Rotterdam; but Steadman would not credit it, and a sum of money was again exacted from them on reaching this country. The thousands who died on the way made it all the more profitable for Steadman, for they had been bound together by a contract that the living should pay for the passage of the dead. The baggage of the redemptioners was all left behind to be brought over in freight vessels; but when their effects reached here, it was a frequent occurrence to find chests and trunks broken open and the contents stolen.

on the

The greatest influence stream of redemptioners was the system of agents, importers and brokers, who made their living out of the trade in bound servants. These agencies existed both in Philadelphia and in European cities. Other dealers called "Newlanders" or "soul drivers" went to Germany and Ireland and pictured America as a land flowing with milk and honey, thus inducing many to emigrate. The redemptioners were sold in Philadelphia, and often were peddled through the surrounding country. In Rotterdam some of the wealthiest citizens were engaged in this Pennsylvania trade; and so lucrative was the traffic that multitudes of vessels were engaged in it. A great rivalry in this trade grew up between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and runners were engaged to watch the arrival of emigrants. The runners received a fee for each redemptioner whom they secured. The rivalry became so great that they watched all the routes to the sea coast, and dealers carried on a house-to-house solicitation through Germany. Great evils resulted from this, as many people were overpersuaded to leave their homes.

Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, pastor of the Trappe Lutheran church, wrote that during the autumn of 1749 twenty-five ships brought 7,049 redemptioners to Philadelphia, besides

The extreme sufferings of the redemptioners led Christopher Sauer, the Germantown printer, to address a letter to the governor of Pennsylvania, March 15, 1755, describing their pitiable condition, as well as the cruelties of Steadman. Sauer felt responsible in a certain degree for the sufferings of the redemptioners, as it was through his influence that many of them came to America. He petitioned the legislature, and a law was passed for their relief; but it was never executed. Sauer also wrote a letter to the magistrates of Rotterdam, and the monopoly was taken from Steadman. The people of Philadelphia and Germantown sent numerous petitions to the legislature, but all in vain; and the redemptioners obtained no relief until 1764, when the German Society of Philadelphia was organized to alleviate their sufferings. The redemption system was demoralizing to Germany and America alike, and the best men of both countries vigorously opposed it. After intense opposition for many years, the stream of redemptioners into Pennsylvania ceased in 1831.

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HE intensity of the American spirit is appreciated only by those who have witnessed for themselves some great popular uprising. The enthusiasm with which response was made to President Lincoln's call to arms is the most vigorous example of this spirit which the present century has witnessed. It can only be compared to the revolutionary uprising of the last century; and the intensity of that popular demonstration is adequately appreciated only by the student of history. The deep bitterness with which the loyalist or "Tory" element in the colonies was regarded is little understood to-day.

The patriotic uprising of 1774 was by no means universal among Americans. This has already been well shown in this magazine.* Loyalty to the crown caused many thousands of American citizens to flee from their home and country. The loyalist refugees, so far as popular knowledge of their subsequent life is concerned, were a lost people, after the vessels which bore them to Nova Scotia sank out of sight beyond the horizon. They went forth, driven from their homes by their own kindred, to form new ties in an almost unbroken wilderness. Their offense was an intense loyalty to a government and to a king, to whom they imagined that they owed allegiance despite his many oppressive acts. Stripped of their possessions, they went forth in poverty, and built up new homes for themselves in a new country. Among them were some historic family names, names which we find carved upon the great Faith monument at Plymouth. One

"The Loyalists," by James Hannay. New England Magazine for May, 1891.

is not a little startled, in reading a time-stained "List of the refugees from the County of Plimouth," to find such names as Carver, Winslow, White and Cushman and others equally identified with Pilgrim history. Many of these refugees, at the evacuation of Boston, fled to New York, which place was still occupied by the British forces, whence, after the peace of 1783, they again emigrated, this time to Nova Scotia. A packet of faded yellow letters, found not long ago in an ancient chest, gives an excellent idea of the flight of these people and of their life in exile.

