LOYALISTS

As the Loyalists, who were the first British set~ tlers of Bedeque have all gone, and the generation which immediately succeeded them is also gone, facts and traditions concerning them may be of interest and value to their desv

cendants. In order to have a better understanding of the

subject let us first take a short look at the kind of a place Bedeque was, when the Loyalists came in 1784. Beds eque is a Micmac name with French spelling. Previous to 1759, the French owned the Island, and quite a number of Acadians had Settled around Bedeque9 mostly in what is‘known as Lower BedeQue, where the remains of their log cabins were dotted over deserted fields with nice little orchards of apple and cherry trees, and, what to them was most precious, their chapel and burial place. These simple minded people when they were compelled to leave all that was dear to them, and hide from the dreaded meneofuwar, left in.such a panic that the Loyalists often afterwards found articles where they had been hidden so effectively that even the owners never found them. These French people had lived in a primitive style—afish of all kinds aboundedg including oysters; the land they cultivated produced food and also flax from WhiCh9 with a little wool, they made their own clothing. Their roads were little winding paths from one home to another; they had no bridges across any of the rivers; all hauling was with oxen and sled. there being no road on which to drive a wheel carriage. There were port» ages from Green's Shore to Richmond Bay and from Wilmot to Raynor's Creek; there were no roads to or from Bedeque era cept when the ice was good. Going through these portages was like going through a tunnel, the pines and hemlocks meeting overhead, the sun seldom shining on the paths under foot. In all the beautiful stretch of country from Tryon t0 Mnlpeque including what is now Summerside, there was not one resident; travelling was by boat along the shore or on the ice; such was Bedeque when the Loyalists came in 1784. The “United Empire Loyalists" had their properties confiscated and were submitted to many indignities, result-