14 



Till Time shall be no more, with Liberty, Peace, and Safety. May 

 America be Emanuel's Land. Amen and Amen." 



The Revolutionary War brought great poverty and distress upon 

 the people of the town. Their own soil afforded but a scanty sup- 

 ply of the necessaries of life, and the}' were obliged to send vessels 

 to Virginia for the corn which they could not raise at home. Their 

 commerce and fisheries were destro} T ed. The young and middle- 

 aged men fell victims to the war some on the battle-field, some by 

 sickness at camp, some in prison ships, and many in the depths of 

 the ocean. More than one hundred went down at sea, in two pri- 

 vateer ships which were never heard from after their last departure 

 from home ; and more than three hundred, abofit one-third of all the 

 able-bodied men of the town, who had bravely entered into the con- 

 test for liberty, were no longer among the living when the great 

 blessing of independence was secured. With this result achieved 

 and a wide field for energy opened, the people resumed their former 

 pursuits, and though the ante-revolutionary prosperity of the fisher- 

 ies was not fully restored, they found in that branch and a success- 

 ful foreign commerce sufficient returns to yield them all the substan- 

 tial enjoj^ments of existence. 



