CHAPTER VIII.
REBEL PLANS--PRAYING THE LORDS.
Before Captain Godfrey sailed with his family from Halifax for England, he waited on Governor Arbuthnot and General Massie[5] and informed them of the rebels intentions, and gave them a history of his sad experience on the St.John.
[Footnote 5: Fort Massie at Halifax, part of which is now held as a military burial ground, was named after this officer.] He told them that he had been offered by the rebels the command of a party of men to march forward and attack Fort Cumberland, and if they (the rebels) should be successful, they were to be reinforced, and at once proceed to Halifax, set fire to the town, and sack it.
In their proceedings the rebels, who were in constant communication with the New Englanders, and who were instructed by them, were talking of forming this plan in order if possible to keep General Howe's army from being largely reinforced.
Captain Godfrey, though very weak and ill, offered his service to General Massie, if the latter would arm two schooners and put on board of each of them one hundred regulars besides a crew of twenty-five men.
He proposed to proceed to Fort Cumberland and secure the place in case an attack was made.

His offer was declined.

He then bid adieu to Halifax and sailed for England, where he and his family arrived on January the 8th, 1777.
He lost no time in applying to Lords North and Germain, who after proper examination found his claims for losses in the colony well founded; and were generously pleased to order him the annual sum of one hundred and fifty pounds for the temporary support of his family.

This sum was afterward reduced to one hundred and twenty pounds, and finally altogether withdrawn.
He then put his distressed condition before the government, and his case was again tossed about from Lord to Lord, and from board to board, and finally brought up again before the Lords of Parliament, and from it was sent back to the Lords of Plantations and Trade.

From thence to the Lords of commission for services and losses in America, and the Lord only knows where else it was sent, until it was sent out to Nova Scotia in 1784.
Thirteen years had elapsed since the Captain experienced his first misfortune in Nova Scotia, and more than seven years had elapsed since his second loss, then his case was sent out to Nova Scotia.
During all this long time he had exercised the greatest patience, and his loyalty to his King (George the Third) was never for a moment shaken.
He had lost in lands and goods about twelve thousand pounds sterling by settling in a British Colony where Indians and rebels destroyed his prospects, and yet he had received no redress for the hardships he and his family had endured, and the great wrongs inflicted upon them.