y fishing village of Paspebiac. In addition
to these settlements, some of the exiles took up land on
private seigneuries; these, however, were not many, for
the government discouraged the practice, and refused
supplies to all who did not settle on the king's land.
At the present time, of all these Loyalist groups in the
province of Quebec scarce a trace remains: they have all
been swallowed up in the surrounding French population.

The Eastern Townships in the province of Quebec were not
settled by the United Empire Loyalists. In 1783 Sir
Frederick Haldimand set his face like flint against any
attempt on the part of the Loyalists to settle the lands
lying along the Vermont frontier. He feared that a
settlement there would prove a permanent thorn in the
flesh of the Americans, and might lead to much trouble
and friction. He wished that these lands should be left
unsettled for a time, and that, in the end, they should
be settled by French Canadians 'as an antidote to the
restless New England population.' Some of the more daring
Loyalists, in spite of the prohibition of the governor,
ventured to settle on Missisquoi Bay. When the governor
heard of it, he sent orders to the officer commanding at
St Johns that they should be removed as soon as the season
should admit of it; and instructions were given that if
any other Loyalists settled there, their houses were to
be destroyed. By these drastic means the government kept
the Eastern Townships a wilderness until after 1791, when
the townships were granted out in free and common socage,
and American settlers began to flock in. But, as will be
explained, these later settlers have no just claim to
the appellation of United Empire Loyalists.

CHAPTER X

THE WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

Sir Frederick Haldimand Offered the Loyalists a wide choice
of places in which to settle. He was willing to make land
grants on Chaleur Bay, at Gaspe, on the north shore of
the St Lawrence above Montreal, on the Bay of Quinte, at
Niagara, or along the Detroit river; and if none of these
places was suitable, he offered to transport to Nova
Scotia or Cape Breton those who wished to go thither. At
all these places settlements of Loyalists sprang up. That
at Niagara grew to considerable importance, and became
after the division of the province in 1791 the capital
of Upper Canada. But by far the largest settlement was
that which Haldimand planned along the north shore of
the St Lawrence and Lak