artly by persuasion to enlist for
the war, which they were assured would be of short duration. These
people were not only in poverty, but many were in debt for their
passage, and they were now promised that by enlisting their debts should
be paid, they should have plenty of food as well as full pay for their
services, besides receiving for each head of a family two hundred acres
of land and fifty more for each child, while, in the event of refusal,
there was presented the alternative of going to jail to pay their debts.
The result of the artifices used can be no mystery. Under such
conditions most of the able-bodied men enlisted, in some instances
father and son serving together. Their wives and children were sent to
Halifax, hearing the cannon of Bunker Hill on their passage.

These enlistments formed a part of the Battalion under Major
Small,--five companies of which remained in Nova Scotia during the war,
and the remaining five joining Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis to
the southward. That portion of which remained in Nova Scotia, was
stationed at Halifax, Windsor, and Cumberland, and were distinguished by
their uniform good behavior.

The men belonging to the first battalion were assembled at Quebec. On
the approach of the American army by Lake Champlain, Colonel Maclean was
ordered to St. Johns with a party of militia, but got only as far as St.
Denis, where he was deserted by his men. When Quebec was threatened by
the American army under Colonel Arnold, Colonel Maclean with his
regiment consisting of three hundred and fifty men, was at Sorel, and
being forced to decamp from that place, by great celerity of movement,
evaded the army of Colonel Arnold and passed into Quebec with one
hundred of his regiment. He arrived just in time, for the citizens were
about to surrender the city to the Americans. On Colonel Maclean's
arrival, November 13, 1775, the garrison consisted only of fifty men of
the Fusiliers and seven hundred militia and seamen. There had also just
landed one hundred recruits of Colonel Maclean's corps from
Newfoundland, which had been raised by Malcolm Fraser and Captain
Campbell. Also, at the same time, there arrived the frigate Lizard, with
L20,000 cash, all of which put new spirits into the garrison. The
arrival of the veteran Maclean greatly diminished the chances of Colonel
Arnold. Colonel Maclean now bent his energies towards saving the town;
strengthened every point; enthused the lukewarm,