they have so much cause to apprehend.'

After the evacuation of New York, therefore, the number
of refugee Loyalists who came to Nova Scotia was small
and insignificant. In 1784 and 1785 there arrived a few
persons who had tried to take up the thread of their
former life in the colonies, but had given up the attempt.
And in August 1784 the _Sally_ transport from London cast
anchor at Halifax with three hundred destitute refugees
on board. 'As if there was not a sufficiency of such
distress'd objects already in this country,' wrote Edward
Winslow from Halifax, 'the good people of England have
collected a whole ship load of all kinds of vagrants from
the streets of London, and sent them out to Nova Scotia.
Great numbers died on the passage of various disorders--the
miserable remnant are landed here and have now no covering
but tents. Such as are able to crawl are begging for a
proportion of provisions at my door.'

But the increase of population in Nova Scotia from
immigration during the years immediately following 1783
was partly counterbalanced by the defections from the
province. Many of the refugees quailed before the prospect
of carving out a home in the wilderness. 'It is, I think,
the roughest land I ever saw'; 'I am totally discouraged';
'I am sick of this Province'--such expressions as these
abound in the journals and diaries of the settlers. There
were complaints that deception had been practised. 'All
our golden promises,' wrote a Long Island Loyalist, 'are
vanished in smoke. We were taught to believe this place