38 EEV. GEOEGE PATTEESON 



We should also mention here that Miss Dix having noticed the want of a library on the 

 island, appealed to some of her friends and to liheral-minded booksellers in Boston, by whose 

 joint gift, she received several hundred volumes, which were forwarded thither, and we need 

 not say have served a valuable purpose for the amusement and instruction of the residents, 

 as well as the mariners who are constrained by necessity to abide there for a time. 



It may be mentioned that in the early history of the establishment an offer from the 

 American government to aid in its support was refused by the authorities of Nova Scotia, 

 for no other reason that we can learn than the old grudge at the American people. By this 

 time we are happy to say that Christianity had so far advanced that their assistance was not 

 only received but highly valued. 



During the superintendency of Mr. McKenna there were wrecked on the island four 

 ships, three barques, seven brigs and ten schooners. And j^et of their crews and passengers 

 there was only one life lost. This was from a French Canadian schooner, the " Marie-Anne " 

 of St. André. She came upon the shore nearly broadside. The men dropped from the bow 

 into the water, and were drawn ashore with ropes by men from the station, to the number 

 of seven, some of them frostbitten and insensible from cold. This man, who was the only 

 one on board speaking English, seemed to lose his reason altogether, and finally jumped 

 overboard at the stern, where the water was deeper. The advancing wave impelled him 

 forward and the men saw him gain a footing, but the receding wave carried him beyond 

 their reach. Strange to say, one man who had his leg broken was yet saved. There was, 

 of course, no surgeon on the island, and the superintendent had to do the best he could in 

 the way of setting the limb. The operation succeeded thoroughly, and the patient after 

 some weeks left, witli his thanks as heartily expressed to the superintendent's family as he 

 was able to utter with his total unacquaintance with the English language. The number of 

 lives saved in that time could not have been less than five hundred, probably more. 



From his accounts we find that the wrecked goods saved and the island produce (horses, 

 oil, cranberries, etc.) together, from April, 1849, to 22ud July, 1854, a little over six of the 

 seven years he was in office, was valued at £14,247, or nearly $57,000, over $9,000 per 

 annum. This did not include the effects of the crews and passengers, always the first to be 

 saved, chronometers, or the value of wrecks sold. He does not separate the proceeds of 

 wrecked goods from those of the island produce. But it is evident that all under the first 

 category must have been clear gain, for previous to the establishment of this institution, 

 while fishermen might gain by plundering a wreck on the island, the owners never expected 

 to receive anything for her, while the produce of the island went far to pay the expenses of 

 the establishment. 



VII. To THE Present Time, 1855-1894. 



Mr. McKenna left the island on the 5th September, 1855, and was succeeded by Philip 

 Dodd, Esq. "We need not follow the narrative further. Life continued such as we have 

 described it, and the incidents were of a similar character. "We have chosen to exhibit the 

 time when Mr. McKenna was superintendent, not to indicate his superiority to other men 

 who have filled the same office, but simply because, having before us his journals during the 

 whole time of his incumbency, and being at the same time in communication with a member 

 of his family who resided with him on the island, we have been able to give an account of his 

 work as we could not of the others. But the picture of life is equally true of times since. 

 The system has continued the same or with some improvements. 



