By 1784 nearly all the settlers were destitute and completely dependent on the generosity of the British government.  They had no effects; they had no money; and in many cases they were sorely in need of clothes.  The way in which Sir Frederick Haldimand came to their relief is deserving of high praise.  If he had adhered to the letter of his instructions from England, the position of the Loyalists would have been a most unenviable one.  Repeatedly, however, Haldimand took on his own shoulders the responsibility of ignoring or disobeying the instructions from England, and trusted to chance that his protests would prevent the government from repudiating his actions.  When the home government, for instance, ordered a reduction of the rations, Haldimand undertook to continue them in full; and fortunately for him the home government, on receipt of his protest, rescinded the order.

The settlers on the Upper St Lawrence and the Bay of Quinte did not perhaps fare as well as those in Nova Scotia, or even the Mohawk Indians who settled on the Grand river.  They did not receive lumber for building purposes, and ’bricks for the inside of their chimneys, and a little assistance of nails,’ as did the former; nor did they receive ploughs and church-bells, as did the latter.  For building lumber they had to wait until saw-mills were constructed; instead of ploughs they had at first to use hoes and spades, and there were not quite enough hoes and spades to go round.  Still, they did not fare badly.  When the difficulty of transporting things up the St Lawrence is remembered, it is remarkable that they obtained as much as they did.  In the first place they were supplied with clothes for three years, or until they were able to provide clothes for themselves.  These consisted of coarse cloth for trousers and Indian blankets for coats.  Boots they made out of skins or heavy cloth.  Tools for building were given them:  to each family were given an ax and a hand-saw, though unfortunately the axes were short-handled ship’s axes, ill-adapted to cutting in the forest; to each group of two families were allotted a whip-saw and a cross-cut saw; and to each group of five families was supplied a set of tools, containing chisels, augers, draw-knives, etc.  To each group of five families was also allotted ’one fire-lock ... intended for the messes, the pigeon and wildfowl season’; but later on a fire-lock was supplied to every head of a family.  Haldimand went to great trouble in obtaining seed-wheat for the settlers, sending agents down even into Vermont and the Mohawk valley to obtain all that was to be had; he declined, however, to supply stock for the farms, and although eventually he obtained some cattle, there were not nearly enough cows to go round.  In many cases the soldiers were allowed the loan of the military tents; and everything was done to have saw-mills and grist-mills erected in the most convenient places with the greatest possible dispatch.  In the meantime small portable grist-mills, worked by hand, were distributed among the settlers.