18 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the liistoiy of the Acadian proviiices are wont to attribute the material 

 prosperity of the i)eninsuUv of Nova Scotia, mainly to the Uiri^e body of 

 Loyalists wlio left their homes in the old colonies, after the war of 

 independence. As a matter of fact, however, there were two well- 

 detined streams of immigration into the p)-ovince after the ex))atriation 

 of the French Acadians. The first was the influx of the people properly 

 known as Pre-Loyalists. who settled in townships of the present counties 

 of Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Queen's, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Cumberland 

 and Colchester, especially in the beautiful townships of Cornwallis and 

 Horton, where the Acadian meadows were the richest. 



During the few years that had elapsed since the Acadians were 

 driven from their lands, the sea had once more found its way through 

 the ruined dykes, which had no longer the careful and skilful attention 

 of their old builders. The new owners of the Acadian lands had none of 

 the special knowledge that the French had acquired, and were unable for 

 yeai*s to keep back the ever encroaching tides. Still there were some rich 

 up-lands and low-lying meadows, raised above the seas, which richly 

 rewarded the industrious cultivator. The historian, Judge llaliburton^ 

 describes the melancholy scene that met the eyes of the new settlers when 

 they reached, in 1760, the old home of the Acadians at Mines. They 

 found ox-carts and yokes which the unfortunate French " had used in 

 conveying their baggage to the vessels which carried them awaj*, and at 

 the skirts of the forest, heaps of the bones of sheep and horned cattle 

 that, deserted by their owners, had perished in winter for want of food." 

 They came across a few stiaggling families of Acadians who '-had 

 eaten no bread for years, and had subsisted on vegetables, fish, and the 

 more hardy part of the cattle that had survived the severity of the first 

 winter of their abandonment." They saw everywhere " ruins of the 

 houses that had been burned by the Provincials, small gardens encircled 

 by cherry trees and currant bushes, and clumps of apple trees." In all 

 parts of the country where the new colonists established themselves, the 

 Indians were unfriendly for years, and it was necessary to erect 

 stockaded houses for the protection of the settlements \ 



iPor details of this early New England migration, see following authorities: 



" An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," hy Thomas C. Hali- 



burton, barrister at-law and member of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. 



In two volumes, 8vo, with a map and several engravings, Halifax. Printed and 



published by .Toseph Howe, 1H2\). 



"History of the County of Annapolis," including old Tort Royal and Acadia, 

 with memoirs of its representatives in the ])rovincial parliament, and biographical 

 and genealogical sketches of its early English settlers and their families. Hy the 

 late W. A. Calnek. Edited and compiled by A. W. Savary, A.M., judge of the 

 county court of Nova Scotia. With portraits and illustrations, Toronto, etc., 1897. 

 This book is ai)ly edited by .Judge Savary, whose knowledge of the eminent men of 

 his province, and especially of his historic county, is i)robably not etiualled by any 

 other living Nova Scotian. I am indebted to him for many valuable details during 

 my studies of the Loyalists and other classes of the people of Nova Scotia. 



