American privateers were frequently off the coast, but had little effect on Pictou. One of the passengers of the Hector who had removed to Halifax and there married, came to Pictou by land, but sent his baggage on a vessel. She was captured and he lost all. A privateer came into the harbor, the alarm was given, and the people assembled to repel the invader. An American living in the settlement, went on board the vessel and urged the commander to leave because there were only a few Scotch settlers commencing in the woods, and not yet possessing anything worth taking away. In consequence of his representations the vessel put out to sea.--The wreck of the Malignant excited some attention at Pictou, near the close of the war. She was a man-of-war bound to Quebec, and late in the fall was wrecked at a place since known as Malignant Cove. The crew came to Pictou and staid through the winter, being provided for through the efforts of Robert Patterson. The cause of the greatest alarm during the War was a large gathering of Indians at Fraser's Point in 1779. In that year some Indians, in the interest of the Americans, having plundered the inhabitants at Miramichi, a British man-of-war seized sixteen of them of whom twelve were carried to Quebec as hostages, and from there, afterwards, brought to Halifax. Several hundred Indians, for quite a number of days were in council, the design of which was believed to join in the war against the English. The settlers were greatly alarmed, but the Indians quietly dispersed. Most of the Highlanders that emigrated on board the Hector were very ignorant. Only a few could read and books among them were unknown. The Lockerbie settlers were much more intelligent in religion and in everything else. They brought with them from Scotland a few religious books, some of which were lost on Prince Edward Island, but those preserved were carefully read. In 1779 John Patterson brought a supply of books from Scotland, among which was a lot of the New England Primer, which was distributed among the young.