He even started for Halifax, intending to get copies of the oath required, for the purpose of imposing it on the inhabitants. When he reached Truro one of the Archibalds discovered his mission and presenting a pistol, used its persuasive influence to induce him immediately to return home. So officious did Patterson become that his sons several times were obliged to hide him in the woods, taking him to Fraser's Point for that purpose. Many occurrences relating to the War effected the Province, the County of Pictou, and indirectly the Highlanders, though not in a marked degree. The first special occurrence, was probably during the spring of 1776, when an American privateer captured a vessel at Merigomish, loaded with a valuable cargo of West India produce. The vessel was immediately got to sea. The news of the capture was immediately circulated, and presuming the privateer would enter the harbor of Pictou, the inhabitants collected with every old musket and fowling piece to resist the enemy.--The next incident was the capture of Captain Lowden's vessel in the harbor in 1777, variously reported to have been the work of Americans from Machias, Maine, and also by Americans from Pictou and Truro. In all probability the latter were in the plot. The vessel had been loading with timber for the British market. The captain was invited to the house of Wellwood Waugh, and went without suspicion, leaving the vessel in charge of the mate. During the visit he was surrounded and informed that he was a prisoner, and commanded to deliver up his arms. In the meantime an armed party proceeded to the vessel, which was easily secured. As the crew came on deck they were made prisoners and confined in the forecastle. Some of the captors took a boat belonging to the ship and went to the shop of Roderick McKay some distance up East River, and plundered it of tools, iron, &c. In the meantime Roderick and his brother Donald had boarded the vessel and were also made prisoners. When night came the captors celebrated the event by a carousal. When well under the influence of liquor, Roderick proposed to his brother to take the ship, the plan being to make a sudden rush up the cabin stairs to the deck; that he would seize the sentry and pitch him overboard, while Donald should stand with an axe over the companionway and not allow any of them to come up. Donald was a quiet, peaceable man, and opposed to the effusion of blood and refused to take part in the scheme. The McKays were released and the vessel sailed for Bay Verte, not knowing that the Americans had retired from the place. The vessel fell into the hands of a man-of-war, and the captors took to the woods, where, it is supposed, many of them perished. All of Waugh's goods were seized, by the officers of the war-vessel, and sold, and he was forced to leave. This affair caused the American sympathizers to leave the settlement moving eastward, and without selling their farms.