islands, by which we were abundantly suppHed w^h their produce upon very moderate teims ;- 5e^£ej:al cargoes of fish were also annually shipped ipv the European market, for which British i|>a4Mi- facturcs, salt and wine were brought in tetyrn ; besides the cod fishery, the herring fishery was begun and promised well, and our merchants had found means to obtain^ considerable share in the produce of the great salmon fisheries carried on in our neighbourhood on the con- tinent, and upon the whole there was every appearance of extensive and valuable fisheries being established to the great benefit of the Island when the late war commencjed ; since which the fisheries have been almost given up ; and our articles of export now consist of wheat, barley, oats, salt pork, butter, furs, seal oil, and •oysters, to^Nova Scotia, wiih live cattle and some timber to Newfoundland, and occasionally a few R 2 ^rm ii -lit i\ U4, ctiigoci Df «quaT( u timber r several yr irs at Halilaxin No i Scotia, was f»le&«^ to pay the most marked and liberal at- tetvcion to the protection and security of theco. 245 lony, mucii more so indeed than afty other gene* ral officer who had ever commanded in the dij- frict ; by His Royal Highness'scommand o\irb»f racks weu rebuilt on a more extensive scale, «nd new works constructed for the defence of th< town and harbour of Charlotte Town ; «ad hl4 circumstances permitted His Royal Highness t9 have visited the Island in person, there i» every reason to believe that the colony* wouM have reaped still higher advantages from hi< patronage ai. protection; the general feelhi^ on the subject, fter His Royal Highness qaitw ted the command in at country, was maftfa fested in a circumstai.ce which I shall aro heavy arrear of quit rent government determined to accept of a moderate composition, and as an encouragement and reward to the pro- prietors who had exerted themselves in the settlement of the colony, this composition was made lighter ta them in proportion to the ex- ertions they appeared to have made ; with this view the different townships were thrown into five classes ; the first comprehended all those lots which appeared to liave the full number of people required by the terms of settlement upon them ; from these the amount of four years quit rent only was demanded, in lieu of the full quit rent from 1769 to 1801. In the second class were put u'l the town- ships which appeared to have one-half the re- quired population upon them ; these were charged with five years quit rent iu lieu of all arrears to May 1801. • In the third class were put all the townships which had between one-fourth, and one-halt the 251 stipulated population on them ; these were re- quired to pay nine years quit rent in lieu of all arrears up to May, 1801. In the fourth class were all the townships which did not appear to possess one-fourth of the required population ; these were charged the amount of twelve years quit rent in lieu of all arrears up to May, 1801. And in the fifth class were placed the town- ships which appeared to be totaHy waste and tiJi inhabited, these were charged with the iimount of fifteen years quit rem in lieu of aJl arrears up to May, 1 80 1. * This measure by disburthening the lands of a heavy arrear of quit rent had an ira- 1 I i:, M I ] t In this arrangement, no dislinction was raade between those townships which had been settled by the exertions of their respective proprietors and those which were settled by the voluntary resort of people to tl,eni : the ■umber of people on each was Jhe wle criterion by which the townsW,.., were classed, a cirtuawtauce which must appear highly liberal on the part i.theijJtHo«' subjects than those who em'si-,vted thirty 5 y,. y-arsago. m 'i '»fc Cl*! !' 1 i i I :^!:^l 254 new situation than there was any prospect of their ever doing in their former. * -♦ It may stiit the tIpws of particular pmple to represent the connection tnd depeudence of the remaining British colonies m America on the niulher country as looae and precarious, such is not by any means the light in which liio subject is seen in these colonies, where I may presume to say it isas well understood as it generaUy is in this country ; neither are the moraf nbr the institutions of their republican neighbours tiewed by them in the same __ favourable aspect, in which they ere too commonly represented in this coantry; and as lo any probability of a rupture between the two countric whereby the iccurity of the British possessions in America may be endan- t«red, I txust that is an event at a great distance. Mos people well •cauainted with the situation of the United States ate convinced that not- vuhstanding appearances to the contrary, their government has no serious idea of a war with this country ; in the present state of their party and po- litical distractions, such a measure could not fail having the mon fatal effects on their internal slate ; and far from being in a situation to think ol conquests, they woidd probably find it very difficult to defend their own sea o. sts : but at all events, I consider tlie maritime colonies as perfectly safe in the prestnt stirte of the British naval power, and whenefer their real value be- comes well understood in this country (a circumstance I trust at no, great distance) such measures I am confident will be adopted by government as will rapidly raise them into a state of population, which in a few years wil*. leave them nothing to fear from their republican neighbours. And when their valuable natural resources are geuerally known, and the immense extent to which their fisheries may be carried is felt, whereby n great body of hardy seamen will be forn.ed for the national defence^ I tliink I may venture to predict that their affairs will be put on suth a ^55 In conseqiiem-e of this great accession of inhabitants, tl>e Town9hif>s Nos. *29, 44, 45, 53, 57, 58, 60, and 62, on which, a few years ago, there was not a human being, have in a short time become well settled, and many other townships have acquired a great addition la their population, the only lots that now re- main totally unoccupied, I believe, are those numbered?, 8, 9, 10, 15, 5\, ^nd 52, on the greater part of which, it is probable settlements will be conmienctd in the course of tliis year. The very liberal terms on which the compo- sition for the arrears of quit rent up to May, 1801 was placed by government, having been disregarded by some of the proprietors, either /boting as will 8t no very distant day render them the most powerful foreign dependency of the Britibh empire, that uihich wiU yet be mat cherished, and last parted with. Though they produce neither gold ot silver, nor any othe; delusive wealth, they enjoy a climate and soil, how- ever diversified, which wili enable tbem to support in a ni raise more of the .nece«aries of life than they ^an, aud ■i«jr thcrefo:- look forirarJ to as high a state of ponnlatipn If rr %'■ ?