If)

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

waiting there for a wind to take him to the Island of St. John’s, he was, on the 20th,

_captured by the schooners, which had on

board Messrs. Callbeck and Wright. He adds that, upon applying to the commanders, they released him and his wife and servants, giving them only their clothes and bedding, but that the rest of his effects they carried off. The Rev. Mr. DesBrisay was released with him. This is the only intimation of the latter’s having been also captured that the writer has seen.

Mr. John Budd, clerk of the courts, writing on 25th November, mentions the plunder of supplies that had been collected for one hundred and three souls who had arrived late in the fall and settled on Lot 5, belonging to Messrs. Smith & Co. He had himself been seized and kept prisoner for forty-eight hours, and then discharged, and, on being discharged, at once notified Robert Stewart, senior councillor, requesting him to take command of the province.

Messrs. Wright and Callbeck, the princi- pal sufierers, after they had reached Hali- fax, on their return from General Washing- ton’s headquarters, themselves made very full reports to Lord Dartmouth. Writing on 15th December from Halifax, Mr. Wright, after shortly relating their capture by “a number of armed men from two New England schooners, then at anchor before the town,” goes on to say that “They plun- dered Governor Patterson’s, Mr. Callbeck’s and other houses, of almost every article which they thought worth carrying ofi, even the provisions which were stored for the winter; likewise the church furniture, pro- vincial seal, etc. * * * From the recep- tion we met with at the headquarters at Cam- bridge, and particularly from General Wash- ington, I have reason to believe that these

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transactions were not intended. but proceed- ed from a spirit of revenge, in the com- manders of these vessels, on their having been informed that recruits had been raised on the Island, and sent for the defense of Quebec; of this they accused us with, to the General, and particularly that I (although it was my duty as a magistrate) had been very active thereto, in having attested them. We were released from our captivity, to make the best of our distressed situation, without the least offer of redress for the injuries we had sustained, to almost the inevitable ruin of my family.”

Mr. Callbeck, writing on the 5th at great length, prefaces his dispatch with a recital of his efforts to assist a recruiting party sent to the Island by General Gage, and of the suc- cess which had attended his efforts. He goes on to say that the privateer made prepara- tions to fire on the town, and their com- manders, with armed parties, landed. To save the town from being burned, he re- solved, having no force, to face them singly, when one of the parties made him prisoner, and instantly conveyed him on board of one of the privateers, after which they proceeded to commit the most wanton and flagrant out- rages on Governor Patterson’s interests and his houses. They possessed themselves of his property, to the amount of upwards of two thousand pounds sterling, and then sailed with him and Mr. Wright, whom they also made prisoner. Previous to attacking Charlottetown, they had been in the Gut of ' Canso three weeks, and captured five vessels loaded with fish, and on their return cap- tured three more, without the least opposi- tion. Not satiated with their flagitious depre- dations on the whole of his property and the common rights of mankind, these monsters bloodthirstily sought Mrs. Callbeck, for the