Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/95

the lowness of the streams made the journey very arduous. Francklin and Studholme having succeeded in driving Allan off the river returned to St. John and thence to Fort Cumberland.

Allan and Preble while at St. John had helped themselves to such articles as they chose from the store of Hazen, Simonds and White. By reason of the unsettled state of affairs the trading business there had nearly ceased and a few months later was wholly discontinued. This year the three partners had a very disastrous experience and William Hazen went several times to Halifax to urge that effective measures might be at once taken for the defence of the loyal settlers; on one of these occasions he crossed the Bay of Fundy in an Indian canoe. James White's exertions brought on an illness that lasted more than a month, and during its continuance entries in the Day book are in the handwriting of James Simonds.

The very moment the war vessels departed Portland and Conway were again at the mercy of the privateers, and many of the people were robbed and maltreated to such an extent that they had to abandon their homes and seek shelter in some place where they would be less exposed to such attacks.

Late in the autumn there came into the harbor an American sloop carrying eight guns, the captain of which bore the singular name of A. Greene Crabtree. This unwelcome visitor proved the most rapacious that had yet appeared, and the unfortunate settlers were so harrassed and pilliged that most of them fled from their houses to the woods, where they remained until the vandals departed. From the store at Portland Point alone, 21 boat loads of goods are said to have been carried off. The silver ornaments, fuzees, and other articles belonging to the Indians, and left by them as