Letter to Hopson From Germans

Date: [unknown]
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

The following was a letter sent to Governor Peregrine Thomas Hopson from the German and Swiss emigrants to arrive at Halifax—some of whom were recent arrivals on the Gale, which surely dates it to after 6 Sep 1752, but it was likely later into the fall after these people had settled in. (The source does not list a specific date.)

Bell states, before beginning the quotation from the letter, "The petition opens with the complaint which we considered in § 30 [section 30] about the false representations that had induced the petitioners to sell even their most essential effects before leaving their former homes, in the assurance that on arrival in Nova Scotia each family would not only be put in possession of fifty acres of land and supplied with [farm] implements and building materials but would also be furnished with all necessary household equipment, the "printed advertisement" which they had brought with them "leaving no room to mistrust the Performance, as to our sorrows we found on our Arrival."

There is a footnote no. 2, which I elevate to the top here, where Bell writes, "Inasmuch as the form in which we have this document today is only a transcript of a transcript, and interest is entirely in the intention and not the precise characters of the writing, I have ventured to supply a few punctuation marks in places where they were especially needed for easy following of the meaning of the rambling text. Words added in square brackets are, of course, for the same purpose. The occasional omissions are of brief bits only, the omission of which allows the real course of the argument to appear more clearly."

Without further ado, now, the letter:

"We thankfully acknowledge the Government's judicious Foresight and fatherly Care in securing us from the wild Enemy, and not giving us the promised Lands on that Account, . . . and we think no more [about the fact] that on our Arrival we had not Time given us to recover ourselves from the Fatigues of such a tedious Passage we were unused to, but immediately forced to hard Labour with no other than Salt Provisions except once two Pounds fresh Beef each . . . and 'tis plain several young People for want of sufficient supply of Nourishment are force to list [i.e., enlist]³ which might be otherwise of good Service to the Colony, and many sicknesses occasioned thereby [i.e., by defective nourishment], . . . some Familys every one dead, by which His Majesty loses many faithful Subjects and the Colony laborious [i.e., industrious] Settlers. And we can't help mentioning that we of the ship Speedwell had out of the sixpence allowed on our Daily work every one stopt ^cb1 one shilling per Month for the Doctor without our knowing for what, since the Doctor when once asked [for] Medicines for Persons on their Death Bed said he had nothing to do with us.

"But as now . . . your Excellency graciously pleases to give ear to the sad deplorable condition [that] want and Tribulation drives us to make known, we cautiously⁴ prostrate Ourselves to your Excellency's feet, no ways doubting out of your penetrating Judgment and fatherly care will seek to preserve us as British Subjects to the Interest and Service of this Colony; and in such Hopes and Humble Submission lay before your Excellency that very few of uus have to this day got any Lott, much less the necessary Materials for Buildings . . . and are obliged to hire Lodgings at a very high Rent which in this great scarcity of Money is extream heavy on us amd impossible to be held out any longer. When we engage to work for the New Englanders, clearng Lotts, cutting Wood, or anything else we are capable of, we much wait three times as long for the Pay of what we this earn by the sweat of our Brow as the work takes us time to do, and after all this Trouble [we are in the end] obliged to take our Payment in Goods such as they have and we often [do] not want, at an Exorbitant Price, and on the Refusal of this are turned out with a: "Damn Dutch Rascals", and hazard the loss of the whole, . . . thus a man by his hard work and his Family's must live many a day epon water without Bread. By these and really all Circumstances your Excellency . . . [may] . . . observe that 'tis quite impssible we poor People should subsist in this Colony without the Royal Allowance f Provisions. Wherefore we are compelled by pinching Want to implore on our knees your Excellency's gracious Continuance of the Provisions to us for the Preservation of our Lives to the service of the King, your Excellency, and this Colony. It grives us to the Heart that we [are] fallen into such desolate Circumstances as to beg Provisions of your Excellency for our Support, which was far from our Design in coming hither, but [that design was] rather to help and support the Colony with Provisions; and if your Excellency judges proper to establish us in any convenient part of the Country we hope through the Blessing of God and our industrious Labour at least to deliver most part of those Necessarys of life the Importation of which from New England and other Parts draws the Money of this Place and will continue [to do so] till the above method be taken. For although the most and best of the Land on this and the other side of the Water [i.e. Halifax Harbour] is chiefly given off to the New Englanders, yet there is so little Improvements made [that] no one would imagine those Lands had owners, and, notwithstanding this their neglect, Jacob Ulsche a German Swiss had his land taken from him . . . at the North West Arm for not being sufficiently improved on, altho' there was a Blockhouse built and he and his two sons daily working and clearing it. If those [i.e., the neglectful New Englanders] were to meet the like treatment many a Lott might with more Justice be taken from them and given to us. Many Lotts have laid these two years untouch'd and not the least advantage to the Colony, that might have been [of advantage] if given to such People as understood perfectly the nature of Agriculture and brought [up] from their youth to it . . . whichseems to be very much against His Majesty's Intent and the result⁵ of Parliament which, according to their Proclamation concerning this Colony was designed to be peopled byEuropean Protestants with the above Promises⁶ and other Priviledges. And we believe your Excellency as the Political Patriot⁵ of this land takes their Intent in the same sense and will again favour us with a capable Person (as we are very imperfect in the English Language) who under your Excellency's Direction we might advise with, more easily determine our disputes, and direct and order things, ⁷ and not in the future let us be titled Foreigners, as according to Act of Parliament we are on the same footing and Prerogatives as others, except what some take on themselves—and oftentimes more to the Damage than Good of the Colony. We humbly beg your Excellency will not imagine that any of us in the least thought doth impute any part of the foregoing to His Excellency our former Gracious Governor Cornwallis . . . but we look upon our suffering to be occasioned by some malicious Persons unknown to us, since some [persons] of those undermining Tempers have shamefully left the place, and [we] hope in this case Your Excellency's Justice will not blame the whole Body for the faults of a few . . . as we all and every one of us jointly desire to live as faithful Subjects under the Protection of His Britannic Majesty and the wise Direction of your Excellency our gracious Governor to the Advantage of the Colony, so we flatter ourselves your Excellency will . . . grant this our Request . . . [and] we will constantly pray to God for the King's Long Life, Your Excellency's Welfare and a Blessing over this Colony."

