of 9000. Its inhabitants not infrequently witnessed the arrival of French prizes captured by -privateers which had been fitted out by local merchants. Many French prisoners were quartered in the town, among them the Governor of the Miquelon Islands and army officers of high rank. Alarms of impending invasion, riotous gangs sent through the city to impress crews for waiting sloops-of-war, courts martial for mutiny and desertion, a visit from Aaron Burr, who came under an assumed name, and, above all, rumours of an Anglo-American rupture served during the first twelve years of the new century to allay monotony in Halifax.
The Belvidere, the first British frigate to be engaged in the war, entered the harbour on June 27th, 1812, with three American prizes. Now, more than ever, the port was the scene of thrilling episodes. Prize courts, the movement of troops, the arrival of victory ships, balls at Government House, rejoicings on the common supplied daily diversion. It was into the harbour of Halifax that the Shannon led the wounded Chesapeake, of which Captain Lawrence had been in command. In 1814, following the capture of Washington, the brig Jasper and a transport ship brought numbers of deserting slaves from Virginia estates whose descendants still populate negro colonies on the outskirts of the capital. The provincial expedition against the state of Maine set out from Halifax
