mutinous colonists. David Lawson as agent for Stanhope complained often of provisions not arriving (... no provisions but oatmeal and salt water). There were ... no bullocks nor horses nor any laboring utensils of any kind and no seed graine of any kind for the first two years which obliged me to buy out of Mr. Higgins store flour and meal for such a Numored family that it piled up the debt to A grate Sume ... ( David Lawson 's.4 Coppy of my Misfortunes). All the missing items, Higgins was supposed to supply; with their lack, it is possible that his store was doing all right! Meanwhile, David Higgins was very busy at Three Rivers, building a house and the forementioned store, a grist mill and saw mill, cutting timber and clearing land for "St. Andrew's Farm", and running up a great number of bills, using the credit given him to bring in cargoes of goods, chiefly from the States. Early in the spring of 1775 Montgomery recalled him to London to account for his expenditures; Sir James found his accounts ... inextricable, and finally took Higgins' bond for ??4,400, the amount of his debts. He was given leases of half Lot 12, Lot 51, and two-thirds of Lot 59, at increasing rents, starting at nothing for the first ten years, and then payable to Montgomery. The Revolutionary War had now begun, and to quote from a " Memorial of Sir James Montgomery , Baron of the Court of Exchequer of Scotland " (1791) ... Higgins after this was unlucky. The ship he sailed in for St. John's Island was taken by the Americans; a plan he had projected of carrying on a distillery on the Island was prevented by a Privateer landing and carrying away his stills and utensils. His servants and what settlers he had got left him. His mills and houses became useless, (the mills were damaged by a flood ??? the distillery was for molasses)... He deserted his farm and resided in Charlottetown ... took to drinking and died bankrupt. And from a letter from Sir James Montgomery to Lt - Governor Fanning , 30 April, 1798, ... For when his books came to be examined it was found that the debts due him were chiefly by people in the American States from whom pay?? ment could not be recovered. A further sad footnote to David Higgins ' end is from a letter to Montgomery from Thomas DesBrisay , 29 May, 1783 ... A Mr. Barry carried off Higgins' wife, and overcome by his debts and... his Wife defiling his bed, he went on a four month drunk which culminated in a fatal fever; he died on April 27, 1783. ( J.M. Bumsted in Acadiensis Vol. VII No. 2 1978). David Lawson of Stanhope (his brother's father-in-law) was appointed administrator of David Higgins ' estate, the complications of which caused trouble for many years to Sir James Montgomery , its chief creditor. 336