of political grievances, of a few who had been ruined by imprisonment
and law costs, of the men who had been banished to Australia, and the
three men who had been hanged. Hundreds had fled, like himself, to
escape prosecution.

After our misadventure off Newfoundland our voyage was prosperous.
Coming on deck one sunny morning we saw land, which was Cape Ray, and
before the sun set we were in the Gulf of St Lawrence. We were not alone
now, for every few hours we sighted ships. They were part of the Spring
fleet to Quebec, now on their voyage home with cargoes of timber. One
passed us so close that the captains spoke, and when the homeward
captain shouted he was for the Clyde there were passengers who wished
they were on board her, and the tear came to their eyes when they
thought of Scotland and of those who were there. The Bird Rocks were
quite a sight to us, but the Ayrshire folk held they were not to be
compared with Ailsa Craig. On the Gulf narrowing until we could see land
on both sides, a white yacht bore down to us and sent aboard a pilot. He
was a short man, with grizzled hair. Being the first Frenchman we had
seen, we gathered round him with curiosity and listened to his broken
English with pleasure, for the tone was kindly and he was so polite,
even to us boys. He brought no very late news, for he had left Quebec
ten days before, when the weather was so hot that laborers loading ships
dropped in the coves from sunstroke. Each tack that brought the brig
higher up the river changed the scenery, a range of forest-clad trees on
the north bank, and on the south bank a row of whitewashed cottages, so
closely set that they looked as if they lined a street, broken at
intervals by the tin-covered roof and steeple of a church. There were
discussions among our farmers as to the narrowness of the fields and
what kind of crops were on them, for they looked patchy and were of
different colors, which the pilot was generally called on to decide, and