402 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



O'Hara occupied in laying out the Township of Paspebiac, and George 

 Geddes similarly occupied at some other point not designated. Al- 

 ready the refugees with O'Hara had planted their potatoes, and were 

 petitioning for three months' provisions in addition to what they 

 had brought with them, besides requesting a supply of boards, nails, 

 seines, etc. A month later they had drawn their lots in the new 

 township. As Paspebiac was to be a fishery, it was laid out in the form 

 of a parallelogram, so as to include the beach and adjoining marsh; 

 and provision was made for a reservation in the rear, partly to preserve 

 a supply of timber, and partly to protect from molestation a score of 

 families who had been living there for some years. 1 



Some of the disbanded soldiers among the new settlers had al- 

 ready begun to give trouble, and Cox suggested to Haldimand the 

 appointment of a sheriff and several justices of the peace to maintain 

 order and administer the law. Another source of disturbance to the 

 new settlements was a party of American fishermen who, arriving 

 in four vessels early in July, disembarked at Point St. Peter, Bona- 

 venture Island, and Bonaventure, and there erected their fishing 

 stages. Cox at once reported this intrusion to the government at 

 Quebec, and received instructions to warn the trespassers off im- 

 mediately and give them notice that the matter had been communi- 

 cated to the British admiral stationed at Halifax. By the vessel 

 bringing these instructions Governor Haldimand forwarded a hundred 

 stands of arms with ammunition, besides other supplies. The arrival 

 of these bounties was acknowledged by Cox in a letter of August 25, 

 in which he expressed his belief that the Americans would not leave 

 the coast unless forced to do so. 2 



The same letter bore testimony to the progress of the settlement 

 at Paspebiac, for it reported that the refugees there were cheerfully 

 occupied in building their homes and were becoming more and more 

 pleased with their lands. Moreover, a memorial accompanied the 

 letter, signed by Thomas Pryce Jones, Captain Azariah Pritchard, 

 and other Loyalists, asking permission to erect a grist-mill for the 

 benefit of the settlement. An unsigned memorandum, which was writ- 

 ten a few days later than Cox's letter, presents the busy scene of men, 

 women, and children all engaged in clearing their lots and putting 

 up their abodes, and predicts that in eighteen months, when their 

 garden produce and crops are gathered, they will need no further 

 assistance. The writer adds enthusiastically that it is the best country 

 tor a poor man that he has ever seen, on account of the great quantity 

 of fish, game, and timber, and the fertility of the soil. Even small 



1 Haldimand Papers, B. 202, pp. 186, 164, 196. 



2 Ibid., B. 202,p. 168; B. 64, pp. 109, 1 12-11-4; 13. 202, pp. 204, 195. 



