PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 37 at settlement, from Ireland and Scotland , and injudicious efforts to carry on the fishery arid trade under incompetent agents, which had been made. These and other difficulties, he says, were overcome, when the annexation of the.Island to Nova Scotia did more harm than all other causes put together. But for this, and the influence of the governor of Nova Scotia (Parr), who threatened the loyalists and refugees that, if they went to the Island, he would not furnish them the supplies which the government had provided for them, there would have been two thou¬ sand more inhabitants than there are. He did not complain of the change on his own ac¬ count, but did so on account of the officials. This arrangement, however, was of short duration. The Island of St. John, in com¬ mon with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick , was soon affiliated with Canada , the gov¬ ernor general being Lord Dorchester , better known in Canadian history as Sir Guy Carleton . At the close of the war for independence in the United States great numbers of loyal¬ ists left the republic and sought new homes in the remaining British provinces. A small number came to this Island and settled. They formed a most valuable addition to the popu¬ lation. Greater numbers would undoubtedly have come had the conditions of settlement been more favorable. It is true that, in 1783, a number of the proprietors offered to give one-fourth of their lands, aggregating one hundred and nine thousand acres, for settle¬ ment, to the loyalists, but comparatively few availed themselves of the offer. In fact, the proposition was so clogged with conditions as to deter many of this most desirable class from coming to the Island, rather than to encourage them to seek homes here. Ener¬ getic measures do not seem to have been taken to bring them here in greater num¬ bers. Patterson himself saw the importance of getting such a class of settlers, and put forth efforts to secure them, as also did his successor, later on, but he does not seem to have been seconded in this by the proprietors, although they had proffered the lands. Still, those that did come were a most valuable class of settlers and their descendants are yet to be found throughout the Island. A con¬ siderable number of settlers came from Rhode Island and we learn from Mr. Walter Johnston , in a series of letters published by him in Aberdeen , about 1821-22, that many of these or their children were, at die tine he wrote, settled in Kings county. Writing to the secretary of state, in January, 1786, Patterson says that the influx of settlers was not up to expectation. Only about two hwn dred had arrived, and some families from Rhode Island , who expected a number more to come, who were leaving the United States on account of heavy taxes and want of trade there. By despatch, dated 30th June, 1786, the secretary of state ordered Patterson to i