The first considerable migration took place at the time
of the evacuation of Boston by General Howe in March
1776. Boston was at that time a town with a population
of about sixteen thousand inhabitants, and of these nearly
one thousand accompanied the British Army to Halifax.
'Neither Hell, Hull, nor Halifax,' said one of them, 'can
afford worse shelter than Boston.' The embarkation was
accomplished amid the most hopeless confusion. 'Nothing
can be more diverting,' wrote a Whig, 'than to see the
town in its present situation; all is uproar and confusion;
carts, trucks, wheelbarrows, handbarrows, coaches, chaises,
all driving as if the very devil was after them.' The
fleet was composed of every vessel on which hands 'could
be laid. In Benjamin Hallowell's cabin there were
thirty-seven persons--men, women, and children; servants,
masters, and mistresses--obliged to pig together on the
floor, there being no berths.' It was a miracle that the
crazy flotilla arrived safely at Halifax; but there it
arrived after tossing about for six days in the 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