ad begun to expect. As the names of the
thousands who were anxious to go to Nova Scotia poured
into the adjutant-general's office in New York, it became
clear to Sir Guy Carleton that with the shipping facilities
at his disposal he could not attempt to transport them
all at once. It was decided that the ships would have to
make two trips; and, as a matter of fact, most of them
made three or four trips before the last British soldier
was able to leave the New York shore.

On April 26, 1783, the first or 'spring' fleet set sail.
It had on board no less than seven thousand persons, men,
women, children, and servants. Half of these went to the
mouth of the river St John, and about half to Port Roseway,
at the south-west end of the Nova Scotian peninsula. The
voyage was fair, and the ships arrived at their destinations
without mishap. But at St John at least, the colonists
found that almost no preparations had been made to receive
them. They were disembarked on a wild and primeval shore,
where they had to clear away the brushwood before they could
pitch their tents or build their shanties. The prospect
must have been disheartening. 'Nothing but wilderness
before our eyes, the women and children did not refrain
from tears,' wrote one of the exiles; and the grandmother
of Sir Leonard Tilley used to tell her descendants, 'I
climbed to the top of Chipman's Hill and watched the
sails disappearing in the distance, and such a feeling
of loneliness came over me that, although I had not shed
a tear through all the war, I sat down on the damp moss
with my baby in my lap and cried.'

All summer and autumn the ships kept plying to and fro.
In June the 'summer fleet' brought about 2,500 colonists
to St John River, Annapolis, Port Roseway, and Fort
Cumberland. By August 23 John Parr, the governor of Nova
Scotia, wrote that 'upward of 12,000 souls have already
arrived from New York,' and that as many more were
expected. By the end of September he estimated that 18,000
had arrived, and stated that 10,000 more were still to
come. By the end of the year he computed the total
immigration to have amounted to 30,000. As late as January
15, 1784, the refugees were still arriving. On that date
Governor Parr wrote to Lord North announcing the arrival
of 'a considerable number of Refugee families, who must
be provided for in and about the town at extraordinary
expence, as at this season of the year I cannot send them
into the country.' 'I c