Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/360

The very large outlay required and the magnitude of the debts outstanding, as just stated, taxed severely the resources of William Hazen, who claimed that at the time the business was terminated by the events of the Revolutionary war, the company were in arrears to him for supplies in an amount equivalent to $16,600.^[1]

While we cannot suppose the general business at St. John to have been altogether unremunerative, it would seem that Mr. Hazen expected to derive more substantial benefits from the lands he had acquired, and in this, as the event proved, his judgment was not at fault. Scarcely, however, had he begun his preparations for removal to St. John when the rumblings of a coming storm were heard, and ere long Old England and New England were arrayed in bitter conflict. The port of Boston was closed in 1774, and a vessel owned by the company with a large and valuable cargo was obliged to return to St. John without being allowed to enter. This almost put a stop to their business.

William Hazen is said to have left New England with his family, June 17, 1775, the very day on which was fought the battle of Bunker Hill. His arrival at St. John a few days later is very evident from the nature of the items that begin to appear in the old day book kept by James White. The Hazen family evidently proved good customers of the store at Portland Point. The first item charged to the account of the household is one of 67 lbs. of moose meat at 1d. per lb.^[2] Moose meat was a much greater rarity to the family on their arrival than it afterwards became. It was at the time one of the staple articles of food in the country and almost any settler who desired fresh meat