100 PAST AND PRESENT OF taking up land, principally on the south side of the Island and some of the landlords were fulfilling the terms of their grants by sending settlers to their holdings. The Island had been divided into 67 lots or townships of about twenty thousand to twenty-two thousand acres each and these had been granted by the crown as military rewards to certain officers of the English army, but under certain condi¬ tions, amongst others of which was that a cer¬ tain number of emigrants were to be placed on their lots. If all the grantees had fulfilled the terms of the covenants the progress of the country would perhaps have been more rapid but many of them, absentee landlords, neg¬ lected or forgot their splendid possessions, this transgression created a condition of things which ultimately caused grave po¬ litical and economic troubles. During the first quarter of this (the nineteenth) century, notwithstanding the land troubles, the trade and commerce of the Island grew amazingly. Halifax, , Newfoundland and the , New Brunswick , districts drew largely from the Island in food products; some shipments were made to the and consider¬ able exports, principally lumber and tim¬ ber, were being shipped to Britain . By 1827 the population had increased to 23,266 souls, many small vessels were built and the ex¬ ports to the United Kingdom had reached the value of some $35,000 and consisted of timber, wheat and ships. The took $17,000 worth, of which boards, oats, pickled fish, dried fish and pearl barley were respectively valued. The principal exports, however, then, as now, went to the sister colonies, reaching a value of $120,000, the chief items being potatoes, $30,000; cattle, $23,000; oats, $19,000; and ships, $4,000. Manufactured goods, chiefly wearing ap¬ parel, such as woolen shirts, drawers, boots and cloth, were shipped to the lumber men and fisherfolk of the larger provinces. The imports during these early days were small, but generally exceeded the exports in nominal value—iron and tools, molasses and rum> dry goods and tobacco, cotton warp and salt. The statistics of imports are far more reliable than those of exports for the reason that ships were being built and sold abroad without being credited as an export; besides a number of small ves¬ sels and boats were smuggling to Nova Scotia , New Brunswick and Newfoundland , or at any rate making no customs report In 1829 the imports valued at over $200,- 000, two-thirds of which came from or through the sister provinces. United King¬ dom sent us nearly $50,000 worth and the British nearly $30,000. As to our exports and imports to and from foreign countries, they were insignificant, the exports amounting to 850 pounds sterling worth and the imports to only 54 pounds sterling. Our over-sea trade in 1829 was done by fourteen vessels, employing one hundred and twenty- one men and measuring twenty-six hundred tons register, this including the trade to Great Britain . In the coasting trade eighty- one vessels were employed and eleven were fishing. In 1830 amongst our imports were over one gallon of rum for every man, woman and child. An inspection of the old ledgers of this time will show that intoxi¬ cants were sold by nearly every storekeeper and in nearly every account we read entries like these, "To 1 Pt. Rum," "To 1 Qt. Rum," "To 5 gals. Rum," etc. Besides the rum im¬ ported in those days, brandy and wine were brought in and whiskey was being distilled from native barley, which was being grown even then more largely than now, being es-