About the Book Bill has used his knowledge of Noval Scotia, his military awareness, and much research, to write an extensive record—of which this book is the first of a series—of the precarious life in the early years. In Abuse of Power, set in 1749, William Gray, an officer on the staff of Governor Corwallis, is horrified by the brutality of Acadian and Mi´kmaq raids on the Dartmouth settlers. Robert Cameron, a soldier on sentry duty at the time of the second Dartmouth raid, is shaken by the callous indifference of the English officer to the plight of the settlers. At the first opportunity, he deserts to join the Acadians. During the invasion of Chignecto, the capture of Fort Beausejour, and the occupation of the Fundy by the English, each man does his best to accomplish what is expected of him under increaslingly severe circumstances. By the time of the Explusion of the Acadians, each must face his own beliefs and fears as the fighting draws to a close on the mainland of Nova Scotia.

About the Author    It is every boy´s dream to be just like his Dad. Bill Smallwood´s father was the best cookie and candy salesman in Nova Scotia. Perhaps that might have been good enough if Bill had been born somewhere else, but Bill was born in Halifax and his Dad raised him on stories about the world´s largest natural harbour.
   Excited by life´s prospects, and encouraged by his father, Bill graduated from the Royal Military College with a degree in history and an officer´s commission in the Royal Canadian Airforce, going on to navigate transport aircraft in the Korean War and jet fighters along the East German border during the Berlin Crisis. With the Cold War drawing to a close, Bill joined the Public Service at HMC Dockyard, Halifax. Before his retirement from the Canadian Public Service in 1986, he was Director of Civilian Training and Development for the Department of National Defence and, after retirement, became the right hand man for his wife in her highly successful real estate career.
   When it was grandchildren time, Bill recounted the old stories. He came to realize that each story had a thread that entwined with the threads of other stories. Giving them a little tug here and a pull there, a picture emerged as to what it must have been like in the early day of Nova Scotia. If Bill´s Dad were alive today, he would be proud of his son´s storytelling.