*'H. 1 1 1 * I J 1 1 1 KP i lllll 258 had happened in Nova Scotia where no quit-rent ha« yet been exacted, butM'here the terms of set- tlement have been enforced, and many hundred thousand acres on which these had not been f\ilfilled, have been escheated, and regranted, often without much public benefit resulting therefrom; mostoftlie landa which have been eschesited were the property of non-residents, and justly ♦ escheated perhaps, because entirely neglected, so far the ihing \Fas very ri^t, but it has unf4:i\U«t^;itely happened, that these knd» were *of>i^^\ ^eg^anted in large tracts to piBOple, wha being upon the spot, were cnabied by a little, personal exertion, and by sacrificing a fourth or a fifth part of wliat tjieythus acquired, to place tomethiog. like the appearande of the; scan typopulatbn Te«|uired by Jihe terms of settlement upon them, and when that has been once done, no farther quesCions ■ • •> I ha«« heard of some very ImtA cases howsvei which made th« i^re Doisr, tint it soon appeared that little more was effected by the proceeding than placing the lands in the hands of a resident proprietor, instead of a person living in Great-Britain or Ireland. • yujmiUU ..mi* 259 are asked, by these means many bundrcil tbo\i- sand acres of the finest lands in the province are locked up in the hands of a few indi- viduals, to the great obstFuction and in- jury of the settlement, but had the quit rents trifling as they are, been exacted and regularly laid out in public works through the Coun- try, such speculations would never have be^n thorght of, and 1 am covinced the population and improvements of the Colony would long ere this have far exceeded any thing it can now boast of. I believe I shall run no risk of mis- statement, when I say that not one twentieth of the lands which have been granted in this Province thirty years ago are yet cleared or cultivated, and the evil would have gone to a much greater length, had it not been for the general instruction issued in 1790, pro- hibiting further grants without His Majesty's permission, That I am well founded in this assertion will be believed, when it is known that notwithstanding the difficulties which this instruction opposed to such practices, 8 2 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET {MT-3) •.id when it was felt that the con- •pquence would be. effectually to cut up the large grant,, ,vhich more than any other circumstanc. have injured and prevented the settlement and OMtira-ion of the country. If it i, expected that the colowcs in North Amertc. are ever to enable the West India Island, to beconae indrpondent of the United States in the very necessary article, of provision^' fish and" lumber ; that can only b. accomplished by an attention to tlri^ affairs vcr^ ^iStttat'rtorn " Ijat they have hitherto met «'itj». ♦i n i:i If' ih, i' .1 "^k f. i * 1 g62 the colony without either expeftw, 6r exertion, in consequence of the indulgence of Govern* ment in not exacting the regular payment of the quit rent ; whereas it may easily be con* ceived, that if the quit rents had been regit* larly exacted, that the proprietors in general, would either have made such exertions as w^te necessary to put the la^ds in a way of exonera- ting them from this yearly expence, or that they would have gradually sold them off, either in small tracts to actual settlers, ©r in large tracts on speculation to men of fortune, Who might be inclined to adventure their money in the settlemt what has happened since the composition for *he arrears of quit rent up to May iSOl was adopted, is a complete proof of this, and I am convinced had that measure been adopted in 1792, when it was firs; proposed, that the consequeace would have been, that we should before this, have had fifty thousand people in the Island, and that every acre in the colony would now have been worth at least five guineas, that is, provide^ thcgroyringquit rent liadbcen regularly exact- ed in the mean-time, and faithfully laid out on the improvement of the country, . In April 1805, several of the principal pro- prietors resident in this country, presented a representatiop to Lord Camden, then Secretary of State for the colonial department, stating such matters as appeared to them to require the attention an', interposition of Government ; this representation has not yet been taken into consideration, but tliere is every reason to expect that when more important affairs will permit the great statesman now at the head of that department, to enter upon the affairs o^ the Island, such a determination M'ill be made thereon, as cannot fail being highly beneficial, and thereby place the future progress and pros* pects. of the colony on a certain and per- manent foptin^j, .-.^vjo tlie beginning of July, Lieutenant-Ge- nial Fanning who had been near nineteen .U ii1 hi m Pil 254 years Lieutenant-Govdrnbr of the I«l«na, * Wat- supersededby Lieutenant-Crovernor Defebarreai who has the advantage of commencing his administration with the colony in pcr- ftct p«ace and harmony, and in a rapid state of improvement , far from mcethig with opposition of atiy kind, he has be^A received with all the attention and respect dif* to his office ; and I am confident will meet with the most liberal support from his prede- cessor and his numerous friends, in every mea- sure calculated to promote the general pros- perity of the colony. Upon giving up the government, General Fanning received every mark of respect and attention that could be shewn him by the people, whose interests had so lon^ been committed to his care ; all were sensible of his good intentions, and the diffi- culties he had to struggle with as governor, where from the circumstances of the country, and the property thereof being locked up in the hands of noh-residents, he was deprived of all the means by which governors are usually •uabled to Contribute to the prosperity and pro- gress of a new colony. ,y Vfi .Jv> His conduct during the time he adniiuist«^rcd the government, hud met with ilic uniform approbation of His Majesty s Ministers, ami .a provision equal to the amount of liis salary was nmk t'ox him on his being auj erccded. '.' J : U3 ".n iint. IM. 