March
tempests. General Howe remained with his army at Halifax
until June. Then he set sail for New York. Some of the
Loyalists accompanied him to New York, but the greater
number took passage for England. Only a few of the company
remained in Nova Scotia.

From 1776 to 1783 small bodies of Loyalists continually
found their way to Halifax; but it was not until the
evacuation of New York by the British in 1783 that the
full tide of immigration set in. As soon as news leaked
out that the terms of peace were not likely to be
favourable, and it became evident that the animus of the
Whigs showed no signs of abating, the Loyalists gathered
in New York looked about for a country in which to begin
life anew. Most of them were too poor to think of going
to England, and the British provinces to the north seemed
the most hopeful place of resort. In 1782 several
associations were formed in New York for the purpose of
furthering the interests of those who proposed to settle
in Nova Scotia. One of these associations had as its
president the famous Dr Seabury, and as its secretary
Sampson Salter Blowers, afterwards chief justice of Nova
Scotia. Its officers waited on Sir Guy Carleton, and
received his approval of their plans. It was arranged
that a first instalment of about five hundred colonists
should set out in the autumn of 1782, in charge of three
agents, Amos Botsford, Samuel Cummings, and Frederick
Hauser, whose duty it should be to spy out the land and
obtain grants.

The party sailed from New York, in nine transport ships,
on October 19, 1782, and arrived a few days later at
Annapolis Royal. The population of Annapolis, which was
only a little over a hundred, was soon swamped by the
numbers that poured out of the transports. 'All the houses
and barracks are crowded,' wrote the Rev. Jacob Bailey,
who was then at Annapolis, 'and many are unable to procure
any lodgings.' The three agents, leaving the colonists
at Annapolis, went first to Halifax, and then set out on
a trip of exploration through the Annapolis valley, after
which they crossed the Bay of Fundy and explored the
country adjacent to the river St John. On their return
they published glowing accounts of the country, and their
report was transmitted to their friends in New York.

The result of the favourable reports sent in by these
agents, and by others who had gone ahead, was an invasion
of Nova Scotia such as no one, not even the provincial
authorities, h