428 THE KING ; GOD BLESS HIM ! 



would at once become encrusted with a coat of ice which, however 

 unwelcome to the sailor, was singularly beautiful as the sun beamed 

 lull upon the seemingly chrystal-rigged vessel ; while the forests on 

 shore, decked in like brilliant garb, almost realized, in those northern 

 regions, the enchanted diamond gardens of the Arabian tales. The 

 Prince must have had them at his fingers ends at the time. The 

 inhabitants of Halifax, the seat of government, consisted of a few of 

 the old French settlers, numbers of Germans from Brunswick and 

 Hanover excellent people, and Irish, Scotch, and English emigrants. 

 Every house in the town, with one exception, was built of pine, 

 admirably adapted for the purposes of Captain Swing, as it required 

 about the time occupied by a quarter deck sermon to reduce a house 

 to ashes in the case of fire. The country around was wild, rude, 

 rocky, and sterile, while forests of interminable extent were to be 

 seen on every side, enclosing a multitude of lakes in their depths, and 

 affording precarious shelter to the tribe of Micomacs, the aborigines 

 of the land an unwarlike, submissive, and inoffensive race, who 

 gained largely by the chace and sale of furs, to their prejudice ; as 

 the indulgence of New England rum, thus permitted even in my 

 time, was wasting rapidly their ranks. Neither in character or 

 effect was Halifax likely to prove a Capua to Prince William Henry, 

 yet there existed great and unaffected hospitality, a refinement in 

 manners among the better classes scarcely to have been expected ; 

 which, if they might not pass muster with the exclusives and 

 desirables of Almacks at this day, might be preferred to them 

 warm-hearted and singularly loyal men, and women whose beauty 

 may yet be pleasantly remembered within the walls of St. James's. 

 Such was Halifax, with its unrivalled harbour and magnificent 

 dock-yard ; and there was enough to content an honest, intelligent, 

 and light hearted youth, who, it he found not merriment and sport 

 made to his hands, why he even (or my Acadian chroniclers closely 

 resemble a certain voluminous traveller) contrived to concoct them 

 for himself." 



" A little fellow feeling with respect to errant authors, I prithee ;" 

 quoth he of the 92d, " you have travelled far and wide yourself; 

 fill your glass, and forward me the snuff-box. Remember the barber of 

 Brussels, who recently advertised his invisible perukes for examination." 



" Ah ! you are not likely, I see, to compromise yourself so much in 

 support of my statement, as the polite Frenchman, who being 

 reproached by a scribbling traveller with not justifying the reference 

 made to him in support of the truth of his account so fully as he 

 might have done, indignantly replied, " I absolutely swore to their 

 accuracy ; could I do more than commit perjury for a friend ? 

 However, my Halifax reminiscences may hardly be deemed shaken 

 by the " Go it, Ned," of the maturer years of our illustrious subject. 

 But to my say : Faith in the chronicler is necessary ; and if there 

 be error in my tale, I must place it on the shoulders of old Mat. 

 Hutchins." 



" In the name of all euphony, who was your friend ?" said the 

 Major. 



" Old Mat Hutchins had been a respectable and wealthy merchant, 