'hH '■'11 Hi l| Iff- ■*i:r»«i- »{:, !, ' ^(t^«> ^b I '];G4j^;i :5t; ^m I ! CONSTITUTION, LAWS and RELIGION 1., ftiii :''yi\> This Island, as a part of the dominions of th6 crown of Great-Britain, is independent of any jurisdiction in America,* the government and • Bjr Hit M^t;'( royal procIamaUonin 1763, regultting the division and boundaries of the different countries conquered irom France in the preceding war, the Island was annexed to the province of Nova Scotia; this eircum. stance has never been forgotten, nor has the subsequent separation ever been foigiven bj a certain set of people in that province, in cons«iueuce of which, I am sorry to say, that the Uand has been subjected to much ob, loquy and misrepresentation, the object of which appears to be to prevent the settlement thereof as a separate colony, that it may be again reunited to Nova Scotia, whereby the Urge unsettled grants wonld be brought undei the operation of their escheat laws, and would speedily change hands, that is. instead of being owned in Great Britain and Ireland, they would pau into the hands of people of influencf in and abput the cupilal of that province. This project has been constandy in view ever since the settlement of tht Island commenced, to which it has opposed very considerable obstrnctigps in various ways, nnd is now more openly pursued Ihap ever, the attornej general of that province being at present, I am infoimed, in England. i legislature thereof being vested in a Governor or Lieutenant Governor and Council, appointed by the King, and a house of representative! elected by the people, who meet in general assembly, being called together, prorogued, and dissolved by the governor's proclamation. The commission or patent under the great seal of Great-Britain granted to our first governor. mvowedJy for the purpose of bringing it about ; wtietliei tuch a measure will be attempted witliout the consent of the Waai), after its having for so many years enjoyed a complete constitution, remains fobe lecn ; in the mean- lime, I will yenture to say that hardly any thing short of the conqaeat and •ttbjogation of the colony by a foreign power oould be more generally dis* agreeable to its inhabitants. It will be said by the advocates for this mea. lure, that I misrepresent their views, which t. , Till say aie directed by tery different motives than what I attribute them to, and it wiU be pre- tended that far from having any wish to have the lands regranted in the manner I have alkdged. that ti.eir object is to put the Lland in a way of being speedily settled and cultivated, and therety becoming of that conse- 1«ence and value to the public which its many natural advantages in point of soil and situation enable it to attain, and tliat the speculation I have at. trikuted their views to, may be prevented by an instruction limiting future |f«iiti oflaad in the Island to one or two hundred acres ; in that case the following table of fees taken in Nova Scotia will do someihmg towards set- piBg the very disinterested views of these people in a clear fc^ht. f 1 I H .,:. i\\\ ii i i ri< Mm 268 wlwn the Island was erected into a separate go- vernment, forms the constitution of the Island; a»d the instructions received therewith, are ex. pJanatory of the patent and regulate the gover- lior's" conduct in almost all the common routine of ;public business incident to his situation. The instructions are pretty voluminous, they are changeable at the king's pleasure, and ad- Thecxpenceorfeesofacourt ofeicLc.ti and forfeiture on an in^neit of oftce are ai followi, «'«'^k ,,, , ThcSherifT 13 4 '^^S'"''ev»rOener»IofLaiid. -.134 TheCryeroftheCoart - ... 5 « Advertisements in the Newspapers, ") » giving Botice of the proceedings, V«o Mi** «o cost generaJJjr about .1 Q69 cJitional instructions are sent, as circumstances may require. The council, when full, consists of nine members appointed by the king's man- ^amus, or more frequently by the governor dr lieutenant governor for the time being, subject to His Majesty's approbation : all their privileges and powers are defined in the instructions; they are a privy council to the governor, lieutenant- governor, or commander in chief in the admi- nistration of government, and he is bound by the royal instructions to ask their advice on almost every act of public concern, the stile of all proclamations and acts of government being 1 These Fee* are to be paid b, any per.o,. wli, procecdito cchc.i a graut of land whereou the term, and conditions of .ettl«„,cat have not been fuN filled. V ..« that he a>nj get the whole, or a part thereof regranted to hiu,- •elf. g.p|,o.ing one of our townships e.cheatcd by thi, proceeding. .„d th* itii tobe r«gr.nted .n tr«:t,of one hundred «:re.; the fee, oiofli.ein Nova Scotia on a grant of a hundred acre,, are about eighteen pouad, cor- reney. b«ide.the expence of surveying, «, that the regran-.ug a ,ingl« tomuhip in that manner, would produce to the ofllcor, of government in that provine. n» len -. .u™ ,,«„ tkre. rte«i«rf rf, hundred pound,. U.vi..g .oa^ kn«wJcdge of. tfce .tAj^cf. I prcum. to ,ay. that it w,ll not be difficult to briuB hdflh.Und. in the Idand wl,hm the gripe of the Ctmrt of Escheat,, if it i, reunited to Nova Scoiia. and fron, what ha, been saiu, ...y reader, niU ,ee that th« ,peculat.oa i, worlh^om. e.crti.n. i|.j Ml m kilt i I »70 ** Bjf and with the advice and consent- of Bis ** Mqjestys Council." Tlic> are conventU by the governor, who is always present when they ♦it as a privy council, or upon writs of error, or appeals from the supreme court : a coun- sellor's title is The Honourable, and ihey serve without any salaries. Upon the death or ab- sence of the governor or lieutenant-governor for the time being, the senior member of the board succeds to the government of the Island, which he