"The Whole Body of Germans and Swiss"

Footnotes:
³ "In the pamphlet, An Account of the Present State of Nova Scotia, in Two Letters to a Noble Lord, printed in London in 1756, there is mention of enlistment of 'about two hundred settlers who might otherwise have been useful inhabitants' and who had cost the home government a lot of money for recruiting, passages, victualling, etc. [My own comment: money for passages? then why were they indentured?] The writer asserted that 'these deluded men are chiefly Europeans.' Intense animus against the existing administration in Nova Scotia pervades this pamphlet, and it may have exaggerated the numbers of the foreigners who enlisted. But there were certainly quite a few of them, especially of the young unmarried men."
^cb1 My own footnote, I was unable to find a definition of "stopt" other than meaning "stopped," which does not apply here. Perhaps "garnished" would have been a better verb, as the meaning was that the money was docked from their pay for the expense. What was this for, anyway? Did the doctor who was asked simply mean that he was the wrong doctor (i.e., another doctor covered the Speedwell's group)? Or did he mean that none of the doctors were paid to take care of the Germans [i.e., that whomever was handling their pay was involved in yet more knavery?]
⁴ "'Cautiously'—presumably the petitioners got a wrong translation, here, for some German word they had in mind, 'achtungsvoll,' perhaps?"
⁵ "Here again the petitioners presumably chose translation of a German word for an English one which might be a suitable translation for it in some connections, but not in the present one; 'result' perhaps for 'Beschluss,' i.e., resolution. 'Patriot' perhaps by mistake for patron, for 'Beschützer'?"
⁶ "This is a reference to the promises of land, building materials, etc. (as well as the supposed promises of household equipment) as cited in the opening sentences of the memorial " [letter].
⁷ "One of Cornwallis's last official acts had been the issuing of the Commission of the Peace in which Hoffman and Rudolph were dropped (see § 50). The manner of this plea for Hoffman's reinstatement can suggest that he had a hand in the drafting of the memorial." [By which Bell means this petition/letter.] "The reference to the Act of Parliament, too, might be more apt to come from the disgruntled ex-J.P. than from other immigrants."

Source:
Bell, Winthrop Pickard, Dr. The Foreign Pretestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia: The history of a piece of arrested British colonial policy in the eighteenth century. The University of Toronto Press; Toronto, Ontario, CA, 1961. Reprinted by the Centre for Canadian Studies, Mount Allison University; Sackville, New Brunswick, CA, 1990. Pages [364-365] on Archive.org. Visited 19 Mar 2023.