reached Halifax, Nova Scotia about the 12th of July. He travelled on horseback to Truro with a friend, and found the road extremely rough. The young Scotsman wrote, ‘About eleven miles from Halifax the road grew worse, but the woods became gradually better, till their beauty, strength and loftiness far surpassed anything of the kind I had ever seen in the Highlands.’

‘After riding two or three miles through this beautiful scene I began to look for a house, but no house, great or small, appeared.’ They rode eight miles more, and found a house where they lodged for the night. After that there was no road; there was a perilous path which they traversed for about three days, and they then reached Truro. The new minister had forty miles farther to travel before reaching Pictou. He had to proceed on horseback, there being no road, but a blaze to guide the wary traveller. These blazed paths were not uncommon even sixty years later. A chip off each side of a tree and in the line of travel, helped the stranger to mark his course while the light of day lasted.

Dr. MacGregor preached for the first time at the place where the town of Pictou was destined to grow. Where the town now stands, was then covered with primeval

forest. Only two or three houses were within sight of each other, but when it was an— nounced that the new minister had arrived, a considerable congregation assembled

in Squire Patterson’s barn, to hear him. He preached in English and Gaelic. ”75

“A majority of the people gave the minister a warm welcome, but there was an unruly element that would greatly prefer to be let alone.

Dr. MacGregor was at first profoundly depressed with the aspect, spiritual, moral and material, of the field he was to occupy. The people were very poor and ignorant; the Lord’s Day was neglected; the ordinances of religion were not general- ly prized; drunkeness and other vices prevailed; there were no schools or school houses; there were no churches or organized congregations; population was sparse; the poverty in some districts was extreme; Gaelic was the dominant language; most of the houses were of round logs with moss stuck between to keep out the winds and drifting snows of winter; the roofs were usually covered with hemlock bark; horses

were very few, and there was not a mile of carriage road.

Dr. MacGregor speedily won the confidence of his fellow—countrymen. His con- gregation included the settlements around Pictou Harbor and along East River, Middle River and West River, but it speedily extended far beyond Pictou County. It embraced Antigonish and Guysboro counties, the accessible population of Cape Breton, a large part of Prince Edward Island and northern New Brunswick, and a portion of the province of Quebec. No sooner was his charge in Pictou able to spare his services for a week or for successive weeks, than he hastened to fields where there still prevailed lamentable spiritual destitution. Wherever he preached he sought to organize the people in churches which would perpetuate the good work begun so

hopefully.”76

75 lbid., pp. l3-l4. 76 lbid., 14-15.

236