[150] 



APPENDIX H. 



STATE OF NOVA SCOTIA IN 1783-84. 



From Colonel Morse's Report on Nova Scotia in 1783-84 {See Rejiort on Canadian 



Archives for ISS4.) 



The extent of this Province,' beginning, as before, with the Peninsuhi, from the 

 north-east to the south-west, the greatest lengtli, is !iV:)out 225 miles ; and the great- 

 est breadth, which is nearly north and south about 75 miles, containing, by calcula- 

 tion. 10.271 s<|uare miles. There arc, in different parts of the Province, about 36,000 

 acres of cleared up lands, and 24.000 acres of marsh land diked in, making together 

 about 00,000 acres under cultivation. The extent and contents of that part lying on 

 the Continent, cannot be ascertained with the same precision till the boundaries are 

 better established. There may be about 27,000 square miles, making the whole con- 

 tents of the Province upwards of 43,000 square miles. 



The old inhabitants, whom I shall first name, separately from the disbanded 

 troops and loyalists, which have come since the late war, are computed at about 

 fourteen thousand, exclusive of Aoadiansand Indians. Of the former, who are the 

 remains of the old French inhabitants, and are dispersed all over the Province, 

 there are about one hundred families ; of the latter about three hundred men 

 of the tribe of Mickmacks, the original Indian of the Peninsula ; and upon the 

 rivers St. John and the Scodiac about one hundred and forty men of the tribe of 

 Mareshites ; but as I could not obtain such information upon this head as I wish, the 

 computation may not be strictly correct. Before I proceed to give the number of the 

 disbanded troops and loyalists, it may not be improper to observe that a great part 

 of the old inhabitants, especially the wealthy ones, are from New England, and that 

 they discovered, during the late war, the same sentiments which prevailed in that 

 country. I think it necessary to add that the Legislature is principally composed 

 of these men, and that some of the higher public offices are at present filled wnth the 

 most notorious of such characters. 



The number of new inhabitants, viz., the disbanded troops and loyalists who 

 came into this Province since the peace, I shall be able to give with precision, the 

 whole having been mustered in the summer of 1784, in order to ascertain the number 

 entitled to the Royal bounty of provisions. The following Return will not only 

 show the number of men, women and children, but the diilerent parts of the Pro- 

 vince in which they are settling, and here I am sorry to add that a very small pro- 

 portion, indeed, of these people are yet upon their lands, owing to difierent causes- 

 First— their arriving very late in the season. Secondly — timely provision not having 

 been made by escheating and laying out lands, in which great delays and irregulari- 

 ties have happened. Thirdly— a suflicient number of surveyors not having been em- 

 ployed, but lastly and principally, the want of foresight and wisdom to make neces- 

 sary arrangements, and steadiness to carry them into execution, the evils arising 

 from which will be felt fora long time to come, not only by the individuals, but by 

 Government, for if these poor people who, from want of land to cultivate and raise a 

 subsistence to themselves, are not fed by Government for a considerable time 

 longer, they must perish. They have no other country to go to— no other asylum. 

 They have hitherto been mostly employed in building towns at the principal settle- 

 ments. At Port Ro.seway and the mouth of the River St. John, astonishing towns 

 have been raised, and in less time, perhaps, than was ever known in any country 



Tlio provinco then iauludud New Brunswick. 



