The King's Arrow: A Tale of the United Empire Loyalists

E-text prepared by Al Haines
Transcriber's note: In the original book, the 's' in Wu-las-tukw is actually s-acute , or Unicode U+015B, and the first 'u' in Pu-kut is actually u-breve , or Unicode U+016D. In this e-text, both characters have been rendered as their standard ASCII equivalents.
A Tale of the United Empire Loyalists
Author of The Frontiersman, The Long Patrol, Glen of the High North, Jess of the Rebel Trail, etc.
McClelland and Stewart Publishers Toronto George H. Doran Company
1922,
Who Came to the St. John River, May, 1783,
This Book is Gratefully Dedicated
(1783)
Broad lands, ancestral homes, the gathered wealth Of patient toil and self-denying years Were confiscate and lost. . . . Not drooping like poor fugitives they came In exodus to our Canadian wilds, But full of heart and hope, with heads erect, And fearless eyes, victorious in defeat.
No one will know, because none has told, all that those brave pioneers underwent for their devotion and fidelity. You will see to-day on the outskirts of the older settlements little mounds, moss-covered tombstones which record the last resting-places of the forefathers of the hamlet. They do not tell you of the brave hearts laid low by hunger and exposure, of the girlish forms washed away, of the babes and little children who perished for want of proper food and raiment. They have nothing to tell of the courageous, high-minded mothers, wives and daughters, who bore themselves as bravely as men, complaining never, toiling with men in the fields, banishing all regrets for the life they might have led had they sacrificed their loyalty. . . . No great monument is raised to their memory; none is needed; it is enshrined forever in the hearts of every Canadian and of every one who admires fidelity to principle, devotion and self-sacrifice.
Romance of Canada , BECKLES H. WILLSON