is entitled to administer, with the title of President of the Council, and Comman,- der in chie^j until His M^j^^ty shall have prp- vidcd otherwise. When the legislatare meets in general assem- bly, the council forms the upper house, repre- . seating the lords in parliament, they then meet without the governor, the chief justice for the time being is ex officio president or speaker ; they cannot vote by proxy, but enter their dissent, and their reasons therefore at large on the minutes; the council never publish ^'* fin their legislative minutes, but tlic house of' re- presentatives always print their own journals; both are transmitted to the office of the secre-' tary of state for the colonies, with authenticated copies of such laws as pass during the session of the colonial legislature. The house of representatives consists of eigh- teen members, elected by the people under "he authority of a writ issued by the governor, lieuteuant-govemor or commander in chief for the time being; four members for each of the counties, andtwo for each of the towns :* They meet in general assembly, are prorogued and dissolved by the governor's proclamation ; they chuse their speaker, subject to the governor's ap. probation, which is generally a matter of course : No personal privilege or advantage is claimed • All hou.ekcep«r^ U^„ of J.n- In po«c.«o„. «.d propue.or. of l«d. bemg Pro,e.t.nt.. .„ q..,ified to ..,c for lb. ««„b«r. of .hci, *e.p*ca,e co.ntie. , M.d (o, the .own. .11 housekeep,™ .«, p,opri.n,r. of f town or putur, lot w«hi„ .he ,ow« and ro,.l,,. be.u, P,oH».t,n.,, «,• ,ent.Ued.o.,o.c; and an, per«.n qual.fi.d .o be an eiec.or, «a^ ^ <;on.e a ckndidate without ftftWrquafificition. • " ' 'I' ('' m M Ml .ft" T 27t by the members, nor do tliey at present redeivd any allowance for tlicir attendance. In all Iheir proceedings when met in general assembly, they take the British house of commons for their model, the rules and regulations of which they have adopted as far as the. same are yet applicable to the circumstances in which they are placed. The colonics are understood to take the common law, and all the Statute Law of Ens- land antecedent to their establishment,* which may be applicable to their situation and cir^ cumstances, but this must be understood with many, and very considerable restrictions, many of the artificial refinements and distinctions in- troduced into the laws of this country cannot be applicable to them : the laws pf police, and Teveiuje, the mode of maintaining the estab- lishtci clergy, tiie poor laws, and the juris- diction of the spiritual courts, and a multitude of other provisions are neither necessary nor ■•/eH- t BJsck, CoTTi, inr. ^/l^ convenient for them nor are they in force; what is admissible, knd what shall be rejected, has hitherto been left to the discretion of their respective courts, and on this Head it may easily be believed opinions will differ much ; it is therefore to be wished, that a more cer- tain iiiode of determining the length to which it is to b arried may be devised. The legislature of the Island are invested with full power and authority • to make, con- stitute, and ordain laws, statutes, and ordj- nances, for tlie public peace, welfare, and good government ^thereof, such laws, statutes, and ordinances, are not to be repugnant to, but as nearly as may be, agreeable to the laws of Great-Britain, and the governor is directeti by the royal instructions, not to assent to the passing of any law of a new or extraordinary nature, without the same has a clause suspend- rngthe operation thereof, until His Majesty's pleasure therein is known. • Hy n.» huj.,y, n,„^i p,^j„.f^ ^,jj^^ 1,^;, ^, ptfut SeiiVof Oreat Brifaift. ■ I' :' 4, i If i V' >• II ili, 1 --(i !l 274 The innovations which have hitherto been made on the English laws are not many, though some of them are important ; I shall endeavour to give an idea of them, taking the subjects up as they stand on our statute book. By an act of the IS'* of George the 3*, Cap, V. the damages on protested foreign bills of exchange are fixed at ten per cent, and the in- terest at six per cent over and above all charges of protest, &c, By the SO*"" of George the 3*. Cap. VIII. For the prevention of clandestine and uncertain sales of houses, lands, and tenements, within the Island, and to the intent that it may be better known what right or title persons really and truly have in or to such estates as they offer for tale. It is enacted that all deeds, conveyances or mortgages of houses, lands, or tenements within the Island, shall be recorded at full length in the register's office within forty days next after their respective dates, if executed on 275 the Island between the first day of May, and the first day of November; and within eighty days if there executed between the first day of November and the first day of May : and if executed in Great Britain or Ireland, then the said original deeds, or duly attested copies thereof, shall or may be recorded as aforesaid, within the space of two years from their respec tiv^e dates. After the expiration of the said forty days, eighty days, or two years : all such deeds, &c. if not recorded as above directed, shall be of no force against any bona fide purr chaser who shall comply with this act, or against any other person whatsoever except the grants or, or grantors, his or their heirs. By the 25th George 3-. Cap. I. the operation of this act is extended to all leases being of a longer duration than twenty years, and the term of two years allowed for the registering of deeds executed in Great Britain or Ireland is extended to all deeds, *c. executed in all other of H,> T 2 M ii ii V:K' iul!;- 276 Majesty'* dominions distant from the Island. Proof of the execution of all deeds, &c is re- quired before they can be recorded. By this act an option is given to the parties concerned, either to register all deeds, &c. at full length, or by a memorial thereof; and for want of such registering, all such deeds of sale, conveyances, mortgages, deeds of settlement^ or conveyances of what nal^ure or kind soever, deeds- poll, leases, or agreements of longer duration than ten years, of or concerning any lands, tenements, or he- reditaments in this Island shall be adjudged fraudulent, and of no force or effect. This act not to