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OUR ISLAND STORY j , 161

Some twenty hours 7We lay 1n a dead calm, and from aloft Could see the fragile gently murtured dame Dragging huge stones and staggering under faggots Helping the man and Witch to build a hut, Then as a breath came round big nor -nor -east. We spread our wings and left them to their fate”

. If this story were true, it is not wonderful that Roberval’s efforts to “colonize Canada ended in failure, or that he, himself, came to an untimely end. i

The poet, John Hunter Duvar, was born in the small seaport

town of Petterwan, in the County of .Fifeshire, Scotland, On the

29th Of AuguSt, 1850. HeIWas of EngliSh as Well as Scotch paren- tage, and the family name was Hunter. His education was

obtained in his native town and at the university of Edinburgh. Early in life he became one of the British Associated Press Agents, ‘ As such he dispatched the news of the world to the newspapers published in the Motherland and in America. Before the Atlantic telegraph cable was successfully laid there were ingenious methods of quickly distributing the news of the Crimean war and other

important events. It is related that young Hunter collected the

news current in England and forwarded'it to Nova Scotia by, the Cunard Line steamers, together with a bundle of the latest British papers,—-all sealed up in a water—tight can. VVhe-n the

‘ steamer arrived and was 'off Point Pleasant at the entrance of

Halifax Harbor the can was thrown overboard to an employee of the Halifax agent of the Associated Presswho awaited it in a 7 boat, and taken at onCe, as fast as possible, to the office, of the agent in Halifax. There the news was assorted, and thence for- warded by telegraph and the PoSt Office to points in the United States and Canada, whence it was, in turn, distributed to the

' offices forming the Associated Press. After the war young Hunter

came to Halifax with his young wife. At that time and after-

' wards another “John Hunter” lived in Halifax and 1n Prince Ed- . ‘ ward Island. One or the other frequently obtained his letters ‘ and papers, and other annoyances were caused. For that reason