198 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 
     
    
   
   
    
     of Colonel Swabey, as Adjutant General of Militia in 1859, 
     
     Colonel Stewart received that appointment, in which he served 
     
     to the period of his death. In connection with the venerable 
     
     gentleman’s journey through this life, we shall mention a most 
     
     melancholy accident which happened in the year r829. During 
     
     that period, Captain Stewart was on garrison duty with his 
     
     battery at Halifax, N. 5., while Mrs. Stewart and family were 
     
     passing the winter and spring at Charlottetown. On the 15th 
     
     May, the family at the usual hour having retired to rest in 
     
     apparent security from trouble, were awakened from their 
     
     repose by the loud barking of their dog; in ascertaining the 
     
     cause of this, the house was discovered to be on fire. The 
     
     alarm being given the inmates were instantly removed in safety, 
     
     except a little girl aged nine. Thereupon a noble minded boy 
     
     aged twelve, under the impulse of affection rushed into the 
     
     burning house in order to save his sister and bring her forth, 
     
     but sad to relate—both were consumed in the devouring flames. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Hon. Edward Whelan was born in County Mayo, 
     
     Ireland, in 1824, and at an early age emigrated to Halifax, 
     
     Nova Scotia, where he entered the printing office of Mr. Joseph 
     
     Howe, (afterwards the Honorable Governor of Nova Scotia). 
     
     In 1842, young Whelan arrived at Charlottetown, where he 
     
     established a newspaper on his own account, ranging himself 
     
     on the side of the people, in opposition to the then order of 
     
     government, which had been established in the colony in 1770. 
     
     Having obtained a seat in the Assembly, here his oratorical 
     
     power was acknowledged, as of high order. He died at his 
     
     residence within the city on the roth of December, 1867. 
     
    
   
   
    
     At Southport, during this year, the Reverend Donald Mc- 
     
     Donald, minister of the Church of Scotland, died in the 85th 
     
     year of his age. Mr. McDonald came to the Island in 1826, 
     
     and, says Campbell,—“commenced his labors in the spirit of a 
     
     true evangelist. Multitudes flocked to hear him preach; in 
     
     barns, dwelling-houses, school-houses, and in the open air he 
     
     proclaimed his commission to eager hundreds. As years 
     
     rolled on, spacious and elegant churches began to take the 
     
     place of rude shanties. His people grew in numbers, in 
     
     wealth, in respectability, and in love {or their minister. His 
     
     eloquence was of high order. The audience would uncon- . 
     
     sciously become magnetized, convicted, and swayed to the 
     
     speaker’s will. Seldom has such pulpit power been witnessed