bar the title of minors femmt couvert, or persons non compos mentu, imprisoned, or ab- sent from the Island, who are respectively en- titled to sue and recover within two years after such impediment shall have been removed. By an act of the 20,^ of George the 3*. Cap. IX. Creditors are enabled to attach the effects and estates of absent or absconding debtors, wnich are thereby rendered liable in law to the 277 judgment to be recovered on such proccw, and subject to be taken in execution for satisfaction thereof, in whoever's hands the same may be: absent dt'btors against whom such judgments are recovered, are entitled to a re-hearing at any time within three years, and the plaintPfFin such actibns before any execution shall issue on such judgments, to give security to the satisfaction of the court, for the repayment of all monies levied by the said execution, in case the said judgment be reversed on such re-hear- ing. By an act of the 25th of George 3*. Cap. ir. the operation of the above act is^o far al^ tered as to restrict creditors from proceeding against debtors who have never been resident on the Island, and security in double the amount is required before any execution is awarded against an absent debtor, conditioned to make restitution, incase the said judgment shall be reversed on a re-hearing; but the time allowed to absent debtors to appear either by themselves or attorney, and move to have the judgment by default taken off, is curtailed and limited to a i'lll I- ffi ' I »n II Mr lif f I 278 year and a day from the time of entering judgi ment against such absent debtor. By the SP* of Gedrge 3*. Cap. II. the estates of intestates, after paying all just debts and fu- neral expenses, are directed to be distributed by the judge of probates, one-third of the personal estate to the widow of the intestate, besides her dower in the houses and lands during her life ; and out of all the riesidue of such real and per- sonal estate, two shares, or a double portion to the eldest son or his representatives, and the remainder of such residue, to and among the other children of the intestate, or their repre- sentatives ; widows' dower to be divided in like manner after her death. By the 3I«t of George the 3". Cap. III. landi and tehements are made liable to the payment of debts in case no personal effects can be found to satisfy the same ; this act allowed an equity of redemption within two years after levying ^uch execution, but was repealed by the act of 279 the S&^ George the 3-. Cap. IX. which hiadc lands and tenements liable to be sold in six Jnonths after they were taken in execution, with- out any equity of redemption ; the operation of tliis last act was found to be so severe, that an act was passed in the 35* of GeorgcS^ Cap. VIII. by which it is enacted that no lands or tenements hereaftf^r to be taken in execution, shall U sold in less than two years after they shall have been so taken. By the 21", of George the 3". Cap. XVII. It is enacted, that all actions or suits, either in Jaw or equity, to be sued or brought, of or for any lands, tenements, m hereditaments within tJie Island, shall be sued and taken within twenty years, next after the title or cause of action first descended, and at no other time after the said twenty years ; and that no entry shall be made upon lands, &c. but within twenty years next after such title shall have ac- crued, after which such persons not entering, are utterly excluded ; with the usual saving 280 clause to infants, fmme eoutert, persons mm compos mentis, imprisoned, or bet/umi seas. The great and general neglect of so many of the proprietors having involved many people iu great uncertainty with respect to the titles of lands, whereon very considerable exertions and expence had been laid out, the legislature were induced in 1795 to passalaw 35'" Geo. 3" Cap. 11. intituled an act for confirming titles and quiet- ing possessions, by which it is enacted, that all purchasers or lessees of land, who have been in the quiet and peaceable possession of such lands for the space of seven years, and all persons claiming by, from, or under them, are confirmed in such possession according to the right, title or interest intended to be conveyed in and by such leases or conveyances. And all deeds of sale made by the Sheriff, Coroner, &c. under writs of execution are confirmed, any want of legal form in such deeds notwithstanding. The lands sold in 178J, for non-payment of quit rent, are excepted from the operation of 281 this act, and it is also provided that no error which may have taken place in setiling the township boundaries shall be thereby confirmed; By the fi^'" of George 3". Cap. VJ. It ii^ enacted, that no greater interest than six ^ cent per annum shall be taken. The severity of the criminal laws of Great Britain being unnecessary in a new country where few crimes are committed, by the 33< of George the 3" Cap. [. a new criminal code more suitable to the situation and circumstances of the country is established. By the 36*^ of George the 3" Cap. Iir. [t is enacted that all grants, deeds, and conveyances heretofore made and executed by any married woman jointly with lier husband, of any lands, houses and te- nement within this Island, whereof such married woman is dowable, shall be as good and valid III law, as if the same had been made byafemme ■sole, or as if such woman had joined in levjying a fine, according to the law and practice of i 'I' is I 4 :. ; i:"* W, I :i IS 282 England in that case made and provided ; and it is further enacted^ that all grants and con* veyances which shall hereafter be made by any married woman jointly with her husband, of lands, houses, and tenements whereof she is dow- ablc by law, or in or to which she may have any present or future interest, either in her own right, or in or by any other ways or means whatsoever, shall be as good and valid in law, and of the same force and effect, as if the same had been made hy z.femme sole, or as if such married wo- man had joined in levying a fine in manner herein-before mentioned ; provided such deed or deeds, &c. shall be acknowledged by such married woman in the presence of a judge of the supreme court of the Island, or any justice of the peace thereof, by such married woman, as her free and voluntary act and