112 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Island. It is therefore clear (unless about two-thirds of these intending 
settlers departed during the year and a half between June, 1784, and 
January, 1786), that there is a large discrepancy in the statement 
of Governor Patterson, who is said by Warburton to have written to 
the Secretary of State, in January, 1786, that only about two hundred 
settlers had arrived and some families from Rhode Island, who expected 
others soon to come from the United States on account of heavy taxes 
and want of trade.' 
Doubtless, Governor Patterson and his colleagues were disappointed 
in the number of settlers which the offer of lands in their pleasant and 
fertile island secured; but it must be remembered that Prince Edward 
Island was competing for residents with the idyllic western portion of 
the Nova Scotian peninsula and with the rich and lovely valleys of the 
St. John and St. Lawrence rivers, localities in which thousands of 
Loyalists were finding homes. Under these circumstances one may 
reasonably say that the island fared well in the number of Loyalists 
who sought its shores. That a considerable exodus of these immigrants 
may have taken place is not improbable in view of the charlatanry 
practised on them by both proprietors and officials when they presented 
their claims for homestead lands. The story of the many wrongs 
committed against the settlers will be narrated later on. 
It may be asked from what States these Loyalists came. The 
majority of those whose origin is known came from New York. Occa- 
sional references indicate that some had formerly lived in Boston, Mass., 
Rhode Island and other parts of New England, while some came from 
remoter sections, for example, North and South Carolina. 
À wide variety of social condition was shown by the new settlers. 
Disbanded officers and men from Loyalist regiments, such as Butler’s 
Rangers and the King’s Rangers were to be found among the population. 
Sabine, in his American Loyalists, gives sketches of some of these, among 
them several who were connected with the King’s Rangers, and who 
after settling appear to have written others inviting them to follow.’ 
The civilians were represented by men of former wealth and rank, 
as also by farmers and artisans of the middle class. We hear of persons 
of both high and low degree among the recent settlers who, like the 
Loyalists of all other localities, had gone through the most trying 
vicissitudes on account of their devotion to the Crown, some of them 
members of the wealthy class of New York who became involved by 
giving aid to British troops, and again a New York gun-smith who 
relates the danger he encountered in supplying arms to the British, and 
1 Warburton, Prince Edward Island, an Historical Sketch, p. 30. 
2 Pp. 243, 359, 439, 572, 625, 646. 
