122 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
of the great European powers, whose unwilling vassals they might 
have remained. ‘There is ample evidence that this conspiracy among 
crowned heads of Europe to crush out republicanism might have 
become effective a few years later had not the plan been thwarted 
through disapproval of the scheme by Great Britain whose influence 
and valour then intervened to prevent the contemplated invasion. 
James McCollom also refused to be coerced into taking up arms 
against the Mother Country during the continuance of the war, or 
to countenance the many extremely harsh methods of persecution 
adopted against the loyalists by the relentless and lawless revolution- 
ists who, after the capitulation, found that with the change of system 
of government, old statutes were considered suspended or abolished and 
new laws not yet enacted, or new methods of legal procedure estab- 
lished or enforced, so that they were therefore enabled in numerous 
instances to carry out without restraint the most atrocious designs 
of mob violence against quiet and orderly people, whose homes, estates 
and other property they coveted and were eager to possess. This 
persecution was also carried on to so great an extreme by constituted 
authorities under the new republican regime that the property of 
loyalist families was confiscated, and being thus debarred from resid- 
ence and quiet enjoyment of homes established by years of economy 
and industry, the only resource left them was to desert their homes 
and associations that were dear to them, and, with what they could 
carry or pack on animals, to follow the lonely trails through a long 
wilderness, where Indians roamed and wild beasts were plentiful, 
toward Canada to hew new homes out of the dense forests and to 
dwell once more beneath the British flag, which was to them and has 
been to many thousands since, the most inspiring emblem of freedom 
and justice to be found in the world. The heavy infliction imposed 
on these people we can only conjecture, as heads of families with 
delicate women and children, and in some instances with aged people, 
all took a last sad survey of their home and familiar surroundings 
and then started on their long, weary and eventful journey northward. 
James McCollom and family undertook the journey in 1788 with 
what they could conveniently move. Goods were packed on horse- 
back and two small children balanced in panniers with other goods 
on one horse. The eldest son, John, and a smaller brother, Joseph, 
drove a few cattle through the perils and lonely wilderness. At night 
to insure safety from wild beasts, they would build a camp fire, close 
to which they would remain, and which they dared not leave till day 
dawned. One night their cattle were frightened by some large wild 
animal and ran until sound of the bell was lost in the distance. The 
next morning, by following in the direction the cattle had gone, they 