deed, and to have been executed for the purposes in the said deed or deeds mentioned, and that the same was done without any force or compulsion from her husband and a certificate of such acknow- ledgment, the form whereof is engrossed in the \ 283 act, is directed to be underwritten or indorsed on every such grant, deed, or conveyance. The revenue laws hitherto adopted, are but two, a licence duty on retailers of wines, and spiritous liquors; and an impost or excise duty of ten pence per gallon, payable on the im- portation of all wines and spirits ; and two pence pdr gallon on the importation of all porter, ale, or strong beer; these are the <4nly taxes yet payable in the Island, and the produce df them has cohstituted the sole rt- venuc by which the contingent expences of government, and the high roads and bridges have been carried on. Taxes are a subject on which the House of Representatives have hi- therto been particularly tenacious, and they have yet to learn, that it is possible to err on the popular side of the question ; called to the «luty of legislating for their fellow subjects, without much experience or knowledge of public business, they have not observed that Ky giving way foo much to the prejudices 284 common on the subject, a considerable re- venue, which might have been raised and ap- plied to the public service, greatly to tlie ad- vantage of the Island, has been suffered to go mto the pockets of a few individuals, w.io have hi- therto had the trade of tlie Island in their hands: This is an error naturally to be ex- pected in a new country, but experience will teach us better, and all will soon be con- vinced, that a respectable revenue adequate to tlie wants of the public service, is absolutely necessary to the prosperity of the Island. The only common law court yet established in the Island, is the Supreme Court of Judi- cature, which is a Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer ; the Chief Jus- tice is appointed hy - - vnt under HU Majesty's manual and signer, under the authority of which, letters patent are made out in the Island^ t^ted by tlie governor or commander in chief for the time being, and under the Great Seal of the Colony, and a salary of five hundred ^^ 285 pounds a year is now annexed to tlie office : there are two assistant justices, who aie appointed by the governor, and who at present serve without any salary. The departments of counsel and attor- ney are still united, and the number of practioncjfs isyet only foui : the proceedings in civil acUoos are conducted as near as circm stances will per- mit, agreeable to the practice m the Court of Common Pleas in Westminster Hall. An appeal in the nature of a writ of error is allowed from the supreme court to the governor or com- mander in chief in council, when the debt ox value appealed for exceeds the su '.p of three hundred pounds sterling ; and an appeal from the judgment or sentence of the g< vernor or commander in chief in council, to Hjs Majesty in Council, is allowed when the debt or value, so appealed for, exceeds the sum of i ve hun- dred pounds sterling. The church of England is the religion of the Island, estabhshed by law, but the free ex ercise of every religion is allowed : and all dissenters \vl mi I'M 'I (.(III .'f 286 of whatsoever denomination they are, have free liberty of conscience ; and may erect meeting houses for public worship ,• and may chuse and elect ministers or pastors according to their several opinions. And all contracts made between such dissenting ministers and tbeir congregations are declared valid, and shall have their full force and effect ; and all dissenters are exempted, and excused from the payment of any rates or taxes to be made or levied, for the support of the Church of England in the colony. There is yet only one clergyman of the Church of England on the Island, who was appointed by the King, Rector of the Parish of Charlotte on the first formation of the government, and has a salary of seventy pounds a year on the annual estimate, voted by parlia- ment for the civil establishment of the colony, for whicb he does duty for the whole Island, making occasional tours to the different set- tlements to perform divine service, and bapti^re 287 the children : several applications have been jpade to the incorporated society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, on behalf of the Island, praying for the appointment of mis, sionaries, on the same footing as they are grant- cd to all the other colonies in North America, and though it is understood that these appli- cations were recommended to the consideration of the society by the Bishop of Nova Scotm in the first place, and subsequently by the Earl of Buck, inghamshire^when secretary of state for the colo- nial department, it has not thought proper to grant the favour requested ; if I am well inform- ed, the reasons on which the refusal was ground- ed, are, that a numbijr of individuals of fortune in this country, who are proprietors of land in the Island, pontribute nothing lo the funds of the society, and that government allow the salary of military chaplain on the garrison staff of the Island, to be held as a sinecure by a person who never was in the colony, instead of con- %ring it on a resident clergyman; after what has b^en said in the preceding pages of the Ml .ill II 'I '''4 ■ :'if '11 ll If .! '■& ■'. Jf 'mi' '1 15 xoa neglect of the proprietors in other matters, it appears hard that the conduct imputed to them on this subject, should also be injurious to the colony. The people of the Island liave not been able to discover in these reasons, much concern for their spiritual welfare, or any great consistency with the professed o^vects of that reverend and very respectable society, and they* have to lament, that without any fault on their' part, they are excluded from participating in» the important beaefits of an institution, thaV has been liberally extended to tlie wighJ bouring colonies of Nova Scotia and ^seyy' Brunswick, and to all their felloxv subjects iu similar circumstances : the disappointment is the more to be regretted, that, as on the one^ handi the Island is yet free of the contag ion of' thitwisdom which affects to reject Christianity, so^ on the other, has it escaped the visitation of t/iat' wild fanaticism