[boubinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 27 



to have confidence in the future of the country and in its capabilities for 

 raising all kinds of cereals and fruits. The Loyalist migration of 1783 

 commenced a new epoch in the history of British North America. It 

 opened up districts, made additions of a loyal population to the older 

 settlements and gave colonies to the empire. Nova Scotia was divided 

 into two provinces^ one of which retained the old name, which had been 

 given to it in King James's day, and the other recalled the Brunswick- 

 Lunenburg or Hanoverian line which had given kings to England. 

 Cape Breton— for the name of lie Eoyale disappeared after the fall of 

 Louisbourg — also received a simple system of local government, separate 

 from Nova Scotia. Canada was divided into two provinces, Upper and 

 Lower Canada. The articles of peace, which were signed in 1783, 

 afforded no adequate protection to the men who had fought and suffered 

 for king and country. The weak congress, which then nominally 

 governed the feeble confederation, formed in 1781, had no real influence 

 over the indej)endent states, when the question arose of carrying out the 

 provisions of the treaty and granting an amnesty to the people who 

 wished to be restored to their homes and estates, or to obtain at least 

 some compensation for the same. The legislatures of these states were 

 animated by a purely revengeful spirit, and few, if any, estates were 

 given back to their lawful owners. In many places men were tarred and 

 feathered, and even hanged, for daring to remain in the country. Many 

 thousands had no choice open to them except to seek refuge in Florida, 

 the West Indies, the British Isles, and in the wilderness which still 

 belonged to Great Britain in North America. 



" They left the homes of their fathers, by sorrow and love made sweet ; 

 Halls that had rung a hundred years to the tread of their people's feet ; 

 The farms they had carved from the forest where the maples and pine trees meet. 



" He left his years of manhood, he left his place of pride ; 

 And she, she left the little room where her first baby died. 

 Ah, God, how each familiar thing to that fond mother cried. 



" The rebels held our homesteads ; ' Ours ' laid them down in the moss. 

 The world was loud with their triumph ; the woods were dumb with our loss. 

 They sat on the throne as victors ; the throne of our love was a cross. 



" 'Mid slow, soft-footed things that creep at the edge of the eve and dawn, 

 The women went with their young ones, as a doe goes by with her fawn, 

 While the men they loved went on before, guns ready and sabres drawn. 



" They passed down the silent rivers which flow to the mighty lake ; 

 They left what they'd made for England (but those who have made can make), 

 And founded a new Dominion for God and their country's sake." ^ 



1 These verses are taken from a spirited poem published by Mr. Clive Phillipps- 

 Wolley— now a resident of British Columbia— in Longman's Magazine (London, 

 Eng.), for June, 1897. The poem is imbued with that imperial spirit that animated 

 the Loyalists, and is far above the average of verses yet written by Canadians on 

 the same inspiring subject. 



