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by Robert Everest (Author)
Rev Robert Everest was the Chaplain to the East India Company before his tour of America. He left Liverpool and kept a journal during his travels. An excerpt reads, "We returned to Amberst, and set off the next day for Sackville, where we found, in a creek off the bay, a dirty steamer waiting to take us to St. John's. It was, indeed, a filthy steamer. It had a large beam engine projecting above the deck, as is usual in this part of the world. Steam was escaping in large quantities from the boiler and pipes, which, with the rest of the machinery, were rusty and dirty as can be conceived. The head of the vessel was pressed down in the water by the cargo, and a large flock of sheep. Fortunately the night was calm, and we arrived at our destination without accident. But we had rather a rough sample of colonial life on board. The smoking, and spitting, and tobacco-chewing, and the various stenches that assailed us, were anything but agreeable. A despatch (dated October, 1853) from the Lieut. - Governor of Nova Scotia, upon the resources of the province, has lately been published, which is rather a " curious " document. His Excellency begins by felicitating himself at being able to say that among other articles " coal" commands a high price. But he does not mention why it is so dear, nor how it is that in the neighbouring province of Canada it is undersold by the American coal of Pennsylvania."
