On the morning of 15 May, a day of pouring rain, while the ever-active Commodore Sir George Collier was absent on a naval cruise, David Collins received a a very disturbing order from the garrison's commanding officer, Major-General Eyre Massey to pass on to the Surgeon of Marines. Massey had decided to fortify St. George's Island, the site of the King's Naval Hospital in Halifax Harbour. All the Hospital's sick were to be removed to the mainland immediately.and all its 'Medicines, Instruments, Beddings and other Stores' taken out of the Island's storehouses were to be thrown out into the street for the inhabitants of the island to plunder if not removed within 'three or four days.' Dutifully he passed it on. Thus, at noon, with the downpour still raging, the 'Town sergeant', a lieutenant, and Hill, the Surgeon of Marines landed with their empty boats and a contingent of marines on St. George's Island and turned the sick seamen out of their beds. Some were 'at the point of death, others with fevers & various other disorders', others 'with wounds still open & dangerous.' They were forced onto the waiting boats, wet, cold and shivering, and rowed across to 'the Gun Battery', where they were abandoned in the teeming rain. No shelter was found for them by the town's surgeons 'for twenty-four hours.' To the anger and horror of the townsfolk these walking wounded were left to 'wander about the Streets' seeking cover from the drenching wet where they could, reliant on the pity of civilians and soldiers alike. ;This cruel Treatment must be fatal to them', complained one doctor, frantically looking for a place to house them. The townspeople turned their anger on the 'Bedlamite' general, and would, Collier later wrote, have 'torn him limb from limb' if they had got their hands on him. Collier demanded Massey's recall, to no effect, but by the end of the month did put an end to the madness with the return of the Hospital to the island,
