88 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
The Maroons, after their complete surrender, were transferred to 
barracks, strongly guarded, and preparations were made for their ship- 
ment, it being the intention to settle them in Lower Canada on lands 
acquired for that purpose. Upper Canada had also been suggested as a 
suitable place, but finally the decision was arrived at that they were to be 
taken to Halifax, there to remain until instructions were received from 
the Secretary of State, and Messrs. Quarrell and Ochterlony, the commis- 
saries who were to accompany the banished Maroons, were directed 
accordingly. On the 26th of June, 1796, the transports having them on 
board sailed from Port Royal harbour, in company with a large fleet 
bound for Europe under convoy, from which they parted on reaching the 
coast, and on the 24th July Governor Wentworth wrote to the Under 
Secretary of State that they had arrived at Halifax, but were not yet 
landed, and that he thought they would make excellent settlers. The 
date Of arrival is not given in Governor Wentworth’s letter ; one of the 
vessels arrived on the 21st, and the rest on the 23rd of July, the passage 
having thus taken close upon seven weeks. \ 
The first employment in which the Maroons were engaged .after 
landing at Halifax was on the fortifications erected on the demand of the 
Duke of Kent, then general in command of the district. an attack being 
apprehended from the squadron under command of Admiral Richery, 
in prosecution of the war by revolutionary France then in progress. The 
Maroons were housed in temporary huts, rented houses and tents close to 
the place of their employment ; and they worked cheerfully under the 
direction of the Duke, offering, indeed, to work for the King’s son with- 
out pay, an offer which, of course, was not accepted. Their conduct gave 
general satisfaction, relieving the people of Halifax of the apprehension 
that had prevailed from the accounts they had received of the ferocious 
and bloodthirsty character of the new arrivals. The weather, too, was 
favourable to the diffusion of a spirit of satisfaction among the Maroons, 
as they arrived in the warm season, the heat of which approached, if it 
did not equal, that of the island which had been their home. By the 
end of October they were settled on the lands purchased for them, not 
without internal disputes, and their want of experience in defending 
themselves against the cold must have caused great discomfort, although 
the correspondence does not show this, Wentworth writing in November 
that they were enjoying comfort and happiness. 
From the first the Governor did not place much confidence in the 
commissaries, but assumed the whole care and management, alleging that 
the commissaries were strangers to this business, and, as far as can be 
judged from the correspondence, there was a mutual dislike. The winter 
passed over quietly, but in the spring, after the experience of the cold 
season, a spirit of restlessness seemed to prevail among the Maroons. 
Whether this prompted the proposal of Ochterlony, one of the Jamaica 
