r opponents, who supported independence, were called
Whigs. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor, families were divided, the
greatest cruelties were inflicted, as the war went on, upon men and
women who believed it was their duty to be faithful to king and
country.

As soon as the contest was ended, their property was confiscated in
several States. Many persons were banished and prohibited from returning
to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to
the evacuation of New York, in September, 1783, "upward of twelve
thousand men, women, and children embarked at the city, at Long and
Staten islands, for Nova Scotia and the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions
were held in those days of the climate and resources of the Provinces to
which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the
Loyalists had actually fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Upper Canada; that the country where most of them settled
was superior in many respects to the New England States, and equal to
the State of New York, from which so many of them came.

It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached
British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes
soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took
place in 1783-1784. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded
the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or
twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to
the conditions of the rough country around them and soon sought homes
elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favorable parts of Nova Scotia, and
even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in the beautiful
valley of the St. John River, and founded the Province of New Brunswick.
As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in the present county
of Glengarry, in the neighborhood of Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, on
the Niagara River, and near the French settlements on the Detroit. A few
also settled in the country now known as the Eastern Townships of French
Canada. A great proportion of the men were officers and soldiers of the
regiments which were formed in several colonies out of the large loyal
population.

Among them were also men who had occupied positions of influence and
responsibility in their respective communities, divines, judges,
officials, and landed proprietors, whose names were among the best in
the o