{RayMOND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 53 
storm, broke down the dykes at the head of the Bay of Fundy flooding 
the lands reclaimed by the Acadians.' Lawrence in his first report 
of the damage consequent upon the flooding of the marsh lands said, 
that the country had been rendered ‘as useless asif it had never been 
improved;” that the repair of the dikes would be attended with great 
cost and Jabor, and that the overflowed lands would not be capable of 
producing grain for three years. He feared that it would prove a great 
discouragement to those who proposed coming as settlers the following 
spring. Fortunately,the damage was not so great asat first reported. 
The dikes, it is true, were everywhere more or less broken, and it was 
the opinion of Mr. Morris that the marshes which had been overflowed 
would scarcely bear corn even in the year 1761—one harvest would 
certainly be lost and perhaps two. Nevertheless, the inundation by 
no means rendered the country as unprofitable as if it had never been 
tilled, and Lawrence assured the Lords of Trade that ‘were it to lye 
unoccupied and useless for the space of three years, which,” he adds, 
“is the time the French inhabitants have often told me the seas break- 
ing in had deprived them of their crops, it would even in that case be 
more valuable in every respect than unimproved lands.” The Nova 
Scotia House of Assembly appealed to the British ministry for aid to 
the settlers in view of the damage done by the mundation. The 
Governor was disposed to support the application, and he wrote that 
while it might appear unreasonable to think of introducing any more 
settlers upon the terms of free transportation and allowance of pro- 
visions, as was done in the case of the townships of Horton, Cornwallis 
and Falmouth, yet in consideration of the discouraging calamity that 
had befallen them at setting out, in the plan for the resettlement of 
the diked lands, some little assistance should be given towards trans- 
porting settlers, especially emigrants whose homes were remote from 
the point of embarkation, and who having no craft of their own must 
sell their stock to pay for their passage. 
The Indians, upon the downfall of Quebec, speedily changed their 
attitude and began to make overtures for peace. Early in February, 
1760, Colonel Arbuthnot, the commandant of the garrison at the mouth 
of the river St. John, came to Halifax with a number of Maliseet chiefs, 
who desired to make a treaty with the Governor. The chiefs appeared 
before the Governor in Council with an interpreter. After full discussion 
a treaty was solemnly agreed to in which they declared in the most 
‘ A considerable part of the rampart of Fort Frederick, at the mouth of the 
River St. John, was washed away by the storm, and at Fort Cumberland, at the 
head of the Bay, a body of firewood for the garrison containing 700 cords was swept 
off by the tide from the wood-yard, although situated at least ten feet higher than 
the tops of the dikes. : 
