rs of their men had been
discharged in New York, and that many of the officers
had gone to England. But nevertheless, with their women
and children, their numbers were not far from four
thousand.

The arrangements which the government of Nova Scotia had
made for the reception of this vast army of people were
sadly inadequate. In the first place there was an
unpardonable delay in the surveying and allotment of
lands. This may be partly explained by the insufficient
number of surveyors at the disposal of the governor, and
by the tedious and difficult process of escheating lands
already granted; but it is impossible not to convict the
governor and his staff of want of foresight and expedition
in making arrangements and carrying them into effect.
When Joseph Aplin arrived at Parrtown, as the settlement
at the mouth of the river was for a short time called,
he found 1,500 frame houses and 400 log huts erected,
but no one had yet received a title to the land on which
his house was built. The case of the detachment of the
King's American Dragoons who had settled near the mouth
of the river was particularly hard. They had arrived in
advance of the other troops, and had settled on the west
side of the harbour of St John, in what Edward Winslow
described as 'one of the pleasantest spots I ever beheld.'
They had already made considerable improvements on their
lands, when word came that the government had determined
to reserve the lands about the mouth of the river for
the refugees, and to allot blocks of land farther up the
river to the various regiments of provincial troops. When
news of this decision reached the officers of the provincial
regiments, there was great indignation. 'This is so
notorious a forfeiture of the faith of government,' wrote
Colonel De Lancey to Edward Winslow, 'that it appears to
me almost incredible, and yet I fear it is not to be
doubted. Could we have known this a little earlier it
would have saved you the trouble of exploring the country
for the benefit of a people you are not connected with.
In short it is a subject too disagreeable to say more
upon.' Winslow, who was hot-headed, talked openly about
the provincials defending the lands on which they had
'squatted.' But protests were in vain; and the King's
American Dragoons were compelled to abandon their
settlement, and to remove up the river to the district
of Prince William. When the main body of the Loyalist
regiments arrived in the autumn