Shelburne
districts and those of the St John river it is difficult
to understand. Edward Winslow frankly accused him of
jealousy of the St John settlements. Possibly he was only
too well aware of the inadequacy of the preparations made
to receive the Loyalists at the mouth of the St John,
and wished to divert the stream of immigration elsewhere.
At any rate his opinion was in direct conflict with the
unanimous testimony of the agents sent to report on the
land. Botsford, Cummings, and Hauser had reported: 'The
St John is a fine river, equal in magnitude to the
Connecticut or Hudson. At the mouth of the river is a
fine harbour, accessible at all seasons of the year--never
frozen or obstructed by ice... There are many settlers
along the river upon the interval land, who get their
living easily. The interval lies on the river, and is a
most fertile soil, annually matured by the overflowing
of the river, and produces crops of all kinds with little
labour, and vegetables in the greatest perfection, parsnips
of great length etc.' Later Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac
Allen and Edward Winslow, the muster-master-general of
the provincial forces, were sent up as agents for the
Loyalist regiments in New York, and they explored the
river for one hundred and twenty miles above its mouth.
'We have returned,' wrote Winslow after his trip, 'delighted
beyond expression.'

Governor Parr's fears, therefore, had little effect on
the popularity of the St John river district. In all, no
less than ten thousand people settled on the north side
of the Bay of Fundy in 1783. These came, in the main, in
three divisions. With the spring fleet arrived about
three thousand people; with the summer fleet not quite
two thousand; and with the autumn fleet well over three
thousand. Of those who came in the spring and summer most
were civilian refugees; but of those who arrived in the
autumn nearly all were disbanded soldiers. Altogether
thirteen distinct corps settled on the St John river.
There were the King's American Dragoons, De Lancey's
First and Second Battalions, the New Jersey Volunteers,
the King's American Regiment, the Maryland Loyalists,
the 42nd Regiment, the Prince of Wales American Regiment,
the New York Volunteers, the Royal Guides and Pioneers,
the Queen's Rangers, the Pennsylvania Loyalists, and
Arnold's American Legion. All these regiments were reduced,
of course, to a fraction of their original strength,
owing to the fact that numbe