n the lands of that Township and have used every effort on
their parts to comply with the terms of their Grant, but the continual
robberies committed by the Rebel boats during the war, to which these
settlements have been exposed, obliged a number of their tenants to
remove. However, as every exertion was used by them I take the liberty
to recommend their claims on that Township to your consideration."

During the earlier stages of the Revolution the attitude of the people
of Machias on the one hand, and of the inhabitants of the township of
Cumberland on the other, proved a matter of concern to the dwellers on
the River St. John. Machias was settled in 1763 by a colony from
Scarborough, one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts. During the war
it was the asylum of disloyal spirits who fled thither from various
parts of Nova Scotia. The township of Cumberland included a
considerable portion of what is now the county of Westmorland. The
inhabitants were mostly natives of New England, and many of them warm
sympathizers with the revolutionary pasty. Jonathan Eddy was their
representative in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1774, and John
Allan in 1776. Eddy and Allan, aided by William Howe and Samuel
Rogers, succeeded in stirring up an active rebellion in Cumberland,
which called for prompt action on the part of the Government of Nova
Scotia. The leaders fled to Machias and a reward of L200 was offered
for the apprehension of Eddy and L100 for each of the others.

The attitude of the Indians was another matter of serious concern to
the settlers on the River St. John. Immediately after the Declaration
of Independence the American congress authorized Washington to call
forth and engage the Indians of Nova Scotia, St. John and Penobscot to
take up the hatchet and fight against the English. With strange
inconsistency Congress a few days later, in an address to the people
of Ireland, denounced the King of England on the ground that "the wild
and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited by gifts
to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated to deluge our
settlements with the blood of defenceless women and children."

The Micmacs seem to have been reluctant to take sides in the contest
and in answer to John Allan's solicitations they said, with quiet
dignity, "We do not comprehend what all this quarreling is about. How
comes it that Old England and New England should quarrel and come to
blows? The father a