d some twenty
thousand acres on the island of St. John's, or Prince Edward's, as it is
now called, a grant to some of his ancestors, which had been bequeathed
to him, and from which he had never received one shilling of rent, for
the very best reason in the world--because there were no tenants to
cultivate the soil. It occurred to our noble captain that this was the
very sort of cargo he wanted, and that these Irish people would make
good clearers of his land, and improve his estate. He made the proposal
to them, and as they saw no chance of getting to the United States, and,
provided they could procure nourishment for their families, it was a
matter of indifference to them where they colonised, the proposal was
accepted, and the captain obtained permission of the admiral to
accompany them to the island to see them housed and settled. Indeed,
nothing could have been more advantageous for all parties; they
increased the scanty population of our own colony, instead of adding to
the number of our enemies. We sailed again from Halifax a few hours
after we had obtained the sanction of the admiral, and, passing through
the beautiful passage between Nova Scotia and the island of Cape Breton,
known by the name of the Gut of Canso, we soon reached Prince Edward's
Island.

We anchored in a small harbour near the estate, on which we found a man
residing with his wife and family; this fellow called himself the
steward, and from all I could see of him during our three weeks' stay,
he appeared to me to be rascal enough for the stewardship of any
nobleman's estate in England. The captain landed, and took me as his
aide-de-camp. A bed was prepared for his lordship in the steward's
house, but he preferred sleeping on clean hay in the barn. This noble
lord was a man whose thoughts seldom gave much labour to his tongue; he
always preferred hearing others to talking himself; and whoever was his
companion, he must always be at the expense of the conversation. Nor
was it by the usual mode of simple narrative that his mind was
completely impressed with the image intended to be presented to him; he
required three different versions, or paraphrases, of the same story or
observation, and to these he had three different expletives or
ejaculations. These were "hum!" "eh!" and "ah!" The first denoted
attention; the second, part comprehension; and the third, assent and
entire approval; to mark which more distinctly, the last syllable was