Edward Winslow, to whose descendants these letters belong, was a great-grandson of of Gov. Edward Winslow of Plymouth. His wife was Hannah Howland, a great-granddaughter of John Howland, another of the Mayflower pilgrims. One son, Col. Edward Winslow, and two daughters, Sarah and Penelope, with his wife, comprised his household. A document addressed to the "Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury," by Edward Winslow, the younger, under date of December 2, 1788, a copy of which paper is found in this packet, gives us much of his history. Before the beginning of the late troubles in America, Colonel Winslow records, he held the offices of clerk of the pleas and sessions and register of wills for Plymouth County, jointly with his father. His father was also his majesty's collector for the port, while he held the position of naval officer. As soon as the political troubles began, Colonel Winslow offered his services to the royal governor of Massachusetts; and thus becoming obnoxious to the majority of the people of Plymouth, he was obliged to seek the

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In 1776, as history tells us, the British troops were forced to evacuate the city of Boston. To remain after this event, in the excited condition of public feeling, was impossible for the Winslows and other loyalists. Edward Winslow, the elder, with his wife and two daughters, had already taken. up his residence in New York, in "a delightfull retreat at the Bowery sweetly situated about two miles out of the city." Thither Colonel Winslow followed, and there was appointed muster-master general of the provincial forces; for, it must be remembered, many of the troops of his majesty who fought in the War of the Revolution were not imported from Great Britain, but were recruited from among the loyalist element in America. With this thought in mind, the idea may be the more readily grasped that, from the British point of view, the American colonies struggling for independence were but dependencies in rebellion against properly constituted authority.

Colonel Winslow continued in this office throughout the war, and also saw some active service in the field, in the cause of the king. In 1779 he was elected by a body of loyalists in Rhode Island to command them, and served in that capacity through two campaigns. Before the final evacuation of New York by the British troops, in November, 1783, he was ordered by Sir Guy Carleton to Halifax, in conjunction with three other officers, for the purpose of exploring and locating a tract of land for his majesty's British-American regiments about to be

disbanded. After the completion of that service he was appointed military secretary to a board of general officers, of which Lord Percy, his old commander at Lexington, was president.

Having thus hastily sketched the career of this man, whose thorough conscientiousness none who read his correspondence can for a moment doubt, let us unfold and read one of these ancient missives. It is from Sarah Winslow, written at New York, April 10, 1783. Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown six months before, and peace, with the independence of the American colonies, was impending. She describes her home as comfortable, and the family as "surrounded by a pleasing circle of cheerful friends." But a cloud of disappointment has settled about them. Driven from their home at Plymouth, and again from their new home at Boston, it now seems probable that they are again to be disturbed in their domestic felicity.

"All were entertaining agreeable expectations," she writes, "that spring would open with smiling prospects. Alas, they are now at an end. Sad is the reverse; our fate seems now decreed, and we left to mourn out our days in wretchedness. No other recourse for millions, but to submit to the tyranny of exulting enemies, or settle a new country. I am one of the number that would embark for Nova Scotia, was it either prudent or proper; but I am told it will not do for me at present. What is to become of us God only can tell. In all our former sufferings we had hope to support us; being deprived of that is too much. My mind and strength are unequal to my present unexpected tryals. Was there ever an instance, my dear Cousin, can history produce one, where such a number of the best of human beings were deserted by the government they have sacrificed their all for? The open enemies of Great Britain have gained their point and more than ever they could have had

impudence to have asked for, while their brave, persevering, noble friends, who have suffered and toiled for years, and whom they were bound by every tie of honour and gratitude to assist, are left without friends, without fortunes, without prospect of support, but from that Being who has hitherto supported us, and upon whom we ought to rely for further protection, without repining. I hope I do not repine; to feel in such affliction as this is surely allowable. I cannot help it. We are greatly distressed. Their peace brings none to my heart."

Touching as is this wail over lost hopes, doubly touching in its sincerity, it is difficult for us of to-day to realize the regret and dismay with which the loyal subjects of King George in America received the intelligence of the failure of the royal cause. The feelings of these Plymouth loyalists may be more readily comprehended, however, by the perusal of a passage from a later letter, of Sarah Winslow, to her cousin, Benjamin Marston. This bears the date of November 29, 1783, four days before the final evacuation of New York by the British forces. The letter is written at Halifax, whither the family had sailed on the first of September previous. When forced to leave Plymouth, as history records, the refugee loyalists were stripped of their possessions. How complete was this confiscation is shown in this letter now before us.

"One late account of your precious relation," writes Sarah Winslow to her cousin, Benjamin Marston, "is so finishing a stroke, I must inform you. Some time before our furniture was disposed of, I wrote my mother, requesting that the picture in our hall, with the coat of arms that my sister and myself worked, might be given to the care of a young lady for me. They being very elegant I greatly wished for them for a particular purpose. When my mother came to New York, it was not in her power to

bring even them, which was everything we had remaining, or rather that villains had left us. I have concluded that they were perfectly secreted, until, this week, a letter from the lady informs me that, about two months ago, Colonel W sent a sheriff to her, with orders that she must give her oath that she had nothing in her possession belonging to this family. Not daring to take the oath she gave up the article. He had impudence enough to tell her that he took them for a debt which he did not recollect when he took the other things. I do believe he is the compleatest devil that ever was suffered to live."

