St. John but settled in Shelburne, where
he was the first mayor of the town. The troops for St. John sailed in
charge of Lieut.-Col. Richard Hewlett as senior officer, with
Lieut.-Col. Gabriel DeVeber second in command. They left New-York on
September 15, 1783, and arrived safely in St. John harbour on the 26th,
with the exception of the transports "Martha" and "Esther." The former
was wrecked near Yarmouth and more than half of her passengers were
lost. The "Esther," in which VanBuskirk's battalion had embarked, got
off her course in the fog and narrowly escaped destruction, arriving a
day or two behind her sister ships.

As Peter Fisher was born on Staten Island, on June 9, 1782, he was a
very young Loyalist indeed at the time of his arrival in Blue-nose
Land, being, in point of fact, less than sixteen months old.

Sir Guy Carleton's orders were that the several corps should proceed at
once to the places allotted for their settlement, directions having
been given to Captain John Colville, assistant agent of all small craft
at the St. John River, to afford every assistance in his power to the
corps in getting to their destinations. Three days after their arrival
the troops disembarked and encamped above the Falls, near the Indian
House. Hewlett wrote Sir Guy Carleton that he feared the want of small
craft would greatly delay their progress. He writes again on the 13th
October, 1783, that the troops had been disbanded and were getting up
the river as fast as the scarcity of small craft for conveying them
would admit.

I shall pause here to relate an incident, which will indicate the
source from which Peter Fisher derived the information he gives us
concerning the arrival of the Loyalists at St. Ann's and their
subsequent hardships.

About twenty-five years ago William, the youngest son of Peter Fisher,
read to me in his apartments in the old Park Hotel, in St. John, a
manuscript which contained the recollections of one of his sisters of
her various conversations with her old grandmother, Mary Fisher,
concerning the coming to New-Brunswick and the subsequent experience of
her family at St. Ann's. Mr. Fisher did not entrust the manuscript to
my hands but allowed me to make full notes, and afterwards at my
request re-read the whole, in order that I might make sure of my facts.
The story which now follows is, of course, not quoted from the lips of
the first narrator, but is based upon the notes made by her
granddaught