--such men leave few memorials behind them. Their papers are
scattered and lost, and their very names pass from human recollection.
* * Of several of the Loyalists who were high in office, of others who
were men of talents and acquirements, and of still others who were of
less consideration, I have been able, after long and extensive
researches, to learn scarcely more than their names, or the single fact
that for their political opinions or offences they were proscribed and
banished."[135]

The circumstances under which the Loyalists were banished from the
States and deprived of their property will largely account for the
alienation of feeling which long existed between the Americans and
Canadians, which gave intensity to the war of 1812-15, which exists to
some extent at this day, but which is gradually subsiding, and is being
gradually superseded by feelings of mutual respect and friendship,
strengthened by large commercial and social relations, including many
intermarriages.

To understand the sacrifices which the Loyalists made, and the courage
and energy they evinced, in leaving their old homes and associations in
the sunny parts of America, and in seeking a refuge and a home in the
wilds of the remaining British Provinces, it will be necessary to notice
what was then known, and the impression then existing, as to the
climate, productions, and conditions of these provinces.[136]

At that time New Brunswick formed a part of Nova Scotia, and was not
organized into a separate province until 1784. The impressions then
entertained as to the climate of Nova Scotia (including New Brunswick)
may be inferred from the following extracts from a pamphlet published in
England in 1784:

"It has a winter of almost insufferable length and coldness; * * there
are but a few inconsiderable spots fit to cultivate, and the land is
covered with a cold spongy moss in place of grass. * * Winter continues
at least seven months in the year; the country is wrapt in the gloom of
a perpetual fog; the mountains run down to the sea coast, and leave but
here and there a spot to inhabit." Some of the officers, embarking at
New York for Nova Scotia, are said to have remarked that they were
"bound for a country where there were nine months of winter and three
months of cold weather every year." Lower Canada was known as a region
of deep snow, intense cold, and little fertility; a colony of the
French; its capital, Quebec, the scene of decisive b