which has overrun many parts of the continent, greatly to the injury and dis- credit of true religion, morality, and industry. And the minds of the protesfant part of the in- ' 289 >iabitants in general are in that state wherein a Jittle aid and exertion on tlie sniyect, would go a great way towards uniting the greatest pm of them in the comnuuiion of tlie church of iingland. Most of the Highlanders who set- tlfcl in tlie Island previous to 1803, and the Ac- cadian French, are Roman Catholics, and have two or tinee priests of that religion, whose re- puted zeal for making proselytes has occasi- onally created some differences; I believe how- ever their success in that respect has not been great, though the want of Protestant clergymen has given them advantages over weak minds. The greatest part of the Highlanders who have recently settled in the Island, are of the church of Scotland, but have yet no chr^.vman of their own persuasion, thou^i^h there i, reason to hope that the same disinicrestrd ca.e and attention which induced so manv of tluir opu- lent countrymen to join in bringing to.ward the late act for regulating emigration, will in- ' duce them also to afford some aid on this more u Hilj m iiV (i» 290 important subject, and they are the more san- guine in their cx|)ectations, because it is known that the funds at the disposal of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland applicable to such purposes, are in a vtry flourishing state, and it cannot be believed, that any little jea- lousy with respect to em -ration wi.l he allow- ed to interfere against them. 1 he sum wanted In addition to what; they can do themselves, inrill be but trifling, nor will it be long wanted, h. few yeais will enable them amply to provide for a Clergyman, and also to establish a senii'^' nary of education, in the mean time, however, ^ome assistance on both subjects would be vt ry desirable. 291 FISHERIES. Having several times in the preceding page, mentioned the Fisheries of the Island, I ,haU r.ovv attempt to give my readers some idea of their nature, and the extent to which they may be carried. , The herring fishery is the first that commen- ces in the spring; the bays and harbours, par- ticularly on the north side of the Island, are no sooner clear of ice. than they are filled with immense shoals of these fish, which may be taken in any quantity ; though they appear to be more plentiful some years than others, they never fail coming in great abundance. They are not so fat, though generally much larger than the herrings takaa on the west coast of u 2 11 292 Scotland, and on the coust of Ireland ; they are more like the Srwedish herring, and properly cured, answer very well for the West India market ; they are taken at much less expence than on the coast of Scotland or Ireland, as the whole business is carried on in the harbours, and no craft above the size of common boats is necessary; such a train of nets as is commonly used in a herring buss of 70 or 80 tons on the coast of Scotland, would with ease take ten thousand barrels in a week or ten days; in ge- neral, however, large seins for dragging them oh shore, will be found a better kind of net. They come into the harbours generally as socn as the ice is gone, the first shoals are always *he best, and the whole business does not last above a fortnight, and if shipped off imme- diately for the West Indies, from the shoi .aess of the voyage, and the nature of the fish, being a large full fish without oil, they will arrive there in a better state for that market, than any other herrings that can be carried to that cli- mate. Besides what may be exported salt, 293 great quantities might be smoaked, or cured red, for M-hich there is a great demand in the United States ; the wood necessary for smoak- ing herrings will cost little more than the trou- ble of cutting it down and carrying it to the curing houses, in this country it constitutes th» greatest part of the expence of the business. In tlie months of October and November, large shoals of herrings of a much superior cha- racter, such as would be fit for the European market, come upon the coast, but do not come into the harbours in such large bodies as in the spring, but they might be as easily taken by buss fishing as they are on the coast of Scot- land. t Ale Wives, or Gasperaus {Clupeaserrata) are taken in many parts of the Island, and in the adjacent harbours on the continent, in very considerable numbers, and though not so plen- tiful as the common herring, there is no doubt but many thousand barrels of them might be exported from the Gulph every year, thev %\ 294 generally sell at a doHar a barrel higher in the West Indies than the common hemng, which is a considerable object ; they are taken in the months of May and June, in rivers and brooks where very short nets on ly are requi red. Eels of a very superior kind have long been known to be taken on the Island, they are too valuable for the West India market, but have occasionally been sent to the Itahun market, where they are sold by the barrel for double the pitce of salmon, and the demand tor them is much greater than can be supplied ; soiu judo-. ment of the value of them may be formed from the circumstance of their selling, in so plentiful a country as Canada, at sixteen dollars a bar- rel ; the onJy method at present in use for taking Itom, is by spearing for them in the muddy flats in our harbours, and even in that way very eonwderable quantities are taken ; there arc many situations in the Island in which the method of taking them by placing eel pots in the rivers may be practised, and the only at- 295 tempt that has hitherto been made iu that way was very successful. Mackerel are in great abundance on the coast and in the harbours, from the middle of June till November; taking them with net* has never yet been much practised in our owa harbours ; the gut of Canso which divides the Island of Cape Breton from Nova Scotia, and the adjacent harbours, are the places where thi3 fishery has been chiefly carried on, the distance being only from twelve to twenty leagues front the Island ; the quantity taken at these haN hours is some years very great ; it has been known that at the harbour of Port Hood, Ott the coast of Cape Breton, after thirty vessels had been loaded in a week, a heap of fish, sup* posed to contain at least a thousand barrels, have been left on the beach to rot, for want of salt to cure them. Many American vessels from the New England states load annually in these harbours with mackerel. : I I 1 1 ■ t 1 ■ i ^^^B ■ 296 Cod are caught in great plenty in almost every part of the Gulph of St. Lawrence, but more particularly on the coast of the Island, the 1% of C: aleur, and the Straits of Belleislc; our pricipal fishing ground extends all along the north coast of the Island, from the east point to the Orphan Bank, which stretches con^ siderably to the northward of the North Cape, and the fishing vessels have seldom to go above . three or four leagues from the shore, whera there is only :V .