Nova Scotia Archives

Au cœur de l'Acadie

Archives concernant la Déportation et le Grand dérangement, 1714-1768

140

NOVA SCOTIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

office to which he has been appointed, and enabled him to fill with respectability every place which had been allotted him, And yet as such an elevation in the scale of society and that once again from the hated brink of desperation is rather a singular event much surely is here to be attributed to the hand of Providence, under the management of a wise and over-ruling Providence, what turnings and windings and merging prospects there are in the maze of life, and the lives of some are much more diversified than the lives of others. Few, perhaps, have seen greater changes or more sudden transitions in life than Brook Watson; who among men could have predicted that he who, at one time was almost entomb'd in the bowels of a shark and buried in the depths of the sea, and escaped but with the loss of a hinder quarter should, in a future day, be an alderman of the city of London, that he who was admitted as an object of charity, or forlorn child of wretchedness, into the Havana hospital, and when cured was set adrift to seek his fortune in the wide world, guided only by a faint ray of hope to Boston and that also soon extinguished, should at length step from the cloud and take his seat in the British Parliament as the Representative of that little world, the metropolis of Great Britain, and should at pleasure command the attention and applause of that august senate. In this instance, I presume, we may apply the words of the prophet without exposing ourselves to the imputation or enthusiasm, or the dangers of misapplication, viz:— This who cometh from the Son, who is excellent in Council, and wonderful in working. “For as the Heavens are high above the Earth so are God's thoughts high above our thoughts, and His ways high above our ways,”

I understand that you purpose visiting Cumberland this summer, the scene of Watson's youthful years-for he was only between 10 and 12 years of age when he came under Capt, Huston's patronage and lived just about so many in his family. As I have a transient view of that part of the Province, I shall take the liberty of just mentioning a few objects that will naturally engage your attention, excite your enquiries, and more especially as you asked some time ago the notice of my Cumberland tour.

After leaving Partridge Island 17 miles in the rear, for I presume you will travel by land, you will mount what is properly called the “Boar's Back,” a narrow ridge of land 7 miles in length, and in a few places more than 20 rods in breadth. It stands between a con-