Foreseeing the early evacuation of New York after the defeat of the royal cause, the elder Winslow determined to seek still another home. He was for a long time greatly disquieted and at a loss to decide upon his future movements. A letter written by Sarah Winslow to her cousin, Ward Chipman, judge of the supreme court of New Brunswick, dated October 18, 1783, tells of his final determination to remove to Nova Scotia, and de scribes the journey thither. They were not wholly deserted by the government, as the writer, in a previous letter, had supposed, but transportation was furnished by his majesty's government, in one of the best ships in the garrison of New York, with "the kindest and most obligeing man for a commander." The voyage is described as having been very tempestuous, with contrary winds, prolonging the time of arrival at Halifax to the fifteenth day from New York.

"Greatly are we indebted to the comissary-general," writes Sarah Winslow, "for giving of us thousand advantages that no other family has had; his friendly attention was continued to the last. He hurried us away thinking it was the season to avoid storms, gave us an excellent vessel, without one passenger but those we chose ourselves. We embarked in a most beautiful morning,"

she continues, "but instead of having no storms we had a sort of one all the passage. The ladies had anticipated every horror; but I confess my heart was so deeply wounded at parting with a number of tenderly beloved friends, that I thought not of the distress of a voyage. . . . We were a little disconcerted at not finding Edward here, but his friends came immediately on board, and upon being informed he had hired a small house for an office, we immediately took possession of it. . . . Greatly, my good cousin, could I enlarge upon the subject that has brought us all to this uncultivated country, but as it can answer no good purpose I endeavor to be silent."

After the lapse of a month the Winslow family had become settled comfortably in their new home. In the letter written by Sarah Winslow to Benjamin Marston under date of November 29, 1783, already quoted, we gain some idea of the social life in Halifax among the loyalist refugees.

"When I wrote you last," she writes, "we were then in the house my brother has for an office, and thankful were we, when we first arrived, to have so good a place to go to. We immediately took possession of it, and remained there until he very fortunately got this for us, which is as comfortable a one as we at present have any desire for, very warm, pleasantly situated in the most lively, clean part of the town. Leave you to judge whether the rooms are not very good when I tell you that this day week, General Fox, with sixteen of our friends, dined with us with great convenience. . . . Balls and assemblies have begun, but I have not attended the two first. Brother went, but joined our card party at home before the evening was out. I believe we were full as well amused by his description as we could have been had we joined the crowd."

That the family did not long remain in retirement is shown in a later epistle written by Miss Penelope

Winslow, under date of November 28, 1784.

"The dancing parties are kept up with great spirit," she writes. "Miss Duncan gives a ball on Monday evening, Miss Brenton on Friday, both of which I shall give you an account of. The last assembly was amazingly brilliant; the ladies' dresses superb beyond what the New Englanders had seen before. Mrs. Wentworth stood first in fashion and magnificencenew gown and petticoat of silver tissue trimmed with Italian flowers and the finest blond lace, a train of four yards long, her hair and wrist ornamented with real diamonds. Miss Duncan was elegant in a fawn-coloured satin, covered with crape, black velvet waist, pearl sprigs in her hair, no feathers or flowers. She was much admired, as was Kitty Taylor in unadorned white. Miss Pau looked vastly well in creamcoloured satin with sable fur. Lady D. and Miss Bayley figured in a profusion of waving plumes and flowers. The latter exhibited in a minuet, a little in the waping style, to use the language of the brigade major. Capt. Dalyrymple had the honor of her hand. The evening was altogether approved of. The room is newpapered and new-lamped. Mr. Taylor distinguished himself as an excellent manager. There is a town assembly-begun last Thursday. No navy or army admitted; Mr. Eunial and Dight managers. It is said to be in opposition to the other party."

A few months later the lively Penelope again writes to the same correspondent. She alludes, at the outset, to the trials and tribulations through which the family had been called to pass. The loss of their home at Plymouth, their enforced removal from New York, their final "banishment to this under world," and, to crown all, the death of her father, which had occurred in June, 1784, are pathetically recalled. Then, after soliciting some advice in matters of business, the writer's mood changes, and she again