™ ten to fifteen fathoms water ; from several parts of the Island an advanta- geous boat fishery may be carried on part of the season, as great abundance offish may often be had at little more than a mile from the shore, and sometimes at a less distance; two men will at times load a boat twice in a day. The fishery carried on from the American Sta^es in the Gulph of St. Lawrence for some years pa.st is very extensive, and is known to be one of the greatest sources of the wealth of the eastern states, from which about tzi^ 297' thousand stliooTitis of from seventy to one liundieil tons, are annually sent into tli» V,n\pU : of these about fourteen hundred make ihe^r" fish in the Straits of Relteisle, and on tlie Ll- trador shore, from whence, what is intended fur the European market, is shipped off, without" heing sent to iheir own ports; aboi t six hun- dred American schooners make their fares on the north side of thh are dried ; the number of men employed in this fishery is estimated at between fiOeen and twenty thousand, and the profits on it are known to be very great. To see such a source of wealth ami naval power on our own coast., and in our very harbours, abandoned to the Americans, is much to be rcgrette«l and wouli be distressing wcvq it not that the means of re- occupying the wh3le with such advantages as must soon preclude all competition, is afforded in the cultivation and settlement oj Prince Ed- • ward Inland. I -! The principal advaiitaije the Ainerican.s hnve hilhnti* had ovn the British fi.iheries on this C oasr, ari.Ms from tiie cheapness of the neces- saiiesof life anionic ihem, whereby they are ei ablid to huiltl, fit out and provision thcii fish- ing craft at a small expence in comparison to what can be clone from the ports of Great Britain and Ireland, which enables them to undersell us in every market ; I believe there is no person acquainted with the soil and climate of Prince Edward Island, but will admit that it is as fit for producing provisions of all kinds in abundance, as tiie eastern states, and haa even some advantages over them in that re- •f ect, as it is well known that from the nature of their climate, they do not produce wheat enough to supply ll.tmselves with bread corn, which ihey arc obliged to import from their sou- thern ncijihbouis. Net only Prince Edward Island, but a great part of the country round theGulph of St. Lawrence will produce wheat, and every necessary of life in great abundance, and from their extent, situation, and natural '299 TMOurce^, are calculated to support ai niiinef» oils, and as poweiful a population ai the Nim KiiLyland States ; into whose hands in the natu- ral course of things this fishery 0>nu^r ou their coasts and harbours) must fill, to the? excUision I trust at no vQry distant ihy of our republican neighbours ; and to the "-reat benefit of the trade and naval resources of Great- Britain and Ireland. Btsides the fisheries which have been men- tioned, oreat quantities of salmon arc taken in different rivers which run into the Gulph, particularly the Restigush which runs into tiie head of the Bay of Chaleur, and the River Miramichee in the Province of New Brunswick, from the former, four thousand tierces of xhvte hundred pounds each, has often been exported in d year|| ; the salmon fisheries in the rivers on the Coast of Labrador and the Straits of Btllidle, II I think I may venture to say ihat ten ihousand fi-rcei have I'reqututl'r keen exported irbrfi the Oulph in a jear. 'I I soo are at present chiefly in the hands of the Ame- ricans, as is also a considerahlc share of the Indian trade on that coast, both without any oliitr right than suifc ranee. If the Americans at such a distance, find the fishery on this coast so profitable, what must it be if carried on from Prince Edward Island, so much nearer, and where every thing necessary can be produced in as great pcrfec- as in New England ; there is nothing in the American system of management if superior to our own, of which tlie knowledge is not easily obtainedjtand situated as we are, with so many fine harbours close to the fishing ground, and ivith a country in which the population, and almost every thing necessary for the business can be produced and suj)ported, it must be manifest that the greatest part of the fisheries in the Gulph and Straits of Bellisle, must fall to the people of the Island as soon as their t And thoiuandt of th«ir fi»eiii.slc, can be restored to Great- Britain. | + '1 !ic M!!„.:!ak-3i Jsl.-.iuls in point of -iluiUoii, UicsWeilrujiciy viiuabli,' 303 I have been informed that if the southern whale fishery was attemj)ted from tlie harbour of George Town or Three Rivers on an exten- sive scale, that a great many people from Nan- tucket and other ports in New England, accus- tomed to that business, if encouraged, would readily settle there, to which, it is .aid, they would be induced, fic so far attended to, as to induce some per- son whose abilities are more equal to the subject, to enter ti^ercon, and to put it in that light which its importance to the public requires, he will not doubt of seeing in a short time a consider- able portion of that capital, and still more va- Juable spirit and industry, which is now at- tracted by the United States, directed to the improvement of a British possession whose set- tlement and cultivation, he is confident "^will not only amply reward ihose who may adventure therein but materially contribute to increase the Naval power and resources of the British Empire. THE END. Fimtcd ^> W. Winchciter and Soh, fii, flt»nd. d