IN ENGLAND.--THE CAPTAIN AND THE LORDS.
The "Adamante" arrived in England after a rough and stormy passage of
forty-eight days. Captain Godfrey and family suffered severe hardships
on the run over the Western Ocean. Owing to his exhausted funds, Captain
G. was unable to provide his family the conveniences and comforts which
would have rendered the voyage home more agreeable than under the
circumstances it proved itself to be. As it was they suffered severely.
They had no bedding, and found their beaver skins a great luxury to
sleep on. The few pounds that the sale of the sloop brought him were all
expended during his long stay at Halifax while he was waiting for an
opportunity to sail for England.
Margaret Godfrey was as high spirited as she was brave, and would not
condescend to seek assistance from their friends in Halifax. If
assistance was not gratuitously bestowed, she was the last woman in the
world to beg. The family were well cared for while in the capital of the
province (or to put it in Mrs. Godfrey's words) "as well as people
generally are who have honestly lost their all. Our real wants were not
known to the middle and lower classes, and that other class was not
heartily concerned about our future. Governor Campbell, all honor to his
name, secured and paid our passages."
The cabin of the "Adamante" was below deck, it was dark, dingy and
dirty. The bows of the vessel resembled the side of a tub, and the stern
the end of a puncheon cut through the centre lengthways. A passage
across the stormy ocean in the "Adamante" in the winter of 1771-2, in
comparison to one in an ocean greyhound of 1889, would be much the same
as the difference between a ride in an ox-cart and one in a palace car,
both for comfort and speed.
A terrific storm was experienced off the west coast of Ireland, in which
the foretopgallant mast and jibboom were carried away. The water-casks
and caboose were washed overboard, and the cook carried into the forward
shrouds feet foremost, where he hung like a fish in a net. With this
exception, no accident occurred during the passage.
Shortly after Captain Godfrey arrived in London, he called on the Earl
of Hillsborough and made known to that gentleman his great misfortune,
and also delivered to His Lordship the letter of recommendation which
Lord William Campbell had been pleased to give him. After the Earl of
Hillsborough had carefully perused the letter and examined into Captain
Godfrey's affairs, His Lordship was most generously pleased to present
him with twenty guineas out of his private purse for present relief,
until His Lordship could more essentially serve him.
Not long afterward Captain Godfrey's case was laid before the Right
Honourable the Lords of Trade. The Earl of Hillsborough was again
pleased to grant him fifty guineas from his private purse for a
temporary support, with the assurance of providing for his further
support till his case was settled.
Upon Lord Hillsborough's resignation as first Lord of Trade and
Plantations, his Lordship was pleased to recommend Captain Godfrey's
case to the Earl of Dartmouth, who succeeded His Lordship in office.
The case, with all the original papers and certificates, was laid before
the Earl of Dartmouth and the Right Honorable the Lords of Trade and
Plantations. A commission was appointed by Parliament and several Lords
sat on it, but nothing definite was arranged. Captain Godfrey remained
for the greater part of the time in England and sometimes in Ireland,
all the time seeking relief from Lords many until the year 1773. All
this time he was in great difficulty and distress through his losses in
the Colony. Fortunately for himself and his family, he was left a legacy
in 1773 amounting to a considerable sum, which enabled him a second time
to try his luck in Nova Scotia. He expended a large sum of money in
purchasing goods suitable for the colonial trade, and embarked with the
goods and his wife and family in 1774, and once again settled on his
estate at Grimross.
His former misfortune did not discourage him; he was full of hope for
the future. He left his case in the hands of his fellow-countrymen. What
a pity he did not induce some of these English Lords to accompany him
and spend a winter with him in the wilds of Nova Scotia. It is quite
possible had he been able to prevail upon them to do so, that they would
have returned home in the early spring and strongly advised the Lords of
Trade and Plantations to at once settle the case of Captain Godfrey by
reimbursing him for his losses.
The boast of England is her colonies, yet the statesmen of Britain at
that time knew little, and, in all probability, cared less, about the
hardships, dangers and perils which their countrymen were enduring while
laying the foundations of a Greater Britain.
The great bulk of the early colonists were thoroughly British, and
Captain Godfrey was no exception. They suffered what most early
colonists suffer, but they suffered without murmuring, because they were
Englishmen in an English colony. They possessed a sort of blind loyalty
and a sincere patriotism toward their King and old England. Their spirit
is ours, and a century or more has been forming and moulding it into a
purely Canadian patriotism, while the wisdom displayed for fifty years
by the best ruler that ever sat upon the British throne, has
strengthened the attachment British North Americans have had for English
institutions and induced them to cling strongly to them, though the
circumstances of a new country have required a modification in the forms
of those institutions.
Queen Victoria's good sense, excellent judgment, and consequently wise
rule, have made the people of every portion of the Colonial Empire feel
that they have an interest in the Mother land.
Long may she reign; and God grant that the American Republic may never
be allowed to extend its institutions to our Dominion, and overthrow the
foundations laid by our ancestry and on which we are building.